I want to thank Pam from Red Ticking for recently giving me the Kreativ Blogger award…and Tish of  A Femme d’un Certain Age forwarding on the One Lovely Blog andThe Fabulous Sugar Doll Award and Renae of Renae Moore Design the Honest Scrap Award. These are all wonderful, creative women, and I’m touched and honored. What I wouldn’t give to stroll into Pam’s store in Seattle. Some of the finds I’ve stumbled over at her shop are heart stoppingly beautiful. I love following along in Renae’s creative footsteps whether she’s sorting out decorating schemes or letting her inner artist out to paint wall art for her son at college. Tish…on my first visit to her blog I just couldn’t drag myself awayfrom her side column…fabulous. Many blogs tell us where to go and what to see in France, but Tish gets down to the brass tacks of air kisses and how not to embarrass yourself when you are …drumroll…a woman of a certain age….

Rather than go on about myself I’d like to immediately award the Kreativ Blogger to these seven blogs…some that I’ve just recently started to enjoy:

A Perfect Gray

Linen and Lavender

Serendipity Rising

Limestone and Boxwood

Splendid Willow

Aged and Gilded

Bardot in Blue

A varied and talented batch, all. And the last one, Bardot in Blue, is the expatriate daughter of Jermaine of French Kissed . Soon Jermaine will join her daughter in Paris and travel with her to the south of France.

Speaking of Paris…I am a huge fan of  Astier de Villatte. Here is their new covered candle…Let’s see if we can get Jermaine to smuggle a few of these back for us…

Each piece of  Astier is one of a kind, gorgeous, inimitable… and très cher…high school French for expensive. I save up for the real thing, leap at any sale, and treasure every piece I have. That said…I’m not above a little infiltration in the ranks.

Trove Antiques has a heady collection of Astier…as has Chateau Sonoma

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Here’s the cabinet in my kitchen with Astier…and a few poseurs that I picked up at Anthropologie last year….for source see here

I bought this Astier de Villatte pitcher years ago, a work of art…but at Anthropologie’s price, I could afford to buy two of the simple white pitchers. They look lovely in the cabinets, or together on a long table replete with wildflowers…

My odd little Astier elephant vase in the cabinet…

Astier looks great in either rough or refined environs…

Store images from Remodelista. Seeing a wall of Astier still takes my breath away… but I love these little Tribeca cups I bought at  Anthropologie a few years ago and I just found online…Compare here here vs  here

Top cup with rose Astier de Villatte’s Emilie cup…bottom cup Tribeca. Previous post here shows a Myra Hoefer’s Paris apartment festooned and decorated with Astier and another post here shows a few of my favorites up close…

*And lastly…7 things about me from earlier post here