Happy Holidays

 I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and happy holidays. It has been very busy, but I wanted to pop by and wish you a very happy, healthy and fabulous New Year 2023!

Hope you enjoy this picture postcard for the month of December; there is more to come soon!

xxx

My new workspace's petit Christmas tree, which is the first MaiTai Collection one!

Blue and Green should always be seen.

We still had a few warm and mild days in December, so I was adding a dash of white as a fresh winter accent.

I am currently working on new fabrics for the MaiTai Collection inserts, which will become available in the spring/summer next year.  At first, I sourced an emerald green interior fabric for the insert below, but when I was ready to place my order it turned out that it had been discontinued in the meantime. In the end, I am glad the green didn't work out as I love the electric blue I found instead. 

A tree amongst trees

My door wreath sources sadly no longer exist, so I gathered some decoration materials, pinecones, twigs and berries from the woods and pinned them with florist wire onto an existing base. 

It is not perfect, but it was fun to do, and I'll definitely give it another try next year. 

The champagne delivery came just in time for the holidays.

For those two, it has been a very relaxing December!

The Amaryllis in my kitchen opened just in time for Christmas

More greenery, this time to give the dining table on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day a festive touch.

How to 

Start with a narrow base of greenery, and make sure you leave enough space for the place settings. Place some focus points (small plants, candle holders etc) along the way. Build up the base in volume and height with bunched-up berries, and leafy and evergreen twigs. Add more decorations such as pinecones, baubles, small figurines or candleholders. More is definitely better! 

Hope your holidays and Christmas were merry and bright xxx

MaiTai Collection news:

The inserts in the Ralph Lauren Nantucket fabric collection are now also available in a fresh and lovely denim colour here

November recap

November has been beautiful and sunny for the most part, which was just as well as "Swan-in-Chief" Jerrine came for a visit! We had lunch at the beach, and it felt like summer ... while sipping chilled Rosé, we fed little sparrows with baguette crumbs and watched sailboats bumbling along the blue Mediterranean Sea.

Wiener and Roley came with us too, of course, and spent a considerable amount of time under the table devouring their bones. Then onto the lap for a little snooze! In case anyone wonders where Roley is ... he is happily nestling with his Dad.

Picture credit: Jerrine

Picture credit: Jerrine

The beach lunch was followed by a couple of fun days in Paris. While walking around the hotel's neighbourhood, we stumbled upon this adorable little boutique specializing in peppers and pepper mixtures from all around the world.

It's located in one of the prettiest squares in Saint-Germain, right around the corner from the Manuel Canovas showroom, where I often go to source fabrics for my bag insert collection. 

Because of the long pause in blogging, I almost forgot to show you the finalized chairs for the showroom entrance. You might remember the poll we had about which fabric to choose (here)? While I tended towards pink in the end, I changed direction after coming across the fabulous Hedgerow fabric by Andrew Martin for KitKemp, painted by Melissa White.  The fabric's large vignettes show dragons, dogs, leopards and unicorns under giant fruit trees laden with plums, berries and grapes. It was love at first sight, and I thought it would be perfect with the forest backdrop on the walls and carved foxes and oak leaves of the console table. The fabric comes in a pretty pink (Cerise) and warm yellow (Quince). I couldn't decide between them, so I went with both!

The chairs themselves are buttoned Hugo Carvers (with a customized height) by the Dining Chair Company in London. Their showroom is located in Pimlico, and when I was in London last spring, we finalized the placement of the fabric. I decided on the leopard for the back, the dog for the sides and the unicorn for the seat. It all worked out perfectly, and I could not be happier with the result. 

Work in progress (pictures by the Dining Chair Company):

Console table detail

Mix and match: Quince and Cerise

The "Tall Trees" wallpaper behind Amélie, the mannequin, is by the same artist as the Hedgerow fabric above, Melissa White. The Ozone scarf is tied in a variation of the Origami, where the first end is tied around the second, secured with a small double knot.

More scarf knots! I shared them on Instagram a couple of months ago, but don't think I posted them here yet.

1st row from left to right: Asymmetrical Wrap,  a variation of the Ondulation (both ends are the same length and brought through a round ring) and the Chemisier

2nd row: Ondulation (with both ends pulled through a round scarf ring, one end shorter), Croisée and Petit Bib

3rd row: Cascade, Ascot and Gavroche Flower knot

Scarf: Inside Out by Kit Kemp

Towards the end of the month, the fields and trees finally exploded in autumn colours and shades of gold, yellow, red and orange (can anyone spot the dogs in this pic?), 

 A perfect autumn meal ...  oven-roasted golden carrots and sweet potatoes, filled aubergines and a sprinkling of parsley and cherry tomatoes. 

Lunch the next day consisted of leftovers, fried up with some pasta from the day before. I love cooking with leftovers, not only because the flavors have intensified over night, but also because they lend themself to surprise dishes that sometimes even become new staples. 

Bowl: Mythical Creatures by Kit Kemp for Wedgwood

A new, sky blue appliqué flower combining paint with embroidery. Wish I had more time to indulge in this!

Soon I'll be saying goodbye to my wonderful Tesla Model S, which I've had since 2017. It is the best car I've ever driven, powered almost entirely by solar. A new one is on its way (I've been monitoring the cargo ship's movement with great excitement for the last two weeks ...  today it finally docked in Zeebrugge, Belgium). More on this soon! 

Wiener and Roley cuddling in their Lord Lou Arthur basket 

The entry of Ralph Lauren's flagship store in Paris, glamorously decked with lush greenery and giant golden baubles. Jerrine and I had a champagne night cap at the Ralph's bar, toasting the end of the trip. A perfect start into the holiday season!

Happy holidays and enjoy a most beautiful festive season!

xx

As always, none of my content is sponsored or paid for by a third party. There are no affiliations, paid advertising or collaborations. Just showing things that I love. 

Beach Club: Palace Plage here

Spice's shop: Compagnie des poivres et des epices here  7 Rue de Furstemberg, 75006 Paris

Dining Chair Company here Hugo Carver here

Hedgerow Fabric by Andrew Martin here

More about Melissa White: here

Ozone scarf by Kit Kemp here

Tall Trees wallpaper by Kit Kemp here

Lord Lou Arthur dog basket: all available Lord Lou items can be purchased with a 15% discount through my site or via email customerservice@maitaicollection.com

Ralphs here

If you are interested in my Tesla Model S, please email me for details maitaicollection@orange.fr