Nissa la Bella

Once again, my adopted country is in a state of mourning because some individual thought he was more in charge than anybody else of the personal destinies of as many people as he could touch.

While there have been recent similar tragedies in both my home and my adopted countries, now both my home state and my current region have been specifically targeted.

Yesterday, we took a stroll along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice to pay our own homage to the fallen along with many other locals.  I thought I would share the photographic impressions we brought back home with us.

At twenty-two

Because I happened to have the necessary materials at hand, I decided to enter a Vintage Pattern Contest on my favorite sewing site.  The requirement was that any pattern used had to be older than 1981. 

Normally I wouldn't have patterns that old, having gotten rid of them when we moved overseas.  But as my prize for winning a contest last year was vintage patterns, I now have a few qualifying ones to choose from. 

What I didn't know was how my particular choices would take me on an interesting trip down Memory Lane, starting with when I was around 22 years old.

Creating a Provençal Fête

Every year, usually in May, we are standing house guests for an annual wine festival held in our hosts' region.  While the cold buffet is just on Saturday afternoon, we arrive on Friday and stay until Sunday.  Not only does it make a lovely weekend get-away for us, but it provides an opportunity to visit with a dear family at least once a year. 

Sadly, last year's event was cancelled due to the death of their oldest son shortly beforehand, but we were still invited to visit a bit later.

Two years ago, I shared the afternoon's event with you.  Last year, I took you on a tour of the area instead.  This year, I thought I'd show you just what goes on behind the scenes to succeed at this marvelous event.  Doc Leo and I do our best to earn our keep!  Even the youngest generation is getting schooled on how to continue posterity.

Le Zouave de Paris

If you have been paying the remotest attention to the news recently, you will be aware that massive, disastrous flooding has been going on in multiple areas of the world all at the same time.  While I don't happen to live in one of those zones, my adopted city of Paris is definitely experiencing major flooding, more serious than the several instances that occurred when we lived there.

You may have been hearing about or seen pictures of our famous Zouave.  But you probably don't really know who he is.  So let me introduce you, as my native Parisian neighbor did to me so many years ago.

A springtime restoration

For a number of years now, we have participated in the upkeep of a camp facility.  As there is nobody local to maintain the camp, there are generally two work weeks scheduled during the year -- one in spring and one in the fall. 

As we have no full-time obligations elsewhere, Doc Leo and I usually volunteer for the whole time period.  Sometimes, we're the only ones, sometimes there's a really nice crowd.

Having been neglected since the growing season began this year, nature gave us quite a bit of exterior work to do in preparing for the summer camp season.  Here's a little of what we faced last week and how we tamed it!

PR Meet-up Monaco

Last weekend, my favorite sewing site, Pattern Review, held their annual meet-up weekend, this time in Chicago.  It must be a fabulous opportunity to meet various members who support the site and have a common interest, especially ones who are actively involved and have thus become virtual acquaintances. 

I will probably never get to find out, although I was quite sad last year when they met in Los Angeles, as I would have loved to double the trip and see all my family.

However, I did get to do the next best thing last month and participate in probably the first meet-up in Monaco!  I thought I'd share the experience as well as a little virtual tour of the second smallest country in the world.

A never-ending wardrobe collection

Once again, I just participated in another sewing contest.  While this one was also a multi-garment contest (usually there's only one item to be made during a month period), it was much tamer than the last Wardrobe Contest.  Instead of a set number of ten items, this one only required four, but you could do as many as you wanted after that.  The only requirement was that the second item had to go with the first, the third had to go with the second, etc.

Well, I got carried away, and I did a completely endless set of nine items!  So I thought I would share the process.

A beach picnic

Yesterday we had a church function held down on the beach, which was followed by a picnic.  It was a really pretty day, so I thought I'd share a little Mediterranean beauty for those who can't just pop by whenever you feel like it.

The weather was actually threatening to storm, so there was a bit of wind and periodic overcast.  I'm assuming these helped to contribute to the wave activity and the super pretty color of the water.

A Peach Sundae

Last year, I participated in a major wardrobe contest on my sewing site.  While I was putting different fabrics together from years worth of stash, I came across a whole different set that could go together nicely.  Although the contest themes change from year to year, I held onto these in case there was one again this year.  And there was! 

Last year we had six weeks to make eight or nine new garments that all went together, but this year we needed to make ten new items within a full two-month period. 

I thought I would share just how I went about the whole contest from start to finish, starting with connecting the chosen patterns with the collected fabrics, and then trying to find a catchy name that reflected the overall theme.

The Twelve Days

As a child, I heard about the 12 days of Christmas in a song every year.  But nobody ever explained what it meant.  Because my grandmother's birthday was on January 6, I at least learned that that was the twelfth day itself.  When I moved to Europe, I learned about Epiphany, the official name of the twelfth day.  More importantly, I learned about the Galette du Roi, or King's cake in English. 

As we did not end up entertaining at all during the Christmas season, we had company for both New Year's Eve and Epiphany, keeping the Christmas theme.  Here's how we did the two dinners, keeping the same menu because it was so interesting.