L'art de la Table a Paris

Voila l'art de la table a Paris! These photos are from a buying trip to Paris during the holidays a few years ago. Notice the unique combination and mixture of different porcelain and majolica plates, silver serving pieces, crystal items, colored buttons and feathers to decorate the table, and don't miss the spectacular La Duree colored macarons tree. (It's not La Duree, but you can get some delicious macarons from Paulette Macarons in California starting at $18. per box.)

I purchased the sterling silver domes, they were a set of eight, and sold them to a client here in Miami who keeps them on their dining table all the time and they look stunning. I have many of the majolica asparagus plates and tureens on my website if you're interested. Anyone who mentions this blog post will receive 25% off any majolica or silver tableware for the rest of the month.

I want to have a tea party for Cecilia and her friends and decorate a table like this. Hopefully, she'll be old enough soon. She is very happy today because we confirmed with an ultrasound that baby #3 will be a little girl. Cecilia claims she already knew because "she had talked to God about it."

Herbs and Silver

I've always wanted to have an herb garden. That may seem strange considering that I don't know how to cook--at all. So its not in the Martha Stewart sort of way. I don't think I could maintain a Bunny Williams or Martha-style Conneticut garden. I have my mini-version herb garden on my kitchen window sill and in my dining room (see previous post of dining room.) These two on the sill are a type of lavender, unfortunately not the French kind which does not grow here, but they still smell good. They are in some old glass pots which used to be for jam or maybe foie gras! Then I have a small collection of antique silver. I hope to have a complete set of antique silver one day. I just love the weight of it in your hand. I think it makes food taste better. I know I'm a snob but I just can't eat with a plastic fork. In fact I'm rather adverse to anything disposable in general. Everyone keeps talking about "being green" and "ecofriendly" but then suggest they use cloth napkins and towels instead of paper and they all look at you like your from mars. I love Michael Bruno's quote "Do the planet a favor, buy antiques and vintage design." Exactly. We have everything we need already we don't need more stuff. I believe in the human need to create but its creative to work with what you already have too.

My other "green" thing or otherwise old fashioned thing is that I love cloth diapers. Now you're really going to think I'm crazy. But there is just something about putting cotton on your baby's bum instead of plastic and chemically processed padding that makes me feel much better about myself. Not to mention the tons of landfill space that disposable diapers take. My favorites are called fuzzi bunz. I once considered selling them here in Miami since there is not ONE local store which carries them, but then I reasoned that I better stick to antiques. They are not harder to use and while you do have to do a little more laundry its not so bad. Plus, then they potty train sooner and you are free from diapering all together. I do realize this was a little off topic but hey I can't talk about antiques ALL the time, right?

Lastly, I want to thank House of Beauty and Culture for mentioning me on her blog. It's nice to be welcomed to the blogosphere by other bloggers. Can we come up with a more attractive sounding name than blogger?