PB&kK

12:34am, Wednesday.


After 5 long days of standing on my feet all day helping people pick out winter fleeces and ski jackets, tonight is my Friday. I'm all cozied into bed with my ebook ("Girl of Fire and Thorns" by Rae Carson, and no I don't care that it was written for a slightly younger audience, so was Harry Potter dammit!), but I'm sorry, I need some noms STAT.

Some crunchy, oily peanut butter and a crisp gala should do the trick. YUM.


Now 'scuse me, speaking of peanut butter I think there's some chocolate around here somewhere.


-kK le midNacht snack Owl

Do Swedish people actually shop at Ikea?

11:08pm, Friday.

In honor of my first ever Ikea purchase, it's a double whammy photo op night.

Somehow, I went from this...

...to this! 

(Resto Hardware coffeetable and Trader Joe's wine sold separately.)

I'm convinced that what must have happened is I passed out, a kK from parallel universe who is good with tools came over, fixed it all up, then I awoke to the futon miracle.

I know, I know, Ikea is supposed to be the simplest stuff to self-construct, but man you KNOW me, I am CHALLENGED. And yet, VOILA, I can now lounge in beddinge comfort while I dip my rye crisps in hummus and watch the latest Castle on hulu. 

-kK le Nacht Owl, bidding you a totally excellent adieu.

Home sweet douillet

3:04am, Thursday.

I came home today and found this just waiting to be photographed:

(It's my new mat right by the door in the hallway so I have a place to put dirty shoes.)

Then I snuggled my feet into my douillet house slippers and made myself breakfast-for-dinner. And wine for dessert.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-kK le Nacht Owl, out.

Library douillet

6:22pm, Monday.


Internet woo! In my own hizz-ouse. 


Another monumental installation, another monumental just-the-right-amount-of-divey burrito takeaway dinner on the living room floor.


On the way home from my mexi-run, my little library branch caught my eye:

Couldn't resist, it's such an awesome place! And apparently I'm going to meet my future husband there. ;-)


kK le Nacht Owl, out.

Well well well, look what the Kat dragged in...

6:38pm, Saturday


It was one of those mornings when I woke up on the semi-belligernt side of the bed and didn't feel like doing anything I was "supposed" to do, like, oh, I don't know, UNPACK MY BOXES that have been sitting there for a week. 


So it was a day of sloth, wherein I never got out of my 'jams and just stayed in bed with my books ("Quicksilver" by Neal Stephenson and the final Jaz Parks novel by Jennifer Rardin, in case you're curious) unless I felt like getting up for more food. Which I promptly brought back to eat in bed.

Alright, so what if I felt like making a batch of rice krispie treats and eating the entire thing all day long instead of real food? It went quite nicely with a strong cuppa joe, which might or might not have had a generous splash (or 3) of Jameson.


Yes, it was one of "those" days, where wallowing in a pouty funk long enough eventually makes you laugh again by the end of the night.

Thursday Morning.

A reflection on a Thursday morning.

Most mornings are quite the same for me. My alarm goes off at 6:15. Surprisingly I'm usually already awake by then. But, as I love good coziness, it is rarely ever easy for me to get out of the flannel or break from my boy within the 30 minutes of my obnoxious wake-up call. I, most days, make the attempt to run a brush through my hair a couple times, brossez les dents, wash my face, take my vitamins, and always put on warm (and cute)socks. My current favorites are these. Some days I feel motivated to have a relaxing cup of tea and change out of my pajamas into something more suitable for work. But when you're a baker, generally anything you're not too attached to is just suitable enough.

This morning all of those things happened. (minus the changing out of pajamas) But when I got to work, ready to mix flours and butters in a bowl and pop their results into the oven, I had the nicest feeling come over me. I wasn't in a rush. I didn' t have anywhere else to be all day. Anxieties didn't creep up upon me because I had an 11 o clock appointment and 6 different errands to complete before lunchtime. No, today I realized I don't need any planned distractions from where I am in my life. Today, I took my time and enjoyed most everything I did. Today didn't feel like work, like life sometimes does. I didn't set goals for myself or expect to accomplish an endless to do list. I took time and had lunch. I took time and talked to people. I did what felt right almost every minute. And that's probably what brought me back to reflection and writing this post right now. So, I'm not so sure who I am suppose to thank for the opportunities in my life that have lead to this day.... but thank you. It might have been an isolated gift or maybe the start of something new. But either way, thank you. Even if I don't know who you really is.

Chai-town

5:02pm, Wednesday.


Just came in from out of the pouring rain to enjoy a nice hot chai at my favorite cafe. Although I heart me a good coffee shop, I really can't wait for my internet installation on Monday so I don't have to leave the house if I don't want to!


But anyway, before it started raining I just had a moment of "OMG I can't believe I live in beautiful Seattle" and felt compelled to snap an image of what I was looking at when the awe struck:

Now back to working my way down to the bottom of my cuppa, and maybe a run to the grocery for a few baking items so I can make cookies or something. (That might be a bit ambitious, but anything's possible ha!)


-kK le Nacht Owl

Will that coffee be for here or shop-away?

2:48pm, Sunday.


HA! So I spent a full day shopping, and you KNOW how I feel about shopping even for ONE MINUTE. <shudders> 


But it was fine because here is yet another reason to heart this rainy city:

That's right, they have coffee cup holders built into their shopping carts! bwaahahahahaaa!


-kK

Oh. Hells. Yeah.

 8:36, Saturday night.

So it's a bit early for me to be getting in bed (I'm pretty sure I'm in bed before even you!) but as you know it has been a HELL of a month and today is the first day I am in my own apartment, all in my own space! The rest of the living room and kitchen and bathroom look like tornado sites, but I feel like Scarlett O'Hara: Tomorrow is another day, one in which I will organize my lifetime supply of accumulations. But tonight is for decompressing. I've eaten my chile relleno burrito takeaway, washed away the move-grime under the hot spray of my new shower, and I've completed my all important douillet corner:

I was so obsessed with this all day long it only seemed natural to take a photo of the final product. As you could probably predict without physical evidence, I have my glass of wine and badass-chick-kicking-demon-butt novel at the ready, the obscene amount of pillows waiting to prop me up to enjoy both. 

-kK le Nacht Owl

What a day.

Ok, I'm 0 for 2. Its 5:49 PM and give me some slack because its the first moment I've stopped all day. And you know what? Part of the reason I like to make rules is to break them.

Anywho, I had a grand baking workshop today with new and old students who left me so grateful with who I am and what I do. One lady admitted her envy of my baking and teaching job and I had to stop for a moment and think, yep, I'm so lucky. I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing. How many people get to say that??

But, I'm sorry I don't have anything too profound to say or write, and before I make a fool of myself and my writing, I'm just going to leave it at that. Just checking in, just saying hi. Me lay down now.

Bienvenue from le Nite Owl

12:32am, Saturday.


The only sunrise I want to see is the one for which I'm still awake after a long night of vampiring. Darkness falls and that's when I wake up! There's something about being awake during the wee sma's, when you feel like you're one of a few to witness the world at an intriguing peace. It's not always quiet at night, you know things are going on, but it's stealthy. If you want to tune in you have to sharpen your extra senses. You can be awake and not be bombarded with the noisy masses telling you what to do and how to think. It's easier to harness your inner douillet, curled up with a small night light and a warm blanket as you sip your wine and turn those pages.  

As Steph wrote earlier, this blog has come about because we want to share our worlds with each other, from aurora to gloaming and beyond. She will take a picture sometime before noon, and I will take one sometime after 6 pm, no consulting beforehand to sway each other's chosen image.

If I had my druthers I would sleep from 6am-3pm (what, I need my beauty sleep! Fine, I'll get up at 2, sheesh.), get up for some vitamin d, and get my cozy on around the time Steph has already been asleep for about 5 hours.    

[Side note: Wouldn't it be cool to work the graveyard shift in an actual graveyard!? YES. What exactly would one do for a graveyard at that time, anyway?]

So sit back, relax, and enjoy some wacky West coast posts from the two wanna-be Frenchies in their respective gray sky havens. You'll see Monterey by day, Seattle by night. Unless, of course, I happen to finish a six hour SyFy channel marathon the very moment the sun decides to peek out over the Sound and I catch morning in all its glory.

kK le Nacht Owl, signing out. 

Benvenue a Douillet!

12:09 pm, a friday.

Welcome to this space everyone. I am currently typing my first entry, breaking the rules by about 9 minutes. (more on that later) But, you know what, thats part of what this blog is all about.

Katheryn (my delightful and fabulous co-blogger) and I met as depressed and over emotional New Yorkers seeking refuge in any way that we could. And that any which way would turn out to be Paris. We fled the good ol US of A in 2009, with our savage American excuse for etiquette, neurotic new york mannerisms, and a bundle full of excitement eager to see something other than a computer screen and solstice via the bottom of yet another bottle of wine (Katheryn) or a jar of peanut butter (Steph). Hell, we all have our debatably unhealthy ways to cope with life. And being the dreamers that we were, and still are, we fled to France to teach English to little French beret wearing brats the way any normal, sane ex New Yorker would.

And fled we did. We landed in Paris with unrecognizable French and no idea about what we were actually getting ourselves in to. We had the highest highs and the highest lows. We did the typical and the not so typical. We drank miniature coffees that lasted for not so miniature time slots. We bought juicers to counter balance our meat intake. Some of us dated falafel stand workers while others joined drinking groups with a running problem. In case you haven’t guessed it yet, we're a little quirky. Long story short, we became one anothers everything in France and became extremely close pals. Fast forward two years later, in an excuse to be creative and keep up with one anothers crazy ways, we decided to create a blog dedicated to, well, a lot of things. Our sameness: the desire for everything cozy, good and comforting food, happiness, struggles of life's highs and the lows, and the zest for life that France showed to us. After all, we had promised each other we would never let each other forget what we had there. And then there were our differences: KK loves night, and I love the morn. So thats where we end; at the beginning. The beginning of our documentations. The documentations that will first and foremost be two friends sharing with one another our thoughts, our scenes, and whatever snip its we deem right to share with one another. We're just letting you see too.

The name douillet is cozy en francais, and we felt coziness and France as the strongest things that bind us. We left the rules pretty loose. I... (did I forget to introduce myself?! Well, my name is Steph) will write, photograph, or share whatever it is that I want to share before 12pm and KK will share after 5pm. But that really doesn't matter since I already broke that rule. (sorry KK) Photos, recipes, words..... the documentation of us sharing whatever we want to share, unedited and real. Hopefully real enough to inspire ourselves and each other the way Paris did not that long ago. I hope all of you enjoy our quirkiness and aren't too offended at our honesty. So sit back with a cup of tea and let douillet ensue.