Those are the first flowers of the (almost) New Year.

May the year to come be as bright as them

for all of you

With health, love and happiness!

Corporate Xmas

On Thursday,we had our corporate Xmas event.
While some were sampling some wine

others were getting ready

for the action

concentrating on their tasks

dressing up the table

Fun was had by all. And the food was tasty (we had 3 tutors to help and show us how to).

We are enjoying a nice sun today. Osiris tells you to enjoy life as much as she does.

Cosy Weekend

As winter is nearing, temperatures drop.

As a revenge, I spent the weekend knitting a gorgeous Alpaga yarn by Plassard.
The pattern is Veyla By Ysolda Teague. You can see it here .

I'd sworn I'd find the buttons in my stash. Sigh. Either the right shape, but not enough, or the right count but not the color. Sigh.

That'll give me the time to block the mittens. They deserve that, don't they?

Take care, and have a wonderful week.

Iron flower

This is this time of year, where the birds are hungry. 

I wonder how long it will take them to notice the fat balls on the flowers.

It took them about three weeks to dare come to the mega feeder...

Maybe because the fat cakes and peanuts were even more tempting

It is a surprise each year to discover the food they will prefer. One year, they live on seeds, the next on peanuts, etc... But one thing is certain, when the temperatures drop, they come close to the garden window and request that I feed them. Quite funny.

Happy

thanksgiving to US friends!

ITO top bis

Hi to all
I think I have fixed the problem with the image...

Typist, doors are very important, in my opinion. When I decided to start works on my house, I started with the front door. Quite a symbol, I think. Beginning of a new life, kind of
Nikkipolani, given how creative your cats are at the moment, keeping them out of the room seems the right idea, but they must be mad at you.
Startare, as I said, I think I fixed the bug. Remember, we have to have a coffee someday... Will you come to Vents du Sud on Nov 27th?
Bunny, tell your Mom the Xmas picture is OK :-)

We have a sunny Monday here, like it, especially since I have the day off :-)

Take care!

ITO top

A couple of weeks ago, I've started this top for me. I'm amazed by how far one single ball goes. I've just finished the first one, it makes almost 20 cm high...
This is ITO Sensai yarn, from Japan, bought in Berlin. One ball is 20 gr, for 262 yards, 40% silk, 60% mohair.

I can't start to describe the touch. Warm, light, gorgeous.

Apart from this knitting, I'm following Alisa Burke Xmas creative course, and enjoying it. Perfect to get into the Xmas mood.
What are you working on for the moment?

Whatever you are doing, I hope it makes you happy.
Have a nice week, and take care!

Oller del Mas

The last time I went to Barcelona, we decided to spend a few hours out of town. As the weather forecast was not the best, we decided to keep Montserrat itself for another occasion, but headed to its neighborhood.

You can see Montserrat in the background, and a vineyard in the foreground. This is part of Oller del Mas winery. This winery goes back to the 10th century, and has always been the property of the same family. The castle has been destroyed by Napoleon, the vineyard by phylloxera. So the winery was no more. Until the present owner decided to re-create it, slowly, using the best of the ancient practises and present knowledge to produce a bio-ethical wine. At the same time, he rebuild the castle, with modern techniques, but keeping the ancient look. The rooms in this castle host events such as weddings.

  High quality equipment has been set up, to make the best of the vineyard.

However, nothing replaces oak.

Such a tour would not be perfect without some tasting...

Quilt Diva - Fused

I hope you all had a safe Halloween.
The rain has kept the treat or trickers away. Too bad, I'll have to eat all the bonbons...
In the meantime, this lady keeps going. She is all fused, except for her (3D) pincushion.
Next step, some machine button hole stitches...
 

Quilting Diva

Thank you for your comments on my office.
I made the Kokeshi wallhanger, from a pattern by Susan Claire.
Lisa, the trees you see accross the street from my office window belong to the Jas de Bouffan, that belonged to Cezanne's family... 

After the rain comes the sun, here the sun comes with wind. This time, the wind is very strong. Strong enough to endanger a ferry in Marseille... In other parts of France, that is the snow that made an early appearance. Sometimes up to 15" overnight...
I'm lucky everything is OK at home. It is just too cold and windy to want to go outside, be you human or cat. Perfect weather to work on a self-portrait. I mean, on a pattern by Amy Bradley. I've prepared about half of the pieces to fuse. I'm putting them together, to check the impact of colors as I progress.

 

I'm preparing for a short week, ending in a 4-days weekend.
I wish you a very happy week. Take care!

Getting ready for Xmas...

I've just left my flipflaps for more adequate slippers. 

I confirm, temperatures are dropping.

Which reminds me that Alisa Burke is proposing a new online workshop.

30 Days starting November 12th.

Alisa celebrates this new workshop with a giveaway!

More information here

more on my office walls

Thank you for your commentson your offices.
Here is a glimpse on the rest of my wall. As you see, I do try to have colors...

The rest of the week has been rainy, especially yesterday. I feel lucky that both my work place and my home were safe. I've heard that some roads have been flooded, especially at the shopping mal that was hit recently by a tornado. Not far away two students lost their lives falling in what they thought was a puddle in the parking of their university. It was in fact an overgrown and deep drain. They were swept away into the sewers. My thoughts go to their families and friends.

Monday, Gloomy Monday

What do you do when the autumn is coming?
When Monday is rainy, with dark clouds?

When you go back to your office, your grey office, where even the ficus is depressed?

I jumped into my car, towards the gardening center. Tada!

I don't know if the ficus feels better, but I do!
I found this ficus in a bin, when we moved from our former building to the one we are in now, I think it was 15 years ago. It had no leaves, just tiny dots of green to tell it was not dead, yet. While staying in the same building, I've been moving from room to room, and it has always followed, with more or less luck, depending on the amount of light available. It is a fighter.

How is your office? can you decorate it?

Bollywood slippers

I realize my last post may have mislead you: I ate that food, but did not cook it.

However, I have two secrets:
- I'm lazy,
- I dream of coming home and find everything ready for the next day.

Since I can't afford my very own butler, I have to cheat: I prepare most of my food during the weekend, so that I can crab a ready dish from the fridge whenever I need one. Sure, I could buy ready food, but I don't like that. I prefer to buy my raw food and prepare my meal myself.
My trip of last weekend, and the last posts by Nikkipolani have been a great inspiration for this weekend. 

Here is a potimarron. With curry, cucurma, sultanas, cashew, shallots, wheat-floor, and Philadelphia.
The recipe comes from a book by Clea, dedicated to potimarron. A must-have in my opinion.

First cook the minced shallots and potimarron with curry for 5 minutes. Then add the Philadelphia (about 3 spoons), curcuma, cashew and sultanas, and mix well.

In the meantime, prepare the dough with 150 g flour, curcuma, enough oil and water to make is handable.

Roll it flat and cut 4 "rectangles". Wrap 1/4 of the potimarron mixture with each rectangle. In French, the result is a "chausson"=slipper... Cook for about 45 minutes in the oven.That's it:

Sincethe oven was still hot, I baked an apple cake. With corn flour. The recipe called for butter and sugar.
I used the rest of Philadelphia instead, and some honey. Although I've a sweet tooth, I often find that there is too much sugar. So I used only a small amount of honey.

I mixed all the above with three eggs. Then added the minced apple, and cooked it for 30 minutes.

I like cooking in one shot. I'm less likely to forget the vegetables in the fridge, minimize the washing up and optimize the oven heating. The drawback is the wonderful smells that invade the house. Difficult not to overeat on Sundays :-). Quite often, I finish cooking just in time to watch a TV show dedicated to French food. It lasts about 20 minutes, the man takes us to restaurants, big ones or tiny ones, throughout France. And he speaks so well of food that you can actually smell it! I'm talking foie gras, bread, cheese, wine, barbecues, etc... He makes me even more starving!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. Take care!

Food!

It is this time of year, when the days are shorter, the temperatures coolers, when you want to snuggle, or eat.
This is exactly what I did this weekend.

Started with a healthy brunch, the glass in the middle was yummy, with kiwis, strawberries, and carrots.

Amandine like eggs, I prefer muesly...

But we both like cupcakes

or big cakes

This beetroot carpaccio was to die for, and the vermouth, well, it's vermouth...

a brownie with its mango icecream...

and much more food over this three-days weekend.

The weather is crazy. While I was away, there was a tornado in a shopping center close to home. My garden was blessed with a fair amount of rain (so glad I was away: I would have been scared). We had our first frost of autumn, but the next day, it was warm again... I think rain is expected again for this weekend.

Nikkipolani, I did not know you had potimarrons waiting (although I would have guessed so). It is just that your last post reminded me of one recipe I have. I think you may like it (and I have to find a potimarron too to make it for myself :-). The week looked like a whirlwind, but I promise I'll send that recipe very soon.

I hope you'll all have a nice weekend. Take care!

Did I mention those?

This is a snood,in fact the one shown here

and this bag was a perfect training for cables, that I was scared of. Brea bag by Norah Gaughan

Thank you for all your kind comments. I insist they should go to the designers, as I only follow instructions.
It is quite funny, as the instructions I find on Ravelry or in US Magazines are much more sophisticated than the French ones I'm used to, not to mention the weird abbreviations, like ssk, or pwyf. Thanks the knitting gods for YouTube and Google :-)
I also insist that knitting is one stitch at a time, be it a scarf or a mitten. And in any case, a bunch of love sent to the recipient.

Back to my couch and my needles! Take care all!

What's I have been up to recently

I'm suffering a severe knitting crisis, with the following symptoms:

Free pattern Swallowtail Shawl made in Malabrigo lace

Free pattern  Pimpelliese made in Zwerger Hundertwasser Opal fingering

Free pattern by Drops, made in Bouton d'Or Cocoon yarn.

Have a nice weekend!
PS: I must leave you, my knitting needles are calling...

Berlin - Street Art

No need for words