Ming Oil & Vinegar set by Jansen + Co

You better watch this space....Our team is currently adding new designs to WhereDidYouBuyThat.com and some of them are just stunning (especially the ones from a famous French company that works with a lot of talented designers including Rob Ryan...yes the famous Rob Ryan who makes cut out prints to die for) but more of this later.
Today, I wanted to focus on this gorgeous Ming Oil and Vinegar set by Dutch design company Jansen + Co because I think it's a very clever, functional and beautiful piece of design.

So this uber cool Oil and Vinegar set can easily be mistaken for wine glasses but they are not! The whole thing is upside down, making this oil and vinegar set a fantastic salad dressing kit. Each vessel can hold a decent amount of oil or vinegar, but the long, tapered stem of the glass reduces the flow to a manageable amount.
I think like the rocking glasses by Normann Copenhagen, this oil and vinegar set will be a great talking point when you have friends around but also it's a great way of making sure that butter-fingered guests don't slosh olive oil all over your table!
What do you think? You like it?

Sally Pring's illustrations

Last time I went to the flower market in Columbia road, I picked up some pretty cards from various illustrators in the Fleapit cafe at the corner of the street. I really liked the ones by Sally Pring, an illustrator and print-maker who graduated from Edinburgh College of Arts with a BA Hons in Visual Communication.
If you live in Scotland, you may be able to see some of her works but if not you can easily order prints directly from her website if you have a Paypal account. The illustration she did for Time Out's Paris Supplement (below) is really pretty and I love how simple the drawing she did for one of my favourite authors J.D. Salinger (although not my favourite book).It has the lightness of the Winnie the Pooh's drawings (hope Sally wont be offended by that because I think they are very pretty) but with a stroppy strike to it.

However my favourite are Pam (below) which looks cheeky and youthful and Deneuve (far below) which I assume is named after French icon Catherine Deneuve.

You can buy Sally Pring's illustrations here

Mr Darcy Proposal Dish towel

I'm loving this gorgeous Mr Darcy Proposal Dish towel by Brookish. Bit too late to get it for Valentine's but would look great framed to hang in a kitchen.

Via Designcrush

Love in the air for our prints

Two weeks ago, the Sunday Times kindly featured not just one but two of our best-selling prints: the Paris map in pink by Famille Summerbelle and the Type map print by Bold & Noble.
It felt like Christmas all over again as many customers ordered 3 to 4 prints at once
However last Sunday, we got lucky again when You magazine featured this gorgeous shot of the London map in red (a big thank you to Clare Nolan who featured the print)

Nice, isn't it?!
Update:
Well of course now we've ran out of stock of the London map in red but panic not!
We're getting more stock, hopefully before the end of the week, if not early next week but if you were thinking of buying one of these beautiful prints for Valentine's Day, I suggest you get one of the other colours which are still in stock and ready for dispatch straight away or go for the beautiful LOVE art print that burst out of joy or the more grown-up Endless Love print

More Valentine's Day treats

It's good news after good news today....we've just received these white ceramic decorations from Cote Bastide (yes.... they were supposed to send them to us before Christmas...nevermind) and OMG, they are stunning!
They are so simple and beautiful, exactly the kind of things I like....and they look even better in real!
They look shiny on this photo but they have in fact a mat finish which looks sublime...very Jacqueline Morabito and the kind of pretty things she would hang in a room.

My mum would have loved one of these at Christmas...She has started a collection of hearts and she hangs them around her bedroom's door frame. It looks really pretty. I will see if I can find them a nice place at home to show you what they look like in situ.

And don't get me started on the cross version....I have a thing for crosses and one of these is definitively going to head home with me tonight!
And look what we've got here..just in time for Valentine's Day!! A gorgeous charm bracelet with 3 hearts and 1 cross. I will spare you the details on how long we've been waited to get these as CB kept sending us the cross ones but here we go....it's not always plain sailing to get the stock we want, trust me!

Anyway, there are here, with us, in London now....and they are just perfect for Valentine's Day and will featured in our next E-newsletter.

Quoi?? You haven't registered to our fabulously stylish e-News: the BODIE and FOU Style Hunter??!! Ok just go here and do it!

First you will get our beautiful E-news (something like twice a month) and secondly, you will receive a special code the third Thursday of each month to get 10% OFF your order (yes each month...not just on sign up!) so go on try us and if you get bored with us, you can always unsubscribe....
xoxo

Get a dog don't work like one....

Last year, I was interviewed by Author and Entrepreneur Jim Banting for a book he was writing on work-life balance for Marshall Cavendish.

Jim spent a year interviewing over 1000 UK entrepreneurs to rethink work-life balance, unlock new opportunities and challenge norms to enable anyone to spend more time doing what you want. Not an easy thing to achieve when you run a business especially at the start (and I know what I'm talking about!), but if you get past the difficulties, intense hours and challenges then I would just say...it's worth doing it.

The book is out now and you get order it from here as the offer of the month!

"Get a dog don't work like one" by Jim Banting has received great reviews in the Sunday Times and Management Today so it makes me even prouder that my modest 'input' made it to the final editing (page 27) but most of it, it's just a very good book, great to read, very informative and easy to relate to.
And if you are thinking about launching your business, or you just want to achieve the 'Holy Graal' - i.e. running your own business with having a fulfilling family life - then just get this book.

The book is packed with real-life experiences, case studies, anecdotes and stories and will give you great tips on how to work smarter not harder.
On a personal note, I would like to thank Jim Banting to allow me to be part of this.
Talking with him made me realized how much I had actually achieved over the past 4 years starting a business from scratch with no-experience in e-commerce and that I should cut myself some slack sometimes! Hence my new business resolution this year....Escape the office to spend some time in nice, inspiring little cafes and just have time to think....
Read A Day with BODIE and FOU here

Big Ben Clock sticker by Funky Little Darlings

Last month I mentioned the gorgeous new range of wall stickers by Funky Little Darlings which are proving to be very popular and frankly it's hardly surprising given how beautiful and easy to use they are. So today we are very excited to add this fabulous Big Ben Clock sticker!

Yes you read it correctly, not only this little beauty will add a touch of 'Cool Britannia' to your home - and for those who didn't know (I didn't until today!) it's Big Ben 150th Anniversary but it also doubles up as a clock!
Easy to install, the Big Ben Clock sticker comes with a 'silent sweep' if you fancy putting it near a bedroom and is handmade in Britain.
It also comes with 1 year guarantee and a serial number. Wouldn't this be a great present for friends getting hitched but make sure they don't live in a cave, the clock is 2 meter high!

Click here to see the whole collection of wall stickers by Funky Little Darlings

February competition: WIN a gorgeous LOVE art print

I can't believe it's the 1st of Feb already and in two weeks, we will be celebrating.... Valentine's Day! Yeah!
Now I know that some people are a bit cynical about Valentine's Day, how commercial it is, blablabla....Well I'm not, I've always loved it and I'm actually a sucker for anything romantic but I felt that Halloween was a tiny bit commercial since it's a US thing. Saying that... for the sake of our daughter, we went with the flow and celebrated Halloween last November with our friends and their children and we all had a fantastic time...so here we go, here was a lesson for me.
So yes Valentine's Day can be a bit commercial but so is Mother's Day, Christmas etc and so what?
At the end of the day, it's about giving and making someone we love happy and it can be fun and romantic! So join us in the mood for love and have a romantic month, not just one day but make February your month to be closer to your loved one, to be romantic and more appreciative of what they do. xoxo
Click here to enter our monthly competition. Good luck!!

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Clare Vivier & La Trop....

I'm having a bit of a Charlotte Gainsbourg week.....
On Monday when I was in Paris, my best friend Emmanuelle gave me Charlotte's latest album IRM and yesterday I received another great gift from Clare, the designer of La Tropezienne tote bag: 3 black and white photos of Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck and these are just going to look so rock'n roll in my home :-)
Last Summer, Clare's husband filmed Charlotte Gainsbourg (who also fell in love with la Trop) and Beck's video clip when they were recording IRM and he also took some seriously cool photos.
As Clare and I are both big fans of CG, she offered to send me some photos. How nice is this?
Clare and I never met but I adore her. I think she is incredibly talented, beautiful, has an amazing sense of style and designs bags to die for. And on top of all these things, she is a maman, she runs a business which is fast becoming an empire and she is also great fun and fearless (you should read how she cut her 900 USD Yves Saint Laurent boots to turn them into ankle boots...my admiration reached new heights).
I really enjoy working with her and seeing her designs being as successful on the side of the pond on BODIE and FOU. And I know the feeling is mutual because she wrote something here that almost made me cry.
A couple of nights ago, Clare emailed me to see if I wanted to stock her latest red bag for Valentine's. I was in bed but hey... having the blackberry next to my bed, I couldn't help getting excited by the idea of having another of her designs on BODIE and FOU...Unfortunately I think it's a bit too late for Valentine's and we are selling so many La Tropezienne and wrist wraps that I'm sure Valentine's is already taken care for and a lot of gorgeous women are going to be the proud owner of a Clare Vivier design in a couple of weeks but Clare suggested to do something exclusive for BODIE and FOU....I would LOVE this....so watch this space...we haven't worked out what it would be yet but given her sense of style, I'm sure it will be fabulous.

La Tropezienne leather tote bag is available in black here

Rosie Flo's colouring books now at BODIE and FOU

Last year or maybe the year before, I came across Rosie Flo's colouring books, a very unique collection of colouring books designed by Roz Streeten. They are different from other colouring books because children can draw faces, arms and legs and backgrounds too but also they are simply wonderful and the drawings are exquisite.
So imagine my joy two weeks ago when I went to Top Drawer (a UK trade show) and saw they had a stand there....Well after having been in the back of my mind for such a long time, I thought now was the perfect time to add them to our growing range of beautiful, creative and design things for children and they are inexpensive. Well I think so...If you think that a Barbie magazine costs about £3.50 to £4.50 and comes with a vile, plasticky toy, then £5.99 is money well-spent when you get a really nice colouring book with wonderful drawings.
So we've just added the first one of the series which is now a classic: the Rosie Flo's colouring book and the Rosie Flo's Sticky colouring book which comes with a beautiful set of stickers.

My daughter Mila (4) is obsessed with stickers. Princess stickers were even on a Christmas list...so I thought I would test them on her especially since Rosie Flo kindly gave me the sticky book to take home and gosh... it has managed to take her attention from Madagascar! Every afternoon after school, since she got her new Rosie Flo's Sticky colouring book, she has been spending some time carefully colouring her book and we now have stickers on the fridge, on her Dad's t-shirt and on the stairs leading to her bedroom.

We are starting with two but of course if you like them as much as the books from Paumes, we will a lot more to our collection.
We've also added the new Rosie Flo colouring poster which we saw framed at the stand and it looks just adorable and will look very nice framed in your girl's bedroom.

Designer Roz Streeten took great care to avoid some of the things about coloring books that frustrated her as a child: the lines are thin so the activity doesn't look dumbed down for very young children, the paper is thick so colors don't bleed through and they're sturdy and small enough to tuck in a bag for travel and outings.

So I hope you like them :-)

Now, for the sexy mamans....Valentine's Day is coming soon so if your husband still hasn't got a clue, tell him to read this or make the most of the BODIE and FOU Wishlist (you need to be registered to use it) and send him in the right direction of...umm
Maybe the new La Tropezienne tote bag in black :-) The brown was already stunning but check out the black one...A-MA-ZING!
Bon I need to do some proper work now...Have a great day
xoxo
Karine

BODIE and FOU Love Etc....

Here are a few Valentine's Day gifts to make her feel sexy...to show her how much you love her and that you know what she likes...A little something just to make her happy. It does not have to be expensive just thoughtful.

And for something a bit more romantic, you may even want to write her a note in French. Something like "Je t'aime...beaucoup...passionnement...a la folie".
Flowers are great ...as well as the gift :-)
Let us know how it goes....
Leather wrist wrap by Clare Vivier: £45
Love art print: £38
La Tropezienne leather tote bag: £169.99
Endless love print: £38
Paris Love Apartments - Edition Paumes: £20
Deeply, Madly in Love print: £25.50
Leather notebook: £20
French body care and scented candles: from £8.50

Beautiful sketchbook by Giddy Giddy

Look at these gorgeous images of a little girl's bedroom found here. So cute!
I'm loving the old sewing machine and the Fischer Price little characters. I'm going to start Mila's bedroom this weekend and it will be a bit more modern with a grey feature wall. Yes I know...grey for a child bedroom.... but I'm French and trust me, it will look fab!
However, if you love the retro vibe, you will love the 70s collection of posters and bed linens ByGraziela. They were initially designed by German designer Graziela Preiser and were HUGE in the 1970s but recently Graziela's daughter: the lovely Nina, re-launched these iconic designs which are flying off our shelves.
But back to Giddy Giddy...so I was looking at these lovely, feel-good images and I could not help admiring the header of this page.

So I explored her lovely blog a bit further, check her shop to see if she was selling prints...nothing and then I saw these beautiful sketchbooks!

I think they are gorgeous and I hope the designer behind Giddy Giddy explores this avenue further and comes up with some beautiful prints for everyone to enjoy!

Inspiring London cafes to escape from the office....

I have been spending the last four days in Paris, working, shopping (more of this later) and talking with my two best friends (kind of the best part) about being mothers, being entrepreneur/managing a team of 35 people or 3 children under 8, being women. You can imagine how long our conversations were but amongst other things, here is one thing I'm going to do this year......

One day a month, I will just spend the day in a nice and inspiring cafe
to watch the world goes by and think.

One day a month, I will treat myself to some 'business me-time' to reflect,
imagine and envision where and how I want to take our company forward.

One day a month, I will give myself the time to think and plan
without being interrupted by emails, phone calls, or queries from the team.

So here are some of my favourite, inspiring places to be one day a month....

Story Deli in Bricklane (read more here)

Petersham Nurseries in Richmond (read more here)
Petersham Nurseries Café Church Lane, off Petersham Road, Petersham, Surrey, tel: 020 8940 5230.

Monmouth Coffee house in Borough Market, 2 Park Street London SE1 9AB

Chez Kristoff Deli, 111 Hammersmith Grove, London, W6 ONQ

The Covent Garden hotel, 10 Monmouth Street London WC2H 9HB

If you know any nice, inspiring places in London, please let me know...I would love to check them out!

My inside life...at The Beat that My Heart Skipped

I've just came back from the day at Maison & Objet and just saw that the interview I had with Rohini over the weekend (you should follow her on Twitter...she has a great sense of humour and is obsessed by food like me) was live on her fabulous blog: The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Here it is....

If you haven’t heard of French sisters Elodie and Karine Kong, you will certainly have heard of their chic and inspiring online boutique BODIE and FOU, which regularly features in all the big interior magazines and counts top models Helena Christensen and Claudia Schiffer, actress Helena Bonham-Carter, Author and Journalist India Knight as some of their customers and fans.

With a great eye for design, the girls regularly spotlight the work of young European designers in their collection, which is full of amazing and beautiful things for the home and gifts. I spoke to Karine, the creative force behind BODIE and FOU and its sister site WhereDidYouBuyThat.com while she was attending Maison & Objet in Paris.

I collect… vintage toys [mostly cars] and vintage French sheets that I dye because they have a very unique texture, which almost look like linen sheets.

I can’t live without… Steve, my New-Zealander partner and Mila, our 4 years old…our little freewi [French/Kiwi].
My guilty pleasure is… Steve’s pancakes at weekends and just being in our new home, sitting by the fireplace watching my favourite TV series [House, Gossip Girl, Nurse Jacky, Spooks and Hustle].

Our house is filled with… family photos, vintage finds, books on design and interior decoration and children/fashion/interior magazines.

I treasure… the first pair of pink converse Mila wore when she was one year old and her doudous – her favourite soft toys, which are now falling apart but I’m trying to salvage to frame them.

Right now I can’t stop thinking about… beautiful, cute things for children to add to BODIE and FOU and what to do to celebrate WhereDidYouBuyThat.com’s 10th Anniversary!

Currently I am reading… or rather going through all my Japanese books from Paumes to get inspiring ideas for our new home.

My favourite item of clothing is… a blue scarf with white stars that Steve bought for me in France.

At the top of my furniture wish list is… a bed from Parma Lilac and the Airport sofa by Paola Navone for Poliform. Having recently moved into a 4-bedroom family house in West London, my mind is very high in the decoration clouds…

The last thing that really inspired me was… Vanessa Paradis’ Best Of [I have always been a fan and always will be] and our last trip to Columbia Road [East London]. Like a lot of people I guess, I have been struggling being back at work after Christmas and spending the day on Columbia Road and discovering new, beautiful and inspiring places really lifted up my spirits.

My comfort food is… A spicy salad prawns with bulgur. It’s a recipe from Michele Cranston…A-MA-ZING and ready in 10 mins

On my desk are… a MacBook Pro, an orange robot, my blackberry, piles of design catalogues from suppliers and right now, far too much paperwork to sort out.

This weekend I will… start decorating Mila’s bedroom. I have seen a lot of beautiful things at Maison & Objet and I need to get cracking with DIY because from mid-Feb, we’re going to have guests pretty much every weekend.

Tonight I must take it easy… It’s my last night in Paris and I want to make the most of my time with my best friend Emmanuelle who I hadn’t seen in three years.

New-York style table lamp

Finding nice, contemporary table lamps that work for our home is not as easy as one thinks....
I mean I love the oversized Dwarf Wired Lamp by Something from Nothing but it would not work in my home but yesterday when I was at Top Drawer, a trade show for interiors/gift businesses, I fell in love with this beautiful Tribeca table lamp and bought two white ones for one of our bedrooms and more stock to put them on our sister site which is soon we will have more gorgeous home accessories.

It is a really stunning lamp which I think will give a bit of a 'boutique feel' to our bedroom and will work perfectly simply put on our white wooden floors.
My inspiration behind the theme of our bedroom is a mix between the bedroom of Paul Massey (see below)

and of course the house of my favourite interior designer Jaqueline Morabito which beautifully blends vintage furniture with simple, timeless, contemporary pieces like the Tribeca lamp.
The lamps will be available at the beginning of March and of course, I will post some pictures of our new bedroom once I get cracking with DIY - which wont be this weekend as I'm off to Paris tomorrow to another trade show AND catching up with my best friends from Uni, with the minx in toe...

Happy Sunday in Columbia Road

I love it when weekends are as chilled out, inspiring and full of great news as ours was. On saturday, we enjoyed a long, delicious lunch with some friends and had - in a typical French way - a delicious meal that kept us around the table until 4pm. By then we were so full that the only thing we could think of was going home for a nap. This morning, we got up bright and early to take the same friends to one of my favourite places in London: Columbia Road which once again was inspiring as ever.
I found an absolutely gorgeous set of 6 wooden bowls (photo to follow) in Vintage Heaven, a shop I always make a point to visit each time we go there and which is also featured in London Vintage by Paumes (a book full of fabulous addresses for vintage treasures). That really made my day because I'm planning to eventually give a minimalist, organic feel to our kitchen (something like this gorgeous kitchen in Amsterdam) and they were just perfect!! Last year, in the same shop, I had found a vintage French garden chair painted in grey blue which I absolutely adore and if I managed to convince Steve to take off the carpet of the old wooden stairs and paint them in white, this blue chair is just going to look magical on the landing stairs!
There was also a beautiful, small ceramic Tajine dish for only £8 in white. I hesitated but it was for one person only and I felt I ought to get a large one like the one I saw in Muji which is gorgeous. But these wooden bowls are just going to make me feel very happy and content each time I look at them.
Steve also got a great winter hat as a gift for my brother from Laird of Glencairn which Mila wore and then later one they were both asked by a photographer if father & daughter could pose for him. I should have asked him what it was for....duuh.
Unfortunately some shops have closed down but others have opened up and discovering Campania Gastronomica really made my day. Campania Gastronomica is at no 95 Columbia Road and is like an Italian version of an English greasy cafe.

It is very small but has bag of character...The things that I really adore decoration wise were the gorgeous vintage and whitewashed country table, the montage on the wall of B&W photos from the 50s, the gorgeous menu with retro photos in sepia and the food was nice....nothing pretentious but tasty and simple. It's tiny, you have to queue to get a table but I absolutely love it and I really encourage you to check it out. It's a really shame I hadn't taken my camera but hey I will be back...

So given how inspiring my retro day was today, I couldn't think of a better home to show you than this beautiful flat in Paris. Rather than refurbishing it all, the owner made a point to emphasize the parts of this small flat (only 25m2) which hadn't been touched for the past 20 years. The result is very charming and unique.

The owner sourced all the old portraits on Ebay and I love how he displayed old paintings that one usually sees in a castle in his small flat. It's atypical and charming at the same time but it definitively works because the ancestors look at home next to Ferrucio Laviani's lamp Bourgie (edited by Kartell). I loved how he sanded the floorboards and whitened them with bleach which gives them a natural, distressed look. I also really like how the walls are half painted in grey and white. It's a very common look in old French houses but at the same time, it can look tremendously modern and it allows you to add intense hues of grey like the Downpipe from Farrow & Ball I used in one of the bedroom in our house in France without making the room too dark.

And the things that end this weekend beautifully was booking my train ticket to go to Maison & Objet next week and spend the weekend in Paris with my best friends from Uni. Book our ski holidays to Andorra with Elodie and her little family and finding out that there were also coming to stay with us in London for a week at the end of March.
I don't know about you but I have been really struggling being back at work after having a wonderful Christmas with my family and just having these few holidays to look forward with people I love really helped to lift the mood :-)
Have a great evening and I hope you had a wonderful weekend too. xoxo

(C) photos from Marie-claire Maison

Vintage pendant light by Katheen Hills

Yesterday, I was saying how much I love Kathleen Hills' work so here is another reason why I think she is very talented....She sourced vintage lamp shades and gave them a contemporary twist by adding her trademarks style ....beautiful parts in bone china and twisted flex.
I think the result is a beautiful almost romantic pendant light that will add lightness and style to a bedroom or bathroom.

So stunning....I'm aching

I have always been very admirative of the beauty and simplicity of Kathleen Hills' lights. Last Summer, before a photoshoot for a New-Zealander magazine, we added three of her pendant lights in our open plan kitchen in France (see below and me with my prawns salad. Coffee maker is from Bugatti here !).
I will eventually get rid of the Ikea one in stainless-steel but since we added Kathleen's lights 2 days before the photoshoot, we really did not have time for anything else.
The result was better than expected and I'm so glad for once I went out of my comfort zone and mixed the designs rather than going for three of the same designs like on the second picture which looks nice but a bit too clinical....

Gorgeous Fashion shop Whistles in London also mixed the designs....Well to be fair, they actually did it first and then I copied it but the result is fab and I really think mixing the designs work better....What do you think???

If you want to replicate the look of the Whistles shop, they've used the star light, the large pendant light and the cone pendant light.
And now, we have added the beautiful Cluster Light in black to our ever-growing lighting collection. Frankly..... I find it so stunning that I'm aching. I'm trying to think if it would work in our new house where we need to pendant lights in the lounge or if the staircase is high enough to afford such a striking pendant light but oh gosh, I do love it and I think regardless of the fact that it may give less light than the white Cluster light, the black one looks more luxurious and striking than ever!

I shall leave and ponder where I could fit it in the house......Click here to see more pictures of the Cluster Lights in situ.
Have a great Friday evening.
Bises xoxo

Funky Little Darlings wall stickers now at BODIE and FOU

I'm really excited today because we've just added the fabulous range of stickers from Funky Little Darlings to our collection and they all look fab!
Wall Stickers are a blessing when it comes to decorating a room. I mean all it takes is 2 min to open and peel the stickers and then you have a fabulous artwork on the wall in no time. I love the Funky Little Darlings collection because they really capture the world of children while being contemporary.
I'm pretty sure the Dinosaurus Rock wall stickers are going to be a hit with boys. We've received some fantastic feedback on the Dya-Think-E-Saurus wallpaper but if you are renting, wall stickers are easier to handle than wallpaper.

Click here to see the whole range of wall stickers.

Easy & stylish DIY project in the kitchen

This is the kitchen of Charlotte Sunden-Barbotin in Paris who happened to be a stylist but is also very lucky to grace the cover of Paris Kitchens 2 by Editions Paumes, one of the first books I bought from their fabulous series!

I've always loved how this pink wallpaper gave such a dynamic, convivial look to her kitchen and as yesterday someone bought two rolls of the Cotton Bud wallpaper by Selina Rose, I just thought, the Cotton Bud wallpaper would just be perfect to do something similar!

Using wallpaper is a fabulous and affordable way to update a room because you only need to do a feature wall or even just a counter like this kitchen to get a great result. Personally, I often think that a whole room wallpapered is either too classic for my tastes or overpowering but a feature wall is just perfect.
In our house in France, I did a feature wall with the True Blue wallpaper in turquoise by Camilla Diedrich in one of the bedrooms and although I probably used the only wallpaper glue on earth that actually stains!, the effect is fabulous and I only had compliments since I did it.

For more inspiration, see the wonderful books from Paumes here. We're getting new stock in a week or so as we've been cleaned out at Christmas!

It's a rug day today!

We've just added 4 more striking rugs to our rug collection and my favourite is the Spine rug designed by fashion designer Camilla Staek for Normann Copenhagen. For those, who never heard of Staek, she is a danish designer who is now mostly based in New-York and who has been awarded Top Shop’s New Generation Award three times!
She was called “a future fashion star,” by British Vogue, and has nabbed great reviews in such publications as Women’s Wear Daily, New York magazine and Elle Paris.
Darkly romantic in mood, and notable for her distinctive use of leather, Stærk’s collections also quickly earned her a devoted celebrity following, with fans including Sarah Jessica Parker, Liv Tyler and Julianne Moore and our favourite model and photographer Helena Christensen who proved to be so devoted to Stærk’s designs that she stocked them at her shop, Butik (on my list of places to visit next time I'm off to NY!) and hosted Stærk’s debut presentation in New York at the store, and threw an A-list Fashion Week party for the designer to celebrate her first catwalk show in the city.
Check Helena's NY home here...it's fabulous and very inspiring!
With the Spine rug, it is the first time that Camilla enters the world of design for the home. Her inspiration was Karen Blixen, her travels to Africa and her Danish roots. After designed Africa inspired prints for her fashion line, she felt the need to see this gorgeous print in a big size et Voila! The result is a striking and elegant Spine rug!
The other beautiful rug we've added is the Dahlia rug by Claydies, the talented designers behind our best-selling Grass Vase series.
Inspired by the Dahlia flower, the Dahlia rug is both decorative and adds colour and dynamism to a room. Armed only with a mirror, a compass and coloured pencils, the girls from Claydies toyed with geometric forms and created a pattern that is modern in form, colour and expression.

How to make an entrance...the soothing way

I couldn't resist showing you these beautiful shots of entrances I spotted on an Aussie blog. The weather in the UK is so grim and cold, I'm really struggling and although I should be starting with our DIY to turn our house into a home, I'm seriously lacking of energy and inspiration but I really really love how warm, welcoming and cosy these entrances make me feel.

These simple art prints on the wall look very soothing and calming and I love how the wooden floor on the last photo gives the house such a beachy feel.....

Dya-think-e-saurus wallpapers by Paperboy

If I had a little boy, I would have loved to decorate his bedroom with the Dya-think-e-saurus wallpaper range from Paperboy, especially the purple and silver one below...Isn't this gorgeous?
What I really like about this range is how they feature Dinos (therefore great for the kids) without actually looking too childish (hence good for design-savvy parents) and the actual design is just well-done. It has a wonderful sense of energy and life and in fact, I'm sure this wallpaper would look great in a hallway or as a quirky feature wall or even - if you're feeling super creative - to wallpaper the inside of his cupboard.
Oh...I just got an idea!...What about getting a cheap & cheerful pine wardrobe from Ikea and then paint it purple or grey and wallpaper the inside with this gorgeous Dya-think-e-saurus wallpaper range??? OK if any of you is going to do this or something similar, I want to see pictures!
For all the little men who LOOVVVEE dinosaurs, the Dya-think-e-saurus wallpaper (which translates into ‘do you think he saw us!’) is available in 4 colours and is printed on FSC accredited sustainable forest paper like most of our wallpapers.

For more children wallpapers, don't miss the Penguin wallpaper by Isak here and the fabulous range from our friends at Mini Moderns

January Monthly competition: Win a Clare Vivier leather wrist wrap

We're still playing catch up on all the orders we received when we were closed before Christmas and New Year, get the January sale sorted and trying to know where we are stock wise so forgive us for being a bit late on the monthly competition but hey....wasn't this worth the wait?? because this month, you can be the lucky winner of one truly gorgeous leather wrist wrap by Clare Vivier.
Elodie got one for Christmas from Christophe and I thought it was just perfect for her! I'm going to treat myself to one too and I thought this would make a wonderful prize to one of our stylish BODIE and FOU customers too! So here we go, pass on the word and click here to enter our monthly competition
Good luck and I hope you have a great weekend!

Nice customer review on the rubber vases

We got a lovely email today from one of our customers, Phillipa B. today who purchased two rubber vases...
"I would just like to let you know that they finally arrived this morning and that I am very pleased with them. They are a marvellous idea for anyone like me with shaky hands or young children in the house. Well done on a very innovative design!"
It is so nice when customers take the time to send positive comments...plus she is right, these rubber vases are unbreakable and perfect for family home...and there are in the January sale so you can get hold of them temporarily at 15% off the normal price.

the BODIE and FOU January Sale are on...Up to 50% OFF

You are probably wondering why we put so many pictures of children to announce the BODIE and FOU January Sale? Well, after two weeks spending some fabulous time with our two little girls, Lily (5) and Mila (4), all we can think of is spending more time at home with them rather than working from a cold warehouse but unfortunately or rather fortunately...we are still very busy so we shall put our dreams of working from home by the fireplace on the backburner and get on with things to get all the orders out of the door....
Enjoy the Sale, we have some great bargains there and I have even slightly discounted some of our popular products....

Back at work?? Here is something to cheer you up!

Like Oprah said...'the coolest ever....."
This is a video of the Black Eyed Peas performing in Chicago to celebrate The Oprah's Show 24th Anniversary...Amazing!

One cool, must-have bracelet on my list.....

Christmas + Day 3...a very in-active afternoon which felt really good....
The boys are watching a DVD (after going to bed at 8am today that's all they can manage...), Mila and Lily are playing on the computer, Elodie is sewing a blouse for Lily supervised by her 'sewing' Jedi (our mum) while I was looking for inspiration to decorate Mila's bedroom in our new family house in London.
I'm looking at the pics I took over the past few days...so many happy moments...
Christophe offered a beautiful La Trop bag and a leather wrist wrap by Clare Vivier to Bodie and after seeing this gorgeous bracelet on her, I know now that I will treat myself to one when we go back to work. When the stock arrived, they were so beautifully wrapped that I didn't dare to unwrap one in case I would do a crappy job to put it back but this bracelet is looking even more gorgeous in reality than on the photo.

Joyeux Noel et bonne annee

The last four weeks have been mental at the warehouse, we've been inundated by orders, more than we expected...and as a consequence we had to work from 8am until 11pm most days and weekends. I can't tell you how exhausted I was....
As soon as we closed BODIE and FOU for the holidays on Tuesday, I rushed home, gift-wrapped a few more presents and packed my bag as we were up the day after at 4am to catch our flight to France to spend the holidays with the family....I finally managed to have a good night sleep and slightly recovered but the last thing I feel doing is spending more time on my computer so I just wanted to wish you all a fabulous Christmas with your family.
I hope you get the chance to rest and have some quality time with the people you love!
Thank you for all your lovely comments, contributions and inspiration
Lots of love
xoxo
Karine
Montage from the fabulous sfgirlbybay

Last chance to get 10% OFF your order at BODIE and FOU

We know you have the choice to shop anywhere and Elodie and I are always grateful to all the customers who trust us, take part in our adventure and keep making our dream come true.

As some of you know, on the third Thursday of each month, we kindly send a nice code to all our customers who have signed-up for our newsletter (see the last one here). In December, we will exceptionally move the date forward and send our lovely Xmas code on Thursday 10th December so if you have not signed up yet, do it now here!
And if you really need one good reason why you should sign up with us, here are 8 of them!

Joyeux Noel!!
Bises