Vacations are over...

For once, Amandine was home with us for a birthday. We had a gorgeous lunch in Aix, complete with both parents and boyfriends.

This is an exceptional year, I went to the beach twice! Once in Barcelona, and this time in Marseille...

While in Marseille, I could not resist the yarns in La Droguerie. How could I? The first sight when you enter the shop is a rainblow of all possible colors. Mostly silk, mohair, linen, you've got the idea. And they prepare the ball of yarns in front of you, weighting exactly the quantity you need for your project. I've purchased the yarns to make a transformer scarf for each of my girls, black and purple for Emilie, and pink and orange for Amandine. Tthe yarn is made of two threads, one alpaga, the other a very thin mohair. I had to choose from various colors in both qualities, the lady was very helpful, letting me see all possible combinations as often as necessary to decide (and that was not an easy choice, believe me!) Soft and light and warm, yummy!. There are buttons and button holes on both ends of the scarf, so that it can be worn as a poncho, a jacket, a scarf. You'll see better when it is finished.

I hope that Irene (I mean the storm, not my friend) will leave you unharmed (I mean, those of you on the east coast). Take good care, and let us know you are OK as soon as you can...

Lunck kit, part two

Do you remember the lunch kit I made for Emilie a while ago? You can see it here: http://aufildujardin.blogspot.com/2011/06/lunch-kit.html She uses it not only to bring her lunch to work, but also when hiking with her boyfriend. That's were my troubles begin: her boyfriend was upset because there was only one place mat... Sigh...
As you can imagine, I was quite happy to make a second one, but I did not take notes, and Emilie forgot to send me the dimensions.
This afternoon, I started counting the stripes to find out the length... Then I checked whether I still had enough fabric left, and, oh joy, I still could see the shapes I cut for the first place mat. Yeah! And I had enough fabric left!
Here is the second one, finished.

I called the workshop about my PC. It is ready. Now the question is: when can the man deliver it? If you have read "a year in Provence" you know that it may take some time...

Rosemary has commented about the entrance. I do agree, it must me nice, not depressing. But I have a love/hate relationship with my house (it is a divorce house). My love for it grows as I revamp it to my taste. I started it about five years ago, by having a new front door installed. Since I prefer avoiding credits, and prefer travels to hard works, revamping is not going fast. But once a room has been done, I love it. This entrance won't be something special. There is only room to open the doors, and for a cupboard. No windows. But at least, it will be clean and as light catching as possible. And I did not imagine I would enjoy that work that much...

Wallpaper ...

Hello everybody,

I'm still enjoying my vacations. For the moment, I' m home on my own, Emilie took my car to go camping for a few days. On my own is not the exact truth, her cat has joined mine for a few days too:

This is her favorite place and quilt. Whenever she can, she sleeps on it.

On Monday, I was considering my options: xstitch, secret project, vegging on the couch watching stupid TV, ... And then a pulsion: how about revamping the entrance? It needs a revamping, really. It depresses me everytime I go home. What about the heat? I decided to give it a try, I could stop if it was too hot. In fact, the weather was perfect: the front door in on the North, so this part of the house is always cooler. Besides, there was only a mild wind, that let me keep both the front door and the living room door open, so, despite the steam I was quite comfortable. I spent two whole days ripping the wallpaper and washing the walls. There is not a big surface, but the wallpaper was a tough one! I'm very pleased with myself. Now, I'll head to the DIY shop to see what my next step will be. I only know it won't be wallpaper, but some kind of paint, preferably in the white range, since the lack of windows makes it so dark. And first of all, I need to smooth the walls. I'm sure it won't be finished before I go back to work, but the hardest part will be done.

Oh, and by the end of the week, both daugthers should be there, with their boyfriends. That would be the first time in ages that Amandine would be home for her birthday! ... If she does not change her plans... I'm quite excited.

I hope your week is as pleasant as mine. Take care!

Renegade Quilter giveaway

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As she hasvnow reached aver 100 followers, The Renegade Quilter has a lovely giveaway. Click on the link and enter!

UFO hunting

Hello to all!
I'm glad you liked the lunch box. I'm sure Debbie is glad too: let's not forget the pattern is hers.

Vacations are ideal to complete WIP, aren't they?
The Japanese dolls are just finished. I made a very simpe quilting, just quilting in the seams of the appliques.

My PC is out of order again, it just can't find Windows... We tried anything, even my ex-husband came to try and repair it. We started re-installing Windows, but we were requested a key that only the seller has... So the PC is at the seller's again... Sigh...

The good news is that summer seems to be here, at last. Probably not for long though... August 15th always come with several days of rain and thunder. However, we enjoyed two nice days in a row. Emilie who arrived on Tuesday from the cold and wet Paris is thrilled.

Time to go and feed birds and cats! Have a nice day!

Vacations and lunch bags

Hello to all! How good it feels to be home on a Monday, even though the weather doesn't look like summer... But really, I don't mind: the temperatures are nice.

While purchasing a fabrics the other day, I was told I could choose some free fabrics too.  So I came home with some hearty fabric, and its matching strippy one, without any project in mind. They were just pretty.

You may also know that I like bento boxes. When I saw this book Lunch Bags on Amazon, I just had to have it. It features 25 projects related with taking lunch away from home, by several quilters. You'll find lunch bags for kids, but mostly for adults, and some smaller projects like sandwich wraps. I would not say it is a must have book, but it is nice to have.

Here is my version of one of them, proposed by Debbie Hogan. You can find her here and here

There is a drink pouch on the back, a pocket inside, for an ice pack, it is the perfect size (7"x10"x31/2") for my three levels bentobox. And there is still room for a fruit, fork and knife, or a dessert.

 However, it is the closure/handle pair that I love best.

There might be some more in the future.

Misc

Hello to all!
Thank you for your wishes regarding my PC, they worked fine, it was fixed within an hour, yeah!
I hope you are all doing well. I miss blogging more, but I'm confindent I'll be more present next week, since I'll be on vacations. Friday won't come too soon.
In the meantime, tae care and enjoy life.