Laudree treats.... go missing again

Yes, I enjoyed my Laduree macaroons last week, well the few I got to enjoy before our son came home for Easter and finished them up. That's twice he has stolen my macaroon stash, he seems to like these delectable little treats. I shame all my friends who are going to Paris into bringing me back a petite box, I make them feel real sad for me that I am not going too and it seems to work every time. I am shameless, though I do have the best friends. XO

It just happened that this photo of a gift order was sitting right beside the macaroon photo and don't they look delectable together? Lavender, melon and orange makes for one fabulous colour scheme. The lavender ribbon is imprinted with Versailles and the wrapped soap in the upper left corner of the box is a gorgeous wrapped Lavender soap from Agraria. Tucked right beside it is a little chocolate Bonbon from Paris all gathered in orange silk and tied with lavender velvet ribbon.

The lavender portfolio box is one of my favorite box colours. As we all know I seem to have a present fascination with lavender..........it keeps catching my eye. I even noticed my lilacs were peeking out today and I can hardly wait. Isn't the spring season the best?

All photos by Sande Chase ~ A Gift Wrapped Life

Petite Laduree Box Re-Gift

If you are lucky enough to receive a macaron-filled Ladree box, you likely aren't going to re-gift the box but keep it for yourself. I know that, but in my case it was fun to try. I am pretty shameless about asking whoever is going to Paris to bring me back a few boxes, so I had a fabulous macaron delivery last month. Since then, these petite boxes in Laduree's striking new patterns have been sitting on my desk saying " I dare you to re-gift me!"

Once the macarons are gone, these gorgeous petite boxes would be so lovely to pass along to a special friend with a little gift inside, a bar of perfumed soap, a little candle, or lipstick and nail polish in a colour she would love to try, something thoughtful and pretty. You know, on those days when you are feeling really generous and will actually share your pretty boxes! On this first one, I wanted to show the gold embossed oval pattern that surrounds the Laduree logo so I punched a hole in the lid (yes, right through the logo), knotted the ribbon on the lid underside and pulled the duplex (2 colour) ribbon through into two loops and then held it into position with a rhinestone ring. It was that easy, so easy I can't believe I haven't thought of it before. As long as the ribbon is the same width or wider than the ring, it will hold. Keep in mind you could do this with any flat napkin ring, round, oval, or square as I showed you a few weeks back. There are some interesting textures and colours that could be used in gift wrapping. Just another option instead of a traditional bow. Laduree is well-known for their pastel packaging palette so I wanted to enhance it's feminine nature with the sparkly rhinestones. Something gold to match the embossing would work nicely too, but now that I see it I do like some sparkle on this Laduree re-gift.

For the second, more dramatic purple and black palette I had no choice but to rely on my Paris labels to cover the logo and oval outline. A girl has to do what a girl has to do. I would normally fill in the label with the recipients name but I may want to use this one for some personal gifting coming up. Surprisingly, neither box took to my wider ribbons, I tried and it just overwhelmed the pretty pattern. A dainty duplex purple ribbon tied into a bow on all four sides seemed to do the job. With this method, the recipient doesn't have to untie any ribbons (as I know women have a love/hate relationship with untying pretty ribbons) just lift off the lid to see whatever little treasure you have placed inside. Actually, both styles work that way.

All photos by Sande Chase ~ Oooh la la Cadeau

Gorgeous File ~ Glam Monday

Isn't this a glamorous pose? This is an image from Vogue from 1948 photographed by John Rawlings. Look how they used the pale blue gloves with this black taffeta dress. I love that type of collar on a party dress. I don't know about you, but gloves are making sense these days, especially in airports. It's about the only fashion item that hasn't come back in full force (I'm not talking about winter gloves), maybe they should?

I always have to borrow some glam from Judith at Paris Atelier, she posted this image last week and said it reminded her of me, it gave me a good chuckle and let me guess is it the colour or all those bows? The funny thing is.....my friend and I started a few of these wired ribbon dresses (my friend was looking to use up all my ribbon cuttings) a few months back but we didn't think of bows! We spent the afternoon layering and glue strips of ribbon into dresses on mini forms. Oh my.....Judith has me thinking in a whole new direction. Though I might need a larger dress form for all those bows.

Ooooh.......I love this dressing area. I always thought vanity areas should be as glam as you can make them. Nothing like paneled or fabric-tufted walls, satin drapes, fur throw, and mirrors to make it all happen. And it sure is happening in this gorgeous setting by designer Graham & Greene.

Fuchsia metallic pink and those signature red soles, that Christian Louboutin loves women doesn't he?

So gorgeous in it's simplicity.

The refined glamour of pearls, this 16-strand is from Slane & Slane for $3,850.00. I have a better idea, I'll just use what I have and put them all together, I must have at least 16 strands from the last 30 years, all sizes and lengths, and most of us do I bet. Wouldn't they be perfect with this Stephen Dwek ring? At $490.00 not too outrageous I didn't think, not that I'm buying a ring right now.

No you won't believe it either, but this flirty dress was created with pages from a phone book. Artist Jolis Paons is thinking outside the box (or would that be in-the-book?) to create this exquisite creation. Another paper dress from French Blue blog, you know how good she is with finding these paper creations. And how good I am at borrowing dresses.

Gorgeous is a shoe that you can't stop staring at......of course I can't wear them! I don't need to, I just like looking at them. Feathers and a duplex satin ribbon......to say nothing about the colour! So inspired.

Gorgeous is this dress from the wild side. When I saw this glorious creation on the Coco & Kelley blog this week, I knew I had to borrow it from her for the day. Look at the shoes with this dress! And I love that touch of turquoise in the bracelet. Dress is from a current Marie Claire photo shoot.

Gorgeous is the simple shape of this candle by Modern Alchemy, especially since it has a black satin bow on the box. I love this type of product presentation....it's make for a special gift for that woman of refined taste.

I don't know if it's the swan topiary, the blue sky, the white cotton, or those well-behaved and manicured dogs...........but I find this July 2005 H & G Fantasy Garden so outdoor glam. We were hoping to do our veranda more glam this year, but we are in ground-zero of a major road construction that will have us spending more time indoors. I am not happy about this at all, I repeat, not at all happy. And yes, the relentless dust even gets indoors.

Gorgeous is a thoughtful friend who goes out of her way to find another Laduree shop in Paris (as the first one was a long, long line-up), then carries home two boxes of fresh macarons, gets her jet-lagged body out of her cosy bed the next morning and brings them to my door and stayed for some lovely Paris chat. Not so fabulous is my nocturnal son who ate most of them that night while I was sleeping. He thinks they are the best thing ever and says he couldn't stop himself. He really likes my friend, he coached her into getting a hole-in-one on the links one day so they have that golfer bond. And now she brought him macaroons.

Nothing more glam that a good reading area. I wouldn't care if the sofa is white, I'd be curled up nice and cosy for days. Our married-student life loveseat was a green leather version of this style and it brings back happy reading memories, something to keep quietly occupied while my husband studied. We should have kept it and recovered it as above. It is a classic style.

Since it's gorgeous Monday I would want to glam up the comfort level while I read-and-recline with this

gorgeous silk pillow from Annechovie, the queen of stylish chairs. It would look sublime and scrumptious on that tufted white sofa. Anne shared this Etsy pillow find {click here to read her post}.

A glam way for event designer Preston Baily to go from job to job. When I see this photo I always think to myself "if I was driven around like this from job-to-job, I would still be in interior design". No wonder he's smiling. I think he should give the wild-girl outfit a ride, that outfit would look fabulous in this setting.

All photo sources listed with image except for 4th from bottom (two ladies) .Photo from PhotographersLimitedEditions via Beautiful Things To Share

Happy Easter

Rabbit & Doves ~ Photo by Chris Everard

Laduree does chocolate eggs for Easter.

Martha does Golden Eggs & Basket

I borrowed this bunny from a wonderful blog called French Blue. Go visit her here

Have a gorgeous, gorgeous Easter .....see you next week.

Top photo by Chris Everard-Sarah Kaye/2nd photo from Laduree/3rd photo from Martha Stewart/Bottom photo from blog French Blue.