Paris

No, I haven't disappeared from the face of the Earth. Busy organising and arranging [and trying not to procrastinate. The Interweave deadline is coming up soon and I've still done nothing concrete.] 
Spent a long weekend in Paris last weekend.  It was soooo cold.  I haven't been that cold in a long time.  Here's Notre Dame for your viewing pleasure.  In moody black and white to emphasise the coldness...

During the weekend, I also made a quick stop at the Phildar boutique [this is supposed to be a knitting blog] at Galeries Lafayette, probably the hugest department store in Paris.  They had a pretty good [but small] selection of Phildar yarns and mags, and I scooped up a few for further study.  The colour selection of yarns available wasn't to my personal taste though, and the selection of  fibres was a touch on the synthetic side, so no yarn indulgence.  That said, there were plenty of bargains to be had in terms of sale packs of yarn and the assistants were friendly.

Sunday was spent at the fleamarket at Clignancourt on the outskirts of Paris.  Lots of amazing things, lots of them at amazing prices.  I came across a batch of 1930's handcraft and sewing magazines, and snapped them up for 50 euros. I also scored some "galalite" [bakelite?? definitely some kind of plastic] sequins, hand made from tiddlywinks.  Fifty cents each.  No idea what I'm going to do with them yet. The photo doesn't really show off the colours very well.  They're also really grubby and need a good clean, which doesn't help.

And to finish, some creepy beauty advice, circa 1932, courtesy of Modes & Travaux:

Rejuvenate yourself and become more youthful and beautiful in only half an hour with a RADIOACTIVE [?!] beauty mask.  Wonder why these never caught on?  I just googled "caoutchoucs de beaute" and found it means "beauty rubbers"...Radioactive rubber beauty masks....ok.  Almost as frightening as those knitted clown masks that were doing the rounds a few weeks ago.