Isabelle Arseneault

I'm really crushing on the work of French illustrator Isabelle Arseneault right now. Anyone with me?

all images via the artist's website: www.isabellearsenault.com

Sophie

Image courtesy of google

I am sure you have seen her. She seems to be everywhere. I did not know a thing about her until my daughter was born, but now Sophie Giraffe is a familiar, much loved, face around here.

In case you have ever wondered, as I did, why this 40-year-old teething toy is so wildly popular (and pricey!) -I did a little research. According to Sophie's site, she is a longtime favorite because she is the first baby toy to stimulate all five senses. She is smooth and soft, with contrasting light and dark coloring from food paints- she squeaks and the distinctive smell of the rubber from the Hevea tree has proved to be pleasing to babies everywhere. In other words....this little giraffe is perfect.

If you are looking for something sweet and practical for that next baby shower- look no further!

Image courtesy of google

Manon Gignoux

via antler magazine

There is such a dreamy and other-worldly quality to Manon Gignoux's aesthetic that I just adore. If you haven't heard of her - she's a French stylist, designer, and artist and everything she creates from jewelry to surreal fabric statues to her own workspace seems to reflect a meeting of reality and fantasy. She sees her own work as existing "between art and fashion" and I love how she explains her influences:

"The origins of my work can be traced back to my last year of study at France’s Duperré School of Applied Arts when I carried out a photographic study of the clothes worn by workers in the early 20th century and explored the "traces of wear and tear" on clothes. Starting with details of a hundred or so photographs taken from books, I filled research notebooks and ended up with four themes: the "carpenter" or the traces of alteration, the "washerwoman" or the imprint of repeated movements, the "inside-out suit" or the dynamics of (de)construction, and the "woman shopkeeper" or the encounter between work clothes and everyday life and the way an object that is worn fits the body."

- from Manon Gignoux's "creative approach" statement

via Bloesem

via sam's notebook

via Facteur Céleste
via pia jane bijkerk

To see more of Gignoux's work go to her blog: Manon Gignoux
To see more pictures of her amazing studio go to: pia jane bijkerk

Fall in France

Though I'm in North Carolina and not France - these gorgeous pictures taken in and around Montpellier's Botanical Garden by Sonia of CozyMemories feel very right to me on this rainy fall day in NC...