My creative space

 Voila! Bella's simple dress. Not perfect by any means but I'm happy with it and will definately make another and another....I have a lot to learn about making clothes. Mainly learning the jargon and processing the instructions. I am not great at following instructions. The daydreamer in me takes over mid-way and goes off on a tangent, but I am determined and loving sewing :)

Sam has many creative spaces too. I will never buy play-dough again. Making it is so much more fun for him and using kitchen utensils like the garlic press and the pizza cutter keep him amused for a while.

We made some bird feeders too. Sam thought that peanut butter was disgusting! But he liked to play with the seeds, mixing the different types and the textures. They ended up as chicken and not feeders. It seems the birds round here are a little fussy.

More lovely creative spaces here.

Judo time

The day of the week Sam is most excited about. As usual, we stayed to watch for a little while and then went for a coffee at our neighbours cafe in the village. Bella spooned herself the frothy milk from the top of the coffee and whilst I was talking to Christian popped a few salty peanuts in there too, which explained why it tasted a little odd :) Sam had fun at Judo and we caught the last 10 minutes of his lesson.

Rain stopped play

Bella and I set out this morning on a mission to get a dose of french city life in Limoges. It all went toes up when it started to bucket it down with rain. Typical. So, we stopped at the retail park instead and wandered around the Ikea type shop. I bought some large dinner plates - Scott can't fit his meat and two veg on the french sized dinner plates. I picked up a beautiful tin of Chinese Jasmine Tea and had a nosey around the toy section to get ideas for Sam's birthday present. 

Unbelievably, the sun came out as soon as we got home! And, Bella lost her shoe. I think I should stay at home  :)

Tidying is difficult when a little someone is crawling behind making more of a mess than there was in the first place. She is getting strong enough on those chubby legs to reach for Sam's art supplies...hmmm.

She was intrigued with the vintage french camera. A good job there was no film in it. Still, she persisted - saying "cheese" whilst pointing it right in her face.

I had another change around. Moving my sewing machine in front of the window which is much more pleasant than facing the wall. I tend to change around rooms when I'm avoiding doing something else....

A trip around the garden by tricycle- saying goodbye to the blossoms which are falling on the ground like snowflakes.

Raindrops

It's a rainy day today, but that's ok. We've enjoyed the last week of lovely weather and the rain has come to water in all the new plants just after we spent the day gardening.

Farmer Sam was happy to see the return of the tractor to plough the veg plots whilst Bella helped me plant some new flowers. Her favourite place is over in the orchard where she loves to explore new (to her) territory.

So, today we're having a rest indoors playing making dens and important scooter/truck assignments. Bella has taken to snacking on the bottom step rather than in her highchair. She tends to have a quick snack and then crawl off to play again. We might fit in a bike ride if the rain stops.

This moment

A single photo from the week, no words......

Following SouleMama.

The english library

We visited the english library yesterday. I took Bella whilst Sam was at school and met my parents who took Bella for a wander around the market. I browsed the books in peace! I primarily went to get Sam some new books. He's read his books several times (I've read them to him) so I thought he would like something new to look at. He loved Dr Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham". I found Scott non-fiction books, which he prefers to fiction. And I found a wildflower book and an Anita Shreve book as I enjoyed reading the Pilot's Wife. I'm going to attempt spotting as many wildflowers with Sam as possible. The french always leave the grass banks at the side of the roads to grow in Spring, so we get lovely wildflowers everywhere.

I love coming here (especially to listen to the Brits gossiping!) and the nice man behind the desk gave me the childrens books for keeps :)

I had a lovely surprise waiting for me in the post box. An early birthday present from my lovely sister-in-law. I love Cath Kidston and all the patterns in this book! Thank you Saranne :)

My creative space

I wondered where my embroidery threads were.

I keep a basket of scraps. For some reason it keeps the children amused!

This week, I'm still working on my rug. I'm quite quick at this now, though we've been outside alot with the weather being so lovely. I need to get this finished very soon - I can't stand to look at the depressing brown and red carpet-rugs anymore!

I also made some fabric letters from the Lotta Jansdotter book with my vintage fabric stash. I just want to make everything in there. Being a novice sewer, I've made a few mistakes on Bella 'simple' dress, but I'm not giving up.

Sam has been enjoying hand painting and mixing colours.

And,  a few felt brooches and necklaces from my felt and bead box...just because!

More creative spaces at http://www.kootoyoo.com/

Busy busy

10am this morning, Sam and Bella were out in the garden in their pj's. Sam was busy building sandcastles to defend the 'goodies' against the 'baddies' whilst Bella was climbing on and over the raised beds.

Sam's imagination has suddenly sparked. At one point today he was upstairs in the bedroom preparing a 'show'. I had to sit on the bed whilst he produced/directed his show and positioned Bella behind the curtains to Bella's room. (Bella doesn't have her own room but I have made her a space sectioned off with curtains under the eaves of our room. It's very cute. Usually it is Sam's cafe but today it was the theatre). The show lasted approx. 5 seconds of a little dance and promptly falling over!

Bella napped for 3 hours after her busy morning so Sam played 'shop' in Scott's trailer (?!) using flower petals as his currency and sand as his products. This enabled me to do some gardening but I had to frequent the shop several times with flower petals to purchase made up items.

After Bella's nap, she was back outside. Grabbing a little spade she quickly set off to the raised beds to dig up the newly planted onions and then to pick some more daisies. She has become much more vocal in the last few days saying things like "what's this?" "where's daddy?" and "tractor".  I just hope she'll start walking soon as she's wearing her little chubby knees out.

In the spring garden

Spring has definitely arrived though still a little nippy and windy. Everything is blooming and Sam has been helping me plant seeds. So far we've planted the onions, peas and broad beans (which have been eaten by cheeky mice), rocket and various flower seeds. Bella is chief daisy picker as she is just at the right level and following her brother lead on digging holes in the raised beds is fun too.

Lately

The last few days the weather has been grim and illnesses are circulating. Little busy buckles have not been discouraged, infact they have been amusing themselves more lately and never disappoint in entertaining us.

jumping on kraft paper laid out on the bed

weather plate

Sam wanted to leave the tooth fairy his tooth even though it isn't coming out (after reading a Charlie and Lola book about Lola losing her tooth) so we wrote a letter to the 'good boy' fairy instead - which Sam put under his pillow to get a coin. He also wanted to draw the fairy a picture of a blue bear!

playing prickly pile-up

"It's my basket !"

Lately, Sam is recognizing that we need money to buy food and more importantly toys and even more importantly that fairies leave coins under his pillow. With having a cold he is using a huge amount of tissues and when finished with a tissue is flushing it down the loo (he loves pushing the flush button). I explained to Sam that this was a waste of water and that we have to give the water person coins every time he flushes the loo. He understood this and stopped with the flushing. However, later that night he was crawling around looking for something. When I asked him what he was looking for he said "a coin". I said "ok, keep looking  -  this is a good game." He found one eventually on the sideboard and waving it about declared he could now go and flush the toilet as he had a coin to give to the water person. :)