JELLYBEANLUPIN

Hidden treasures

2010-12-20T15:08:00.004+01:00

I have just finished this cushion cover for a client. Her husband has two small cushions that he likes a lot but that she, er, doesn't. She asked me to create new covers for them but I could see immediately that these cushions were loved just the way they were and that new covers would remove the essence from the cushions (they have old faux-fur covers and are stuffed with kapok) and I didn't want to be the one to do that. So... I suggested that I make I new single, zipped cover to hold both the old cushions in. That way everyone is happy - the sofa looks nice most of the time and when the footy's on, the old cushions can come out and be appreciated! Hurrah.
Une cliente m'a demandé de recouvrir deux coussins qui appartiennent à son mari et que lui adore et que, vous l'avez deviné, elle n'aime pas. Lorsque je les ai vu j'ai toute de suite compris que ces coussins étaient aimés... dans l'état (ils sont en faux-fourrure et rembourrés de kapok) et que n'importe quelle modification n'allait pas le faire. Donc j'ai proposé de faire une housse, zippée, pour les deux. Comme ça le canapé est joli le plupart du temps et puis, quand le mari regarde la télé, les deux coussins peuvent être sortis et appréciés.
Difficult to see in the photo, but I had fun quilting this cover. I wrote "hidden treasures" on the green line, above and "où sont-ils cachés" (where are they hiding) on the brown line.

Difficile de voir dans les photos mais je me suis bien amusé avec cette housse: j'ai écrit "hidden treasures" (trésors cachés) sur la ligne verte, ci-dessus, et "où sont-ils cachés?" sur la ligne marron.I also quilted a fish, some spirals and waves and various other squiggles, oh and the husband's name onto the cover. I love the way this project turned out and hope my client and her husband like it too.

J'ai aussi mis un dessin d'un poisson, des spirales, des vagues, d'autres gribouillages et aussi le prénom du mari. Je suis contente de ce projet et j'espère que ma cliente et son mari le seront aussi.

OK I don't know why but my photo doesn't want to lie down... so tilt your head to the left to admire my first ever attempt at making seitan. I love seitan (delicious meaty foodstuff made with wheat gluten) and have been wanting to make some for a long time. But I was scared it would be a long process and er yukky! Well... NO!!! I used Terry Hope Romero's recipe in her new book, Viva Vegan, which is an early Christmas present to me from my brother (not sure he meant it to be an early one but I knew what the parcel was and just tore right into it - couldn't wait - and I was was right because look! Seitan!!!). In this recipe you steam the seitan for half an hour. It was quick to make and delicious. Won't be buying any of that again! Hurrah!

OK donc ci-dessous une photo du premier seitan que j'ai fait. Il était facile à faire et délicieux. J'ai utilisé la recette de Terry Hope Romero dans son nouveau livre "Viva Vegan". Et là, je vous laisse j'ai vu l'heure et j'ai trop de choses à faire...

Boy bag

2010-12-18T15:37:00.008+01:00

I just spent the morning making a bag for a little boy whose party is going on as I type. I was aiming for a scaled-down man-bag! Something nice and discreet, infinitely wearable, boyish and yet with a personal touch... This is what I came up with.

J'ai passé la matinée à coudre ce sac pour un petit garçon qui fête son anniversaire en ce moment-même. Je voulais un sac masculin, discret, totalement "mettable" mais avec une touche personnelle quand-même. I took the photos in the snow, being snowed upon indeed, with a low battery light indicator flashing so in a great hurry. The bag is lined with khaki gaberdine and has a large back inside pocket and a small pocket on the front of the bag, beneath the front flap (which closes with velco). The strap is for going over the shoulders.

J'ai pris les photos sous la neige, avec presque plus de piles: disons que j'ai fait vite! La doublure du sac est en gabardine kaki. Il a une grande poche intérieure et une petite poche sur le devant sous la... j'ai perdu mes mots, sous er... le rabat (?) qui se ferme avec du scratch. Le sac se porte en bandoulière. I used the same grey denim fabric for the letters as for the body of the bag and I liked the frayed effect so zig-zagged them down leaving the edges of the letters open. All in all I am really pleased with the result and, of course, hope Pierre likes it too!

Pour les lettres j'ai utilisé le même jean gris que pour le sac et j'ai laissé leurs bords paraître car j'aimais bien l'effet. Je suis très satisfaite du résultat et j'espère que Pierre le sera aussi.
In food tester news... the cookies are all gone. Sad. And I tried another recipe yesterday: cream of broccoli soup. This soup was delicious and rich. The picture does not do it justice - sorry for anyone put off by this photo, I found it hard to get a good shot! I will be making this soup again because, apart from my daughter, we all loved it and it got wolfed down over two meals.

En ce qui concerne mon rôle de testeur (voir ci-dessous - je vais faire la traduction dans un instant) les cookies sont tous partis (hélas). J'ai essayé une autre recette hier; soupe de brocoli à la crème. La photo ne donne pas l'impression mais elle était excellente. Nous l'avons finie ce midi. Miam.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-12-17T13:30:00.005+01:00

No such thing as too much chocolate, too many chocolate chips right? In our household if we buy a bar of chocolate, the whole thing gets munched down in one sitting (or usually standing). So...I buy organic dark chocolate chips from my local organic supermarket. I can't remember how you say it in English but I buy them from a big tub and I scoop as many as I want into a brown paper bag. Then I put them in our jar at home and we can take a little pinch of chocolate chips whenever we fancy. Thus total consumption is greatly reduced with no feelings of restriction or of guilt. Also, you might have gathered I cook with them and this is why I am talking about them today.

Hmm je fais la traduction un jour après avoir écrit le message et je me rends compte que je n'ai rien dit d'intéressant dans ce premier paragraphe! Résumé: J'adore les pépites aux chocolat et je les achète bio en vrac.
I have volunteered, and to my great delight was chosen, to be a tester for Dynise Balcavage's new vegan recipe book. My mission: to cook, taste and report back on at least twenty-five of Dynise's new recipes before March. Of course the first recipe I turned to was one for chocolate chip cookies. Of course it was.

Un nouveau projet a démarré cette semaine... Dynise Balcavage (que j'ai rencontrée à Paris Vegan Day) est en train d'écrire son deuxième livre de recettes végétaliennes et elle a lancé l'appel pour des testeurs! Je me suis proposée, elle a accepté et donc d'ici mars ma mission est d'essayer au moins vingt-cinq de ses recettes pour qu'elle a un peu de feedback. La première recette que j'ai testée était pour des cookies au pépites de chocolat. Si vous me connaissez un peu vous savez sûrement que j'adore faire des petits gâteaux, surtout au chocolat... je ne pouvais pas résister.
Dynise, a.k.a. The Urban Vegan, has already written one eponymous book which I have and which I cook from so I knew I wasn't letting myself into months of bad food by volunteering for this!

Anyhow. how do Amercians put it: this recipe is a keeper! Totally yummy, crisp yet chewy, chocolate chip cookies.

Je possède le premier livre de Dynise et donc je savais que cette mission n'allait pas me faire souffrir... et en ce qui concerne cette recette c'est le moindre qu'on puisse dire. Ces cookies étaient délicieux! Croustillants mais moelleux en même temps.
So I had a quick go at being a photo stylist and this is what I came up with...

Bon. Je ne suis pas styliste...
But, er although I love my tree tea-light holder the next photo is much more authentic and, also, is how I plan to spend the rest of my afternoon...

Et cette dernière photo est plus authentique de toute façon.

Snow white, rose red

2010-12-10T13:19:00.003+01:00

The title of this post was actually my favourite fairy tale when I was a kid. I forgot completely about it and then when I was a student I bought the complete works of the Brothers Grimm and rediscovered the story with something like an epiphany. It felt like coming home. Fairy tales can be very important in the psychological development of children (as wonderfully discribed in this book), helping them process feelings and subconsciously reassuring them about their place in the world of adults. So I often wonder what this tale tells me about the kinds of issues I was dealing with as a child. I wonder also about my own children's favourite stories and fairy tales and although I don't really know how to interpret that information, I do know that their bedtime story is a sacred tradition to me and that I will never complain about reading the same story over and over again.

Blanche-Neige et Rose-Rouge (le titre de ce message) était ma conte de fée préférée quand j'étais petite. Je l'ai oubliée totalement pendant des années et puis je l'ai redécouverte lorsque j'étais étudiante. Les contes de fées peuvent être très importantes dans le développement psychologique des enfants et il n'y a aucun doute dans ma tête que les thèmes évoqués dans cette histoire-la étaient clés pour moi a un certain moment de mon enfance. Vous pouvez découvrir d'avantage sur cette idée en lisant cet excellent ouvrage de Bruno Bettelheim. C'est grâce a ce livre qu'aujourd'hui le rituel de l'histoire du soir est incontournable chez nous et que je ne dirai jamais non lorsque mes enfants redemandent et redemandent encore de lire la même histoire.

Well that was a bit of a diversion. Moving on... I made this purse for a friend. To match her coat. I love the texture of courdroy and it is something else that reminds me of childhood - my brothers' hand-me-down (to me) trousers and a very special pale blue pair I had new. That particular pair had its last outing on a rather impressive hill in Wales. We climbed to the top and then slid down the other side on our bums, as if we were on a slide. Ahh! Those were the days.

Bref... j'ai fait cette porte-monnaie pour une copine pour aller avec son manteau. Le tissu me rappelle encore mon enfance (qu'est-ce que j'ai aujourd'hui?) et j'espère que ma copine a) ne se connectera pas ici aujourd'hui et b) qu'elle aimera cette petite chose qui a été si évocatrice pour moi.

Chocolate, chocolate chip pancakes...

2010-12-08T23:12:00.002+01:00

I did a batch and a half and this is what was left after the cherubs had filled their tummys.
J'ai fait une recette et demi et voilà ce qui restait après quatre petits ventres remplis...

More of the same

2010-12-08T13:56:00.004+01:00

This the second pencil case of an order by the same person (er obviously!). This one for for a teacher in her 50s with more classic taste. I figured you can't go wrong with linen + flowers (it's not a Liberty fabric and I have a pet hate of people saying any fabric with small flowers on it is Liberty. No it's not). My client seems to like it which is the main thing.

Cette trousse est la deuxième pour la même cliente (si vous ne l'aviez pas deviné). Cette fois-ci elle était pour une maîtresse d'une cinquantaine d'années au goût plus classique donc j'ai choisi de la faire en lin avec du coton fleuri. (Je n'aime pas quand les gens disent que n'importe quel tissu à fleur est du Liberty - argh. C'est bête mais ça m'énerve). En tout cas elle semble plaire à ma cliente donc tout va bien.
When I do my lettering I just cut out directly from the fabric - no drawing or measuring at all, ever, just eyeballing! I place the whole word before sewing just to make sure it fits. Even though I say it myself, I seem to have a very good eye for all that because I have never had to recut or resize the letters and I am always pleased with the scale and result. Ha. Now you know. It does still take quite a bit of time to cut and sew all the letters but I think it's worth it.

Lorsque je fais mes lettres, je coupe directement dans le tissu. Je ne dessine pas, je ne mesure pas, je fais tout au pif. Je place le mot entier avant de coudre (quand même!) mais autrement c'est du "freestyle". Et je pense que je dois avoir un vrai talent pour ça car je n'ai jamais dû recouper ou changer la taille. Bon en fait j'ai recoupé une seule fois dans toutes les trousses que j'ai faites et c'était car j'avais fait le premier "Robinson" un peu trop grand...
And isn't this little guy cute with his trumpet nose. The kids made him last week. It has been snowing all day and so I think we'll go out later and make another one. Or maybe we'll just stay inside and drink hot chocolate, make vegan chocolate chip pancakes (from Vegan with a Vengence - so very easy and yummy) and play with our friends who are due any minute now...f they make it though the snow.

Et qu'est-ce que vous pensez de notre bonhomme de neige? Les enfants l'ont fait la semaine dernière. Ma fille était particulièrement fière de son nez en trompette. Très mignon. Là il neige encore et beaucoup. Nous attendons des amis (hmmm) ordre du jour: quelques jeux, du chocolat chaud et des pancakes américains au chocolat et aux pepites de chocolat (une recette végétalienne, facile, délicieux...). Ce qui me rappelle que j'ai plein de petits plats à vous montrer: il faudrait que je fasse un message spécial bouffe bientôt.
Ah doorbell, ça sonne!

Vente de noël

2010-12-06T09:20:00.008+01:00

Yesterday saw me brave the elements to go to a sale that some friends of mine were hosting in their amazing Parisian flat. I had a lovely time drinking tea and mulled wine and wowing over my friends' incredible creations.

Hier je suis allée à une vente privée organisée par des amis, pour des amis, chez des amis! Trois artistes/artisans exposaient leurs créations... vous verrez c'était magnifique!

First up we have Elise Patte. I talked at length with Elise who has a very clear idea about the sort of business she wants to run: ethical! She works uniquely with recuperated fabric and saves every last scrap to use in some way or other. Every single thing she sews is a one-off. She makes beautiful jewellry, amazing doudous, phone cases and belts... something for everyone.

Elise Patte est une créatrice en textile. Elle utilise uniquement du tissu récupéré ce qui fait que chacune de ses créations est unique. Elle fait une énorme gamme d'articles: sacs, doudous, colliers, boucles d'oreille, ceintures, broches... impossible de ne pas y trouver son bonheur.
This bag of hers is reversible and the middle panel (here in blue) is actually a little pocket: ingenious, unique and beautiful.

J'adore ce modèle de sac. Il est réversible est la partie bleue (au-dessus) est une petite poche. Ingénieux, beau et unique.The stars of the show for me are Elise's Cho-chos - little fleese vests, like the one above (I pinched the photo of her blog since I didn't get a good one yesterday), that come in a vast array of colours. Each one has a different appliqué on the front - I don't think she has ever done the same one twice. Elise's imagination is boundless: there are pandas, whales, robots, cupcakes, teddies, christmas trees, fish... They are perfect for keeping little ones warm.

Ce que j'aime le plus ce sont les cho-chos d'Elise. De petits tuniques, faits en polaire, qui tiennent chaud et qui sont tous décorés d'un motif unique - il n'y en a pas deux les mêmes: vous pouvez choisir entre pandas, possions, guitares, baleines, robots.. la liste est sans fin, tout comme l'imagination d'Elise.

You will see on Elise's blog that she runs workshops too - for adults wanting to learn how to sew or how to customise their clothes and for children to learn the basics of hand-sewing. I attended one with my daughter and together we made a felt doll - we had a great afternoon which inspired us to keep sewing at home together too.

Vous verrez sur le blog d'Elise qu'elle anime également des ateliers de couture pour adultes et enfants. Vous pouvez y apprendre à coudre, à customiser vos vêtements ou travailler l'un de ses modèles avec vos enfants. J'ai fait un atelier "poupée en feutrine" avec ma fille. Nous avons passé un excellent après-midi qui a aussi servi de tremplin car nous avons continuer de coudre ensemble à la maison.Next up we have Laurent Martelli and his photographs. It feels almost like stealing to take photos of photos so I only took one - there are a couple more on his website. His images are of nature and his eye seems to be caught by the same things as mine - only he knows how to get a good shot! I loved his close-ups of pebbles and sand. I loved his picture of the shoreline at Dieppe (you can see the picture on his website) but mostly I loved the above shot of a field of corn: shall we say it reminds me of my youth?!! Laurent prices his photographs according to the buyer's income which basically ensures that everyone can afford his work. Yay! How amazing is that?

Ensuite... je vous présente Laurent Martelli et ses images. Je n'ai pris qu'une photo car j'avais un peu l'impression de "voler" mais vous pouvez en voir d'autres sur son site. En regardant les photos de Laurent j'ai eu l'impression que nous sommes attirés par les mêmes détails dans la nature. Mais Laurent arrive à les prendre en photo... J'ai adoré ses gros plans de cailloux et de sables, j'ai adoré sa prise de la côté près de Dieppe (allez voir sur son site) mais mon préféré était ce champs de blé - peut-être parce qu'elle me rappelle ma jeunesse!! Les tarifs de Laurent sont ajustés selon les revenus de l'acheteur - incroyable mais vrai - ce qui fait que ses œuvres sont à la portée de tout le monde. Hourra!
And last but not least we have Laure Kan. Laure is a ceramist and learnt her trade in Brasil where she lived for four years. Her work is of outstanding quality and her organic forms are both mesmerising and soothing. The above vases are like little drops of rain, each one is turned by hand so is unique. They are glazed and so can hold water and fresh flowers but not soil (which wouldn't be able to breathe). I have two of these vases hanging from my olive tree in my courtyard and they are simply gorgeous.

Et il y avait Laure Kan, céramiste extraordinaire qui a appris son art, son métier au Brésil où elle a vécu pendant quatre ans. Ses oeuvres sont d'une qualité exceptionnelle et leurs formes organiques et épurées invitent la méditation , la détente, le calme. J'ai deux de ses vases en gouttes (photo ci-dessus) accrochées sur mon olivier et elles sont sublimes.
This money box has to be broken to get the money out! Love it.
Il faut casser ce tire-lire pour sortir les sous. J'adore!
I loved the arangment of these teaspoons. I would buy them all just to put out like that in my house. Laure also makes bowls, plates, bigger vases and sculptures. Check out her website for more beautiful pictures. Yesterday I fell in love with a black salad bowl and so I am going to save up, get it (or order one) and then show you!

J'ai beaucoup aimé cette installation de petites-cuillères. Je les aurais toutes achetées pour reproduire la même à la maison! Laure fait aussi des bols, des assiettes, de grandes vases et même des sculptures - allez voir sur son site! Ce que j'ai aimé le plus de Laure était un grand saladier noir. Je vais épargner, l'acheter et vous montrer...

Anyhow. Congratulations guys - a very impressive show.
Voilà! Félicitions les amis, vous m'avez bien nourrie - body and soul!!!

Rewind Ltd.

2010-12-02T22:14:00.007+01:00

You guys must have noticed my fantastic new logo! Well it was designed by my talented friend Jeremy Chinour, founder of Rewind Ltd. I started writing a paragraph about him but he is so multi-faceted and interesting that, well, I didn't know where to start and where to end! But if ever you want a chat about gongs or about transparent electrical equipment, about some weird music you have just discovered or about some 80s New Wave group, about the history of a certain font or about an episode of the Avengers, if you are looking for a drummer or indeed if ever you need a new logo... HE IS THE MAN!! Thanks so very much Jeremy.

J'espère que vous avez remarqué mon nouveau logo là-haut! Et ben je le dois à mon ami Jeremy Chinour, fondateur de Rewind Ltd. Jeremy qui a tellement de talents et d'intérêt qu'il faudrait presque que je commence un nouveau blog rien que pour vous en parler... Bref. Si jamais vous avez besoin d'un logo ou d'un autre travail visuel ou musical vous savez maintenant qui contacter!

And because I didn't have another photo to go with this post (not one that J. would have forgiven me for anyway) here is a close-up of a new little girl's cape I have made... more soon. As soon as I manage to pull away! Something addictive about taking close-ups of satin.

Et parce que je n'avais pas de photo à mettre avec ce message... voilà, en avant première, une photo d'une nouvelle cape pour petite princesse. Je vous montrerai le reste demain mais pour le moment je m'amuse à prendre des gros plans de montagnes de satin!

PS Several days later... Jeremy is actually into Post-punk, IDM, ambient, rock/pop/garage "bruitiste" (noisy? ha ha), Industrial, Electro, EBM, Death-folk, Dub and Modern Classical (soundtrack)… and that's just the main stuff! You can check out some playlists he made right here. Er thanks Jerem for that, I'll be listening while I work for the next few days...

PS En ce qui concerne les gouts musicaux de Jeremy... il serait plutot orienté : Post-punk, IDM, ambient, rock/pop/garage bruitiste, Industriel, Electro, EBM, Death-folk, Dub et Modern Classical (soundtrack)…dans la majorité! Vous pouvez retrouver certains de ses playlists ici - moi je vois que je vais passer le reste de la semaine dans... un environnement sonore totalement inexploré jusqu'ici. Bon ca changera de l'album de noël de Sinatra que j'avais mis ce soir!

Purple snow

2010-12-02T13:17:00.003+01:00

Four purple placemats... Made-to-measure. Snowy cold day here. Brrr! But I love the silence of snow. Little boy woke up, looked out of the window and said "hurrah, it's Christmas!" Uh nope, not yet.

Quatre sets de table, sur commande. Qu'est-ce qu'il fait froid ici. Mais j'adore le silence de la neige. En regardant par la fenêtre en se réveillant ce matin, petit garçon a exclamé "hourra c'est noël!". Quelle déception.

Personalised Pencil Case

2010-11-30T14:54:00.003+01:00

So this was my Paris Vegan Day brunch. Or part of it. Don't know if you can make out tofu omelette, veg curry, mushroom risotto plus of course the sprout salad (sure you can spot that) and the carrots. It was yummy and very nice to pick whatever I wanted from everything on offer. As a lot of you know, my appetite knows few limits and so on top of that enormous plateful I had rice pudding, fruit compote and two servings of the most delicious food of the day: a sweet, dried fruit and quinoa dish that, surprisingly, came sprinkled with fresh basil - taste explosion. I ate it too quickly to snap a photo unfortunately.

La partie salée de mon brunch Paris Vegan Day. Délicieux. Je suis désolée de n'avoir écrit qu'en anglais mon dernier message. C'était une journée fantastique dédiée aux gens comme moi qui choisissent leur repas avec leur coeur en ne mangeant aucun produit animalier... je vois que j'aurai des efforts à faire dans d'autres domaines. Je suis en train de réfléchir à la question de la laine (et le soie etc.) la porter, utiliser ou pas.
Hot off the sewing machine but cold on my snowy shelf outside: a personalised pencil case to be given as a teacher's gift. I am particularly pleased with the PACE because I didn't really want to start repeating colours or interfering with the rainbow effect. I think using pastels (breaking my rule number 7: steer clear of pastels) worked well: they are pretty (actually I am reminded of getting close-up to Gaudi's pillars in Barcelona - the mosaic on them looks white from a distance but the closer you get the more their subtle pastel hues come into play) but detract nothing from the vibrant ROSEMARY.

Je viens de terminer cette commande: une trousse personnalisée pour une maîtresse. Je suis très contente d'avoir franchi l'une de mes règles personnelles (R. N°7 - éviter les couleurs pastels) car je trouve que le PACE en pastel compliment le tout sans faire un effet "explosion chez Casto".

And of course I am happy that this gift will be going to someone who is apparently a total star!

Et je suis contente bien sûr que la personne qui la recevra semble la mériter (hi hi hi)!

Paris Vegan Day

2010-11-29T10:20:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was Paris Vegan day. I don't know where to start writing about it - it was such a cool day with cooking demos, conferences, a vegan brunch, loads of other vegan food and products around to taste and buy and stands from just about every vegan and/or animal rights group out there. It felt to me like finding an oasis in a desert. And so many people turned up. By the time I left they were on a one-out-one-in policy. The highlight for me (and probably many others) was being able to meet vegan authors and bloggers whose food I cook regularly and whose words have made me laugh, informed me and inspired me over the years. And, crazy stuff, they were all such lovely people!

I met and spoke with Isa Chandra Moskowitz (author of Vegan With a Vengence my first vegan cookbook) and Terry Hope Romero (who wrote my favourite vegan cookbook Veganomicon with Isa). They did a cookery demonstration of buckwheat blinis and creamy mushroom filling together and, true to form, were hilarious! Terry did a demonstration on her own too - OMG yummy empanadas (note to self: must get Viva Vegan!).

I met Dynise Balcavage, author of the Urban Vegan blog and the book of the same name. Wow Dynise was such a nice person. So friendly and funny. I ended up taking photos with her camera of her demonstration so that she had pictures to blog. I hope I didn't mess them up! She made a vegan Philly cheese steak sandwich and a to-die-for chocolate mousse with Cointreau - I actually tried a little of this and it was amazingly rich, smooth and tasty (photo above). Oh and Dynise speaks good French - she did her whole demo in French I was so impressed.

I also met Melisser Elliot of The Urban Housewife who has just published her first book - The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life. She did a talk about vegan travelling and was well funny. I think her "if in doubt falafel" motto will stay with me forever! She too was funny and nice and was sporting some mean tattoos. I bought her book and have started reading it - it's a good read, funny and informative, don't hesitate to get it if you are considering going vegan (and probably if you already are too - I am and I'm loving it).

I met loads of other people too whose names I didn't get but who were all there to spread the message and to talk vegan.

It actually feels weird writing this post because... well I am not one to name-drop and here I am name-dropping. But I repeat everyone I met was so friendly, natural and funny I didn't feel like I was talking to vegan superstars at all. They are all doing such good work getting the vegan message out there and (take my word for it) making going vegan easy, delicious and fun. I come away from Paris Vegan Day very happy. I feel committed to living this lifestyle and supporting those who put the word out. I feel grateful to Deborah Pivain of The Gentle Gourmet (a vegan B&B in Paris) for organising such a great day.

I am going to end this post, which is short on photos because, well, I didn't get any good ones for me (hope I got some good ones for Dynise) with a link to the film Earthlings which you can watch online. It's an amazing documentary, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, all about how we humans treat animals. Inform yourselves!

Five things (variation on an old tune)

2010-11-12T21:15:00.003+01:00

Hmm not finding the time to blog... photos will have to speak for me! (again)
Je ne trouve pas le temps de poster en ce moment. Mes photos vont à nouveau devoir parler à ma place....

Happy client (I hope). Une cliente satisfaite... j'espère.
Spent all day cutting out. J'ai passé la journée à découper.
Bubble-wrap painting! Great fun. La peinture à bulles - trop marrante.
Little man turned 4. Un anniversaire - 4 dinosaures cette année.
Making herself right at home. Elle fait comme chez elle (et elle a raison bien sûr).

Chili

2010-11-05T12:21:00.005+01:00

My boyfriend loves hot food. Not hot as in piping. But hot as in nose-running, eyes-streaming, mouth-ablazing chili-hot hotness. He literally chomps a chili pepper or two with every meal - I am not convinced this is healthy but I think when you are used to hot hot, even mild hot just seems bland. Anyhow... I thought I would share with you a few of our different types of chili. From back left of my still life above we have: fresh chilis grown in Montenegro by my boyfriend's aunt - very hot, great chili flavour. Large dried chilis, nice in stew. Chili powder brought back from Kashmir - these chilis are not so hot but are very red and actually impart their red colour to dishes from Kashmir - you can't find this sort of chili in Europe (I think). Bog standard chili powder, can be found everywhere. Fresh green chili from the Indian quarter. Dried small chilis - the go-to for chomping when we have no fresh chilis. Fresh red chilis from the Chinese quarter. And there you have it. Too many chilis. I didn't photograph our dried Mexican chipotle chilis, our caribean chilis in oil, our chinese sweet chili sauce or our tobasco (I am the only one to use the last two). Interesting? Boring? Pretty at least.

Mon compagnon adore le piment. Il le mange à chaque repas. Sérieux. Je ne pense pas exagérer quand je dis que lorsque je fais une soupe aux poireaux par exemple, lui il croque un piment à côté. Moi je n'aime pas trop ça. Mais je les trouve très beaux et donc j'ai pris une sélection de notre collection en photo. De derrière à gauche (sur la photo) il y a des piments poussés par la tante au Monténégro, de gros piments séchés, du poudre de piment ramené de Kashmir qui est très rouge mais pas très fort - ce piment est utilisé comme un colorant rouge dans les currys de Kashmir, du poudre de piment normal, des piments verts achetés dans le quartier indien, de petits piments séchés et des piments rouges achetés dans le quartier chinois. Voilà. Trop de piments. Mais ça fait joli!

Three things

2010-11-04T15:32:00.006+01:00

Relaxing Rabbit
Un lapin chez nous
False nails
De faux talons
Star tote: available here now.
Et du vrai talent* (disponible ici maintenant)
*Pardonnez-moi cet excès d'orgueil - parfois la blague l'emporte!

Pencil Case

2010-10-14T22:41:00.003+02:00

Flowers

2010-10-13T15:36:00.005+02:00

You will soon be able to buy a selection of my products via a great web-boutique called "Histoire à Tiroirs". Sylvie, who runs the site, looked through my er stuff (! not very pro - should I say "book" or "catalogue"?) and chose the articles she liked. One of the items selected was this flower purse in a beige tweed. But since I didn't have enough of that tweed left to be able to offer it up for sale as is, I had to find a replacement fabric.

Bientôt vous pourrez acheter certains de mes articles sur le site "Histoire à Tiroirs". Sylvie, la gérante du site a fait sa sélection et je suis en train de les préparer pour une mise en ligne début novembre.
Hurrah for François! My material man. Ho ho. He had loads of gorgeous tweeds in all sorts of beautiful weaves (including a fantastic black and white wool-silk blend that unfortunately wasn't what I was looking for). And so I came home with this. A lovely turquoise and dark mustard mix that is perfect for the purse (and potentially so much more).

A l'origine cette pochette à fleur était faite dans un tweed beige. Mais comme il ne me restait pas suffisamment de ce tissu pour le proposer en vente, j'ai dû aller rendre visite à François qui, comme d'habitude, avait une panoplie alléchante de tissus, tous de très belle qualité. J'ai choisi celui-ci - un tweed en turquoise et moutarde foncée. Parfait.
I think this new version is better than the first. I love the way the yellow on the back of the petals peeps out. The loose weave of the tweed makes the petals curl as I over-stitch them so they almost seem alive.

Je préfère cette version que la beige. J'adore la façon dont l'on peut apercevoir le jaune derrière les pétales et les pétales mêmes sont recourbées à cause de ma manière de les travailler, ce qui les rend presque vivantes.
I also tried it in this green and pink tarten wool with a pink silk lining. The jury's out on this variation (I think I could come up with something more suited to this fabric and those colours). Frankly the quality of all of these fabrics is awesome - love working with wool and silk rather than cotton for a change. And I love hand stitching on the beads. They really make the flower special.

J'ai essayé une version dans ce tweed vert et rose aussi. Avec une doublure de soie rose. Mais je pense que je pourrai trouver un modèle qui (à mon sens, à ma sensibilité) sera plus en harmonie avec le tissu. Bon en tout cas c'est un régal de travailler avec des fibres de qualité comme ça.

I use my flower purse for keeping all my cards in (credit cards, library cards etc). My Mum uses hers for keeping shopping trolley tokens in (!!). I wouldn't recommend using it for coins since the closure is just two poppers (Although I could custom build a zip purse with this flower on) but it could be used for make-up, first aid, sweets, a sewing kit... oh look I don't know what people put in their pouches! But you can never have too many, right?

J'ai une pochette comme celle-ci et je l'utilise pour mes cartes (carte bleue, carte de bibliothèque, carte vitale). Ma mère met les jetons de caddie dans la sienne! Je ne conseillerais pas d'y mettre de la monnaie car elle se ferme avec deux boutons à pression (cela dit je pourrais faire une version pochette zipée à fleur). Mais autrement l'on pourrait y mettre ce que l'on veut! Et là les options sont infinies!

Eyes wide shut

2010-10-11T11:14:00.003+02:00

Just two little personalised pouches I made for little man's best friend and her brother. I lined them with satin (left over from capes) so they have a really nice interior feel! I popped a small gift in each and voilà!

Deux petits sacs fabriqués pour la meilleure copine de mon fils et son grand frère. L'intérieur est en satin - très agréable.

I'm feeling tired today after getting to bed at 4:30am on Sunday morning. Some good friends came over for a (delicious!) meal and we ended up playing backgammon and chess until the early hours. It quite reminded me of my student days. Until I was woken up by the kids at 7:30am! Those days are definitely gone.

Je suis fatiguée aujourd'hui après m'être couchée à 4h30 dimanche matin. Nous avions invité un couple d'amis à dîner et puis nous avons passé la nuit à jouer aux échecs et au jacquet. Je me serais cru encore étudiant - jusqu'à ce que mes bambins m'ont réveillée à 7h30!

Having your cake

2010-10-08T12:28:00.005+02:00

When I became vegan four years ago, the first recipe book I bought was "Vegan with a Vengence" by Isa Chandra Moskovitz. It's a great book and I go back to it regularly but on my first flick through, there was one recipe that made my mouth water more than the others and my brain has been going back to it ever since: her ginger, macadamia, carrot cake with coconut frosting. The thing was, I never had all the ingredients to hand to make it. Until the other day. I finally pulled together the carrots, the crystallised ginger, the macadamia nuts, the coconut and the pineapple juice and actually made it, with the help of little man. I love this cake. It is spicy and nutty with a nice wholesome texture. The icing makes it quite sweet but the coconut does go so well with the ginger.

Ca fait quatre ans qu'une recette en particulier me donne envie. Quatre ans que régulièrement j'ouvre la page de la recette pour constater que je n'ai pas tous les ingrédients qu'il me faut. Là je n'en pouvais plus donc j'ai acheté le gingembre confite, les noix de macadamia, le jus d'ananas, le noix de coco et le lait de coco (qui font tous des apparitions chez nous mais apparemment d'une manière non-synchronisée) et... voilà: Mon gâteau de carottes au gingembre confit et aux noix de macadamia avec un glaçage de noix de coco. Délicieux! So the taste was excellent but the thing I loved best about this cake was sharing it. On Wednesday I took the pristine cake round to my neighbours' for afternoon tea. That evening, their son came over to ours and had a slice. The next day, yesterday, three workmen came to my house on a recky (boring so no details) and I offered them all coffee and... a slice of cake. So, in total 9 people enjoyed this cake (several of those having seconds) and I got to enjoy every single slice!!

Ce que j'ai préféré avec ce gâteau était de le partager. Avec mes voisins, avec leur fils, avec les 3 ouvriers qui étaient chez moi hier et avec ma petite famille. Comme ça j'ai pu savouré chaque tranche mais pas chaque calorie! It is case of 9 out of ten cats though because my little girl didn't even try it: carrots? yuck! Coconut? Yuck. Pineapple juice? Yuck. No thanks Mummy! Oh well. 9 out of ten aint bad! And tonight? Apple pie (or rather "tarte aux pommes") for her.

Seule ma fille n'a pas aimé. N'a même pas voulu y goûter. Carottes? Beurk! Gingembre? Beurk! Noix de coco? Beurk! Jus d'ananas? Beurk! Bref...

Ce soir: tarte aux pommes pour elle.

Having a nice day

2010-10-05T15:24:00.006+02:00

I realise that I love working from home. I love getting into the flow and having two really productive sewing days. I love sewing. Wow. I'm feeling good. I am also really greatful for left over home-made miso soup... a quick, delicious, late lunch.

Hmm ça bosse bien de mon côté. Tellement bien et non-stop que j'ai juste eu le temps à l'instant de manger une petite soupe de miso que nous avions faite hier soir - hourra pour les restes! J'adore travailler à la maison. Et j'adore manger à la maison!
I have been making bags. The girl bags, above, I blogged about last time are part order and part stock.

J'ai fabriqué des sacs. Les petits sacs au-dessus, dont je vous ai parlé, la dernière fois sont terminés.

These black bags with hearts and clover are for stock - they are really popular with girls and are perfect for books, dance class, art stuff or just things!

Et ces sacs noirs à motif sont pour mon réserve! Je dois commencer à en créer une car j'ai une vente privée dans pas trop longtemps. Les petites filles adorent ces sacs pour y glisser leur petit monde.This brown "banana bag" is an order. I should really do a special post about these bags since they are so practical and amazing. Nothing much to look at but so nice to have in your life!!

Ce sac "banane" marron est une commande. Je vais vous parler dans un autre message de ces sacs car ils le méritent. Ils ne paient pas de mine mais sont super pratiques et durables. Moi et le mien sommes inséparables depuis maintenant dix ans ou plus!

I have a couple more bags to do and then I'll move onto something else. And now I gotta go! See you soon.

J'ai encore quelques sacs à faire et après je passerai à autre chose. Bon. Je dois vous laisser. A bientôt!

Yipee

2010-10-01T09:56:00.005+02:00

Wow. It's Friday already. I can't believe the week has gone so quickly and that I haven't posted once. It honestly feels like we are Tuesday! It has been a funny week. Both kids needed nurturing - girly with a gastro and boy with a big bump on the back of his head on the same day. So not much work going on around here during the first half of the week but I got a lot done yesterday and am working on some bags. They are simple, solid and, in my humble opinion, perfect for girls who aren't quite grown up yet but who are too big for cute. I love the little pleats at the top. I might consider making these in a slightly bigger size for grown-ups...

The yipee at the top is because we are going to get a rabbit, I received the email confirming our adoption last night! I have wanted a house rabbit for about fifteen years and am so happy that my little dream is going to come true. We are going to adopt from a charity who rescue and rehouse abandoned rabbits and I am so pleased that we are able to help a bunny in need. Our rabbit is a girl who is grey with a white nose. I think you'll see her soon enough.

The day has suddenly turned into a very very busy one thanks to one phone call. So I have to go. Have a good weekend friends!

Je travaille actuellement sur de petits sacs pour filles. Filles qui ne sont pas encore tout à faits grandes mais qui ont passé la phase où tout doit être mignon! Ces sacs sont simple et solides. J'adore les petits plis qui entourent l'ouverture. Comme d'habitude, la doublure est bien colorée et je n'en ai pas encore fait deux pareils.

Mon youpi du titre est parce que nous avons été acceptés pour adopter une petite lapine grise au nez blanc de l'association Ani-nounou. Je suis hyper contente et j'ai hâte qu'elle arrive chez nous.

Aujourd'hui s'est transformé en un coup de fil en journée speed donc je dois vous laisser déjà. Je vous souhaite un bon weekend.

Bar runner

2010-09-24T18:02:00.004+02:00

Ha ha this title sounds dodgey - faster than a pub crawl and more urban. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about this runner I made for my friend Sophy's breakfast bar. I had very specific dimensions and was so pleased that I managed to get it right. I always overestimate everything and for that reason often cut things too big (or buy too many...). I have reduced the size of two duvet covers this way - taking the right dimensions and then adding a few centimeters just in case I make it too small. Result? I have two annoying duvet covers that my duvet floats about in. I should learn to trust myself more. Anyhow, back to the runner. Sophy wanted orange. So she got it. And she had shown me a couple of fabrics in other items I have made that she particularly liked and so I tried to incorporate those in the patchwork strips. All in all I think we are both pleased with the result. And thanks Sophy for taking the trouble to photograph the runner and make the above mozaic. I have no idea where the photos I took of it ended up! Duh!

J'ai fait une commande de chemin de table pour ma copine Sophy! Et c'est elle qui l'a si joliment photographié - merci Soph - car j'ai perdu (je ne sais où) les photos que j'avais prises moi-même. Bref. Le chemin de table couvre le bar où Sophy et sa famille mange leur petit-déjeuner. J'étais super contente de moi car j'ai réussi à respecter les dimensions - trop souvent je fais trop grand par peur de faire trop petit. Elle voulait qu'il soit dans les tons oranges et j'ai incorporé quelqu'uns des tissus qu'elle aimait dans d'autres de mes créations.

Fennel

2010-09-22T22:44:00.006+02:00

So I sent in my form about adopting a rabbit (I found one in a shelter from a website). We are all impatient to hear whether it's going to happen or not. Actually today was busy with good stuff (including rabbits) and stressful stuff. Little boy has yet to adapt to the new year of school rhythm and rules and so we are going from "Mummy you are nasty" (I had half an hour of that on repeat this morning at some unearthly time - far too early to actually react) to hanging on to poor Mum's legs and rejecting everyone else. He has had countless tantrums today and he seems unable to deal with any obstacle which stands between him and his ruling the universe. Hard work and tiring. Thank goodness girly has a "new" atlas and is freaking out over the size of Canada and wondering whether Argentina is in Europe and is learning capital cities. I tried to show off my own knowledge (at age nine I knew them all) but got a bit (cough cough) muddled with Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest, Prague... Don't ask me! Or ask me now but not tomorrow.

We did eat some delicious pasta which I think you should all recreate in celebration of fennel! We adapted from Jamie Oliver's recipe in er Happy Days with the Naked Chef. I have no photo since we ate it too quickly.

This is what you do:
fry some sliced garlic, a crumbled chili pepper and some rosemary in some olive oil for one minute,
add some crushed fennel seeds and fry for one minute,
add some fennel in eighths, previously boiled for just short of 10 minutes, and fry for 5 minutes,
add some halved cherry tomatoes and, if you wish, some canned tomatoes or other juice (wine, stock) and stew for as long as it takes from 15 minutes up.
Meanwhile cook the pasta.
While the pasta is cooking, fry some dry breadcrumbs in olive oil until crispy.
Then.
Mix pasta and sauce on the plate and then sprinkle breadcrumbs over.

You will not be disappointed. Yum.

Gosh I forgot to mention that originally he makes this with salami added right at the beginning. Boyf' just grilled some bacon and added it to his plate at the end. You could go with anchovies too since apparently fennel is very Sicilian and we all know Sicilians love anchovies right? Anyone Sicilian around to correct me? (I'm nudging you!). and in any case... vegan is best!

Hmm must go take photo for post, back in a tick... ha ha I am back in my time and of course my mind has wandered. I took a photo of the recipe but then remembered Jamie's excellent trainers on the back of the dust jacket. I actually fell in love with these on a stranger's feet over ten years ago but in red and gold and so procured myself a pair which I only dumped, almost sole-less but they still had soul, just a couple of months ago... And have now replaced them with the excellent trainers at the top... not vegan but second-hand and second-hand direct from New York. Love them. Funny how things turn out. Fennel to trainers from New York.

PS you can just about see Jamie's trainers below mine if you click on the photo...

Bon je pense que je traduirai tout cela demain! Revenez donc pour une excellente recette de pâtes au fenouil et une histoire de basquettes...

Logcabin revisited

2010-09-21T12:20:00.003+02:00

Today I'm working on an order of some log-cabin cushion covers. My usual rusty-pink colour combination - it's very popular. I enjoy making these so I'm a happy bunny. I'm chuckling inside because we are considering adopting a house rabbit and so soon there might be two happy bunnies under this roof! It's a big decision and we need to discuss it as a family and all feel ready to commit before we go ahead with it. I am crossing my fingers though.
Je travaille aujourd'hui sur une commande de housses de coussin. J'utilise mes couleurs habituelles et je n'en ai pas encore marre - elles plaisent bien. Nous allons éventuellement adopter un lapin qui vivrait en liberté chez nous, avec nous. Il faut que nous en discutons encore en famille pour être sûrs que nous sommes prêts à nous engager. Moi, j'ai très envie et je croise les doigts.

Online once more

2010-09-20T14:26:00.004+02:00

Crikey! Have I been away that long? Ha! I know I have but am glad to be back again. Thanks for sticking with me. I have had a nice time away and am now back in gear and er, dare I say it, this time I mean business! You can see that I have modified the layout of the blog, adding pages at the top which describe my business activity. I hope this isn't off-putting to my friends and family but I plan to market myself a little more intensively and so hope to have business traffic coming this way soon! My little blog will still remain the same though: me chatting about my days and whatnot... Anyway, I hope you had a really good summer with family and friends and maybe also a bit time on your own (I had a bit of that and relished every second). I will be posting almost every day again from now so, I'll see you tomorrow!

Coucou les amis! Si vous êtes toujours là! J'ai négligé ce petit blog cet été, d'abord par nécessité (j'ai passé l'aspirateur sur mon ordinateur portable ce qui l'a rendu inutilisable) et ensuite par manque de temps et d'organisation. Mais je suis de retour et même d'attaque! Vois pouvez voir que j'ai modifié la présentation de mon blog en ajoutant en haut des pages qui expliquent un peu mon activité de vente de créations. J'espère que ça ne vous dérange pas - je n'ai pas l'intention de transformer cet espace en total commercial, mais j'ai envie d'augmenter mon activité quand même et donc cette nouvelle présentation devrait m'aider en cela.

Bref... j'espère que vous avez passé un bon été et que la rentrée s'est bien passé pour tout le monde. Je posterai ici régulièrement à partir de maintenant et donc je vous dis... à demain!

Break

2010-07-20T20:29:00.002+02:00

Oops broken fan on my computer... I'll be back when it's fixed!

Zut! Le ventilateur de mon ordinateur est cassé - je reviendrai quand je l'aurai réparé!

Linen

2010-07-09T10:35:00.004+02:00

I bought this linen to make trousers for little man but in the end I decided it was too light in weight and that white linen trousers in any case would be a future laundry nightmare. So I took a break from shop sewing and made up this little shirt. Thus far he has refused to even try it on but I do not give up hope. I think that in the blazing heat of Montenegro (or Paris for that matter) a linen shirt will be just the ticket.

J'ai acheté ce lin (bonjour François? et bonjour Jean-Jacques du coup!?) pour faire un pantalon pour mon fils. Mais en réalité un pantalon aurait été un cauchemar à laver et le tissu peut-être un peu fin. Donc je lui ai fait cette chemise. Trop classe. Trop classe même pour qu'il l'essaie! Mon fils ne l'aime pas. Je pense qu'il changera d'idée dans la chaleur du Monténégro...I used pattern E in this Japanese sewing book called "Boys' Clothes". I like this book a lot and have made up quite a few of their patterns with much success. My other favourite book for boys' clothes (especially trousers) is this one. My son now has practically no bought trousers apart from one pair of jeans.

J'ai utilisé modèle E dans ce livre de couture japonais "Boys' Clothes". J'aime bien ce livre et les vêtements que j'ai faits avec. Mon autre livre japonais préféré pour garçons est celui-ci. Surtout pour les pantalons.I used fawn coloured buttons that I had in my stash and I whipped the whole thing up in just a couple of short sessions. I worked quickly and so there are a couple of puckers around the collar and sleeve hem but I figure that a shirt with puckers is better than no shirt at all! (Not sure my son would agree with me on that one).

J'ai utlisé des boutons couleur fauve et comme j'ai travaillé dans la rapidité il y a quelques petits plis au niveau du col et de l'ourlet des manches qu'autrement n'y auraient pas été. Bon tant pis.
I might not be back here until midnext week. So I wish you all a sunny, happy weekend!

Je ne retournerai ici qu'au mileu de la semaine prochaine et donc je vous souhaite un très bon weekend à tous!

R.A.S. (nothing to report)

2010-07-08T21:40:00.003+02:00

Not much going on here... but at the same time it's non-stop. We are in the middle of making an aquarium, inspired by this one. Assemblage tomorrow.

C'est ça avec les enfants... pas grand chose à raconter mais en même temps ça ne s'arrête jamais. Nous construisons un aquarium, inspiré par celui-ci. Assemblage final demain.

Fowl Weather

2010-07-05T21:44:00.006+02:00

Today was the first non-weekend day of the school holidays and apart from two weeks in August the kids and I will be at home the whole time. This will be a new experience for us since we usually go off galavanting around the UK. So, trying to retain a sense of adventure and discovery, I have decided that we will go off galavanting in our local, and as yet largely unexplored, vicinity.

Aujourd'hui était le premier jour des vacances. D'habitude moi et les enfants partons pour l'Angleterre en vadrouille et on vit plein d'aventures. Mais cette année, à part deux semaines en août, nous restons là. Un drôle de concept. Donc, j'ai décide que vadrouille il y aura, même si plus près de la maison. Cet après midi nous avons choisi un carré vert sur le plan comme destination et nous sommes partis.
Today was our first forray into the unknown and so we randomly picked a green splodge on the map and headed off. We walked for a good 45 minutes and just when young voices were piping up with the old "are we nearly there yet", well we were and a nice surprise awaited us because the green splodge ended up being a park which had a small farm in one corner and we got to say hello to such delightful chaps as the above goose and the cockeral below as well as other representatives of both beast and fowl (rabbits, goats, pigs, sheep, a cow and a donkey).

Il nous a fallu pas mal de temps pour y arriver et les enfants n'en pouvaient presque plus mais une fois sur place nous étions vraiment gâtés. Le carré vert était un magnifique parc avec une ferme pédagogique dans un coin et nous avons pu, nous avons dû, dire bonjour à tous les animaux qui y habitaient (dont l'oie et le coq en photo mais aussi un âne, des chèvres, des cochons, un poney, des moutons et une vache). The park also had two play areas, lovely, landscaped green spaces and a kind of roman forum type place with stone benches and a statue. We had such a great time and the kids didn't want to leave. We plan to return, Papa in tow, for a day long picnic soon.

Le parc avait également deux airs de jeux et des espaces vertes toutes en grandeur. Il y avait même cet espèce de forum romain avec une statue au milieu et des bancs en pierre. Les enfants voulaient y rester mais hélas toute chose a une fin.
On the way back we discovered this undulating path which I think follows the course of an underground stream. My little boy was getting tired but there is nothing like a few bumps and humps to run up and down for an instant energy boost.

Sur le retour nous avons trouvé ce chemin ondulé qui suit, je pense, un ruisseau souterrain. Les enfants adoraient marcher sur les bosses! Et ça fait oublier la fatigue (ça et un muffin).All in all our first exploration was a success and we are all really looking forward to the next! A blue splodge next time methinks.

Bilan de ce premier jour: nous avons pris goût aux explorations et avons repéré une tâche bleue sur le plan comme prochain étape.

Making the most of the sun...

2010-06-30T18:52:00.002+02:00

A pillow-sized special order for a friend, happy to be in sun with his buddy (both of them sporting factor 50 of course with their alabaster skin).

Doudou et doudoudeux: heureux d'être au soleil (écran total obligé avec leur peau d'aspirine).
Et d'autres des miens ont profité aussi du soleil hier après l'école chez des amis.

And more of my babes enjoyed the sun yesterday after school at some friends' house.

Teachers' gifts

2010-06-28T13:03:00.003+02:00

And what teacher wouldn't like a personnlised pencil case to sit on their desk? The "Maïté" pencil case is for my client's son's primary school teacher and the "A. Giovanni" one is for another client's daughter's middle school teacher. I still of course have to make gifts for my own children's teachers...

Le cadeau de maîtresse parfait à mon avis. Maïté est une maîtresse de maternelle et A. Giovanni de primaire. Deux commandes de deux clients différents et, j'espère, deux maîtresses contentes de leur cadeau. Bien sûr il me reste les cadeaux des maîtres de mes propres enfants à réaliser...We had a good weekend on the whole (one disallowed goal and four allowed ones aside). I, we, met lots of new local people who were all lovely and friendly and supportive. I had an intense moment after leaving some new friends' house where I just felt so GLAD to have moved and to now live in this small, welcoming community. Ah!

Nous avons passé un très bon weekend (si l'on fait abstraction d'un but non-validé et quatre autres tout à fait valides). J'ai fait pleins de rencontres sympathiques de personnes gentilles, intéressantes et accueillantes et à un moment précis, dans la rue, juste après avoir quitté de nouveaux amis, j'étais envahie par le sentiment d'être si BIEN ici, si contente d'avoir déménagé.

Another one

2010-06-27T18:42:00.003+02:00

I made another one... this time all by myself! J'en ai fait une deuxième... toute seule cette fois-ci.

5x5

2010-06-25T13:58:00.005+02:00

So that pile of squares (second photo down) became this pile of squares.

25 carrés, chacun d'une couleur différente et matelassé avec l'une de 25 différentes couleurs de fil. I spent quite a lot of time reorganising them indecisively because my thing is the way colours bounce off each other and of course the combination possibilities are countless with 25 different-coloured squares (purple and jade or jade and blue, turquoise and pink or gold and pink...). In the end I asked my daughter to arrange them and I stuck to her design. She gets to feel proud and happy and I get to save some time.

Finalement c'est ma fille qui a trouvé la position des carrés. Moi je passais trop de temps à les arranger et à les réarranger car je n'arrivais pas à décider quelles associations de couleur me plaisaient le plus.This is my Elmer cushion cover and it has been a long time coming. I say that because sometime in the nineties I started painting a small wooden trunk in Elmer squares and it didn't work out at all (hello purple dots trunk) so now I am wondering whether this is one of those ideas that I somehow need to process creatively and that, until I do, will keep coming back in different forms. My work often feels to me to be instinctive and spontaneous but if I send out little probes into my subconscious I can almost sense the presence of future projects in embryotic form, slowly gathering input from all around and growing, growing until one day they will pop out, all in a rush, seeming spontaneous but actually with years and years of definition behind them. Gosh. Makes it all sound more than a cushion cover.

Je pense que ce projet fermente en moi depuis les années 90. Et j'en ai plein d'autres idées comme ça qui marinent tout doucement, baignées par ma sous-conscience et qui vont surgir d'un coup inattendues mais pourtant familières.
Just to sum up... each of the twenty five squares on this cushion cover is a different colour and, even more excitingly (for me), each has been quilted with a different coloured cotton thread - usually matching quite precisely. Hurrah for my enormous, inexplicable and yet quite essential (to me), collection of thread!

Heureusement que je collectionne le fil de coton. (Je n'ai aucune collection en réalité, juste des addictions).

Sports

2010-06-24T22:31:00.006+02:00

I'm afraid I haven't much for you again. And I blame the football! We love football in this household (we being the er ruling half!!) and the World Cup is the only thing we ever watch on television. That and the European Cup. I was pregnant for the last two World Cups and so am convinced that a good match could provide both my children with that nice, warm, fuzzy, in utero feeling. Not sure they would agree with me yet on that one although I do maintain that the potential is there.

Bon ben en France en ce moment le foot occupe nos écrans et nos oreilles et notre parlement, que l'on le veuille ou non. Sauf que nous on le veut et ça prend du temps. On vient de regarder Japon-Danemark et quel match. Ah! J'étais enceinte pour les deux derniers mondiaux et du coup je suis persuadée de l'inéluctabilité (merci wordchecker) du fait que mes enfants vont, tôt ou tard, adorer le foot qui va les ramener à cet endroit que nous recherchons tous: er l'utérus! Hmm il fait tard.

Apart from that, something lovely is happening and that is that my three-year-old son is discovering the joys of friendship and really it is heartwarming. He now often wants to share moments, toys and er funny bath-time hairstyles with his friends. He was invited round to a little boy's house yesterday and I asked him what he thought his friend might like as a small gift to take round. Well my son remembered that his friend really liked our marbles and didn't have any of his own and so he suggested that we give him some. My daughter immediately chipped in and said that she could give him some of hers and so I made the above little drawstring marble bag and voilà! It feels good to see your kids being thoughtful and kind.

Hmm ce paragraphe explique que l'amitié est belle, surtout lorsqu'elle inspire les enfants à être généreux et attentionnés. Oh et j'ai fait le petit sac à billes pour un copain de mon fils.I also made these two pouches recently. One is a make-up bag for my sister-in-law and the other is a pencil case - made to order for my client's daughter's teacher as an end of year gift.

Et ces deux trousses sont des commandes. Jaune = trousse de maquillage pour ma belle soeur. Orange = trousse d'école en cadeau de fin d'année pour la maîtresse de la fille de ma cliente.
I love the way the lines and colours flow on these pouches. They make me happy and I hope will make their recipients happy too.

J'aime bien le jeu entre les lignes et les couleurs, la lumière et la perspective.

Photos

2010-06-22T16:55:00.002+02:00

Flowers, cookies (et grammaire)

2010-06-17T09:29:00.007+02:00

The cookies were good! Hurrah. Kind of cakey because I replaced most of the liquid oil (I use margarine too though) with a gourd of apple puree. But a cakey cookie is good sometimes, for a change. And I received a gift of flowers, freesias, from the little friend. Aren't they lovely? So here I sit, enveloped in the beautiful aroma of pink freesias writing to you and preparing my long to-do list for the next few days. Ah! Les petits gâteaux fussent bons!

Je sais, je sais. Mais une fois j'avais mangé dans un resto dans le 7ème et à la fin la serveuse m'a demandé si "le repas fût bon". Et cela m'a marquée et m'a fait rire et me fait rire toujours et donc encore aujourd'hui (ça fait plus de 10 ans) lorsque j'ai bien mangé... et ben "le repas fût bon". Quelqu'un, un jour, m'expliquera tout ça. Mais les éclats de rire grammaticaux font partie des joies de vivre dans un autre pays que le sien.

Pour les cookies j'ai remplacé une quantité équivalente d'huile liquide avec une gourde de compote - ce qui leur donne une texture plus gâteau que biscuit. On aime bien comme ça de temps en temps.

Et regardez-moi ces jolis fleurs que le camarade de mon fils m'a apportées... elles sentent si bon.

RAINBOW WARRIORS

2010-06-16T14:42:00.003+02:00

I first had the idea for these little guys about four years ago but I didn't do anything about it. Shame! They could have taken over the world by now. Well my world at least! There are four (all different) in my shop right now. I am just about to make some cookies for a little friend who is coming over to play. My usual failsafe recipe er failed last time (yuk) so wish me luck! Don't want to have the reputation of being the yukky cookie lady.
J'ai eu l'idée pour ces doudous il y a quatre ans. Une longue période de gestation. Mais enfin ils sont nés et se trouvent actuellement dans ma boutique. Je suis sur le point de faire des cookies et, je l'espère, sauver ma réputation: les derniers que j'avais faits n'étaient franchement pas très bons!

Placemats finished

2010-06-15T10:33:00.004+02:00

I have just finished these placemats. I love them and luckily I have my own else it would be hard for me to let them go heh heh! If you like them, you could always contact me for a custom order...

Je viens de terminer ces sets de table. Si je n'en avais pas déjà j'aurai du mal à les laisser partir. Ils vous plaisent? Pourquoi pas me contacter pour en commander...

More blue

2010-06-14T18:37:00.008+02:00

This weekend I was invited to participate in a sale that my friend Sophy was organising. She makes beautiful children's clothes out of a mixture of new and vintage fabrics. They have a fifties vibe to them and are always colourful and well-made. Check out her site - it is such a shame you can't touch her clothes online - their beauty and quality (lined sleeves...) don't come across so well in 2D. Anyway, it was such a joy to hang out with her and her guests for the afternoon. Hurrah! I think everyone was happy with the day.

Ce weekend j'ai participé à une vente privée organisée par ma copine Sophy. Elle fabrique des vêtements d'enfants dans un esprit années 50 à partir de tissus neufs et récupérés, tous très colorés et très beaux. Je connais plusieurs enfants qui portent ses créations et l'on peut dire que Sophy a tout compris - les mamans adorent les couleurs, la qualité, les enfants adorent leur confort et les passants adorent voir les enfants si joliment habillés!
Sophy transformed her beautiful flat into a total boutique and our wares looked great. Only problem - my camera battery ran out so I couldn't take any pictures to share with you. I did however make a purchase of this beautiful pouch. I couldn't resist the vintage leather, the flashy blue paired with the red lining and the cute little button...

Sophy a transformé son appartement (déjà magnifique) en véritable boutique et c'est trop dommage que je n'avais plus de batterie pour mon appareil photo sinon j'aurais pu vous montrer. Mais j'ai craqué sur cette petite pochette qu'elle a fabriqué avec du cuir récupéré et un tissu japonais. J'aime tellement ces deux couleurs ensemble...

Fun with capes

2010-06-10T09:12:00.007+02:00

I made some rainbow capes which I have put in my shop. Perfect for prancing around in like a fairy or for bigger children to wear and then chase little children around making them shriek and scream with that lovely kiddie mixture of fear and delight. All that and more was going on in my house yesterday (different capes - the ones in the shop are pristine of course) when little man invited some friends and their siblings over to play for the first time. It was such fun and so noisy and so nice to get to know new little friends and their Mums

J'ai fabriqué des capes, noir d'un côté, couleurs arc en ciel de l'autre. Je les ai mises dans ma boutique. Elles sont parfaites pour les petites fées de ce monde. Ou d'ailleurs pour les monstres! Comme chez moi hier lorsque mon fils a invité des copains pour jouer pour la première fois et le plus grand garçon, en cape, chassait les plus petits les faisant crier de peur et rire de plaisir tout en même temps. Un gros délire sympathique. Ah ça fait du bien de rencontrer des mamans, des enfants et de passer un après-midi ensemble.
Here, today, it is raining raining raining. So depressing. The only plus point is the pretty waterfall I have tumbling out of my blocked gutter, past one of my windows. My neighbour (who almost remembers the war) tells me he clears his gutter by venturing out onto the roof through one of the bedroom windows. Now the gutter in question must only be three meters off the ground but er no. I won't be venturing out there, up there, any time soon. My neigbour is a brave man. Or am I a wuss? Anyway, must borrow a ladder.

Aujourd'hui, ici, il pleut beaucoup. Quelle déprime. On est presque mi-juin et il pleut comme si on était en avril. Le seul avantage pour moi (et encore faut-il être optimiste) est la jolie cascade qui tombe devant l'une de mes fenêtres. Et oui, gouttière bloquée, pas d'échelle! Mon voisin, lui, il monte sur le toit même pour nettoyer la sienne, mais moi je ne le sens pas cette escapade-là (une génération plus jeune mais deux fois plus frileuse!). Bon j'aime la petite cascade et je trouverai bien quelqu'un avec une échelle à me prêter l'un de ces jours.
Talking shop for a bit... I should make it clear that if you see anything you like and would like here on my blog, you are welcome to contact me and I would be happy to make you one to your own specifications (for example a dinosaur pencil case with a diplodocus, the initial B, a blue zip and an orange lining - you see the possibilities are endless). We could discuss design details and price via email and payment could be made via paypal, French chèques, a bank transfer or even cash if you live near me! If you don't live near me, I ship all over the world.

Alternatively, you could contact me via my shop where there is a special "personnalisation" tab for requesting custom work.

Right. Onwards! Or back (to work).

Parlons boutique un peu... si jamais vous voyez quelque chose ici sur mon blog que vous aimeriez avoir pour vous ou offrir à quelqu'un que vous connaissez, comme par exemple une trousse dinosaure mais avec un diplodocus vert, l'initial B en violet, la doublure en jaune et la fermeture en bleu? Pas de soucis! Contactez-moi par email (en haut à droite) et nous pouvons parler design, prix, délais etc. J'accepte les règlements par Paypal, chèque, espèces si on est voisin ou même par virement et j'envoie partout dans le monde. Sinon, vos pouvez me contacter via ma boutique où il y a un onglet spécial "personnalisation" pour toute commande sur mesure.

Bon. Je retourne au travail. Bonne journée à tous.

Special Order

2010-06-08T22:10:00.003+02:00

I'm working on an order of some placemats. I've just got the hand stitching to do on the last one and then they are done. I think the back looks almost as nice as the front - I would treat them as reversible.
Je travaille sur une commande de trois sets de table et il ne me reste que le dernier à finir à la main. Je trouve que le dos est presqu'aussi joli que le devant.

Bit of blue

2010-06-06T23:13:00.003+02:00

Those of you who know me will be surprised to see a little bit of blue creeping into my life and er wardrobe!

Je n'aime pas le bleu. Je ne l'ai jamais aimé. Il y a très peu de bleu dans ma vie. C'est officiel. Sauf que, depuis peu...

Forest (part one)

2010-06-03T18:30:00.005+02:00

My daughter loves the colour green and all things foresty at the moment. So what better way to decorate her bedroom than with this wall hanging (click)?

Here is my version. I am very pleased with the result.
For the white I used my Grandmother's old linen sheets - so thick and crisp and lovely at the edges that even the needle has a hard time going through, but so worn and thin and soft in the middle that they are quite unsleepable-onable. Although I learnt at the Quilt Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in May (ah something else to blog about) that of course what you do in that case, especially if you are a thrifty Victorian, is cut the sheet down the middle and sew the edges together in the new middle.

Oh well, too late for this time, part of the sheet is now this forest and hangs nicely where I can ponder all of that every time I see it.

So it looks nice, it makes me think of thrifty Victorians and also, I will let you into a little confession here, it is truly a family affair because my dear Mum hand-quilted a good three-quarters of it. Because she is that kind of Mum and I am that kind of crafter. Or she is that kind of crafter and I am that kind of Mum. Hum. Anyhow. One day perhaps my daughter will appreciate this interfamilial, quadro-generational, team-effort but for the time being she is just happy that it's a forest.

Le français suivra...

Shop Open

2010-06-01T20:14:00.003+02:00

http://www.alittlemarket.com/boutique/jellybeanlupin

The time has come...

2010-05-31T13:32:00.005+02:00

...to share with you some of the stuff I have been working on over the past couple of weeks:This is part of my RAINBOW collection (click on the image for a larger version).

As you can see I have been working with all the colours of the rainbow and all the items above exist in black and white versions with linings and zips in all the different colours of the rainbow. Hurrah!

I have had such fun making these and as from tomorrow they will be available to buy. Right now you can contact me by email (I've added my email address to the sidebar up there on the right) if you would like more info but I will be posting details about each item over the course of the next few days. I'll also be opening an Etsy.com shop and a Alittlemarket.fr shop...

I have the feeling that there are not enough hours in the day for me to get everything done that I need to but I feel really excited about this new adventure and know that when it comes down to achieving anything... slowly slowly catch your monkey!

Il est temps! Que je partage avec vous une partie de ma collection "ARC EN CIEL". (Cliquez sur l'image pour visualiser une version plus grande).

Ah! J'ai toujours adoré les couleurs de l'arc en ciel et donc pour ma première petite collection j'ai décidé de les travailler toutes ensemble.

Toutes les créations ci-dessus seront disponibles à acheter à partir de demain et elles existent toutes en plusieurs versions: l'on peut choisir noir ou blanc en ce qui concerne le tissu extérieur et n'importe quelle couleur de l'arc en ciel pour la doublure et fermeture éclair. Et oui ça en fait des possibilités!

Pour le moment si vous voulez plus d'informations vous pouvez me contacter par mail - j'ai ajouté mon adresse en haut à droite - mais progressivement j'écrirai plus sur chacune des articles et j'ouvrirai aussi deux boutiques virtuelles: l'une sur Etsy.com et l'autre sur Alittlemarket.fr.

Voilà je me suis lancée et j'en suis ravie ravie ravie!! Hourra!

The shadows are why...

2010-05-29T12:15:00.005+02:00

...I like quilting
Ce sont les ombres que j'aime.

Placemats

2010-05-28T09:17:00.004+02:00

If ever you are in need of some patchwork inspiration or a small project tutorial then I recommend you head over to Pink Penguin.

I had been planning on making some quilted placemats for the four of us for a while but I was stumbling on the designs - I wanted to make a quilted Taj Mahal placemat for me man for example, and I had even cut out the green fabric, batting and backing for my daughter's tree one. But there I blocked and the project got no further off the ground.

And then when Ayumi posted pictures of some placemats she had been working on a while back, they were just the inspiration I needed and so I made a green patchwork strip, attached it to my existing green fabric and hey presto! A couple of months later I got round to making my one in pink and I'm sure eventually I will make the missing blue and black ones.
You can see from all the stains and bowl indentations that these placemats get used three times a day and they are great.

And now Ayumi has posted a really clear, picture heavy, so easy to follow, tutorial showing how she made hers. And so everyone can make their own!! Hurrah. Believe me these mats give new, deeper meaning to the term "Happy Meal" - eat off something you made, with fabric you and your loved ones chose and every meal will make you feel happy (if, ahem, your delicious cooking doesn't already make you feel happy - lets call it a "Happier Meal").Oh and just in case you didn't realise this is the same Ayumi who made the patchwork basket tutorial I followed back in September...

Bon je résume car je n'ai pas le temps de tout écrire en français

Ayumi de Pink Penguin assure grave
Elle m'a inspirée d'adapter un project sur lequel je bloquais (des sets de table)
Le résultat est super joli et on s'en sert plusieurs fois par jour
Elle vient de créer un tuto montrant comment elle fait les siens.
Hourra!!

Bag C

2010-05-27T17:51:00.005+02:00

Nope. Doesn't matter where I take this photo. The bag still needs ironing. There is still no sun. I am still exhausted with stingy eyes. But my daughter at least has a present to give to her friend at her party on Saturday.

Peu importe d'où je prends cette photo - il n'y a pas de lumière, le sac a besoin d'être repassée et moi j'ai les yeux qui piquent de fatigue. Au moins la copine de ma fille aura un cadeau pour son anniversaire samedi.

Boy/Girl

2010-05-26T15:39:00.004+02:00

Just taking a break from all my (secret) labour to make this pouch as a present for the little girl who has invited my little boy to her birthday party this coming Saturday. This is his first ever party invitation and so we are very excited. He made all executive decisions regarding this project - a blue T-Rex on the front, blue lining and red zip. I just executed. Executed and er committed mutiny when I decided that a girly and personal touch was needed and added her initial in flower fabric. Said mutiny was met with the response "Oh no Mummy look what you've done" uttered with great (and surely appropriate) melodrama. I don't think my three year old gets boy/girl stuff yet. (I won't confess here in writing that maybe I think the pouch would indeed have been better without the J).

Je ne vous en ai pas parlé mais cela fait quelques semaines que je travaille quasi-exclusivement sur mon projet professionnel (moins sur le projet même que sur ma machine à coudre mais bon...). Mais aujourd'hui j'ai travaillé sur autre chose - cette petite pochette pour une petite fille qui a invité mon petit garçon à une fête d'anniversaire ce samedi. Mon p'tit gars a pris toutes les décisions créatives: tyrannosaure bleu, doublure bleu, fermeture rouge. Je n'ai fait qu'exécuter. Bon exécuter et mutiner car moi j'ai décidé qu'il fallait une touche fille, personnelle... d'où le J en fleurs. Mon fils était outré lorsqu'il a vu mon intervention. Et je le comprends. Sa version avait peut-être plus d'allure.

Caught out...

2010-05-24T21:18:00.006+02:00

By the sun. Never too old for sunburn unfortunately (but too English to avoid it maybe).
Grillée par le soleil. Ca ne devrait plus m'arriver - à mon âge et avec ma peau d'anglaise.
I worked hard today.
Une journée très productive - j'arrive doucement à mon objectif.Lovely end to the day - vegan paella cooked by my man. Baby spinach: hardly a classic ingredient but so yummy.

La journée se termine délicieusement - paella végétalienne avec de jeunes pousses d'épinards fondantes - miam.

On my desk...

2010-05-20T18:59:00.005+02:00

Colour overload - feels like I'm sitting in a rainbow.
Saturation totale - comme si j'habite un arc en ciel.

Hello again!

2010-05-19T09:52:00.003+02:00

The above photo was taken with my phone one day when I realised the wall I was standing against was the same colour as my T-shirt.

J'ai pris cette photo avec mon téléphone lorsque je me suis rendu compte que mon t-shirt et le mur était de la même couleur.

I've been away from here for too long and, as a believer in the old adage "use it or loose it", I've decided that I would like to start posting again.

Je crois qu'il faut se débarrasser de ce dont l'ont ne se sert pas et comme, finalement, je n'ai pas envie de me débarrasser de mon blog... et ben je vais recommencer à m'en servir!

My Dad passed away on the last day of winter and I have been trying to come to terms with him no longer being here. I realise though that perhaps we never come to terms with such great loss and that in any case there is no point waiting for it to happen. It is a slow, gradual process. I have learnt a lot over the last couple of months.

J'ai perdu mon père le dernier jour de l'hiver et j'essaye de m'habituer à ce qu'il ne soit plus là. Impossible. Je pensais qu'un deuil se passait autrement. Un robot pourrait faire son deuil comme je l'imaginais peut être. Mais cette façon organique que j'ai de vivre les émotions me va parfaitement: les émotions comme les marées qui viennent et qui s'en vont régulièrement, qui apportent et remportent de nouvelles choses et d'anciennes à chaque fois.

My eye

2010-03-15T22:31:00.005+01:00

This is my eye. Badly applied mascara and all! I am sitting here wanting to post but not quite knowing what to say. I reformatted my hard drive and have only transferred back a few photos so I have no visual starting point for a post... I have been thinking a lot about renewal recently though and so am quite appreciating having an empty computer in front of me - no bookmarks, no photos, no passwords saved... The same thing has been happening superficially in my life too - I have bought new clothes, started going to the gym, even started wearing a little bit of make up (!) It feels like I am trying to start afresh and bring new things and habits into my life and above all a new attitude towards my physical self. But I realise writing this that there are lots of "old" things, habits and er people in my life that I definitely don't want to be rid of but that I have been neglecting shamefully. Life does seem to be a juggling act and my problem is that I have never learnt to keep many balls in the air at once. I guess I just have to keep trying.

Voilà. Mon oeil. Ca me fait rire en français... Et pour ce soir ce rire va devoir suffire - pas trop d'inspiration juste envie de vous dire un petit coucou.

Oops

2010-03-11T18:57:00.004+01:00

Happy Birthday Dad!

2010-03-11T14:43:00.003+01:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD !!!!

You are surely my most faithful reader and I felt sad when I knew you weren't there to read what I wrote.

Here is a drawing I did of you when I was in my teens. I don't think you have changed at all since then and I think that in my mind you never will.

Pizza night

2010-03-09T22:36:00.004+01:00

I made pizzas today. We all love it when I make pizza. The flour I used this time was too white but we all still enjoyed our tailor-made meal. Little man always asks "What you make for me today?" at tea time and pizza always gets a "hooray!".
J'ai fait des pizzas aujourd'hui en attendant GDF (ou je ne sais comment ils s'appellent maintenant). GDF m'a fait faux bond mais les pizzas se sont pointées à la bonne heure comme il fallait. Miam. We had a nice time in England. It rained. A lot. But parks are fun, even when it's raining and water dries! I bought some "new" clothes from my favourite second-hand shops (oh I haven't mentioned before I don't think that I hate shopping for clothes and buy most of my new clothes from two particular charity shops in the UK!) I also bought some Jitterbug sock wool from Get Knitted.

C'était sympa en Angleterre. On a fêté noël (comme on n'a pas pu y aller en décembre), on s'est promené, on s'est reposé. J'ai acheté de quoi faire de jolies chaussettes. Et ma Maman m'en acheté aussi - regardez-moi toutes ces couleurs. Magnifiques. C'est difficile de trouver de la bonne laine à chaussettes en France.
And my Mum bought me some too. So I will have happy feet this winter - check out these colours. Hooray!

On dirait un arc en ciel à croquer. Oui on dirait des blettes multicolores comme j'en ai acheté et mangé l'autre semaine - je vais éditer ce message pour ajouter une photo. Et cela me rappelle l'un de mes tissus préférés de tous les temps par Kaffe Fassett... à suivre

Realised whilst typing in French that the colours below look like rainbow chard and I photographed some last month so I've added a picture of that too. My favourite fabric is by Kaffe Fassett and features rainbow chard...
Man got back safely from India too. He had a good time and I'll show you what he bought back in a future blog post. Strangely, for us, we have been talking about the summer holidays so I am feeling summery and excited about summer. Almost enough to forget the icy winds blowing through Paris as I type. It really is chilly out.

J'ai des cadeaux de l'Inde à vous montrer mais ce sera pour un autre jour. J'ai froid et j'ai besoin de me réchauffer au lit!

Blackbird in a tree

2010-02-19T09:31:00.004+01:00

Another busy busy day. Packing, cleaning, tidying and last minute shopping all in preparation of leaving for England and coming back again to a nice space.

My daughter designed the above tree for my Mum. I confess that once she had made the pattern, cut out the felt, cut out the bird and apples, stuck them on and sewn on the bird's bead-y eye, all of that all by herself, well she was out of steam. So I ended up sewing it together. But we still feel that it is her creation and it was her idea that I take a photo of it to put on my blog. The is the first time that all the ideas came from her - I hope it is the first time of many.

Ce petit arbre était l'idée de ma fille et c'est elle qui a fait le patron, découpé le tissu, découpé les pommes et l'oiseau et qui les a collés. Après elle n'en pouvait plus et comme c'est un cadeau pour ma mère et que nous partons ce soir après l'école... c'est moi qui a fini le projet. Mais on reste quand même très contentes de cet arbre et je pense que nous allons collaborer encore dans le futur. Voilà. Une journée speed s'annonce. Plein de préparations pour notre voyage et pour notre retour (c'est si sympa de revenir dans une maison propre, rangée...).

Quickie

2010-02-17T11:28:00.003+01:00

I have no time to write and am off to spend the night with the children elsewhere. Back Thursday night. But look what I made... yes I wanted some for myself!

Pas de temps. Mais en attendant mon prochain message (jeudi?) voici quelque chose pour vos yeux...

The future of dragons...

2010-02-15T16:00:00.005+01:00

Thinking about Chinese New Year and my impending trip to see my folks (we leave Friday evening) reminded me of some curtains my friend gave me. I am planning to make something for me Mam and was debating about lining fabric... I have some chrysanthemums on a printed viscose shirt which would be perfect but I am not sure whether I want to cut up the shirt. On the one hand it doesn't suit me and smells after one wearing. But on the other hand, it's vintage man!!! Argh. My tortured mind. Ahem, moving swiftly on...
The curtains are so amazing. They came from my friend's Chinese aunt I think and consist of two, hand-embroidered silk panels, three meters ish by one and a half ish, each bearing two dragons, winding in and out of clouds, perhaps fighting but then perhaps courting, set off by floral scenery. The panels are old and the reason they have been cast off is that one of the thread colours has run into the silk leaving messy, rusty marks all over the shop. No way can they be used as is (sniff) and I would be very surprised if it were possible to restore them so... snipping of a small section to make lining material for a small object doesn't seem too sacriledgeous after all! That doesn't mean to say that I'll be up to the task! Check out the detail shots below (the last one is of the back). Fantastic craftwomanship - I am in awe. Ma copine, que je ne remercierai jamais assez (coucou copine, merci merci merci merci) m'a donné il y un petit moment déjà deux rideaux que sa tante chinoise ne voulait plus à cause de leur age et de leur... taches de rousseur (et oui la couleur des fils a pris le large). Impossible je crois de les restaurer. Les deux pans (?) font chacun trois mètres sur un mètre cinquante environs, sont en soie et sont... brodés à la main! Le détail est impressionnante et la qualité d'exécution aussi. Mais quoi en faire? Je me tâte pour en prendre juste un petit peu pour la doublure d'une pochette que je compte faire cette semaine en attendant de me décider pour le reste. Et regardez, même le dos est magni

Sin Valentin

2010-02-14T13:52:00.006+01:00

If you read "Sin" in French you get the right sound for the French "Saint" - my daughter is still learning all about the mysteries of spelling.

So happy Valentines Day to you all. Hope you are feeling loved up and not down. Share out the love man!

Joyeux Saint Valentin!

Je sais que l'on ne fête pas spécialement cette fête en France (une fois une copine célibataire a même carrément mal pris le fait que je lui l'ai souhaité). Mais, moi je pense que l'amour ne devrait pas se situer dans le domaine exclusif des amoureux. Moi je dis plus d'amour pour tout le monde!! Partageons ça!

My man went off to India on Friday with a friend. They sent me a text message saying: We arrived safely, India is total chaos, but we like it.

So I was happy. Then I spoke to them both and the message apparently should have read: We arrived safely, India is total chaos and we hate it! But they didn't want me to worry. Ha ha ha. Anyway culture shock is a..er... shock! I'm sure they love it there now.

In the meantime, back at the madhouse, I am trying to hold things together! Doesn't look like I'm doing a good job from the state of my desk does it now? I can feel something purply on the way and I am experimenting with a dino-frog-zip-mouth purse. Don't have the right sort of zip though and will start again in blue (wasn't aiming for frog).

Donc me voilà sans mec - il est parti vendredi en Inde avec un copain. J'ai reçu un texto samedi - nous sommes bien arrivés, l'Inde c'est un gros bordel mais on aime ça.

Cool.

Je leur ai parlé après et en fait le message aurait dû lire - l'Inde c'est un gros bordel et on n'aime pas ça! Ils ne voulaient pas m'inquiéter. Hi hi hi. Mais bon. Tout va bien. C'est ça l'aventure.

Ici à la maison j'essaye d'assurer le quotidien... mais de toute évidence les choses sont moins bien rangées, voire organisées, que d'habitude. Mon bureau par exemple vous donne la bonne impression. Sniff. Mais ne le dites à personne.

Sword Play

2010-02-13T11:31:00.006+01:00

So my son wanted a blue sword and I made him one. One with a blue hilt and a grey blade. Mistake. A blue sword has to be all blue apparently! So I made another one and this time he was really interested and watched the whole process and helped with the stuffing. We had a great time stuffing that thing. And of course, two swords is far better than one for all swashbuckling, ninja or pirate endeavours.

I am really pleased that my two donations to the sale for Haïti have been sold. Hurrah. So pleased that I could help. There are still things to buy. It's all happening over here.

Mon fils m'a demandé de lui faire une épée bleue. J'aime qu'il me demande de faire quelque chose au lieu de l'acheter. J'espère que sa manière de percevoir les choses durera bien longtemps! Bref, un jour je lui ai fait son épée bleue. Et là, catastrophe! Car, je ne le savais pas, une vrai épée bleue est tout en bleu - lame comprise. Donc j'ai recommencé et cette fois-ci il a surveillé toute l'opération et a même aidé au rembourrage. On s'est bien amusés tous les deux à rembourrer son épée ensemble. Mais je pense que le meilleur était à venir car, bien sûr, avec deux épées on peut en faire des batailles.

Sinon... la vente pour Haïti a commencé. Mon sac étoile et la pochette ont été achetés et je suis ravie d'avoir pu contribuer à ce beau projet. Je me suis fait plaisir aussi (je vous montrerai ça) mais il reste encore plein de choses à saisir... par ici.

C'est par ici

2010-02-12T10:25:00.003+01:00

Bonjour bonjour!

Ca y est, mes créations pour Haïti ont été affichées sur le site (les photos sont plus bas) et donc voici les liens qui amènent directement vers elles. Si vous voulez vous les procurer il faut être le premier à laisser un commentaire à partir de 9h demain matin (samedi)...

Le sac étoile

La pochette étoile

Bon courage!

What I made for Haïti Part 2

2010-02-10T16:34:00.005+01:00

Part 1 (the little zip-purse) was actually a trial run for this magnificent creation (even though I say it myself). A star bag. Wow. I have to make me one of these!!! It sparkles man!! (and I am usually so modest).

We don't all have the same taste. But this is so my taste!!

La première partie était en effet un simple essai pour cette deuxième création dont je suis... particulièrement fière. Un sac étoile qui pétille!!! J'adooooore puissance cinquante. Attention, il est petit - il se porte à la main ou sur l'avant bras et non sur l'épaule. Il fait 26cm de haut et 19,5 de large.

Nous ne partageons pas tous le même goût. Mais ce sac, il est totalement à mon goût.Update. I realised thanks to Alicia that the bag is reversible.
Here is a picture of the bag inside out, a bad picture cos the sun has gone down.

En fait... j'ai oublié de vous dire que le sac est réversible.
Voici une photo dudit sac renversé!
Le soleil s'est couché, la photo est floue.

What I made for Haïti Part 1

2010-02-10T16:10:00.006+01:00

OK so the kids are screaming for food and exercise but I am still in my pyjamas having spent all day working on my two donations for the Haïti sale.

Quickly therefore, here is a little zip-purse thing which I star-quilted like the cushion and the case I did. Love it!!

Bon. Les enfants n'en peuvent plus (ils ont faim, ils veulent aller à la bibliothèque) et moi je suis en pyjama!

Mais c'est pour la bonne cause... je viens juste de terminer mes deux créations pour la vente pour Haïti que j'ai mentionnée hier....

Numero uno: cette petite pochette à étoile, matelassée comme le coussin et la pochette que j'ai faits cet été. J'adooore....

Du Blanc pour Haïti

2010-02-09T10:30:00.005+01:00

J'ai décidé de participer à la vente d'objets faits maison au profit des enfants victimes du séisme en Haïti. Le thème c'est le blanc. Et il neige. Renseignements ici. J'ai 24h pour créer et photographier quelque chose qui plaira. Au travail!

I'm going to make something to be sold in this sale. All the profits go to Haïti. Better get on with it.

Coming up...

2010-02-04T20:08:00.004+01:00

Love this silhouette of little man with the swords I made him. So quick. Such fun. And the eye patch of course. Show you more tomorrow.

Tiga ("petit gars" tu piges?) avec ses epées. Rapide à faire et aucun garçon ne sait résister au duel. Je vous montrera ça demain... en garde!

Me and my trains

2010-02-03T23:27:00.005+01:00

Off seeing old friends today. On a day of strikes. But I do like my trains...
Voyager en train de banlieue (deux changements) un jour de grève... définition de la folie?
Où de la passion?

Wake Up

2010-02-01T22:27:00.004+01:00

Happy New Year!
Today, the first day of February, I started to get my life back on track. I have spent most of the last couple of months in a kind of stupor. Good times have been had, don't get me wrong. But the general theme has been one of despondency. Sad I know. But no more. I enrolled at the local gym last week and went for the first time tonight. It felt good. I am updating my poor neglected blog again (hurrah and big thanks to the six of you that still come back every day). Other things are being put into place too and I really hope to get my buzz back from wherever it went.

I don't have anything to show you: either because I haven't taken photographs yet or, more typically, recently, I gave the stuff away without taking pictures. But I will share soon a couple more cushion covers and a really cool toy I made for little man. Also a project that daughter and I made together. I have eaten some really good food too and may well share some recipes. We'll see.

So er welcome back (you and me both) and I hope to see you here again, often.

Oh and the picture is just one that makes me laugh. And the title of this post, which I named first and then forgot about, is a tune by The Arcade Fire I was listening to just before sitting down to write...

Meilleurs voeux pour cette nouvelle année.

Difficile de croire qu'une douzième de 2010 s'est déjà écoulée mais... mais je vais essayer de faire une douzième de plus chaque mois qui vient. Hi hi. Un espèce de treizième mois... Car, décidément, janvier 2010 n'était pas un grand cru en ce qui me concerne. Tout cela va changer à partir d'aujourd'hui. Je suis de nouveau d'attaque. J'ai même commencé ma nouvelle inscription à la gym ce soir...

Hiding something

2009-11-11T14:38:00.002+01:00

A tissue box cover I just finished. I have had it in my mind to make one of these for a while and so this week I decided to just get on with it. The design was obviously based on my sofa cushions (Ikea! crazy - don't know why I haven't made some for this house - just loved the Ikea ones I guess) and I hand stitched each little square onto the grey background. It's been a while since I did any hand stitching and I quite enjoyed it. Photos aren't my thing at the mo and I think my camera knows it - each picture comes out grainy. Maybe I need to adjust my settings, maybe I need to invest in some bright lights! Maybe I just need to hang in there until my mojo comes back!

In other news... It is a time of change for me. My little man turned three early this month (and started school in September - normal age in France, he just goes mornings). As a result I am no longer receiving stay-at-home-Mum benefits and I need to start earning money again. My plan is to create some sort of business making and selling things. So right now I am brainstorming and researching how best to go about this. I am thinking about identity, products, packaging, process, prices, lots of p's... I have a couple of months to work out answers to my questions and if all goes well I will er open shop as it were in May. Watch this space!!

What's hot....

2009-11-10T22:11:00.008+01:00

Our new teapot!!
Notre nouvelle théaire (?).
Hurrah! It's fantastic! I have only ever seen these pots in France but the metal cover is lined in felt - a made to measure cosy. Hurrah! A one litre pot: perfect. For every occasion.

Elle est vraiment belle. Et si pratique.And beautiful tea caddies. Containing from left to right: Indian Chai (tea with cardamon, cinnamon, pink peppercorns, cloves...), St James Ceylon, Organic Green Tea Earl Grey with dried cornflowers and other petals for esthetic effect.
Et des boites de thé si joli, contenant de gauche à droite: chai, ceylon, thé vert à la bergamote. BTW if ever you need to buy tea or tea accessories in Paris, go here!
Si jamais vous avez besoin de thé à Paris... allez dans cette boutique dans le 18ème!

Just the time to...

2009-11-06T20:59:00.003+01:00

Document my journey home this evening. By train of course. Loving the lights.
Juste le temps de documenter mon voyage de retour ce soir... en train bien sûr. Ah cette saison de lumière.

Yummy food

2009-11-03T20:56:00.004+01:00

I have just finished eating the above evening meal with me man! I made two recipes from Alicia's blog, Vegan Epicurean - the apple and leek "sausage" patties and the mustard and walnut brussels sprouts. I also made a red pepper sauce by peeling a lonely pepper I had in my fridge with my favourite gadget, a serrated peeler, and cooking that with some onion and a splash from a can of chopped tomatoes then wizzing it. The whole meal was really tasty and I can certainly recommend popping over there to get the recipes. My non-vegan boyfriend thought it was yummy too and we shall tuck into the remaining patties (I halved the recipe and made four) tomorrow evening. Right I am off to continue reading. Can't put it down.

Ci-dessus mon repas ce soir. J'ai fait des galettes à la pomme et aux poireaux, accompagnées de choux de bruxelles à la moutarde et aux noix et d'une sauce poivron rouge. Miam miam. J'ai pris les deux recettes principales du blog d'Alicia qui malheureusement pour vous, chers amis francophones, est rédigé en anglais. Mais faites un petit effort si vous avez ce qu'il faut (temps, dico, ami anglais...) car ce blog est rempli de recettes délicieuses. Je vous laisse déjà car je vais bouquiner.

Bargello Quilt

2009-11-02T21:30:00.003+01:00

I just thought I would share with you a quilt that my Mum made for me oh ages ago now, before my kids were born, that I photographed recently for her. I snuggle up in this quilt every day and I love it. We designed it ourselves and it is supposed to represent a close-up of some blades of grass. Not immediately obvious but at the time I had a picture on the wall of some blades of grass and the quilt was to go on my old red sofa beneath that picture for keeping me warm while watching TV. Well now the whole family uses this blanket for snuggling, making dens, sleeping under and it is defnitely one of the things I would not want to part with.

Evolution

2009-11-01T18:08:00.004+01:00

On Friday I took the kids to Paris and we met up with my dear friend and her bambinos at the Jardin des Plantes to go round the Grande Galérie de l'Evolution (the er big evolution gallery). Last year we took the kids to see the Gallery of Compared Anatomy at the other end of the Jardin des Plantes. I used to walk through these gardens when I was a student in Paris (for one year '94 to '95) to get to classes and so I always get a nice nostagic feeling when I go there. Never suspected I would one day be there with two children in tow. Anyhow, the place was fantastic! It is basically a very large hall filled with stuffed animals. To be honest I haven't spent much time examining my thoughts about stuffed animals from an ethical stance, I just think that they happen to be there now and they do provide children (and adults) with a great opportunity to get up close to animals and get a real sense of their respective sizes and morphology. All of us got something out of the visit and it was great to see how each child reacted differently to the place. Little boy was filled with excitement and just charged around the enormous room (with me hot on his tail) wanting to visit the elephants, the polar bears the hippos... he loved it! My daughter enjoyed looking at things more in detail and then explaining her understanding of them to her slightly younger friend. And me? Well who knew Moose were so very big?
Vendredi moi et les enfants ont eu le grand plaisir de se rendre au Jardin des Plantes et plus précisément à la Grande Galérie d'Evolution. Hmm. Quelle phrase. Nous avons tous aimé regarder toutes ces bêtes dans leur mise en scène processionelle. Mon petit garçon courait dans tous les senses (il n'en pouvait plus) et avait très vite mémorisé les locations de ses animaux préférés. Il a aimé autant qu'il avait aimé la Galérie d'Anatomie Comparée l'année dernière. Ma fille regardait plus en détail - une maquette, un vidéo et se régalait à expliquer son intérprétation de ce qu'elle voyait à sa copine. Et moi? Je me suis trouvée stupéfaite devant un élan gigantesque.

on the corner of my table...

2009-10-31T16:27:00.004+01:00

I take a lot of my still-life photos from the corner of my table since it sits handily right in front of a north facing window and I like the light there. So today here are a few of my recent photos from that spot. I sometimes like and sometimes hate the natural framing effect of my table's "border".

Ma table à manger se situe à côté d'une fenêtre et donc tout naturellement je prends beaucoup de mes photos (mes natures mortes -j'aime tout documenter) de cet endroit. Aujourd'hui je vous montre quelques unes de mes plus récentes...
The last harvest - green tomatoes from the garden (now red).

La dernière récolte. Tomates vertes du jardin (rouge depuis).My boyfriend's mother's annual return from Montenegro always feels like harvest festival! This year she was back two months later than usual and so instead of fresh figs, she bought dried (green and black from our trees oh yum!) together with walnuts, persimmons and clementines from the garden. Honey from a cousin's beehives. Grappa from our vines (smells so good and sweet but not my thing at all). A whole bunch of dried chili peppers too (ditto really). Wow. I like recalling that abundance!

Lorsque ma belle mère rentre du Montenegro tous les ans elle ramène le contenu de la corne d'abondance avec elle. Sans la corne. Et je l'admire, car ça ne doit pas être si évident de faire passer des oeufs, figues, raisins, clémentines, olives, kakis etc sans les écraser et sans se faire "choper" par les douaniers (je ne suis pas sure qu'il est vraiment permis de transporter toutes ces-choses-là. Mais ce n'est pas comme si elle les cache sous ses vêtements non plus). Bref. On se régale à chaque fois.
I had such a nice time hollowing out and carving a pumpkin with the kids. My first ever pumpkin. Child or adult. Later found out I didn't hollow it out enough (i.e. lunch is still in there!!). Heheh. Don't quite have that You Tube tutorial thing down to a T yet.

Ahhh la citrouille obligatoire. Mais pour la première fois jamais (pas si obligée)! J'ai adoré concevoir, mettre en oeuvre et réaliser ce projet! Je donne l'impression d'être employable n'est-ce pas! Je ne vous dis pas que c'est une fausse impression, juste que je n'ai pas l'impression de donner souvent cette impression!!! Hihihi.
And we have a new and I hope useful houseguest. I think I will call him Peter. Peter the Pitcher Plant. Thanks Alicia for encouraging me to actually wonder just who Pete is, was. And thanks for making me want to cook so much. I bought, oops forgot to go back and pay my florist, I stole him to eat flies. In front of my daughter. Hmm (it is Halloween). And thanks Amiga for putting me on to this good thing.

Et je vous présent Peter. Peter la plante. Depuis que j'ai fait la version anglaise je me suis rendu compte que j'ai oublié de retourner payer ma floriste. Un mec hyper sympa qui apparamment me fait trop confiance (oops, mardi alors) et qui m'a filé cette plante carnivore sans se poser toutes les questions que je me pose: la déontologie d'être végétalienne et de poséder une plante carnivore ;-). Merci Amiga de m'avoir mise sur la piste.

Blog Action Day 2009

2009-10-15T08:51:00.005+02:00

Today is Blog Action Day when thousands of bloggers accross the world all agree to write about the same subject. This year the subjet is CLIMATE CHANGE.

It's funny because today in Paris the weather was very, very, unseasonally cold. Almost freezing. People working at the market were caught out and had to borrow sweaters from neighbouring stalls to keep warm and then, on the way to school at lunchtime, an African nanny told me how right now in Senegal (she comes from right near the Sahara - there's a conversation for another day!) it is 27°C in the morning and 40°C by mid-afternoon - temperatures that are much hotter than normal for this time of year. (BTW, she didn't know it was Blog Action Day!).

We are all affected by the weather and even if you believe climate change has not yet begun to happen (???!!!), you know you will be affected by climate change one day.

I personally adhere to the "do as you would be done by" school of thought and my favourite quote is "be the change you want to see in the world" by the dalai lama. Personally, I don't need any more convincing than that last one. Its logic stands up to my scrutiny and so, once I am informed I act and not acting becomes more difficult. I sometimes fail to act but I never feel good about it and we all like to feel good right?

And so here I am, today, with my good, dependable, predictable (!), ten o'clock in the evening, off the cuff, unprepared (oops), advice about how to DO YOUR BIT so that climate change can be slowed down and so that you can feel just a little bit less guilty about the whole thing...

1) Take showers not baths,
2) Take shorter, cooler showers,
3) Drive around in your car less,
4) Offer lifts to people who otherwise would have taken their car,
5) Wear a jumper, lower the thermostat on your radiators,
6) Turn off the lights, pull out the plugs,

and I want to go to bed so time for the big finale, the one that can make the most difference...

7) stop eating (so many) animal products!
Now this one decision is actually made up of lots and lots and lots of little daily decisions - I'm there right now, I know. If you have a choice, choose as often as you can the one with no animals in it.

Red fruit coulis or cream (I know, I'll go for the coulis)
Ice cream or Sorbet (yummy sorbet!)
Baked potato with baked beans or with tuna (oops, was not me, was my food)
Paté or hummous (no brainer)
Rice milk or milk milk (Little boy actually calls milk milk "rice milk" he loves rice milk so much)
Butter or margarine (Oh! no butter in the fridge just non-hydrogenated veggy marg - easy call)
Cheese sandwich or avocado, red pepper and smoked tofu sandwich (duh!!)
Lamb Jalfrezi or Tarka Dahl. (Er not the lamb one obviously).
Egg or ... (doesn't matter, no egg never!!)

The thing is, I am serious. Even if you eat meat sometimes it can be so tasty, healthy and better for you, for the planet and for (dare I say it) the animals concerned NOT to eat them. And the more often you don't eat them the better for all of the above.

Oh and did you know cholesterol only exists in animal products. There is absolutely no cholesterol in anything that is 100% vegetable.

Right, I'm off. Got that one off my chest!

Un jour plus tard, je françise...

Aujourd'hui est Blog Action Day, un jour où des milliers de bloggeurs se mettent d'accord pour écrire sur un même sujet. Cette année le sujet est le changment climatique.

C'est un sujet qui est bien tombé - aujourd'hui à Paris il a fait très, très froid - anormalement froid. Il gelait presque. Puis, en allant à l'école à midi, une nounou sénégalaise me racontait qu'en ce moment même au Sénégal, près du Saraha d'où elle vient, il fait 27°C le matin et 40°C l'après-midi - des températures bien plus élevées que normal pour le mois d'octobre.

Le changement climatique nous concerne tous et si l'on fait l'autruche aujourd'hui, demain l'on risque de sortir la tête dans un monde transformé à tout jamais - en pire.

Là je bloque en traduisant mon texte original - j'avoue que mes enfants joue à côté (à taper des ballons gonflables avec des spatules !!) et je n'arrive pas à me concentrer. Je vais donc passer toute de suite à ma liste de gestes que vous pouvez adopter pour aider à ralentir le changement climatique:

1) Prendre une douche au lieu d'un bain,
2) Prendre une douche plus courte et moins chaude,
3) Prendre moins la voiture, ou si vous êtes obligé de la prendre
4) Remplissez-la au maximum avec des passagers qui vont au même endroit et qui autrement aurait pris leur voiture,
5) Portez des pulls, baisser la température des radiateurs,
6) Eteindre les lumières, retirer les prises des chargeurs, des appareils qui ne s'éteignent pas,

et pour finir mon préféré car il peut avoir le plus d'impact sur votre santé, la santé de la planète et la santé d'autres êtres vivants:

7) manger moins (voire pas du tout) de produits animaliers. Si vous avez un choix, et ces choix-là arrivent par douzaines chaque jour, essayez le plus souvent possible de choisir celui sans animaux:

Glace ou sorbet
jambon beurre ou sandwich aux légumes grillées
crême fraiche ou coulis de fruits rouges
pâté ou hummous
lait ou lait de riz
chocolat au lait ou chocolat noir
brioche ou pain de mie
beurre ou margarine (non-hydrongené, 100% végétal)
maki de suamon + brochettes de poulet ou maki de radis mariné + tempura de légumes
curry de crevettes ou dahl de lentilles

Vous voyez, il y a toujours des choix! Partout.

Bon c'est tout. A+

The party

2009-10-14T18:46:00.003+02:00

Hey I just got my life back!!! Oops. Am I really selfish?

The party's over, I've tidied up and I just have to make the kids some sandwiches for tea (can't believe they are hungry after all that food). The pinking shears were for about 15m of bunting. Rainbow bunting that I love love love! That makes me feel happy and that I think I shall keep up for a few days - impossible to take a good photo of it up in the house. 15m! And even this photo has terrible light. Ne'er mind.

My little girl's seven year old friends came mostly in full costume (little boy freaked when we opened the door to a fully masked witch, broom and all) and with prepared texts! Prepared texts at seven!! Yes they put on a play and it was fantastic. They managed to find a use for every single spare blanket, chair and cushion as props, decor and costume. In truth the preparation was more lengthy and meticulous than the play itself but both were very fun to watch.

So, Hurrah! for plays and dressing up and homemade witches caverns and cake and seven year olds and bunting and bits of broom to remind us of the fun and hurrah that it all comes to an end and hurrah that we can make it happen again whenever we like. Si je n'écris pas maintenant, est-ce que j'écrirais plus tard? Peut-être... on verra!!

Camoflage

2009-10-13T10:25:00.003+02:00

I make sure that my little boy is camoflaged whilst in bed - one never knows. Ha ha.

J'ai fait exprès de camoufler mon petit garçon au lit. On ne sait jamais! Hi hi.

Pensées

2009-10-12T20:39:00.005+02:00

I had a really nice little potter around my courtyard today and put my first lot of pansies in. I love pansies. I love their smell, their colours, the fact they last from October to May, that they don't freeze, that in French their name means "thoughts". I plan to go overboard on the whole pansy front this year. And I also plan to plant some bulbs on time. And to generally look after my outdoor space which has been a bit neglected since we got back from holidays. Plans, pansies, pensées...

Ca y est j'ai mis mes premières pensées. J'adore les pensées. Leur odeur, leurs couleurs, leur résistance, leur durée de vie, leur nom. J'ai envie de remplir mon petite espace extérieure avec. Petit à petit jusqu'à ce qu'il n'y a plus de place pour en mettre encore.

At the market

2009-10-11T12:50:00.002+02:00

Just next to the celery...

Clue

2009-10-10T20:33:00.003+02:00

This is a clue as to what's coming next.

Love it when a plan comes together. My wonderful Spanish friend lent me her pinking shears on Friday and then today I had a very successful shopping trip to the marché St Pierre in Paris and part of it was this. Bought fabric and completed project on the same day. The nicest thing though was that my daughter helped me by operating the foot pedal on my sewing machine and by passing me the bits I needed. So It went something like "stop...go...stop...colour, go..." for quite a while. She had very good reflexes.

Other highlights of my day: darjeeling tea, picked in the springtime - lovely; a ring from a friend, square on the outside round in the middle... gotta go my chapatti is burning!

Voici une indice pour ce qui va venir. J'ai passé la matinée au marché St Pierre à Paris et je suis très satisfaite des mes achats. En partie, ce projet. Ma copine espagnole (hola amiga!!) m'a prêtée ses ciseaux à cranter (et non sa cranteuse!!!) vendredi et aujourd'hui le reste s'est suivi. Le plus sympa dans tout cela - ma fille qui s'est chargée d'opérer la pédale de ma machine à coudre et de me passer les bouts de tissu dont j'avais besoin. J'ai adoré travailler comme ça avec elle. Aussi de la journée (très riche)... du thé darjeeling cueilli au printemps, une bague carréé... des chapattis (qui brulent faut que j'y aille...).

Take-away

2009-10-09T14:50:00.005+02:00

OK I am counting baskets in my sleep now and am totally fed up with them!

My daughter is having her birthday party next week and has invited four of her friends. I want her to feel proud of her party and I decided to make a little basket for all of the party guests. I feel like I have done nothing else for the past week but now they are finished and I just have to decide what to put in them! Tricky since I don't want to spend too much money and I don't really want to put sweets in them. I'll come up with something. I like the idea of giving a small gift that may not appear to be that great at first but that may stay with these seven-year olds forever. I can totally see these little baskets evolving from toy beds say into mobile phone beds, or from conker holders into nail varnish holders. When I think of them that way they are totally worth the time and effort I spent making them.Ces petits paniers sont pour les copines de ma fille qu'elle a invitées à sa fête la semaine prochaine. Beaucoup de travail. Je n'ai rien fait d'autre cette semaine. Mais l'idée que ces petites choses pourraient rester avec les filles à vie me fait penser que ça valait la peine.

More little baskets

2009-10-08T22:06:00.001+02:00

Prune et Turquoise

2009-10-06T14:13:00.004+02:00

I have the feeling that I am swimming against the current and, of course, not getting anywhere. I hope it is only a feeling!!

This is one of my favourite dishes. I bought it from a pottery (probably the only pottery) in Corte in Corsica when I was pregnant with my daughter. I don't usually go for blue anything but I love the shade of this pale turquoise. I use this dish for making crumbles and upside-down red onion pie and for serving couscous and bulgour wheat salads. And I use it as a fruit bowl. Like today. And then I get all excited about the colours. Plums and turquoise. Yay!! Clementines look good in it too.

J'ai achété ce plat dans une potterie à Corte en Corse. J'aime peu le bleu mais ce plat est mon préféré à cause de sa couleur et ce paradoxe le rend encore plus cher à mes yeux, surtout lorsqu'il contient des prunes: leurs couleurs se mettent en valeur parfaitement.

Twenty Six

2009-10-02T16:17:00.004+02:00

I did this t-shirt for my friend's daughter who complained "Mummy you never buy me any T-shirts with numbers on the front". Go figure (boom boom). So my friend looked, couldn't find any and asked me to put a number on the front of a basic white T. Her birthday was the 26th and we're going to see her tomorrow. And of course, it being ages since I have used double-sided fusible sticky whatever-you-call-it, I goofed. Yup did me numbers the wrong way round. And I have just realised I could have had a nice negative effect on the back.... I'll go do some maths (time it takes to stick and sew two numbers - time we have left before going out for tea).

La fille de ma copine vraisemblablement a un gros trou dans sa garde robe à l'endroit où, normalement, des t-shirt comportant des chiffres sur le devant devraient se trouver. On sait des choses à 7 ans. Elle est née le 26 du mois et demain on va fêter ça.

Getting Organised

2009-10-02T10:29:00.003+02:00

I have just finished making this little basket for my neighbours who have invited us over this evening. OK, it's for "her" not "him" but I think she'll like it. I like it and now want to make ten more of course - for me, for you, for everyone.

I used this great tutorial. I actually saw the basket made up and holding notions in my local haberdashers and they gave me the link. I want one for a desk tidier. For a tidier desk.

In other news... I have decided to get my butt into gear and become organised. A well-oiled, efficient, life machine. And this site is helping me. Along with this book (had for ages, it's great) and hopefully this book too (just arrived from Amazon yesterday. Not translated into English which is a crying shame, all of her books are fab).

Right must go and tick off my "write blog post" task and then get on with the rest of today's list of things to do...

Je viens de terminer ce petit panier. Je l'adore il est mignon et utile... et pour mes voisins, chez qui on dîne ce soir, et donc je vais devoir en faire un autre pour moi (ou quelques autres car je suis sûre que tout le monde aimerait en avoir un). J'ai utilisé cette "tuto" (?) pour le faire. Elle est en anglais mais il y a des images et la construction est assez simple à comprendre.

Sinon: Il faut absolument que je devienne quelqu'un d'organisée - efficace, occupée, canalisée... et je m'y prends avec un peu d'aide: ce livre (je découvre qu'il est traduit en français) ce site-web (en anglais mais hyper-simple) et ce livre (je ne l'ai pas encore lu mais j'aime beaucoup cet auteur et ses idées).

Bref... je n'ai pas le temps de traîner ici, faut que je continue avec ma liste... ciao

Zurich

2009-09-28T10:46:00.003+02:00

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?

J'ai passé un super weekend en Suisse. Mon frère et ma belle-soeur savent recevoir il n'y a rien à dire. Et leur fils est adorable. Donc je l'adore. On a bien discuté, bien joué, bien mangé... tout bien quoi. Même la Gare de l'Est. Mais vous savez déjà que j'aime les trains, les gares, les départs et arrivées...

"Dawngarees"

2009-09-25T14:37:00.004+02:00

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.

Week 4: Perpignan etc

2009-09-24T09:20:00.005+02:00

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!

Skirt.

2009-09-22T14:41:00.003+02:00

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.

Busy busy

2009-09-21T11:07:00.004+02:00

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...).

A weekend break

2009-09-18T09:04:00.006+02:00

The kids and I got back from the UK early August on a Monday. We had one weekend at home and then we all packed up once again and went off for another two weeks, this time as a complete family to the South of France. But that one weekend turned out to be a holiday in itself when my cousin, her husband and her son came over to stay. It was the first time they had come over and indeed the first time we had ever spent some quality time together at all and it was fantastic! We did all the touristy things you have to - I started listing but there are too many - and we also managed to get off the beaten track as it were and visit less well-known but just as interesting places. We walked and walked and walked and talked and talked and talked. The weekend left us all exhausted. I don't think I could get out of bed for two days. But it filled us up, I think, with great memories, renewed family connections and a love for Paris. Wow. So last minute and unexpected. A real gift.
Photo-wise I have just chosen to share some photos of graffitti. My daughter discovered graffitti during the weekend with my cousin and pointed out every last scribbled signature on the side of a bin that she saw. So I tried to focus her attention more on the good stuff and took graffitti themed photos...
Nous sommes rentrés de l'Angleterre un lundi et le weekend d'après ma cousine et sa famille sont venus passer quelques jours chez nous. On avait organisé ça d'une manière très spontanée lorsqu'on s'est vus à la fête de famille et on a passé un weekend fantastique ensemble! On a fait tout ce qui est incontourablement touristique mais nous avons aussi vu des quartiers moins fréquentés par les touristes (même si connus bien sûr des Parisiens).
J'ai adoré ce weekend qui m'a pourtant laissée crevée! J'ai adoré passer du temps avec ma cousine pour la première fois, c'était génial de voir à quel point on se ressemble, les traits de famille que je croyais être des traits qu'à moi. J'ai adoré être à Paris avec des jeunes et les transmettre une passion pour cette ville: le fils de mon cousin est parti en disant qu'il voulait s'installer ici plus tard et ma fille me parle et reparle de son endroit préféré au monde: Paris (et croyez-moi elle en a vu des endroits ma fille). Je pensais rentrer de l'Angleterre laissant les vacances derrière et en fait les vacances m'ont suivie! J'ai choisi de mettre ici quelques photos de graffittis que nous avons repéré pendant le weekend: ma fille venait de découvrir les tags et n'avait les yeux que pour ça.

Felty goodness

2009-09-17T14:42:00.004+02:00

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.

Week 3: Cambridge or near enough

2009-09-16T09:34:00.008+02:00

Our third and final week in the UK was spent at our friends' house near Cambridge. They have a yurt in the garden (here visible through the kitchen window and below magically lit up with fairy lights inside). Our week was very special and I am at a loss as to how to describe the feeling of being with old friends and having the time to hang...
The pleasure at seeing our four children get on and do imaginative, fun, creative, sporty, kids', stuff together from morning til night...
My daughter and I both had a little weep in the train when we left for home. I couldn't have conjured up a better week out of a hat. Thank you dear friends.

It's the little things...

2009-09-15T09:23:00.004+02:00

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!!!

Week 2; Ma and Pa's house

2009-09-14T09:22:00.005+02:00

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!

Wee shirt

2009-09-13T18:48:00.005+02:00

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.

Week 1: Glasgow

2009-08-07T11:38:00.006+02:00

We are back! The kids and I spent three weeks in the UK, each week at a different location and had a fantastic time with family and friends.

Nous sommes de retour! Les enfants et moi avons passé trois superbes semaines en Grande Bretagne, une semaine par endroit.
Our first week was in Glasgow with an old school friend and his family. Every day we went on fun outings and I totally fell for Glasgow again! I think it is one of my all time favourite towns: so green, so friendly, so hip, so veganable.

On a passé la première semaine à Glasgow, une ville qui a plutôt mauvaise réputation mais qui n'arrête pas de m'étonner. C'est une ville verte, vivante, végétalisable... Je me vois bien vivre là un jour...I love the botanic gardens so much. The Kibble Palace glasshouse, recently restored, makes you feel like a spaceship has landed (I especially love the carnivorous plant section inside).

J'adore les jardins botaniques. Le serre "Kibble Palace" pourrait avoir atteri de l'espace. My daughter loves plants and flowers and took loads of photos there including the one above which I really like - so mysterious.

Ma fille adore les plantes et les fleurs. C'est elle qui a pris la photo ci-dessus. Je l'aime beaucoup pour son mystère.Our friends, who live in a flat, have a communal garden which they share with the occupants of all the buildings that enclose the large garden area. So people living at different addresses in different streets can all hang out their washing on the same lines, cultivate the same space, play together and share compost. Amazing. Oh and you can snack on strawberries there too!

Nos amis, qui habitent en appartement, partagent leur jardin avec tous les occupants de tous les immeubles qui entourent l'espace. Donc il y a plein d'activités communales: on peut tendre son linge, planter des légumes, jouer au bac à sable et grignoter aux fraises. Ensemble. Génial.

Specific Case

2009-07-12T16:47:00.007+02:00

As I said, I really liked the star effect on the cushion cover I made the other day, so I incorporated it into a case I have just finished making for our new portable DVD player (difficult to photograph because it's black). Tomorrow, the kids and I leave for the UK by train. We leave Paris in the afternoon and will arrive at Glasgow, Scotland at midnight. That's lots of time sitting down in a small space and I am slightly anxious that my son won't cope very well with the confinement. Hence the DVD player and it's case.
And of course although I have all my strategic packing (light as I can) to be doing and sorting and tidying, I spend my afternoon sewing a case! I did circles in a square on the other side. Note the almost ready potato plants in the background. Because of the rush I was in, I am not 100% proud of the result. I like the look of it but I hacked all the fabric, batting, backing, lining and interfacing instead of carefully squaring everything up, pulling threads and being precise. I was a few milimetres off with the zip on the inside pocket and should have re-sewn and I should have spent more time sizing (it could do with being slightly bigger), also I didn't bother putting a turquoise bobbin in for the zip (so the thread is black on the, albeit invisible, underside and I didn't bother changing back to all black thread when sewing the different parts up so turquoise does show through a little on the sides. These are small details that don't show but that I know are there. I am usually far more meticulous than this. My Mum will laugh reading that because I totally wasn't like that when I was younger. Our neighbours came round Friday night for a meal with us. We had such a good evening - really enjoyed ourselves with them. Boyf cooked pasta alla norma for us. Yummy!! I have probably already mentioned this dish because it is one of my favourites: you mix, on the plate, spaghetti, tomato sauce, hot grilled aubergine, walnuts, pre-soaked sultanas and fresh basil. And parmesan cheese if you like. I made rhubarb compote for pudding which we ate with raspberries from the garden and raspberry sorbet. Our neighbours are 65ish so not spring chickens as it were but I think I enjoyed myself as much as I would have with friends our age - possibly more.

So to sum up, we I will be off galavanting for the next three weeks and I don't know how much blogging I will get done. I will actually see some of (er the bulk of) my readers though (yay!!! can't wait to see you all and daughter is so excited too) so I guess that's even better than reading boring posts about sewing and food. Now I'm off to lower the waist of a pair of drawstring trousers I made, that I love but that are REALLY unflattering. I would also like to make a pair of trousers for my son. And then I need to pack! Hum. What are the chances of me getting all that done?

Star cushion

2009-07-10T13:38:00.003+02:00

I am pretty sure that the people I made this for don't read my blog. I hope they don't anyway because I would like this to be a surprise. I made them a star quilted cushion cover and I am very pleased with the result. I love the way the light falls on the quilted lines. I hope they like it. I hope they can live with it. My son thinks it's a star fish and that has given me ideas for other quilted projects...Une housse de coussin pour des amis qui, je l'espère (pour une fois), ne lisent pas mon blog! Je suis très satisfaite du résultat. J'adore la surface ondulé et sa simplicité. Bizarrement le point de départ de ce project était du "ric-rac" (espèce de ruban en zig-zag) orange que j'ai fini par ne pas mettre du tout. Mon fils pense qu'il s'agit d'une étoile de mer et ceci m'a donné plein d'autres idées de projets.

More fruit and veg

2009-07-08T14:03:00.006+02:00

So on Monday I took girlie to the Champs Elysées and the Eiffel Tower while little brother was enjoying his last day at the creche (he used to go just on a Monday). Of course I left my memory card at home and so was unable to capture the "Oh Mummy it's like a dream" moment!

We also went to a Japanese bookshop to look for some clothes-making books for me - I particularly wanted one with patterns for men's trousers - but I actually didn't find any that I wanted to buy. While I was browsing though, daughter had the time to look through loads of craft books and came up with a pile of ones she wanted - a book about different ribbons, a book about how to make tiny cakes and sushi out of fimo, a book about how to make tiny and elaborate handbags (!) and plates of food (!) out of beads (why?!!) so I vetoed all those ones but did get her one about how to make tiny animals out of beads - the why question stands but at least the diagrams were simple to follow and some of the models are fairly cute.My daughter (almost 7) managed to start off a heart very well but then got bored of counting beads and since then has been stomping about in a grumpy, foul mood (on the outside at least but I secretly suspect she is enjoying being a little horror).
I, whilst reassuring her that I don't want a replacement daughter, have been busy making a strawberry and a carrot! And in answer to my own why question... it's actaully quite theraputic and relaxing to craft small fruits and vegetables out of beads!