Marie Claire Idees

This is a great magazine filled w/ creative ideas filled with French charm and style. But don't order it here, you may never get it and will be out your money. I ordered it 2 years ago and have yet to receive an issue. Amazon customer service was totally helpless and uncaring, they refered me to their outside vendor who had no knowledge of the order. Amazon said they couldn't track it yet they had no problem collecting my money in the first place. Since then, customer service has never responded to any of my inquiries or requests for a refund. Terrible, terrible customer service!

If you read French or not, this is a wonderful magazine. The crafts include embroidery, collage, knitting, tapestry, cooking and more. The fashion and style areas give novel ideas for using junk like funky-labeled tin cans for a beach house door curtain, making mirror frames from bottle caps. Think sort of, Martha Stewart with a French twist. The trimestrial issues have a holiday or seasonal theme, Christmas, Spring, Summer, Autumn.

Every issue has an abecedaire (sampler) in a clever type of embroidery. Usually there is a knitted pattern, most often for babies but not always. There is usually a travelogue to an exotic place, with great photos. And you can get a long long advance look at US style trends--for example, Marie Claire Idees featured toile and transfer printed china years before it got to be a hot trend in the US. I save every issue.

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I recently got back from a trip home to Quebec, and bought a copy of Marie Claire Idees at the airport. Well, I adored it and plan to subscribe! The crafts and designs are classy and stylish, a nice change from the "County" style, ducks-and-cows, fake flowers and Disney themes that dominate the craft scene here. If you are sick of pastel landscapes, cartoon characters and cutesy themes, and can get by in French, this is the magazine for you! The only problem is that all their supply sources are in Europe, which is to be expected. And unfortunately it only comes out 4 times a year. It's cheaper to go directly to their site and subscribe there; about 34.00 USD including S&H.

PS, marieclaireidees.com has a discussion and help forum in French.

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I love this magazine. The presentation is so lovely and refreshing. I took French in school, but not enough to follow the instructions given for the projects. So, It's purely "follow the pictorial directions." I wish there were some way that this beautiful magazine could be captioned in some way. As part of it's charm is in the french language.

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I love this magazine! I was in Paris and found it in the airport and couldn't put it down on the plane. It's full of pictures and ideas and instructions in the back, not lots of wordy fluff or advertisements, but just packed with beautiful, inspiring ideas. I subscribe to Martha Stewart Living and I'd have to say this beats it, however, it is in French and it's pricier to order. It was cheaper in France but I was very happy to find that Amazon offered it since I didn't think I'd see another issue again without going overseas, I think the price is worth it.