Happy Birthday America!

We're 235 years young!

1. Travel suitcases,  2. Tocca Bianca Eau de Perfume,  3. John Derian Glass Alphabet Tray,  4. Sequin Pillow,  5. Lafco Candle in Cortland Apple,  6. Glass Canning Jar,  7. Xtra Large Marbles and colored tape,  8. Tandem Bicycle,  9. Blue Coral,  10. Red Coral,  11. Italian Twine,  12. Blue Butterfly

Have a great 4th of July!

Linen (and cotton) Lovefest

We just got these bags in this week - a delightful outcome from our shopping foray at the New York Stationary Show. See, we did manage to get some work done in NYC!

Anyway, I’m a little in love and maybe overexcited about them; though not really, cause they really are THAT nice. 100% linen with handsome leather straps- totally perfect for summer when you need something light and chic.

 My favorite is the Recess bag.

You can buy them at our site too! 
---> http://www.theparismarket.com/category/accessories-jewelry <---

We also just got in these super cool give wraps and give bags. They're great for when you have an oddly shaped present or for when you have a few things and you're in a hurry. And maybe (like me) you're just tired of the obnoxious collection of shiny paper gift bags you have in a closet somewhere. 

Another reason to love these is that you can keep on using them; use them again for another present, use it as a laundry or travel bag in your suitcase, sew it up into a pillowcase etc.  I love when things can be used over and over again for many different things. True recycling! This seems to be true of all those honest, classic materials that designers and artists fall in love with time after time- glass, wood, metal, fabric...

Give Bags:

 

 Give Wraps: just knot it up or tie a ribbon to cinch it!

 Happy Giving!

Our Paris Marketware

                              Aimez-vous The Paris Market?                              

Our new signature Paris Market T-shirts are here, in gray and white, in all the usual sizes.

 

And also come check out Signature Scents 

- our own line of soy wax candles 

inspired by our favorite Paris destinations:

Champs-Élysées

Inspired by the most beautiful boulevard in the world, a sweet bouquet of jasmine and hyacinth surround you, while just a hint of the grand chestnut trees linger in the air.

Montmartre

Embrace your wanderlust and experience the shimmering nights of Montmartre. This lively blend of grapefruit, neroli and honeysuckle will conjure up your inner bohème in no time.

St-Germain-des-Pres

Inspired by St-Germain-des-Pres where the cafes are alive with excited conversation, and poets and writers compete with each other as the ultra riche mingle with the ultra chic. This sumptuous blend of orange, rose and clover lures you in on the most splendid of evenings.

 

See you in the store!

Wild Things you Make my Heart Sing

So, I'm still on my "wild" kick that Marnie Weber ignited last week.

In addition to Marnie Weber, I also really like this guy: Spike Jonze,

He directed the 2009 movie, “Where the Wild Things Are.” based on / inspired by the classic book of the same name by Maurice Sendak. I know it's not in theaters anymore and that it premiered a few years ago, but I still occasionally think about those wild creatures…and those cool little villages the wild things made out of pencils. sigh. It really captured a certain melancholic disturbing beauty about childhood. Art kids everywhere loved this movie.

Here's a shot from the movie, great costume translation into film don't you think?

I like thinking about all those quirky, weird, and wild psychological aspects of people's personas. My painting teacher referred to this visually as "the odd thing that works" All these wild things within us -they really are like little gremlins with their own sense of style and purpose.

A few of my favorite "wild things" in the store:

Stick Mirror - reminds me of the pencil village scenes in the film

and its available on our site: www.theparismarket.com

Wing Earrings - sleek, unfettered and free. 
(also available on our site: www.theparismarket.com)

 

Bee Skeps!!! -these are like mini versions of what the wild things lived in.

God bless the wild things within us!

Here’s to the wild ones: Marnie Weber

I saw these cool wooden noses upstairs the other day, and along with all our beads and charms, it got me thinking about costumes and puppets, stories, archetypes and all that kind of thing - and how you really CAN go wherever you want with creativity. Its not really a two dimensional blank page, which stares back at you blankly, its more like an ephemeral cloud of possibility enveloping you or stretching out before you -and your process informs the ideas as much as your ideas lay out the form. It’s a good incentive to not get “too rigid", - the heartbreaking downfall of so many in our culture.

Marnie Weber is a new fascination of mine. 

She does all kinds of sculpture and puppets and costume

and performance pieces along with film, video and collages.

 

Some collages from her Dollhouse series:

This is a great video of Ms. Weber talking about her work, and what it feels like to create such things, and that yes, as an artist, sometimes it takes a few years before you come into your own and hit your stride. Maybe we all realize that making mistakes isn’t the worst thing in the world – especially in the fluid, magical world of creation. Watch it till the end where she talks about the "fantasy white bear" (!)

We have a little bit of the weird and the fantasy here at Paris Market - the raw materials to create cool and magical worlds perhaps tipping just slightly over the edge...

You could start with the noses...

 

then check out the hands...

 

pick out the perfect terracotta mossy mushroom,

and check out the birdies too:

And where else are you going to find a dough bowl of "assorted bones" (?) seriously.

or a crate of antlers.

Pick up a pair of boots for those weird beings you'll make.

And go nuts in our photography section - these make for awesome collages. There's all sorts of great images in the crates downstairs. They're also only about a buck to ten bucks a piece.

oh and you'll need a giant scissors for it all too:

Happy Creation!

Things we'll miss: Objects d'Art taking their leave of us

We have alot of things here at The Paris Market that we really like and we really get attached to. They become a real presence in our daily doings around here, and then someone else falls in love with them too, and they go away. Here are a few things that “went” recently that we'll miss:

Yes, the enormous chandelier over the register was recently purchased. Its been there to gallantly greet us as we walked in the door every morning and to set the mood.

The Brickmaker's table also took its leave of us last week (sniff, sniff.)
-those creamy white chairs did too.

And the old X-ray machine got picked up yesterday.

 

This also sold a few months ago and I still miss it. What a classic. I almost bought it for my cat to drive around in but you know how it is around here - if you don't strike while the iron is hot...

Shopping The Paris Market: Those who hesitate are lost!

The Lavenderie: Take a deep breath of Lavender and call me in the morning.

Ahh Lavender...

The Provence region of France is renowned as a world leader in growing and producing lavender.

There are so many uses for lavender. It’s a crisp, yet slightly sedative fresh smelling scent will calm you down, relieve your headaches (you can apply it directly to the temples – it's one of the few essential oils you can put directly on your skin) and give you that peaceful optimism without a prescription.

Considered absolutely essential to the medicine chest for millennia, I still use it daily. I just dabbed it on my husband’s fire ant bites and I like to add it to my witch hazel toner for its anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properites. Traditionally, it’s been used for everything from muscular aches and pains to easing insomnia. It is the flowers (fresh or dried), that contain the medicinal properties of lavender - and there is some serious medicine in this flower. Yes it has all those "antis" and it will calm you down, but the historical anecdotes are even more telling than the laundry list (pardon the pun) of lavender.

 

During Medieval and Renaissance times, monks grew lavender in their gardens, and according to the German nun Hildegard of Bingen, (1098-1179) lavender "water,"--a decoction of vodka, gin, or brandy mixed with lavender--is great for migraine headaches. Also, in Physica, (I have a copy) she states “it constrains many evil things, and evil spirits are driven out by it.” In this matter, she is also referring to fleas, those persnickety disease carriers who were repelled by the scent.

 

In 16th-century France, lavender was also used to resist infection. Glove-makers, who perfumed their wares with lavender, escaped cholera at that time. I also read that grave-robbers tied lavender and a combination of other herbs around their wrists to resist contamination.

Lavender was also used extensively in World Wars I and II for its anti-septic properties when surgical supplies became scarce; employed primarily to disinfect the floors and walls of hospitals. Lavender farms and any grower of lavender in England for that matter, were asked to contribute their supply to the war effort.

Louis XIV bathed in water scented with it, Queen Victoria used a lavender deodorant, and both Elizabeth I and II used products from the famous lavender company, Yardley and Co. of London. Cleopatra also put it to work for its aromatically arrousing qualities.

We have a very nice selection of lavender products in the store. From the simple and straightforward dried bouquets (a nice housewarming gift) to little pouch-like sachets that you can put anywhere you want - Your dresser drawer, the car, your husbands sneakers…I would suggest the litter box, but unfortunately, lavender also repels cats as well as odors. We can’t have it all in this life can we? We have a fresh tub of lavender for you to scoop your own sachets or handsomely striped little pillow ones ready for you to toss wherever. Take a look...

Our Lavenderie: All Lavender scented: Dish Soap, Linen Mist, Laundry Soap, Hand Balm, our own signature lavender sachets, Savon de Marseille (soap cubes from Marseilles, France) scented furniture wax  and home fragrance spray, and lining the back are handmade bouquets of dried lavender from France.

For more ideas on what you can do with lavender, check out Lavender Gardening or visit The Herb Gardener for a simple recipe for Basic Herbs de Provence, and even Lavender Sugar...

 Oh, and don't forget we make lavender seltzers here too! 

The Zenith of Summer

* the egyptian goddess NUT, keeper of the Sun *

We are at the Zenith of Summer today– the sun is at its northernmost extreme in the sky and it’s the longest day of the year. As we spin our way through space, the sun will seem to stop still for a moment before continuing on - like a model on the catwalk just before the turn.

The longest day means the shortest night, and that made me think of Egyptian Goddess Nut. She is the sky, the protector of Ra the sun god.

 

Below, NUT eats the sun at dusk (that’s why we can’t see it at night). At dawn, she gives birth to it once more. It goes on and on like this. Today, Nut loans us the sun the longest she has or will all year. Tomorrow she will once more tighten the reins on her nightly meal. Is this breathtaking or what?

                                                                                                                                                                                    image courtesy of Queen of Heaven

Sun Gods get a lot of face time. Ra, Apollo, Louis XIV; everyone loves a sun god. But I am just a little bit more in love with Nut. – the nocturnal empress of Creation and Destruction, the beholder of the sun and stars, the keeper of the sun!

We also have these cool charms -Mexican Milagros that reminded me of some of the symbols in Egypt, especially the arms. I love the way people use the human body to tell stories. It makes so much sense, and the result is always so magical.

Happy Summer Solstice!