Getting ready...

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the sparse posting lately. I bet you may all guess why that is!
With our work being still pretty demanding, and all the preparations for our wedding in four days (!), emails and blogging have necessarily taken a back seat.

The main preparations concern the religious ceremony in itself. My brother, sisters and I are taking charge of all the musical part - there will be no organ, and at the priest's suggestion I'll be leading the assembly's singing myself. Probably a bit unusual, but very "us". I do love the fact that, just like my dress, just like the vin d'honneur and dinner, the whole celebration is being "custom-made" with lots of love from the participants.

Of course, that involves spending some time with my siblings to rehearse everything. We gathered at my little sister's place last Sunday. My brother plays the cello and my little sister plays the bassoon. (My older sister (Robin's mom) plays the violin, but she lives in Lille and hasn't been able to come - yet.)

Here we are rehearsing the Ave Maria.
You can see my sister's bassoon in the background.

~*~

I also finished my little sister's dress for the wedding. Do you remember the muslin for my own gown?
I was hoping to turn it into a wearable dress for my little sister, and managed to keep my word. Yay!
I altered it to her measurements, lined the bodice, added straps, and hemmed it.

Isn't she gorgeous, my petite soeur Hélène? :)

We have been having a great time preparing all this together.

(The champagne bottle is for fun - my sister had gotten it from one of her patients, but it seemed apt to include it on the picture!)

The best news is, my older sister has decided to come over from Lille on Friday and stay overnight so we can rehearse in the church with her as well. She'll be leaving baby Robin with his daddy for the night and that is a *big* decision on her part. We are going to have such a wonderful time together!

I'd better get cracking - there are loads of tidying and cleaning up to do in our flat today... We are hosting the "vin d'honneur" just after the wedding, and somehow need to create enough space for our 17 guests. I guess most of the furniture in the "everything" room will have to go into the bedroom!
Ah yes, that will entail lots of cooking as well... but I enjoy that!

Hope you're all having a great week!

Bags and Roses

Hi everyone!
I had every intention of writing a rich post tonight... But this has been a headachy weekend, and after a few hours' improvement, the migraine is coming back with a vengeance. So, the pictures shall have to speak for themselves. :)

I made 5 bags during my spare time during the past week... I promise you I did do some work at the countryside, but as you could see in the previous post, I also tried to rest and relax a bit!

Two of the bags I made are gifts for dear friends and I'll post about them later... Here are the three bags I made for my shop. I was very much inspired by the countryside!

Roses d'été 1

In two coordinating Toile de Jouy fabrics.
Reversible, trimmed with antique lace
BUT the topstitching isn't perfect... so I offered a discount on it.

Roses d'été 2

In the same Toile de Jouy fabrics as the first bag,
but using other parts of the print to make it look different :)
Reversible too, and that one has no technical faults :)

Toile de Jouy is such a wonderful fabric. The designs are always gorgeous, and you can't beat the quality and sturdiness - the fabric is originally designed for upholstery and home dec. Sure, this fabric is more expensive than what I usually buy, but it is well worth the extra cost IMO.

Un jardin en été

That one is simpler... but sweet! :)

I'll be back soon... when my head feels better. Don't worry about me, I'll probably be fine tomorrow! :)
We are back in Paris tonight...
Have a nice start of the week, everyone!

A Kitty Holiday

We brought our kitty, P'tite Mignonne (Little Miss Cutie) with us to the countryside, and she loves discovering all the nooks and crannies that the space offers. She decided early on that the winnowing machine was just the perfect place to sleep in.

Can you see her?

(the winnowing machine was already in the attic when my parents bought the farm; we simply scrubbed and re-painted it)

Ptite Mignonne remembers the place and the huge renovated attic very well from the previous years. It is amazing how much she is enjoying herself here. Truly as if she was feeling on holiday!

This house is an old farm that we renovated entirely, year after year... It is just a mile from my mother's birthplace, where my grandma lived and my aunt still lives.

Lunch with Doris

Doris is a friend from Alsace I've already mentioned here... We got to know each other about a year and a half ago, because we were both friends of dear Sylvie's. I've always enjoyed looking at her beautiful embroidery (of which I am fortunate enough to have several beautiful samples at home), hearing about her two cats; above all, I enjoy the specific tone of her blog - her voice online: serene, warm, steady, generous.

So when Doris told me she'd be coming to Paris, I was excited and promised I'd do my best to meet her, despite a very uncertain schedule. We did manage to meet for lunch, near the Place de la République, and had a great time!

It was the first day where it finally felt like summer, too.
Thank you Doris for bringing the sun along!

Not only did Doris bring a lovely friend, Marie-Noëlle... but she didn't arrive empty-handed either... I was a bit embarrassed as I had had no time to make her anything but a tiny pillow!
Doris went with a blue theme and her gifts were designed to please both Sébastien and me... So thoughtful!

She brought some luscious tea called "Montagne Bleue", which indeed is all blue, and quite delicious (Doris, we did get a chance to try it before catching our train, and it will probably become one of our favourites!).

Doris took time from her busy schedule to stitch a beautiful blue biscornu, which Seb likes just as much as I do... It also goes perfectly with the needleroll Anne sent me last year, and which is another of Seb's favourites.

The ornament you see next to the biscornu is special as well. It is made of painted tinsel, was handcrafted in Alsace and represents a tree of life, circled within a heart and surmounted with two doves... A meaningful ornament, and I love that it is also typical of Doris's beautiful Alsace. We shall smile every time we look at it. Merci Doris !!

Doris and I were both so happy that we got to meet "for real". (Hmm, except I was probably waaay too chatty...) Our only regret was that dear Sylvie wasn't there... another time, for sure! N'est-ce pas, Sylvie ?

Finishing the Gown

Friends, some of you have expressed your eagerness in seeing the finished gown... However, that will have to wait until after the ceremony. I would like the final result to be a surprise to everyone. Hope you will understand! I'm sure you will, though :)
Let it only be said that I absolutely love my gown! It really feels like *my* dress now. I just love it! :)

I can show you pictures of the final evening of sewing (Thursday night), during which I hemmed the dress by slipstiching the edge to the underlining only (which shows another advantage to underlining a formal garment!). This took quite a few hours, as you may imagine, because the skirt is rather wide at the bottom and I had to make sure for every small stitch that the needle was only catching the batiste underlining, and not the dupioni. To keep me entertained, I watched (or rather, listened to) one of my most-watched DVDs: the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice adaptation. That one never palls on me.

Sébastien took pictures as a souvenir of this ultimate evening spent sewing this special gown... I didn't know whether you'd rather see Elizabeth or Mr. Darcy, so I'll let you choose:

Sewing with Elizabeth Bennet

Sewing with Mr. Darcy

This way you can also see my sewing corner. We live in a two-room, 45-m² flat, and this table is our everything table: this is where we dine (you can't even sit in the kitchen!), where Seb sets his laptop when he works from home (I have a desk in another corner). The right side of the table is my little sewing corner (the extremest part being most of the time slightly messy, as you can see here!), but I did need the whole length of the table to make that ample dress... You bet I made sure to clear up and clean the table thoroughly every time I wanted to do some sewing on the gown!

(I don't mind the small space, though! As long as the family doesn't grow larger, we're quite happy in our little nest.)
Oh, and, ahem, I was in my pyjama as it was getting on quite late that night!

~*~

Thank you very much for your comments to the previous post. I certainly wish I had started sewing earlier than 3 years ago. My grandma would have been able to teach me then... That is one of my bitterest regrets. Our only hobby when we were younger was music - lots of it, that's for sure. I can't regret being taught in music, that is another of my joys in life; but I sometimes wish it had been less exclusive, less exacting.

Nevertheless, Mamie was thrilled at my taking up sewing, and she admired my progress every time I came to visit her and we looked at what I'd been sewing. This played a major part in my motivation to try and keep improving - I kept striving to be up to her praise. I carry her last words to me in the depths of my heart and they were to that effect as well - I didn't feel that I quite deserved them, but I'll keep trying to be up to them.

Sorry for the talkative entry... I'll make it up with pretty pictures soon! :)

Three years!

Today is a double anniversary: it's been three years since I first used a sewing machine... and three years since I opened that blog! I have never turned back from either, and don't plan on doing so.

In a way, it feels so much more than 3 years. Sewing and blogging have incredibly enriched my life, in many ways and at many levels. They have helped me develop a more balanced lifestyle, after many years of intensive studies that used to take up my whole time - and my whole mind, causing severe insomnia for more than 6 years.

Blogging has allowed me to meet a warm community of like-minded friends, whom I would never have met otherwise - there is absolutely no one among my everyday acquaintances and family who sews or stitches, especially now that my grandma is gone. I've always loved to give handmade gifts to my family, but had never been on the receiving end before I became part of the stitching bloggers' community.

A few months ago, I discovered the sewing community... don't ask me why I didn't find out earlier - I don't know! What matters is, I did find another friendly and incredibly talented community, eager to share knowledge and inspiration, eager to help with sewing problems. This has enriched my online life even further, and brought my sewing to another level. Hadn't it been for your stimulating perfectionism, your helpful and expert tips and advice, your friendly encouragement, I know for certain that my skills and achievements would be nowhere near where they are today.

True, I have had some disappointments and even been bitterly hurt on some (very rare) occasions. However, such evils also happen in the "real", or rather the immediate, world. Some say that people met online may not be what they seem; that is probably true of some - but isn't that true in everyday life as well?

All this is to say - thank you, friends. My life was so different and so less complete before I started sewing - and blogging.

Thank you!!

Blog Giveaway Winners!

Hi everyone!
I hope you're having a good weekend, wherever you are.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the blog giveaway!

You may remember there were to be 2 prizes... One for a stitcher, and one for a seamstress. Trouble is, the stitchers' list ended up being twice as long as the seamstresses' list... I realized it wasn't very fair to my stitching friends. This is why I finally decided to draw THREE winners: two stitchers, and one seamstress. It does mean it may take a little more time to make and send out the three packages, but I'll manage somehow!

Boy, I so wanted everyone to win. As I typed your names, I kept thinking, "oh, it would be so nice if she won"! and "oh, it would be exciting to send her something!" I kept it fair though, and used a random number generator. What I did is, I entered your names into a numbered list, by chronological order. Then I asked the generator to give me two numbers for the stitching prizes out of the 40 stitchers' comments entered, and one number for the sewing prize out of the 14 entries.
(Apologies to Marina who entered tonight... I had already drawn the names and was writing this entry when you commented! )

Here are the drawing results for the stitchers' prizes
(I took a screenshot of my desktop)

The number generator gave me 33, i.e. Ali B, and 18, i.e. Susimac! I found it weird that both winners should live in England, but Random.org decided it for me... Although I would really have enjoyed shipping to the other side of the world, I am totally glad that Ali and Su won. Congrats to the two of you!

And here's the result for the seamstresses:

Congrats, Tany!! You won the sewing-related prize! Woohoo!

Now could the three winners email me your mailing addresses?
I'll send your packages and share their contents here as soon as I have put them together. :)

I am so sorry that I cannot send something to everyone who entered the game... It just wouldn't be realistic. I do hope you all had fun, though!
There is another treat in store for my sewing readers, compliments of Hot Patterns... More on this soon, I promise!

Congratulations again to dear Ali, Su and Tany!

~*~

Seb and I arrived last night at my parents' countryside house... Good news is, there is now an ADSL connection there. This means we'll be able to work from there, and as a result, we're spending a whole week! Of course, that also means I'll be able to blog. :) My sisters and baby Robin are spending the weekend, too. We're enjoying our family time.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Blog Love Giveaway closes tomorrow!

Hi all!

Just a reminder that the Blog Love Giveaway closes tomorrow...

Please add your comment here to enter the contest!
(comments to the present entry won't be entered into the drawing... else it would be a big mess!)

There will be TWO prizes (and therefore, 2 winners!), one related to sewing and the other to stitching... Each comprising of 3 gifties (one handmade, one stashy, one for the fun).

Everyone have a wonderful weekend....
I'll be announcing the giveaway winners soon.

Just a note...

To say thank you!

Thank you so much for your wonderful good wishes. You guys are the best.

This is for you...

This toile heart is in fact a quilt block. I just made it for a heart-themed charity quilt in progress on our French charity group. I made it thinking of you all, friends, and how you bring joy into my life, every day.

I do promise to come back very soon! Just so you understand why I've been so silent, I have just a big chunk of work.

Love to you all!

A happy day today!

Hi everyone!
This 4th of July is a truly lovely day...

First, Hala has her birthday today!

Hala is a very dear and sweet friend from Lebanon... She's been such a caring friend ever since I came to know her last summer. She reads and comments on both my English and French blogs, so some of you may know her already! Hope you're having a wonderful day dear Hala.

~*~
Happy Independence Day to my friends in and from the US of A!
(in and from the US - let us not forget our expatriate friends)


~*~
And a smile...

What happened today?!

Featured in an Etsy Treasury!

Just a little bit of Etsy joy tonight - I'm so proud!
My little cat banner is being featured in an Etsy Treasury.
Can you spot it? ;)
It's amidst such great stuff, too!

The treasury is right here and will expire tomorrow. It features European sellers on Etsy! We are in the middle of creating a friendly European team on Etsy, and it's been great.
I really need to update my little shop with freshly baked sewn items... Soon, I promise!

(Please scroll down to the previous post to read about the blog giveaway! )

Blog Love Giveaway!

This is something I've been meaning to do since May... You probably all know why it didn't happen sooner.

I have decided to offer two fun surprise packages to the readers of this blog. One will be geared towards embroidery, and the other towards sewing. I promise that both of them will be full of love - each one will comprise a handmade little treat, a stashy little treat, and a fun little treat.

Anyone writing a comment to this entry over the next two weeks will be entered into the draw. Please don't be shy! Everyone is very welcome to enter :)

You friends are always so caring, in sad and happy times alike... This is but a small way to thank you all!