PARIS.

Marianne Robic

We can’t give you a website for this one, so you are just going to have to trust us and go visit for yourself. But honestly, an ever changing and completely diverse florist located across from the gardens of the Prime Minister ’s home in Paris? Definitely worth the trip alone. And yes, it is true. They grow and sell apples with hearts on them (pic right).  Doing it every day but Sundays.

Marianne Robic. 39, rue de Babylone, 75007 Paris, France. +33 1 53 63 14 00

We love flowers. We love them so much the very first homelove post was about how you can do your own arrangements with household finds as vessels. (Go the empty tea canister!) . We cut out and save clippings of any good flower shops we read about around the world as you truly never know where you will be needing a bunch. We are going to dedicate this week’s postings to flowers and the world’s loveliest flower stores. We must of course start in our own backyard with the studio of Grandiflora.

SYDNEY.
Grandiflora

Headpieces, fashion shows, weddings, gatherings, Christmas wreaths – whatever Grandiflora put their hand to, they have a remarkable signature to their work that makes them THE grandest of flower studios.  All work is undertaken with the eye of an artist and a florist and you would be amazed to see what comes out of the small studio space. Space isn’t important here, Grandiflora flowers go on to do the biggest of things whether it be in people’s homes, at an event or at an opening.

1/12 Macleay St, Potts Point, NSW 2011, Australia. +61 2 9357 7902
www.grandiflora.net

Just the other day I was reading something that had been written by the architect Sean Godsell. I’m paraphrasing but the text said something along the lines of “being good is fine/expected when you’re young, but being good when you’re 50 – that is talent”. And here we have THE most talented designer, one of my personal favourites Jean-Paul Gaultier. He has outdesigned and outwitted everyone. Old news is his hotel room, but it’s good to be reminded of his genius and the simple power of the stripe.

I have not really blogged this year yet, even though I have notched up a few 2011 posts. I’ve have really just asked you all to ping on things relevant, or consider this or that. Support QLD flood via a Tamara Maynes tea towel one day (please do)/ find me an intern the next / show your style on tv. But please believe me when I say that I am going to start my new blog plan super soon, but in the meantime, I find that this beautiful form of whispering around to like minded people, is such a great way to put people in touch with each other. A creative cupid if you like. So today, if you know anyone who has topnotch retail experience, Koskela would love to talk.  Koskela kick major interior goals. They are Australian. They are dynamite. They are expanding their Sydney showroom soon (for those who know Koskela –  you just won’t believe the new retail space! seriously… standby for amazingness).They want a new retail manager and while they are looking for someone who does have extensive retail experience it need not necessarily be in furniture – you could be a star in the fashion retail world or some other field altogether. You will need to know the ins and outs of running and motivating a passionate retail team and above all, hold a sincere flame  for design. Maybe it is you. Maybe it is a friend or just someone you – as interior/homeloving people – have come across in a store who simply went that extra mile. Email info@koskela.com.au.

Getting to know Monique Germon is like a gift. Layer upon layer, she reveals her cleverness. But not just bolshly like through her work (which is of course, beautiful), but more so the way she takes to everything. Considered. Poetic. Both dramatic and reduced all at the same time. What is so great about the latest from Monique is that now the wider world too can experience her delicate way of seeing and dreaming, through a store that serves not just to trade in beautiful things, but in the art of story telling.

I wanted to post EVERY single picture she has on her site, but that would spoil the joy of discovering Story – The Store. In her words, “Story reveres authenticity above all & pays homage to this as a style unto itself. In other words, we’re born rural and remain so. Most importantly,we honour the act of storytelling as an art form”, and it really does sum up the purity of Story’s offer.  She has managed to do something no other online trader has yet to do, and that is to leave the visitor with a feeling they have every right to be in there, fossicking, rummaging and fooling around all of the beauty she has created. The fact you can buy things is the bonus I think.

Oh Story, I wish you every success. Please ping to people who you know will covet the Story discovery like the precious jewel that it is.

Story-TheStore.com

All day, everyday, online.

It doesn’t get any better. A new Hermes store opened on the Left Bank in December. Amaze! A complete sweeping staircase made of curved strips of ash wood. Coffee is 9 euros served in their house china.

17 rue de Sevres, 6th arr.
Metro: Sevres-Babylone
Open Monday-Saturday, 10:30AM-7PM
www.hermes.com

Lobster and crabs are delicious. We are scouting for perfect specimens of seafood for a job tomorrow – Oh, delicious. And Hayden Christie, we salute you.

(image snapped while hunting at the fish markets!)

Having just returned from the devastation in Queensland, I can only urge you to consider clicking `yes, please’ to one of Tamara Maynes’s original bus roll tea towels.

Buy some, send to your friends, family up there. They are beautiful. 100 per cent cotton and designed and printed in Australia by  Tamara.

Tamara, being Tamara and the magnificent person that she is, will donate 100 PER CENT of the profit to The Salvation Army QLD Flood Appeal.

Brisbane Bus Roll Tea Towel just $20 plus p + h. (buy 4, postage for 1 or 4 is the same!)

Anyone? The best way  to check out the show’s site is over here… Ping to people you know, we need fabulous interior role models from all walks of life on our tv screens. And a bit like my internship opportunity posted earlier, (interested? see here) –  industry passion is what is needed above anything else.

Hello everyone. Hope 2011 is treating you well so far and your holidays were fun filled.While it’s early 2011 days, we have a huge year ahead. Almost too huge.

OUR PLANS are sky high and we just don’t have enough hands or clever minds! We will be relocating our beautiful props house, The Propery, to a bigger and better space. We are shooting and running a new book, a sister to HOMELOVE. We have forward bookings galore for incredible pictures to be made. So to that end, we are looking for a self starter intern. The job description is too wide for words – one day it can be assisting on a tv commercial, the next coordinating a shoot, another furnishing clients’ houses or brewing up amazing makes and so much more. Yes, there will be coffee runs. Yes, there will be tantrums (not from me but possibly others!) Yes, it will be exhausting. Yes, it will be challenging but it will be the very best learning experience  you could come across. We are looking for an intern who can work with us for 2 days every week for 6 months. We will feed and water you and teach you, and if you are a sponge (we hope you are!) you will come out the other end shining. This is a non-paid arrangement.

TO APPLY, we’d like to know a little bit about you as we hope this call out reaches far and wide. Former helpers have been ex investment bankers, Aids nurses, retail workers, stay at home mums, teachers, fruit pickers (truly). We don’t require industry experience, more just industry passion.There is no real experience needed or required. This is a learn on the job situation. So you will need to be a self starter. A fairly observant and quiet worker (there are enough noisy peeps in our work life!) . Apt at tweeting, key wording, blogging and an appetite for all things technical and new world. An indecent love of the beautiful  - no matter what its provenance. We are a mac office. We love stationery. We love coffee. We laugh a lot (when it’s appropriate) We work super hard. We sweat most days, but it’s a good sweat, not a hot-yoga one.

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED, please send us a short (no longer than 1 page if you can) cv  with a para about what you’d like to learn. In turn, tell us why you think you’d make the perfect intern for our small team.  Oh and a photo, so if we see you in the street we can say `Yoo hoo, hi there!” For the intern, who knows what it will lead too … but it will be wonderful! We can promise you that.

A SMIDGE ABOUT US. We work on pages, commercials, products big and small,  paint ranges, people’s homes,  people’s holiday houses, people’s boats, luxury atmospheres (parties, celebrations, pop ups, you name it), write on decor and interiors and put our hands up for anything that requires an informed eye. We are dedicated to generally making beautiful. Always. Most of all though, we love to style. We’re actually quite a small business and while our clients’ pockets might be deep, ours certainly aren’t – but our plans are sky high! so we’re looking for the kind of person who’d like to exchange their time for the type of experience money can’t buy…

Some of our sites, to give a rounded idea of the business … www.meganmorton.com (ahem.. a very big work in progress)/ www.thepropery.com.au / www.roomimages.com / www.homelove.com.au

SO SEND YOUR submissions marked with `MM INTERN’ in the subject header to styling@meganmorton.com by the 25th of February 2011.  Placement starts mid March-ish, 2011 building works dependant. And, yes, please ping us on to anyone you think might be interested.