Debbiedoos "Magazine Copycat Challenge"

Today Debbidoo is hosting a Magazine Copycat Challenge party.
I read about it on Ricki Jill's blog Art@Home  this morning and it sounded like fun.

As chance would have it the July issue of one of my favourite decorating journals, Campagne Decoration, had just arrived and as I leafed through the pages I found my inspiration for the challenge.

I took a vintage French enamelware utensil rack, threaded it with garden twine (supplied by Sean The Gardener) and hung it on a sunny wall in the garden.
I found three small plant pots sitting beneath my potting table, took three marigold plants from an urn at the front of the house and voila!

My Campagne Decoration Magazine Copycat shot.

Click here to see more copycats and maybe join in the fun.

Linking this post also to

Inspiration Friday with Heather and Vanessa @ At The Picket Fence
Seasonal Sundays with The Tablescaper
and
Mary's Mosaic Monday @the little red house.

Celebrate Spring with Victoria @ A Delightsome Life.

When Spring arrives in Normandie it's time to bring out the garden furniture and place it in the sunniest spots.
On the patio; next to the vegetable beds in the potager; and in shady spots on the grass, under the apple tree.

For Kathy's Celebrate Spring with Victoria party, over at her blog A Delightsome Life, I'd like to share with you some inspiration from a beautiful French magazine: Campagne Decoration.
You may remember that I've blogged about this gorgeous magazine before, click here  and here to see more.

On Sunday afternoon I sat down in a sunny corner of our garden, opened the latest Spring issue of CD and was instantly transported to a garden so stylish, so chic, so very French.
Click here if you missed my First Day of Spring post.

An outdoor lifestyle that I can only dream of, je reve!

The text accompanying these wonderful photographs roughly translated says............
Le Premier Beau Jour.
The air is more soft, the sun caresses the shuddering leaves. In every plant hatches a promise of happiness.

Photographs Stephen Clément,Campagne Decoration, Edition #68 Mars/Avril 2011.

Please join Kathy and all the other Springtime bloggers gathered together to Celebrate Spring today, just click here or on the sidebar button!

Fleur update:

Fleur is settling in very well,  has now lost all her baby teeth and is getting bigger every day.
She likes to dig holes and bury stones!

Hazy lazy days of summer.....................

It’s August and practically all of France is en vacances, so grab your sun hat and designer shades and let’s head for the beach.
This looks like a great place to relax and read the newspaper.

The foot stool conveniently doubles as a table, so your cold drink is always close to hand.

.
Perhaps you need to cool off a little? Sitting here with the waves gently tumbling over our toes feels so good!

Time to eat? These folding chairs are so easy to bring along and the gorgeous picnic basket has wheels to make life even easier. The ancient rock face behind us will act as a natural windbreak and keep the sand out of our food.
Not a beach lover.................... seriously?
Maybe you’d prefer to spend your vacation somewhere in the stunning French countryside? Why not relax amongst the cushions, it’s lovely and shady here beneath the striped, blue awning.

I’ll just go and set the table for lunch.

We can take our afternoon nap here in the shade. Oh! I see you’ve already reserved your place with sunhat and shades.
Later on we’ll have tea in the garden.
We could sit here, or perhaps a deck chair on the lawn would suit you better?

Decisions, decisions.................................bonnes vacances tout le monde.
All images courtesy of Campagne Decoration my favourite French lifestyle magazine, the next issue is on sale 1st September.

With so much blue around I just have to link this post to the wonderful Blue Monday meme, graciously hosted as ever by Smiling Sally.

I just realized that it's one year exactly since my first Blue Monday post, wow, where has the time gone?

Click here to read it, on the sidebar link for more blue loveliness and say "Hi" to Sally.

Alphabe-Thursday and J is for.........Joli très Joli

You may remember that last weekend Mr B took me away to Paris for a few days? Well, we had a wonderful time and I have masses of pix to share but haven't yet had the time to sort them out. You'll see them soon, I promise.
I recently took out a subscription for the bimestriel, French lifestyle magazine "Campagne Decoration" and took the latest issue along with me, to read on the train. What bliss!
Every issue opens the doors to magnificent homes from Normandy to Provence, Brittany to Alsace.
So, for Alphabe-Thursday, held every week @ Jenny Matlock's amazing blog, I'm stretching things a little bit and showing you something that I think is very Joli indeed.

J is for "Joli", très Joli, don't you love the pastel setting above, with pink shimmering baubles and glass trinkets hanging from the chandelier?

How about the fresh Spring tablescape below?

Campagne Decoration features beautiful houses full of charm and pages full of decorating ideas to reproduce in our own homes.

I know that many of my blogger friends love cloches, you even throw parties for them.

On the shopping page below are two wonderful cloches.

Top left: Glass cloche "Aramis" 102€ with base, bottom right glass cloche and saucer 60€ from Woods & Willow.

This is what my 500 year old campagne maison wants to look like when it grows up!

Now go have fun at Jenny's!