Dior-Inspired Parisian Restaurant-Feminine et Chic

The new design of l'hôtel de Vendôme's restaurant, is one of my very favorite sophisticated and chic designs that I have ever seen out of all of my blog perusing, magazine reading, and book buying over the years. This restaurant located in Place Vendome, a very ritzy (no pun intended) place in Paris, has recently hired Michele Bonan, an Italian designer, to revamp it's décor from a "Chesterfield" old world library look to a chic, upscale, Dior-inspired atmosphere.

Can you just imagine meeting some of your friends for dinner here?

Vendome's restaurant embodies the look of an haute couture runway:

sleek ebony tables,
pied-de-poule (houndstooth) 1950s chairs,

dusty pink pillows,

and dove gray velour settees, and let's not overlook the towering white orchids, all with a backdrop of powdery gray panelled walls.

A few other details that are barely visible in these post images is that each pillow is accented with frothy white passementerie (trimming) as well as each of the gray silk window treatment's tiebacks.

In the black étagère in the above image, one may peruse through various books relating to fashion, design, and architecture.

Chanel and Dior are included, bien sûr.

_{Image 1- via http://www.desingcalendar.com/}

_{Image 2 via http://www.itelegraph.co.uk.com/}

Image 3 via www.realtravel.com

Image 4 via www.designonline.com

Romantic Holiday Repose

It is snowing for the second time in less than a week here in Texas.

It's a lazy day with weightless flakes falling to the ground.

As I gaze out through all of my windows at the frozen flurries, I realize that I am living in a romantic snow globe...

My Romantic Homes magazine has just arrived.

{The February-Valentine issues-are always my favorite}

I am sipping my warm, tangy, and spicy Holiday punch.

Iam snacking on a delicious slice of poppyseed cake that my dear friend/Etsy customer

Daisy @ {La Petite Plume} gifted me.

Amelia is taking a nap.

My husband is restfully watching a movie.

I feel like creating something...

If you would like to make some of this Holiday punch, here are the ingredients:

Sorry there are no measurements

I just taste as I go, and each batch is always different.

Cranberry juice

Orange juice {I use frozen concentrate}

Whole cloves {just a few for a couple of servings}

Red Hots {a handful}

Add ingredients to a pot and simmer on medium until Red Hots are melted.

Wishing you a warm and Happy New Year,

a la parisienne

_{images by a la parisienne}

Joyeux Noel

May you see Christmas this year like the heart of a child--filled with wonder.

I just want to wish all of you a safe and Merry Christmas!

This year for Christmas my parents are coming here. I can't wait to spend Christmas day with them in our home. I know that they will enjoy watching Amelia opening her gifts!

Joyeux Noel, mes amis!

Romantic Gift Wrap

Here are some of my gift wrapping projects that I promised to share! I have now wrapped three gifts (two more than last post). These three projects are very feminine and romantic.

When I gift wrap I try to keep in mind who I'm gifting. Some people could care less about gift wrap and those gifts are the ones that I can tackle in about five minutes.

However, I have many special women in my life who appreciate beautiful things, so I also try my best to make the outside of the gift special. These are the gifts that take a little more time, but it's always worth it.

I bought this gift wrap in Canton, TX at the flea market a couple of years ago. The colors of this paper are just gorgeous and the print on this paper is so sweet.

Like many of you, I have been following Sande's blog A Gift Wrapped Life for a long time, and I realize that wired ribbon is not always the most beautiful ribbon. This wired gold ribbon is one of those that looks pretty on the roll but in my hands it feels...cheap. It's very slippery and hard to work with. You don't even want to know the words that came out of my mouth when I was attempting to make this ribbon candy-like confection. Let's just say that I had to walk away and regroup before completing it.

However, the beautiful, high quality pink satin ribbon on this gift can be found in Sande's Wrap Room.

After Christmas is the perfect time to buy ornaments and Christmas adornments for next year's gift wrapping. I decided to string three miniature pink ornaments to the main ribbon on this gift with a thinner gold ribbon. I admit vintage pink ornaments would look better on this gift.

I was drawn to this paper because of the old gold and cream colors. Usually, I am not a big fan of traditional Christmas icons- Santa Clauses, reindeer, snowmen, etc. but I like the vintage illustration of Santa and the colors in this paper.

This gift is decorated with cream flocked velvet wired ribbon (purchased at--gasp-- Walmart last year). Okay, I must confess I actually like this premade gold ribbon in the center of this bow. I actually bought several of them.

The color of the gold ribbon is a muted gold, not a brassy gold.

This gift is wrapped in a muted gold damask with some cream accents.

I decided to make this gift simple.

I tied cream seam binding around it and into a bow. Then I made a simple circle out of cream cardstock and then stamped the word "Peace" in the center of it with gold ink.

At the bottom of this gift tag is an embellishment made from one of my "cast-off" petals made of cream silk and glitter leaves.

I hope you all have a "peaceful" weekend with your last-minute Christmas shopping and gift wrapping!

A Little Christmas Inspiration...

It's been since Thanksgiving that I've had a chance to blog again. Christmas time is here and I just love decorating for Christmas. The main reason is that I LOVE vintage ornaments, glitter, ribbons, especially the silver, vintage golds/champagnes, pinks, and aquas. As you can see, I have an artificial (politically correct term for "fake") four foot white Christmas tree. Most people who love real trees would not only snub this little tree, they would probably laugh in her face for being so unreal. That's okay with me, though!

This year's color palette for my Christmas tree is cream, vintage gold, and pink.

To give this stark white tree some warmth, I wrapped champagne colored tulle around it from top to bottom. Without ornaments, it looks like a wedding cake.

One thing I've discovered is, when you buy what you like everything you own seems to coordinate.

I hung Amelia's little dusty rose, gold, and chocolate brown velour dress behind the tree to bring in more color to the scene. I just love this little dress.

Michael's craft store had these WONDERFUL glittered feathered bird ornaments last year.

I nearly fell over when I saw them hanging there. I could decorate with these all year...

My favorite thing about this bird is that her feather are the perfect shade of cream and the ends of the feathers are curled up, creating a ruffled effect.

I place this tree atop our diningroom buffet every Christmas for two reasons:

Number 1-From the double windows in our adjoining living room, one can see the illuminated tree from our front yard.

Number 2-The enormous buffet mirror behind the tree reflects the lights and ornaments and makes this diminutive tree more substantial.

(And number 3- I just thought of another reason) Amelia can't reach the ornaments (or as she says, ORN-NAH-NENTS) from the floor:)

Unfortunately, Zena, the warrior princess, our very overweight cat, can still manange to leap up to the top of the buffet and snack on the plastic tree limbs. I guess when you put a tree on a buffet, one should expect it to be eaten...yeah, when a cat craves eating plastic, there's definitely some marbles missing...

I felt camera happy one evening and had to do a "photoshoot" of some of my brooches nestled in my Christmas tree. (Notice the big dark blob at the top of the tree in the first picture.)

This "Winter Wish" brooch is one of my newest additions to my Etsy store.

It is made of 100% silk in a beautiful shade of silver.

The center of this brooch is adorned with a layer of dove gray velvet and a

vintage rhinestone pin

One of my wrapped brooches

I don't know about all of you, but I have only wrapped ONE Christmas gift!

Oh, I am so behind.

I plan to share with you some of my wrapped gifts soon!

I hope you all have a blessed day!

_{All images by à la parisienne}