Petite Inspiration Box Swap

Petite Inspiration Box Swap

Birthday Edition

 I absolutely love these swaps.  You get 2 partners and you fill up a large size matchbox with all kinds of lovingly chosen themed vintage goodies.  I have missed several of these swaps as of late so I was really excited to be able to participate this time.  I designed my boxes to look like (my version) of a cake. I might have been inspired by my recent trip to Marie Antoinettes hamlet and Petite Trianon, just saying. lol They are a little frilly.

 My partners have received their boxes so it's ok for me to give you a peek at the goodies I put into the boxes.  I love the vintage pink, yellow, and blue flower candle holders and just happened to find some wonderful vintage birthday cards and labels and even some vintage birthday sheet music. Then I made some goodies like a rustic petite pennant banner with some vintage pink chenille and vintage pink fabric. I thought that they turned out so cute that I might make a few for my shop.

Here are all of the goodies packaged up and ready to ship out.  I sure hope that my partners really liked their goodies. I had such fun creating again, I've been so busy and sure have missed being creative. 

Hopefully I'll be back with more posts soon, my oldest is back in NYC working at a french summer camp this summer so things have slowed down a bit here. 

xoxo

Cari 

The Eiffel Tower

La Tour Eiffel

 Springtime in Paris is lovely. Duh! But seriously, the entire trip the weather was lovely. Apparently it rained for days before we arrived and then rained again for days soon after we left. But, lucky for me, I was able to get some beautiful pictures to go along with the memories.

 The photos above and below are of a lovely little park off to the right of the tower, there is another equally lovely park on the other side but my Audrey chose to take a little park rest on this side. That girl LOVES her parks. 

 It really was a lovely, peaceful little setting. A nice unexpected surprise. 

 The tower was really stunning all lit up at night.

We saw a lot of the tower on our trip. We actually got all wrapped up in an In-line world championship that was taking place in the plaza across the street from the tower. We kept looking up from the athletes to see this. It was pretty neat.

Maries Hamlet (my absolute favorite place in all of Paris) photos will be soon. 

xoxo

Cari 

 Sacre Coeur

 Sacred Heart Cathedral

 This is where we went on our first whole day in Paris. Let me just say, every single day we were in Paris we had absolutely amazing weather. I mean 75 and sunny with a lovely breeze all day. It didn't even get dark there until after 10pm. 

O.K.... There are a lot of stairs. But it was so worth it. That's my oldest. It was nice to have some mommy/daughter time.

Here is the church up close. It doesn't cost anything to get in and it's not half as crowded as this picture makes it appear. This is on a weekend day too. There is a catacomb and tower area that you can access for a small fee. We went into the catacombs but that's for another day.

The entire area was so lovely. There were street performers working for tips and there was a lovely fine food festival with samples. We tasted salami, wine, strawberries, and fois gras. yummmm!

This is just a random shot of a building facing Montmarte square where the artists all set up their canvas. I do have to say the artists area is much more touristy and expensive than it was 20 years ago. 

But still, a very lovely visit and the views are spectacular. Totally worth the climb.

xoxo

Cari 

Paris

 I'm back from Paris!

 Well.... I've actually been back for a week but it has taken me this long to get caught up

I've got soooo many pictures and stories to tell but for now, this is an adorable pink building across the street from Notre Dame nearer to the Latin Quarter. I just couldn't resist grabbing a snapshot of it because of its color.

This is the view from our table at the resteraunt that we ate at on our last night in Paris. :-( It was really lovely, there was a man playing guitar on the corner across the street and every so often the church bells would ring.  If you are going to Paris and are looking for inexpensive food, definitely check out the Latin Quarter first thing.  

Summer is in full swing here, all 4 kiddos are home, things are wonderfully crazy. 

I'll be back as soon as I can.

xoxo

cari