this is ... my favourite book

It is always a difficult task to choose just one favourite. (Olive seems to have inherited my indecision. If we offer her more than one thing at a time she hesitates for the longest time, hand poised mid-air.)

I was a real book worm as a child and have gone through many favourites over the years but have lost any interest in fiction more recently. I can't quite see the point of making up a story when real life and the present are so much more important and compelling. So I knew that my curent favourite would be non-fiction - most likely art or craft - but to find out which, I had to go to the book shelves and see which one I most wanted to hold. And the winner?

The Taschen 25th anniversary edition of Hundertwasser by Harry Rand. I have blogged about Hundertwasser's architecture already but hadn't mentioned how much I love his paintings and prints too. All those beautiful colours and sinuous lines. Makes my toes wiggle with pleasure just to think about it.





"This is" meme brought to you by three buttons; this week's topic was by Dees of Daisy in La La Land.

TGIF - thank god it's finished!

You may remember that quite some time ago, I vowed to get serious about my UFOs. They had spilled out of the "finishing" box and onto my desk and the floor, where they had taken up permanent residence.

This was one of the worst: a knitted sampler blanket that I started after Millie (my first baby) died to provide myself with a distraction on the train to work each day instead of crying the whole way. It did prove to be good therapy for me, I used up most of my leftover yarns and I learnt lots of new stitches along the way but

I ran out of enthusiasm when it came to sewing all of the samples together, which instead spent close to two years in a pile on the living room floor.


Until now!



I am so happy to have it finished.

a week of Frenchness - snow domes

One last French contribution before the week is out. Because I can't resist the opportunity to show off a couple more of my beloved snow domes.



These are bee-yoo-tiful. Love the blue background, 3D plastic innards, moving parts and snow - not just cheapo glitter.

a week of Frenchness 2

Continuing with the week of Frenchness being held at Meet Me At Mikes: Some French goodies on etsy that caught my eye.

Basket of tiny apple softies from La Pomme.

Little Red Riding Hood bag from Speculoos.

Digitally mixed painting/photogrph from labokoff.

And all in the colours of the French flag, too!

a week of Frenchness - crepes

I have been inspired by The Lark to join in the week of Frenchness being hosted by Lily and Agathe over at Meet Me At Mikes.


So pretty. I will have sweet dreams tonight :)

pint-sized parties

After a very shaky beginning last weekend when I came down with gastro on Olive's first birthday and had to postpone her party (I didn't even remember to sing her happy birthday, poor poppet), we finally got our act together this weekend. So on Saturday we went to our nephew's third birthday party in a play centre - very noisy but fun. I gave him a pencil roll, which I really enjoyed making. Maybe because of the anal-retentive suggestion that you always have to line your pencils up according to the colour wheel.



And today was the grand event, an afternoon tea party for Olive in our back yard. She has no idea that the fuss was all for her but did enjoy having so many people and so much food around. Now, where to store all of her new toys?

this is ... my latest discovery

My latest discovery was a rats nest in the back yard. On the one hand, I was horrified, but on the other, the four(!) rats that I saw scampering about were so cute! I'm not sure what to do about them yet. None of the humane traps I have found work and I can't cut off their food supply because they are stealing from the chickens, who still need to be fed. Any suggestions?

A more blog-friendly discovery of late was StumbleUpon. It randomly takes you to websites based on your interests and feedback that you give. And it actually works! So StumbleUpon has in turn led me to lots of interesting new discoveries. Like this cute hedgehog softie; 10,000 sheep; dirty car art - paintings made using the dust on car windows; and and amazingly intricate 3D papercutting by Peter Callesen.