28th April 2009
Oh so cruel! In our year of “must not spend on anything frivolous” I have found more Paumes books without which my collection will not be complete. Ages ago I spotted the Paumes title “London Gardens” and thought – “there is nothing sweeter than an English garden except for a Japanese book about English gardens” and our garden needs all the help it can get. So that one is on my list. And then, of course, they released San Francisco Kitchens (with Lisa on the cover!) so that suddenly became a MUST have and to make it even less indulgent, I thought, I can get the two shipped together. And now? Now I see they have released Apparetements de filles à Paris and it looks mighty cute, and considering I spend most of my time imagining I am a Parisian fille in a pretty appartement how can that not be anything but a necessity? But three fluffy Paumes books? In a year of no spend? Pardon moi, but that is totalement ridicule.
Le sigh.
** updated to say that The Lark is now stocking some Paumes titles in Australia! **
6th May 2008
Project Atelier De Filles continues! I have much inspiration to keep cleaning my studio from some of my favourite Paumes titles pictured above (of the look but can’t read kind).
We are employing Mati’s MOOP theory (“Matter Out Of Place”) which I am going to paint on a plaque Mati-style and hang on the wall. It’s a very useful little word to have clanging around in your mind at a time like this. The most challenging thing is to actually find a Place for all the Matter. For the last couple of years a lot of the Matter’s Place has been the floor.
I have a new desk arriving today – not a very flash one, but one which will replace my enormous grey elephant of a computer desk which I have been putting up with for the last 9 years. I bought the old one when I was feeling all efficient and corporate and it was a big, expensive mistake. While tidying out one of the bookcases yesterday I opened up an old journal (my old “morning pages” actually) and immediately came across the line “perhaps one day I will be doing less desk-work so I can get rid of this horrible ergonomic grey computer desk and get something more ‘me’ ” – hah! Having read that just after feeling a bit guilty for ordering a new desk was very reassuring.
While cleaning out the same bookcase I also came across this old battered copy of “The Little House
“. It is one of my all-time favourites.
It’s a copy from my old primary school library which my Grandma, who taught at the school, rescued at some point. It’s water damaged but also has so many important marks – my grandma’s name written in the front, my old school library’s rubber stamp, a little sticker from the store it originally came from in Adelaide which was owned by my Grandma’s friend… those sorts of things make the dirt and the shab completely unimportant.
Ok… back to pulling large amounts of junk out of cupboards and drawers.
Don’t forget that Yvonne has a shop for those who might be interested in chasing up some of those Paumes titles. She has Atelier de Filles 2 (pictured above, which I think is better than Atelier de Filles 1 because the image reproduction is much better). I got mine from Amazon Japan — but the Yvestown shipping is cheaper! My favourites are definitely all of the “Children’s Rooms” titles.
