Becoming a teenage sleuth

Contests can be fun.  Sewing contests that stretch creativity can be fun.  Provided one can reach inside and pull out some semblance of creativity.   The current contest I am attempting really involves some imagination, and I didn't know if I was up to it.  However, succeeding at a challenge is rewarding, so I really put on my thinking cap.  But just how does a book provide inspiration for creating a wearable garment?  Not a costume, not a period piece, but something appropriate for wearing currently, yet reflecting a particular literary work.

While some contestants were considering abstract themes, I needed something more concrete.  And suddenly, the inspiration arrived.  I'm going back in my own world about 55 years to a favorite character who I'm taking back about 15 years earlier than that.  I'm turning myself into a 1940's Nancy Drew!

25 years later after Destination: Paris

Once upon a time, we were a totally typical American family of two parents and three offspring, all born in different states and regions of the country.  While we entertained the unreachable dream of "going abroad" since we were young marrieds, we occupied ourselves with the world we did live in.  While Doc Leo started traveling all over the US and into Canada (it was so exotic to get an emergency help phone call from Vancouver!) in the first half of the 1980's, he started spending more time in Europe than at home in the second half.  Not being Florida natives in the first place, it became quite interesting contemplating living where all the current business was.  When the company finally agreed, and gave us the choice of where to locate ourselves, the Doc picked Paris, as he thought he knew the language and it was quite centrally located with a major airport to everywhere.

Thus began an experiment on this date that actually continues until this day and probably for the rest of our lives.

A very cold princess

Having close friends who are the same ages as my own insanely old middle aged kids, I sometimes get to participate in a totally different lifestyle than my own. One of my friends has a life that really closely parallels mine 30 years ago, and I really enjoy watching her be involved in her three kids' lives.

Recently, her youngest had her fifth birthday, and it's becoming standard now for us to help her out with the birthday parties.  This particular one was quite an affair.

Embracing Age

Time marches on, and once again the earth has orbited the sun on the day I was born.  While I'm not too excited to reach the halfway point of my 60s, as that seems like a real turning point in life to me, it's better than the alternative.  So I decided to make a bigger effort to appreciate the positives of where I am in life rather than the negatives of where I'm not.

Helping me out over the whole weekend were a number of small pleasurable moments as well as a few larger ones.  I thought you might like to share a few of them with me!

On being featured

As anybody who knows me is aware, I've been sewing my whole adult life.  I really don't know how that evolved.  My grandma hand sewed me a dress she cut from a pattern out of newspaper when I was about four, but otherwise she was only known to me for crocheting.  My mother could sew and went through a spell of making us girls a lot of gathered skirts, but she must have done it while I was in school, because I don't really have memories of her doing it.  She did teach me a few basics when I was nine, but that was about it.

So what made me think as an adult that I was just going to make all my own clothes?  And who would ever have guessed back then that it would become a lifetime involvement?

A Provençal lunch

I seem to be sharing a lot about life in Provence at the moment.  As I am actually in the French Riviera area of the south, and Provence is more towards the west, I should be showing our more coastal/Alpine world.  However, both regions do get lumped together as a lifestyle, and that's what I'm currently trying to give you a glimpse into. 

While we've experienced some rather specific functions lately, we just had a quite simple afternoon barbecue with a few French friends, totally laid back, and I thought you might enjoy some of the very typical elements we managed to incorporate.  I was able to create a very local ambiance rather than some specific theme, and that was rather fun.

As Romea of course wasn't about to miss anything involving people and food, she also sends you her greetings.

A Bastille Day outing

"Play ball!" is a common US expression heard all summer long.  It usually is referring to the American game of baseball.  Here in France, the concept of playing ball is something completely different, especially down in the south.  I'm sure you've all seen the Provençal images of French men (and women) standing around throwing little metal balls at a little red wooden ball.  The game of Boules (balls) is a common sight all over France when the weather is balmy, or in the south perhaps all year round.

We just spent Bastille Day, the French national holiday, with a Boules club.

A Provençal Fourth

Last weekend we had our annual Fourth of July barbeque.  While we like to invite any American friends who aren't otherwise occupied, we enjoy sharing our national holiday with the French (and other nationalities in our lives at the time), who seem to really have fun with our traditions.

I thought I'd show you how our day went, and you can compare it with your own!

A Weekend in Provence VII

Scenic Summer Solstice

The whole region making up Provence is quite picturesque, which is perhaps why there is such sentiment for it, both within France and internationally. 

We have the pleasure of driving back and forth through a particular section at least once a year, so we are getting a bit familiar with a few areas.  I don't take the same pictures every time, but I get a chance to perfect some I didn't like previously.  Sometimes I just don't catch them nicely, sometimes it's the wrong time of day.

Here's some of what we came across on our way home on the first day of summer.

A Weekend in Provence VI

A taste of Provence

Before we headed home from our weekend adventure, there was one more activity we were involved with.  While the town had its weekly market on Saturday, it had its annual book fair on Sunday.  That provided another opportunity to take Mamie for a stroll; otherwise the fair was rather boring.  If I had been interested in books in French, it might have been more entertaining, but even my French companions weren't overly excited.

However, this being a major wine producing town, the local vintners were also present for a wine tasting.  As the book fair info states, they were there to blend culture with wine culture!