Vents de Bohème ~ Bohemian winds

Week-end made simple

It usually starts with the girls and their papa making 

the family tradition :: 

coffee cake and scrambled eggs

[since couple months now : i am brought to bed a nice cup of warm tea so i can linger in bed with books and magazines. really nice.

 

well, not served in those above... 

but those are Alana great playdooh creations that we are not allowed to undo.

  

jump roping :: the latest favorite of our almost 7 years old big girl

** going for a trike ride and get a new bamboo plant for our planter with her papa, for Miss Tessa...

Hoping your week end was nice and easy too.

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Hello, 

We are about to take off for a week since here in France this is "Fall break".

I simply wanted to share with you a very fast project we did Alana and I last week end.

She needed a bookshelf for her bedroom and we could not find one we liked at a decent price.

So we came up with this "home made" solution .

We had plenty wine boxes given from  our local wine shop. We had black paint and pencils and we had a little time since papa & Tessa were taking a little nap ;.)

I saw this amazing & massive bookshelf called "Assemblage" in a great store Paris and i really loved it [ not the price tag though...] 

It is designed by Seletti.

And since i totally adore those sweet children books, we decided to add them all up...

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Voila!

A bientot.

Been busy makin'

Hello !

this has been a struggling time ! September is almost over and i am barely catching up my breath. I have a lot of on-going PROJECTS happening on top of daily life & its routine/rythm.

A few pictures to share with you today :

Recycling an old pillow case once all "baby blue", then dyed in Grey. 

Now ornated with a flashy pink bird on a branch {in Tessa-Calista's bedroom}

{repurposing the back of a well loved pillow}

finally finding the time and the idea to transform an Ninou "drawing' [age 2!] into a pillow. I embroided a pop-up version of her original little scribble [still dearly kept on my wall] and printed words that Peter and I love. [extract of "Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers].

remodeling the girls outdoor playhouse with our helpers

the new banner soon in the shop

details of the new banner

Having fun with silver paint and recycled fabrics...

my [new] repurposed picnic basket as a knitting one. 

I HAD to stencil a bit to make it mine...

thrifted old school chairs in the beauty parlor...

[ Handmade ]

I realize that i mention projects that i started for some of them back in  november... and said that i will show the finish gifts.

Well, here are some of them ::

for the girls :: 

little handmade hats, coats and boots [ patterns from Citronille]  for their Camomille and Calypso .

[mini-suitcase from Monoprix]

For my love :: 

a loooong scarf [ i will say close to 160 cm ...] with "grain de riz"  stiches [this is the projects that i started back in novemeber and finish j-13 hours...]That was the very first time that i tried this stiches... and you can tell form the first 30 rows of the scarf... Oh well... handmade with my heart!

From Ophelie to Tessa Calista ::

From me to Alana ::

And the best of everything from my grand-mother [97 year-old] to her great grand daughters ::

a painting drawn from what i told her over the phone about our house that she does not know.. [and YES , we do have 3 roofs almost like this but with 2 courtyards sandwiched in. ]. Amazing.

Our cozy Christmas in a cozy mosaic slideshow!

To see the pictures BIGGER, please click on the mosaic.

A crazy month...

...since the last post [aka Thanskgiving] i realized i have not post a single one since... Well, the truth is i have been quite buzy with getting ready for Christmas [ as everyone is] but also for our BIg girl Alana, who will celebrate her 6th birthday... FOUR DAYS prior to Christmas!! Add to this a few Christmas parties at school for both girls where i volunteer for cookies and cake baking = a crazty buzy month.

But all is well now, most of my handmade gifts are made and wrapped, some are on their way to be delivered, and some are still being completed!!! Pictures will revealed here in few days...

As for now here are some pictures of this buzy time in our life!

  

Our crafty crazy "advent calendar"

Wintry wonderland in our outdoor corridor

Alana letter to Santa [ which reads in a cute phonetic "Cher Pere Noel, merci.... something i can not read.... chaussons de danse]

some handmade ornaments made by maman and...

...edible ones by the girls!

Some feather ones

From the outside :: Alana's handmade pre-Christmas  [for the advent calendar] gift for her little sister... Alana recently started calling herself 'the artist"...Apples don't fall too far from the tree...

Inside the envelop :: a nice drawing and an envelop with stickers so Tessa can decorate and personalize it ... Really thoughtful...

Last concert?

Alana had her last concert. 

I said last since we don't know yet if she will be part of it next year.

 It is actually fairly time consuming. And she thinks it is too long [one hour in a 5 year old world seems like it lasts for an eternity]. As for me it was a fairly exhausting day spent most of the time driving back and forth between school- choir-day care- choir and then finally home. It was although a real pleasure to hear her sing. To see how proud she is to be the "youngest one"in the choir. But although to realize that she is still very young :: most of the songs were pretty long and the vocabulary really elaborated for a 5 year-old. We had some cute phrases that had no real meaning [except in her own world]. But she was also to stubborn to admit that she knew she was wrong...! Anyway after those 3 last concerts [yes 3 in a row...] : she may ask to go back in couple years from now. A little more mature. But it has been a positive experience all in all.

I may try to download on 'You tube" or "daily motion" one of those performance. It is touching.

Quiet time... sometimes...

It happens sometimes. 

Some nights we can experience that moment of Bliss. 

You know :: when every thing flows and you manage to have 

a quiet activities time with no fight, no cry, no power struggle.

Alana took great pride to draw with the special pen and start embroideries. 

Magical moment when she realizes that she can actually do it just like maman.

 When Alana's project will be done [days, weeks, months?] i will turn it into a pillow for her bedroom. 

As for Tessa Calista :: she is simply enjoying playing "copycat". 

No purpose. Simply be part of our crafty family activities.

Monkey does what monkey sees

Tessa Calista in l'Atelier

Tessa Calista :: Wolfgang? Move over.. [for those of you who may have a doubt:: she CAN'T read music, nor words... but she CAN hit the any keys pretty goodand she knows you are supoosed to look at the partition and then play!]

But THIS is what she is best at :: being simply TWO

Artist in Residence :: Alana in l'Atelier