A French Brocante in California ~ Welcome to The Irresistible Paris Party

First, I would like to say thank you to Anita for hosting this event. I’m blessed to know Anita personally, as she is married to my handsome brother (Mr. Rattus). You will not find a more caring soul on this earth. I know by your comments that many of you know this already.

Join with me in the inspiration for my blog post on Irresistible Paris . . .

I wanted to share with you a bit of my Francophile ways, so I searched out a bit of Paris, France, where I live. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to look too far, as a wonderful event was being hosted in Sonoma, California. I grabbed my trusty camera and drove to Sonoma on Sunday to photograph it, and to take you on a California French Brocante tour with me.

For the last nine years, Chateau Sonoma Antiques, owned by Sarah Anderson, has been home to an authentic French Flea Market, with vendors specializing in everything French and wonderful.

Sarah’s store is quintessentially French in design. She very kindly allowed me to photograph her store and the event. I began at the door, where I fell in love with this incredibly creative peacock display.

I think this room is fabulous, from the balloon chandelier to the pairing of the elegant modern acrylic table and antique style furniture pieces.

I’m a big believer in mixing it up. Design gets too stagnant for me if it’s all from the same period. I love the flow here, and the sweet little water balls under the table add just the right whimsical touch.

A vintage Eiffel tower on an antique book display. This would be perfect in a gentleman’s study.

I think this is the most gorgeous Santo I’ve ever laid eyes on.

I adore these antique French wedding displays. Please check out my post here on their history. Chateau Sonoma had several of these beauties.

I made my way out through the French doors and into the brocante itself. The quaint courtyard area was filled with French treasures.

I met some wonderful people at this event. Among them were Trinidad and Martin, of Atelier de Campagne. When I introduced myself to Trinidad, he was kind and charming. We spoke of blogging and their upcoming trip to France.

I loved the vignettes that Trinidad displayed in the Atelier de Campagne space.

Trinidad and Martin were debating about who would be toting all of their finds in France. If you’re reading this, you two, I hope you chronicle your adventures for us.

Another great vendor, Michelle Sekula, had some serious eye candy. I wanted to bring home everything in her glass display cases.

I tried to photograph a few of her things through the glass.

Hope you’re enjoying your brocante tour with moi . . .

Below are more photos, so please sit back, enjoy the music, and relax.

I have to leave you with this mini montage of Sarah. As I said, she was so very nice when I asked to photograph her event, even though she was busy making sure her customers were well taken care of.

Now please go and enjoy more French Inspirations by clicking here for Castles Crowns and Cottages. I look forward to visiting you all.

Tender Heart

I have a tender heart these days. I’ve been reflecting on many things. I don’t want to compartmentalize myself, and miss the important connections in life. I want to gather it all together, the past, the present, and future, into my everyday moments, to linger in that continuity of hours, savoring all those seconds.

Keeping life in perspective is important. Perspective: meaning to take everything into account, creating a clearer picture of what we are seeing and experiencing. Living a fluid lifeline, I love that, I need that. A view that accounts for what has happened, what is happening now, and what may happen tomorrow. It gives me a steadiness and hope for all times. It’s Life, after all, and I want to live it to the fullest.

May Day Pretties and My Canon PowerShot SX100

May Day is a special day in our home. It is a time to gather flowers and leave them as gifts for the ones we love. This year I'm using an old ladder to help display some of our spring blooms.

Pink ranunculus. I love the paper-like quality of these flowers.

I've had some questions about the camera I use. First, it is not a digital SLR camera. It's a simple point and shoot camera. My experience with this model has been wonderful. It takes incredible macro photos and has an easy to use manual mode you can play with. I purchased this camera almost 4 years ago at Best Buy, and it's still going strong. I don't use Photoshop on my photos. I will sometimes contrast and lighten my photos in Microsoft Office Picture Manager, so the majority of photos you see on my blog are truly straight from this camera. I hope that this helps those of you who have emailed me about this camera. My suggestion would be to check out Canon’s website here. If you’re having trouble deciding which camera to purchase, call them. They’re very helpful. My dream is to someday own a digital SLR, but until then I’m pretty happy with this one.

I leave you with freesias and roses by my bedside. Have a great week!