mushrooming

today i'm back in the shop and sitting at my desk, but my mind is still wandering the woods of sweden...

just so you know: this week the shop will be open, but the entire next week will be closed as i'm going to attend various trade shows. first i filled my basket with mushrooms, now i need to fill a bigger one with nice novelties for the shop!

please note that the shop will be closed from 6th to 13th of september!

back from...

sweden!

please note that the shop will be closed from friday 19.8. to 27.8.

as you can see from the above announcement i'm about to leave for a week's holiday. so the moment has come to kick-off the 21 q+a series, starting with my lovely 93 year old granny! she's currently on visit in switzerland and somehow i managed to squeeze in my questionnaire. it certainly was not the most propitious moment on a big family dinner table but also fun because it prompted family members to intervene with statements like: she was called "le colonel"! and other secrets that i shall not disclose here :-)

oh and yes, i added the "joker" to be used on one question. it's quite fun to see on which question it will be used...

you guessed it: this raven-haired lady is my grand-mother and the young lady with the pointy collar is me.

21 questions + answers - Huguette

Huguette, born in Marseille in 1917
starsign: capricorn
likes: reading, golf, contact with children, family and travelling
dislikes: noise and vulgarity

1. which are the 3 words that describe you best?
petite, serious, cerebral

2. the natural talent you would like to be gifted with?
to be able to speak many languages

3. what is your principal defect?
to assume that i think wisely

4. which is your morning routine?
bathroom, breakfast, going out to play golf and/or shop at the market

5. do you exercise?
yes, almost daily, golf and yoga

6. which is the trait of character that really attracts you in another person?
it’s not a trait of character but i really like a beautiful voice. my husband used to have a beautiful voice. and depth

7. which is the bad habit you would like to shed?
joker! (she didn’t know what to say…)

8. what’s your favorite place to be?
le midi = south of france

9. what’s your favorite occupation?
to think and then to act

10. what drives you in life?
love

11.which is/was your happiest decade so far in life?
from 35-45

12. your thoughts on having children/not having children?
it’s worth the trouble

13. you would never have guessed that life would turn out to be so…
short!

14. what do you aspire to?
wisdom; it would enable me to accept everything that happens

15. which is your most valued possession?
my family

16. whom do you dress for?
for the others

17. what puts you in a good mood?
the sun!

18. getting older is…
for the last two years it’s been to lose my capacities

19. your present state of mind?
enthousiastic

20. a motto you would care to live by?
rich is he who is poor in desires

21. do you believe in luck?
oh yes, absolutely

procrastination

how lovely to wake up to a clear blue sky!(haven't seen much of that lately, i might be tempted to add...)

room4 was a happy project, now i have to move on to one i'm slightly less enthousiastic about: the annual tax declaration.

so before getting started it's only fair to watch this video by Johnny Kelly that my father sent me a while ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXziurFkQxM

but you know what? i think we all agree that the weather is much too nice for tax declarations today!

a new perspective...

i have a few more things to do to finish room4 (price tags etc), but the "decision, decision" and "precision, precision" phases are finally over. the challenge now will be to keep the hallway and room4 as it is now and ward off rampant chaos. in short: no easy task! is my shop life really going to change that radically? seem's quite improbable to me...

the good thing is i can always close the door should things get out of hand temporarily.

promenons-nous dans les bois...

yesterday, as on most sundays, i had a lovely walk in the woods, not in zurich because here it's too noisy and crowded for my oldfashioned romantic mind. this week is in pleasant anticipation of friday when we are leaving for this year's last week of holiday in sweden!

please note that the shop will be closed from friday 19.8. to 27.8.

special day!

not that i'm ready, but this evening room 4 is opening, no matter what! the goods have been sitting in place for over 2 weeks now, but i couldn't get decided on the walls... strange problem you will say and you're completely right!

one lateral wall of the room is almost entirely taken up by a large ikea cupboard with 25 compartments which i inherited from the former tenant of the back appartment. so i was left with two walls and i couldn't make up my mind if to put some wallpaper on display or use one of the large stickers i have. after much to and fro i decided to go for the stickers to keep the room more light. so far so good. it didn't occur to me then that the actual sticking process would take up so much time...
so here we go: room 4 is now officially opened!

on another note: exactly 6 years ago i started this blog and as a little special i'm starting a series "21 q&a" which will become a weekly feature starting from next week. i hope it should last well into autumn and that you will enjoy reading it.

a/w collection

i have adopted this ring. usually i wear tiny gold ones, so this is a real change!

new season

i'm back from my 3day week-end but have forgotten to take my cable to down-load pictures.

so instead here two items of the jewellery i received today. yes, it's brutal to say, but we have to face it: the new season is on our minds now...

meanwhile let's hope for a few real summer days, i need to soak up some sun before the turn of the tide.

a little bit of neon (2)

more neon in homeopathic doses...
i snapped these pictures of a magazine, the belts are not on sale in the shop.

a little bit of neon

let's have a break from room4 today!

i know some shriek with horror but i really like touches of neon around the house, especially in combination with natural texture, be it wood, linen or a woven fabric. it's all in the mix...
printed t-towl 19.50

cupboard

hmmm... i can't say i did get much done today. the only real progress to room4 is that i cleaned the window (for the first time in 2 years), with some success you may say as i think there is significantly more light coming in.

so taking advantage of the light and as promised, i have taken a picture of the meanly expensive cupboard. it's now fixed in the corner where the door in the picture of yesterday's post opened.

at the outset, no ace card up my sleeve...

to be honest room4 is only 7.3m2 small and sort of plain and you have to wait for the late afternoon to get some direct light in. hardly any wonder it carved out a misearable existence as a storeroom so far...

so the question is how to add some interest while keeping it light, show a good deal of products, all of that on a low budget.

because the budget i already blew in a major way last autumn when ordering the custom-built cupboard (see post of 21.10.10). so for it to pay off it has to be seen! another incentive to clear room4 and open it to the public.

want to see how the cupboard with the 11 compartment looks fixed and floating in one corner of room4? get a sneek-peak tomorrow.