#2flowergirls - flowers for inga

Dear international readers, I will write this blogpost in German exceptionally. My dear friend Inga Lorig from the blog glomerylane lost her fight against blood cancer last week and I am writing this post in her memory -for her, her family, her friends, and her readers who took part in our little #2flowergirls project in the past 2 years. 

Hallo Ihr Lieben,

wie viele von euch schon wissen, hat uns unsere liebe Inga letzte Woche verlassen. Es macht mich unendlich traurig und sie hinterlässt eine sehr grosse Lücke. Inga war eine sehr lustige Person, die das Leben geliebt hat und ihre Pläne unbedingt verfolgen wollte.  Sie wollte zum Beispiel unbedingt, dass #2flowergirls weitergeht, auch als sie im Krankenhaus lag. Ich habe immer gesagt, dass das digitale Leben warten kann und dass sie sich aufs Gesundwerden konzentrieren sollte. Für mich hätte #2flowergirls ohne Inga keinen Sinn.  In den schwierigen Zeiten haben Inga die Blumen und die schönen Sachen im Leben unglaublich geholfen und Mut gegeben. 

Wir haben stundenlang über Skype gesprochen als ich in Elternzeit war und uns über Blumen unterhalten. Mir war es sehr wichtig heute fröhliche Blumen auszusuchen, die Inga gefallen hätten und so möchte ich mich an Inga erinnern. Sie war ein unglaublich positives Wesen und hat sich über die kleinen Dingen eben gefreut und hatte eine wahre Leidenschaft für Blumen und Planzen, die sie über Ihren Blog und über #2flowergirls teilen wollte. Das letzte Mal, dass wir uns trafen, als sie im Juli nach Hamburg kam, hat sie viel gelacht und sich über Ihre neue Duftkerze, die sie in ihrem Hotelzimmer anzünden wollte, gefreut. 

Ich werde jetzt nicht stundenlang über diese furchtbare Krankheit, die mich sehr wütend macht, schreiben. Ich möchte mich nur von meiner lieben Freundin verabschieden und ihr diese paar Blumen schicken. 

Inga, diese Blumen sind für dich, ich habe an dich gedacht als ich die im Garten von meinen Eltern am Sonntag gepflückt habe und diesen Strauß für dich komponiert habe.Das sind die letzten Worte, die Du mir geschrieben hast, eine Woche bevor Du gegangen bist: "Ich kann nicht glauben, dass Du bald "weg" bist. Wobei eigentlich bin ich schneller in Paris als in Hamburg." Ich habe diese Worte 1.000 mal seitdem wieder gelesen und die haben einen so bitteren Geschmack, jetzt dass du "weg" bist.

Ich werde versuchen ein paar unsere Geheimpläne umzusetzen und immer mit einem Lächeln an dich denken. Ich habe Kapuzinerkresse und Dahlien für dich ausgesucht, weil ich weiss, dass Du die so gern mochtest.

Es gibt einen Weg, Betroffene von der Krankheit zu helfen und zwar indem man sich bei der Knochenmarkspenderdatei registrieren lässt und zwar hier. Inga hatte im Juni dazu einen Aufruf auf dem Blog von Steffi gestartet und sogar zwei Spender gefunden. 

Wer mag, kann auch eine Spende überweisen, die nach Inga's Wunsch einer Stiftung zur Erforschung des Louis-Bar-Syndroms zukommt. Kennwort: Im Gedenken an Inga, Sparkasse Neunkirchen, IBAN: DE80 5925 2046 0034 2121 83, BIC: SALADE51NKS.

Wenn Ihr Lust habt, mitzumachen, könnt Ihr es gerne tun und den Link zu euerem Beitrag hier eintragen. Ich werde auch die Sträuße hier sammeln. Hier könnt Ihr auch gern Blumenfotos auf Instagram ab heute mit dem Hashtag #flowersforinga und #2flowergirls posten.

Viele liebe Grüße

Elodie

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We are moving to.....Paris!

Hello everyone, I have some big news. I am moving to Paris very soon! and I am very excited. We found a pretty little house in the suburb with a little garden really close to the Gare St Lazare. That means a lot of chances in our lives, but I am really happy about it. Now it's getting so real, that we have even booked a moving company, I can't wait to be there.  I have been spending over 10 years in Germany, Berlin first and then Hamburg. I am really grateful for all the great experiences I had here, and all the great people I met and will dearly miss.  That's where I started my professional and marital life, where I started my blogging life and where my sweet little Ella was born. I will never forget that, but I am excited now about starting a new chapter of my life and living closer to my family, which will also be great for little Ella. 

I am so excited about:

* The food * The museums and the cultural life  * The concerts  * being able to work in my mother tongue * being able to see my family without having to take a plane * having a garden and be able to grow my own flowers * discovering some new flower shops  * growing a cut flowers garden in my mum's garden * being able to see my French friends a lot more

Of course, I will take madame love with me in my little suitcase and continue blogging about flowers and interior design. I will also of course share my shopping tips with you along the way and start a Paris guide after my Hamburg guide.  Talking about Paris Guide, you can check out the blogs of my friends Igor and Judith for some great Paris Tips.  PS: I stole their beautiful pictures (with their permissions of course) to illustrate this post, and now I am even more excited about our new start! Take care and have a lovely weekend! Elodie

madame love loves: Shanna Murray

Hello everyone! How are you doing? I have been very busy here, but I will tell you very soon why, and I am sure that you will forgive me! Today I want to show you the lovely stickers by New York based artist Shanna Murray. Each sticker/decal is  created from super thin vinyl, which allows each decal to appear hand painted. I love how delicate and thin they look.  You can order the stickers via her online shop or on Neëst, a lovely French online shop, I already presented here. Wall stickers are so easy to install and don't leave any trace on the wall when you want to take them off. It's a really good decoration solution if you are renting your place. I collected a little selection of my favourite ones on Pinterest. I really love that Shanna's stickers come in different colours and textures:

• speckled gold
• speckled silver
• matte white
• matte charcoal
• matte fog
• matte black

so you can stick them on a dark or on a light background.  For Ella's nursery I ordered the "i love you beyond measure" sticker in speckled silver to stick on the dark blue wall.  I wish you all a great start in this new week! Elodie

red garden roses

Hello everyone!The days are getting colder and shorter here. The time of dahlia has come. But today I wanted to show you this beautiful roses, and you can arrange them in small vases and glasses to make a little charming composition.  I really love making mini bouquets and grouping them at the centre of the kitchen table or on top of cabinet. I also love using mini bouquets to decorate a table for a dinner and putting one bouquet next to each guest's plate. I wish you all a great week end! I will be back next week with some exciting news! Talk to you soon, Elodie

#flowersonmyway - Give Away!

Hello everyone! When I started my Instagram Photo Challenge #flowersonmyway in February, I never thought, you would love it so much and post so many beautiful flower pictures from all around the world. As of today you have posted more the 900 pictures, are the ones in the collage above are just examples of the amazing variety and floral inspiration you all put out there! Thank you so much! To say thank you, I have teamed up with the German decoration brand Räder, and we are giving away a beautiful vase from the same collection as my badeteich vase.  To take part in the give away, continue posting the flowers that cross your way on Instagram with the hashtag #flowersonmyway until 30. September, and I will publish my favourite image from September on the blog at the beginning of October, which will at the same time be the winner of the vase.  I wish you all good luck! Talk to you soon! Elodie

LOVEly flowergramers: @caroline_odonnell

Good morning everyone!Just a few lines today, to introduce you to one of my Instagram flower crush: @caroline_odonnell, the lovely lady beyound wild folk studio (floral and styling studio in Somerville). I really need to do a flower tour of the US one day and visit all this talented florists. In the meantime, we have Instragram to dream a little everyday! I wish you all a not too stressful day! Elodie

madame love loves: bolia

 Hello everyone! I hope you had a great week end! This time, I am not showing a little brand, or less well-known online shop or designer in my madame love loves column. If you live in a Scandinavian country or in Germany, you will already have heard of bolia. Unfortunatly, they are not implanted in other European countries now, but you can order online as they deliver to all EU countries. Bolia is a Danish furniture brand, with its own team of designers. I have known Bolia for 4 years now, and the book shelves in living room as well as my sleeping couch comes from Bolia. The amazing thing with bolia is that they are getting better every year.

I went to one of their shops/showrooms in Hamburg this week end with my little family to have look at their new collection and saw some really lovely pieces.  I am for example completely in love with their TuckIn recliner chair {1.149 €} (at the bottom left of the collage) which comes in many different colours. I also love their new floor lamp called Heavy {579 €} (at the top right of the collage), which mixes steel, concrete and leather. 

I love the materials they use, a lot of natural wood of course, as many Scandinavian brands and also a lot of leather. I also love the colour scheme of the new collection: grey, black and nude. I think those colours work so well together in fashion and decoration.  They also have a arrival of gorgeous berber rugs, unfortunately, Mr. Love isn't a big fan, otherwise I think I would have bought one for my home. 

I wish you all a great day! Speak to you soon

Elodie

baby's breath for my baby's first birthday

Hello everyone! My baby is turning one today! This first year has been a great adventure and I am so happy to be her mum!  This special event inspired me today's bouquet. Gypsophila is also commonly called baby's breath.  This flower is not often used alone, but as part as a big bouquet. I love it as a stand alone flower. I love it's airy structure and fluffiness. I think gypsophila is so tender and sweet.  This bouquet is for you my baby, my sweet little Ella!

The end of summer - beginning of Autumn bouquet

Hello everyone! How are you doing today? I bought some flowers last week at my favourite flower shop, choose them all with long stems and decided to make two versions: One tall bouquet in a transparent vase and a small one in spotty red vase. The tall one has a autumnal touch to it, with the warm red colours. The small one with the playful red dots looks more summary. I just wanted to show you that you can get two very different results with the same flowers.  I haven't been using the spotted carafe as a vase in ages, and was very happy to use it again! Like an old you haven't met in a long time, and you suddenly realise that nothing has changed!

So! What do you think about the two bouquets? I will never want to hear agin:

"I don't have the right vase for those flowers!"

My tips are:

1- Be creative (use carafe, tea pots, glasses, etc... as vases) 2- don't be afraid to cut the leaves and shorten the stems 3- never try to stuff a vase to much, give your flowers room to breath. If you realise you bought or cut too many flowers, just make a mini version of the same bouquet, or two bouquets.

I wish you all a great day! Talk to you soon and thank you for your kind words for my interview in Sweet Living Magazin! It means the world to me. xoxo Elodie

Lovely Press Coverage: madame love in sweet living magazin

Hello there! Have you heard about Sweet living magazin? The new German decoration magazine? The third issue is coming out today, and..... surprise...... madame love is in it with a double page spread! I am so happy about how the interview with the publisher, the lovely Marion Hellweg turned out and I love the layout! Even if I am a truly digital person, and love blogs above all, it is really a thrill to see yourself in print. The new issue is really beautiful and full of scandinavian inspiration. I am curious to hear if you like it as much as I do! Have a great day and talk to you soon. I will be back very soon with some new floral inspiration. xoxo Elodie