A&C Brothers Moving contract

New Blog!

I created a blog about Bento style cuisine. I adore Bento and decided to get back on the ball with this blog by creating another one. My mission is to start regularly updating both, with a third deal blog on the way!

Sorry...

I totally became very busy after the kids left for the summer. We spent a month in Alaska, which was incredible!! We then spent a month in South Carolina, where I had the pleasure of meeting my husband's entire extended family for the first time (this happens when you don't have a traditional wedding...). They are incredible, and I feel very fortunate to be the newest member of their family!
WE had my son here for Christmas, which was incredible! I think I have had him every Christmas his whole life. His dad is usually really busy with the restaurant around the holidays, and so we exchanged Thanksgiving and Spring Break for a solid month over Christmas, which helps me out because it is a longer period of time and fewer transportation costs.
We then spent a month in Colorado. I got to see one of my best friends that I hadn't seen in ten years, and we ended up in a commercial for the  Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, which is AMAZING!!! If you are ever nearby, go. Visit. Say hi to the wolves for us!!
Anyway, then we got back here and I was months behind on everything. I am pretty good at balancing our daily life and our travels, but when things are behind, they are behind. As of this week, I am finally all caught up. Except for my blog. Which is where I finally decided to head tonight!

Today's craft project

I was a little bored with the way my desk was looking. Unfortunately I didn't remember to take a before pic, but the pic above is the after. The metal cans on the shelf used to be two different colors, half a brick red color and half a dark grey color. I painted them all a shiny black, and then decoupaged some vintage French printed labels from The Graphics Fairy onto the painted cans.

I got the black frames from Ikea, and printed up the vintage silhouettes also from the same website. It really brightened up my area, and I have to admit I smile every time I see the silhouettes because they remind me of a friend in North Alabama, she was an antiques dealer for years, and these remind me of some that were in her house at one time.

The Dinnerware brands of those white dishes

I have spent the last half an hour researching online where those white dishes are from and what the pieces are actually used for, as some of them are a little mystifying! I thought I would share my finds...

A couple of the pieces are by this company:
http://www.guydegrenne.fr/

My favorite is a slightly slanted white plate with an egg cup sized indentation in the side, haven't found the exact one on the site yet though!

A couple pieces are by this company:

http://www.2imahl.fr/en/info/bauscher.html

The white plate with the shrimp on it is one that I actually have.
Here is another link to the same company:

http://www.bauscherinc.com/

Another company was Cordon Bleu, but the only links I have found are for amazon or e-bay...
Same thing for Schonwald Germany.

I got a very cool small bowl with no base that rolls from this company:
http://www.rosenthalusa.com/1339/Brands_Products/Rosenthal_studio-line.htm

A similar one is on the front page, you can see it kind of tipped over on the plate.

A couple of the pieces are also from this company:
http://www.vertexchina.com/index.php

All in all a great treasure trove of white porcelain that I know I wouldn't have been able to just walk into a store and buy and I honestly can't wait to serve breakfast or lunch using some of the new pieces!

My Savers Trip

I went to Savers today to donate a bunch of stuff that we no longer needed. After the donation, they give you a coupon for $3 off $10, which is kind of nice. I went into the store to find something to use my coupon on, and found an entire basket of white china for $9.99... it is all from various European manfacturers in France, Germany, and England, and most of it had paper stickers and hand written numbers on the bottom. If I had to guess I would say they belonged to a sales rep, and were probably samples that were used to show pieces to hotels and restaurants.

I have no clue what I will use all these random pieces for, but I figured the price was right, and I am very creative, so we whall see!

I also got this:

It came in a hideous frame, which I promptly replaced with a plain black frame from Ikea, I just thought it was so apropos considering the recent Royal wedding and the current presidential visit. It is hand drawn and signed by the artist, so all in all, a pretty fun day!

Paris Subway

My husband and I took the subway all over Paris while we were there. It was a very good way to learn things about Paris I never wanted to know. Our first day I was nearly smashed in the door of one of the cars, as I was taking a photo of a man playing incredible busic on our car, and almost missed getting off the train, lol! Several Parisians came over out of concern, and seemed very relieved to see that I was ok, just a little dazed. Apparently you can be killed getting closed in a door on their subway. They do not reopen like other subways I have been on.

The Subway

The photo I was taking that almost got me closed in a subway door...

We actually saw a lady with a baby under one arm and a baguette under the other arm begging on one of our trips. Monsieur, cil vous plait... Madame, cil vous plait... I didn't take her picture, but her image is still stuck in my mind, and I now know how to beg in French.

Our last subway trip was from our hotel to the airport. It took much discussion to get my husband to agree to try taking the subway to the airport, as he was unsure about taking our luggage. However, we pack light, and in the end he decided it would be ok.

As we made our way out of the city on the rails, the last images of Paris that stuck in my mind were little cardboard shacks built one on top of another with chimneys jutting out the tops. These are built all along the route out of the city. I wanted pictures of them as well, but we were in no position to reach my camera at that moment.
As we reached our destination, the door behind us between cars opened, and a group of subway officials entered our car. They proceeded to check our tickets and demand 25 Euros each from us, in cash, immediately (a taxi would have probably cost about the same amount). Apparently the "unlimited" two day pass we bought for the subway did not include the trip to the airport. We thought maybe we were just dumb non-French speaking Americans, who had made an honest error, so we paid the fine. As they walked further up the car, we realized that they were also shaking down the French citizens, who were much louder about how ridiculous it was. Apparently they didn't buy the right tickets either, in spite of being obvious French speakers...