Happening last few days , work then …. friends over for impromptu dinner… going for marriage prep course , and last nite was spent on my friend kc’s film set , they were on their last day of shooting and we had fun going from location to location eating sushi in the van , her rehearsing her lines? very enlightening seeing my friend at work like that . When I worked for fashion file before, we were shooting fashion shows for TV , so not completely unfamiliar with the effort it takes to get the cameras up and in place , the right light , angle etc , but still surprised how much work goes into a scene of a few minutes. Love the feel of film sets though, the team , and how it comes together for a scene. I guess it’s what I used to enjoy about the fashion shows. When you know the work that it takes those few minutes of perfection are so much more precious. I guess I should go into production…

We got our rings , mine’s so delicate , very tiny eternity set diamonds and things in Budapest seem to be on track even if largely over budget , oh and we finally booked our honeymoon, not Cali , the Maldives or a sailing trip , but nevertheless I think the med in June is pretty foolproof and fun and a boat (albeit of slightly larger proportions) is involved which alone makes me happy . So we are going to Barcelona staying for a few days then 12 days on sea. C A N T. W A I T.

Pressure is mounting at work , our contract is finishing in June ( great timing ) and when I’m back who knows if I’ll even have a job or where . Applied for a position in New York , but who knows yet , papers for DF would be complicated , and well working without papers , not ideal. As usual que sera , sera, ..

image of capra from googleimages/capra

I know not everybody might share this passion , but I simply looove pretty wallpapers, so much so that yesterday when we went out to le magnifique on rue richelieu ( a great cocktail club by the way) i found myself tipsily effusing about their amazing wallpaper, ( bronze base with pink waterlilies if i remember right) So i decided to share some of my favourites from de gournay in the hope that one day when i'm a proper grown up i will be able to afford just a little tiny room with their chinoiserie papers...

all images from www.degournay.com

For a while now I haven’t written here. Lately I have been feeling ambivalent about blogging , and preferred to start writing my private diary again. There is something about the public nature of a blog that has stopped me from airing opinions here. I find it hard to balance writing without constricting myself for reasons of certain people might read it etc . ..

But if I think of the people who might read it , it just turns into a dull public newsletter .

Never mind I will still try. There has been some major wedding drama going on, to the point of us almost having to cancel our wedding. The Hungarian ministry of culture tried to put nuit blanche on the night of our wedding , and as it is held in a museum, they would have had to cancel us ( 3 months before the wedding!!!!) but thanks to my mom who fought like a lion, contacted Df’s dad , ambassadors and almost the press, whilst on the brink of a nervous breakdown ,it’s still on.
I was left blissfully unaware of this as DF and mom conspired not to tell me of it for fear of my nervous breakdown.

All is good now , and I spent Saturday looking for flower girl dresses and a mairie dress in Galleries Lafayette. ( the dress I will wear for my civil ceremony) The experience left me swearing to myself to never again go shopping with DF and friend in tow, not to mention to avoid Saturday at Lafayette at all costs .
I found the perfect dress and now as DF doesn’t like it I’m left pondering whether it’s worth buying a dress and wearing it to your civil ceremony that your beloved doesn’t like , and says it makes you look bigger , yikes! I still love the dress though and know I would regret not buying it. Its grecian style knee length vanilla colored chiffon pleats , absolutely gorgeous , like something out of a patisserie. What to do?

As for the flower girls , no luck yet.
I also went to the opening night of the European Independent Film Festival , Partying with my friend KC , who is here doing a soap opera, to catholic marriage preparation class with DF, and to the Swedish Club for brunch ( my new favorite place in town) so it’s no wonder that now I’m left to nurse a spring cold and have no energy left whatsoever.

photo by penn

And it was.....March !!!

OK so maybe not the most impressive photos ever, but little signs of spring in the park where I have my lunch on sunny days.

And yet in the face of it all...

Lets see what my oracle Oscar Wilde had to say about marriage or related issues :

"I have always been of the opinion that consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative..."

"Lord Henry: ...the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely neccesary for both parties.

...every experience is of value,and,whatever one may say against marriage it is certainly an experience.

...Women try their luck; men risk theirs."

"Lord Illingworth: Twenty years of romance make a woman look like a ruin; but twenty years of marriage make her something like a public building ...

....Men marry because they are tired;women because they are curious.Both are disappointed. "

"Mrs Cheveley:Ah! the strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analysed, women...merely adored. An Ideal Husband


"Lord Goring: It is the growth of the moral sense in women that makes marriage such a hopeles, one sided institution."

"Mrs Cheveley : Oh there is only one real tragedy in a woman's life.The fact that her past is always her lover, and her future invariably her husband.

Take all that , the fact that I'm reading Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates (wanted to read it before going to see the movie) that two peple who are quite close to me just announced the separation from their husbands.It makes us think, and yet in the face of it all we are getting married...


Quotes:Oscar Wilde:Nothing...except my genius; image : wedding 1933 , condenast.com, image of Oscar Wilde: www.wilsonsalmanac.com

"Pleasure is the only thing one should live for.Nothing ages like happiness."O.W.

Somehow last night Paris magic struck and the evening turned into one of decadent delights.

It even started well when I met P. DF's best friend who lives in the Congo currently and works for an NGO, at WHSmith's (they had a sale on all Penguin books and I found some great one's including one on Oscar Wilde)then we went to a lovely tiny Thai / Vietnmese that I didnt know in the same street as Maria Luisa and the Souffle restaurant.

When we finished we hadn't talked nearly enough and were debating going to one of our usual places like Juveniles or the Caveau (de Montpensier) but somehow P. mentioned the Bar Hemingway and we got very fired up (except I told her that DF would kill me if I lots) but P. in her endless generosity ivited me.I guess she needed a partner in crime and well there isn't anything more fun then sharing a guilty decadent evening and about 6-7 cocktails with a friend who shares the same expensive habits. We cosied up in the bar, struck up frienships with Pierre and Romain the barmen who still remembered my friend from previous visits(Colin was off) got served pretty drinks with roses and orchids and cucumber water and warm almonds and ... oh well the whole place just enveloped us in its golden shine until closing time , when reality had us back.

And this morning a raging headache / hungover , lovely. But if any bar is worth the morning after then that one is. Next time will be after our mairie wedding if ever we get it done.

Tomorrow DF will take me out for our proper, belated Valentine's dinner,we had an unplanned impromptu one on valentine day , but that doesn't cancel out the need to go to Le Recamier once every winter for a souffle feast, before it gets warm again an d souffle feels too heavy . Life can be quite pleasurable sometimes, sure old papa and colin would agree.

Dominos falling

I'm back in Paris , back to work back in our cosy little apartment back to evenings alone watching Godfather till too late eating Ben & Jerry's taking a break from my break. No wedding planning no diets ... for the moment at least and there is much more to write.

But for the past half hour I was going through dominomag.com I'm sooo sad to see my facourite interior design mag go that I downloaded every image I liked for future inspiration, when one day I will own a home I can remodel to my hearts desire and without limitations given by DF's guidelines on colour etc... ah one can dream.

Really Conde Nast broke that little piece of my heart that beats for pretty pretty apartments , wall colours , mirrored beds ... pretty lamps, wallpaper etc..;

Seriously each image is like perfect real estate escpism...

all images from dominomag.com