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'.