Will Work for Dress {une robe d'Elie Saab}

To wear an Elie Saab dress for an hour. What must that feel like?

To see an Elie Saab dress in person...

To study each little petal, each tuck, ruffle, and sequin...

To behold art in the form of couture....

Okay, M. Saab, put me in the darkest, obscure corner of your atelier, and I will sit and cut flower petals all day for your artists to apply to your gorgeous gowns. . Hand me les ciseaux et les tissus and I will coupe, coupe, coupe as I listen to your team travaille, discute, fait les projets. As I dream of the outcome of this main d'oeuvre.

_{Cette robe est ABSOLUMENT belle.}

A Halle Barry or mannequin, I will never be.

Une chanteuse...je souhaite.

Une femme uber-riche...jamais.

An admirer of your work...toujours.

_{Images #1 & #2 Via This is Glamorous}

Remaining Images via FashionGoneRogue.com

A Lofty Artiste~Carolyn Quartermaine

It's literally been years that I've been scouring magazines, blogs, and interior design books to find the perfect concrete image that would depict the artist's loft I've designed in my mind. I've never been able to grasp and assemble the flashes of ideas from my mind's eye and mold them into an entire room...until Melissah invited me to her blog and I stumbled upon her post about

Carolyn Quartermaine.

Yes, in my narrow searches for Paris apartments, glamorous interiors, and French-inspired design, I've been "three clicks" away from discovering this amazing artist and inspiring source all along!

The lofty, feminine, artistic, romantic style of Carolyn Quartermaine's designs are the perfect portrayal of an artist's loft- a look I've wanted to incorporate into our guest room, now Amelia's room, since we renovated our home in 2005.

Simple canvases relaxing on an all white floor cradling creatively placed paint.

White walls, white floors, white tables all open to display Quatermaine's paintings, dabblings, tissus {fabrics}, florals, and patterns.

I am especially drawn to the juxtaposition of a simply-formed room accessorized with curvy chairs and ornate, gilded chandeliers.

Watercolors, Paintbrushes, Fresh Flowers, Fabrics- all essentials of an artist's loft.

While it may not be in my near future to apply such lofty, artistic design into our home's décor, these images have been placed into the "Dream Home" file-a file that is reserved for only the loftiest of designs.

Featured Artist- Carolyn Quartermaine

_{image sources: #1 mmforsberg.com; #2 alifemorefabulous.blogspot.com #3 lucyandi.blogspot.com ;}

#4 feteetfleur.blogspot.com; #5 lucyandi.blogspot.com; #6 vi.sualize.us

#7 chicandluxe.blogspot.com; #8 gardenrooms.typepad.com

Gris et rose ~ le meilleur "mix"

My dresses, blouses, costume jewelry, and business cards all herald my love for pink and gray.

If you've been a reader of my blog for any length of time, you are probably sure of a couple of things:
{besides my love for God, my sweet family, and church}


I love pink. I love gray.
{j'aime le rose. j'aime le gris.}

I love Paris. I love French. I love fashion. I love anything romantic and feminine.
{j'aime Paris. j'aime le français. j'aime la mode. j'aime toutes les choses romantiques et féminines.}


Lizzie Carney's beautiful home had me at gray walls, pink silk curtains, and tufted pink headboard. Her lovely home was featured in Country Living Magazine's October 2010 issue, and I had to add these gorgeous images to my blog's dossier, and, of course, share them with you!


The gray walls offer a sophisticated backdrop to her trendy, funky British flag rug and open clothing racks.


The guilded mirror offers a bit of opulence among the rustic wine racks and burlap chairs. Oh, and notice the bust on the table-very Paris Apartment.



Lizzy has a very unique sense of style as she combines the unexpected: black leather couch, rustic coffee table, unfinished wood shutters, and a regal bust.

I especially like the painted dove gray floors.


The hip vintage turquoise frigo adorned with gracefully stuffed peacock, oversized romantic chandelier, and modern shelving and chairs bring a unique persona to the kitchen which matches the rest of her creatively beautiful home-definitely one of a kind!

_{images via Country Living}

From Parisian Restaurant to Gift Wrap

Place Vendôme's Restaurant, designed by Michele Bonan and inspired by Dior is one of my favorite posts that I've composed.

I just love the color palette-dove gray, black and white houndstooth, and pink-

perfectly parisian, perfectly chic.

For my Christmas wrapping this year, I used this very non-traditional Christmas color scheme, and was very pleased with the result.

The great thing about these giftwrap designs is that one could use these papers year round.

_{Inspiration Source: Restaurant at l'Hôtel Place Vendôme}

This special gift was for my niece, Holly, from Amelia. The night we gave this gift to Holly was her last night here before returning to Washington D.C. for her new job.
I didn't want to give her anything extra to pack away, so we kept the gift small-a little golden acorn hanging on a brown ribbon-to be worn as a necklace or to be placed somewhere special as a momento of home and of "little squirrel," her pet name for Amelia.

I added a larger acorn covered in ebony glitter as an embellishment for the giftwrap as a little hint.

These houndtooth chairs and pink satin pillows are the perfect Parisienne duo. I'm seriously considering bringing this look into one of the rooms in our house.

_{I used these pink ornaments last year in several of my giftwrapped packages. Click here to view.}

A special package for one of my best friends. She specifically requested that if she had to wait to exchange gifts with me in order to receive a beautifully wrapped package, she would wait as long as she had to. Last year, I was so behind on giftwrap that I put her gift in a gift bag-Needless to say, she was disappointed (Shame on me) So, I made sure her gift this year was extra special!

This gift was for my brother-in-law, so I added a little masculine touch-a couple of vintage playing cards punched into large circles. Great for gift tags and a great accent to the black and white wrapping paper.

The cylinder tube on the left was a gift for my sister-in-law, Felecia. Her gift actually arrived in the mail in this tube-mailer. I remember thinking "How in the world will I wrap this?"

I used black tissue paper and vintage velvet blush ribbon (the stiff kind of ribbon that florists use). I decided that wide stripes were quite sophisticated and then added a little panache by pinning a black brooch on the center pink stripe.

This is the end of my giftwrapping ventures for now. Giftwrapping this Christmas was a much needed creative outlet for me during the hectic holidays, and I believe that the presentation of these gifts through thoughtful giftwrap made the gifts inside the boxes even more appreciated.

Happy New Year! I am looking forward to sharing 2011 with you all!
_{images 2,4 from TravelModus.com; all other images by à la parisienne}