Corners of our Home

This is the view of Florence's nursery from our bed. She shares a (quite large) corner of our master bedroom and when we move to France she will have her own room for the first time.

Since Florence arrived, this has been such a happy and peaceful space in the house. Before we turned it into a nursery that corner was mostly filled with laundry and forgotten toys, but now it is her place to sleep eat and play. When she wakes up in the morning she loves to open up the shutters, a huge grin spreading across her face, and recently she has started insisting on being the one to shut them again before bedtime. The beautiful bird mobile was made by my friend Noreen for my baby shower and it is a treasured possession. We hung it above the chair so that we could see it from every part of the room and Florence will watch it while she nurses. Now she likes to blow on the birds to make them fly! I have been watching the birds drift in the breeze from this vantage point since the last weeks of my pregnancy and they have just as much of a calming effect on me as they do on Florence.

We have brought each of our babies home to a different house, but Florence has lived in her first home for the longest. With only three days to go until the movers come in and start stripping away all the things that make our house a home, I wanted to share this special corner of it to record and preserve the memories.

This Moment. Sorting

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Joining in with Amanda and friends at SouleMama

A Paris Party

This weekend we hosted an early birthday celebration for Georgia and Savannah and their closest California friends.

There were homemade decorations, French treats, favourite games, mama made tutus (from Little Things to Sew), crepes for dinner, perfect gifts and pink cake all finished off with their first sleepover.

Lots of fun and lots of noise!

This Moment. Splash!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Joining in with Amanda and friends at SouleMama

Discovering Treasures

With only a month until we move Keith and I spent the whole of last week sorting through the contents of our garage, deciding what we want to keep, what we should donate and what we should simply throw away. Of course this was the week the temperature climbed to 100+ every day which wasn't exactly ideal conditions for this kind of work but we carried on regardless and by the end of the week definite progress had been made!



An unexpected benefit of all this time in the garage (in addition to the above space now being empty) was the opportunity for the family to spend time together. With no planned activities the big girls still managed to find plenty to entertain them.



They set up an orange juice stand using the last of the oranges from our tree and furnished it with stuff they found in the garage.





Georgia and Savannah finally got confident riding their bikes without training wheels...

...and Florence discovered there's a bike for her!

I also found some unexpected 'treasures' of my own.



I think my Dad gave me this sewing machine tea pot for Christmas a long time ago. It's not exactly my style but it will look cute on a shelf in my future sewing room!



And why on earth have we kept this puzzle of the Eiffel Tower in a box in the garage since before the children were born?! Maybe waiting until it was really relevant to our lives? The girls have had fun putting it together anyway.



And this is another toy that I've seen once every five years when I've done a sort out and thought it might be useful one day. Well now its day has arrived!

Much slower progress is being made this week inside as I tackle all the closets on my own, but I'm happy to report that today I filled six black garbage sacks of rejects from my clothes closet. Really, we should do this more often!

Little Luxuries. Love

I took a welcome break this morning from a week of packing to stitch the binding onto this blanket for Savannah. It's an Anna Maria Horner Little Luxuries Receiving Blanket. I made one for Florence a few months ago as a stroller blanket and discovered that it made the most incredibly comfortable travel blanket when it kept us both warm and cozy while she sat on my knee on the flight to Paris last month. I decided then that I should make one for everyone in the family - that's five more! The big girls picked out the colors they liked from the selection of project packs at the AMH shop and lucky for me they went on sale just as I was about to order them! Making five new blankets, however simple, while you're trying to get organized to move to another country is a bit ambitious so I knew I had to start with Savannah's as she hates the "itchy" airline seats and blankets. There is certainly nothing itchy about these gorgeous blankets. As everyone says, AMH voile is buttery soft and cool to the touch and the flannel is so cozy. It's just thick enough and big enough to keep your lap warm while you're travelling and it rolls up nice and small so you can stuff it in your bag with all the rest of your gear.


Action shot by Savannah!

The project pack doesn't come with instructions but it's easy to put together especially if you are used to constructing quilts. I always make my bias binding using the continuous binding strip technique which I think makes the voile much easier to handle. You can make as much as you need with a 19 inch square and still have some left over for another project. I decided to hand finish the binding partly to add visual interest and also because I've never had much luck machine stitching bias bindings! It's not the strongest finish but I love the way it looks and slowing down to hand stitch really makes you appreciate the beauty of the fabric design.

Savannah was sitting next to me as I put in the last stitch and she couldn't believe how quickly it was hers. I love that her first instinct was to turn it into a cape...







...and it passed the "itchy" test with flying colors!

This Moment. Piano Practice.

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Joining in with Amanda and friends at SouleMama

Fun on the Fourth

Being British, the Fourth of July isn't exactly our party! I remember our first Fourth, just a month after we arrived to live in the USA, when we really had no idea what we should do for the day and not yet having made any friends to celebrate with we ended up having a slightly pathetic barbecue on the balcony of our apartment and feeling like we had gatecrashed the day. Over the years we have attended city parades, hosted parties for British and American friends and last year, spent the long weekend camping. My favorite way to celebrate though, has been to participate in the community parade through the local neighborhood. It's low key and fun and everyone can get involved.




We got free lemonade from a friendly neighbor...

...and Florence enjoyed her all American snack at the pool party!



Later we made our own Fourth of July feast at home. Home made burgers, red, white and blue potatoes and delicious corn from our CSA box. Finished off, of course, with smores!



Happy day!

This Moment. Exhausted!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Joining in with Amanda and friends at SouleMama