{PATCHWORK - Buy it or Make it?} Noas' Libellule obsession

You had nearly forgotten my {Buy it or Make it} feature, hadn't you? It has been on my mind for - like - ever, and I never actually managed to sit down and write any {BIMI} since August! That-is-not-good. But we are back on track - at least once a month. The patchwork theme may have looked an easy one to choose, 1) because Elle France (issue 18 Nov) had a feature on it (see 1 in collage), 2) because I stalk a lot of patchwork blogs on the net, and 3) because this is something I actually do. So I tried to make it a bit less 'cushions and throws' (my kind of patchwork) and a bit more fashion (sort of).

1. Elle France feature on patchwork; 2. Alphabet Patchwork Print by RukaRuka at Etsy; 3. Patchwork belt at Beltme.co.uk; 4. Sonia Rykiel Patchwork Dress at Asos; 5. Patchwork Apron at Anthropologie; 6. Esposito shoes at Farfetch; 7. Filkin Cushion at Toast; 8. Isabel Marant shirt at Matches.

(NB: pas d'accents aujourd'hui, clavier QWERTY) .. Voila ma selection patchwork. Comme je le disais en anglais ci-dessus le patchwork c'est mon truc, je fais meme part de mes projets sur mon blog! Donc j'aurai pu vous faire des listes de coussins et autres couvertures a acheter. Mais non, ici on veut du fashion et j'ai surtout eu de la chance que la Poule a petit pas nous ait sorti sa version de la chemise d'Isabel Marant il n'y a pas bien longtemps. Je ne vais pas vous re-ecrire les instructions de la Poule, c'est beaucoup plus marrant de lire ses billets.

{Make it} Well, you have the choice for patchwork. Check out my blogroll on the right-hand side and you will find what you need. But for the 'Homemade' version of the Isabel Marant shirt, you will have to check out one of my favourite French blogs La Poule a petit pas. She used a mix of two Japanese books patterns (you will see the pics on her blog). She mixed different fabrics and sewed all the pieces together before cutting out the patterns. Honestly this is WAY out of my league - but it looks SO much like the real thing I may have to try (or it may stay in my book of ideas for a while)...

Alternatively, as it is soon to be Christmas (you have noticed, haven't you?), I thought that you really needed was a Christmas stocking. Purlbee has a super detailed tutorial for THIS Christmas stocking (and if it came with yarn at my house, I will make more than one!). I reckon you can easily change the patchwork pattern and make it a bit more advanced - if you wanted to show off, for instance..

Pour mon deuxieme {made it} je prepare Noel. Alors avec mon Christmas Stocking selon le tuto de Purlbee, je serai prete a recevoir laines, tissus et autres fournitures pour mes futurs projets... Je veux meme bien en faire plusieurs si on a besoin de plus de place pour mes cadeaux - c'est pas un probleme! Je m'adapte!

So guys, are we ready for some patchwork? Are you inspired or has another patchwork project inspired you? Let me know in your comments, I love seeing your inspirations.

Paris instantanés

We went,
we had a brilliant time,
and now we are back... and all is left are snippets of a great weekend.

But we will go back again and again... So when is the next conference I can attend?

Nous y sommes allés,
nous nous sommes bien amusés,
et nous sommes maintenant de retour... et il ne nous reste que ces petits souvernirs en photos..

Mais on y retournera encore et encore, à quand la prochaine conférence?

Inspired by a Paris quarter (or an outfit progress)

I finally managed to go to La Droguerie. I keep reading French bloggers telling me they bought their yarn, patterns, fabric etc from La Droguerie (and seeing beautiful being created). But you cannot really buy their stuff online - arrghhh. It has frustrated me for a bit of time now. So I had to make a detout on my way back from today's conference - and I managed to find the shop and yarn for a shawl (to be worn at the Xmas party?). The pattern (name) jumped at me, Le Jardin des Plantes - or where my Dad stayed when he was a student in Paris, in my favourite part of Paris. It was a sign...

Je disais donc qu'à lire tous vos blogs me vanter les laines et autres projets de la Droguerie, il me faillait moi aussi y aller pour faire mes achats - ce que j'ai finalement fait ce soir après ma conférence. Il me fallait une étole pour la Xmas party (celle dont je ne fais que parler en ce moment) - et j'ai trouvé le modèle avec le nom idéal - l'étole en dentelle Jardin des Plantes. Le Jardin des Plantes étant où P'pa a fait ses études (enfin dans le coin) et mon endroit préféré à Paris.. C'était un signe.. et me voilà repartie toute contente avec un livre de la Droguerie - (au cas où je ne reviendrais pas à Paris de si tôt) - ma laine, et mes aiguilles..

La Droguerie has an 'interesting' system going on. You have to wait for someone to serve you, and then you buy your yarn by the weight (literally they weigh it while they make it into a cake) according to the pattern that you chose ... The pattern required a mix of alpaga and 'plumette' (like kid silk). You can see the yarn is a mix of pumkin orange (Garance) and cherry red (Cochenille) - which should hopefully give the illusion of burnt orange...

Vous connaissez sûrement le système de la Droguerie.. moi non. Mais je suis très contente avec mes pelotes, toutes prêtes, d'alpaga (en garance) et de plumette (cochenille) - le tout devant donner ma couleur 'burnt orange' pour ma tenue de soirée pour la Xmas party.


All in all a very successfull first trip to la Droguerie - and only 8 days to knit the shawl - and I am not a fast knitter.. Focus, I need focus... Can I make it? Any tips on knitting faster?

Bon ben voilà, il n'y a plus qu'à... en 8 jours.. Si vous avez quelques conseils pour tricoter plus rapidement, je suis preneuse..

Colour inspiration for Christmas Party

I have been in denial about the outift - focusing instead on the benefits of a Christmas party, ie free food and booze and some serious gossip afterwards (M's HR lady famously passed out at last year's Christmas party and an ambulance had to take her away - Brilliant!). In theory, the colour palette will be deep blue and burnt orange ... When it will come to it I may chicken out and be in the black..

(Pas d'accents aujourd'hui, mon clavier anglais me fait des miseres). En Angleterre la periode des Chritmas parties commence - et celle de M se deroulera dans deux semaines. J'ai du me resoudre a finalement penser a ce que j'allais porter. pour M c'est plutot facile - exactement le meme costard que l'annee derniere. Cette annee je compte jouer la carte bleue nuit et orange brulee (tres mauvaise traduction de 'burnt orange'). Ou il serait pourrait bien que le jour j je me rabatte sur le noir, noir, et encore plus de noir - tres classe et surtout beaucoup moins flash...

2nd December is the day... All will be revealed the following week. Pour le resultat final il faudra attendre le 2 decembre.

So flashy or classy, guys?

Inspired by French films

French TV is installed at home, and I am one very happy person - except when I end up on dubbed American/British TV. I tend to lipread rather than focus on the French dialogues, and at the end I get really confused. I talk usually about my inspirations, but when an American blockbuster (ie The Tourist with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp) is inspired by a French film (Anthony Zimmer with Sophie Marceau and Yvan Attal), I reckon it deserves a post (and an excuse to talk about my French TV addiction). Here is the trailer (bad bad video, but I am sure the train scene is going to look familiar).



Nous avons finalement installé le cable français!! 13 ans ici, et c'est la première fois que j'ai accès facilement à la télé française. Oui çà me manquait - ce qui est assez surprenant comme tenu de la qualité de certains programmes, mais passons .. Tout çà pour vous dire que je viens finalement de trouver le film français à l'origine de The Tourist (çà a sûrement été traduit) avec Angelina Jolie et Johnny Depp.. Anthony Zimmer avec Sophie Marceau et Yvan Attal - les scènes du train sont très similaires. Et çà vaut le coup d'un petit clin d'oeil de ma campagne anglaise.



The French version is seriously less glam.. I was trying to think of other European films that have been turned into major Hollywood productions but sometimes you just don't know. Anything spring to mind guys? Vous vous souvenez d'autres films européens qui ont été refaits à la sauce holywoodienne - je sais qu'il y en a plein d'autres mais pas moyen de m'en souvenir?

Inspiration is everywhere..

Defi'13 on the 14th

This month's Défi'13 theme ( a challenge against the bad luck of 13th of each month) was British Style. Well, well, well that was supposed to be super easy, right! And I should have come up with tons of ideas. Wrong. Well, I did, but I did not manage to really make any of them... But M saved the day, and made my entry to Défi'13 possible. To be fair it was a joint effort: a poster I bought ages ago, with a frame totally redone by M.


Le thème de Novembre du Défi'13 c'était British Style, et honnêtement je me suis dit que c'était gagné d'avance - the fingers in the nose comme P'pa dirait (son anglais est super évolué). on habite en Grande-Bretagne, et rien que pour çà je devrais pouvoir entrer le challenge de ce mois. Non, non et re-non, çà ne s'est pas du tout passé comme çà. Je n'ai eu le temps de rien faure et j'ai bien cru ne pas pouvoir valider mon entrée ce mois-ci.. Jusqu'à hier soir.. M (mon très gentil, et surtout très patient mari) a fini de peindre le cadre pour mon poster Sherlock Holmes. Et bingo, j'avais mon entrée de Novembre..



I am sure you have seen these posters before. The WHOLE book is written in a tiny font, and the main character/theme is cut out. The frame is now silver (pine before). M customised it as follows: he sanded the frame first, applied a first coat of primer, sanded it again, second coat of primer, sanded again, applied the first coat of silver paint, sanded again, and applied the top coat. A lot of sanding involved! We bought the frame second-hand (it was during my 'buy nothing new for a month challenge' - two massive frames for 30 pounds with the passe-partouts). He also cut the passe-partout to size.

On trouve ce genre de posters partout en GB en ce moment. M a customisé le cadre (en pin à l'origine): il a poncé le cadre, puis peint une première sous-couche, ponçage, deuxième sous-couche, ponçage, première couche de peinture argenté, ponçage, et couche finale de peinture argenté. Il a également coupé le passe-partout.. Bref beaucoup de ponçage!! Mais en même temps comme on a acheté ce cadre pour 20 euros, avec le passe-partout, çà valait le coup..


My first Défi'13... Next month's theme, 'Moi froid, jamais' (or I am never cold) - in theory, it should be even easier than this month's theme... Normalement, le thème du mois de décembre c'est vraiment du gâteau - j'ai même une idée de tricot... A suivre.

Off this afternoon, cannot wait. So hope you all have a wonderful week guys! A plus!

Decisions, decisions, decisions

So you have seen them... Yes the Christmas adverts have arrived, and it is time to think about presents for my family. I try to knit/crochet a shawl for Mamy (my Grandma) every year. She is always cold, and she loves telling ALL her friends that I have made what she is wearing. So where do you go for inspiration.. yes, ravelry. Here is my selection so far (if you want to get the pattern, I queued them all on my ravelry profile). But what to choose?



I chose a mix of winter-y shawls and more spring-y. It is all colour neutral now, so I cannot get influenced by the colour - does it make it easier, not sure?

There are all very different and requiring varying degree of skills, and varying lenghts of stockinette. I really don't want to get bored otherwise, it will never happen...

And then there is the outsider: the SHRUG. I really do like it, but is it Mamy's style, not sure... I am wondering if she is not a Navdanya prayer shawl... Decisions, decisions, decisions...

So what is your favourite guys?? Have you already thought of Christmas presents - even started making them??

PS: Just ONE day to go before my holiday, I am SO excited!

7 days to go

I don't talk about my 'other life' a lot but let's just say that work has been really hectic recently (hence less blog updates unfortunately), and I cannot wait for this week to finish. As of Friday, 5pm, I will be on HOLIDAY! yeah!! Nothing fancy mind you, I did not really want to travel far and all we really need is time off. I wanted to go somewhere in the countryside with a fireplace (we don't have one at home and I am really missing it). So we are going in England... Whoohoo! I know, exciting...


November is quite special for us, as we will have been together for 7 years at the end of this month (we cannot remember the date, but it was a great night out!). And we carry on celebrating this anniversary - or at least make an effort to be together. Two years ago we went to a Landmark Trust building in Norfolk. The Landmark trust restores old buildings and rent them out for short or long breaks - raising money to buy additional buildings and restore them in turn.

They have on their books properties for 2 to 16 people. You can add your requirements (dog-friendly, building with a fireplace). And depending on when you go (for a long weekend, or a short week), it can be quite cheap. All buildings have a fully-equipped kitchen which make it much more flexible for us. I am not great at eating at defined times when I am on holiday.

They are some amazing buildings that you can rent. I am assuming that the more amazing they are the more popular they are. As we are not the most organised people, we end up booking only 2 or 3 weeks in advance, so the number of properties is quite limited - I am sure it pays to be organised.. All the pictures are from the Landmark Trust website. Amazing, non?

Off we are next Monday, and there will be no TV and no blackberry (OK, not sure whether this is going to really work for us).. Time to relax, and reflect.... and slllleeeeepppp.

What are you up in the next couple of weeks guys? Anything exciting or unusual places to see? happy Monday guys!

Currently reading

My Mum and I have always swapped books (well I tend to buy her the French translation of mine) - we have similar reading taste. We read Harry Potter at the same time, Twilight, more recently the Millenium Trilogy (the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo)... And when she gave me the French translation of the Help ('La couleur des sentiments', some translations are beyond me) and told me to read it, I should have started then and there.


All my friends have already read it and loved it. But I had just started One Day by David Nicholls (highly recommended) and forgot about the book. Plus with the strange translated title I did not make the connection straight away (had to look inisde to know it was indeed The Help). With the film showing at the cinema, it was time to start reading it... And I cannot put it down. It is brilliant! It is not too descriptive, the style is really dynamic by changing the points of view and she makes you feel like you are actually there. I have just seen the trailer and I cannot wait to see the film. Hopefully the director did justice to the book...

Off to Brussels today and will be back tomorrow, so that will make 4 hours of uninterrupted reading bliss. Cannot wait!

So guys, what have you been reading recently that you could not put down. Don't you love those types of books?