Tete-a-Tete

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Perfect Paris Tote!

Ooh, la, la!

Longchamp's Le Pilage

Tour Eiffel Bag

Isn't this the perfect bag for a trip to Paris?

Longchamp is one of my favorite French luxury brands. I discovered Longchamp years ago while shopping in Paris. Many Parisian women can be spotted shopping around the city with a Longchamp Le Pilage tote bag in hand.

The Le Pilage bag is a nylon bag with leather accents. It comes in array of colors to suit your fancy. It is also collapsible making it a perfect bag for travel so you can bring home all those Paris souvenirs!

If you're jetting off to Paris soon, you can pick up your very own Tour Eiffel Bag at Nordstrom.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Oui or Non?

Oui or Non

Just had to share this latest fashion find with you!

Aren't these adorable charm earrings perfect for a fickle Francophile? The earrings are by, one of my favorite US jewelry designers, Liz Palacios from San Francisco, CA.

Wouldn't they just be perfect for wearing in Paris?!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Bon Bon Lip Balms

Tokyo Milk Bon Bon Lip Balms

Like most women, I wore lip balms before I wore lipstick. I was raised on Yardley Pot O Gloss and Bonne Belle Lip Smackers. To this day...I still love my lip balms!

My latest lip balm find is Bon Bon Lip Balm by Tokyo Milk . I was instantly drawn to their clever vintage-artsy packaging. Then I opened up the lovely little tester pot, had a whiff...and was in Bon Bon heaven! Since I love Marie Antoinette, I selected Bon Bon flavor Let Them Eat Cake. It smells as sweet as a Paris patisserie!

Let Them Eat Cake

I first discovered these adorable Bon Bons in a quaint boutique shop in Ashland, Oregon last summer. Today while shopping at Anthropologie I noticed that they are carrying a few of the flavors right now, too.

You can also find Bon Bons at the hip boutique Fringe on 21st Street in Sacramento. They carry Tokyo Milk products (which includes neat artsy packaged soaps) and lots of cool stuff both vintage and new.

Perhaps the best part about these Bon Bons are...besides being great for your lips...they are great for your hips because these sweet little Bon Bons have no calories!

Be sure to let me know which flavor is your favorite Bon Bon!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Pillow Talk!

Paris Address Vintage French Linen Pillow

Pillow Talk!

This pillow design really spoke to me! Had to have it...well two actually!

If you need a French fix, too, you can find

Vintage French Linen Pillows at

Restoration Hardware.

Monday, September 7, 2009

It's a Strawberry Shortcake kinda Holiday!

Farmers Market Berries

It's still summer in California. These gorgeous California Strawberries from the Marysville, CA farmers market are the proof.

So I am thinking it's a Strawberry Shortcake kinda holiday! How about you?

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberries washed, dried and sliced.

Reserve about 1/4 of your Strawberries to crush.

Crush the berries and add to the sliced Strawberries.

Add 1/4 to 1/2 Cup Sugar to taste.

Refrigerate until serving time.

Enjoy your Strawberries over Angel Food cake,

shortcake or biscuits with a dollop of whipped cream!

Enjoy!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Julie & Julia

A Year of Cooking Dangerously

A few years back a book with a catchy title and cute cover caught my eye. That book was Julie & Julia :My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell. The cover's clever quote hooked me: "Irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef." - Philadelphia Inquirer. So I bought it.

I haven't read Julie & Julia (yet). Sadly it just sits on my book shelf due to my current obsession of blogging and knitting.

I know I would love this book. In 2002. author Julie Powell decides to change her life by cooking every one of Julia Child's 524 recipes in Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the course of one year. She documents this online and cleverly turns it into a blog the Julie/Julia Project which later becomes the book Julie and Julia.

Julie & Julia is now a major motion picture. It is based on the two best selling memoirs Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme. The memoir stories are intertwined together in the movie.

Bon Appetit...I'm Julia Child!

Remembering Julia

My earliest memories of Julia Child are of watching her on TV in the early 1970's at my grandparent's house . My grandmother, a fabulous home cook, always watched Julia Child's The French Chef and Graham Kerr's The Galloping Gourmet .

My grandparents also introduced me to French cuisine. I think I was around 12 years old when I had escargot at a fancy restaurant in South Lake Tahoe. I seemed to like the chewy snails okay but it was the hot, buttery garlic sauce I liked best when I dipped my French bread in it. And so began my love for French food influenced by my grandparents and those Julia Child television shows.

Meryle Streep as Julia

Julie and Julia the movie is by director/screenwriter Nora Ephron. It is the first major motion picture made from a blog! I love that!

The one and only Meryl Streep stars as Julia Child and Amy Adams portrays Julie Powell. Being a foodie, I just know I will love this movie! I read that Meryl Streep nailed Julia's mannerisms! (Hmm...I'm thinking maybe Oscar caliber performance here.)

Julia's famed Kitchen

Julia Child's famed Cambridge, Massachusetts kitchen was replicated for the movie by set decorator Susan Bode Tyson. I loved reading that Julia used her Spode Blue Willow dishes nearly everyday. We just happen to have a blue and white Spode decorated kitchen, too!

I love collecting vintage French cookbooks. I have a vintage set (1971 & 1974 printing) of Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking on display in our kitchen. Sitting on top of them is a Spode Blue Italian mixing bowl. I think that would make Julia smile!

In 2001, before moving to California, Julia Child donated her real Cambridge kitchen to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for all the world to see.