Art Weekend

Howdy locals! I've received a few emails from you about my upcoming blogging class at Art Weekend next week and as I have been working on my material for the presentation I am very excited! It is going to be a fun class with an excellent blend of useful information for those of you starting out with blogging, and how to network and market yourself. (I'll let you know now that I am not a big fan of 'in your face' networking, and promoting because that is just not my style.)



I am so pumped about to class, smiling now!! It will be in downtown Salt Lake City on November 6th and you can sign up here. Hope to see you there. Now, go have a happy Halloween!

I also have a wonderful guest blogger next week!! Can't wait...

(image by Kristina B)

Week 44

Here are a few things that caught my eye this 44th week of the year.

1: Nicole's wedding photos
2: Work by Annalise Rees (via Noteworthy)
3: Work by Francois Robert (via Seesaw)
4: Bunting 101 by Jordan
5: Anniversary gifts from Design Sponge

Jan Reymonds - Book Installations

Have you noticed my previous post love for book installations? If you've missed them, here are a few : Cascading Books / Book Tables / False Ceiling. Wow -- these various hanging book photos by Tim Tom that he took of his friend Jan Reymond's work in Switzerland is fantastic.

(via the Daily Smudge)

Sponsor : The Little Chickadee

It blows my mind how talented people are crafting handmade things like one of my sponsors, Maggie of The Little Chickadee. Isn't this handmade Silhouette print amazing? Check out her etsy shop and blog for lots of fun things.


If you would like to become a Black Eiffel sponsor email blackeiffel@gmail.com for ad rates. November is a hot month to prepare for the holidays and I have lots of lovely readers!

Jean-Charles de Castelbajac

How festive is this spring 2010 ready to wear line from Jean-Charles de Castelbajac? It is giving me mega ideas and inspiration, and the bold flavor of colors is wildly cool. What are you dressing up as?

(all images from WWD via the Function Key)

Olive Juice

I got this cute image in an email today from Olive Juice. Adorable.

Fitzgerald Coleman

I am very happy to find online retailers that offer a fine collection of paper goods like Fitzgerald Coleman. I was recently introduced and shown samples from their shop and I am more than delighted at their variety of the carefully curated and edited website selections. On their website they talk about having a shameless bias towards goods that are made by hand, and they also stock hard to find pieces. Go have a look! They carry lovely items from Pancake & Franks, Snow & Graham, and more, and I really like these chair cards too.

Exciting part for you all is that they are offering Black Eiffel readers 15% off until December 15th enter the code "blackeiffel" at checkout. Time to stock up on holiday cards! I can't believe it is getting to be that time, I am digging these ones or these ones, aren't they pretty?

a pumpkiny party

A few weeks ago us Bloomers had a little pre-Hallowe'eny get together with some friends. And since we like to make things purty, we decided that our table setting should look as purty as can be. This is easy in the fall, with so many wonderful things to work with - fall colours, drying flowers, and of course punkins! I found these little ghostly ones, used at each place settings, at Loblaws; the tablecloth is a damask sheet I got from Urban Outfitters that I've been dying to use for something; the antiquey tea set is from my mom's collection; and the colourful hydrangeas were plucked from the garden. Not too shabby for a quickly pulled together look! And, of course I gave the photos a spooky sort of vintage effect {photos just look cooler with a vintage effect, no?}.

Hoping you all have a wonderful pumpkin carving, candy-eating, dress-upping weekend. Boo!

Friday flowers

I have a special fondness for iris. They are somehow elegant without being fussy. They always make me think of English gardens (I'm not even sure if this is appropriate - any English readers care to chime in? Do you have lots of iris over there or am I just imagining that you might?).

{yellow iris, brown glass}

These ones look like they'll open up even more and hopefully that means they'll last for a while.

For Halloween I'll be sipping cider and hopefully getting some work done. I have to admit that I can't even face the thought of going out on a Saturday Halloween. I must be old, because just the thought of those crowded bars makes me shudder a bit. Also, I am not up to the costume pressure. I can never think of anything good and then I suffer from costume insecurity.

Bedroom Inspirations

I'm inspired by these bedrooms from Living Etc. Last weekend we finished making our headboard (more photos later) it kind of looks like the headboard in photo 2 but a different color. Now it is time to start thinking about the rest of the room, like changing the wall color.

Perpetual Paris

Have you seen what Little Brown Pen has been up to? They made this amazing Perpetual Paris Calendar. I love it!

Château de Beynac

I recently recovered some photos from France and when I came across these I thought they felt very October-like and spooky. I toured the Château de Beynac alone on a stormy day with very few people around. It is an amazing castle but it was a bit eerie at times when the thunder and lighting raged, I heard various creaking noises, and thought about the history behind the place. Have you ever been to a spooky castle? This one is very well preserved and was featured in Ever After as well as other films.

Quiet, windblown

I feel quiet today. The Santa Ana winds have blown in and the city looks bare and scraped clean. It would be a perfect day to curl up and drink something warm and listen to the wind howl outside.

The Santa Anas are so beautiful in their own way. They carry electricity. My hair stands on end, trees tip over, they dry up everything they touch. And while none of those things sound very wonderful, they do bring a sort of excitement in with them.

I think they've sparked some ideas, because I have a million things rattling around in my head and absolutely no time to get them out. If there was any way I could swing it, I would spend the day in bed. Ideas need to percolate, I think. And there's no better place than a cozy bed.

boo and ew!

I just found a hot-spot of awesome Halloweeness! Check out these cool and clever designs I found over at little ant design!

Gross wormy sandwiches!

Beautiful but spooky candy apples!

Funny, scary-hand napkin holders!

And then over at Urban Outfitters they are selling this creepy, doll part chandelier! Eeek!

Balloon Halloween Costume

I'm tucking this costume idea away for my daughter for next year, although it may be a little tricky to get around in, isn't it cute? See the DIY instructions here.

(Image credit : Philip Friedman)

Favorite Halloween Movies

I am a wuss when it comes to scary movies, I still close my eyes when parts of movies even get a tiny bit scary. Here are a few suspenseful and creative movies ideas that we may be watching during Halloween. I also remember watching this movie when I was little, that we may share with our daughter, I will have to preview it first to make sure she doesn't get too scared. What are your favorite spooky or Halloween movies? I would love to hear about them.

1: Young Frankenstein
2: Edward Scissorhands
3: Beetlejuice
4: The Sixth Sense
5: The Birds
6: The Others

DACE

I am gaga about the Fall 2009 Equestrian styled images from Dace photographed by Andre Paul Pinces. Then again the Spring 2010 is stunning too. Well done Dace and Andre, well done.

purty punkin' designs

In the spirit of Halloween, here are some pretty funky punkin' designs I found on the Martha Moments blog - from Country Living. I love the painted punkies. By the way, since an encounter with an Uxbridge grocery store clerk years ago, it's just too much fun to say Punkin' rather than Pumpkin! Try saying Punkin' out loud yourself...tee hee...

Siggi's Yogurt

In my area we don't get the variety of yogurts as you would say in eh -- France or New York City, so yesterday as I went to a local health foods store and I came upon this lovely packaged Siggi's yogurt I was curious. It also mentioned Iceland on the label ... yes, please. Not only did the minimal and paper-like packaging sell me but the part about it being sans aspartame, sucralose, artificial coloring, preservatives and high fructose corn syrup put me over the edge to make the purchase.

I have found it very tricky to find yogurt that doesn't have a lot of these additives, have you noticed most yogurts in the U.S. are loaded with added sugars, and hfcs?

The vanilla I tried this morning is perhaps the creamiest and thickiest yogurt I've ever tasted, and I can also see vanilla bean specks in it, which is always good sign.

What is your yogurt of choice? I would love to try another.

ps. I also tried a sample of plain sheep's yogurt with added honey the other day, it quite good.

Listening to...

The Avett Brothers, I and Love and You. On repeat. For the last four days straight. If D decides to break up with me after having to listen to this album one. more. time. well, I have to admit that it would be justifiable.

The album is all over the place - bluegrass and folksy stuff and other songs that sound totally modern. Luckily I love all of it.

This is the song that got me...

V's party

We kept V's birthday party very simple. I had these grandiose ideas of what I wanted to do in terms of a theme, cake and invites, but we decided just to meet her 3 year-old requirements this year, which included cupcakes, sprinkles, balloons, and party hats. We had a lovely dinner and spent time with family, she loved every minute. Thank you to everyone who helped make it special, and Happy Birthday V!