Getting Ready For Christmas

I love Christmas! This year I'm giving either books or hand made treasures found on Etsy. Still haven't started your shopping? Find some ideas on my 2009 gift guide.
I also received a few presents and cards already, all of which a piled up on my red chest - also adored with fresh flowers and scented with two of my favorite candles, English Ivy and Hinoki Temple. Now what's missing is a gingerbread house...

A Whale And Flowers

Meet my new little friend, a cheerful whale. The best part: it's handmade in the USA by an amazing craftsman who sells toys through his Etsy boutique, US Wood Toys. And it's ridiculously cheap ($12). I am dying to buy his hippo, too. If you want to treat some little ones for X-mas, you know where to go.
Another adornment at home this week - these happy yellow flowers, brightening up wintery days; we're experiencing record breaking cold in the Los Angeles area. Brrrrr...

Flower Market In Nivelles

Paris Balcony

So Delicate

Top: White flowers in Pacific Palisades
Bottom: A Japanese ginger grater

Gui Et Fleurs (Mistletoe & Flowers)

Le Fleuriste Municipal In The Winter

Last summer, I posted about the Fleuriste Municipal, a botanical garden at the Porte d'Auteuil in Paris. I went there again this weekend, for a walk in its greenhouses - a tropical break in an otherwise bleakly cold winter day. There I saw graceful orchids and palm trees as well as carnivorous flowers that seemed rather creepy and hungry. Koi fish swam around impassively. Outside, all kinds of naked trees haunt the grounds but one in particular caught my attention, its white bark covered in something that looked like dashes - apparently, this tree is from the Himalayas.

Thankful For The Beauty

More Etsy Loveliness

As I continue to search for X-mas presents on my fave shopping website, Etsy, I sometimes stumble upon items I can't resist buying... for myself.
I was looking for a flower wreath to nail on my door to celebrate the joy of the season, but I wanted to avoid corny Christmas wreaths, with their red ribbons and heavy, plump figure. When I landed on Etsy's New Hampshire Woods Creations, I was smitten - every single wreath was so graceful, in such delicate colors, that I had a hard time choosing just one. Allison, who was taught this art by her grandmother, makes her own dried flower wreaths, among other floral creations. I finally chose the Santa Cruz oregano wreath. When I received the package, a thoughtful present from my mom, I was submerged by the fresh and invigorating scent of oregano. The bliss!

I really needed (yes, really) glass cases, as I hate my Ray-Ban's ugly and bulky case and don't want to scratch them, and as I lost my eyeglass case a long, long time ago. Etsy's Sew Gracious offers lovely, very affordable ($8), handmade eyeglass cases I chose 2 of. Aren't they perfectly exquisite?

By My Bed

I love having roses by my bed - their nonchalant elegance, their delicate scent. I also always keep some Post-its and pens. Atop the latest issues of Vogue, which I haven't had time to pore over yet, lays a copy of Johnn Donne's poetry, next on my reading list. It's an old Penguin Poets volume from the 1970's, as always with age old Penguins, the cover's design is almost as precious as the contents.
Here are a few lines from Donne's divine "Extasie':

Where, like a pillow on a bed,
A pregnant bank swell'd up, to rest
The violet's reclining head,
Sat we two, one another's best.

Isn't it beautiful, "one another's best"?

Zinnias

I Love Huckleberry

While I do adore Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain's genius novel, the Huckleberry I want to share with you today is a bakery and café in Santa Monica, brought to my gourmet attention by Joanna, from Lark, a pretty and bookish blogger who's always willing to share tips on the city she knows so well.
I have been on a quest for good bread in Los Angeles - I am half French after all, and this is one of the very few places where I find excellent bread. Though for $4.50, their multigrain baguette better be fabulous!
At Huckleberry, I love the decor (those red chairs!), the menu on a blackboard, the flowers everywhere. The quality of the ingredients is really top-notch - taste for instance from the extraordinary mozzarella di buffala used in sandwiches. I also love their fresh salads and of course... the desserts. Oh the mini cupcakes!
The wholegrain scone is served with whipped cream, and their chocolate pudding (on a pie crust or in a glass) is sheer bliss. Sigh. I promise to try many more treats to report on them truthfully.

And just because I love Huckleberry Finn, too, here are the first lines of the novel:

You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly--Tom's Aunt Polly, she is--and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before.

Garden Roses

Dahlia?

Pale Yellow

Tulips

Jacaranda Tree

White Roses

I love the voluptuous, yet kind of tousled look of fresh garden roses. One of my neighbors' balcony is covered in them this spring - she's an expert gardener, with wonderful taste. The roses are just beautiful.

I haven't been very present online these past few days... Blame it some important news I'll be announcing soon...

Spring Blooms

Fare Thee Well, Miss Blossom

If Ella Fitzgerald's voice was sheer sunshine and Billie Holiday's a poignant dusk, then Blossom Dearie's was the very first sweet rays of early morning; it was often said she sounded like a little girl, a birdie. A Verve artist, she was also friends with Miles Davis and haunted New York jazz clubs with her wispy voice and boyish haircut in the 50's and 60's, giving very personal interpretations of standards. Hear her sing her smooth, tender "Surrey with the fringe on top", her swinging "I won't dance" and her high speed "Killing me softly with this song".
She was one of my very favorite jazz singers of all times as well as an accomplished pianist, and on February 7 she went silent forever. It broke my heart.
And if you buy only one of her albums, go for Verve Jazz Masters 51: Blossom Dearie.