Category: At Home

Art from the Marché aux Puces (Paris)

Has it really been four months since we got back from our summer vacation to Europe?.

My number one priority (aside from showing Doug the best that the City of Lights has to offer) was making it to the famous Paris flea market, the Marché aux Puces de Clignancourt. While there are several famous flea markets in Paris, this one is the most well-revered by insiders. It is the largest, which means there is something for everybody–ephemera from every era at both high and low price points.

If you find yourself in Paris and would like to visit, don’t fool yourself (like I did) into thinking that just because your hotel is on Rue de Clignancourt (in Montmartre) that you’re close by. Sorry, you’ll be out of luck. It is easy to get to, though. Take the Métro 4 (fuchsia) north to Porte de Clignancourt, cross a street, and go under a bridge and you’ll be there. Sorry for the lack of detail, but it is large, follow the masses, and there are directional signs.

Clearly, I couldn’t afford (or transport) the incredible inlaid mirrors above, nor did I come away with a bargain on a perfectly aged Turkish rug (which was my secret hope), but I did leaf through one vendor’s extensive collection of magazine advertisements from the 1920s through the 1940s and two stole my heart. They were reasonably priced, in protective plastic, and would fit in the suitcase. WIN! We sandwiched them between a few layers of corrugated cardboard for the trip home to the USA.

You’re probably saying to yourself, well this is awesome, Staci, but why are you sharing this with us now, mid-October, when you bought them in June? 

Well, the good news is that Wednesday night I finally framed the magazine ads I bought at Les Puces, oh so many months later.

The first poster reads “Winter and Spring in Morocco.” If you lived in cold France in the 1920s, wouldn’t you dream of vacationing in one of your warmer colonies? I would too! The chunky and graphic line work first drew me to this, piece, and if you add the fact that I did my study abroad in Morocco, I would be a fool not to buy it. Not everybody can say they own something from 1929!

The second one is for a famous French-made car brand, Renault. This snowy Christmas ad contrasts nicely against the promise of warm weather in Morocco, and the color palette here is right up my alley. I love the blues and greens.

Next week I’ll show you where these ended up hanging in our new apartment!

If you’re like me, and love checking out other people’s vacation photos (it’s true!), check out my Eurotrip posts here, here, and here.

Pssst… just in case you didn’t know… I really love comments. 

The Patio

Back in Kansas, our friends had an awesome backyard that everybody simply referred to as, “The Patio.” Café lights were strung up at the beginning of March and it became the go-to spot for all gatherings throughout the spring and summer.

When living in a small space, taking advantage of every square inch is totally important. This applies to any and all outdoor spaces at your disposal, as well. We are lucky enough to have a decently-sized (9-ish x 5-ish feet) balcony that overlooks the courtyard and pool. It was important to me that we create a comfortable, livable, fabulous “outdoor room” here, and I feel like that goal has been met! Read on for details…

In an effort to bring a little bit of “The Patio” to our new balcony, we strung up café lights the day we arrived (I was extremely proud of myself for being able to swiftly locate them in the jungle of to-be-unpacked boxes) and put our folding chairs up outside. The chairs are not the greatest in quality, in fact we picked them up around this time last year at Target, clearanced for $4 each. I am not a fan of those ubiquitous plastic backyard chairs nor have I ever been a fan of the fold-up camping chair (comfortable, sure, but they look ugly to me). So, although our chairs might threaten to fold up with you still seated inside, they look iconic and remind me of childhood summers. Perhaps later this fall as summer items continue to get clearanced, we may upgrade. But for now, I like these little guys.

The World Market rug that has followed me from place to place since 2006 may have found its final resting place here on the patio. We will see how the (admittedly mild) weather treats it. While we have an awning over the balcony, the rug did get rained on for the first time ever last week.

The day I put my reservation deposit in on this apartment, I set foot in West Elm for the first time (after spending countless hours poring over their catalog and website) and grabbed the blue dipped pot on sale. I am still trying to think of the perfect plant to put in it. The pot has no drainage hole in the bottom, so recommendations are much-appreciated.

Additionally, we hung up the nautical souvenir we got on our honeymoon in Maine, a Moroccan-inspired lantern (full disclosure: purchased in Dallas) and the Tibetan prayer flags Doug picked up for me at a flea market in London. These little bits and baubles were secured using zip-ties, much like the chicken wire that eases my neurotic mind (in regards to Mosey poking his head out underneath the rails). Looking up from a distance (usually from the hot tub) and seeing these efforts at personalizing our space makes me smile.

Although the company is different, at night, with the lights on, it does bring to mind The Patio back in Kansas. And the memories are good.

EXPEDIT-ing the Unpacking Process

Yesterday marked ONE MONTH since we moved in here! I’m happy to report that everything has been unpacked and stored away save for 4 pesky boxes still taking up residence underneath our new china cabinet.

One HUGE obstacle in our unpacking process came in the form of 6-10 boxes full of books. We had nowhere to put our books since in the first place we had built-ins, and before moving we sold the bookshelf from Target.

Sidebar: Truthfully, they weren’t FULL of books–here’s a moving protip for you: When packing something heavy like books, fill the box 50% full of books and 50% full of something light like linens. By splitting the difference, the boxes are lighter and more manageable and you might even prevent yourself from injury.

Once I realized that our bar stools were totally NOT going to work under the breakfast bar I began envisioning an area of shelving spanning the whole length of the counter. Someday I will do a custom shelving installation–really, I will– but for the sake of our rental deposit I measured the area and started thinking prefab. EXPEDIT immediately came to mind because I just love the geometric pattern of the squares. The nice thing about these (as opposed to other assemble-it-yourself shelving) is that they are very deep and can accommodate two layers of books.

My original plan was to get two 8-hole EXPEDITS (two squares tall by four squares wide) but my space was four inches too short. So glad I took the time to measure the space before we headed to the store. So we decided to get some of the smaller ones, two squares both wide and tall. After some brainstorming involving pseudo-installing our huge speakers and hooking them up to a (yet-to-be-purchased) turntable, I bargained with Doug that once we save up our pennies for the dreamed-of turntable, then the speakers would come out of hiding and get put to use. So they got sneaked behind the couch into another project I’ll share later this week–and EXPEDIT was able to take up the whole space.

We’d decided to save up for the units but when we saw two white ones in the as-is section for $25 each we nabbed them up. Isn’t that always how it goes.

Then, my mom came down for the weekend and generously insisted on buying us the third one (really, we did protest), so now the space is taken up much more nicely:

I love the geometric look and how the crisp white anchors the chaos of books and nick-knacks. Organized chaos seems to be the name of the game with this apartment so far. I’m really happy to have these now because these units can be used in countless ways–console table, desk base, or even at the foot of the bed someday?

Right now there are gaps between the three units and sometime I may see what it looks like all shoved close together. For now, though, the gaps provide a safe place to tuck framed pictures so they’re out of the way until we decide where to hang what. Maybe I’ll organize the books by color or by subject? I don’t know. They are all just thrown in there, sort of grouped by size. The GREAT news is that the boxes holding them happily made their way to the recycle bin!