A small pair of dungrees that I am working on right now (for Dawn - the last doll in that post, thus named by her recipient who still plays with her!) instead of packing to go to Zurich. Yup, this weekend I'm off to see my bro and his adorable new baby, my nephew, and I can't wait. It's just me going and so I am really looking forward to having some me-time and some bro-time without having to be mummy too! I did feel sad and shed an half a tear when I dropped daughter off at school though, even though I'll see her Sunday. What a wuss!!!
Oh please check out my friend Sophy's new website: she has just launched her career selling stuff she makes and I wish her all the best. She mainly makes children's clothes and toys out of vintage fabrics. My daughter has the most amazing Japanese-style obi belt she made out of some fantastic flower fabric. Wish it fit me.
Je vais à Zurich ce weekend pour voir mon frère et son fils qui n'a pas encore deux mois. Quelle impatience! Et en attendant de faire mes valises (je pars dans deux heures) je travaille sur cette salopette pour cette poupée, réalisée il y a deux ans et qui est toujours de service! Bon. Je me presse.
Mais just avant que je pars il faut que je partage quelque chose avec vous: allez jeter un coup d'oeil sur la nouvelle site de ma copine Sophy qui se lance en tant que créatrice de mode et jouets pour enfants (entre autres). Pratiquement tout ce qu'elle fait est en tissus "vintage" et elle a vraiment le nez pour récupérer des tissus sublimes. Ma fille a une magnifique ceinture style "obi" (japonaise donc) que Spohy a faite. Mon seul regret: elle n'est pas taille adulte!
Bon weekend à tous.
Wow! We loved Perpignan! We borrowed a car off a friend for two weeks and drove right down to the south of France. It took eleven hours. Hurrah for portable DVD players! We had rented a flat in the center of Perpignan for a week and it was perfect. The beach was 10KM away and so we went there every day for the kids and then spent the afternoon and/or evening exploring Perpignan which we found to be full of character and life and olive trees and great foodie streets and markets and fountains... it was fantastic. I'm not kidding about the fountains either - we got into the habit of taking a towel and a change of clothes for both kids when we went on our wanders because you could guarantee one of the kids would have jumped into a fountain before we had even spotted it. They had those ones that just burst out of holes in the pavement and boy did our children (and every other kid in town) have fun running through those. My favourite place that we visited in Perpignan was the Palace of the Kings of Majorca. A massive castle that we had such fun exploring, imagining we were kings and queens and soldiers. Below is a detail of the wall of the bridge you had to cross to enter the upper keep (that is what it is in my mind anyway!!). All the walls were pebble encrusted like this: really nice. 
We also went on a couple of excursions while we were in the area. We visited Castelnaudary, home of Cassoulet and of the Canal du Midi... and had an extremely nice day eating, walking along the canal in glorious weather, driving along the canal and discovering locks and a little village that is built in concentric circles around it's church - crazy to drive "round". We would like to go back to the Canal one day and actually hire a barge and spend a week floating down it in pure bliss.
And we went to Carcassonne: a very well known medieval walled town which looks like a fairytale castle. I don't know how I managed to take the picture below with no one in it (obssessively motivated) because believe me the place was heaving with folk and so that kind of spoiled it for us (and surely everyone else) it was worth the detour but actually didn't provide us with any really memorable moments (oh I lie, we really enjoyed listening to a couple of buskars playing indian music up on the battlements).
One of the highlights of the week for us was on the Thursday evening when we were present for the final one of the town's summer Thursday night music festival. From 7pm until midnight there were various different musical acts playing in various squares and streets throughout Perpignan sometimes a brass band walking along, sometimes a rock, folk or reggae group up on a stage. The climax was the parade (picture below) that took place after dark and that led everyone through the town with music, skeletal costumes, flares, smoke machines and drums to end up at some fountains which then er performed for us (the jets of water were lit up in different changing colours and were programmed to rise and fall in synchronisation to some very strident music). Fantastic!
Oh je me suis donnée un délai pour finir ce message et me voilà en retard! Mais je me suis aussi promis de faire un effort et de compléter chaque message avec du Français. Bon je fais vite: Après onze heures de route dans une voiture empruntée nous sommes arrivés en Languedoc Roussillon où nous sommes restés une semaine dans un appartement loué à Parpignan. Une semaine remplie avec cette ville merveilleuse de Perpignan, le Canal du Midi, Castelnaudary - maison du cassoulet, Carcassonne et bien sûr Canet Plage. Une semaine parfaite: culture, musique, bonne bouffe, mer, athlé (et Bolt bien sûr), palais, châteaux, nature et tou cela en famille!
I have just finished sewing up this skirt I made for my friends' daughter's birthday... The pattern comes from Girly Style Wardrobe. It is cute. But maybe too cute. Not enough rock chick as it were. I was looking through pattern books the other day (the puddle in the bookshop day) and realised that all Japanese craft books are variations on a theme and that if you have one and a bit of imagination you kind of have them all. Arrogant and probably false I know but that is how I am feeling right now. I'm moving on from the Japanese esthetic for women and girls. Still lurve the boys' stuff. But moving on where to? That is the big question. I think I might have to start designing stuff myself. But can I cut it? Ha ha.
Je viens de terminer cette jupe pour la fille de ma copine. Une petite jupe sympathique. Mouais... Un peu trop classic. Pourrait-on s'amuser portant une jupe comme ça? Pas sûr. Il va falloir que je dessine une jupe dans laquelle la vie peut être rigolotte. Défi.
It's all busy busy my end with pattern tracing, pattern cutting, sewing, planning... oh and er murder mystery reading. Just a little of the last but I have discovered Stuart MacBride and he writes ever so well...
I want to make a shirt for boyf, as I mentioned, but it turns out he has Montenegran mountain-man proportions rather than nipponesque proportions. No surprise, but will require some pattern tweaking. Anyhow must get on! I'll leave you with a photo of my foot... taken on the next stage of our holidays.
To be continued...
PS Boyf might have mountain man proportions, but I have mountain man feet, right? Whatta match.
Mon pied. Le pied! Je vous raconterai ça la prochaine fois.
Je suis en pleine action ici: je coupe, je calque (?), je planifie, je mesure, je lis un peu (juste en attendant que le fer à repassage chauffe...).
My friend in Cambridge makes the most fantastic felt - animal head felt. Believe me she has serious talent for this (I can put you in touch if you think you need one to decorate your home). Here are just a few, rather poor sorry, photos of her work that I think capture nevertheless the amazingness of what she does. Check out this cheetah!
Ma copine de Cambridge fait des têtes d'animaux en feutre. Ce qu'elle fait est vraiment vraiment génial. Qu'est-ce qu'elle a du talent! Dites-le moi si vous avez envie d'une tête pour décorer votre chambre et je vous mettrai en contact! Je n'ai pas pensé prendre de meilleures photos mais je pense que le charme et la qualité de son travail passe quand même dans celles que j'ai: regardez-moi ce guépard!!! Il est top!
And these zebras are spot on. Oops stripe on. You'll have to take my word for it because I failed to take a picture that does them justice.
Et ces zèbres sont magnifiques.
Every head she does manages to convey personnality and emotion. So during my visit, my generous, crafty pal let me try my hand at felting while she got on making the tiger below.
Pendant ma viste elle m'a laissée essayer de faire du feutre moi-même. En même temps elle faisait le tigre ci-dessus. 
I chose to do a starfish (you know cos lil boy likes starfish) and this is it. I didn't manage to convey much emotion really did I? But you know what? I love it! I loved making it, I loved working along side my friend (with a crazy kids' gymnastics competition going on in the same room!!) I loved the experience of felting and intend to do some more at some point!
J'ai choisi de faire une étoile de mer (comme petit gars les aime bien...) et le voici. Je suis très fière de ce premier essai et j'ai adoré le faire: travailler aux côtes de ma copine avec nos enfants dans la même pièce. Aah. Le bonheur.
I also tried my hand at needle felting and created this little guy's head. I like his quiff and his nose. I found needle felting to be a bit tricky but I would like to have another go.
J'ai essayé aussi un peu de feutrage à l'aiguille. Résulat spontané: une tête de petit bonhomme à la banane. Moins facile à faire mais j'aimererais recommencer mes essais un jour.
In homage to my friend, I almost bought this book yesterday whilst in Paris. I was just about to take it to the till of Junku, a fantastic Japanese bookshop, when er little boy had a wee on the floor right there by the craft books. So I got the hell out of there empty handed. I did of course let a salesperson know about the yellow puddle in the middle of the aisle (?is that spelt right?) on my way out. And... dare I confess, I didn't have a spare set of clothes with me for my newly toilet-trained son (booo) and I had just washed fabric to make him two new pairs of trousers so was loath to buy him a pair. Solution? I bought him a lovely pair of pyjamas and he went home in those!!! J'étais à Paris hier et j'ai failli acheter ce livre en pensant à ma copine. Mais au moment où j'allais passer à la caisse, mon petit à fait pipi par terre. Oops. On s'est tiré de là vite fait (en indiquant la flaque jaune du rayon loisirs créatifs au vendeur - quand même ! - ce dernier, un japonais très sobre, était un peu "flummoxed" - rare de voir ce mot en action, donc ravie). Et moi, maman indigne, n'avais pas de quoi changer les vêtements de mon fils, tout juste sorti de couches en plus! Et comme je venais juste de laver du tissu pour lui faire deux pantalons pas question que je lui en achète. Argh. Que faire? Ben. Je lui ai acheté un super pyjama et il est rentré comme ça. Habillé pour la nuit quoi. Hi hi hi.
One of the things that had been bugging me in our house was the letterbox in the front door which had been put into disuse by the previous owners (my friends!) by taping two envelopes over the hole. It was functional but just not that pretty to look at and so a couple of weeks ago I made a patchwork letterbox cover!
And then I made a keyring for the new letterbox key and one for the cellar key. These two keys never go anywhere but I now feel a little lift everytime I glance at them. And a big lift every time I go out the front door. Silly huh? I used fabrics that evoke two cushion covers I made and that have flown the nest. I love these hues and no they wouldn't go with my sofa but I think they are a perfect match for the wood of the door. And check out our tea last night. Our pumped-up version of miso soup, here seen with udon, edamame beans, carrots, spring onions, dried black mushrooms and dried shitake mushrooms. We are going to try making a simple versions of miso soup for breakfast. As soon as we get up in time.
Trois petits projects qui ont pris cinq secondes à réaliser mais qui me font sauter (intérieurement bien sûr, sinon ça serait inquiétant) de bonheur à chaque fois que je les vois: Une couvre "trou à lettres" (quel est le nom correcte pour cette aperture?!!) et deux porte-clés pour des clés qui reste dans leur... trou!!! Ou pas loin. C'est tout bête mais ces petits détails me mettent de bonne humeur. Mon mec, lui, ne s'en rend même pas compte de leur existance.
Et regardez ce que nous avons mangé hier soir: une soupe au miso version bourrative. Tellement bon!!!
So after Glasgow we trained it down to my Mum and Dad's house and there we had a different sort of week all together. It feels like home there for the kids because they know it so well and so it was a peaceful and cosy week with trips to the park, to the shops, to Horse World. 
I finished quilting a cushion cover I made for my friend (hello dear friend!! - she reads my blog so I didn't put the picture up before giving it to her) on my Mum's smart sewing machine and it felt like the equivalent of passing from an MG Midget to a new BMW or something (I'm guessing because I don't drive but I did see some reactions to a new BMW over the summer). My machine is actually my Mum's old machine, a Pfaff, and just recently she came across the receipt - she bought it in Germany in May 1979. So it was 30 in May and still going strong.
At the end of the week Mum drove us to Northamptonshire for a family party - we LOVE family parties and this one was no exception (my daughter mentioned it as one of the highlights of her summer in a school writing project). Most of my aunts, uncles and cousins and their children (hello dear family!!) were there and we all had a fantastic time. Only downer is that they don't last longer and don't happen more often!
Pour la deuxième semaine des vacances en Angleterre, nous sommes allés chez mes parents: un cadre rassurant car très familier. Nous avons fait les choses tranquillement (sorties au parc, à la piscine, pour voir des chevaux...) et on s'est bien amusés tout en se reposant. J'ai terminé une housse de coussin que j'ai faite pour une copine sur la machine à coudre de ma mère et là j'ai bien compris la différence entre une ancienne machine et une nouvelle: la mienne a eu 30 ans cette année (ma mère a retrouvé le ticket récemment: elle l'a achetée en mai 1979 et elle a du me la donner en 1997). Une nouvelle machine est plus vite, plus facile, moins manuelle certes mais ne ne changerais pas la mienne quand même!
OK so I'll stop putting off writing another post and here we go...
I will try to catch up on holiday talk progressively - we had a great summer with family and friends and now the kids are back at school and I have three hours in the morning, four days a week, for the next couple of months, JUST FOR ME. Yipee!
Hot off the ironing board is a wee shirt for my little man and my gosh he looks so grown up and cute in it. Everything (buttons, thread and fabric) came from my stash and so this fabulous item was "free" (well paid for ages ago). I took the pattern from a Japanese book appropriately called "Boys' Clothes" and mixed up F and H. Please note the presence of buttons, even at the cuff, on the day the sewing was finished. And the buttonholes!! They are all the same size! I really applied myself to making this shirt and that is one of the reasons I am so pleased with the result. Next up a shirt for my er big man! and a skirt for my girlie...Pourquoi remettre à demain ce que l'on aurait du faire il y a un mois presque? Eh ben je n'ai plus la réponse à cette question et donc me revoilà! (ndlr: en fait tu veux juste frimer non?).
J'essayerai de ratrapper le retard (vous parler de mes vacances etc) progressivement.
Là je viens de terminer une petite chemise pour mon petit gars. J'ai pris le patron dans ce livre (c'est un mélange de deux, le F et le H). Il est trop trop mignon dedans - ce qui me donne bien évidemment envie de lui en faire des centaines ainsi que des centaines pour tous les petits gars que je connais... et ceux que je croise dans le rue... ça y est je suis partie alors que l'ordre du jour c'est de me canaliser, ME CANALISER quoi! Cette rentrée me donne un peu de temps pour moi-même et il faut que je l'utilise sagement.
Ah! I had such a nice weekend in Zurich with my brother, sister-in-law and nephew. Good quality family time. What more can you ask for? My nephew is gorgeous! Sooo cute and easy-going and I can't wait to see more of him. So happy that he is in my life.
My bro sure knows how to make a meal: wasabi crisps, marintated artichokes, almond-stuffed olives, avocado salsa (with a secret ingredient of sesame oil) and two sorts of hummous - olive and sundried tomato. Topped off with a couple of squares of swiss chocolate and there you go. That was a late lunch and we didn't need tea.
And these are the thirty-odd platforms of the Gare de l'Est. I really like trains and train stations. But you knew that already right?
