Happy Birthday, French style

Once upon a time, I was a brand new bride, working in an office.  During a lunch hour, I was reading a magazine, and I came across an ad for making pretty cakes.  Not having a clue how to bake, I thought it would be fun to get some ideas.  It only cost $1 for the idea book.  So I ordered it.  To my chagrin, it was a catalog for buying all these tools for making beautiful decorated cakes.  Not what I had in mind.

However, the brand new groom asked what it took to get the tools.  It was a catalog.  I could order from them.  So why not?  Because that's a lot of money for something I don't know how to do.  How do you know you can't do it if you don't have the tools?

So we ordered a mid-level set of tools.  And thus began a journey that continues even today, even in a country that hasn't appreciated this style or texture of celebratory dining, although it does seem to be catching on more in recent years.

The wishing well

Once upon a time, I fixed up the yard space outside the kitchen into a really nice patio.  We inherited a huge but very badly pruned olive tree smack in the middle, the front edge dropped off dangerously high to the lower level, and everything was just dirt. 

We got the tree trimmed into a reasonable shape, had a great wall built to hold in the edge, and put down patio blocks to eliminate the mud.  Installed our nice table and barbeque grill, and we began to enjoy the peaceful space.

Then we ended up ruining everything.  So depressing.  But  now it's time to make the best of what we're left with.

Anatomy of a new wardrobe

The sewing site I participate on has just run a really massive contest lasting six weeks, rather than the typical two-four week run, and I decided to give it a try.  It involved making a total of nine garments, with all items being able to coordinate with every item.  In looking over my vast collection of fabric and patterns, I saw that I could actually make this contest work for me, so why not? 

This is the initial collection I came up with and followed through with, only changing one pattern for a similar one that fit my design better.

A tribute to a friend

Once again, it's the month of May, and that means it's time to take our annual long weekend as houseguests of our friends who own a wine chateau.  I told you all about it last year in my post Fete of the wine and the vine.  If you're new to this blog, I urge you to check it out, as it's always a fun and interesting aspect of our life here.

Only, this year, the event has been canceled.  Last week, the oldest son in the family sadly suffered a heart attack and passed away at age 41.

Neighborhood nature

One of our goals for this year was to start walking around our local world on a regular basis as a means of getting more exercise in our too sedentary life (raking rocks is good for the shoulders but not the legs). 

As we live on a crest, there's not a whole lot of variety.  Thus, the activity has evolved into searching a more aggressive hike around the local hills on Sunday afternoons.  I thought I'd show you what the lower Alps can look like in springtime.

Passage of time

Anybody who ever visited us in Paris has had the pleasure of meeting our next door neighbors, who have become our dearest friends over all the years we've lived in France.  While we don't get up to Paris much anymore, they have a vacation home just a couple of hours away from us down here; thus, we still manage to see them from time to time.

Recently, we celebrated his birthday, and I thought you'd like to both see our old friends again plus see a simple little French celebration.

Unlined jacket tutorial

As a complement to the summer dress I just made as part of an ongoing sewing contest, I made this interesting casual jacket.  While I doubt I'll ever make the included dress, I really liked the design of this jacket (trying to see past the model wearing it in my favorite color,  and then I did it in the same thing!) and used this opportunity to try it out.

Again, I thought I would point out some of the techniques I used outside of the typical pattern directions.  Perhaps you may find some of them useful, too.

A summer's dress tutorial

I am in the process of sewing a nine-piece wardrobe for another contest!  After taking a sewing break for a number of years, this time around I'm trying to incorporate a lot of little extras I mostly didn't mess with in my sewing heyday when rearing an active family and trying to keep customers happy. 

I thought I would explain some of those techniques used on the dress of this pattern, Butterick 5619.  I've already made the jacket and the skirt, so now it's time to do something with the dress pattern, too.

Popular pattern participation

Remember the sewing contest I mentioned I entered?  A sewing site I follow has regular contests with various themes, most of which don't interest me or fit my personal needs.  However, this last contest involved using a specific pattern from a specific list, which was a compilation of the most popular patterns from the past three years.  I happened to have three of them, so I entered one item from each.  After a week of voting, the results are in!

Fun with a Plantain Tee

There is currently a contest in progress on the sewing site I enjoy reading, and I decided to participate with a couple of entries.  It is an interesting experience to be judged by others based on photos, so hopefully those photos show all the important information necessary to make a good judgment. 

I thought I would share a little of this particular project, because I decided to have a bit of fun with it.  The pattern is just a simple T-shirt, which I recently made for the first time, so I wanted to do something a little different this time.