Assembling Perpetual Paris (And Three Reasons Why We Love It)
Those of you who have been following this blog for a while will know that one of the Christmas presents I gave Andre last year was Perpetual Paris by Little Brown Pen - a glorious calendar that can be used one year after the next, comprised of 49 gorgeous photographs of Paris that fit together collage-style:
So the other week we decided to break Perpetual Paris out of its (immaculately presented) box and assemble that bad boy.
First of all we laid out the letters:
And then the numbers:
And filled the gaps with pictures:
So, having made the tough decisions regarding which picture to place where, all that remained was to clip all the squares together. Ahem.
I found it easiest to hold the cardboard square, and then very gently wiggle the clip into place:
It got a little trickier when I had to push another cardboard square onto a clip that had already been wiggled into place:
And even more tricky when I had to clip one row onto another:
In fact the whole process took rather a long time:
Yep, over an hour. But that's really cos I'm a total perfectionist and had to get each square exactly aligned:
I look proud, right? Look! Look! Look at what I did!
Perpetual Paris is so awesome. And I'm sure you wanna see it on the wall, yes? Well, je m'excuse, but you will have to wait just a little longer for that - we hung it over the desk in our home office, and immediately realised that if we painted the wall dark blue it would make Perpetual Paris look even more fabulous. Before and afters coming up soon - watch this space...
So, here are three reasons why we love Perpetual Paris.
1. It's super-pretty. And it's very entertaining to sit while I'm listening into a boring conference call and try and work out where all the pictures were taken. We think 1, 4, 14, 17 and 22 are from menus (and that 14 is from the same menu as the separate picture) - 25 is from a bottle - 10 is from the Metro - 8 is a number plate, and 30 is a speed limit.
2. It's the perfect colours for our house. We have a very defined colour palette of blues, browns, ivories, creams, and splashes of scarlet in our casa - which is based around a glorious abstract painting created by my artist Grandpa.
Check it:
You see the red splash in the corner of the painting? You see how I placed the red car (the only red photo in Perpetual Paris) in the exact equivalent position in the calendar? Totally unconscious, I swear. It obviously just feels right to me that a red splash should always appear in the bottom left hand corner of an image.
3. It reminds us of Paris:
Photos taken from our most recent trip to Paris for my birthday last year - Notre Dame and the islands, our smiley selves, breakfast (with kir, natch) on the Rue Vieille du Temple, and the view over les toits from our attic apartment in le troisième.
Le sigh. J'adore Paris. And our new calendar. Oh, and if you want a Perpetual Paris of your own, check out Little Brown Pen's shop immediately (if not sooner).
Psst! If you like this, you may also like...
Shopping: Our gorgeous new allium lamps
DIY: A round-up of our main before and after transformations
Shopping for the Nest, Travelling Nest | tagged Paris
Reader Comments (7)
So cool! I really enjoyed reading about your process putting it together, and am thrilled you like it!
This is such a great and well put together post! We love your dialogue and photos and can't wait to take our trip to Paris! You just made us anxious to go that much more. Thank you for such a great blog! -David & Ashley
Oh my goodness: great post and love the calendar! I'm now following littlebrownpen too. And, yes, post those pictures soon!!!
P.S. the doggies are just too much!
Looking forward to the before/after shots!
--Ashley
www.hitherandthither.net
Hi Alice,
Yes you look proud :) I read about you in LittleBrownPen. I love to have Perpetual Paris Calendar too it also remind us of Paris. My husband and I visited Paris in 2007 and we fall in love with the city. Will visit again when we have the budget .. :)
Btw, just to let you know that I love your blog and you are now on my daily reading list :)
see you around!
cheers!
ching
How wonderful to see Perpetual Paris in situ! The bold colors go smashingly with your decor.
Bonjour tout le monde! Thanks so much for visiting me :-)
Nichole - thanks for sharing this on your blog, I'm thrilled!
David and Ashley - have a wonderful time in Paris, and do let me know if you want any recommendations :-)
Libby - yes, they are the cutest dogs in the WORLD! Albeit a little reluctant sometimes to pose for photos...
Ashley - before and afters coming up soon!
Ching - thanks for finding me! It's all too easy to fall in love with Paris, right?
Lydia - it looks even better against a dark blue background. Can't wait to share the photos...