You had me at bonjour

In my neighbourhood: Aix-en-Provence

2012-02-27T15:41:00.001+01:00

You guys all know I live outside the big smoke that is Aix-en-Provence.

Place d'Albertas

We really don't get out here as much as we should - it's a beautiful town with many nooks and crannies that we have yet to discover.

Design Mom is having a Love the Place You Live link up monthly to encourage folks to go out and explore where they live (rather than having to travel to some far or exotic destination). We have the added bonus of our local area being very exotic to us!

The reason we don't get to Aix as often as we should is two-fold; for one, that pesky Luberon Valley keeps luring us away. The second reason is less exciting: laziness. Sometimes just the idea of loading everyone into the car with all their accoutrements leaves me exhausted.

But more often than not we fight through and we get out of the house. We're never sorry we have.

There are a few things we've found, travelling with young (and many) children, that set us up for success. Firstly, you have to get out of the house early.

The roads are clear around 9am on the weekends and when you arrive you usually find plenty of good parking and uncrowded streets. The kids are full of beans and in a good mood and it just makes for a great start to a day's adventure.

Institute d'Etudes Politiques

Second, come prepared. Make sure the nappy (diaper) change bag is restocked. I always bring small zip-lock bags of cheerio cereal, chopped apple or raisins for snacking/distractions.

Cathédrale de Sainte Sauveur

For meal times I have a small notebook with removable pages and 4 markers from IKEA (the have felt tips on one end and stamps on the other) - they keep everyone occupied until the meals arrive.

Doors of la mairie (town hall)

Sometimes I will have one small toy in my bag (I have a HUGE handbag) for each of them, a matchbox car, one of those puzzles where you slide the tiles to make a picture, those sort of things. Whatever it is, I make sure it is only ever used when we are out. Not using it at home keeps the toy new and exciting for them and more likely to keep their attention.

La Fontaine de l'Hôtel de Ville has been Groucho-ed.

These pictures were taken around 8-9am Sunday morning. Everything was nice and quiet, especially as I didn't have the kids with me.

The markets were still setting up...

...and not much other than the bakeries were open.

I don't feel so silly taking photos of window displays when the stores are closed. Love the colours and pattern on this L'Occitane packaging.

And these tins - I want to collect them for storing all my craft supplies.

I came across some chandeliers too. I do so love them. Here's one in L'Eglise du Saint-Esprit:

It was lovely to go walkabout close to home and appreciate what's right on our doorstep.

Place des Trois Ormeaux

Definitely worth the effort!

Are you getting out and about in your local area? Why not include your own link over at Design Mom?

P.S. Another way to push yourself to get out is to buy the Lonely Planet (or equivalent) guide to your state or region. All those insider tips can be just as useful to locals as to tourists, and it's a constant reminder on your bookshelf to get out and about.

Girls' Night Out

2012-02-26T20:43:00.000+01:00

Well, it's official. 38 year olds don't party very hard.

But on the bright side I didn't wake up with gorilla-armpit mouth this morning.

A big thank you to Aidan, Sara Louise and the lovely Delana for a wonderful Saturday night out (and a sleep-over!) in Aix-en-Provence. My cheeks are still hurting from laughing so much.

More photos of Aix tomorrow. Have a great start to your week. A bientôt!

Dreamy Dentelle at Tendances Créatives, Marseille

2012-02-24T19:02:00.000+01:00

Two and a half weeks ago there was a half foot of snow in our yard. Today it's 21℃ (70℉).

I'm as confused as my daffodils but I like where we're heading...dare I say the word 'Spring'?

Here are a few more photos from the Tendances Créatives Craft Fair I visited last weekend.

One of the exposants was Marie-Thérèse Bonniol, who makes all manner of woven artworks, including lace.

She uses any kind of material you can imagine from your standard sewing machine thread to hemp, silk, wire, cotton, plastic coated wire (like you'd find out the back of your stereo) and even the cord used to light fireworks.

Here we have glass as well as copper wire accents:

I loved this one, made from cotton (I have a thing for green lately):

A letter on glass this time:

I didn't have the heart to tell Marie-Thérèse that this teapot probably wouldn't work:

Marie-Thérèse also experiments with salt water. She suspends lace for two days in super-saturated salty water (found in salt farm ponds) and they emerge covered in diamond-like crystals like this:

As well as all this innovative work, Marie-Thérèse also makes beautiful lace in the more traditional style:

It was amazing to watch her work the bobbins - she's so fast! She claims it's relatively straight-forward, just follow the pattern, but wow it looked complicated to me.

We spoke briefly about the future of the craft - were people still learning these skills? She said she felt that commercially there was less handmade lace being produced but as far as being pursued as a hobby the craft was still quite popular. Phew, because this stuff is gorgeous.

You can find Marie-Thérèse's website here.

It's Friday again and I'm looking forward to catching up with some bloggy friends tomorrow in Aix.

I'm also under the pump, trying to get something finished in time for the Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge - (more info on that here at Ali's blog, a.squared.w), but it's touch and go!

Wish me luck. And have a great weekend!

Marseille Craft Fair, 2012

2012-02-23T11:58:00.001+01:00

The weekend just past I took my life into my hands and drove to Marseille for the Tendances Créatives: Salon du Loisirs Créatifs et Déco Maison.

Marseille is gorgeous but a lot of people there drive like they're on crack.

But it was well worth the adventure as I got to see lots of cool arty and crafty stuff.

The vendors were pretty much the same as last year. I got myself some nice spices and loose teas:

I also picked up some jewellery making supplies as well as ogling the already made pieces:

Emöke, the very clever textile artist was there again this year.

Stalker photo from behind a display.

She had lots of new work on display, including some of that of her students. It's hard not to be impressed by her bold use of colour.

I thought this installation was very clever - she's woven these pieces in 3D using recycled cardboard and plastic for support.

This year they had a large number of pieces on display from two associations: Librarts and Maestria Manuelles.

Here's the part where I have to admit to poor journalism skills - my recording of the artists' names left a lot to be desired.

If anyone recognises their work, please email me and I will add your details or delete the photo as you wish! Si vous reconnaissez votre oeuvre ici, SVP envoyez-moi un email et je mettrai à jour la photo avec votre nom ou je la supprimerai, comme vous voulez!

On to the art, which I found facinating. Even if a piece's subject matter or colours didn't appeal to me, the techniques used were really interesting. I had my nose to the display wall pretty much the whole time.

I really loved the close up on this piece:

Two layers of fabric (and other items), one layer cut away to reveal underneath:

The windows proved a popular theme. This piece was a collaborative effort:

Un Jour Orange de Les Mercredis du Librarts

(Cobie, Suzanne, Françoise, Monique, Simone, Sylvie, Myriam, Chantal)

Not only were the main panels interesting:

This one then had windows inside the window. Look at the work involved, the attention to detail. 'Tis amazing.

Here are some more interesting techniques and delightful details. Mixed media galore.

Adore this - the embroidery echoing the lace.

Love the use of fabric and metal thread to form the foliage:

Carnet de Voyage Imaginaire "Voyage au Coeur des Minéraux" de Chantal Foulon

The fabric has been dyed and treated to resemble rock salts:

Carnet de Voyage Imaginaire "Mon Jardin" de Cobie Bevers

Another one from Chantal Foulon at Librearts, titled Fusion, Fluide, Frisson.

Plenty of inspiration there for embroidery, patchwork and any sort of art you can imagine.

I have some more photos to show but I think I'd better save them for another day; this post is so photo-heavy my monitor's about to flip over.

Hope you're having a great week so far and that inspiration is abounding!

P.S. Today is my birthday.

38. Sniff.

A snow holiday in Valnontey, Italy

2012-02-21T18:58:00.000+01:00

We took a little holiday to the Italian Alps in the first week of February.

We wanted a family holiday. One where we didn't have to put the kids into crêche/daycare for us to ski and one where we could all get out and about together. (The mister has been spending considerable time away from home with work during the week, so we were all keen to do a lot of 'together'.)

I find the downhill ski scene rather hectic, honestly. Plus I have a dodgy knee so cross-county skiing sounded much better to me.

We stayed in Valnontey - a quiet little village (maybe a dozen buildings, all hotels/cafes) in the gorgeous Gran Paradiso National Park.

It is a fantastic location for cross-country skiing - plenty of amazing scenery and nicely groomed ski and walking tracks all around the area. It's also very popular for hiking/camping in the warmer weather.

This is the small, family-run hotel where we stayed (basically old farm buildings that have been converted):

The staff were lovely, especially with the kids. We also went for half board (breakfast and dinner) which made it super relaxing for me. A well priced three course meal every night? Yes please!

The cross country skiing was good fun - the kids would do a small loop with me in the mornings (while the mister and the littles followed on the walking track).

Then in the afternoons the grown-ups would take turns doing a longer trip (to burn off those three course meals). Just before dinner the kids would go out for tobogganing and general snowy shenanigans.

Speaking of snowy shenanigans, there were alot of ice climbers in our hotel.

Pray-tell, you ask, what is an ice climber? Someone who climbs frozen waterfalls.

Have you ever heard of anything so scary/dangerous/crazy? One German fellow told me you have to watch out for the white waterfalls - this means lots of air bubbles frozen in the water that shatter when you embed your ice pick in it. Insane.

Wee little ice climbers on the left there.

The Gran Paradiso Park was originally created as a protected zone for the almost-hunted-into-oblivion Alpine Ibex in the 1850s. This ibex population is now flourishing as are many other alpine species who live within the Park's 700 square kms.

The Alpine Ibex. Nice rack.

I looked everywhere for that darn ibex. I scoured the hills whenever we went out. I knew they were out there as we found tracks all over the place.

One French couple told us that one came right up to a walking track.

The closest I got was these mountain goats, who I couldn't even yodel at because they were so far away.

Can you see them?

I found this goat in the hotel dining room. He was kind enough to hold very still for my photo.

Nearly every Italian in this region speaks French (and many speak English too). I took a skiing refresher on our first day (with the kids) and we all had our lessons in French. Two non-native speakers makes for a nice conversation - both parties speak slowly and don't use any high-fallootin' vocab. I also felt like an international woman of mystery, speaking French with Italians.

So, if you're a fruit-loop ice climber or a family in search of some snowy goodness, I would heartily recommend the cute little village of Valnontey (or any of the other little towns in the Aosta Valley).

We had a relaxing stay with just the right amount of physical activity, food and ibex seeking.

The next travel post will give you a quick tour around the neighbouring village of Cogne.

A bientôt!

Friday, Friday, Gettin' Down on Friday

2012-02-17T11:43:00.000+01:00

Mister to eldest: So, how's that sore tooth going? Is it starting to wiggle yet?
Son: No, but I think it's getting ready to wiggle.

You can see why I've been a bit slack on the Tooth Fairy sewing front, we're still only in the pre-wiggle phase. I'm wondering if this has all been a bit of a false alarm... time will tell.

Meanwhile, Salley forwarded me another cute tooth holding device option here. I like this as it means no fishing around under the pillow, which a few of you have kindly warned me about.

Annick reminded me that the Tooth Fairy doesn't even come to France - they have La Petite Souris, a little mouse instead. She also sent me a link with lots of interesting global info on the Young and the Toothless.

What else is going on this fine Friday?

The cold snap has left Provence - I think all the snow in our yard will be gone by the end of today.

No more snow olives

Or berries

Or swimming pool.

Well, I'm still chugging away on photo edits, like this one:

I have finally, finally, finally sewed my Chasing Chevrons quilt top together. Boy did I make that harder than it should've been.

Except my chevrons are no longer chasing, they're flocking. Flocking Chevrons. That might become my new swear word.

Tomorrow, all going well, I'll be heading in to the Tendances Créatives Craft Fair in Marseille. My third year visiting, I feel like a local! My write up of last year is here, and I just found a good 5 min video of it on their site here.

I wish you all sunny skies and lots of time to craft this weekend. Need some inspiration?

Here's some colourful goodness from the latest issue of Marie Claire Idées. If this doesn't get you going you're officially dead.

Friday, Friday, gettin' down on Friday.

Flocking Chevrons, now I'll never get that out of my head.

Briançon, France

2012-02-13T21:04:00.000+01:00

We chose to break up our recent trip to the Italian Alps by staying overnight in the French town of Briançon, 20km from the Italian border.

At an altitude of 1326m, Briançon is a ski town in winter and sees a lot of hikers and bike riders (sometimes the Tour de France) in the finer weather.

Briançon is a fortressed town, being so close to the border (fortifications designed in the 17th century by Vauban, a very clever fellow who helped King Louis XIV consolidate/defend France's borders).

When we arrived I quickly took some pictures from the ramparts in the day's dying light.

We stayed almost smack-bang in the centre of the Vielle Ville (old town). I took this photo from the kitchen window of our apartment:

See, really central. That's the Collégiale Notre Dame et St Nicholas.

Just around the corner was the town's main street, La Grande Rue. Also known as La Grande Gargouille because of the stone drain down its centre.

This is the second time we've found an apartment online in the old part of a city (first time was Antibes). It's been fantastic on both occasions: we've scored a nice, fairly roomy apartment with kitchen, right amongst all the restaurants and museums/attractions of the city. And they were both reasonably priced - but I can probably tell you why.

The downsides:

1. No parking. These old cobblestoned areas are either 'no car' or 'resident cars only' zones. That's what makes them so nice to walk around. So you have to park outside the walled area and carry your luggage in.

The lovely gate we carried our bags through.

2. Late night noise. I know I said one of the benefits was being close to all the restaurants and attractions, but it's also one of the negatives. The bars all turn up their doof-doof music at around 10pm and this will continue until midnight in the off season (apparently 2am in the high season!). If you are a hip couple this won't bother you as you'll be down at the bar anyway. We also found it wasn't too bad for families with young children - our kids are fast asleep by 8pm so they didn't stir when the music started. It just meant the grown ups slept a little later than usual.

Some disadvantages to be sure, but it is just amazing to stay right in the heart of these ancient cities. And with young kids, being able to nip out and see things without packing the car, planning for a whole day away from your apartment, makes for a relaxing holiday. Just thought I'd let you know something that's worked well for us.

Anyway, back to Briançon. We stepped out for a meal that night and found the city is even more beautiful in the evening.

With the holiday lights still up and the snowy mountain backdrop.

The next morning I was up early feeding the baby.

Street lamp on the cobblestones.

Then it started snowing! I like snow, but I love the act of snowing the most - it just seems magical and everything gets kinda hushed...no doubt my snowless, Australian upbringing contributes greatly to the allure.

I ducked out to get pastries and coffee from the boulangerie 10 steps away (another benefit of the heart of the city).

The city workers were already out and about, sanding and salting the roads and paths. The 2 yr old fancied himself an apprentice.

After our breakfast we took a quick walk through the city...

Down to the ramparts again.

The kids frolicking in the snow, Fort du Château in the background:

We followed the ramparts around to a lookout point southeast of the city, over the Pont d'Asfeld (Asfeld Bridge).

Then we realised we had only 15 minutes 'til checkout so we freaked out and raced back to the apartment. Well, I freaked out. The mister's pretty unflappable.

Looking back on the city as we left.

We drove out of Briançon and had to stop about 10 minutes later to put on the snow chains.

Make sure you practice putting those puppies on in the comfort of your garage before you get out in the field, with snow in your eyes and ski gloves on. With two engineering degrees between us its embarrassing how long we took to figure our chains out the first time we fitted them.

The snow delayed our trip over to Italy but made it oh-so pretty. But that's a story for another day.

Have a great week everyone!

P.S You didn't think you were going to get away without chandelier photos did you?

Taken in the Collégiale.

Bwahaha!

You complete me...yes you do

2012-02-10T09:44:00.000+01:00

A little show and tell to take us into the weekend.

One of the great things about blogging is the friendships you make all over the world. One of the early friendships I forged was with the lovely Diana, who is sewing-crazy, lives in Romania and has her own little business making baby slings.

She sent me an awesome package of fabric and other useful bits and pieces about a year ago. Because she knew I was pregnant with number 4 she also sent me one of her slings.

It's very versatile (type 'ring sling' in Youtube and you will see the million ways you can use it) and I can use it for both the baby and the toddler (just not at the same time. Although that could be interesting...)

I sent a little package back to Diana before we left for the snow, and now that she has it I can show you the embroidery I stitched for her.

Diana is a recovering Echino addict, so it was a no-brainer what type of fabric to choose. Given I only had one piece of Echino in my stash (left over from making this remote control organiser) the choice was even easier.

The piece is supposed to be a kind of hat-tip from my blog to Diana; the phrase is from the movie Jerry McGuire (like my blog name) and I used the same font as in my header. And as for what completes us, well, we both love sewing, hence the sewing machine silhouette.

My embroidery journey continues - I busted out some uneven blanket stitch and whipped chain stitch in this piece. I also used perle cotton for my stem stitched words and found them a lot easier to sew (unlike my Enjoy the Journey piece where I used 6 strands of floss).

Thank you Diana for being such a good friend.

Another Friday which means another weekend. Yippee!

Hope you all have a great one!

The Tooth Fairy is Coming to Town.

2012-02-06T18:08:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone, we're back! Alive!

In between washing piles of ski clothes and vomit from the 2 year old's car seat (tantrum, chunky pizza, please don't ask me anymore...) I thought I'd pop in and say hello.

After the mild winter we've had here in Provence it's ironic to come back from Italy and find our village under a blanket of snow. I really didn't think we'd see any of the white stuff this year. The birdbath scoffs at me:

Daffodils still going strong through the snow.

I'll have even snowier pictures to show you shortly, but in the meanwhile the big news around here is that the eldest (finally) has a 'bit of a sore tooth'. At 7 and a half years old I was getting a little worried, but hopefully this will be the start of a charming gap-toothed smile.

The mechanics of the Tooth Fairy have come up in conversation - I think I might need to sew something to mark this momentous occasion.

On Larissa's blog mmmcrafts I saw this super cute tutorial for a tooth holding softie (a tooth within a tooth, we must go DEEPER). Easily customised for boys or girls.

Or I could whip up a colourful little pouch that would slip right under his pillow.

Find the tutorial for these here at the Purl Bee

If I was feeling lazy I would just buy one of these gorgeous little tooth fairy friend softies from Jenny (who blogs at plants and animals).

You can find Jenny's etsy store here (lots of cute little softies and prints in there).

But I'm actually thinking of something a little different - inspired by this clever hoop I saw on Amy's blog, During Quiet Time.

Perhaps with a pocket for the tooth and one for the money. (And perhaps one exactly as shown for me, later.)

If I make it in neutral fabric colours all the kids can use it (this is a very attractive point for me as I don't particularly feel like making four of the suckers).

All you old and bold parents out there... did you keep your children's baby teeth? All of them?

I have locks of hair from all four of ours and am now wondering if I should keep a tooth or two as well?

I'm also wondering what the heck I'd do with them. Can you open beer bottles with them? I suppose a tooth could prove useful should said son abscond to Mexico with a lady of dubious reputation when he's 18. I'll have some DNA to give to the private investigator I hire to track him down.

Mmm, I hope he looks like Tom Selleck.

The PI, not my son. It would be weird if my son grew up to look like Tom Selleck.

Not to mention it would make my husband very suspicious. (Not as suspicious as if he grew up to look like Hugh Jackman though.)

Back soon with a little tour around Briançon. A bientôt!

A Visit to L'Art Glacier

2012-02-01T13:20:00.002+01:00

Here's a little Provence sunshine for all those in the colder climes at the moment.

These pictures were taken in Spring at L'Art Glacier, a house-turned-ice-cream-café.

You can read about them (a family operated business) here.

It's off the beaten track in Provence but still draws a good crowd.

The fountain kept the littles entertained (how many times do you think the words 'NOT IN THE FOUNTAIN' were spoken that day?)

While the incredible views had the adults enthralled.

And everyone was impressed with the menu which had a whole lotta ice cream.

Our choices:

The Provençal trio of Rosemary, Lavender and Honey ice creams. This was the pick of the menu in my humble opinion. The mister ordered it.

My choice: Salted Butter Caramel, Tiramisu and something else I can't remember now. It was very nice, don't get me wrong, but the mister's was better.

The kids went for an assortment of Vanilla, Chocolate, White Chocolate and Caramel all with a few squirts of Chantilly cream. Mmmm.

If you are out and about in Provence on a warm day, I would recommend you drop in. The sweets and the scenery are just beautiful.

Seen on the way home:

Hope you're all having a great week.

I hope I haven't broken anything by the time this delayed entry posts.

And I hope the wifi is working at our accommodation so I can keep in touch.

A bientôt!

Happy Australia Day!

2012-01-25T20:33:00.000+01:00

January 26th is Australia Day. If you know someone Australian, make sure you kiss them! Preferably long and hard.

In honour of the day I'll be eating my croissant with Vegemite. Mmmm.

Well, it's a flurry of organising and packing and cleaning out the fridge here before we head off to the Italian Alps for a week of cross-country skiing. We have found a small, quiet village where we can play and walk (on groomed tracks) and cross-county ski as a family - and bonus - it's forecast to snow on Sunday. Wheee!

I'm packing my current hand sewing project so I can get some more work done.

On the craft front, I have been sewing lots of half square triangles...

And trimming them up to make chevrons (all part of Jennifer's fab Chasing Chevrons quiltalong).

I signed up for Rachel's Curves Class, which starts the first of Febuary. I'll miss the first few days, but I'm sure I can catch up in good time.

Here's something random - did you know there are scorpions in France? I didn't, but now that I've found a few around the house (none bigger than my thumb) I guess I have to. This fella was trying to back out through one of our downlights when he must've got stuck and then (ahem) fried. He's been there for ages because I'm too scared to unscrew it and find the whole family. Sounds like a job for the mister to me.

Crispy critter.

Have a wonderful week folks. I hope to be back in early Feb with lots of snowy photos to show you!

And happy Australia Day! Mwwwwa. (that's supposed to be a kissy sound)

Aix-en-Provence Carnaval

2012-01-24T13:22:00.000+01:00

I'm still sorting out my photo files and came across these pictures from last year's Carnaval. I can't believe I forgot to post these!

Spring time in Provence holds many joys but I think Carnaval would be our kids' favourite.

All the large towns hold one and we ventured in to Aix-en-Provence to enjoy their version in early April. We arrived about half an hour early to find a nice spot on the Cours Mirabeau, electing to camp on the grass around the Rotonde fountain at the head of the street.

As the crowds continued to build the hawkers made a good turn-over on balloons, confetti and cans of silly string.

The kids all get into the spirit and come dressed in costumes.

When all the best vantage points were taken the fountain itself became a viewing platform, probably the only time of the year the police turn a blind eye to such shenanigans.

"Nice hat, Bill" "Thanks, Frank"

The parade was late getting started and the natives got a little restless:

But finally the strains of the band could be heard and the floats began to inch their way down the Cours toward the fountain.

The theme for Aix's 2011 parade was Tim Burton's films and here are a few of the floats they inspired:

Alice in Wonderland

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Mars Attacks!

Beetlejuice

The parade came to a halt around the fountain (another good reason to camp out there) but the band continued to play and several characters disembarked to interact with the crowd.

These guys below look like they're carrying some kind of Ninja Turtle shell on their backs - they turned out to be fan-propelled streamer shooters. Awesome!

So glad I didn't have to clean it all up.

This strange contraption housed a sort of trapeze act:

Untraditional Scotsman was wearing underwear beneath his kilt. Spoilsport.

But the ladies were still suitably impressed:

Eventually the crowds dispersed and the clean-up crew was left to tackle everything left behind.

Carnage on the Cours

We only had the three kids back then and they all had confetti in their underwear at the end of the day, which we all know is the definition of having had a good time. I know that's how I rate my night out the next morning. "I can't remember a thing but it must've been good because there's confetti in my undies."

I really like finding forgotten Spring photos in the middle of winter. Gives you a mid-season reminder to keep holding on; it will be warm again soon(ish).

In the meantime we're embracing winter and heading to the Italian Alps on Friday for a week in the snow. I'll try to squeeze in another post before then and if I'm really clever I'll rig one to post while I'm away. Man, these Internets sure are nifty.

Hope you're all having a great week!

Innocent Crush Block Quilt

2012-01-19T21:13:00.000+01:00

I made this quilt approximately 7 months ago but forgot to post about it in the midst of my pregnancy fog.

About a year ago I bought a fat quarter set of Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush. The Charmed palette became this quilt:

The scraps from both palettes became this:

But not before I scratched my head for a while about the Swept Away palette:

Eventually an article on Design*Sponge caught my eye.

Photos used with permission.

I followed it back to the source - the photo in question was of the poolside Cha Cha Cabana bar at the Lords South Beach Hotel in Miami Beach.

If you like yellow you really need to have a look at this hotel.

Check out this photo of their Cha Cha Rooster Bar. If you stuffed a disco ball down the neck of I Dream of Jeannie's bottle and then shook it real hard, this is what you'd get:

Fab. U. Lous

Anyway, back to the quilt. I liked the idea of lots of white (or in my case Kona Snow) around each colour fabric block.

I quilted around the inner and outer edge of the Snow portions to define each block. In retrospect I wish I'd also hand quilted around the colour blocks in a contrasting colour. If for no other reason than having an excuse to buy AMH's gorgeous flosses!

I used a luxurious flannel sheet for the batting (for any French quilters reading - les draps en flanelle blanc are on sale at quelle.fr at the moment; 60% off). The backing was also flannel (more Anna Maria Horner), so the quilt was very soft and snuggly (and wrinkled very easily, as you can see in the first photo).

And the binding was the scarlet Woodcut print that I love so much:

The quilt lends itself to chain piecing - it's made from these two blocks which are joined at 90 degrees to each other.

I'm annoyed that I've waited so long to blog this as I've lost the measurements for the blocks and have already given the quilt away to the baby girl for whom it was made. Sloppy, Kirsty.

I will say that the baby girl came for a visit about a month ago and the quilt came too. It had a few smudges and milk stains and some of her older brother's fingerprints on it. The quilt was obviously being loved and used and it made me soooo happy to see that.

Yep, definitely missed a hand quilting opportunity there.

Dopey Daffodils

2012-01-17T16:33:00.000+01:00

Two posts in one day, what is going on?

Well, I have a question for any green thumbs (mains vertes) out there.

We've been having some unseasonal weather in our part of Provence: 18 ℃ (65℉) on New Year's Day, for instance. It hasn't been quite that warm since, but it's still pretty steamy for the middle of winter.

The mornings are still quite frosty though.

These pictures were taken in the field just across from our house.

I think I've mentioned we live kindof in the country. We are on the outskirts of a village, but outskirty enough that we have a septic system and drink canal water (filtered and deeelicious).

Driving back from taking the kids to school the frosty morning in question, I looked out the window and saw this stunning creature in the field.

Stock photo I had to buy - you'll see why below.

Phuck, it's a pheasant, I thought. Look at all that beautiful iridescent green and red - gorgeous. Must rush inside and get the camera.

We regularly hear gunshots from our house - hunters out and about looking for pheasants and other tasty winged creatures, not to mention the odd sanglier (wild boar). After I'd taken this guy's photo I was going to sit him down and have a long chat about camouflage and concealment and how he was doing it wrong.

I parked the car, grabbed the camera and raced back to the field.

And of course, I couldn't find that little bugger anywhere. Crafty pheasant: 1, Kirsty: 0.

So instead I took pictures of the foggy, frosty loveliness around me, until I couldn't feel my fingers properly.

This is the paving on our front doorstep. I have never seen frost patterns like this - it's incredible.

Don't they look like hand-painted feathery ferns?

So here's my question (that last one was just rhetorical). Our daffodils have been bamboozled by our higher temps and have already sprouted:

If the real cold weather finally hits, are they doomed? Can someone clever tell me what to do when your daffs jump the gun?

Hanging with Aidan again

2012-01-17T16:10:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone, did you have a great weekend?

We loaded the family into the car and headed across to visit with Aidan and family, in Montpellier.

The small market right at the end of Aidan's street. Can you imagine it? Amazing.

We've been to Aidan's before - and again we had such a good time.

Aidan has chandeliers. They are beautiful.

Will someone please offer me a book deal for a chandelier coffee table book so I can justify all these pictures I'm taking? Thank you.

This is the new addition to Aidan's family. Clementine Mirabel Petals (this is what happens when you let all three children name the dog) - isn't she gorgeous?

Our toddler had a heart attack every time she came near him, poor girl. I hope she didn't get a complex.

The food was fantastic. From the welcome cocktail (Bellinis -champagne with peach puree) to the mari's lasagna to la fille's decadent cheesecake.

Speaking of the cheesecake, a certain young man couldn't wait until dessert and broke his sister's heart when he did this.

Thank you darling Aidan and famille, it was wonderful to catch up!

A quick birthday post

2012-01-13T14:04:00.000+01:00

Not mine. The mister's. He's a ripe old 39 now (and never handsomer).

The kids decorated the cake for him.

The babysitter was called in and we went out for a hearty Provençal meal in Aix.

There may have been a chandelier...

We walked home through the Porsches, admiring the lights near the Hôtel de Ville.

Then back out onto the Cours Mirabeau, where this scene was so French it slapped us upside the head with a baguette.

Sad that the Christmas lights (on the Cours) have been turned off now, but then I'm not paying the power bill.

Almost the weekend here in France! Have a good one.

Ansouis

2012-01-10T22:57:00.000+01:00

In honour of the New Year I've been going through all my photo files, trying to organise and cull a bit, and came across a few visits (and one quilt) that I forgot to share with you. Without further ado, let's go on a quick trip through the lovely village of Ansouis in the Luberon Valley.

It's on a hilltop (I know, I know, they're all on hilltops. Yawn.)

It's a small village (good for a half-day visit) with charismatic cobble-stoned streets.

If you keep heading uphill you'll find a rather fortressy looking building.

Strangely enough, it's a fortress.

Built in the 10th century, the main part you see here is apparently open afternoons (we visited in the morning).

However we found the adjoining chapel open.

Not the fanciest we've visited, but I'm a sucker for old churches and loved the colours in this particular one.

And the chandeliers. Oh, how I love chandeliers.

In fact, I think I have a little problem with chandeliers.

Something about the way they look in that beautiful filtered light.

Can't. stop. photographing.

OK, there was a nice brass incense burner hanging over the altar...

Hey - what's that over there...

And up there-

That was the last one. I promise.

Once I dragged myself away from the crystal we headed out to the viewing platform on the other side of the fortress.

Where we found a picturesque autumn vista.

Fields of yellow vines

Then it was time for lunch, so we were on our way.

Back past the beautiful streets and alleys.

Snazzy vintage cars (leather interior...nice)

Toddler looking for the slot to put a coin in

And of course it wouldn't be France without an archway to drive home through.

And that was Ansouis (for us)- small but nonetheless lovely.

Easy to see how it made the list of France's 156 Plus Beaux Villages.

À bientôt!

Ringing in 2012

2012-01-01T18:42:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Holiday lights in Aix-en-Provence

Did you have an exciting night of revelry on New Year's Eve or were you like someone in our house who had to be prodded awake at 10pm to enjoy a bottle of fizz? (And it wasn't me.)

Are you making resolutions? I'm terrible at them and prefer to just make a nice long 'to do' list and leave it at that.

2012 will be our third and final year in France and we're determined to make the most of it, so I guess that is our family resolution. There will be a fair bit of travel photography inbound, hope you don't mind.

Not to say that there won't be crafty stuff either. In fact, I have already cut into a pile of fabric in anticipation of making a Chasing Chevrons quilt.

I've also started a new embroidery - it is a gift so can't really show much here:

I'm really enjoying all this stitching, so it was a lovely case of happenstance when I won a giveaway on Krista's blog, Poppyprint. This is what I won:

There are stitches in here I never even knew existed. Amazing and inspiring, thanks Krista!

Also inspiring was a swap parcel I received from the lovely Blandina. I showed you this photo a while ago:

Well, this is what I got in return - a beautiful embroidery inspired by Blandina's visit to Provence.

Everything about this makes me deliriously happy - the colours, the shapes, the subject matter.

From the lavender

To the olive trees

To the rocky mountains and blue, blue sky.

Thank you so much Blandina!

In the lead up to Christmas I forgot to photograph my piece before I sent it off, so you'll have to pop over to Blandina's to check it out.

All the best from our family to yours!

Wishing you all much love, laughter, health and happiness in 2012.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

2011-12-24T15:00:00.000+01:00

As two very excited little people told us this morning, Christmas is nearly here!

I'm just popping in here to send you my best for the season and to show you the (very) few handmade gifts I managed to rustle up this year.

The first is a summer handbag for a friend from noodlehead's awesome 241 tote pattern. I sat my friend in front of my stash and she chose the Laura Gunn fabrics and linen herself, so I know she'll like it.

My next gift, for a dear 10 year old girl, came from this book.

I made the pencil roll.

Except mine is filled with marker pens, her drawing implement of choice.

Because the markers are fatter than pencils they put a little wave in the roll, a fact I didn't realise until after I'd made it. Were I super dedicated I'd make another and increase the pocket size but I'm low on time and linen. I think I'll get away with it.

I found this super cute doodling book online to go with it. Have you seen this, it's so cool?

Plenty of inspiration to keep kids occupied for hours:

I hope Pere Noël will bring me one too.

I also hope all your Christmas preparations are finished and you have nothing to do but sit back with a refreshing beverage and relax.

It's been a busy year but a wonderful year. Blogging has again been a joy, especially all the virtual friendships I've made (not to mention those of you I've had the pleasure of meeting in real life).

Thank you so much for all your comments and encouragement to keep recording our adventures in France. I wish you and your families all the best for Christmas and the festive season!

Gros bisous,

Kirsty x x

Everyday I'm Trufflin' (Rognes Truffle Festival)

2011-12-21T22:45:00.000+01:00

A Fête de la Truffe is held every year in the lovely Provence town of Rognes on the Sunday before Christmas.

You absolutely must arrive early. We got there at 9.15am and it was already busy, by 1130am when we left it was bordering on unbearable (as far as trying to negotiate the stalls with a pram). Next year we'll get there at 8.45am.

Even though it was early and very cold, a dozen or so truffle farmers had their little stalls set up and buyers were well into the business of sniffing, squeezing and fondling the black variety of this fungus that grows in the local area (among oak tree roots).

Here's what they look like: (very hard to photograph as truffle buying is apparently a spectator sport, everyone wants to have a sticky beak)

Oh yes, that sign does say 1200 euros a kilogram (around AU$1560 a kilo, or US$700 a pound). There was one lady giving 1300 euros a kilo a try too.

And those little suckers are quite heavy - in fact that's one of the key indicators of a good truffle, that it's heavy for its size. You also want to check it has been brushed clean; dodgy vendors have been known to stuff cracks with mud to increase the truffle's weight. It should also be free of soft spots (hence all the fondling) and have a strong truffle-y odour.

How to describe the truffle taste...it's very difficult to put in words. Much like Judge Stewart's explanation of obscenity, it's hard to define the flavour of truffles, but you know it when you taste it. Rich, pungent, earthy - all words that are often used and don't really do this food justice.

This truffle is 55 euros (around $77). Eeek!

Given that truffles were not in our budget this year, we decided to try one of the truffle omelettes on offer. Omelettes are a great vehicle as they let the truffle do all the talking. Similarly other delish ways to enjoy truffles are with mashed potato or tossed through pasta with butter. Mmm.

This nice man cooked us a truffle omelette with baguette and rosé (yes, at 10am, don't judge) for 10 euro each.

It was truly delicious.

But truffles were only one of the things on offer. The market was full of amazing fresh produce and other goods. Honey, olives, oils, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, liqueurs, wine, snails, foie gras, the list goes on...

You could buy your own truffle omelette kit - 6 eggs stored overnight with a small truffle (the eggs absorb the truffle flavour) which is then grated over the omelette:

Of course there was cheese:

Bread:

Sleighfulls of salami:

More cheese:

Those rounds were at least 60cms (2 ft) across

All sorts of mushrooms:

Herbs and spices:

CHEESE!

I've yet to gather enough guts to buy one of the mouldy ones

Check out this charcuterie. Can you see the little dried piggies on the left? How chewy would those ears be?

Now get a load of this.

Still haven't been in France long enough to eat this. More time in country required.

There are a lot more festivities during the day, but we were fairly frazzled after two hours of crowds, omelettes and the flirting tapenade man. Oh, and the petting zoo:

Did you say foie gras?

Here's a short video (less than 2 mins) of the Festival from the foodie perspective. It's in French but I think it captures the atmosphere perfectly.

Best wishes for the lead up to Christmas: may all your truffles be dense and lightly fondled!

Aix-en-Provence Christmas Markets

2011-12-18T21:50:00.000+01:00

Only one week 'til Christmas! Less if you're in Australia as it's already tomorrow there.

We ventured out last weekend to the Christmas markets in Aix-en-Provence.

As always, the lights are just magical.

The kids also got to enjoy a carnival ride or two.

Not to mention the man with some apparatus to make giant bubbles.

Very pretty.

I enjoyed the spiced wine and these lovely light garlands for sale in one of the market stalls.

The santon display was enchanting - it's a big Provençal Christmas tradition to create a little crèche/nativity scene in your home with these guys. They sell the individual mangers, figures and every kind of animal you can think of. Not to mention bridges, water wheels, little ladies selling calissons, even rows of lavender with harvesting workers (not sure how many of those were around when Jesus was born).

The santon scene on the Cours Mirabeau is quite large and enclosed behind perspex (there would be thousands of euros worth of santons in there). I wish I could've shown you a picture of the whole thing, but there were people standing three deep in front of it, so a bit difficult to photograph (there were also a lot of little nose prints on the perspex by this stage).

Turning water wheel complete with real water.

Finding little baby Jesus was a bit like Where's Wally, but I finally located the Holy Family.

Pay no attention to the Lord Jesus being welcomed by folks in 18th century dress.

Once we'd had our fill of gingerbread and pretzels it was time to head home, pausing to check out the nearly full moon.

And marvel at the disco ball. I love disco balls.

What else has been going on this week? The kids have finished school for the calendar year.

I made some progress on Christmas gifts, finishing this covered journal for our lovely babysitter (using Ros from Bloom's great tutorial again).

Then I had to make a matching drawstring bag because Eva's were just so cute.

Drawstring bag pattern can be found here at Jeni's blog In Color Order

The lovely Susan, who blogs at PatchworkNplay sent me some gorgeous Christmas decorations:

They look very French, non? Thank you so much Susan.

I also went out to dinner one night with some girlfriends and ate these awesome profiteroles for dessert. I thought I should tell you.

Today we went to the annual Truffle Festival at Rognes. There were heaps of people, it was cold, I ate lots and that's all.

Just kidding, those pictures will be up next. Hope your last week isn't too hectic!

Enjoy the Journey

2011-12-13T10:23:00.002+01:00

Sometimes I get so focussed on what I need to get finished that I forget to enjoy myself along the way.

I made this little embroidery to remind me to take a chill pill and be present.

To me the journey is not just about achieving dreams or goals, but also about those myriad little tasks that must be done every day, especially when raising little children. I'm trying to find the fun and beauty in these things too, instead of wishing them done already. I can't afford to wish any time away. Remember that baby I had the other day? Well he's almost five months old and ready to start eating solids. Scary.

This started with some taupe French linen. I then raided my yellow scrap bin and used a double sided fusible to attach the rounded squares.

I made a template for the squares with an opaque milk bottle

The script came next - I used Kirsty kootoyoo's modified stem stitch video. I need more practice judging my starting points so the letters look more natural (you can see this on my 'y's, should have continued the tail line right to the top of the letter). I probably should have used thinner floss too (I used all 6 strands which was hard going punching through the linen and square's fabric).

After the script I toyed with blanket stitching each square down, but it just looked too busy, even with yellow floss. I stuck to backstitch and I think it looks unified and just busy enough.

For the back I finished it off as per this tutorial. I didn't have any double-sided tape in the house though, so it's just sitting there under it's own pressure at the moment.

I will go back and tape it eventually as the fabric is quite bulky with the yellow squares and needs some help staying put.

This piece took me a bit longer to finish than planned (I had originally wanted to enter it in the Celebrate Colour competition), but I followed my own advice and completed it in my own time, enjoying every stitch.

Have a great week everyone - remember to enjoy yourselves!

Oh crap, it's only 18 days 'til Christmas

2011-12-07T23:23:00.001+01:00

Can someone please explain to me how it can almost be Christmas again?

I'm sure it was Christmas just the other day.

I do love me some Christmas, so I won't complain too much.

We have already trimmed the tree and put up decorations.

Stripy monkey is also back, I can't imagine our tree without him now.

And heaven help me because the papillotes are back in the supermarkets. I bought a big bag of the cheaper variety to display around the house.

Papillotes are sweets/candies wrapped in shiny wrappers - they're usually chocolate-coated something, but occasionally can be fruit jellies. They also come with a little note (a joke or a fun fact), similar to Christmas crackers.

This vase display lasted 15 mins on the dining table before the 2 yr old found it and gobbled two, right before dinner. Now they live up high in the china cabinet.

The bag had two papillote varieties, a strawberry centre with dark chocolate coating and a caramel praline centre with a milk chocolate coating. Don't ask me how I know this.

I also bought a smaller bag that cost twice as much - these high end papillotes will be part of my kids' teachers' Christmas gifts.

Three varieties of ganash filling with dark chocolate coatings. Too classy for jokes, these ones come with an inspirational saying on their note.

That papillote came that way. Oh, alright, it was me. But it wasn't just gratuitous, random eating - I was conducting quality control on behalf of the teachers.

Now, the eclair which I scarfed about 30 seconds after taking this photo, that was gratuitous, random eating. And it was GOOD.

Hey, I finished my stitching. Now I just need to wrangle it into a hoop for displaying. Will have some close ups once I've made her pretty.

One little brag before I go - I've finished all my Christmas shopping. I did it all on line and it is such a relief to have it done. I don't know what I'm going to do without Amazon.fr when I go home.

Good luck with all your preparations for the holidays. Don't forget the chocolate!

Off to Roussillon, err, Lourmarin

2011-11-29T11:59:00.001+01:00

It's voting time again over at Rachel's for the Stiched in Color Celebrate Color competition.

My tumbler quilt made it through to the final round, as did my lovely friend Eva's Fall Colour Pillow. There are plenty of things to oggle in the four categories - please do click through and vote for those that take your fancy!

The other weekend we were all set to take a drive deep into the Luberon Valley when we encountered the main road in blocked off at Lourmarin. Now, in France there are roads blocked off (which everyone ignores and drives around the signs) and there are Roads Blocked Off. Given that people, actual French people, were turning around, we thought maybe this was the real deal.

Then we realised the detour would add somewhere between 30 - 45 mins onto our drive. It was close to lunch time, four children in the car, catastrophe looming...the mister and I could see the Château de Lourmarin in the rear view mirror which we still hadn't visited. So Lourmarin it was.

The castle was built in the 15th and 16th centuries (on the ruins of a 12th century fortress) and all the rooms are decorated with fancy castle trappings from the 15th to 19th centuries.

No photos allowed inside again - I missed the sign and got in trouble for clicking away willy-nilly in the kitchen. Oops.

Inside this tall tower:

Was the most amazing staircase:

I declared the stairs not technically inside. I guess they agreed because no one told me off.

Each stair is like a stone fan blade that sits on top of the previous - as they stack to form the staircase and the groovy spiral the goes up the centre. Here: some super cool person wrote a paper on it and they put the diagrams on the wall.

Nerds rock.

Other good things about the castle: they have a treasure hunt questionnaire to keep the kids interested as you go from room to room, plus you get discounted entry to other attractions in the area if you hold on to your tickets. Excellent.

After galavanting around the castle we had a spot of lunch in the town and then had a look around. Even though we'd been to Lourmarin before, there's always something new to be found.

The drive home was particularly lovely with bright autumn sunshine all about.

I've never seen artichokes growing before (I've lead a sheltered existence).

Aren't they pretty?

Cannot be tamed*:

As for today, I am still contemplating this stitcherisation. Don't think it will turn out as planned, but that might not be such a bad thing:

I guess we'll see in the end.

* Not really. I obeyed the sign and found a different artichoke field to stomp around in. Miley Cyrus would be ashamed.

Renoir and Biot

2011-11-24T12:22:00.003+01:00

I know I'm jumping around a bit here, but can I take you back to Antibes?

Our second day there we journeyed a little further afield to the Musée Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer, followed by an afternoon in the town of Biot (pronounced Bee-ot). Both are only about a 20 min drive to the north of Antibes.

Farmhouse in the grounds at the Musée Renoir

The Musée was Renoir's home from 1907 until his death in 1919. He lived there with his wife and three sons, and various other artist friends who passed through. You can see works (paintings and sculptures) from Renoir and his mates, as well as his preserved studio.

The back's a bit boring.

Much nicer from the front.

There was some film footage on a television in one of the rooms, showing Renoir in his 70s, painting. He was wheelchair bound with severe arthritis by then, his hand completely bent over, finger-tips to wrist. But he still went on working. I loved that he would ask his house maids to strip off and model for him, perhaps this explains his work ethic.

The house is set in a lovely old olive grove with trees that are who knows how many hundreds of years old. The kids loved it and could run around playing while the mister and I took turns at going through the house.

Out the front of the maison is a formal orange grove, complete with sculpture.

In a few places around the grounds they've set up Renoir's paintings overlooking the views he used to create them. I thought this was a brilliant idea - it felt pretty special to be standing on the same earth, looking at same vista that the old fella himself had painted.

After a lovely morning we headed to nearby Biot, which is well known for its glass (there is a factory you can tour there, we didn't get around to it).

First things first: lunch. Then a bit of a wander. We found a nice playground up in the old part of town and I skulked off to take some pictures.

Cool mosaic map in the old town.

Cobblestones galore

A lovely splash of colour here

And there

Street art

You can see why we never made it to the glass tour. This is the wrong phase of my life to be buying glass anyway.

Back to the present, I have been doing some hand sewing. This is for a friend:

And today I am doing a little stitching for myself (toddler permitting):

Hope you're all having a great week.

City Lights

2011-11-20T10:02:00.000+01:00

We ventured out into Aix-en-Provence on Friday night for dinner with friends.

It has been so mild here this autumn - this time last year it snowed in our village. We don't even need gloves at the moment which makes taking pictures so much easier.

We were pleasantly surprised to see all the Christmas lights up and the majority of them lit.

The lights on the Rotonde fountain at the top of Cours Mirabeau were particularly gorgeous.

And a few of the little stores for the Christmas market along the Cours were open.

We were surprised to see projected images on the wall behind the Albertas Fountain at midnight.

What's all this about then?

Stopped to have a drool at the macaroon shop's displays.

And then ended the night with a few lazy mojitos. Mmm.

Hope you've all had a great weekend too!

Tumbler quilt

2011-11-16T18:53:00.000+01:00

Imaginative title, isn't it. I'm a bit tired today, sorry.

This is the quilt I made from tumbler blocks from my Accuquilt Go! baby which I was lucky enough to win over at A Spoonful of Sugar.

I had a bunch of largish Innocent Crush scraps that I wanted to do something with and these blocks turned out to be just the ticket.

A night to crank them all out and then another two (long) nights to sew them all together.

After a great deal of consideration as to how I wanted the colours to work together.

I had to pad it out with some Joel Dewberry Heirloom yellows as my Innocent Crush scraps were lacking in that area. A little Loulouthi blue snuck in there too (I love how well all of AMH's collections play together) :

Then there was a looooong delay as I considered how I wanted to quilt it. I really liked other tumbler block quilts where the quilting zig-zagged following the seams, but knew it wasn't what I wanted for this one. I wanted something that worked with the design as a whole, rather than with the individual pieces.

So after much umming and ahhing and sketching I went with what I called kapow quilting.

So named because it reminds me of cartoon panels whenever a character gets punched. Kapow!

I won't lie, it was a pain in the butt pivoting the quilt at the end of each point - no way I'd use this design for anything bigger than a baby quilt.

The backing continues the Anna Maria Horner theme with a Good Folks flannel in raspberry. Mmm.

Binding is scrappy so that it blends in better with the outer rows of the quilt - I wasn't looking for a frame effect.

I really love the way it turned out and will be more than a little sad when I give this away to someone (I think it's more a little girl quilt).

Final measurements are 36 x 40 inches.

I've entered this in the final month of Stitched in Color's Celebrate Colour competition. Still some time - have you got your entry in?

Celebrate Colour entry details

A day in Antibes

2011-11-14T11:09:00.000+01:00

After our day in St Paul de Vence (see previous post) we found our accommodation in the heart of the old town of Antibes.

Antibes is half way between Nice and Cannes on the Mediterranean coast - just that descriptor alone makes me swoon. On top of this you'll find an enormous port, cobblestone streets and stone walls (ramparts) from the 1500s.

That morning we were up nice and early, thanks in part to the change back from Daylight Savings plus a two year old who was beyond excited to share a bedroom with his older brother and sister.

It was a good thing though, because I was up early enough to snap this on route to finding coffee and pastry for our brekky:

Also seen on my early morning stroll, the Cathédrale dAntibes:

The stunning coastline:

We had a slow start that morning. The mister was recovering from his man cold, so while he sobbed quietly on the couch I took my daughter down to the Marché Provençal to shop for lunch supplies.

A very nicely turned out French lady who got in the way of my camera.

We were distracted by these (we had the salted butter caramel ones):

But came home with plenty of baguette, ham, tomatoes, figs and this:

That darn cheese man was just so charming. And we fell for it.

After lunch and afternoon sleeps for the little kids, we strolled 300m down the road to visit the Musée Picasso, housed in the Château Grimaldi. Picasso set up shop here from July to December 1946 and the museum shows some of his paintings, sculptures and ceramics, as well as art from many other artists. (No photos allowed inside unfortunately.)

Musée Picasso

So, Picasso. What do we all think? I really like some of his pieces, but not much of his art on display at Musée Picasso spoke to me. Except maybe to say 'too busy looking at the view to paint properly'. And really, you couldn't blame him.

Out on the terrace there was a sculpture garden with a breathtaking view over the ocean. Some of the sculptures we saw included this cute little fella:

La Sérénissime by Jean Amado, 1986

This one spoke to the civil engineer in me (unfortunately I didn't get the details of the creator, sorry):

This one made me laugh. *facepalm*

La Forêt by Germaine Richier, 1946

This one in the courtyard was inspired by Picasso:

À ma jolie. Hommage à Picasso by Arman, 1982. Picasso dug guitars.

After our date with Picasso I took the baby for a walk along the stone ramparts enclosing the port.

Dusk through one of the rampart arches

There were lots of super expensive boats about:

Definitely not part of the 99%

At the end of the ramparts on Bastion Sainte-Jaume is a sculpture called La Grande Nomade by Jaume Plensa. It depicts an enormous man sitting, holding his knees to his chest while looking out to sea.

The entire figure is made from white letters and is pretty cool, I think.

One last look across the port towards Fort Carré:

And one last photo for the day (for Keith):

The next day we visited the village of Biot. More on that next time.

Have a great week everyone!

St Paul de Vence

2011-11-10T18:12:00.000+01:00

I mentioned we recently spent a long weekend in Antibes on the French Riviera. On our way there we stopped for the afternoon in St Paul, located in the Riviera hinterland.

St Paul has a beautiful walled old city (founded in the 9th century) perched high on a hilltop with gorgeous views.

There was plenty of this sort of stuff to walk around and admire:

Of course there was a church:

And this building is a dungeon, all that remains of the 9th century Chateau de St Paul.

St Paul is renowned for being a bit of an artist hang out (as well as being popular with writers and actors). We loved that there were sculptures on many different streets.

There were also tons of art shops with some stunning and kinda weird paintings/sculptures/etc. No photos of those to show you due to all the 'photography prohibited' signs in their windows. The sweet shop had no such sign though, so here you go:

So there you go - St Paul de Vence. Very nice, you should go there.

Next up: Antibes.

Blogapalooza Redux

2011-11-06T19:24:00.000+01:00

It's been a dark and rainy weekend here in Provence. My two favourite Texan expats lifted the gloominess by organising another Blogazpalooza get together for Saturday.

Last time we met in Aix-en-Provence, this time at Mamma Corsica's in Avignon.

We had a great time chatting about blogging and all the joys and annoyances of living overseas.

Bringing Sexy Back: counterclockwise from the right:
Aidan (with my bub) from Conjugating Irregular Verbs
Sara Louise from Le Petit Village
Samantha from Love, Life and Living in France
Piglet (with her gorgeous Petite Piglet) from Piglet in France
B from Is there such a Thing as too much Cheese
Sarah from St Bloggie de Riviere
we were also joined (after this photo was taken) by Ameena from Mummy in Provence

And because there wasn't a man in sight this time (save the baby) we could freely discuss whose husband likes to dance about the house nude and whose has a strange penchant for teabags.

I will take it to the grave.

The restaurant was very salt-of-the-earth; plenty of bits and bobs hanging from the walls and rafters.

We were the only ones there which meant we could stretch out and didn't have to keep our cackling in check. Just as well as the baby decided to exercise his lungs just before his nap (while Samantha was sharing the super romantic story of how she came to marry her French husband).

Corsican flag on the wall.

The food was similarly honest, as Corsican fare is renowned for.

I started with the charcuterie plate:

And a few of us finished with the very tasty lemon ricotta cheesecake-like dessert:

Delish! Thank you ladies for a bright spot in an otherwise sunless weekend.

In closing, a question. If someone should happen to spend an entire day in their pyjamas, does one have to have another shower before going back to bed? Just asking.

Once I had a secret love...

2011-11-02T22:02:00.000+01:00

Just got back from four days at the French Riviera where the sun shone and it was a lovely 20 degrees (70℉) every day. Yep, it was the pits I tell you.

While I fix up the photos, I wanted to tell you about two fab things we got to do while my folks were here last month.

First: Taking advantage of free babysitting, I dragged the mister to see George Michael when he was playing in Marseille.

When I was 14 I had the biggest crush on George. Many a hot, hormonal tear was shed on my pillow, my Walkman clutched to my aching, undeveloped chest. I knew, absolutely knew, we would fall in deep, irrevocable, stubbly love if only we could just meet.

Random tangent (or dare I say red herring): I named my first pet fish George. This is a stock photo as my George suffered an early, tragic and senseless death from shock when I accidentally knocked an ABBA cassette into his bowl.

But back to the story. Yes, I can hear you all saying that George is 11 years older than me, gay and hates photography. I'm not interested in problems, people, only solutions.

It was a fantastic concert. Dodgy personal goings-on aside, George's voice is still magnificent and he puts on a great show. My only wish would've been for a few more dance tunes, but it looks like his next album should give me what I want:

I foresee much dancing around my living room in 2012.

Second: A great meal at Le Pigonnet restaurant (music warning if you're reading at work) in Aix-en-Provence. The restaurant is set in the beautiful formal gardens of the hotel.

The food was fantastic, as you'd expect.

Appetisers brought out with our apéritif. Yummo.

Avert your eyes feminists - check out the menu the ladies were given (no prices):

Versus the version given to the guys:

Quaint, huh? In a Betty Draper kind of way.

The wine, the meal, the ambiance - the whole thing was wonderful.

Le Pigonnet is a lovely restaurant if you're looking for something a little more formal and flash - we've only eaten here twice, but it gets our recommendation.

That's all I've got for now - will have more on our recent travels soon. Hope you're all having a great week. If not perhaps this George video will cheer you up.

Points of interest:
1. Wicked facial hair.
2. Two innocent cans of hairspray gave their lives to create that fringe. It just. doesn't. move.
3. George clones. Surely they wouldn't miss just one?

Have a dance around your living room for me!

With Love from Finland

2011-10-26T23:03:00.000+02:00

Hey bloggers! Do you remember when someone left the very first comment on your blog? Wasn't it just amazing and weird and awesome all rolled into one?

I had no idea how fantastic the interaction through blogging could be, and for me it all started with a comment from the lovely Eva at Eisblumen. She sure made me happy that day.

Eva is German, living in Finland, blogging in English. Got that? She is not only an all-round sweetheart, she's also a wicked seamstress. Look at what she sent for the baby:

A gorgeous flannel hooded jacket - perfect for the fall season here in southern France.

I absolutely adore the Anna Maria Horner flannel on the inside:

And how it ties in with the button loops and topstitching.

Sure he looks grumpy. He's just realised he's not old enough to eat any of this:

Check it out, Finnish sweets. So far I am close to polishing off the blue/purple block: teeny crunchy balls of liquorice in milk chocolate. Finland has been holding out on us all.

Aren't these lollies so pretty? They are also almost gone, between me and occasionally using them to bribe my children.

Best of all, Eva sent this book which is telling me everything I need to know about Finland. (Oh, and the kids too).

I have to share this TV advert from home which shows why Australians need to read this book.

Dear Finland. Sorry about that. Love Australia. x x

The kids are loving the nicky-nar-nu cartoons about saunas:

I'm dreaming about Scandinavian men who apparently can all cook like this:

But best of all I am loving the Finnish sense of humour:

I think Finns and Australians would get along just fine. Thank you, Eva!

Spray Basting and Binding with Backing Tutorial

2011-10-20T14:06:00.000+02:00

A while ago I made this coffee table mat whilst on a half-square triangle jaunt:

I really love the colours but the reality of living with a 2 year old means it spends a lot of its time here:

I considered selling the toddler to a wandering band of gypsies, but in the interests of their coffee table mats I decided to sew something with ties instead.

I used two new-to-me techniques as I made this: spray basting and binding the mat with its own backing (instead of sewing on a separate binding). I'm now going to bore you all by documenting it for my future reference, or for anyone else with a 2 yr old who likes undressing tables. (I won't be offended if you scroll away.)

A friend who moved back to Australia gave me this half-full can of spray baste, a popular brand used worldwide. I really, really (really) liked it - it's super quick and easy and didn't give my machine any problems. Drawback: it ain't cheap.

The thing to remember is to always spray it on the batting, not on the fabric.

Here I've put the batting down first, then positioned the quilt top on top. Once happy with the layout, you just peel half of the top back, spray the batting, then smooth the top back down. Lift the other half of the top and repeat.

That's right baby, I iron my seams open. Can you handle that?

I then cut my batting back and placed the two layers on the backing.

Again it's a matter of peeling the top layers back, spraying the batting and smoothing it back down again.

And here it is all basted:

If this were a bigger quilt I would have taped my backing to the floor and laid out the quilt sandwich as normal before lifting and spraying each level in turn, from back to top. As this is so small and I wanted to trim the batting to the top first, I did it the other way around.

Sore brain? Let's move on to the quilting:

Easy peasy; no safety pins to move or accidentally sew over.

After quilting I used my ruler to trim the backing to 2 inches longer than the top on all four sides. This overhang gets folded over to the front to make your binding. While I still prefer the look of a separate binding on the back, for something like a table runner where you never see the other side, this technique is handy.

To prep your corners you fold the tip of the backing to the tip of your top (try saying that three times):

Then snip on your fold line:

Fold it back up again, so the fold is on the tip of your top and press. (I have marked the underlying top's position in removable ink to show what I mean).

See how the backing is lined up with my cutting board lines - that way you can make sure you get a true 45 degree angle - this makes your edges come together nicely at the corner (a tighter mitre, one might say).

Then you iron the binding in half on itself all the way around:

And finally, fold it up again onto the quilt top, enclosing the raw edges, press and pin in place:

Add in your ties (I marked their edges in pen so I could do some extra yank-resistant backstitching there). I would also hand sew the 45 degree edges of the corners together at this stage (not shown below, premature photo, sorry):

Then machine sew the whole thing down, nice and quick:

You're done, yippee! Tie it on. Double bows if necessary. Feel smug that you still have enough wits to outsmart a 2 year old.

This is the part where I now confess that I don't like my new table topper. Well, I like it, I just don't like it there. It was made to match this one, but with the neutral couch I think the mostly neutral mat is too blah - I need more colour. So I guess I will have to make another one at some stage (hence this mini tutorial).

But that can wait because I've already moved onto this: scrap tumbler blocks from the Go! Baby.

I just need to figure out how I'm going to quilt it.

Gorgeous Gordes

2011-10-04T15:08:00.000+02:00

Firstly, a big thank you to those who popped over to see Rachel's Celebrate Colour competition (and virtual smooches for those who voted for me). I didn't make the top two, but there is still two months of competition to go - why not whip something up and enter it? The prizes are génial!

My parents are visiting us at the moment and I took them to Gordes, easily one of the prettiest villages in the Luberon Valley, on Thursday.

Gordes is a gorgeous medieval hilltop village with stunning views:

And cobblestones (or calades [streets paved with river stones] as they are known in Provence) worn smooth with age:

Everywhere you will find picturesque alleys like this:

Where the local bakery looks like this:

And you stumble upon treasures like this:

Can you imagine spending your winter in this sunroom, overlooking the Valley?

Or buying some veg here:

Gorgeous doorways:

Plenty of charismatic restaurants off the main square:

This medieval chateau (built 1030s) lies at the heart of the village and now houses the Mairie (Town Hall), the tourist bureau and a small museum dedicated to Pol Mara, a Flemish artist (and past resident of Gordes).

Within the walls it was also a centre for resistance activity in WWII:

Looking out from the Chateau - you can see the restaurant from the photo above on the left. We had a coffee there solely so the toddler could run around the square and leave us in peace. If you do visit - please order tea. The coffee is terrible.

Just near the chateau is Espace Simiane. Originally built as a hospital in the early 1700s, I'm not sure what the building houses now, but the gardens are beautiful and open to the public.

And of course it wouldn't be a Bonjour post without a visit to the local church:

The church of St Firmin. I'm not sure who St Firmin was when he was home lounging on the couch in his underwear, but the church was full of beautiful colour and pattern.

Joseph and his Son:

I loved the pattern on the edge of his robe:

A poignant reminder that our time on this earth is fleeting - use it wisely.

So that was Gordes - not for the faint of heart in summer (heat and dirty, stinkin' tourists) but definitely a place to visit if you find yourself in Provence.

Celebrate Colour Voting

2011-09-28T15:20:00.001+02:00

Wheeee - My very yellow pillow made the final selection of Stitched in Color's September round of the Celebrate Colour competition.

If you have a moment, why not click through and spend 5 minutes voting for your favourites in the four categories. Voting closes tomorrow (Thursday) at midnight (American EST).

More votes means more support for Rachel, who's done such a fab job pulling this competition together. Thanks Rachel!

Old Yeller

2011-09-22T13:50:00.000+02:00

Yep, I dang done finished that darn cushion. Seemed to take forever.

I'd been thinking about making this for a while, ever since I saw this picture in Maison Créative. The wall art is made from yellow cardboard; I liked the hexagons and also wanted to mimic how the shadows changed the yellow by using different fabrics.

It finally took the deadline for Rachel's Celebrate ~~Color~~ Colour (see, doesn't that look better) competition to get me off my backside and do it.

There is piping and the quilting is fairly heavy - hexagon spirals made with my walking foot (still not brave enough to try free motion).

The back has an envelope style closure with an extra row of triangles. Nice and simple.

Would've been simpler if I hadn't done this:

Bottom panel sewn on back to front.

I don't know how I end up making silly mistakes like this. Thoughts must've wandered.

(Source: People magazine)

Umm. What?

Oh, right. So, I really like this cushion because it gives a nice bright pop of yellow to my couch and goes so well with my other handmade covers.

Why you little...

Nothing a nice glass of rosé can't fix.

I'm just finishing off this little project...

...and then I get to pull my Go! Baby out of its box. Yay! Hope you're all having a great week!

Bits and Bobs

2011-09-19T15:48:00.000+02:00

Howdy everyone! Just popping in to pass on a few links; some important, some more for fun.

If you've been following the news you'll know Texas is in a spot of trouble at the moment. They always say Texans do it bigger, and unfortunately these brushfires are no exception.

A site with some great t-shirts to support the relief effort can be found here (Thanks Aidan for the link).

And if you are in the US and one of my quilty-type readers, quilt donations for those who have lost everything are being organised through the Modern Day Quilts blog.

I forgot to mention last month that my bunting lantern tutorial made it into Plumetis online magazine. I was so happy to discover this beautiful little French e-zine - you can find it and their blog over here.

And finally, I wanted to link up to Susan's fabric party over at PatchworknPlay (sorry I'm a bit late Suz).

I don't really have a favourite fabric, I love 'em all (this is my problem). But I'll show you (again) one of my favourite French fabrics that I've bought since arriving here:

Found at the Aix-en-Provence weekend market, this light canvas is 100% cotton and was a steal at 10€/m. It's very girly which is unusual for my tastes and probably explains why I can't think of what to do with it. Other than look at it and stroke it occasionally.

More French fabric that needs to be sewn (I know what I'm doing with these though):

For those with a fabric fetish, pop over to Susan's for a look around!

Next post: that darn yellow cushion.

Afternoon in Aix

2011-09-12T00:01:00.001+02:00

Saturday we called in the babysitter so that the mister, the baby and I could have lunch together in Aix-en-Provence.

It always makes me smile to think back to the days when we only had one child and how hard we thought it was to go anywhere and do anything. Ha. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Now we have four kids and going out with just one, a newborn (who'd rather sleep than run in front of cars) at that, is sooo easy. Pram? check. Change bag? check. Boobs? check. Let's go!

I took my boys to the café/restaurant where Susan, her hubby and I had great coffee the week before the baby was born. The meals were delicious, although more expensive than I'd expected.

I had the slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with cous-cous:

The mister had duck with a goat's cheese and fig filo and asian salad.

The baby, predictably, had milk. Again.

Meal envy: I had it. Mine was great but his was amazing.

But I won the dessert round with my tarte au citron:

After the meal we went for little wander, as we are wont to do.

Just around the corner was the Hôtel de Cormis:

The door is from the late 17th century:

In fact doorways seemed to jump out at me everywhere.

Not to mention all these interesting keyholes, door knockers and knobs.

Hôtel de Theron, 1735.

Ah yes. Knockers and knobs.

A bit of window shopping:

Yikes.

Evil biscuit shop with gravitational pull.

Scary mannequin.

The mister was holding the baby against his chest as we headed back to the car. I walked about 5m behind him and could see the facial expressions of those walking past him.

A man with a baby trumps a man with a puppy any day. The mister could've come home with a dozen hot French women and at least one gay couple.

Just as well the mister wasn't paying any attention; it would've been hard explaining that to the babysitter.

La Rentrée, Again

2011-09-08T02:22:00.000+02:00

It's back to school again, this summer has gone far too quickly for my liking. At least we're still enjoying gorgeous weather.

We had our neighbours around to meet the new baby. I thought about baking something for about, oh, 3.7 seconds, before I headed down to our local patisserie:

There's no way I can compete with this:

The baby also got another lovely package in the mail this week:

Pages from an old children's book = clever wrapping

Some darling handmade items all the way from home.

Thank you so much Michelle.

Honestly, could they be any cuter? Look at those teeny weeny carrots.

And they're reversible.

I was lucky enough to win the Accuquilt giveaway on Lisa and Sarah's blog A Spoonful of Sugar a few weeks ago - my loot arrived this week as well:

I'm being strong and not opening the box until I finish off my current little project:

A new cushion cover. A very yellow cushion cover.

And because we haven't had any French music for a while, here's a song by Mika I'm hearing everywhere this end-of-summer. I challenge you not to dance around your living room as you listen.

The lady in red is a well known French actress, Fanny Ardent. She's gorgeous and has that French je ne sais quoi by the bucketload.

I also love the grey haired, bearded character you first see shaving. He has some banging dance moves; the hips don't lie.

Hope you're all having a great week!

P.S. For those who like to watch men speaking French, here's a link to a Mika introducing the song. He's as cute as a button.

Little Projects

2011-08-30T01:29:00.000+02:00

We're enjoying gorgeous warm weather here in Provence this final week of holidays before the kids head back to school.

Plenty to see around the garden.

No idea what this is, but I love the colour.

Sadly, these will go to waste. I'm having enough trouble preserving my sanity, let alone my olives.

I've been working on some little projects, perfect for those small pockets of spare time I find every now and then.

These newborn pants are about 30 minutes to sew. My 30 minutes had to be spaced throughout a whole day, but I got them done in the end. You can find the tutorial here at Made by Rae.

Then I decided to make my darling daughter some skirts. This first one I actually made before the baby came, but it's a fab little tutorial which you can find here at Two Little Banshees.

I asked my daughter to wear this for me today and she tried to bribe me into letting her watch more television in exchange for modelling services. She gets a high-five for creativity but like the US, I don't negotiate with terrorists, so I took this photo when she wasn't paying attention.

Sewn with an on-sale pillowcase, should've run the stripes vertically and made the skirt shorter. Not my best effort.

Next skirt - I tried this great little tutorial over at Dana's blog, Made. Thoroughly recommended.

The bias binding adds such a nice touch.

The elephant came first - I made him about two years ago. I bought the pattern for it at Two Little Banshees; you can find it here.

Some behind-the-scenes photos that show my brilliant mothering skills.

The skirt had to be pinned on the shutters three times as my little assistant kept taking it down for me.

So I convinced my assistant to pick some lavender instead. Turns out the lavender can pull back.

Bad mother. I took the photo first, rescued the child second. But I promise he wasn't crying, just surprised.

Ahem. So back to the sewing. I made another one of Dana's skirts, this time with the double layers.

My model was more agreeable this time round.

I also managed to finish the baby's quilt. The top and back were pieced before he was born, quilting was very simple - a single line on all the white sashing. Scrappy binding of the darker (blue and green) fabrics only.

The back was pieced so that the white sashing corresponded with sashing on the front.

I had every intention of taking some nice arty-farty photos after this, but the baby started yelling and my little helper reappeared.

Soon after taking this one I detected they'd both crapped themselves. Sigh, photo shoot over.

"You think this is bad, wait 'til you start eating solids."

One day at a time, Kirsty. One day at a time.

Breaking News: Hard to get things done with a newborn in the house.

2011-08-14T14:19:00.000+02:00

Just stating the obvious in case anyone is wondering why I've been such a terrible blogger so far this month.

But one of the (many) benefits of a newborn is:

PRESENTS!

Divine hand crocheted blanket (thank you Maaike)

Finest Italian fashion (bisous Blandina)

Moda the dog; the newest addition to the family (merci Sarah)

Wise words (relatives) and a little something just for me, me, me (the Texan connection: Aidan and Sara Louise)

A little bit of sewing to machine quilt the baby's blanket.

It's not going to bind itself, kid, hop to it.

Plenty of Patty Young's Sanctuary line, with a bit of Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow and a navy Essex Linen/Cotton blend. Sashed with Kona White.

Hope you've all had a great weekend. Will continue to post when I can, but only if I have something interesting to say!

Oh Sleep, Sleep, Wherefore Art Thou Sleep?

2011-07-31T22:24:00.000+02:00

Firstly, thank you so much for all your well wishes on the arrival of the baby - you guys are the greatest!

We are slowly getting ourselves into a bit of a routine; a very low key one that involves a lot of catnaps (and I'm talking about me here, not the baby).

Here he is chilling out on the pixelated quilt because I still haven't finished his yet, poor fourth child. It should be finished soon enough as I found a little time to work on it this weekend (visiting relatives took the bigger kids off our hands).

Otherwise, we have been enjoying some luverly flowers (courtesy of my parents):

And the whole clan took the baby on his first tour of the vineyard down the road from our house:

The vines were well into producing this year's harvest:

And there were plenty of other things for the kids to explore.

I love this view over our village from the end of our road:

Hope you've all had a great weekend with lots of lovely long sleeps. Bonne semaine!

So I huffed and I puffed...

2011-07-26T20:44:00.001+02:00

And here he is:

The little guy was finally born on Wednesday afternoon after a Tuesday that had many a contraction but sadly no action.

But who cares about the lead up - all that matters is that on Wednesday the mister handed me a crying, crimson, cross-eyed bundle that looked like a Himalayan sherpa garden gnome and I fell deeply in love.

Aw, I'm sorry little man, but you were kinda funny looking.

The French hospital experience had its differences, but nothing too bizarre. Although let me say one thing (look away ladies who haven't yet had children) - stitches without a local anaesthetic beforehand is just not on.

As this baby wasn't my first (by a long shot) I could elect to go home after three days, so it was a quick stay.

The light was particularly lovely in my room:

And I really dug the wallpaper:

And the nice nun who brought me some free chocolates from Puyricard's amazing chocolatier:

I'll be in trouble when the mister sees this as I failed to mention these to him. Nom nom nom.

And I managed to do a bit more sewing on this @#$% thing.

I've just realised it's almost been a year since I started this project. *sob*

But mainly I lay around with a dopey look on my face and marvelled at the fact I had another baby in my arms.

And gave thanks that I will never, ever have to give birth again. Phew.

Seeking Susan. But not Desperately, because that'd be weird.

2011-07-15T21:45:00.000+02:00

Today was a great day. I didn't have to push out a baby, plus I got to meet another blogging friend in the flesh. This time it was the wonderful Susan from Australia who blogs at PatchworkNPlay.

Susan and her husband have been enjoying a fantastic trip through Spain and France and I was really chuffed they took time out to meet up with me in Aix-en-Provence this morning.

I arrived in town a little early, both to beat the traffic (summer gets a little crazy in Aix) and to have a little wander around before hand. You know how I love a wander.

The sales (les soldes) are on in Aix at the moment (held in July and January). I took this pic for the mister.

I wandered through a few flower stalls near L'Eglise de la Madeleine:

Took a quiet moment in L'Eglise du Saint-Esprit on the Rue Espariat:

Also wandered by the Hermes store. Check out the handbag collage:

Thread reels!

You can see the Palais de Justice reflected in the upper part of the window.

Susan rang before I did anything stupid (like actually go into the Hermes store) and we met up at the Tourism Office.

I love how the informal, almost confessional style of blogs means you feel you know the blogger as soon as you start talking. Susan and I sure did a lot of that (her hubby was very understanding), and she is just as warm, open and happy as her blog suggests.

I took them to a new café I hadn't tried before purely on the reasoning that any establishment cooling it's rosé in an ancient fountain in their courtyard should be good.

We only had coffee, but it was declared a resounding success. Especially the café crème, always a risky order. You can receive anything from an espresso shot diluted with a finger of cold milk to a bucket of cow juice with a coffee bean waved over it.

Delish café crème, as close to an Australian flat white as I've ever had in France.

After our coffee and a fair bit of chatting I took Susan to my preferred French fabric shop, La Victoire.

We are the ones with heads.

Quite restrained we were, only a metre each. Susan was mindful of her baggage allowance and I'm trying hard not to let my stash overflow the (large) shelf on which it is currently housed.

It was a fantastic morning - it's always wonderful to hear Australian accents again and it was a real treat to meet Susan and P 'for reals'.

I hope you enjoyed your day in Aix and all the best for your trip home!

M Quilt

2011-07-13T19:44:00.000+02:00

At home, bun still firmly in oven. While I'm working on a quilt for the bun (nothing like leaving it to the last minute), here's a recent finish for a little girl born a few months ago now.

The whole quilt was inspired by the colours in backing material, a gift from Diana.

The squares were made from a variety of single colour prints in my stash, teamed with Robert Kaufman Essex Linen in Coral and Hot Pink. I also used some Kona Orange and plenty of White.

I quilted with three different colours of thread using the seams as guide lines. I was going to go random but ended up maintaining the same colour for each seam-set (ie inner square, inner border strips, outer border strips).

At first I thought I'd made a big mistake and should of gone with white thread, but the mister convinced me to stick with the colours. I think he's right.

It's a bit hard to differential between the colours above so here they are:

And the binding is Henna Garden in Brown.

Appliqué again, this time just the first letter of the little girl's name:

Final measurements: 40 in square (just over 1m square).

One Week To Go!

2011-07-10T12:00:00.000+02:00

Until Baby No 4's due date, that is.

Even after three children I still find this to be a little unbelievable, scary and exciting, all in one.

We took a drive last weekend on the hunt for lavender, as it was pretty much our last opportunity to do so (I'm glad we did it then as I am not interested in going anywhere this weekend).

We ended up at the small town of Simiane-la-Rotonde, one of the many charming medieval hilltop villages in the Luberon Valley. It just so happened that they were having a small medieval festival, so folks were in costume and there was a nice market on.

We bought some lavender honey - absolutely delicious. They also had rosemary honey which I'm kicking myself for not buying.

We walked all the way up to the top of the town, amongst the gorgeous old narrow streets. We had a bite of lunch and felt a bit sorry for the costumed waitresses (it was about 34 degrees and they were in full skirts, corsets, etc). The views from up top weren't too shabby:

We explored a few side streets on our way back down again:

Love the mix of stonework in this one - was it built like this or is the herringbone stonework a repair? Such questions weight heavily on my mind.

Inviting doorways

Lovey dovey window spotted by the daughter

Abandoned but still fascinating

Perhaps a visit for another day - The House of Dolls

On our way out of town we stopped at a few lavender fields where I took the shots in this post. This one looks back on Simiane-la-Rotonde:

It was a two hour drive home which was a bit long for me, but the baby head sitting on my bladder was greatly offset by seeing sights like this:

Another cliffhanging village (can't remember which) in the Luberon Valley; photo by the mister.

That will probably be our last foray into the Luberon until the start of autumn. The summer season is a little too hot and crazy with tourists when sight-seeing with young kids.

Hope you've all had a great weekend, wishing you the best for the week to come. I plan to post a few times this week on some quilting, but if you don't hear from me, you'll know what's happened!

Spring Trip: Switzerland

2011-07-06T12:30:00.000+02:00

At last, the final instalment of our Spring trip - hey, it's only July. Our last stop was Switzerland, where we stayed three days near the small town of Twann in the west, French-speaking region of the country.

We visited the nearby small town of La Neuveville.

La Neuveville has been around a while

The streets are pretty.

As are the windows.

Maison des Dragons - built 1757-1758 and named for the gargoyles on the roof corners.

We also strolled through Biel/Bienne which is located right on the border of French and German-speaking Switzerland (hence the double-barrelled name).

The historic town centre was small but delightful, and full of beautiful colours:

And interesting statues:

Nice codpiece in Place du Ring

Lady Justice wearing some funky sandals.

Lovely gilded balcony on the outskirts of the old town.

Our last day in Switzerland was rainy and overcast, so we looked for an indoor activity - what better than heading to a cheese museum/factory?

We visited a fromagerie in Bellelay where they make the well known Tête de Moine (or Monk's Head) cheese - so named due to it being first made by monks (and looking a bit like a monk's shaved head).

Domaine de Bellelay, Switzerland

Tête de Moines is a hard, cow's milk cheese that's been produced for over 800 years.
It has to be eaten in thin slivers to expose maximum surface area to the air and develop the cheese's yummy aromas/flavours.

This used to be done by scraping slices of cheese off the large rounds with a knife, like these two jolly monks below.

Frankly, this was a pain in the ass way of eating cheese, and in 1982 a clever fellow invented the Girolle:

A revolution in cheese eating.

This made it super easy to cut petal-like slivers of cheese (rosettes) and doubled as a storage container when the plastic or glass lid was fitted.

More than 2 million of these suckers have been sold and sales of Tête de Moine have hugely increased, proving the human race really is a bunch of lazy cheese eaters.

At Domaine de Bellelay we watched an interesting film on how the cheese is made and then took a tour of their small (but informative) museum. I learned a lot about cow udders.

The best part was of course the taste test at the end. You can see the pretty rosettes the Girolle produces here:

Tête de Moine, best with a dry white. Yum.

Well, here endeth the Spring Tour of 2011. For those new to the blog looking for the other travel posts from our trip, here they are in one spot:

Travelling Barcelona

Lazy summer days.

2011-07-01T10:05:00.000+02:00

Not a great deal going on around here but I still seem to be out of time. How does that happen?

Could be due to the weather (it's been pretty hot, lovely when you aren't a whale) and of course the fact it's 17 days until baby makes his debut. If he's on time.

I did find some time over the past few days to put Bloom's covered journal tutorial to good use again.

I made some small versions of these for Christmas gifts; these three larger versions are for the kids' teachers as today is the last day of school.

I chose the pens first and then found coordinating fabrics - much easier than doing it the other way around.

As with the pencil cases, it was great fun choosing outer and inner fabrics to match. Do I need to get out more?

I also did a bit of quilting earlier in the week, for a sweet baby girl. Now I just need to get on with the hand binding, not so much fun in hot weather.

Another weekend has rolled around, I just don't know where the time is going.

Have a great one (especially Maaike, who is getting married ~~this weekend~~ TODAY)!

Turquoise Table Runner

2011-06-25T10:21:00.000+02:00

Another (small) finish to start the weekend.

I had an idea to mix lots of neutrals with a pop of turquoise, and this is what eventuated. The blocks were 5 inches square, 4.5 inches once sewn together. I used a variety of turquoise scraps and yardage, including some lovely linen sent to me by Diana at Sticks and Bubbles. The turquoise edging is only 0.5 inch once joined. That didn't leave much room for slightly off seams (plus some of my neutral squares were linen which has a tendency to stretch) so I used thicker strips and then cut the blocks back to size, which worked nicely.

I'm quite fond of the back too, and can see the flip-side being used quite often. I used random 1.5, 2 and 2.5 inch strips and cut in some blocks of colour.

Favourite back detail is this little fella.

I quilted using organic straight lines across the neutral part of each block (running parallel with the stripes on the back). I love how when you're too lazy to rule straight quilting lines you can just call it 'organic'.

Binding was going to be scrappy until I decided to stick with this Michael Miller fabric, which I think ties it all together nicely.

I'm very happy with this one, I love it when they work out just as you planned.

Bon weekend, tout le monde!

Spring Trip: Bavaria

2011-06-22T18:17:00.000+02:00

Germany was the second last stop on our Spring Trip, where we spent three days in Munich before heading off to Switzerland.

I wish I had more photos to share but by this stage of the trip (after such big days in Italy and given I was 6.5 months pregnant) I was absolutely knackered. I had to be put to bed each afternoon with the toddler which seriously cut into my sightseeing. However it didn't stop me eating my own weight in pretzels, sausages and schnitzels.

The first morning we hit the English Gardens in the centre of Munich. These massive, beautifully maintained gardens have playgrounds, music, places to eat, running/riding tracks and, my personal favourite, nude sunbathers.

Do you know how hard it was not to take photos? So, so difficult.

Loudest whispers in the world: what you hear when your two eldest children suddenly realise they are walking amongst nude sunbathers.

We also found this rather cool permanent standing wave in the Gardens, complete with (fully clothed) surfers strutting their moves.

The next day we visited the Deutsches Museum, which I thoroughly recommend. I loved the photography and textile sections while the kids rated the toy, aircraft and watercraft sections as well as the special kids area.

On our way from Munich to Switzerland we stopped off at the very famous Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles near Füssen.

Hohenschwangau Castle

Hohenschwangau Castle was King Ludwig II's childhood home (while his dad, Maximilian II was ruler). Neuschwanstein Castle was the fantasy palace Ludwig built himself within spitting distance of Hohenschwangau when he became king.

Neuschwanstein Castle (the inspiration for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty's Palace) in the distance.

Unfortunately we missed the last tour of Neuschwanstein, but we did take the half hour tour through his boyhood home, which was as amazing as you would expect a castle to be.

Hohenschwangau is still privately owned by descendants of Ludwig II, and photography is prohibited within.

However there was still plenty of castle goodness to photograph around the grounds.

King Ludwig II's life story is a very interesting read. He blew Bavaria's budget on new castles, was sacked as a result (by reason of insanity) and then drowned mysteriously with his doctor several days after his deposition. Hmm, very odd indeed.

If you get the chance, don't hesitate to visit Bavaria. The beer is cold, the countryside is spectacular and the sunbathers are nude. I ask you, what more is there to life?

Fort Buoux

2011-06-21T00:17:00.000+02:00

Thank you for all the pencil case love after my last post. The cases were used in the raffles rather than sold on their own. A mother who'd won one was nice enough to ask after who'd made her prize and came across and thanked me, which really made my day.

We managed another small trip this weekend - a drive through the Luberon Valley on Sunday to visit Fort Buoux.

We were really hoping that the lavender would be in flower throughout the Valley, but it's still a bit early so we made do with medieval ruins.

This fortress was built in the 13th century and was used as a Protestant strong hold during the Religion Wars of the 16th century.

Eventually the fort was ordered to be dismantled in the 1660s by Louis XIV who was doing away with any rural structures that could be used by local resistance.

We saw house remnants:

Church remnants:

Grain silo remnants (which are thought to be considerably older than the fort):

You know your wide angle lens is good when you get your belly in the photo.

And lots of defensive works:

This fort is perched on a very high, sheer cliff top. It would have been a fantastic defensive position and a nightmare to try and attack. It is a bit of a hike up to the top (sensible shoes needed) and there are no railings of any sort on either the ruins or the massive cliff drop-offs that are all around.

Sheer cliff drops past the ruined wall.

Walkways with drop offs and no guard rails.

Needless to say, if you have children that you can't control DO NOT take them up here. Unless you are hoping to get rid of them.

The hike up is probably not suited to some 36 weeks pregnant women either, but I am fairly fit and took it easy. Plus I'd just seen the obstetrician on Saturday and he said I was in great shape and he couldn't see this baby coming early.

My ginormous belly shadow.

He also said I have a fine cervix, but I bet he says that to all the girls.

The views from the top are impressive. You can see Mt Ventoux on the horizon (with its white stone cap).

There is a hidden staircase you can use to descend, however the guide book advised against the elderly, pregnant women and small children using it. Given the mister is a ripe old 38 now, we ticked all three of those boxes so we came back down the way we came up.

I found some time for sewing as well this weekend, just something small as it seems to be all my pregnant brain can handle.

This is destined to be a table runner. Quilting is complete and I just need to bind it.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Just in case.

2011-06-17T19:05:00.000+02:00

Because you can never have too many pencil cases.

Well, that's a lie. Which is why I gave these away.

School is almost out here in southern France (we finish in 2 weeks) and both the big kids' schools are having what they call a kermesse.

We'd call it a school fête in Australia (to raise money for the next school year). Not sure what you 'Murricans call them (if you have them?)

These pencil cases are also based on the Noodlehead tutorial I mentioned previously. I used 18 cm (7 in) zippers for mine and went from there.

The best part is choosing the fabrics - coordinating case, lining and zipper - tons of fun (the sewing-inclined will know what I mean). The not-so-good part is sewing up 7 of the buggers.

Taking the photos was also a joy (as you can see, I took too many again).

I was tempted to go all patchworky on these, but quilting fabrics these days are such awesome little snippets of art on their own I didn't really see any need to. Plus I felt like they would appeal to more folks if they were kept on the simpler side. Some people just don't get patchwork.

Well, another Friday has rolled around, hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Into Austria: Ambras Castle

2011-06-14T12:51:00.000+02:00

More on the Spring Trip that never seems to end. I promise we're nearly there!

The city of Innsbruck, Austria

After our day in Verona and overnighting in Trento, Italy, we drove on to Munich. Our trip took us through Austria around lunchtime and thanks to our GPS we stumbled across this gorgeous place in Innsbruck.

Ambras Castle, or Schloss Ambras as it's known in German, was built by Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria in the 1560s for his wife Philippine.

There's a bit of a love story here as Philippine was untitled and not considered suitable for Ferdie II by his father, Ferdinand I. They were only allowed to marry on the condition it was kept secret and she become his morganatic wife (which meant she and their children had no claim to any of his titles or property).

But marry they did and he built this gorgeous castle for her, out of the public eye. They had four children together and although she died before him and he married again (a woman of suitable rank*), his wishes were to be buried alongside Philippine. *sigh*

The castle is set in beautiful grounds, both manicured gardens and more bush-type trails through the forest which the kids loved (especially the playground we found). There was also plenty of avian life around the grounds: ducks, water fowl, peacocks and hens and some honking big geese (which I avoided because they looked a bit feisty).

Also found - this grotto. I think Ferdinand II was a bit of a righteous dude as he had the grotto built to play drinking games with his guests.

There is a restaurant (shown below, next to converted stables) where we had a nice meal sitting outside, and also a museum which looked very interesting but unfortunately we didn't have time to explore.

Kids and grown ups of all ages would love this place - we would certainly recommend it.

*His second wife was Anne Catherine, his sister's daughter (i.e. his niece). Eww. They married when she was 16 and he was 53. Double eww.

Spring Baby Quilt

2011-06-09T17:58:00.000+02:00

I've had this one finished for a few weeks but with the travelling and rainy weather it took me a while to get around to photographing it.

This is an easy-peasy disappearing nine patch, nothing earth-changing, just a nice, bright quilt/playmat for a gorgeous spring baby.

For the back I went with a simple stripe design, and also appliqued the little miss' name on in white.

I used the alphabet from Bloom's Abracadabra pattern which I bought a while ago now.

Dear Ros, I hope you will forgive me for using your alphabet on a different quilt - I promise I will make yours soon!

I was very proud that I remembered to trace the letters back-to-front. Normally I forget that sort of thing.

An extra 'e' to practice on with scrap material before I tackled the quilt

Quilting was a grid style, either side of the 9 patch seams. Then I went back and filled in some areas along each edge with denser quilting.

The binding is a turquoise material which I can't for the life of me find the name of. I don't know what I did with the selvedge either. I swear I lose 5% brain capacity with every pregnancy.

The baby has a big sister so I thought I'd make a little something just for her. This little case is based on a tutorial I found on Noodlehead's rather awesome website. I just adjusted the size to suit the zipper I had on hand and then added a bit of embellishment.

I like that it's made from fabrics in the baby's quilt. I filled it with some hair clips and hair bands to complete the gift.

I'm looking forward to having some more cuddles with this baby when I drop these off.

Can never have too many baby cuddles.

The Long Weekend: Montpellier and Surrounds + Drama

2011-06-07T23:36:00.003+02:00

This weekend just gone was a four-day long weekend and we decided to head west towards Aidan's neck of the woods - Montpellier.

On Thursday the mister was supposed to go on an epic bike ride up Mt Ventoux, but it was cancelled due to rain. It poured - all day. An ominous start to the weekend.

Friday it was still raining, but at least cats and dogs weren't involved. We headed off towards Montpellier, our first stop being Pont du Gard.

Fireworks being set up for the long weekend. Not sure if they eventuated given the weather.

This Roman aqueduct was built around 50 AD to provide Nîmes with water and is thought to have operated until 900 AD.

Pont du Gard is a 50m section of an aqueduct which was 50km long and dropped 17m over this length. That's 17m over 50km for a duct built 2000 years ago, people. Phoar. *fans self with old engineering text book*

The Pont's setting is lovely - plenty of walking trails and wilderness, perfect for a day with hiking boots and a picnic. Assuming it's not bucketing down of course.

Graffiti - 1830s style.

We had a spot of lunch in a nearby town and came back to the car to find a leaking tyre. *sigh* On the plus side, it turned out to be a slow leak that we could pump up a few times and get away with.

That night we stayed in a small town (Fabregues) outside Montpellier. We settled into our apartment and discovered that the hot water service wasn't working. Then we found out reception closed at 1930h. This was at 1945h. We went to bed smelling like a family of wet dogs.

The next morning we arranged to change rooms with reception before heading off for the day (we had to wait for the new apartment to be cleaned).

First stop was the Pont de Millau.

What a contrast to the day before's bridge visit. This sexy bridge was completed in 2004 and took a little over 3 years to construct.

The bridge spans the gorgeous Tarn River valley, is about 2.5km long and is the tallest bridge in the world. Cutting edge - one (of the many) things the French do well.

After ogling the bridge from the viewing platform we went down to the information centre which was also beautifully done, both outside:

And in:

Great displays on the bridge and its construction, plus a short video. There were also some very flash tourist type videos for the bridge and all the surrounding towns. Sure made me want to come back. Even the gift shop was pretty:

Cutest paté tins ever.

After lunch it was a quick visit to Roquefort, of the cheese fame.

This ewe's milk cheese gets its delicious penicillin from mould spores created in rye bread. The mould develops into veins in the cheese in the underground caves of Roquefort. Only cheese stored in caves in a particular 2km by 300m area can use the name Roquefort.

There are 7 cheese houses (brands) that operate tours in Roquefort - you need to take one to get down into the caves (plus there is a tasting at the end, yum). Confession time - the sign said 'no photos' but when a French woman whipped out her camera and started flashing away with it, I took a sneaky no flash photo.

Sorry little resting roqueforts. (Not so little actually, each wheel is about 20cm or 8in across.)

We were late getting back to our apartment, but snagged the key to the new residence at 1900h and started to move. Reception closed at 1930h again, after which we realised we had no towels, no sheets under all the bedspreads, no soap, no sponges/towels in the kitchen and (shock, horror) no TV remote. But we did still have the key to the old apartment, so we went back and stripped it down and brought it all back to the new one. If you'd like to know where not to stay in Fabregues, just drop me a line.

The next day we checked out (to the complex's credit, they gave me a 20% refund when I asked for money back) and headed over to Montpellier.

Parking was easy-peasy, after which we spent some time playing in the kinda weird Dr. Seuss style playground in the Place de la Comédie.

Also seen in the Place de la Comédie:

We met up with Aidan and family and headed up to the main square to find a spot for lunch.

Square where we had lunch.

The Opera house on the far side of the square.

Lunch was great - plenty of crepes and conversation. As we finished off our meals, each family sent their two eldest kids to play in the square which we assumed was a pedestrian zone. The square was packed with people walking, kids playing, seated musicians playing.

A young fellow on his motorised scooter was driving too fast in the square given the crowds. He (I think, as I didn't see the accident) clipped our son's arm and then lost control of the scooter, dropping it on its side where it slid for several metres. For a very horrible 20 seconds all I knew was that our son (who is fine) had been hit and was on the ground, possibly underneath that scooter (he wasn't) with broken bones or worse. People were everywhere, both our boys were wailing and if you've ever wanted to see a 7 months pregnant woman dash like a cheetah you're out of luck. I'm not doing it again.

Yes, yes, more windows. Sorry.

The police were called and fortunately a nurse was dining nearby and gave the little guy a thorough check over. Amazingly he escaped the whole thing with only a small bruise, which appeared the next morning. The police arrived, the scooter had to be towed and that young man may have been in a bit of trouble as he was driving unlicensed. I asked the policewoman if scooters were allowed in the square (the waiter had told us no) and there was a fair bit of roundabout explanation which seemed to mean they're probably not, but a blind eye is turned. About 5 other scooters drove by while the police were standing there. French law is riddled with grey areas, but I said my piece (either ban the bikes or make sure it's well signposted so parents know their kids are in danger) and left it at that.

After such a boring lunch we decided we needed some more excitement so we headed down to the river to see an Extreme Sports exhibition running that weekend.

The walk down along Place de Thessalie Antigone was great - beautiful buildings and lots of fountains, all with an ancient Greek feel.

The view from Rue de Rhodes over the river:

The boys all declared the Extreme Sports to be 'booooooring' so we headed back the way we came for some fountain fun.

Just not extreme enough for us crazy Aussies and 'Murricans.

To be fair to the exhibition, it couldn't compete - the kids had already seen this fountain and wanted to go back to it. All six of them had an absolute ball and came out soaking, including the child that almost had me dropping a baby a few hours beforehand.

After that we had to head home, back into the pouring Provençal rain.

Even though we experienced more highs and lows than Dolly Parton's jogging bra, we declared the weekend a success.

After all, we were still alive and still living in southern France. Plus we had friends like Aidan and family.

Up next: some quilting. Finally.

Sentimental post-script: parents please give your babies (of all ages) an extra-squeezy cuddle tonight for me. Thank you.

Rainy Days

2011-06-06T21:46:00.000+02:00

We've had a few.

Olive tree in flower

Of course we need rain, but it's always a bit of a bummer when it's over a four day long weekend.

Cherry tree

We still went away for a few days - those photos to come soon.

Mulberries

Doesn't rain always make the garden look fantastic?

Lavender in bloom

It's the same old garden but somehow... better. I guess we all look better after a good wash.

Not too sure what this is...

Could it be a type of Spanish Broom?

And anyone know what this star-shaped mushie is?

I must also say a big thank you to Karen at Sew Many Ways, who had a giveaway to celebrate her one millionth (!) visitor and I was lucky enough to win this delicate sterling silver necklace.

When her package arrived I thought it was very big for a little necklace - this was because she'd included a gift for each of the kids, even the one still in the oven. What a sweetheart.

The kids were all very excited and glad to have some new playthings - especially this past rainy week.

Elmo was sent for the toddler; lucky he doesn't mind sharing.

Thank you Karen!

Boar Hunting in Aix-en-Provence

2011-05-31T23:00:00.000+02:00

I found one! One of the many brothers to Florence's bronze boar statue.

He was exactly where they said he was, in Place Richelme, Aix-en-Provence.

He was a little hard to photograph because the fish man's truck was right next to him.

Also in Place Richelme that morning was the food market (hence the fish man's truck).

I was (I thought) very restrained, only buying strawberries, cherry tomatoes and 8€ of cheese.

And maybe a little morning tea too.

Seen while heading back to the carpark:

A very happy American tourist with her sunflowers.

A ferocious store guard dog

Aix-en-Provence doing what she does best - being beautiful

Hope the week is treating you well! A bientôt.

Verona

2011-05-30T16:16:00.000+02:00

Hi all, hope you had a good weekend. Today I've got some photos of Verona, Italy, where we spent an afternoon on our way from Tuscany to Munich.

Verona is such a charismatic town, I would definitely recommend a trip. We visited in winter 2004 and found the place so lovely we wanted to see it again, even with the spring crowds.

The town holds a ton of Roman history (Verona is a World Heritage listed site) including an amphitheatre known as the Arena.

The Town Hall stands nearby:

There are plenty of Piazzas to wander through (and sit down in for a meal):

You can stroll along the Adige River which runs through the centre of the town:

And there were plenty of gorgeous windows to photograph:

Verona is the setting for the play Romeo and Juliet. You can stop outside Juliet's supposed house, where there is of course a balcony. If you can withstand the crowds you can visit the inner courtyard to see the bronze statue of Juliet, with its shiny right breast (A rub of her breast is said to bring luck in love. Not sure what tweaking her nipple brings you.)

It was so crowed that we didn't stop to visit this time (plus I wasn't ready to put up with 6 yr old boobie jokes for the rest of the day) so sadly, no photo.

Roses will have to do instead. I'm sure Juliet would have preferred this anyway.

Our Trip to Tuscany: Florence

2011-05-25T00:12:00.000+02:00

The great holiday recap continues.

After our day in Siena it was time to explore Florence. How I wish we'd had more time in this city which I'm sure contains more history than my whole country. We barely had time to scratch the surface.

The highlight of the day was meeting the lovely Blandina, who blogs over at la griccia. We were a lot later into Florence than expected but Blandina showed endless patience before we finally met up at one of Florence's best known monuments, her Duomo.

It really was like meeting an old friend - Blandina is exactly the warm, gracious and fun-spirited woman I'd imagined her to be while reading her blog. We had several hours together and I don't think there was a five minute stretch when one of us wasn't talking.

She led us through the crowded city, taking us to a few nearby sites. The Piazza della Repubblica - hard to believe this was once a ghetto area before being reclaimed to commemorate the unification of Italy in the 1800s.

The Fontana del Porcellino - rub his snout for good luck and drop a coin through his mouth to ensure you will return to Florence. The original was cast in 1612, this one which Blandina is holding my daughter up to accost is a copy.

Wikipedia tells me there are 13 replica boars located all around the world - including Sydney, Australia and Aix-en-Provence (10 minutes away from me)! Might have to go and see if I can find it. Anyone else have one nearby?

We then moved on to the Piazza della Signoria, where amongst many things we got to see the Palazzo Vecchio (left) and the Loggia dei Lanzi (right).

Then it was on to the Ponte Vecchio. Here is the famous medieval stone bridge as seen from above the city:

Once the domain of butchers who used the river to carry away their slaughtering slops, the bridge is now home to souvenir sellers and some very nice jewellery stores.

It was super busy when we were there:

The view out from the midway point:

There's nothing like having someone guide you around a city they know well. Blandina was a walking Lonely Planet book - she had something to tell us about nearly every building or square we passed - the mister and I had a great time.

After the Ponte Vecchio, Blandina took us to a fantastic sorbet shop so we could reward the kids for their lack of whinging (we run a fair few blackmailing rackets around here) and then it was time for us to part ways.

We headed back past the Duomo, enjoying one last look at that gorgeous facade:

We drove back via the Boboli Gardens and stopped to take some panoramic shots over the city.

Had to take a photo of these lamp posts on the terrace overlooking the city. The Marzocco, or Heraldic Lion, is a symbol of Florence. I think it's a great idea to incorporate a theme into your lamp posts, but I've got to say, these are a little weird. Three legs? No body? And what exactly is going on under there?

You could spend weeks exploring Florence, drinking in the history, culture and beauty. I'm sure one day I'll come back and do just that - after all, boars don't lie.

And many, many thanks to Blandina for making a great day close to perfect.