Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Dec 7, 2009, 3:00 am
Today is the 7th of December and 2010 is nearly upon us now.  What will next year bring for you?  Are you making any changes, small or big? I must tell you that there are some very big changes comi...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Dec 5, 2009, 2:38 am
A cranky, teething baby has meant that I have had very little time for anything other than carrying her around and keeping her mind off her gums, which is not an occupation that dovetails even slightl...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Dec 2, 2009, 1:38 pm
...that is to say, babies, watch this trailer.  It's wonderful.  I can't wait to see the movie next year.
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Dec 1, 2009, 5:56 am
I have some bad shopping habits.  One is that I am extremely conservative.  No - really, I am.  I tend to stick to a small number of tried and tested brands and forget to ever look elsewhere - you ...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 29, 2009, 4:49 am
 My dear friend Rachel is traveling in India with her baby, Arun, for the next three months and wonderfully, she has decided to keep a blog called Mama India, Wandering Child about her experiences. ...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 28, 2009, 5:10 am
I think I had The Baby's Opera when I was a child, or rather my mother did.  It was brought to my attention by chance yesterday and after looking it up online, I found that I remembered some of t...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 27, 2009, 1:07 pm
I rather like these pink cherry lights - possibly for Beatrice's room (or maybe ours!)
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 26, 2009, 6:35 am
Behold the unbearable sweetness of Beatrice at ten months old! She can stand when she holds onto something, she is trying her best to crawl (not with much success, it must be admitted, but she doe...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 25, 2009, 2:45 pm
This morning, as I was writing a rather dull post about linen sprays (which can be summed up as follows: I like them but has L'Occitane stopped making them?), I discovered that it was Wednesday an...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 23, 2009, 3:29 pm
I am usually fairly neutral about Christmas.  The last few have been odd for various reasons - one year we got married, the next we were in Paris, the next we were here but I was heavily pregnant and...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 20, 2009, 1:38 pm
The sole of one of my favourite brown boots has cracked and the soles of my other brown boots (equally beloved, but with a heel, so less depended upon for long walks) is threatening to part company fr...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 19, 2009, 4:34 am
  Sometimes when you are looking for a particular item, especially in a small town like Oxford, you can run through the usual range of shops very quickly and if they let you down, find yourself in p...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 18, 2009, 3:10 am
... that it is late November.  This leads me to two related points.  Related, dare I say it, by Christmas presents.  I'm sorry!  I know! But if you have friends and family living overseas, you...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 17, 2009, 6:03 am
After a particularly lovely few days in Dublin, I am back in Oxford where, oddly, it is warmer, brighter and drier than it was in Ireland, which makes a nice change. Yesterday morning was very busy a...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 16, 2009, 5:33 am
It has become quite evident to me over the last couple of years that Passementerie is frequented by a very stylish and chic collection of readers from all over the world and with all sorts of sartoria...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 13, 2009, 5:01 am
I'm in Dublin for a few days and am taking advantage of the brevity of my visit to spend as much time as possible in the loveliest parts of the city - the area around St. Stephen's Green, Merr...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 11, 2009, 4:49 am
Yesterday I brought Beatrice to Bath, where we met my dear friend Rhian who is over from Switzerland for a bit. A grey, rainy day, the highlight might have been when Rhian showed me how to put the rai...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 9, 2009, 3:37 am
Since the baby was born, my husband and I have become more and more keen on the liberty of self-catering accommodation when we travel.  When you are not as free in the evenings as you once were and h...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 6, 2009, 3:00 am
  I'm going to come out and say it.  I don't approve of seasonal house decoration.  The flowers that happen to be in season and a Christmas tree for the last two weeks of December are only...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 3, 2009, 3:06 am
His designs are meticulous - from location to font to the way a daughter dresses like her mother in Hermes, the suits - immaculate grey flannel, bottle green velvet, double-breasted tan corduroy (and ...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Nov 1, 2009, 2:06 pm
        Somehow I had never done this before. I don't know if it's because it's not done much in Ireland, or if it was just that my Mum never thought to get a pumpkin.  But t...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 30, 2009, 4:40 am
Can I make a confession? Last night the baby gave me a little trouble about going to sleep, so I had to spend quite some time sitting in her room, cuddling and nursing her.  I was very tired, and wou...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 29, 2009, 7:31 am
What about practically everything from Bodie and Fou? A terribly smart and inspired boutique run by two French sisters, the shop has a very distinct and clean style with fantastic bursts of colour aga...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 28, 2009, 3:59 am
Sometimes Oxford itself can seem like one great big private members' club as you walk through narrow and wide streets and peer in through archways past the porter's lodge into a quad, sometime...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 27, 2009, 6:21 am
Lately, I'm not much of a girl for necklaces for some reason.  Maybe it's because I have a baby whose little eyes light up at the sight of something new to grab at.  But these last few weeks...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 26, 2009, 6:38 am
This was a weekend of rainy Oxford antics... on Saturday afternoon I braved the deluge in my waterproof jacket (more in this below) and wellies (Hunter, of course) and whisked baby into town to have l...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 24, 2009, 4:42 am
After reading this week's posts on the ever-inspiring Academichic, I have to acknowledge that my otherwise extensive and (I hope) stylish wardrobe is missing one key accessory.  A belt.  I don&#...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 23, 2009, 5:15 am
Yesterday was wonderful.  Smooth morning, easy trip to London and Holborn... but then lunch in Cafe Rouge happened and time slipped by with kir royal, tarte citron and an adorable baby who ate everyt...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 22, 2009, 4:41 am
This afternoon I am seizing up my child and leaping onto a London-bound train to meet my dearest friend and Beatrice's godmother (in one and the same elegantly dressed person) for an afternoon of ...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 21, 2009, 5:56 am
Beautiful design can be found in the most unlikely places in Oxford.  My husband has been using the library at the Said Business School for his exams lately because it's so much closer to our hou...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 20, 2009, 3:30 am
I can't post a picture of my front door just yet because I have to put the brassware back on, polish it, clean the little bits of paint from the glass and pick 5000 tiny flies out of the new paint...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 19, 2009, 3:51 am
A busy weekend!  Saturday was my birthday party - we spent the whole day here at home with lots of friends, champagne, chocolate cake and a roaring fire.  My husband even baked me a birthday cake an...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 16, 2009, 4:44 am
I'm sitting in bed, all snuggled up in my new Boden treats (the cardigan dressing gown and brushed cotton pyjama bottoms I showed you a few weeks ago) with my cup of tea and wishing I had slept a ...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 15, 2009, 2:24 am
Today is my 31st birthday.  I have not yet decided how I will celebrate it (the party is on Saturday), although putting the last coat of paint on my front door is a very likely occupation for the ear...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 13, 2009, 3:10 am
As I have mentioned before, when we moved into our house a year ago, we did not feel very inspired to do anything to it.  I was heavily pregnant, my husband was starting a graduate course in the univ...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 12, 2009, 3:00 am
If we redecorate in the Spring, I might allow myself to be seduced at last by wall decals.  As you know, my husband and I love travel more than anything else and want nothing more from our daughter t...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 9, 2009, 9:07 am
When we lived in Marrakech we lived in two houses - before we moved into our "real" ultra modern, ultra chic home, we lived in our landlord's simple and elegant riad for two months, drifting aroun...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 7, 2009, 5:32 am
So let's just say for a moment that I go for a delicate palette of pale blues rather than the bolder colours I have preferred in the past, and accordingly decide *not* to paint my stairs in bold c...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 6, 2009, 3:13 am
Sometimes I move very quickly.  I make a decision (let's move to Marrakech, let's move to Paris) and make it happen almost immediately.  Sometimes I move slowly, so slowly that there may eve...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 6, 2009, 3:07 am
Sometimes I move very quickly.  I make a decision (let's move to Marrakech, let's move to Paris) and make it happen almost immediately.  Sometimes I move slowly, so slowly that there may eve...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 5, 2009, 3:40 am
I was recommending some books to a friend but thought that I should make sure that you knew about them too, so off you go and order them now so that you can curl up by the fire (because it's getti...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 3, 2009, 6:07 am
  The ay before yesterday, as I told you, we went to Tring to visit the Natural History Museum there.  Tring was charming, as was the museum, but it was still nothing on the collection in Dublin (o...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Oct 1, 2009, 5:05 am
Today we are venturing forth in a spirit of adventure and (more) taxidermy to the Natural History Museum at Tring in Hertfordshire and afterwards for a picnic at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.  ...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Sep 30, 2009, 4:33 am
I'm afraid that I didn't make it to Decorex or Focus in the end.  Between me recovering from a slight chest infection and the baby having a cold, dragging us both to London for a very busy da...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Sep 29, 2009, 5:18 am
Well, my cold might not be gone, but my computer is back, so once more into the fray for Passementerie! I have not been entirely housebound in my absence, you should understand.  Last week for...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Sep 25, 2009, 10:06 am
I'm sick.  The baby is sick.  John is slightly sick.  None of us is going to die, but I reserve the right to complain bitterly when I have a head cold because I'm very rarely sick and very ...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Sep 24, 2009, 6:35 am
I can't believe that it has been a week since I last posted.  I went to Dublin for five nights to see my Dad and as always, was on the go from morning til night, out and about in Dublin, entertai...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Sep 19, 2009, 5:35 am
During the London Design Festival, there are two events I want to visit, Decorex and Focus '09.  The problem is that I don't really want to make two excursions to London, so I either have to ...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Sep 16, 2009, 4:19 am
I am sitting here eating my healthy balanced breakfast and planning my morning while the baby examines her stacking rings on the floor beside me and my husband finds lost treasures in the cupboard und...
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Passementerie posted an article on Passementerie - Sep 14, 2009, 6:43 am
Yesterday I took myself and the baby on the train and went to London.  Our destination was Top Drawer, a trade fair at the Olympia in Kensington.  I had a few particular interests, which I'll te...
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