Bienvenue 2012

Welcome to 2012!

We are so thrilled to be entering this new year with you! We have shared a year with you via our blogging and your support and comments, and now we are beginning a new calendar year. We are hoping that we can take the steps to make this year better than 2011, and we invite you to do the same. 2011 was a very nice year for us as far as personal and professional growth and we hope that during this new year, we continue to thrive along with you. 

Wooden Grape Carriers from the 

Bordeaux,france area

To make this a great year we will not be sitting around waiting to see what good things this year will bring us, but we plan to roll up our sleeves and do everything in our power to make things happen for us.  Life can deal us all sorts of cards, and we have to be ready to work with them. It's not about "rolling with the punches" or accepting our circumstances, it is about taking the reins and doing everything possible to deal with life's little circumstances.

 

1850's French Journal books, see all of the winter finds 

that will be in our spring container Here  

Carpe Diem! It is a new beginning and it gives us a chance to gauge, evaluate, get a new perspective, and take a different approach to continue to grow, to continue to evolve. "When you are through learning, you are through." Open up, do not despair and keep moving, keep loving, keep the faith!

Happy New Year

Team Atelier

Heavy wicker baskets out of the Champagne area in Reims,

19th century Louis XVI Mirror found west of Paris

joyeux noel

We are so grateful for all the gifts we get from you all year: the encouragement, support, compliments, visits to our blog and Facebook page, and also when those who can, come and see us at our events and of course for all the purchases. We are very fortunate to have met many of you in person and virtually and hope we continue to please you with our style, our writing and images.

Image left and right taken at brocanterie Déjà-vu here

Some of the items in our next spring container here

We wish all of you a glorious Holiday Season and end of the year and hope you have a joyous time in whatever manner you celebrate. May there peace in your homes and in your heart. Thanks again for a fabulous year and for your friendship!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Trinidad, Johan, Martin

And the Winner is.....

First of all, we'd like to thank all of you who responded on our blog. Our gratitude to all of you who have been following us, constantly commenting, and providing feedback and support as we develop. And a warm welcome and thank you to all our new followers. We truly value your visits and comments and not just because it feeds our ego, but because it provides affirmation, support, and yes, guidance as we continue to grow into our own. 

Again, if someone had told me a couple of years ago that I'd be blogging and accessing the social media as we are now, I would have said, "You're crazy!" These new venues that are accessible to us via the new and ever-changing technology field, can be very fun and also very casual, but I still think that it is on us as individuals to use them in the best responsible and respectful way. And it doesn't mean that because it is casual, we create blogs haphazardly. I enjoy reaching out to you via this blog and I want you to come back and enjoy perusing through it. 

Items above and below in our next Spring 2012 container

Several people have given us feedback about the inspiration aspect of it and we love hearing that. Some folks have mentioned how it's a little respite and how they felt they were vicariously traveling along with us when we wrote about our buying trip and that is great feedback. It spurs us into improving when we sense that people do enjoy reading about our work and yes, sometimes our idle rants. Smile! 

It is also via our blog that we come across other amazing bloggers and creative people. Several of you have blogged about us and given us more visibility and we are very grateful. Some of you have placed us on your blog rolls and that makes us very proud. I am looking forward to another year of writing for our blog 
and reading more of those you write.

We have selected two winners as we had announced. A regular follower will receive a copy of the Jeanne d'Arc Living book, French Atmospheres, and a new follower will receive a copy of the Holiday Issue of the Jeanne d'Arc Living magazine. We have selected Debra from Acquired Objects blog here who has been not just on our follower list, but constantly providing comments with feedback and observations and affirmations. Thank you Debra and congratulations. The new follower, winner of the magazine is Miss Flibbertigibbet. We were struck by what she is most grateful for and commend her in her act of love of adopting 4 children.... Blog here

Again thank you all for your input and support and stay tuned because this year, we want to do a few more give-aways and plan to continue improving on our work. This coming year we will be stepping a bit more from writing about just us and write about other bloggers, and other creative people and interesting businesses. Our next blog post will be about someone who is an amazing blogger and human being. Stay tuned!