Tuna Birthday!

You don't plan on spending your birthday doing hand-to-hand combat with a tuna sandwich. But life is full of little surprises. And when the challange is to paint a tuna sandwich. And you have a deadline, the tuna sandwich takes precedence over champagne et macarons. I'm always saying I never eat birthday cake...
 Last weekend I took myself off to Soho to do chocolate cake research for the same illustration project.

First I went to very 'Frenchie' Ceci Cela patisserie.

And got this layered affair to practice on.

I did manage to get a sketch out of it before I was compelled to eat it. It was melting under the table lamp. What else could I do? Next I headed to Francois Payard's new patisserie.

Tres mignon.

Payard's little Sacher cake didn't even make it to the sketch page.

But it did help immerse me in essence of chocolatie cake research. Just what a pastry artist needs...

The tuna sandwich will not be eaten. It has dried up under the lights. But there is nothing like having real props to work from. The new Ladybug kitchen timer is from the Soho Pylones by the way.

BONJOUR TUNA BIRTHDAY!

Mini Bla Bla Bla

Announcement: NEW BIRD IN THE HOUSE!

This is Piu-Piu#1 from Pylones in Paris and acquired in 2006 And this is Piu-Piu #2
Bought to keep Piu-Piu#1 company.And let me tell you these birds are inseparable!Of course it's true that these birds just happen to be magnetic...Ahem
Their main job is to collect metal paperclips =
They are "working birds"!
But these little guys are awfully fond of having tea with Pierre Herme desserts. In fact they've become regular slackers and refuse to mess with paperclips at all! Shocking is it not?So what's up with all this interest in mini this and mini that?
Mini tea sets and mini birds and mini desserts? Hmmm...I'm trying to figure that out myself.
Did the attraction start in Provence or buying the 1st mini Eiffel Tower on a Paris street corner..?

Or at the petite boutique, L'Ile Flotantte on the Ile Saint-Louis.

I found myself taking pictures of mini nonsense everywhere...

This toy store on rue Cassette was loaded china sets even in the window. *Note the naughty drunken French pig at the table...

I meant to go back and buy one. I think with all the tough things going on in the real world, taking refuge in a mini perfect world seems like a pleasent escape at the moment...

Look! I spotted these mini fried eggs in my local 24-hour store in the Marais. Awfully silly and awfully sweet. Well they are candy after all...

BONJOUR MINIS!

Pylones

It's Piu Piu's birthday today!

A year ago I found Piu Piu in PYLONES' window and couldn't resist...

I discovered PYLONES 17 years ago when I admired cookbook author Dori Greenspan's plastic necklace at a party.

Next trip I made a beeline for PYLONES' then tiny closet-size shop in Galerie Vivienne.

Now they have 6 shops in Paris, 2 in New York + Hong Kong + THE WORLD

I got the necklace, the earings, and the bracelet.

I still wear them and I still get compliments.

Pylones was created 20 years ago

with the intention of making small colorful items, especially animals - useful toys for adults.

I wish I'd gotten this kitchen grater last trip...

Whether you buy something or not...
Their merchandise never fails to amuse.
It's Yellow Bird's birthday too,
He's a New York bird from Elie Zabar's Kids store on Madison Avenue...
I saw this big 16" wide bag the previous Paris trip but resisted.
Naturally I was thinking about it for months...
I had to pick it up at PYLONES and it did carry home alot of treasures
It's made by www.LAMARELLE.net
Isn't it funny how you can obsess about THE ONE THING you didn't buy...
And the next trip's sole purpose is to get that ONE THING!?
Here are PYLONES hours...
Open EVERY DAY!
YAY

Your Comments...

"Anonymous" inspired yesterday's post. I often get my blog ideas from your comments...I'm easily influenced. EVERYONE wants to see more Paris macarons. And more on Ladurée...
Ms. Glaze did a post on cherry clafoutis and I remembered all the cherries I'd seen and painted in Paris...
Someone said they'd like a look in my sketchbooks...
Ed in Australia said, "I love your wine sketches. So...wine sketches went on the menu.
M. in Paris asked me...
Is Piu Piu still singing?

Let me know if you have a favorite topic on Paris, pastry, paints or anything at all. Someone said they'd like to see my studio...
Maybe tomorrow if I can straighten things up a bit.
I'm easily influenced :)

Piu Piu - Pylônes - Piaf

The little guy sitting on the dollhouse sewing machine is called Piu Piu. He comes from Pylônes in Paris. Piu Piu is the nickname for little bird in France and Brazil and similar to our Tweedi Bird character.

If you're crazy, nuts for goofy chatchkes go to Pylônes.

There are 5 Pylônes shops in Paris, 6 in Japan and 2 in NYC.

I spotted Piu Piu in the window of the Marais' Pylônes on 13 rue St Croix de la Bretonnerie and it was instant love. I fell for the one on the upper left because of his complementary coloring and he was damn cute. A cook book author, was wearing this baublely illustrated necklace at a James Beard House event 10 years ago - I was a house photographer there for 7+ years. Each epoxy resin globe has silly illustrations inside: numbers, dog muzzles, faces, star fish, monkey twins etc. Next trip over I went to their tiny closet-size shop in Galerie Vivienne and got the necklace, earings, bracelet. I passed on the ring.

I've always had a thing for sparrows. They flit about when I walk to the pool at 7am and yack outside my window even earlier. So Piu Piu was an easy addition to my collection of what-nots.

When you bring home a new pet you should know something about him...
I didn't know this little guy was a working bird.
I didn't know he was a magnet for paperclips and straight pins until I wrote this post. I didn't know he would chirp non-stop once out of his box. See the white paper tab sticking out of the bird's bottom in the 2nd picture?
Pull the white tab -> the chirping begins.
I didn't know he was created by artist, Ionel Panaït a Romanian designer living in France.

Piu Piu is a chirping color wheel for me.
He's made up of 2 sets of complimentary colors.
RED + GREEN or/ RED + TURQUOISE a similar combo
YELLOW + PURPLE
The 3rd set BLUE + ORANGE is missing on this little guy but I can live with that. Here's a watercolor tip for those inclined - When you mix 2 complimentary colors together you'll get some very handsome GREYS..much better than using Paynes grey or Davy's grey straight out of the tube.

Piu Piu, watercolor, 12 x 10"

Painting Piu Piu is an ongoing project for me. Here he is next to my La Vaissellerie tea pot. French customs stopped me leaving Charles de Gaulle airport for New York. I thought it was Piu Piu, chirping away in my purse like mad, but I'd forgotten to get rid of an AirFrance fork I'd snagged on the trip over. They didn't make much of a fuss and just giggled about Piu Piu. He can be useful at customs too. A working bird.

The "Little Sparrow" or Petit Moineau has a new movie about her, LA VIE EN ROSE which means the sweet life). It's named after one of Piaf's most loved songs. The words in French are ( here. And in English as sung by Louis Armstrong are here.