A White Christmas!

A very quick post, just to wish you all a merry Christmas! This is the first time that I have a real white Christmas, and I have to admit, it really helps to give me the real postcard feeling.

Winter Wonderland

A few impressions of this afternoon.

And the creepy snowman, made by my children. I hope he doesn't come to life overnight...

Winter in Paris

Back from Paris, since almost a week now.
It was very, very cold and we even had a little snow on the first day of our stay. We escaped the snow blizzard Paris was having this week.
Our main goal was the Monet exhibition in the Grand Palais. It was crowded, but every painting was worth the waiting!


There was also the exhibition in Musée d'Orsay of the painter Gérôme. The detail in his paintings is really stunning, you have to see it to believe it.

Our hotel was situated in the neighbourhood of the grands boulevards and the grands magasins, like "Printemps" and "Galeries Lafayette", and near to the Opera, and a 15 minutes walk from the musea.

This close to Christmas, all the shops were lavishly decorated, I took some pictures at the Printemps.

Early Snow

Snow in November, I really wasn't prepared... Tomorrow, we are leaving for three days in Paris, I hope I will see the Eiffel tower with a white bonnet on...
1. Cold Skates, 2. What all the well-dressed squirrels will be wearing this season., 3. Untitled, 4. A Chickadee in hand, 5. Warmly Dressed!, 6. Snowy trees, 7. red fox in snow, 8. Public Domain - Vintage Postcard Images, 9. Norwegian Forest Cat in Snow, 10. winter, 11. Snow Queen Anker 1948, 12. Leaving Footprints in the Snow--vintage Vogue Illustration, 13. Pink, 14. Etude 1932 Jan, 15. Weihnachten mit Ida Bohatta / Bild 12, 16. Gearing Up for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics!

The Children's Book

I've just finished "The Children's Book" by A.S. Byatt and it was a wonderful read about a very interesting period. Just a few topics mentioned in the book: the Suffragette movement, the bohemian way of life of artists and their families, the Great War,...
The end of the Victorian age and the turn of the century are a very tumultuous period, a part of history that is far away and yet very close to us.
And now I want to learn more about William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement, I want to read Peter Pan and find a good biography of mister Barrie, etc, etc...
I even made a pinboard, inspired by this book.
Patterns by Morris:


The Morris and Burne-Jones families:

Peter Pan, illustrated by the genius Arthur Rackham:


A few interesting links:
Preraphaelite Paintings
Red House
Victoria and Albert Museum
Turn of the Century, pictures and more pictures, to get in the mood of that period.

At last...

...I've restarted to work on Lucy's quilt. I finished the last of a series of spring girls, here with an umbrella in the rain.
And I made a new block, with little embroidered trees, here still in progress.
I'll post the two blocks when finished and ironed. For now only a few details.


My work has been absorbing me the past three months, and I really want to try to work more concentrated, and only 5 to 6 hours a day. That will give me more time to do things I really like to do, like crafting and reading. Life's too short!
In the meanwhile, I bought myself a new pair of shoes and red stockings.

And there's nothing quite like sitting by the fireplace with this boy at my side.

Link of the week#3

Yes! I've got an invitation for Pinboard (thank you!), and now I can pin all my favourite links, pictures, recipes, book titles,etc...
Only problem: I'm losing a lot (and I mean A LOT) of time since I discovered this.
If you like collecting and you love being inspired, then hurry and go have a look!

November 11th

My grandmother, who was born in 1904, used to tell me stories about the two Great Wars. She was born in a small village, at about 20 miles from the Ypres salient . Every night, she could hear the bombs, the windows of her bedroom rattling.
These pictures are taken a few years after the war, when she was already engaged (or married?) to my grandfather. So strange, a romantic picture on the ruins of a war...




In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Bear giveaway

If you like teddybears, hurry to this link, and then keep your fingers crossed till the 6th of December!

Creepy

What gives me the creeps? The usual things like spiders, being alone in the dark, ghost stories...
The first time in my life I was really, really afraid, was when seeing this scene from "Fantasia". My parents had to leave the cinema with me, because I was crying so hard... Guess I was about five years old at the time.

On my nightstand is this book, and it's a real pageturner, it gave me a few bad dreams already.
To stay a bit in the Halloween mood, I did this little knitting project: a pumpkin tea cosy.
It turned out to be quite easy, and I did it in two afternoons. Ready just in time for tonight!


The trees in our garden are giving us quite an autumn spectacle now.


How I love the change of seasons!

Link of the week #2

Last weekend,my husband was sorting trough old boxes and trunks in our garage, and we found lots and lots of old magazines.
So here's just a glance in one of these magazines:
And if you can't get enough of vintage fashion and things related, go here.

Sparrow's nest

A nice little knitting project (while watching a very good danish serie on TV: "The Killing"), that was made in three evenings. You can find the pattern here.

This is my first selfmade pincushion! Although I made it in the wrong season... laying eggs is more something for spring.

A walk in the woods

Is it because of all the rain and damp weather the last two months, but there are mushrooms everywhere in our garden.
I really don't dare to pick and eat them, I heard on the news that there were more cases of poisoning this year then normal (here in Belgium, don't know about the rest of Europe). My grandmother knew enough about mushrooms to use them in the kitchen, and it's a shame that I don't have that knowledge...

Link of the week

What a great idea, wish I had come up with this:
A Collection a Day, 2010
I did my collection of today: the content of my handbag, before I cleaned it up:

And the same content, after I sorted out everything, ready to be put in another handbag.

So sorry for the poor quality of my pictures, there has almost been no daylight the past week. I guess this was the gloomiest summer ever...

August/September update

Slooowly....very slowly, I will get there and make this cross-stitched cat into a little cushion!