Mlle Magpie

NYC After Christmas

 

 

As I mentioned, my son and I flew to New York City for a few days after Christmas. We left Montreal in a snowstorm only to arrive to very mild weather in Manhattan. Truly a delightful break for my son and me.

 

 

Look at these pansies blooming in this courtyard garden!

 

 

Our hotel was on the Upper East Side, a short walk to Laduree on Madison Ave.

 

 

What a palace of pretty pastel confections! We went twice and both times there was a big lineup.

 

 

My son bought a couple of boxes of macarons for his girlie friends back home. Unfortunately I could not taste their world-famous macarons as I have an allergy to eggs, but I sure enjoyed being in this super pretty shop. It definitely reminded me of Paris.

 

 

 

A favourite place of mine to go every time I am in the U.S. is Whole Foods. Love this shop. This is where I always go to pick up my groceries when I travel (I cannot eat out due to a severe food allergy). I also like to pick up a little bouquet of flowers from their flower section which never disappoints. We went to the Whole Foods in Columbus Circle which is on the edge of Central Park and it was a veritable zoo there. The one near Soho was far more quiet and calm. 

 

 

My son picking out freshly made sushi for himself.

 

 

On our second day there we went to Soho, my favourite neighbourhood. I ADORE the Purl Soho shop!

 

 

Purl Soho used to be two tiny sliver-like shops on a little side street in Soho but has now moved to this gorgeous high tin-ceilinged space on Broome St.

 

Such a fabulous shop filled with all the best supplies for knitting and sewing! Thankfully they have an online shop too.

 

 

And finally, I want to take you to my all-time favourite shop in New York City, but I'm going to save it for a whole separate post...

 

Mlle Magpie

 

p.s. Can you guess what it is? Hint: it's also in Soho.

Happy New Year's Day!

 

 

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year's Day. May this first day of 2012 start to bring blessings to all of you that will continue throughout the year.

 

I somehow made it to Christmas relatively intact. Did you know that I danced in my ballet studio's Nutcracker performance in December?  Both of my daughters danced in the production as well. I was an angel and even got to dance the angel dance with my 11 year old daughter - how cool is that?!! My seven year old was a party girl and my older daughter also danced the Chinese dance en pointe. I was so proud of them.

 

On the homefront our new living room sofa that we had ordered arrived just in time for Christmas. Also, the snow arrived on cue a couple of days before Christmas so everyone was happy that it was a white Christmas. As for getting "everything done" by Christmas, I did not, but c'est la vie. For example, the Christmas tree never really got decorated very much, but on the bright side, much easier to take it down :)

 

We enjoyed the holidays here at home with my family from Toronto. A couple of days after Christmas I flew to New York City for a few days with my 15 year old son for some much needed one-on-one time. We did quite a bit of walking there and it aggravated a little knee injury that I had so unfortunately I ended up hobbling around Manhattan with a terrible limp. Not very cool, but kinda funny. 

 

I'm going to post about my favourite shops in NYC soon. Can you guess what they could be?

 

Mlle Magpie

 

p.s. hope you got to celebrate more than me last night - I had to drive the family to the airport at 5:30 (!) in the morning for their ski vacation in Fernie, British Columbia, where my husband used to go skiing while growing up in Alberta (I'm not a downhill skier so I didn't go; also, I've got that knee injury now which makes it hard just to walk...)

Can't Wait for Christmas

 

(downtown Montreal on a Saturday morning in December)

 

Whew, it's been beyond busy here lately. Work, family life and husband gone pretty much for last five weeks (in Korea, Japan, France and England!). That's why I've been pretty absent from the world of blogging. Lots of stuff has been going on, some bad, but mostly good stuff. Anyways, just need to make it to the Christmas holidays...

 

Mlle Magpie

Easter Blessings

 

 

We will be spending the Easter weekend with my family in Toronto, as is tradition. Hopefully the drive tomorrow will not be too bad (I heard there might be some snow and rain in the forecast). It will certainly be nice to spend some time with my family and old friends over the holiday.

While there I will also have the pleasure of meeting up with a very special artist and teacher, the wonderful and delightful Colette Copeland. I am very excited to see her and catch up with her over a cup of coffee in a cafe. Will tell you all about it when I get back.

I am also hoping to drop by fabulous Coriander Girl to pick up a lovely Easter bouquet for my mother. Alison's shop is located in a favourite area of mine for junk shops and antique shops.

In the meantime, wishing everyone a blessed Easter. Hopefully we will all finally get some nice spring-like weather this weekend. See you when I get back!

 

Mlle Magpie

Vintage Quilt Valentines

 

 

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day. I used these hearts that I cut out/salvaged from husband's grandmother's old quilt to make V-Day cards. Some I just glued onto plain cards, and others I pinned on with a pretty pin. So simple. I love seeing everyone's foofed up and pretty Valentine's crafts, but I always end up going with simple. A) because I run out of time and B) I'm just not great at foofing. I really need to work on that foofing part...

 

Mlle Magpie

 

p.s. lest anyone think husband is so brilliant at buying wife such fabulous vintage gifts, I must tell you that I did coach him over his cell phone while he was in the shop in Copenhagen :)

 

Off to the Farmhouse for a Week

 

 

Leaving the city house for a week at the farmhouse with the family. No doubt we will see some of these friends in the surrounding fields. The kids will go skiing with their dad and uncle. My Mom and I are going to visit Naisi at her shop in North Hatley, QC, and do a little vintage treasure hunting in her barn. Dad will do his crossword puzzles. Our puppy Molly will be free to run around in the snow. It's going to be very quiet and relaxing. See you when we get back in the New Year...

 

Mlle Magpie

Merry Christmas

 

Wishing everyone a wonderful, blessing-filled Christmas and Happy Holidays.

 

We are content in our city house with my family. Special Christmas Eve dinner last night. Christmas Eve Mass. Gift opening this morning with lots of coffee drinking. Husband and brother busy in the kitchen now preparing the biggest organic turkey I've ever seen. All is good in this little corner of the world...

 

Mlle Magpie

Bit of a Cath Kidston Christmas

 

(shopping bag from Cath Kidston, London)

 

I'm going to be having a bit of a Cath Kidston Christmas this year. Husband has been travelling a lot. He is in Dallas today and L.A. next week. Last week he was in England for a whole week. Being the good wife that I am, I made his Christmas shopping very, very easy this year. I looked over the Cath Kidston catalogue, made a wish list and handed it to him so that when he was in London, he just popped in the shop and popped out - all done with his shopping for me.

 

The lovely salesladies that helped him even wrapped up the gifts and here they are under our Christmas tree. So easy!

 

Husband, on the other hand, is very difficult to buy for :) Wish me luck...

 

Mlle Magpie

Just a Bit More Christmasey

 

 

Have noticed that many blogger friends are more or less "done" on the Christmas decorating front but not I. Very slow over here. But that's alright, everyone at their own pace...  I really love this little vintage wreath with the pink bell that I thrifted from my favorite Salvation Army store. I found two of them which was perfect since I have two girls and now their bedroom doors are decorated for Christmas.

 

 

Our fireplace mantel is getting some Christmas decorations too. This beautiful snow person I bought at the Silver Bella Market this fall. 

 

 

I like to pull out my little collection of deer every winter. This one I bought at Round Top/Warrenton flea market when I went there over a year ago (btw, did you hear Rachel Ashwell just bought a ranch in Round Top? - can you imagine staying at her ranch by night and antiqueing and junking all day at all of those amazing flea markets?!!). She's lying down in front of a pack of letters from France that I bought from the lovely Jeanne of "A Bushel and a Peck".

So the Christmas decorating is coming along. However, the Christmas shopping is not :) Am I the only one out there that has barely started...? 

 

Mlle Magpie

Vintage Christmas

 

 

Haven't done much in the way of Christmas decorating yet. I'm getting lots of inspiration from all of my favorite blogs though. So far all I've done is plant some paperwhites, put a few wreaths on some doors, and put this box of ornaments out in the middle of the coffee table in the living room. I'm just going to keep them there in their box, just like that for now. I haven't decided if I'm going for color or a low-color theme this year...? 

 

Mlle Magpie