Dear Papa Noël

As pressure builds to get on with my Christmas shopping, and my lists of things to do just seem to become longer and longer, I've been cruising around some of my favourite blogs putting together a wish list - just for me!   Here are some goodies that caught my eye, all ftting in to my most comfortable colours, and most of them to hang on the wall.   Being a practical sort of a gal, artwork has always been high on my list of daily priorities!  

A painting from Christina at Greige for the wall above my computer,
something I'd love to look at each day

some pretty  bottles from Anne-Marie at Nada Farm, to complement some
I have on  a shelf in the kitchen - love the blue reflection in the old glass

this beautifully old fashioned  oil painting from Savvy City Farmer 

an elegant decanter to use at my dinners, from Terri at Il Tuo Tesoro and La Dolfina

this great tree picture from Erin's Art and Gardens

a cleverly disguised  19C sewing case from Debra at  Oreillers and Acquired Objects

this delicate Fern print by Kerri at Driftwood Interiors

a big soothing flat weave rug from Chania at Razmataz

A simple bird drawing from Holly at  Quatrefoil Designs and Things That Inspire

and  a fun drawing by David at An Illustrated Life reminding me of 

how many times I've fallen off a horse!

I could continue like this for a long long time, there are so many beautiful things

out there, but le Père Noël might lose patience!

Have you written to Papa Noël telling him how good you've been this year!?

le brunch et le food!

Well the house is back to normal, the children are back to school for their last week before the holidays, and we had a lovely day yesterday.  I really enjoy the brunch/open house idea.  Food laid out as a buffet, friends free to come and go at whatever time suits them, children running between food, ball in the garden or a game in a room upstairs.

I broke a golden rule yesterday and tried a new recipe, without testing it first 'en famille'.  I was really happy with the result, thought you might like to know about it.  (sorry the pictures aren't brilliant).

 It's an apple and blueberry or blackberry streusel cake, that is the easiest thing in the world to do.

Throw into your mixer 250g / 9oz / 2 cups plain flour, 125g / 4.5oz / 1 cup  sugar, 250g / 9oz / 2 cups  cold butter, and a pinch of salt.  This will make a crumbly mixture.

Peel and dice 3 apples, and place in a bowl with 250g / 9oz / 2 cups of blackberries or blueberries, add several tablespoons of sugar and swirl around.

Grease and line an 8"/22 cm cake tin (not loose based as this cake is juicy!) leaving 'handles' of greaseproof or waxed paper running across the base and up the sides for easy cake removal.

Simply put half the mixture into the base of the tin, pour in the fruit and sugar then the other half of the crumble mix.  It will look very high, but will sink down while cooking then cooling.  Bake at 180C for an hour.

I let it cool down, then popped in into the fridge for a couple of hours so that the juices solidified a little. 

le brunch

Done!  Great fun!   A bit tired to talk, the day's been long, up at 4, last guests left at 7, list checked
off,  a ton of food, ....  I'll tell you more tomorrow!  Bonne nuit!

le green mantel and other preparations

Now I know that some of you want pictures of F-O-O-D ! , and it's not that I'm against the idea, but every time I go to take a picture of a dish I'm preparing, my kitchen looks a tip again!!  I promise you, they will come, by the beginning of the week you'll be fed up with pictures of our party!

In the meantime, my take on a mantel.

We have two fireplaces downstairs, one in the living room and a huge one in the dining room.  In the living room I keep the decoration pretty calm because the tree is right next to it, but in the dining room I like a little greenery or verdure as we say here.  This is how I go about decorating the mantel.

 As you can see from this not very pretty photo, The fireplace is in painted brick and the mantel in wood.  I hammer a few nails into the wood mantel (in places where the holes won't show!) and stretch chicken wire along the whole length.

I like to use ivy to decorate this mantel.  We have loads in the garden, and it has pretty black berries at this time of year.  I push the branches through the wire, starting at the outer edges.  Half way through it looks like this, but it's important to keep going until the wire disappears completely.

I add a couple of bunches of gold berries and hang up the stockings I made last year from antique tapestry.  That's about it, I may add a litte more bling this evening, have to wait ot see it in the softer light.

candle chandelier

As I work around the house - in the kitchen cooking - then off doing some more decorating, just took a few snaps of the chandelier in the dining room.  We use real candles over our dining table, sounds impractical but is actually no big deal.

The chandelier I have at present is made of a rust brown metal, with soft curves and arabesques.  At this time of year I like to dress it up.  This year I just hung a few baubles and pampilles in colours that fit the room.  Added a few strands of ivy, and that's that.

Gotta go, something's smelling cooked!

beaucoup de choses a faire - too much to do

We'll be nearly fifty people here for our 'all-day' brunch on sunday - no, my house is not that big, I've just invited too many people as usual, so we'll have to muddle through and that will be half the fun of it.

My kitchen looks like a bomb just hit it, and no, you're not getting a picture of that..... a girl has her pride.

Took the children to school this morning and was rewarded with this sunrise over fresh snow.

I'm afraid that's all I have time for today, but I'll soon be sharing our preparations for Sunday - if you lived closer I'd call for help and we could chat in the kitchen while I cook!

This picture may look better if you click on it!

chansons de noel -a french carol service

Who could possibly expect .... on a cold winter night .... to run into a bunch of angels, shepherds and wise men ..... crammed into a jewel of a little country church ....  singing a mixture of english and french christmas carols!

The strangest things can happen in Normandy!

Mille merci to Bernadette of La Chaumiere in Acquigny, who for the past 

ten years has found the time and the energy to organise this most surprising 

of bilingual, bi-cultural, multi-musical  happenings.

Un petit moment de bonheur.