Ms Bubu and Her Girlyness: decor

Christmas Room Tour 2015 Part 1

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Updated Room Tour Spring Edition!

decor 16:30:00

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If you are new to my blog, I have spent the last 3 months of 2014 in Paris, as I was doing an internship there. As I was working in a minimum-paid job, I jumped at the chance to do this internship, even though for some it meant a step backward.

I didn't really blogged about my Parisian life when I was there, as to be honest, I was busy enjoying it! I actually lived in Saint-Denis, a northern Parisian suburb. For French people, Saint-Denis is known to be a rowdy place, not necessarily safe. I've never really had any problems there. Sure, it is not as luxy as Saint-Germain-des-Prés, but then it was something I was able to afford. It was also a 5 minute-walk from the office, and the Metro. From there I would have Paris at my fingertips, so I was a happy bunny!

I lived in a large appartement (3 bedrooms, but I don't know how many m2) with an Italian girl, Laura. Laura was just the perfect roommate, always laughing and sometimes bringing me pain au chocolat (the way to my heart)! Since she arrived there first, Laura had the biggest room, the one with a balcony. But I liked my room anyway, it was bright and just perfect for my stay.

Looking back at my pictures, I realize I don't have a lot, and it's a sad thing. I guess this is just a testament to the things we take for granted. Anyway, here is a few snippets that I have for you!

This is the view from my bedroom window. I liked the fact I could just open the window wide open and I could pop my head outside. Here in Quebec our windows usually have mosquito screens, so we can't do that! You can see the belfry of the nearby church. Everyday the angelus was rung at the tone of it reminded me of the first notes of Lana Del Rey's Video Games. So soothing...

And the view looking down. I've never really seen anyone actually play table tennis on this, but people appropriated it in their own way. Here, some kids playing with a ball. Sometimes it was a man drinking coffee on it and throwing a ball to his dog. I liked watching them, I like people watching a lot!

Laura's Bialetti. Of course! Being Italian, espresso is really important for her, and the most important thing she brought from Italy was this coffee maker! I've always liked the design on those, and one day I'll have my own!

The counter top of the kitchen. It was pretty small, so I couldn't really take a picture of the whole room properly. Nutella was a staple on this countertop, and Laura had a great collection of herbal teas for the evening.

A typical breakfast in Paris. I love their yogourt pots! They are either made of glass or terracotta and I was keeping them all. A true hoarder. I put all kinds of thing in there, like makeup brushes, perfume samples, hair bands, etc. I brought back a few, I had to!

There. It is said. I'm in love with chocolate. And those giandujas Marco, a friend of Laura, brought us from Italy. As you can see, this was around Halloween, and I was so proud to find a pumpkin, as Halloween is not celebrated as much as in North America or the UK. Funny thing, when I was talking about that to some of my colleagues, one of them told me: "We don't celebrate Halloween here in France, we celbrate All Saints more." To which I asekd: "What do you do for All Saints?" To which she replied: "Nothing". Weird way to celebrate hahaha! :P

Weird thing, but this is the WC (toilet). The lighting is bad because there are no windows nearby... I liked the world map on the wall and the big bookshelf behind. It contained travel books and graphic novels. I like Tintin and there were a few. :)

One of the shops I liked there is Maisons du Monde. It has a lot of nice shabby chic décor things. I'm not too much into the shabby part of shabby chic, but I do like the style, when used parsimoniously. The basket and the candle in the picture above are both from there.

Well, this is the only picture in which we see my bedroom a little (beyond the rack). There was a store that opened in Saint-Denis whilst I was there called Action. I believe it is a Dutch store. It is a bit like Dollarama, but better, as there is loads of homeware, for dirt cheap! And the decor bits are similar to Maisons du Monde. That is were the little heart tray is from. The star string light on the rack is from Maisons du monde. It is battery operated and was expensive. I found some similar style ones later at Action for 2 euros!

Do you like Paris? Have you ever been there? Do you like home décor posts?

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Room Tour

decor 16:42:00

I love interior posts and blogs, but for some reason I don't post a lot about it. Mainly it is because I live at my parent's place and I don't have a say about most things. My parents moved house and area when I just finished uni. That was when I moved to Vancouver. And then I moved places a lot. And life brought me to my parents' 2 years ago. In "my" room, which I never have lived in, only been there as a guest.

So sometimes it doesn't feel like my own room, as I didn't chose the wall colour, furniture and duvet set that matched the walls. I still add some of my touch, as turning the duvet on the beige side as opposed to the big flowers one. it's not that it was not pretty, but I was getting tired of it, and I change my beddind quite often.

Lots of the things in my room were thrift shop finds, so it is hard for me to tell you where you can buy it. However, the pillow shams were from IKEA about 10 years ago and it the Rosali Paisley from the popular Cath Kidston collab they had. The sequin cushion is from Rossy and they still have it.

I like to decorate with hardback books, you can find so many pretty ones at charity shops for a song. Here I have Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand), Les Dames de Missalonghi (Colleen McCollough), Le Livre du Bonheur (Marcelle Auclair) and The Little Dictionnary of Fashion (Christian Dior). The last one is from Indigo, but the other three from various charity trips. I love to be bilingual, as I can have books in both French and English. I use to think that English hardbacks look better, but seeing that I mainly French ones on my bedside I might reconsider, haha!

Alexa Chung's IT is a girly girl staple

The lamp is from IKEA and is the little KNUBBIG one. When I bought it I didn't realised it wouldn't be light enough to read, so I put some fairy lights over my headboard.

I also have fairy lights on my windowsill. I love the atmosphere it gives the room in the evening. The seashells are souvenirs I found at the beach in Portugal a few years ago.

I'm also obsessed about mugs. I bought the hearts one last year at Debenham's in London. The music notes one is from a local charity shop. I like to keep beauty bits in them, as I cannot justify all of them just for coffee.

I got this venetian mask when I worked at the Tourist Office in London. Every year, there was a Belgian Ball (yep, I know! Canadiand girl in London working for a Belgian organisation. That's globalization for you!). The first year I attend the theme was a masked ball. My boss was planning to wear this mask, but she decided to give it to me :)

I hope you liked my little bedroom tour! Please link to yours if you have one!

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