Au revoir to Paris

Am saying until next time to Paris.  A few photos of some of the places I visited and sat for a time.

Pont Neuf park above.

Notre Dame.

 
A distant view of the Eiffel Tower.
Am off to enjoy a Royal Wedding Brunch this am with a "hat" no less!  Hope you enjoy the royal celebrations on television.
Back to art next week....

Backgrounds

I don't know about you, but there are times I just feel like playing with paint.  I shared several backgrounds I had been working on last month and these are the last of my experiments.  They have all become mail art in some form or another and have new homes in various parts of the world.

I used acrylics and colourwashes - messy!!!!

Perhaps I've inspired you to make some backgrounds today - hope so!

Purchases

Several of you have asked about purchases I made during my recent trip so thought I'd share a few of these today.

Just loved these buttons - I can see them in some crazy quilting.

I believe these would have been on doors in the past with those small keyholes.  Thought they would make great additions to future books.

Glorious trims - picked these up at one of the local "Passementerie" shops!
Hope all of you enjoyed your Easter weekend. 

Food glorious food

Thanks to those of you who left such lovely comments yesterday.
Not much to say about the photos below other than YUM!!!!

Happy Easter weekend to all.

Crazy Quilt Postcard

I'm departing from Paris photos today to share a peek at what I have been working on of late.  Last week I shared some silk ribbon I had dyed.  I needed various colours as I have been experimenting with flowers and leaves.  For those of you who know or follow Pat Winter's blog, she recently published a magazine on crazy quilting.  Well worth getting. 

There was an article in it on crazy quilt postcards so thought I'd experiment.  This is the first but there are several more to come. 

Paris in the spring

We had a lovely weekend with the sun shining, birds singing and flowers blooming although I must admit rather chilly with frost in the early morning!  Did manage some gardening.  

I thought I'd share some flower photos of Paris today.  Above is a tulip tree - I had never seen one - gorgeous! 

The flower shops are beautiful.  Do you see the lovely black and white postcards!?

I took a stroll very early one morning in the gardens of the Sacré-Cœur.   I had heard there was a colony of feral cats living in the gardens.  This one popped out to enjoy the early morning sun.

The bouquets were exquisite.

The art of display

The art of display is evident everywhere in Paris.  Thought I would share some window displays that I found inspirational....   I adore the one above.

Laduree is well know for their macarons.  I bought a box for DH and planned to take a photo of them but low and behold he ate them too fast!!! 

I loved the jewelry displays. 

If you look closely you'll see me taking the photo. 

More jewelry.  I could window shop all day..... 

Enjoy your weekend.

Paris flea markets

I attended three flea markets during my Paris trip.  These photos are of Les Puces de Saint Ouen aka Clignancourt market.  Quite a large flea and spread out between indoor and outdoor booths so much to see.  I would have loved to include most of the above booth in my garden!!!! 

If you enlarge the photo above you will see ALL of this is lace!

It was gorgeous. 

This was a booth entirely devoted to clocks and clock PARTS....

I gather from your comments that you want to see some of my purchases so here goes.  I saw multiple cabinet card photo albums during my market visits but decided on this smaller one below as the price was good as I will be deconstructing it.

 

What really sold me on it were the cabinet cards it contained inside. 

Not only did it contain cabinet cards, also some old photos and a letter too! 

I'm thinking I perhaps should have got another one now - oh well, next time!!

Silk ribbon

Just prior to my departure and again last week, I've been keeping busy dyeing.  I have various wools on the go but thought I would show some silk ribbon in varying widths.  It takes the dyes beautifully.  Many of these are shot with other colours.  I've been experimenting with stitching and they look lovely.

Spring seems to have arrived as shrubs are budding.  We've had intermittent sunny days along with rain.  Woke up to frost a couple of mornings last week too.

Along with spring my creativity seems to be blooming.....

Visited a lovely fiber art exhibit locally over the weekend by Hilary Rice - do check out her work. 

Back with more Paris later in the week. 

Ile de Chatou flea!!!

One of the main reasons I have always wanted to see Paris is the flea markets.  I was lucky enough to attend the biannual Chatou flea market aka National Antiques, Flea Market and Ham Fair.  A 10 day flea with over 800 vendors on about 8.5 hectares about 15 minutes west of Paris. 

The above photo was taken approaching the RER station (rail system).  Minutes before there had been a cyclist on that path by the Seine - how lovely is that!!!    

Well, you can't have a ham fair without ham!

An entire aisle is devoted to food and wine!  Unfortunately, it was far colder than I had anticipated this particular morning so opted for hot chocolate instead!

And then there are the booths..... 

Be still my heart!  I could have taken all the entire booth below.....  Look at those drawers, drool....

More fleas to share in upcoming days along with some purchases. 

I'm home!!!!

PARIS, truly a city worth visiting - definitely not my last visit! 

I know I could share many travel photos and I likely will sneak the odd one in now and then but I have decided to post about places/shops I visited that I think would interest you as much as they interested me.   

The French have fine tuned the art of display. 

This is an incredible bead shop called Tout a Loisirs located in the 3rd arrondissement.  I spent quite some time chatting with the lovely sales woman in this shop and considerable time browsing.
An entire display case filled with mother of pearl/pearl treasures....

Gorgeous!!!

More photos (eye candy) and places for YOU to visit in the future next week!