It's All About Love...

At Poppytalk Handmade's Wedding and Valentine's Market, which opens today. My table is here, if you want to look.

I always like checking out the Poppytalk vendors, because almost always I discover something new, like Corrieberry Pie's I Love You Necklace. Sweet! And don't you think she takes just the most wonderful photos?

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C'est tout à propos de l'amour au marché de Poppytalk Handmade, qui s'ouvre aujourd'hui. Ma table est ici, si vous souhaitez regarder.

J'adore surfer les tables des vendeurs de Poppytalk, parce que je découvre presque toujours quelque chose de nouveau, comme ce collier I Love You de Corrieberry Pie. Chouette! Et je crois qu'elle prenne des photos vraiment merveilleuses!

Embroidering

It's been a while since I last made any new embroidered collage pillows, and this when it's a style that I really want to explore, not just abandon after a few tries as I've been known to do. Imagine the possibilities -- not just pillows but also curtains, quilts, pillowcases, lampshades! The problem was that I changed sewing machines, and the new one came just with four bobbins, bobbins that proved difficult to find in sewing crafts stores. I found myself momentarily giving up this style that I had just so recently fallen in love with, or else I would have been spending half my sewing time winding and unwinding thread to get all the different colors I needed.

Thankfully, my mother-in-law's best friend knew where to go to find the precious bobbins, and bought me a dozen. The woman is really a sweetheart. Now that the bobbin problem is solved, here I am embroidering like crazy!

An owl

A cuckoo bird

A swallow

A crow

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Ca fait un moment que je n'ai fait aucun oreillers brodés, et cela quand il s'agit d'un style que je veux vraiment explorer et de ne pas abandonner après seulement quelques essais comme j'ai l'habitude à faire. Imaginez les possibilités - pas seulement des oreillers, mais aussi des rideaux, couettes, taies d'oreillers, abats-jours! Le problème, c'est que j'ai acheté une nouvelle machine à coudre qui est venue seulement avec quatre canettes, canettes qui ont été difficiles à trouver dans les merceries. J'ai du arrêter à faire de la broderie, sinon j'aurais passé la moitié de mon temps à enroulement et de déroulement du fil pour obtenir toutes les couleurs différentes dont j'avais besoin.

Heureusement, la meilleure amie de ma belle-mère savait où aller pour trouver les canettes , et m'a acheté une douzaine. Vraiment sympa, cette femme. Maintenant que le problème est résolu, je brode comme une folle!

Christmas was a blur...

... and New Year's Eve was sleepy. Today, my birthday, will be all about lasagna and chocolate cake -- two of my personal essential food groups.

I did make a few resolutions, one of the most important being to wake up every day a good hour and a half before husband and baby to get some writing done. While I did launch a book of non-fiction essays in 2009, it makes me wince to realize that the two short stories I managed to get published early last year were both written in the years preceding. For someone who spent the 12 years she did writing newspaper and magazine articles, but silently wishing she were writing fiction instead, I let myself get derailed by life, love, business, and baby too easily, I think. Wish me luck with listening to the alarm clock!

Another resolution is to start blogging in French. Now this scares me, because while I speak the language pretty fluently, writing is an entirely different matter. Perfectionist that I am, I am already hitting myself on the head for the many mistakes I'm sure I'll commit. Ah, well. More good luck wishes, please.

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Noel est trop vite fini et le réveillon était mou. Aujourd'hui, mon anniversaire, est tout à propos des lasagnes et un gâteau au chocolat - miam!

J'ai fait quelques résolutions, l'un des plus important est de se réveiller chaque jour une heure et demie avant mari et bébé pour pouvoir écrire. J'ai lancé une collection d'essais en 2009, mais j'ai honte d'avouer que les deux nouvelles que j'ai réussi à faire publier début de l'année dernière ont été écrites dans les années précédentes. Je me suis laissée déconcentré par la vie, l'amour, les affaires, et le bébé trop facilement, je pense. Souhaitez moi bonne chance d'écouter le réveil!

Une autre résolution est de commencer à bloguer en français. Cela me fait peur. Je parle la langue assez couramment, mais écrire, c'est autre chose! Perfectionniste, je suis déjà en train de me frapper la tête pour les erreurs nombreuses que je vais certainement commettre. Encore une fois, souhaitez moi bonne chance...

Dolly and the Wolf Trap

She may be an occasionally infuriating, princess kind of a cat -- refuses to eat from her bowl unless it is full; insists on sleeping on our bed, under the covers, tucked in between legs, and leaves with a disdainful look thrown in our direction if we so much as move an inch; runs all over us early in the morning to make sure we wake up -- but Dolly is our second little girl, Lilou's furry elder sister (weird as that makes as sound), and has been with us since she was two months old, five years ago.

Being a princess, she has her fixed habits. One of these habits being that at five p.m. we stick our head out the door, meowl three times or five, and there she comes running from wherever she's been terrorizing field mice, to come home and stay in until she demands to be let out again the following morning.

One evening last week, we meowled until we were hoarse, and no spot of black came gliding down the dirt road. Husband and I were worried, but trying not to show it, reminding each other of that time, a year ago, when she wouldn't come home until midnight. At 10 o'clock, we decided to go out meowling one more time, and from the neighbor's lot we heard a weak meowling back.

A scrambling over wire fence and lots of tumbling over garden machinery later, we found her: the princess had her left paw bitten by a fox trap, left by our neighbor, we later learned, to catch a gigantic rat that had been eating the eggs in his chicken coop.

I wanted to file a complaint against him, as these traps are illegal, but opted for the diplomatic way and instead had him give me his word that from now on he'll only be using humane cages. Husband even borrowed these from the mayor's office for him. But you can bet neighbor is never seeing his wicked fox trap ever again (I hid it next to my washing machine).

The princess had no bones brokens (lucky kitty!), but walked with a limp and was confined indoors for a week. Today is her first day outdoors. I think I'll be sticking my head out the door and meowling every hour or so to make sure she's okay.

For Mitsy

Because she loved this.

Because she's retiring as EST's Secret Santa organizer.

Because she finally revealed her secret.

Because, as Kaja says, it's Christmas.

And because I just plain like her a lot!

I made this for Mitsy of ArtMind, a second sales fairy who will be on her way to Belgium by the weekend.

May she bring you lots of luck, Mitsy!

Feels Like Christmas

Having a three-month-old baby to take care of, my husband and I tend to make of it seven-day work weeks, putting in hours on the weekeend just to be able to catch up on work that didn't get done during the week. One of the results: It's not feeling like Christmas around here yet. No decorations up, no holiday cheer in the air.

And then Saturday came, and I received this small plastic packet from Sweden. Hmmm, I didn't order anything online recently, I thought. Opening the package I found inside a cheery red dress from Kaja Design that I had hearted on Etsy a while back. For the little spring roll, it said on the tag.

Baby in her Kaja original.

Kaja and I have never met, only bump into each other occasionally on the European Street Team forum threads, and there she was sending my baby a gift. Just because it was Christmas, Kaja said. (And such a Christmassy gift it was -- a red dress with white stars all over!) I was very very touched.

So the following day, I decided that we were going to slow down and feel the holidays. We went to a nice restaurant for lunch, and in the afternoon went to eat crêpes and meet up with friends. This week, at least some Christmas decoration is definitely going up.

At an afternoon crêpes party, the spring roll,
her girl friend, and the dads.

Many many thanks for the holiday reminder, Kaja!

November Almost Over

I've had very busy days, but thankfully now things are quiet. The making and the writing and the moving and the shaking will start again soon, but today I am just enjoying the calm. And looking at the pictures of little objects I made recently: