This past weekend, The New York Times featured a sweet love story in the Weddings/Celebrations section of their Sunday paper. The story chronicles a courtship that spanned three decades, with a plot reminiscent of When Harry Met Sally. It all started when Michelle Rosen first offered candy to David Zornitsky during the first lecture at a C.P.A. course. The couple married at Dylan’s Candy Bar in Manhattan. The bride wore a dress made of candy wrappers that was designed for Project Runway. The groom wore a matching Kit Kat wrapper bow tie. The aisle was lined with lollipop trees. The bouquet was made with candy. And the guests got to eat Cotton Candy, candy sushi and peanut butter and jelly tarts.

New York Times photographer Karen Cunningham must have felt like a kid in a candy store getting to photograph these bright, colorful, surreal wedding images. Check out the entire slideshow of Ms. Cunningham’s photos here.

We’ve been having a great time with our nephew, Carter. He’s at the age (almost 5 months) where he "talks" most enthusiastically back to us. Carter especially gets a big kick out of his Uncle Pascal who cracks him up with his funny faces and silly noises! As soon as Pascal stops clowning around, Carter will coo at him, begging him to continue with his crazy antics. In just two weeks, Carter and his parents are relocating to Buffalo, New York. We’ll miss them a lot! We haven’t even had a chance to set our handsome nephew up on a play date with the adorable Penelope Davis who was born just one week after him. Here’s pretty Penelope and her beautiful Mom, Melissa, modeling Penelope’s first Easter dress. It was our baby gift to Penelope and we were thrilled to learn that her parents chose it as her very first Easter ensemble. Doesn’t she look adorable?

While we wait for Carter’s first trip back to Wilmington, we’re brushing up on our French baby talk. It won’t be long before he’ll really be talking back to us!  Here are a few fun "bébé" words:

le bibi     [pronounced bee-bee]   (comes from the French word for bottle, which is biberon)
le bobo   [pronounced boe-boe]   (just like our English word for minor injury)
le dodo   [pronounced like dodo bird]   (comes from the French word for dormir, which means sleep/naptime/beddie-bye)
hop-là!   [pronounced Op-la]   (it means oopsie-daisy!)
tata or tati   [pronounced ta-ta or ta-tee]   (comes from the French word for tante, which means Aunt)
tonton   [pronounced tone-tone]   (it means Uncle)
mémé   [pronounced may-may]   (it means Grandma)
pépé   [pronounced pay-pay]   (it means Grandpa)
le popo   [pronounced poe-poe]   (it means poo-poo)
le joujou   [pronounced zhou-zhou]   (comes from the French word for jouet, which means toy)
le nanan   [pronounced nah-nah]   (it means yummies, sweets, num-nums)

With a tati and a tonton who make gourmet chocolate bon bons for a living, you can bet that our nephew will be asking for nanans in no time!

I love to plan parties, and although most of our South ‘n France parties are done on a small scale (10-16 people), from time to time I get to plan a bigger event. This time, the big party was a surprise in honor of my mother’s sixtieth birthday. Mom is a talented seamstress who has spent years working for local community and professional theater houses, the film industry, and her own collection of independent customers. We thought it was only fitting to organize her birthday party around a sewing theme. The first task was to send invitations depicting this cute seamstress to everyone in her address book. The custom-made invitation was inspired by a sculpture called The Fiber Artists; I bought it from janusdesigns on etsy.com because she looks a lot like our Mom! Of course, we asked guests to keep their lips buttoned so the party would be a surprise. We also began planning a special fashion and talent show that proved to be a real stitch! 

Decorating with sewing supplies was an obvious choice. We purchased hundreds of tape measures and used them to make curtains reminiscent of a beaded walk-through curtain. Yarn balls on knitting needles formed our centerpiece "bouquets". Eleven hot pink double curtain panels were hung from the rafters to create a canopy ceiling. And thousands of buttons in shades of pink, green, red and purple were strewn on tables and in the vases that held our centerpieces. Unbeknownst to her, I raided my mother’s collection of hundreds of sewing patterns, where I selected about forty vintage patterns in shades of pink and green. I then made oversized photocopies of the images to create a pattern-inspired wall collage.

Cath’s Chair Covers provided the gorgeous chair covers and pink satin bows that just happened to perfectly match those curtain panels I had found. Cath personally tied every bow on every chair herself! We rented the round tables and lime green tablecloths from Party Suppliers. When D-Day (Decorating Day) arrived, I was on pins and needles because I knew that transforming the venue would be no small task. Thankfully, I had enlisted a tight knit group of family and friends to help make my vision a reality. Pascal spent the entire day climbing up and down a 10-foot ladder. Our friends Anne and Mary painstakingly ironed all of those silk and organza curtains. Our two "Marthas" (friends so talented they could be related to the famous one) created the wall of patterns and made bows to decorate "fabric trees". Even my Dad (who has not a crafty cell in his body) got into the act, sorting knitting needles and turning them into the stems that created our yarn bouquets.

 

By the end of a very long (and warm!) day of decorating, we were all pleased with the seamless transformation of the austere hall we had rented. The stage had been set for a fun birthday celebration that was simple, yet oh sew chic! Our Mom was very surprised, especially when the fashion show started and friends and family who had traveled from as far away as Canada, upstate New York, Virginia, and Texas came out to model her costume creations. As for the party planner? I loved piecing the entire event together, but two weeks later, I’m still on the mend!

Today is my sweetie’s fortieth birthday. I’m a lucky, lucky girl to have a husband who is funny, romantic, hard-working, and a wonderful sport. So, indulge me as I share with you forty of the many-million reasons why I love this guy:

1. He makes me laugh.  Especially when he does the "lizard dance", talks in his Brooklyn accent, and hams it up just for me, his audience of one.
2. He makes the bed nine days out of ten (I do the honors on the tenth because he hates an unmade bed); he does dishes; he always takes out the trash; and he does more than his share of the household chores.
3. He has a really cute French accent that makes me (and others) swoon whenever he talks in English.
4. He always reminds me to take my cell phone when I leave the house.
5. He encourages me to sleep in, relax, take naps – anything to see me work less and take care of myself more.
6. He has a green thumb and makes sure that we are surrounded with beautiful, flowering plants throughout the year.
7. He likes children.
8. He is an excellent traveling partner who strongly encourages frequent stops at antique malls, flea markets, and roadside attractions.
9. He (eventually) says "Yes" to my crazy photo shoot ideas like dressing up as Forest Gump, wearing a Santa suit in Central Park, posing with the Easter Bunny, etc.
10. Every now and again, he plans an amazing surprise get-away for the two of us.
11. He has his own unique sense of style, which these days consists of Adidas flip flops with socks, cargo shorts, a chef’s jacket, and a South ‘n France visor.
12. He cuts fresh pineapples and butternut squash and all of those other tricky fruits and vegetables perfectly – even when it’s my turn to cook.
13. He says: "Bingo!" when somebody "hits the nail on the head" with a perfect idea or suggestion.
14. He’s cute. 
15. When he’s in the checkout line at the grocery store and I call him to say: "Oops! I forgot one thing… will you please buy me a tomato too?", he pays, gets that forgotten tomato, and gets back in line a second time to pay for it, even though it’s an annoying inconvenience.
16. He makes perfect JiffyPop popcorn, managing to get almost every kernel to pop perfectly. (They don’t have JiffyPop in France, and he thinks the concept is truly fascinating!)
17. He makes sure our car always has gas (I forget to check…)
18. He tells me "Je t’aime" several times per day.
19. In the winter, he allows me to put my freezing hands and feet on his warm body, even though he complains a little at first.
20. He gave up his country, his culture, and his food to be here with me and has done a beautiful job of adapting and learning English. Sometimes I’m astonished at how advanced his English has become.
21. He hardly ever complains about me keeping the nightstand light on, reading in bed into the wee hours of the morning, even though he prefers to sleep in total darkness.
22. He is incredibly charming, and a very skilled flirt.
23. There’s that saying that Frenchman appreciate things that age: wine, cheese, women. True to the cliché, he often tells me he prefers the woman that I am now (fine lines, big curves) to the young, skinny girl that I was when we met.
24. He’s sentimental.
25. He wears a bathrobe with panache (it’s a French thing).
26. Even though I’ve bought him a dozen travel coffee mugs, he insists on driving with a china coffee mug nestled in the car’s cup holder. (And yes, this strategy has backfired on him more than once!).
27. His laugh tickles me (especially when he’s laughing at his own jokes).
28. He’s got a deep, raspy singing voice (that I wish I would hear more often).
29. He’s been my faithful partner-in-crime through many a crazy adventure, including the launch of this bon bon business.
30. Even though I’ve known him for more than fifteen years, I’m still learning new things about him, uncovering new layers.
31. He plates food beautifully, even when it’s just the two of us, sitting down for a simple dinner.
32. Occasionally, he’ll do something completely out of character, like agreeing to watch episodes of Ugly Betty on DVD with me.
33. He whistles.
34. He gives me sweet little kisses (love pecks) almost every time I walk by him.
35. He likes to see me wear my Bon Bon Queen outfit.
36. He drives us everywhere because I don’t like to, even though he enjoys being a passenger too.
37. Our musical tastes differ greatly (I can only listen to so much of David Bowie, U2 or Pink Floyd), but once in a while, I come home and find him listening to someone like Andrea Bocelli.
38. We share the dream of having a second home in France, traveling the world, and sharing the European "good life" with friends and family.
39. He puts on this gruff-tough-talking exterior – don’t tell him, but it doesn’t hide the fact that he’s really a soft-hearted, sensitive guy.
40. He’s my mon ami, mon amant, mon amour, pour la vie.