Ludwig Bemelmans

Ludwig Bemelmans is best known for his creation of the legendary children's book character, Madeline.  That typical little Parisian school girl has graced the bookshelves of countless children around the world for years, including mine.  I recently stumbled across a drawing of Bemelmans' that captured my adult interest just as his Madeline once captured my childhood imagination.  I'm no artist and don't pretend to know much of anything about visual art.  Nevertheless, Bemelmans' drawings seem almost to be "stream of consciousness" to me--lines that seem to never end, looping and turning and dancing across the page, creating some of the most elegantly idiosyncratic little scenes I've ever seen.

Profile of a Lady. 

ink, wash, and graphite

St. James's Park. 

ink and gouache on paper

(image above)

Self Portrait. 

pen, black ink, and grey wash

Chef tasting wine.

watercolor and ink on paper

white + black + wood

I've recently acquired the "need to redecorate" itch.  I don't know who gave it to me, but I'm actively calling all my recent partners to try and narrow it down.

Bah-dum-ching.

Anyway, I'm really loving the mix of classic black and white with raw rustic woods.  I think the combination of materials keeps things fresh and clean but without turning contemporary and too modern.  Here are some of my recent favorites:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

blabla

NC has a favorite doll from Blabla (Clochette the fairy!) that she has been sleeping with pretty much every night since she was just a couple months old.  We used to not know exactly if she liked her doll or not because of the frequency of which she would chuck said doll out of her crib while laughing maniacally.  We thought for a while she might have had it out for her.

Luckily, over the past month or so, she has started to snuggle up to her doll when we lay her in her crib and when we go in after she has woken up, she is sitting there holding up her doll, so excited to show us her sweet friend.  (Thank god she outgrew the 'doll-murderer' phase.)

I'm so glad she has taken to her Blabla doll because I think it is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  Blabla dolls are so soft and whimsical and they wear really well too (just don't put it in the dryer!).  So I was so very pleasantly surprised to find out that Blabla also has a precious line of bedding, play mats, rattles, and other fun accessories, all just as adorable as their knitted dolls.

Pointelle Blanket (mist), Coverlet (bunny lagoon), Crib Sheet (little sleepy grey), 

Bunny/Stars pillow (grey), Fleur the bunny

Bunny/Stars traveling play pad (grey), Suzette the fox, Pillow (apple grey),

Oh So Sleepy traveling play pad (grey)

Pom the apple, Crib Sheet (ruffle pink/orange), Coverlet (suzette pink)

Pretzel Rattle (orange)

Would you judge me if I bought one of their sweet knitted dolls for myself??  Yeah, good idea, let's just ignore that.

xoxo

--mel