Back to it all...

It was back to work today as if Christmas has never happened, my mom's visit was way to short and am a bit bugged by the fact that I didn't get to spend any time at all alone with her. I dont mind my stepdad, he's a good chap, but I've lived 7 years only with my mom and miss hving time on our own to chat without the guys being there judging it all. Oh well I guess now that they're married it will be even harder to get her to myself once in a while.

Had a lovely short Christmas all in all. DF made stuffed turkey (ok so the base was from Picart) with all kinds of side dishes and I did a fig tart and we all drank too much wine and claret. It was slightly weird as the weather was so sunny that we got the impression that it was June and Christmas all make believe. I guess I shouldn't complain about it being sunny thogh ,as they forecasted icy rain for tomorrow . Oh joy!

I'm working on my New Years resolutions as well as eating anythng not healthy and all leftowers from the holiday feast from our fridge. Which means eating toasts heaping with fois gras , cause if its around on the first of January it will be thrown away. I'm gonna have to be strict, I've only got a month till dressfitting and its winter which makes things harder.

We finally have the dates for our next trip to Budapest and can start planning the meetings with all kinds of wedding related peoples.
Can't wait to leave Paris behind for a few days. Its depressing that at work and and in the TV and so on people can't stop complaining about economy and such like. My stepdad may say that i'm naive and living in a dreamwold, but I'm thinking , if you can't change matters then why complain about them. Lets just take things as they come and be happy with what we got.Then again; I love to complain too, but hearing it 24/7 at work makes me sick of it. So I'll just try to stay positive and keep daydreaming of us moving to the Philippines for a while and takig daytrips to Luzon , oh so beautiful...

Ok what is happening now is that for the past 15 minutes I have been trying to find the cable that lets me upload photos from the camera. Can't find it.So you'll get a post wthout pictures.

Introducing ...Jackie

Another workday over , and my family arrived from Germany in the evening, with a suitcase full of sausages.
Not kidding our fridge has enough sausages to feed 10 hungry kids for about a week. And sweets. And cold medicine and gifts that are piled up under our little Christmas tree now. And Jackie our doggie who is peacefully sleeping at my feet while I write this. Mom and stepdad already left back to their hotel and though its not the same Christmassy feeling as it would be back home and makes me long to go back a bit, I'm happy that they are here.
Its lovely having Jackie with us for a few days its much nicer waiting for DF to come home with a doggie by my side.
Oh and yeah finally my camera works again.
So I can introduce Jackie ... and I'll try documenting her trip to Paris in the next few days. Though for the moment she is rather sleepy.

Pooor world-travelling dog.
Oh yeah and since this post is already all about the dog I couldn't resist but adding another pic of Jackie back home with Marci the cat.
Have been to lazy to deal with things lately so no wedding specific news for the moment. (Except DF made our wedding a facebook event, completely ridiulous!!!)

Musings on the dress..

I'm very excited about going home in February, not just cause it means two blissfull weeks without work, and also I get to meet with our priest, florist, cake baker, hear our band etc , but finally I get to do fittings for my dress. Its honestly the only bit about our wedding that makes me very nervous.

Its funny to think back 2 years ago I was absolutely sure that if I was going to get married some day it would be in something fashioned after the Peter Soronen dress Sarah Jessica Parker wears.A knee lenght tea-dress with a little birgcage veil.The idea of the veil lasted but then DF mde a point when he said that its the ONLY time in my life I will have the opportunity to go full out and wear a long white gown.Then the wedding grew from my idea of intimate 20 guests to 40 to 100. And I found the perfect long dress.( The fact that I don't have the most amazing legs might have had something to do with it too) Well a picture of it...And I thought its such a great idea to have it copied by a Budapest dressmaker. Of course now I'm left waking up at night with nightmares of the dress being half finished and dressmakers sewing it on my down the aisle. Literally I had that nightmare three times. And I guess if I wouldn't have such a horror of trying wedding dresses on it would have been better to just buy one and be done with it.
Except the deposit is payed and the fabric ordered. I guess in the end of the day I like to see ho the dress is gradually built on me and not a finished thing i throw on. Its more of a process to become a finished bride, and well except for the nightmares I do enjoy it.

PS. We bought the turkey , lugged a christmas tree down from Jourdain and even bought a couronne (reef). The house is full of candles and once I find a gift for DF we're set to entertain my mom and stapdad + dog for Christmas!(They are coming over from Germany on Tuesday) DF is a bit daunted by it I think , he likes them well, but I'm not sure he expected to have my family for Christmas before we even get married, but at least we are together and as he's off on the 24th so we might even get a great feast (My poor family would be lost if they had to rely on me for food)Oh and my mom is bringing the battery for my canon so I will finally be able to post pictures here!

Champagne=Medicine!

Sooo I've worked for 6 days straight have a budding cold and pretty nearly lost my voice this morning (not ideal in a phone job, though it did give my voice a sexy edge).
All is good though my mood is so much better, the week is over, we have 7 cases of champagne in our apartment, and new couch table( from my philipino friend S.) DF cooked corn chowder and we popped open a bottle. Must say it helps with the throat issues so I think we'll just keep on drinking over Christmas. Just have to make sure enough of it reaches Hungary for the wedding ... no worries there is another load of 10 cases coming.
Monday left my key succesfully at home again and with DF working at nights it wasn't too ideal but my bourgois next door neighbours and then my friend D took me in.I felt a bit like a stray cat for the eve and DF didn't finish too late.
Tuesday nite was going out with philippino princess S. who's in town just for a few weeks, she just moved back home and is building her own cooking school / food empire. I'm pretty sure she'll become something like the philippino Martha Stewart, though at the moment she's going through a quarter life crisis. Its hard feeling bad for someone who leads such a charmed existence as she but over mint juleps at Experimental Cocktail Bar (over at Monteurgeil) I almost succeded at it. And though she is ubernaturally pretty with a perfect hubby, apartment in Paris , house in Pinoy and so on... she's one of the loveliest people I know (oh yeah and great fashion sense).Can't wait to visit them an be their houseguest next year , have a feeling that she's going be the perfect hostess; Just wish the feud between her and one of my bridesmaids would stop already.If not no problems with two pairs of friends feuding we might just get a few funny stories to tell out of it.
Oh and I finally signed a CDI (contract duree indeterminee ) at work. For the non Parisians thats the famed french contract that means its pretty damn impossible to fire you. Though of course still don't know how they'll like my idea of taking off a month for the wedding.Their Christmas party was classy at least , we all got a bottle of Champagne and had lots of Laduree macaroons , gotta love Paris at times!

Haven't been in a mood to blog in the last few days. Am having some weird pre-Christmas gloomy depression / grumpyness going on.In the whole my life / job/ relationship/ apartment/ city / wedding/ honeymoon sucks mood.

So instead of putting all my negativity out there , how about some pictures...and some more ...and really who doesnt like Audrey with a donkey or Cary Grant and macaroons...(can't be bothered to look where i found them safe to say that they were on google images, except for the macaroons thats curtesy of me).

Wow just got home from watching the Changeling, Angelina played amazingly and superbly directed by Eastwood as always yet for a Tuesday nite what a haunting movie... could imagine more uplifting choices. It was my fault I was curious and didnt imagine it to be such a harrowing story.

On to more pleasant topics though,haven't checked in yesterday cause I cut up my hand and needed to tend to it , as there was not a smidget of band-aid or bandage in the house, fun times.

The weekend , well the one day I had (worked Saturday) my friend D. came over and we baked German christmas cookies and American cookies and generally baheved like 50's housewifes talkin about kitchenaid's and wedding lists and gossiping whilst baking in the kitchen. It was quite funny when the irony dawned on us. One of those rare moments when I was quite happy to know that i'm working.

Oh and DF and me finally started putting together our list. Got in a fight about it too , but hey the making up was sweet, and we compromised. Made sure we added mostly affordable stuff around 50-100Euros. Though the woman who put together the base list added these abolutely georgeos 1930's brown leather club fauteils, which of course cost a fortune , but are so divine that I don't have the heart to take them off the list.Nobody will buy them as they are exorbitant, but just having them there... They are so Mad Men , you can literally see yourself reclining in them with a whisky in a cut christal glas and a cigar in the other hand....

Yeah love Mad Men , my current fave show, Pic from vanityfair.com, pic of the fauteils from our list from 1001listes.com

All I want for Christmas....

Well almost, but a snowy Paris definitely tops the list ;

Found it online, georgeous isn't it?

Metro , Boulot , DoDo... or not ?

Am trying to get out of the whole Paris routine a bit so when DF sent me a Facebook invite to the 'Naughty Paris Guide' Signing and talk at WHSith's I went afer work to check it out. Of course the title intrigued me, and granted it was fun to be there and hear the author talk, the book isn't much more then a glorified shopping guide for American tourists albeit with a pinch of the naughty. It is nicely designed and a handy little coffetable format, would make a great gift to out of town girlfriends, but there was nothing particulary new in it or anything that after living here for a while one hasn't yet experienced, i guess though it will be perfect for the market of those legiouns of tourists who come every year to experience their own little Paris phantasy.On the other hand I guess that truly is all there is to Paris! And so I still think the place needs a proper burlesque bar , something more intimate then the big cabares (moulin rouge et Lido) but more old fashioned and glamorous then Crazy Horse. Ha! Now only need to find the financial backer ... just what Paris needs amidst the big depression, a throwback to the 20's burlesque supper club.

Also been to Lee Miller's exhibition at the Jeu de Paume which was quite a bit more gratifying. Have been an admirer of her work /life ever since I've seen a documentary of her life a few years back , have a thing for artists that combine glamour with true artistry and an intensely lived life. Miller was born in the beginning of the 20th century then became a muse and modell to people like Cocteau, Steichen , Man Ray etc and later became a photographer and journalist herself. Loved the exhibition , photos of her in the early years as well as her own photos had a haunting beauty, so tha was a Saturday afternoon well spent. Plus I always still get into the museum for the Tarif Jeunes, not that two euros makes a difference but it makes me feel a little better to stil pass for under 25. sad , I know.

Photos are from different sources off google. images but they were all used for the jeu de paume exhibition) First is Miller by Man Ray, second a photo by herself'called 'Portrait of Space' , third a still from Jean Cocteau's movie 'Le Sang d'un Poete'.

Wow the logistics to our wedding can become a bit confusing at times. Right about now i'm quite happy we waited almost two years between engagement and wedding, honestly can't imagine how we woud have dealt with the amount of stuff to organize if it would have been a shorter time frame.

Just a little taste: right now my wedding earrings and invitations are shipped to a friend in Texas who will bring them to Paris in january. Whilst the wedding bands are shipped again in the States to California where the best men will pick them up bring them to London in january and then to Paris in february ( i think),then we will take the rings earrings and such with us to Budapest in the spring. The Claret is ordered now from the French countryside shipped to us in Paris and from here driven to Hungary by my stepdad. The Champagne on the other hand will be picked up in February by DF himself from the suppliers cave somewhere near Reims , then driven to my stepdads in Germany who will then drive it to hungary before the weddig. How on earth the wine will get from Austria to Hungary or who will help us pick it up for the moment we don't know.

OK sorry , that must have been confusing to read. On the other hand though we'l be completely broke around Christmas with so many costs, timetable wise we are ok , just need to fit in marriage lessons at the church and get all the official papers sorted and we're fine. I guess it might also be the semi-destination style of the wedding but i can't believe how daunting the whole organization of it is even having a planner in Budapest.

Oh and we signed up for a wedding list this Saturday at 1001 listes, which is apparently THE place in Paris to sign up.Now just have to figure out technicalities oon the website of the listpace.So Saturday night both of us got immersed in the world of Descamps satin sheets, silver champagne buckets, christal liquer tumblers , and more of the like.
Pictures from descamps.com

Things that make me content right now...

Being curled up in a blanket on my sofa with a cup of tea and a good book to read after I finish this post.

The fact that its almost freezing outside,and that most of Europe had some snow , increasing chances that it might snow here too.

That I can sleep in tomorrow.

Knowing that I'm invited to a Thanksgiving party tomorrow to D's place, and thus dont have to be alone Sunday eve.( the only night of the week where it rally bugs me to be without DF)

Having two weeks holiday in January to look forward too.

the caramel-au beurre sale ice cream i just had.

the fact tat after months those flowers actually grew some roots.

The fact that DF gets me (and my obsessions) and bought me Chantelle lingerie sets on venteprivee.com, we so shouldnt have , but shoes lingerie, magazines,macaroons, just a few things i can't resist. Then again it was master O. who said 'I can resist everything except temptation'

And on that note .... Have a lovely Sunday!

In between

Right. So my boss wants us to work wihout break , but deigned to give me two days off for Christmas (no pause at new years oh no!) df wants me to stay around and never go home, and my mom wants me to go home but only when she's there , meaning christmas, or march as she's wintering in Germany.

So I'm in between, my boss is happy with the two days off , working from the 27th till new years eve and beyond (and I mean NO sundays working) but gave me the holiday I need for end of january so I can fly to Budapest; choose the menu, have as many dress fittings as it takes, meet two priests , a florist hairdressers , make-up and planner. Of course now my mom is not happy because that means I would spend a fortnight in our house without her being there. But wedding wise , march is just too late. So I'm back at sqare one where somebody is unhappy with shedulings.
Wow I honestly don't know how people with actual families and kids do this.Oh yeah and I forgot Dior had the lovely idea of all of us having to take an oral quiz next Monday. Basically learn all the dates, occurances and symbols of Christian Dior's life by heart. Yeah like in school. Its not that I think its hard or a big deal but I do find it ridiculous.And I spent a big chunk of my day chasing down 45 Dior candles for Sir Elton John (his assistant called).Candles for Elton john , what else!So thats my insanity right now.

No wonder I'm wishing I lived on a farm on the Canadian coast. But I guess thats for when I retire,until then there is a whole lot of city life to live. Guess if we talking city life there is worse places then Paris especially when it twinkles so endearingly under my windows.

And I have the Thanksgiving Sunday at D.'s place to look forward to.

Dreaming on...

Mommy is having some marital worries that have me worried and though DF and me are doing great it shows me how hard marriage can be. Even when one knows the other for years there is always issues to deal with.
So I'm dreaming on and away from the mess, and will share my dream house with ya'all. By some funny irony my absolute dream house is the villa Christian Dior grew up in (am working for Dior now and less then loving it). Its very bourgois , surrounded by an English garden and overlooks a cliff.

Absolutely georgeous, makes me project all my gardening , child rearing phantasies on it. I first saw an image of the villa when I was 14 in a magazine cut it out and pinned it on one of my wall collages. So this house has been in my phantasy for quite some time. (And yeah its pink) Today it is a museum , showcasing some of Dior's earliest designs and photo exhibitions. Told DF today that we should go sometime as a little weekend trip. But really I just want to meet my dream house, even if it completely unobtainable.

And speaking of unobtainable Dior related stuff how about that 50's wedding dress designed by the master himself that would be so perfect for a Marie (official) wedding dress. As for the rings if I ever had the choice to choose an engagement ring version that doesn't feature a center diamond, these Dior Gwendoline rings are amazing. Graceful and poetic (made of white or red coral and gold) I prefer white, though I know a certain J. who has the perfect fitting red rose earrings so I thought I'd include both versions.

Enough of the Dior centered stuff. DF and me just ordered our invites and though we had some back and forth on the topic of wording in the end we did include both my mom and my stepdad on the host line. We also started working on the information sheet we will include in our invites for out of towners. I will make them public here at a later date as we are including some Budapest travel tips, and found some nice hotels , though when it comes to cosy romantic hotels my belowed hometown isn't up to scratch.

All pictures from www.ville-granville.fr and www.musee-dior-granville.com and diorcouture.com

Hmmm just wrote a post then when I tried to publish it my pc froze , hate that .Now either I rewrite it or look like a lazy blogger .I was describing my deliciously lazy grey November Sunday sleeping in lazing in bed till midday , baking fig tarte for DF and watching the wizard of Oz on his afternoon break cozied up on the couch.

yesterday on the other hand was pure excess , drink-wise food_wise and financially ... but soo worth it. Can I just say fois gras pasta for lunch merry go round in the Tuileries , champagne in musee d'orsay (some art too ) then pre-dinner drinks at the Heminway Bar in the Ritz and a big birthday dinner at Afaria for a philippino pal.Love the Hemingway bar its like Tiffany's ,pure comfort, luxury and nothing bad could ever happen in that place.
Quite exhilarating and don't even dare think about the money I managed to spend in one day. TRhus the satyng in today. That and the fact that i have another 6 day week starting tomorrow. Wish i had red ruby slippers to think myself away . DF is already planning his bachelors trip through Europe for ,fingers crossed that he makes it to the wedding in time.

London stuff + 2 epiphanies

Two intense days back at work and it feels like the long weekend and trip to London was ages ago . So to remind me I thought i ought to post a little recap. Well we left Sunday morning , did the usual TGV annoying kids in the seats behind us trip and met with friends J&J at their apartment (who were fashionably late but hey more time to peruse Topshop).
I love taking a peek at other people's living quarters,its so often such a perfect reflection its inhabitants. And their place just like them was a perfect little jewelbox of victoriana style. A few beautiful pieces of furniture on a tiny space with a grand bathroom , it was so lovely I was ready to move in. (No worries I'm quite happy to be back home).

Of course as usual two bottles of champagne and mimosas turned into liquer for the boys and a wine-soaked (and rain soaked-this being London) pub lunch, from which we very drunkenly and barely hungry made it to the big family Birthday dinner of my father in-law-to be. It was pleasant enough once we recovered from our drunkenness. Though I must admit I was quite proud of DF pulling himself together. He was really tipsy in the train to Wimbledon but once in presence of family made himself seem quite sober.

We stayed at Df's sister and her susbands place nearby and though their apartment would benefit from some decorators TLC we found the most beautiful touching thing in the morning. We were just getting ready to leave and looking around for the amazon DVD's that we had waiting for us in England. Both DF's sister and her man have left already when in the hallway bookcase DF found a hardcover book with Wedding Gift written on it. He looked (can I underline here that it was NOT me snooping)and apparently it was a gift his sister had made to her husband for their wedding day. A professional leather bound book with at least 200 pages that contained all their E-mails to each other during their courtship, had chapters with their special stories and was the single most touching thing I've seen in a while. So much effort and love. Of corse we didn't read any of it , just leafed through it quickly (we needed to leave) but it was very sweet, a little peek behind the curtain of another couple's relationship.

Our wedding stuff are in the works E-mails going back and fourth between our planner and me . And we should buy our proper invitations this weekend.

Am going to finish here , finally have all those deliciously girly movies I ordered a while ago and can't wait to watch the specials of Sex & the City , then moving on to Some Like it Hot , Gilda, Steel Magnolias , How to Make an American Quilt ....

PS. two epiphanies 1, my ideal bachelorette party would be just a tiaras & pyjamas pajama party with lots of champagne and girlfriends in a suite.

2, i think DF should open a restaurant with an old fashioned burlesque show (none of that modern peep-show crazy horse stuff) i think it would work amazingly in Paris.

Week was had quite some ups and downs.But hey survived it and I guess hope still lives on in the end. I'm all for change when it comes to Americans electing Obama like 90% of all Europeans I guess.

But seriously in my professional life need a bit less change , andn more constancy. So this Tuesday all hell broke loose at work when the Dior people announced in a meeting with our boss that they will not continue the contract with our company after Dec.30th. So yeah we were all shocked and scared for our jobs. I mean that is huge bad news, Dior has been doing their customer service with this company for 5 years . It was kind of ironic going to the Dior private sale on the brink of becoming unemployed , and spending like no tomorrow , then again who knows when one gets the chance again.

And the week ended with a rosier outlook as our boss told us that chances are good, we will all be kept and working on the newly signed Hermes team. Would suit me just fine, prefer Hermes to Dior anyway, so fingers crossed. Anything is better tha n looking for a new job in this economy and 6 months before the wedding.

The private sale though was worth the getting up at 5am the wait outside for two hours, the bounty was fine!;, A white leather bag for about 10% of its original price some gorgeous flats with crystal detailing (for the dancing bit of the wedding) some camel summer heels, a valet, lingerie , and I couldnt resist a little Baby Dior dress. Completely pointless but hey just hope by the time we'd use it, it won't be completely eaten by moths.
Of course there were raks and raks of amazing John Galliano for Dior evening gowns and summer dresses and even wedding dresses. But honestly they started at 300 and went up to 700, still a bargain compared to their original price but it just seemed more sensible to buy stuff that get worn than one evening dress that has to sadly sit in my wardrobe for most of the year. That and the fact that John Galliano's dresses are mostly bias cut and very slinky . Great for tall skinny girl with no boobs . But curvy girls need structure, so nothing for me. Sadly.

So excited about getting out and going to London tomorrow ,really looking forward to seeing friends and even DF's family anything to get a bit of a break of Paris.was at WHSmith today getting some magazines for the trip and gift books an fell in love with the Domino book of decorating, wish I had my proper home already there is just so much effort I will put in a rented apartment , the wallfull of paintings and silhuettes and the fancy wallpapers will have to wait. Sometimes phantasize of the things that one could do with my parents-in-law to be's house in Wimbledon. Classic english house huge and so lovely , but in dire need of some redecorationg.Guess my mom's interiour decorating genes come through.

All images from dominomag.com. such amazing decorations!

Pause of blogging this time can be blamed on DF (ha isn't it great to have a man around to blame) he decided to download all of Weeds season 3 and 4 and that show is seriously addictive so have spent the last two evenings in a haze of Weeds (fitting expression , no?)

In any case wedding-wise the news are that our friend A. is saving us and the safe arrival of our invites in january by going home to the states over christmas and being an angel in volunteering to lug our invites back as well as my earrings . Just hope it all works out we were worried that nobody was going back to the states , so this is seriously good news. How is it though tha all things wedding are so much classier and cheaper in the States. Except for England Europe doesn't really deal in elaborate wedding details , which makes it quite a bit harder to organzie and explain my ideas to planners , etc. Oh well I guess on the upside things are a lot less commercial and a lot more improvised here.Now i just have to kick things into gear on the Budapest side of things and all should be on shedule.

In any case I'm looking forward to our 24 hour trip to London this Sunday / Monday. Mostly family stuff with DF's parents but this time we are going to stay with his sister and brother in law, which I'm hoping is quite a bit more relaxing than staying with his parents (lovely people but still not exactly chilled out). And will get to see our fabulous friends JJ the ones of the mythical English castle wedding, unrivaled fabulousness and yeay we will have boozy champagne lunch on Sunday.So good news all around.

ps , picture is from perfectdetails.com, the earrings I'm vying for.

What a week!Survived it somehow.

The bad news is I can't go home for Christmas.It's a BIG DEAL for me. I know, I know its not exactly surprising , seeing that I'm working in a customer service job and we make most of our online sales in the period before Christmas . But when my boss categorically just informed us that nobody would be getting any holiday before the 27th I was heartbroken , at least a bit.
I was looking forward to going home for Christmas to Budapest for so long and though I guess it was naive of me , never thought it wouldn't happen. Christmas is so nice in our family , we have our rituals and there is no stress , just chilling out all of us together , cats and dog included, and eating well and maybe taking a trip to wine country on the Austrian boarder...I liked my boss until now but from now on in my mind at least she's the Grinch who stole Christmas. I'm being childish I know but turning 26 was enough growing up for one year , having to work at Christmas is a bit too much.

Anyway I'll stop the whining and try to see the positives of this whole misery, so this is what I came up with:

-For the first time I will be spending Christmas with DF ( he couldn't have come as the he has to workt Christmas too)

-We can start our own traditions.

-Tickets will be cheaper if I go in January

-Df will cook a delicious Christmas meal ( we are talking stuffed goose, or something equally fancy)and we can invite friends

-For the first time I have justification for going full out in decorating our little Paris apartment

-Mom and stepdad might drive over from Germany for a few days with Jackie (dog)

-For my friends back home I can buy Christmas gifts just after Christmas when everything is cheaper.

-I don't have to start to diet as soon ;-)as the dress fitting will be in January

OK thats it no more positives that come to mind, but if you guys can come up with some reasons why Paris christmas beats Budapest feel free to cheer me up :-)

Oh and one thing that is definitely makes me happy is the ticket currently residing on my nightstand , the invitation to fashion's holy grail ,the vente privee invite for Dior (though DF pointed out that the nr1 holy grail would be an invite to Chanel's private sale)in any case its next week and I'm hopeful I'll score.ha am not materialistic at all...

Not quite a winter wonderland...

It seems that winter has started in Paris , mind you its not like the winters I remember in Budapest , the deep frost , slightering over the streets, seeing Jackie mom's doggie play in the snow.

No its more like Paris winter is the nasty aunt that has stolen itself in the backdoor. Its wet and cold and slimy grey. Not the proper cold and frost that makes me want to bake cookies and think about christmas (far too soon I know, I know) just uncomfortable enough to wish myself far far away.Oh well I'm just crossing my fingers that when I'm back home for the holidays it will be cold enough to freeze the lakes near Austria,so I can iceskate when we go buy wine in the vinyards around there with mom n stepdad.

Had quite stressful day today my favourite collegue from work is gone to her grandads funeral sadly and thus not only is she sad and miserable it also makes work quite a bit harder for us.Poor girl she just broke down yesterday in front of us and I felt so bad for her, truly , but also very uncomfortable. Never know how to react when other people cry, even best friends, it just makes me freeze and feel bad that I'm so bad at comforting. Really stupid of me as I often burst out myself when I'm exhausted, but with others just can't cope.Just awkward .The whole thing made me think how weird it is that while I was at a wedding ths weekend her grandad was buried.( He was 80 and apparently lived a happy life) I'm not going to go into the whole circle of life funk here , but it made me think.

On a far more light note am thinking what fun things we could eat or do with DF this weekend. I am voting for Breakfast in America , haven't been in a while and just feel like I should enjoy my last 2 weeks before going on a radical hardcore diet for my next dressfitting in Dezember.I need to somehow approximae the weight I want to be next June , so I can avoid too many last minute alterations.Stupid stupid vanity , but whats the point in paying so much for the pictures if in the end I won't like myself in them. DF is 'lucky' he's running around in his job all day and quite a bit thinner, and might I add cuter (for one he has hair now) then when I first met him. Lucky bastard not only does he get to marry me but he desn't even have to diet.

Happily Ever After...

The bachelorette party happened... as did the wedding. And though the early oganization might have been a tad chaotic, all worked out beautifully.That's what matters in the end we were all happy had a fun time and the bride and groom where glowing and in love and will hopefully get to chill out a bit before heading back to normality.

Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the bachelorette party as my cunning plan to jst take DF's hyper cool cameraphone backfired as I could not get it to take picures, but hey fun memories. The night started off by the bride being an hour late and th club/bar where we were meant to start off , having a singles speed dating event and thus no smidget of place left for us. But no worries after walking around for about half an hour we found a bar , we found enough seats for 16 parched girls and we could start with the gifts ...Though I think some shocked the bride less than some of her ultraconservative friends (niple pasties & sex dice anyone!?)Even though it was a weird mixture of midwestern US girls frenchies and other, It worked out great, and I still managed to haul myself to work the next day.

Saturday we had to get up fairly early for the wedding, I even defied DF who had a horror of getting the reputation of the late comers to weddings of all our friends.So we made it on the dot and I must say of all the ceremonies I've seen lately this priest was the most sympathetic and the sermon very touching. Then we hauled ourselves a cab to the reception site a restaurant right by the Canal St Martin and apparently (noted buy all the french guests) immortalized in a classic 60's frech movie.Food was lovely so where the speeches, funny touchinng n all that but the piece de resistance was the Pierre Herme macaroon tower. Seriously that thing was amazing . 300 macaroons (Olive oil & grapefruit, white truffel, and classic vanilla.)I was in heaven.
And really really want one for my wedding too except from Laduree and except I have no idea who and how would bring it over to Budapest , I mean NO IDEA!!!(and those babies have to be fresh and cool, like same day to 2 days) ah...

When the reception resumed DF and me decided to go home and change before the party started in the evening at the couple's house. So we did something super prosaic , bought two frozen pizzas to help align against the drinking of the evening (enntirely DF's fault I wasn't hungry ).

We got home ate the pizzas and fell asleep.
Then woke up (late of corse) managed to get dressed and ready to go, and had fun and some more macaroons at the party. I love being around my friends on their wedding day , so glowing so happy and just seeing them be happy about and with all the people around them is great. So for the time being all the grumpyness has vanished and I'lm really happy. It helps too that for the first time in quite a while I'm looking forward to a full weekend with DF . We'll be able to sleep in and just do mundane stuff together and invite friends for brunch.yeay!

The pictures are taken at the wedding but I really did not wanna put my friends on the spot without their permission, so no faces.(facebook friends can see the full album on my profile.BTW the dancing /hugging picture is not of the first dance but the Bride/ father of the bride dance.

Little Miss Sunshine has taken a vacay...

I'm feeling very very grumpy today, just one of those days. I woke u tired, nothing went too well at work I came home grumpy, got to clean up the remnants of yesterday's feast with DF, and somehow nothing was right in the wold. So I'm gonna unload for a paragraph or two and leave feeling invigorated , all positive and shiny. At least thats the plan.

First of all my mom is acting like a stubborn mule.I and only I am alloved to say that, (I'm her daughter after all) her husband/my stepdad asked her to move to Germany into his new house for six weeks and she acts like its doomsday, like some 70's feminist under siege.Talks about loosin her freedom, independence, how boring Germany is ....In any case I had to remind her that spending 6 weeks with the man she just married in his beautiful house surely beats living alone ,working 11 hours in front of her pc every day at our home.

Oh and another deluded female my friend Sz. who I absolutely adore is planning to move to Italy with her liar/cheater boyfriend who's first reaction to her moving with him was (and this should be duly noted) that she should stay where she was.

Now in my communication with her I'm trying to be the most supporting I can muster , and generally I would be all for leaving Hungary and living in Italy for a while.Just taking into account her carrer and the cool experience.
But as DF says with guys she should see the first reaction and his actions.And his actions and first reaction were not exactly positive. She of course says that she is in love with him and that things are great and though I completely am breaking my own rule of not judging others relationships and matters I can't help but think that its vasted efforts even for somebody who isn't in the business of wanting to get married. Whats the point in vasting energy and efforts an emotions on a guy who has betrayed her. hmmm venting stops there.

Oh yeah tomorrow I'm meant to attend the bachelorette party, the girls (of whom I know only the bride) organized "Sex &the City" style " bachelorette party , and nothing against SATC love the show and going to fancy bars is always great but for a special occasion it would have been nice to bring in something just a tad different. I'm sure it will be fun once I drag myself there,But my idea of Cocktails at Yoba (ladies toyshop par excellence in Paris on Saint Honore) might have been a bit spicier.Seeing my present mood I doubt I will grace the party with my presence too long anyway.

But before I come away from this post like complete bitch , I must note that DF is great lately, cooked amazing food for me yesterday, bought me flowers lately (loooved the yellow roses) and did silly errands like post save the dates etc.The lovely thing about him is that even if I go on one of my play grumpy funks he just gets me to laugh at myself and snaps me out of it.

Now if only my planner would take the caterer to take a look at the castle before my mom leaves Hungary..; oh yeah and my boss would ok my christmas break..the world would indeed be a fine place again.

btw photo is of some roses we photographed on a flower stall in Netherlands its the colouring we want for the table arrangements.

Private Sale season...

Long long time since I last posted. Ok so it was only a week ago but still I feel guilty. My apologies all around . The job isn't bad or hard or such things but the shedule changes daily and I worked yesterday so another 6 day week, which sucks. On the upside get to go to the famed Dior private sale in November. There are legends around that private sale one has to have I.D.'s, Dior badges and wait in line for hours but if lucky the rewards are worth it , well I'm hoping.

Quite excited , last time I got to go to the Vuitton private sale was back in the day when I was working for Fashion File and it was amazing. I scored some python leather heels for 80 and a coat with fur collar that I adore and whose retail price was in the thoudsands(I got it for just a few hundred my score of the year 2006). Only problem is that I should really save all the extra money for wedding stuff. Unfortunately I doubt that will stop me.

There is also a Baby dior sale happening. Of course to me this should be completely irrelevant as I'm definitely not planning to have kids any time soon. But I love those little Baby Dior stuff, and apparently they sell them for 7 euros a piece . Asked my collegue to buy a bunch for me told her its for gifts , of course ;-).I guess I'll just hide them somewhere for the next 10 years or until the time comes...
Of course DF laughed at me for wanting to buy them.

He's right we are so not ready just this afternoon we spent with our friend on pont des arts swigging champagne from the bottle and making a fois gras tasting ,right on the bridge. Then off to eat some more at Chien qui fume and of course spent (again) way too much just cause I felt like fois gras poelee , though it was heavenly .Our friend P. then dragged me to watch Superblond or whatever that movie is called , by that time iI was drunk on champagne and sancerre . Thats my only excuse for watching that horribly bad movie. Though in the end of the day who cares she invited me for it and it was so so silly that it made for great girly bonding.

All in all not the worst day . Too bad I need to go to work tomorrow . And find something to wear to this weekends wedding. And find battery for my CANON. And find a club for bachelorette party , pick up shoes from shoemaker and and and ...

Huh yeah so the weekend wasn't exactly as relaxing as I planned it. Was all fun in the daytime met up with DF we had sushi,sittin in cafes and walks through palais royal and fondue dinner in our amazingly romantic lil place (except WARNING! fondue not so romantic and sexy afterwards when u get home and all u can do is roll around moaning and holding your stomach trying to digest a pound of melted cheese, sorry TMI, I know ...)moving on ..;
So the not so great part of the weekend was that our neighbour above us had his son come for the weekend who kept me up until 3-4 am both Sat and Friday nite. I get that he needs to party but seriously moving furniture at 4am ??!!! But then yesterday I went over to my friends D.'s house to help her unpack, decorate a bit and chat weddings (hers is in two weks) and then we all went out for dinner ... D. , me and five boys . Ok so one was her fiancee and the rest his friends but it was fun , gotta love those good lookin easy goin Aussie boys , anyway poor DF was of course workin while I was flirting n sipping cheap mojitos (who knew the 20th arrondisement 6€ a drink anyone?!)but as fun as it was , after dippin my little toes in the old times it was nice to come home to DF and just know that we are good and on the right path. Seeing a bickering couple and snide remarks fly made me see the good in our relationship. Though I guess its just pre-wedding jitters and I'm rootingfor D. and her fiancee to pull together and be happy with each other.

Hmmm a bit too tired to blog but I was going to share my newest project. My friend D. is getting married next Saturday and as her sisters are only arriving from the States on Friday the bachelorette party is planned for the Friday nite before the wedding. Again as her sisters aren't yet here she asked me to get in touch with them and help them plan it.
Since then I've been racking my brains and thinking of ideas of the perfect bachelorette party. especially in view of the fact that we don't want her waking up like zombie,I was thinking a spa party would be great or as we are in Paris a Hammam party , soaking in a a Hammam being massaged with scented oils sipping champagne and eating gooey Moroccoan sweets sounds pretty good for me but then again I would love to take her to Pink or some burlesque show as well. Any ideas out there for bachelorette parties???

Random Sunday

The week is still in my bones ,worked 9 straight hours yesterday , on a Saturday. I guess a lot of other people have it much worse , but hey I live in France and till now was pretty spoiled regarding hours I clocked in.
Also one day to relax just doesn't feel enough.I went to the mosque in the Ve arrondissement today to meet a friend for morroccan mint tea and sticky arabic sweets , I love this friend, S. she just came over for the weekend from Barcelona. And was very happy to catch up wth her but then, when I went to meet DF on his break between shifts (poor guy worked today too) I just threw a hissy fit. We were meant to stick around Bourse where he works and go for japanese soup , but all I wanted was just to be at home and chill and nap. But he was sweet came home with me and we relaxed. Watched new gossip girl, brainstormed a list of things we want to put on our wedding gift list and checked out the website of the the restaurant likely to cater our wedding (check it out its a pretty cool menu ; www.loulourestaurant.com).

So nothing exciting today. I will have to go shopping for a dress to wear at our friends wedding in 3 weeks, just wish I could sleep for three days straight , oh and I fell in love with a yellow woolcoat on anthropologie.com, really not good as I should save for wedding and not spend 500 on a coat, oh and also got my veil from the states yesterday.Its great!sorry for all the random thoughts. a tout ...

I thought I'd put up a yellow styleboard from stylemepretty.com to counter the horrible autumn mood that and it reminds me of the yellow coat I sadly can't have.

Crazy Horses ... (warning long post!)

So last night was one of those crazy unexpected Paris nights , and boy am I still recovering. Granted it doesn't help that I am working tomoerrow , a SATURDAY! Its so depressing, but hey thats not the story. I guess I need to recount it all for it to make sense.

One of my best friends from Uni was visiting this week from the Philippines. And well I guess the fact that over there she is somewhat high profile actress/singer etc kinda is part of the events . In any case she and her entourage were already meant to have left Paris when she called me yesterday after work that " Hey we decided to stay a day longer , do you feel like joining us for a dinner cruise + show at the crazy horse?! All on us of course!"Seriously? I was still beat from going out on Monday but it sounded fun so I finished buying my magazine&books at WHSmith, and met them at their hotel, of course still in work clothes just like another friend who came straight from the fashion salon's where she's showing her head pieces and heats.

So all the girls cram into my friends room franticly trying to catch up on girl talk, stuff laduree into us and put on various make-up and hats of our friends colection.(Did I mention the head pieces were sparkly embroidered girls spreading their legs Klimt-Schiele style, we were basicly wearing very stilish vaginas on our heads!) Then its off, a group of six friends in a chauffeured car to the dinner cruise. Its all great and fun except when we arrive turns out there was a misunderstanding and cruise is without dinner. Plus seeing lines of shivering people wait for the boat to let them on , didn't look too glamorous , so we decided to find a restaurant.
And on it was to the 6New York where our fabulous french friend L.(who by the way will be awarded the legion d'honneur this month) talked them into freeing a table up for us. Thats when the champagne started popping. We had a quick dinner and off it was for the show at the crazy horse.

I guess for me the legendary trio of Lido / Moulin Rouge / and Crazy Horse had always kind of enticing entertainment promise about it. But today I was shocked to find that not one but two collegues have never heard of them.

Its kind of hard to describe them . I guess its circus meets stripping meets burleque. Wih perfect dancers bodies and lots of titties and ass. (sorry guys but there is no classy way of expalining the crazy horse). It was fun and funny. The place was full with groups of business men or poor naive couples who thought it would be a tame dinner show.But honestly I think the only way to experience it is with friends and copious amounts of champagne. The girls are so perfect its sad and the tapdancing twenties era twins the funnies bit. The way those girls move I fascinating, my female friends all started getting jelous, but seriously there will always be more attractive people than oneself and just the sheer easthetic of those bodies made me proud to be a woman. I mean such a show would never work with men's bodies. Though honestly I thought it would be sexier , I kind of wished it had more of the gritty glamour of 20s burlesque. The 80s style lights and music gave it all a bit of a sex prepackaged in cellophane feel. I feel like checking out the Lido now maybe its more like I imagine it.

In any case we all had fun, I left the party after the show to go to the caveau to pick up my slightly drunk fiancee, with whom we then made it home by 3am.

So that was last night as I said I'm still recovering and well my musings about Paris fall and work etc will have to wait for next time... unless something exciting happens of cours. :-)

Unsolicited Advice

What is it about big life decisions like getting married that invites all kinds of people to forget their manners and offer their often rude and unsolicited advice. Everybody is entitled to an oppinion, that I get and being very oppinionated myself I know the itch to share it. BUT I think decisions like getting married , the size of your wedding, having a baby , how one raises their children etc should be off limits to advice giving.One should congratulte be happy for the other person or shut the hell up. I guess I should more often heed my own words but hearing a few 'friends' comments these days makes me more aware of how personal and hard to explain these decisions remain.

Like when at a dinner amongst friends on monday an older gay stylist aquintance upon hearing about my wedding plans cried out

" Married? Oh you are getting MARRIED???!!! But why??? Don't get married , you guys don't get married , its just so ..."

OK so I smiled and assured him that YES we indeed were seriously planning to get married .
Or even my very good friend whom I honestly love , just in passing posing questions like
" So you are really gettig married ? Are you sure? Why did you say yes?"
And that without any malicious intent ,well and without much tact but hey.

I think I chose well with DF , he's a good man, we share the same humour, he makes me happy and there are so many reasons why I think marriage with him is a great adventure and doesn't have to end badly or in years of anymosity. In any case the comments still bugged me. Why would I listen to an old bachelor or my friend who grew up amongst the ruins of her ambitious high-profile parents relationship ruins.
And yet no matter my faith in us , nobody sees into the future.But there's another commonplace truth and that is nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors. So my resolution is to try judge other people's relationshis less , and well care less about the comments.

picture from sexanthecitythemovie.com,

Tit & Tat

Weekend was lovely , got to spend it all with DF for once. He cooked I baked we went out for a date-dinner night and on Saturday to friend's party , it was idillyc (have no idea if the spelling is right on that one) well except for the bit of cabin fever I had yesterday night.

No matter I have to apologize for not blogging , was a bit preoccupied with some personal stuff last week not to mention working long hours and our internet connection acting up. Which all prevented me from writing my blog consistently.

Wedding stuff Update: My veil is sent from the States (just hope it arrives) and I'll have to speak to our caterer this week (need menu / price /etc). There are quite a few things on my to-do-list that I keep postponing. I should go to the German Embassy see how to get the papers for the mairie wedding , call restaurant /florist and dressmaker to see how they are open around Christmas as I need to book tickets soon. Not to mention figure out whether work would let me go for a week. Then set up the giftlist and see if that catholic church preparation is even happening this autumn.

We are invited to another wedding at the end of October , will need to find a gift for that too. Honestly I still hope they'll put up a list . I kinda think anyone who doesn't have a giftlit should be punished with ugly fleamarket vases as gift. Like the one I gave my friend at the Croatia wedding. (I didn't plan for it to be ugly it was just that the fleamarket gods and my friends bad judgment didnt make for a good outcome).

Gotta go to work but psyched as one of my best friends from the Philippines coming to Paris today!

Oooops...

Really really shouldnt do any online shopping ... especially if I have no idea how much there is on our joint account , but hey found some fun lingerie on venteprivee.com and its so much easier than acvtually going to a department store and finding a saleslady who will fnd my size and all that. Just hope DF likes it:-)

Starting to reconcile with the idea of my job, its still tedious but as my coworker pointed out , i ight as well do it until something comes along not to mention that after each sale that goes through us on the online boutique we get points,that we can buy things for.There is the gold oui ring i love and a pretty tan leather bag , so i guess one should simply concentrate on the positives.

As for things wedding related, I ordered my (birdcage) veil! Am very excited about it, for two reasons. One; I got a minor panic attack when i tried on a 'real' veil , it just didn't feel like me. Who am I kidding ; I mean we have been living together for a year and I have certainly not lead a virginal life before that. I just felt like wearing a real veil the whole Virgin Mary reference wold have been too strong.

Its weird I never feel like that seeing other brides, on others i think its cute .. on me almost blasphemy , funny. Same thing goes for tiaras on others pretty , on me i feel like I'm doing dress up.

Oh and for the 2nd reason.Before DF ever propsed I imagined my wedding in the church on the cliff above Etretat with about 10 people max and me in a short 50s style dress and little birdcage veil.

In the end circumstances and DF's taste (NO knee-lenght wedding dress for that guy!)changed all my orginal ideas,except for the cage veil! That stays. Now I just hope it will get here safe from the US.

picture of birdcage veil from google images/flickr.com

Disillusionment...

Am a bit disappointed on the whole in everything I hate it if through people around me or even myself I get my hopes stuck on something and then they are disappointed . This goes for everything jobs, photographers, honeymoon...

My collegues are nice its just that in the interviews they positively tried to sell it to me and make out to be sooo great. Then I have lunch with a girl whose been working there for a while and she sounds quite a bit disillusioned. So that.

Its not helping that DF is a bit disillusioned by his new work too. So we ain't happy campers.

And I heard through DF that our possible honeymoon to Cali fell through. It was always going to be a huge favour to us , so I knew that there was a chance for it not working out and we will find something else that will be great . But yeah I am a bit sad. Having never been to the States it would have been cool and special. Anyway we'll go one day together. Well and instead we'll have great long trip to the Philippines next Christmas. I still se ourselves cruising down the Cali coast in a blue convertible , stopping by at Doris Day's inn.. oh well.

The only good news I can come up with today is the fact that DF has some inside scoop from costumers that LV will bring out the neverfull bag in damier this November. This might not cheer up some of you but it sure made me happier when I heard it . I hate the logoed LV bags (against anything logoed sauf CHANEL) but love the neverfull and wanted to get me one , but so far they only exist in logoed LV. So for Christmas the damier version is on top of my wish list.

Here goes ... Dior

I enjoy working,

I enjoy working,

I enjoy working... was the mantra I kept telling myself today. I am starting my new job tomorrow and trying to wire myself to be enthusiastic and eager.Has almost worked too. Seriously though I am quite excited and curios . Excited about returning to work in a fashion environment and curious about the people I will be working with.I am praying for them to be nice. Really, really hope they will be.

Oh and lest anyone be mislead, NO i won't directly work for Dior. I work for a society that does all their client services . So the society I work for is in partnership with Dior and they will train me in Dior product (as if I needed that ;-)but Dior is not my direct employer. AND NO I won't get married in DIOR ! I wish !

My wedding planner seriously asked me that. Sweet of her to think,unfortunately I dont have a few 100.000 EUR on the side for a Couture wedding dress. Though I still going to be happy with my dress, made in Budapest , just as long as it looks the way I imagine it ...

 

Here it is the inspiration board for our wedding.At least the first version of it , am going to play around a little with it but all in all I hope it has at least a little coherence. I love the new verion of Picasa, so many great features!