I want wallpaper!

P.S. I really want this mirror too!

We are moving soon and one of things I really hope to do in our new place is... WALLPAPER!
Wallpaper has made a huge comeback in recent years, due in part largely to the fact that there are just so many cool new designs, and textures available. The last time I was in LA with friends we had brunch at my favorite BLD on Beverly. Right down the street is a great little wallpaper store called Walnut Wallpaper. www.walnutwallpaper.com

Now there are many great wallpaper online stores like my fav designyourwall.com but sometimes its nice to have an actual store to visit where you can see the roll to get an idea of how it would look on your wall (rather than just a sample which makes it harder to imagine the repeat). Now the only downside to wallpaper is of course removing the wallpaper! Which is why I am a fan of using it on a focal wall or creating panels. You could buy some fiber board cut it to size, wallpaper it, and nail it to the wall with molding around as trim- thus creating a custom paneled look. When you want to change it out you simply take down the panels and wallpaper the other side or switch out the board and start new, but its a heck of a lot easier than soaping and scraping a whole wall! Anyhow I posted some pics below of eyecatching designs- not saying I would ever go this bold but they sure are fun to look at.

More Madura please!

One of my passions is home decor. Maybe you wouldn't guess that right off if you saw my home right now, but I have big plans! I have been making plans for years. Lots of ideas swimming around my head. I'm actually taking a sewing class every Monday night so I can learn how to make my own pillows and coordinating curtains and duvets etc. The main reason for this desire is because I find its very hard to get really cool drapes with matching pillows or something that compliments. Most things you find in big box retail stores are very basic. Most things you seen in custom homes are from fabric stores that have been made 'custom' (ie. very expensive). So I think it would be fun to be able to change the look of my home at my own discretion and let my creative juices run free! When I was in Cannes I found a really cool home store called Madura. They have one in NYC and Boston, but nothing in LA yet. So sad. I do have the brochure though! This store is awesome. A million different pillow covers and coordinating curtains etc. And lovely designs! Reminded me a little of the Designers Guild. Another store I wish we had!

Day 13+: Monaco, Eze, last dinner and trip home!

Tuesday was our last full day in France. We drove down to Monaco to check out the boats and beautiful city. Its amazing to see how its all built into a huge cliff. They were getting ready for their 20 year yacht festival the next day so it was super busy there, but it was fun to see all of these huuuuge boats! Some of them looked like mini cruise ships.

The Baton Rouge! Hey had to represent!

This ship even had a Texas Longhorn flag-hmm wonder who this belongs too?

kids playing at recess at a little playground right at the harbor

Later in the day we drove to the cute medieval city of Eze.
This little town is built on top of a cliff and has incredible views of the coast and neighboring cities.

view of the church in Eze

view of the city of Eze from the road

So because this was our last night at our B&B we decided to have dinner there again.
Madame Bernadette is an amazing chef. She actually hosts cooking weekends where guests can pay to stay there and take lessons. Everything she makes is locally grown and organic. She loves to make everything from scratch-including the six different dessert wines we tried. When we wake up in the morning there is homemade brioche and jam. Unbelievable. For our last night she prepared a typical provencal dish that was vegetables with a rice/meat mixture inside. Her friend Daniella from Rome joined us along with the other guest Irena from Prague, her husband Guy and daughter-in-law Natalie. What a fun meal! And when its all over we can just wander upstairs to our beds. How easy is that??

Bernadette

Bernadette and her husband Guy

Main course

Also I don't have a picture here but for the first course we had homemade olive tapenade
and caramelized onion pizza.

dessert was this raspberry coulis with whip cream!

This trip was fabulous from start to finish. We definitely want to visit again. There is just never enough time to see everything on the first go round, but we are also super excited to be home. The flight back was difficult because we weren't seated together so the flight attendants worked some magic (kind of like musical chairs) to make it so we could sit together. The flight was super full, and there were several families who weren't together that they had to help out as well. Their bassinets are definitely on the small side, so while Penelope barely fit on the way there, she definitely was too big for it on the way back. So when turbulence hits you have to zip them inside, well it made it impossible for her to turn which meant she did not sleep well. She ended up waking up for a couple hours and finally fell asleep again on James. On the way to France it was sooo much easier. People even congratulated us on how perfect she was! So we didn't sleep on this flight, plus it was 1 1.5 hours delayed.
We are exhausted today so please pray we adjust soon.

Thank you for following our adventure. We enjoyed sharing with you our favorite highlights of each day. Glad to back in the good old US of A, and we can't wait to share our trip with each of you in person too.
xoxo
Laurie

Day 12: Saint Tropez

Today was an absolute perfect day because we did nothing but lounge on the beach. By noon we had our feet in the sand of Pearl Beach in Saint Tropez. A beautiful bay with clean clear water and a floating deck. The sea was so calm and easy to swim in. James explored for hours. The beach club we ended up at had great food and we were able to get service right there at our beach chairs. In a word... vacation. It's fitting that they call Santa Barbara the Riviera because it is just as beautiful or more as some of these little towns (aside from the water of course). But the difference is here on the coast of France you have dozens and dozens of little "Santa Barbara's," and a lot of them medieval. So imagine super old little towns one after the other with perfect beaches and water and of course perfect food. Ahhh France!

Day 11: Cannes day at the beach

We started off today with a visit to a local flea market where I found some really cool vintage post cards- (scrapbooking maybe?) then we hit the beach or le plage!
We found a great spot in Cannes where we could order food and drinks right at our beach chairs. The water was wonderful. After the beach we went back to our room to freshen up and get ready for dinner. We ended up back at Rendevous because it was one of the only places open in the center of Grasse. The meal was excellent though.
It was so nice today just relaxing in the sun.

(this is what I saw when i went downstairs for breakfast today)
The family we are staying with has their son and two kids living their temporarily. They have a four year old girl named Charlotte who loves sharing her 1 year old brother Martin's toys with P)

James and the son

me and P in Cannes

The casino where are the movie stars gather for the film festival

our sexy red Picasso minivan- yeah baby yeah!

Day 10: Perfume Factory Tour

Today it rained so we just decided to take our time and relax.
No set agendas.
P took a nice long nap in the morning so I got ready and got our room organized so we could actually enjoy it. Then we drove to the old city center of Grasse again, and took a tour of the perfume museum/original factory of Fragonard. It was really interesting to learn about how perfume was originally made. I ended up buying waaaay too much stuff, but I did find a lovely new fragrance called E'Toile.
(see collage below-click it to enlarge)

We hung out in the streets and did a fun photo shoot with Penelope. We also had a delicious kabab sandwich that was to die for! So we wandered around exploring all the way to dinner time and had a delicious meal at Lou Candeloun- we were relieved that Penelope wasn't too loud or fussy because it was a very quiet formal restaurant! Whew!

(you can click the collage below to enlarge)