Bags, Bags, Bags and Bags!

I am so into sewing. Not only do I sew a lot, but I find great sites selling fabric, and lately, inspiration: the blog of a Canadian who moved in the south of France (I know life is unfair...). She makes nice things and her bags are DIVINE! She even has tutorials. So guess who's going to continue sewing lots of bags for quite a while? :-)

I've Been Tagged!

This is my first time, I'm so excited! Thanks Cathy... I don't know who to tag though, so if you're reading this and feel like doing it consider yourself tagged!

This meme is about telling you 6 things you might not know about me:

1. I am going to be a step-grand-mother in July (my husband's daughter Roxane is pregnant!).
2. I reconnected with someone from my past through Facebook and we've been writing for a couple of months now.
3. I wish I were richer to stop working and have more time for my creative projects.
4. I can imitate many accents.
5. I was the lead singer of the Bend Your Knees Band. (Don't laugh, we were good at the time!)
6. At home, if technology doesn't work (especially the printer), I can also imitate Hulk (and like him, I can't control myself).

13 Sewing Projects I've Done

1. Quilts/bedcovers (so many...)
2. Washing Cloths
3. Curtains
4. Bags (my new thing)
5. Small girly-girl handbags
6. Baby sheets
7. Apron
8. Nightgown (a very ugly one, high school sewing project)
9. Blouse (hot pink, '80s style, never wore it, no need to tell you how ugly it was)
10. Placemats
11. Cushions
12. Bibs
13. Personalized towels

Knit, Purl...

I usually write my blog in French here and then translate it. Today, it's mission impossible. I've tried, but I can't. There are too many aspects that can't be translated (a link to a newspaper article, cultural and linguistic terms that don't have equivalents in English). So I'm keeping the same photo, but writing something different. (The one in French is way funnier though, you're missing something!)Inspired by Ani, I've decided to go back to knitting. I even bought a book to improve on my skills. I haven't knitted in decades. I was okay at the time but I remember that my two sisters were experts. I wonder if they still knit. I guess not. One is into scrapbooking and taking care of a family of five kids while the other one has MS, so, no knitting for her.

I even taught my youngest daughter last weekend. She's doing fine. We bought nice yarns and we're knitting scarves. Easy stuff to begin with. We'll see after that. I can hardly just watch TV, I always need to do something at the same time and knitting is perfect for that!

13 of my Favorite Pictures

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Oops I Did It Again...

It's so not my fault! I have no idea how I got into that fabric store. My car must have been possessed or something. I didn't see it coming and bang! I was pushing a cart with 3 new fabrics, cut, ready to be paid. I didn't want to make a scene, so I paid and left.

Maybe I've got multiple-personality disorder? Because there's a 45 minutes I can't remember. Seriously!

So tonight I did what I had to do for Hortense (my seamstress personality): I prepared my fabrics and tomorrow, I'll sew... Did I really have a choice?

Oh, and I taught Miranda to knit tonight. Purl is for tomorrow... My life is so complicated... :-)

Snowman, Santa Claus and Polar Bear...

A little before Christmas, Miranda did a little painting. I adore the fact that my darlings take advantage of the material available at home. For me, having stuff to do arts and crafts, to paint, to sew, to draw is essential. So we have interesting stocks scattered all over the house. There's a lot of stuff in the index cards desk saved from trash by a good man (ours, of course!). We have a complete wardrobe filled with pearls, boxes, sturdy cardboard, canvas, gouache, brushes, fancy scissors, markers, pebbles, shells. In the basement we also have boxes of wrapping paper (very useful for crafts), ribbons (new, leftovers, recycled pieces -hurray for 2nd lives!). I have loads of fabrics (a full dresser), papers (an indecent quantity, I swear), acrylic paints, glues of many types (a full basket). I didn't mention yarns, stickers and scrapbooking, stamps, embossing, calligraphy material. For a fraction of a second, I'm ashamed of myself. Pssshttt, it's gone, already. Guilty doesn't stick probably because «it's our hobby», it allows us to create, to invent, to please, to learn more about ourselves, to put a little beauty here, there, and there too. Anyway, if I have to cut on something, I'd rather wear the same clothes for a couple of seasons and put my creativity at full throttle. It's a choice. I can deal with it. Easily...

13 Lists

This morning on the radio, there was a discussion about lists.
What, how, why? It was inspiring...

Here some of the lists I do, I like, I need.

1. creative projects I plan to do in my little black book. Once they're done I crossed them out with a marker and never tear a page to remember the creative things I do...
2. 5 things I’m grateful for, every day. Been doing it for a year and a half now.
3. groceries and errands to run
4. in an address book, I write down the movies I watch (cinema + DVD). I also write the main actors, the year and an appreciation.
5. in another address book, I also write down the books I read (I include the date this way I know how many I read every year)
6. when I travel, I write about things I see, places I went in a mini journal that I fill with mementos (leaves, business cards, pieces of shopping bags, museum tickets, etc.).
7. my daughters’ friends phone numbers (this list now includes cell phones!)
8. important numbers to remember (health, social, life insurance, etc.)
9. birthdays in a lovely book
10. cities I’ve been, visually organized in Facebook
11. things to do for work in a notebook. I draw a box in front of each item that I check when done. Gives me a feeling of accomplishment!
12. blogs I'm addicted to in Google reader
13. addresses of my postcard swaps friends

By the way, there’s a new swap organized by Chookooloonks. E-mail her before January 16th if you’re interested. The theme is «Love». Couldn’t resist to that!

Calender 2008

Last year I made a calendar for Alizée. Here is 2008's:

Xmas Skating

Today was the traditional skating activity, right before Xmas holidays at Miranda's school, where I taught for 8 years. Parents are invited to help with the skates and some join on the rink. Not my case this year, I took a few pictures and chatted with some of my former colleagues, t'was really cool...

The only minor problem, my niece fell and hurt her chin. Her dad who's a dentist took care of everything. It was too cute to see her twin brother worried by the incident, he felt so bad for her...
So my little one skated for the last time with her primary school. Next year will be a very different thing. I am not too nostalgic, I know that when a fantastic moment is over, it makes room for other great moments...

Latkes

T'was sooooo delicious...
A tradition during Hanukkah.
Thanks Emily!

Oh Xmas Tree, Oh Xmas Tree!

I experiment with lots of things, including our Xmas tree!




Oh, and sweet baby Jesus was brought by Miranda on her last shopping spree :-)
Mystery solved!

13 Things that Make our Xmas Tree

1. a little tree
2. tiny blue lights
3. fuchsia snowflakes
4. beaded garland
5. a crown on top of the tree (looks amazing!)
6. flashy green ornaments
7. sequins on metal wires
8. sparkly turquoise bows
9. a blue pashmina to cover the foot of the tree
10. a gift under the tree
11. baby Jesus on a golden bed (we still don't know who brought it home, it just «appeared»!)
12. a pine cone I received from Angela
13. lots of love (hey, it's tough to find 13!)

Bitter Sweet

My daughter introduced me to Bitter Sweet. Too cool...

The Miniature Earth

I've always liked this comparison...

Homemade Food

Today, Claude and Miranda prepared great homemade food, most of them being traditions such as meat pies, donuts (Noëlla's recipe), potato pie (a childhood memory), egg rolls, Parmesan fondues and stuffed rolls. We'll eat meat pies at my in-laws' party. We started eating the donuts (an excellent desert, especially with a touch of Nutella!). The potato pie is already gone and we'll taste the other food soon...

Thanks you to our cooks... xx

13 Holidays Traditions

We still call it «Christmas», but since there's no religion involved for us,
we'll talk about holidays...

1. Decorate a Christmas tree (a couple of years ago, we started doing a mini instead of a big one).
2. Do a winter scene puzzle.
3. Eat homemade meat pie and donuts (by Claude and Miranda).
4. Watch «24» episode after episode.
5. Play boardgames (to please the girls).
6. Go to the «boxing day».
7. Watch, «Lord of the Rings» (trilogy), again.
8. Wear pajamas all day long, at least once or twice.
9. Go to Claude's family party in Drummondville.
10. Read, do arts and crafts.
11. Sleep, lots and lots of sleep...
12. Eat differently (everyone decides what they'll eat and when they'll eat, usually leftovers).
13. Go to the movies (this year: National Treasure 2, L'Âge des ténèbres, Breakfast with Scott...)

Hours of Pleasure

You know about my passion for fabrics... Well I've been on the production mode for a couple of weekends. I made 3 aprons including a cute red and white one for Miranda ( for a Xmas play at school). I also made 3 tote bags; one I use for work, one Alizée needed for her phys. ed. clothes and a last one for a gift exchange at Claude's office party.

This weekend, I need to focus on my godchildren's presents, I don't know what it will be yet, probably aprons made of funky fabrics. Oh, and Miranda asked me for a tote bag as well.

I love doing projects I can complete in a day. It' so different from the quilts that take forever. And, as always, no pattern, I just look at different models and there I go. Too cool!

Moving Forward

Alizée is having fun with Photoshop.

She does stuff like this. It's great, it's her.
She's good, isn't she?

13 Reasons I'm on Facebook

Yes, I'm on Facebook. Started a couple weeks ago.
Didn't like the concept at first, but I'm enjoying it more and more now.

1. I don't have too many friends yet so I don't feel overwhelmed.
2. Someone I worked with a long time ago and who lives in London contacted me and we're sharing about our everyday life.
3. There are silly things: some make me laugh, some make me smile.
4. I love the visual bookshelf application (books, CDs, DVDs on display).
5. I enjoy updating my profile (recently discovered I can post about my favorite singers, groups).
6. You can write a short sentence about how you feel at the moment, what you're doing (status).
7. You have a word to say about the people who want to be your friends (you can deny them your friendship. That's funny, don't you think? I feel I'm back in high school, well, no, elementary school :-).
8. It's a collection of networks. I don't see how big it can be yet, but it is.
9. When someone contacts you, it sends a message to your email (so you don't have to check there for messages too).
10. You can even have a Christmas tree on your profile!
11. There are so many gadgets, it's a world of discoveries...
12. It's new, everybody's talking about it and I wanted to understand the «thing»
13. I think there's something there...