Hello everyone,
first I would like to wish you a happy new year! I hope you had a good start in 2014! Those following me on Instagram know that I have been spending Christmas in Picardy with my family. I was there for the first time in months and it was really great seeing everyone.
Between Christmas and New Year, my mum took us to a magical place in the garden of my home town's Castle (the Château of Compiègne). A new tea salon opened last summer in the roses garden of the Castle's park. The place is usually closed during the winter, but it was open during Christmas time, and it was just magical. We had Brunch there and the cake was delicious!
I Just love it when historical sites are given a second life and used like this. What do you think? Isn't it just very special and beautiful?
Here are a couple of pictures for you.
Speak to you soon
xoxo
Elodie
Urban Jungle Bloggers: Green Festive Vignette
Hello everyone,
I am so happy to be taking part for the first time in the #urbanjungle monthly series initiated by my dear friends Igor and Judith. This time Igor and Judith asked us to compose a green festive vignette.
I have decided to show you my dry heath plant. It is not exactly a Christmas decoration but I think that it looks pretty festive with my black house doctor star on my green cabinet in my living room. What do you think?
I have decided to show you a dry plant as it's about as green as I can be with plants. I love plants in gardens, but I don't like having any in my flat. I prefer fresh cut flowers, as you well know if you are a regular reader of my blog.
I find heath looks much prettier when dry. It makes branches bend in a very elegant way and you can keep the plant forever, without having to worry about watering it.
You can also check out UnDueTre Ilari, Fluxi on Tour, Peg London, Mouseblossom and Emerald Green Interiors for more festive decoration ideas!
You can also have a look at the beautiful Urban Jungle Bloggers Pinterest board.
I wish you a great Wednesday - Thank you Igor and Judith for this brilliant idea.
Elodie
madame love loves: minted
Hello everyone,
I hope you are not too stressed out with the pre-christmas madness going on! Today I would like to introduce you to minted. Minted is an online stationery store powered by a global community of designers. Minted has for instance a great Holiday Cards designs selection, that you can combine with your own photographs. The paper quality is excellent. I just received a card from a friend yesterday and I loved the look and feel of the paper.
Apart from their great stationary, I am big fan of their photo backdrops for wedding and parties.
I also love their art prints, which are highly customizable - you can pick the colour and get them in many different sizes.
I also love one of their new products, that I haven't seen in any other online stationery shop: the personalized wrapping paper. You can transform the templates with your own words and photos. Isn't that great?
In France, you send Christmas Cards after Christmas actually, more as a way to wish your friends and family a good year ahead - and I am thinking about creating my own card with minted this year.
What about you?
Are you sending Christmas cards?
When and what do they look like?
xoxo
Elodie
Lovely flower blogs #8: Grown and Gathered
Hello everyone,
I am back today with the 8th and last "lovely flower blog" this year. Don't worry, I will be back next with some more gorgeous blogs for you.
I have been waiting for the relaunch of their website, and I am so happy and excited to present you the gorgeous Grown & Gathered blog today!
1. Who are you and what are you talking about in your blog?
Hello all, I am Lentil and I, like many of you reading have a love of flowers. My partner and I have our own business grown and gathered, his love is the vegetables and mine the flowers.
I find it super difficult to talk about what exactly it is that we do – because I am one of those ideas people. I always seem to want to try something new ha. But in a nutshell, we grow and forage cut and edible flowers seasonally. I love the simplicity of flowers, I like how they grow and I like to represent them as they are.
We focus on local produce and sustainable as well as organic growing practices. As the business has grown, we have realized we are most passionate about sustainability, more than anything else. We only use post consumer green-waste and farm manures for our growing practices and are trying to create a closed loop system, where what we sell comes back, i.e. We give vegetables, fruits, herbs and edible flowers to restaurants, they give us back their biodegradable waste to add to our compost and we use that compost to grow the restaurants more vegetables, fruits, herbs and edible flowers! Brilliant!
2. Where does your passion for flowers come from?
Well, I grew up in the country and was one of those children who liked to run around, play in mud and pick flowers. Then as I grew older, for some reason, I felt as though I needed a “real job”, so I went to university, got a Speech Pathology Degree and got that “real job”. While I worked in my “real job” I dreamt about working with flowers and I remember in my spare work hours researching flowers secretly ha.
Speech Pathology is all about helping people in many ways, but what I realized while doing this is that I wanted to help people in a more simple way. I wanted to help people focus on the positives, the simple things and to stop and think about what they have, not what they don’t. For me the answer was flowers. I feel as though flowers have their own little language. Of course the fact that I hated working in offices helped to make the decision much easier.
3. What inspires you?
Many things.
My lovely Matt and how we live most of all. We try to live in a simple and sustainable way.
The next is probably our ideas, we always seem to have more ideas and things we want to try than hours in the day.
And People. Not reading about them, but meeting them and talking with them, any type of person really.
4. What is your favorite flower?
This is probably one of the hardest questions I have ever been asked, but I think I’ll have to choose a poppy (of any variety).
5. Which other flower blogs are you reading regularly?
To be honest I don’t really get around to reading other blogs often, we don’t have great internet in the country and life gets busy! But I would like to think I read Cecilia Fox and Pomp and Splendour blogs when I can haha!
So I hope you enjoyed this interview today even if it is not very christmasy!
I wish you a great day! Talk to you soon!
Elodie
Lütt und Fien : A lovely shop for children in Hamburg
Hello everyone,Lütt und Fien is the loveliest toy and children's shop I have ever seen. It's just a paradise for little ones and the perfect place to find a Christmas present id you've got children in the family and are looking for beautifully manufactured, meaningful or poetic toys. It is situated in lovely Eppendorf in Hamburg, almost opposite to the tea salon, Dear Matsu I talked about last week. The atmosphere is so special and so the selection of objects. You can for instance find a lot of items for little girls who like to "play shopkeeper", some lovely and individual teddy bears, some incredible furnitures for doll houses. They also have so very nice things for little boys related to the Hamburg-harbour theme, such as cranes and ship-containers. Everything which is sold the shop can also be purchased online via their great online shop.
LÜTT & FIEN online shop Erikastraße 58 20251 Hamburg Mo-Fr. 10:00 – 18:00 Sat.: 10:00 – 15:00
A Christmas wreath with moss and ribbons
Hello!
Today I would like to show you the little Christmas wreath I made for my home with simple ribbons and moss. I bought the wreath moss at the flower shop and some black velvet and satin ribbon at tiger. The purple one is from Idee.
I just turned the ribbon around the wreath and tightened it with a big knot at the top.
I love dark colours in decoration. I think that they transport elegance and cosiness. And if used with some gold or some sparkles, they can even look very festive.
What about you? Did you make a wreath this year for Christmas? Which colours did you use and where is it hanging?
Take care and speak to you soon!
Elodie
Mimosa Bouquet
Lovely flower blogs #7: Petal Pixie
Hello everyone,
today I would like to introduce you to Kimberly Watt and to her beautiful flower blog Petal Pixie. A very talented florist and stylist from the US, that I discovered on Instagram. Here goes to my little interview. I hope you will enjoy it.
Have a nice day!
Elodie
1. Who are you and what are you talking about in your blog?
I am Kimberly and I discuss floral and event design. Most of my blog showcases images of my wedding work and styled editorial shoots.
2. Where does your passion for flowers come from?
I grew up on a farm so I always have had a love for planting and watching things grow. My grandparents had a beautiful flower garden and I spent a lot of time there with them. I don’t think I realized at that time I would make it a career to work with flowers. Then in high school I took a floral design class as an elective. My teacher and my mother decided I had too much talent to not do something with it. So my mom researched floral design schools and enrolled me in The Floral Design Institute in Seattle. The rest is history so to speak.
3. What inspires you?
I am inspired by a lot of things, other designers, nature and traveling. I tend to be inspired by different cultures and environments; I think you can find a lot of inspiration from the way others live. I also love interior design and fashion. I think if I was to make a career change it would be in interior design.
4. What is your favourite flower?
I really don’t have a favourite flower. I love to use what is in season. I think if I had to choose it would be ranunculus, berries, hellebores, clematis, fruit, flowering branches, lilac, garden roses, and stock.
5. Which other flower blogs are you reading regularly?
Holly Chappel, Saipua, Ariella Chezar, Floret Flower Farm, and Flowerwild. I check their posts regularly. I also love reading Botanical Brouhaha and Flowerona.
Thank you so much Kimberly for sharing your passion and your talent with us!
xoxo
Elodie
© pictures by Ali Harper Photography, Alixann Loosle Photography, Blush Photography, Jessica White Photography
Lovely fabric - France Duval-Stalla
Hello my dears,I am starting a new column on the blog today called Lovely Fabric and I would like to talk about fabric design with you. I am a fabric addict - I love pretty patterns and soft fabric and am using fabric a lot in decoration. I like sewing cushions and curtains for my home. I made almost all the curtains myself in my flat. I also used a lot of different fabric to decorate my daughter's little nursery. I usually buy my fabric online via French online shops, as a lot of the fabric I like are not available here in Germany. Through this series, I would like to introduce you to some of my favourite fabric designers from France and from all over the world or just some of my favourite patterns and tell you where you can source them online. The first fabric designer, I would like to talk to you about is France Duval-Stalla. Here are a couple of her patterns. She is working with a lot of greys and muted colours.
France Duval-Stalla is a very well-known fabric designer in France. She started with editing cambric fabric, in quality that is very comparable to the Tana Lawn fabric from Liberty of London. Now she sells a lot of different fabric, such as jersey, crepon, tulle or linen. She is so successful and appreciated nowadays among the French DIY crowd, that she has her own fan blog, where the "France Duval-Stalla addicts" can post their creations and share them with others.
Now you also have the chance to become a fan of France Duval-Stalla fabric, and add a little French touch to your decoration with maybe a little cushion or a plaid for your sofa with the fantastic Gray with pink cloud of stars matt coated cambric.
EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR MADAME LOVE'S READERS - oder online UNTIL 15 December 2013 - and get 10% discount if you use the code MMELOVE
Since last year, there is also a France Duval-Stalla shop in the Montparnasse district in Paris. If you happen to be visiting Paris, you should definitely have a little look:
France Duval-Stalla shop: 4, rue du regard 75006 Paris France
Find France Duval Stalla online: on her Website/Webshop on Facebook on Instagram on Pinterest
pictures (c) France Duval-Stalla
Dear Matsu - A lovely tea salon in Hamburg
Hello everyone,
I am enjoying the calm at home right now, as my little one is still sleeping and my husband has left to go to work. Today I would like to share with you my new discovery in Hamburg. I discovered this lovely place last week when pushing the pram and my neighborhood with my friend Sabrina.
Dear Matsu, is a new tea salon and vegan restaurant in lovely Hamburg - Eppendorf, situated in the lovely Erikastrasse. The place opened in March and looks so Japanese! I completely fell in love with it. It is incredible, but the owners Mathias and Sylvia have never been to Japan - but as I told them, you really have the impression that this place could be in a street of Tokyo or Kyoto. The place is called dear matsu after their favourite sort of tea.
The decoration is absolutely lovely and puristic - I am particularly in love with the copper Tom Dixon lamps on the green wall.
The teas served are so delicious and you can also buy more than 60 varieties of tea from all over the world, Japanese tea pots and cups as well as delicious vegan food. You can consult the daily menu on their Facebook page.
DEAR MATSU
Website
Erikastrasse 47
20251 Hamburg
Mo-Fr. 9:00 – 19:00
Sat.: 10:00 – 17:00
Christmas wishlist for young parents
Hello everyone,
Christmas is approaching and you are maybe already looking for presents for your friends and family. I created a Christmas wish list for young parents with items from one of my favourite online shops: Smallable. I already introduced Smallable here.
This list is a mix of things I already bought for Ella's bedroom, such as the lamp, the star swaddle or the pompom bin (I have it in blue - to go with the rest of the room) - and things I would really like to have! I hope this helps you in finding the perfect gift for Christmas.
For more inspiration, you can also have a look at the Smallable Christmas shop.
I wish you a great day!
Elodie
1. NUMERO 74 - baby blanket
2. EGMONT - Silver Mushroom lamp
3. MUSKHANE - Pompom Bin
4. NUMAE - Grey star swaddle
5. DANISH CRAFTS - Rocking Sheep - White
6. PILEPOIL - Star carpet
PS: This blogpost was kindly sponsored by Smallable but the enthusiasm about the products remains my own.
Lovely flower blogs #6: Roses by Claire
Hello everyone,
After a little break, I am back with a new interview from my Lovely flower blogs series. It is already the 6th one and I am very happy to welcome another of my compatriots on the blog today. The lovely Claire from the blog roses by claire. I am really in love with her delicate work and pastel colours. Her work makes me think of this beautiful song from Bjork: subtle and happy!
I am glad Claire agreed to answer a couple of questions about the origin of her passion for flowers and her inspiration. I hope you enjoy it!
Talk to you soon,
Elodie
1. Who are you and what do you talk about in your blog?
Hi, I’m Claire, a young French Florist based in Paris, France. I have worked as a freelance florist since May 2012. I created Roses By Claire, my personal work blog, while I studied at florist's school, to show my work and also because I really love taking photographs.
My blog talks about my work as a florist, shows my bouquets, floral crowns, inspiration and some DIY.
2. Where does your passion for flowers come from?
Probably from my beloved grandfather. When I was a child, I remember his amazing garden with so many different flowers, smells and colours; I was fascinated and I loved smelling and seeing all the flowers every morning. My step-mother has also been a florist for 18 years and I really loved watching her when she worked. I also helped her at the flower shop. Three years ago it was therefore obvious: I REALLY wanted & needed to be a florist.
3. What inspires you?
Everything. The most, I guess, is the feelings, the colours, textures and the forms, an emotion, fashion, my family, and music is a big part of my inspiration. I can't work without music, in fact.
4. What is your favourite flower?
Ahhh! You torture me! ahah Probably, the rose for all the different crazy perfumes, varieties & colours.
5. Which other flower blogs do you read regularly?
Well, I read
Jo Flowers Blog, she is an amazing artist and I really appreciate her work.
Un Beau Jour, I love this website so much, it's beautiful and a big inspiration for me.
Style Me Pretty, is also a big inspiration for me.
I follow my lovely colleague Poppy Figue !
You can also find roses by Claire here:
Blog
Facebook
Pinterest
Instagram
Thank you so much Claire for taking the time to answer my questions!
Pictures: © Roses by Claire, Studio Menesson & Marylin Mugot
Lovely flower shop: Grüne Flora
Hello everyone,
Today I take you to a shop I really like in lovely Hamburg. This is a flower shop I photographed for the flower guide I wrote for the online magazine sisterMAG.
This shop is situated in the part of Hamburg called Sternschanze.
The shop is called after a building in the same street (Schulterblatt) named rote flora - a former theatre, squatted since 1989.
The flowers in the shop are very elegantly presented and the interior of the shop is spectacular, with a floor made out of loose stones and a little wooden path in the middle that makes you feel as if you were in a garden.
The walls inside are painted in a very nice shade of turquoise and they also sell a great selection of vases.
They also have a large variety of outdoor plants for balconies.
So I hope, this post made you curious, and I hope that you will pay Grüne Flora a visit if you live in Hamburg or if you are visiting soon.
Talk to you soon,
xo
Elodie
GRÜNE FLORA
Website
Schulterblatt 79
20357 Hamburg
Mo-Fr. 9:00 – 19:00
Sat.: 10:00 – 17:00
Madame love loves: Babyssimo
Hello everyone!
Do you know this feeling, when you discover a shop or an online shop and think: oh, I like that! and that and that... in fact, if I had a shop I would like it to be exactly like this one... That is exactly what happened to me when I discovered Babyssimo - the shop for small citizens of the world, and I ordered some of my favourite things for Ella from this online shop. I like it so much, that I thought I really needed to share it with you.
And you know what I discovered? The owner Olivia is also French! So now I understand, the Liberty fabric, the French magazines and the Japanese items! Exactly my cup of tea! It is so French and so international at the same time.
Babyssimo is a shop for the little and big ones, so I made two mood-boards to show you some of my favourite items. Olivia was nice enough to answer a couple of questions for you.
1. Belle & Boo Cushion "Boo"
2. Linen Dog "grey-white"
3. Oeuf NYC Alpaca Wool Sweater "Cat"
4. Tocoto Vintage Knit Baby Shoes "Powder Pink"
5. Tocoto Vintage Corduroy Overall
6. Reversible Plaid Blanket "Liberty Betsy"
7. Tocoto Vintage Jersey Shirt "Colette" grey
8. Belle & Boo Wall Sticker "Hug" A3
1. Fog Linen Placemat, nuit
2. Kinfolk Vol 8
3. Fog Linen Table Cloth 130x130 grey-white
4. Enamel Prep Set
5. Fog Linen Table Basket
Dear Olivia, what made you start babyssimo?
My husband and I, we were travelling 6 months around the world while I was pregnant with our first son Joseph (btw, we had a travel blog). So, naturally we were always looking at baby things and found so many nice items that you can't find over here in Germany and sometimes even in Europe... That's how the idea of babyssimo was born. A little, very personal selection of baby items from all over the world!
How do you select your designers?
Well, first of all, totally by taste. I first have a crush for the product and am obsessed about having it in the babyssimo selection... Then I usually first check the quality, how is the brand working, producing. I prefer if things are organic, or at least of natural materials. I especially lo
Vom Glück Mit Katzen zu Wohnen - A beautiful book and a giveaway!
Hello everyone,
As a lot of you know, I am lucky enough to not only share my flat with my sweet daughter Ella and my great husband Mr. Love. I also live with Mr. Cheddar, the funniest and most curious cat on Earth. Living with a cat means having to make sacrifices; if you like interior design like me, you can for instance say goodbye to materials like velvet, as it is a cat hair magnet and some people like my friend Jodi from the blog Joelix have to be very careful with flowers and plants, as some cats love to eat them, even if they can be poisonous for them.
BUT... living with a cat also means a lot of joy and it can be really fun! The German editor Callwey just released a book about that topic and you can win it today on the blog!
The book, which is written in German, shows the home of several cat-loving families and proves that you can have both: a cat and style. The author Maike Grunwald is a journalist living in Hamburg with her family and her cats and the photographer Anja Hoelper is specialised in pet photography and you can really feel their love for cats through the pages of this great book. You will find a lot of inspiration about furniture that is cat-friendly and pretty.
I couldn't resist showing you a couple of pictures of my little fury friend, as it is a #catcontent blogpost anyway. So there you go, here is Mr. Chedds for you:
Here is how to join the giveaway:
- Leave a comment under this blogpost explaining why living with your cat or dog makes a home happier.
- Like Callwey Verlag and madame-love on Facebook (if it's not already the case).
- The winner will be drawn via random.org. The winner will be informed by e-mail.
- The giveaway is open worldwide (but keep in mind that the book is written in German) and closes on Sunday, November 17th, midnight CET.
Have a great day and good luck!
Elodie
+++++++++++++++++++++++UPDATE+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Frau Süd from the blog Nord & Süd is the happy winner from this lovely book and will receive it in the next few days!
Congratulations!
#2flowergirls #8 - Chrysanthemum edition
Hello dear flower girls and boys, I hope you are all doing well! The time has come for the new edition of my #2flowergirls project with my dear Inga from the blog glomerylane. As Inga is in hospital at the moment, as I explained last week, I am a single flower girl this time. You can put the link to your blogpost under this post.
If you want to participate for the first time, you can read here how it works. Inga and I decided to style this underestimated flower for the November edition: the chrysanthemum. I have always liked them, even though it's not the first flower that comes to my mind when I am going to a flower shop. So this time, I am going out of my comfort zone as well and not stlyling a most-loved or favourite flower. One of the good things with chrysanthemums is that they are very strong flowers that will last a long time when cut. The glass vase is from Zara home and is sold as a bathroom accessory but I found it far too pretty not to put flowers in it. The little vase is a tea cup from the Alice collection by Vienna-based artist Sandra Haischberger. I bought it at the great Milchmädchen shop as a birthday present for myself, with a little bouquet in mind of course! I love the soft and grey colours of the collection. I took the cup in soft pink and the saucer in dark grey. I hope you will enjoy my styling. I can't want to see what you have been up to! xxx Elodie
Floral Hamburg - My article in sisterMAG
Hello everyone,I am pretty quiet on the blog right now, but learning to be a mum can be quite challenging and time-consuming, but also lovely of course! I have been so busy lately that I forgot to tell you about the article I wrote for the great sisterMAG. I am so proud to be a contributor of this great e-magazine. I already wrote an article in January about flower styling and still life photography. This time the sisters asked my to write an article about my city, Hamburg and about my favorite topic: flowers - so I wrote a floral guide of Hamburg with beautiful flower shops, lovely markets and cute shops where you can find vases. I will present some of the shops and market stands, on the blog in the coming weeks - but in the mean time, here are some spreads from the article:
You can read the article in English here and in German here.
Talk to you on Monday with my #2flowergirls blogpost! xxx Elodie
#2flowergirls in November
Hello everyone!We are already in November! A new month also means a new #2flowergirls edition. As you may have seen on Steffi's Blog, Inga is in hospital this month for her transplantation - and we are all thinking of her and crossing our fingers. I discussed with her in the past weeks if we should pause the #2flowergirls project while she is in hospital, but she told that it would make her happy if we continued arranging and photographing flowers during that time. So, let's rock it together and do some flower magic for Inga. We have decided to play with Chrysanthemums this month. Are you in?
I will be posting on 11th November and you can take part as usual until the end of the month and post the link to your blogpost under my blogpost.
I wish you a great Sunday! Your flower girl - Elodie
lieblingsblume - favourite flower
Dear all, I hope you had a great week-end! I had definitely an interesting one, and certainly full of flowers! I attended a blogger event on Saturday organised by the "Blumen Büro Holland" to promote Dutch flowers in Germany, their new website: www.tollwasblumenmachen.de. They also introduced their new great Facebook App. The event was very creative and we had a lot of fun with the fellow bloggers and their female friends. The motto of the event was "Freundinnen kennen Ihre Lieblingsblumen" (Friends know each other favourite flowers) and it was all about friendship and how a small attention like a bunch of flowers (the favourite flowers) can be a huge proof of friendship. I completely share this statement! Flowers make life happier!
I spent this great afternoon with many talented fellow bloggers, that I am glad to be calling friends now and their "analog friends" My +1 for the event was my friend Sabrina:
the sweet Claretti (one of Ella's blogger godmother with Jeanny)
Sarah from erdbeerwald
My dear Susanne
I was also happy to meet 2 bloggers, I have been meeting a lot online through the #2flowergirls flower styling challenge I run every month with my dear Inga. The lovely Anastasia
and the sweet Julia
Here is the list of all the bloggers who attended this great event:
Anniwear: www.anniewear.de Lieschen heiratet: lieschen-heiratet.de Cozy and cuddly: cozy-and-cuddly.de Draußen nur Kännchen: draussennurkaennchen.blogspot.de Hamburger Liebe: hamburgerliebe.blogspot.de Elmasuite: elmasuite.de Formtiere: formtiere.de Fräulein K sagt ja: fraeulein-k-sagt-ja.de Golden & Pink: goldenandpink.de Elfenkind: elfenkindberlin.de Junifaden: junifaden.blogspot.de Mädchen mit Herz: maedchenmitherz.wordpress.com Erdbeerwald: erdbeerwald.de/ Mintlametta: mintlametta.blogspot.de Pfefferminz Blog: pfefferminzblog.com Serendipity: serendipity-blog.de Stilzitat: stilzitat.wordpress.com Tastesheriff : tastesheriff.com Telishah: telishah.blogspot.de
All pictures by madame love except the last three (C) Blumenbüro
A white bouquet: scabiosa, nigella and dahlia
Hello everyone, Look at what I have found on the market on Saturday! Some charming scabiosa and pretty nigella and a couple of simple dahlias. I think this species of scabiosa, the scabiosa caucasica in the colour perfection white, and also called pincushion flower are so subtle with petals that look like silk paper and look so gorgeous. The nigellas have such a crazy shape. I think they look a bit like a weird insect. They definitely add some fluffiness to the bouquet.
I was inspired by the colour series of my friend Kiana from the blog tulipina and decided to make a monochrome bouquet - all in white. I also used a white vase. I hope you like it! I think it looks quite spectacular on the black background. It is pretty challenging at the moment to style and take pictures with my little one. So, when I get the chance {thank you Mr. Love} , I enjoy every second of it. My friend Laetitia from the French blog Floresie, who became a mum in July described the process of making a bouquet and photographing it so well in her #2flowergirls blogpost - it is so funny and so true!
So here are the pictures! I will be back soon with a very cool give away for cat lovers. xxx Elodie