Party in Paris

It was India's twelfth birthday this week. She wanted a simple celebration with a few friends. This is where we went. The ice rink in front of the Hôtel de Ville. An impressive backdrop for what was probably the easiest birthday party I've ever planned.


Seven girls and I set off into Paris on the train after school on Friday. I'd packed snack bags to keep them going until dinner and threw in a few party favours I'd picked up in Super U that morning. The masks were a surprise hit. The girls wore them on the train, in the metro and the whole time they were skating, much to the amusement of commuters and passers by!


The rink at the Hôtel de Ville is the last of the Holiday Season's temporary ice rinks in Paris to remain open. It costs just five euros to rent skates and the crowds have gone at this time of year. After dark, lights on the roof sparkle all night long.


It was a cold night but the girls were happy skating for an hour while I watched and worked on my night photography.


People come from all over the world to see the view from our local ice rink!


Once they we were done skating we warmed up with some street snacks, churros, nutella crêpes and the biggest Barbapapa (cotton candy) I've ever seen that was inhaled before I could get my camera out to snap a photo!


India has a pretty sophisticated bunch of friends, but they couldn't resist the carousel this night, especially as they got this beautiful double decker ride all to themselves.


After the fun at the Hôtel de Ville, we braved the metro once again to get to our dinner date at Chipotle. The beauty and cuisine of Paris is lost on these girls most of the time, what they really want is a good burrito and a Dr. Pepper. This was my first visit to the Paris Chipotle which opened last May and it was the perfect place to take these girls for a birthday dinner. The servers were patient while they slowly made their choices (in English) and then changed their mind. We had a big table tucked away upstairs all to ourselves and no one cared when the noise level rose - and rose!


It's not always (ever?) easy being a parent to a sixth grader. We are finding it a challenge as we navigate this path for the first time, but on this night the girls smiled and laughed and were polite and couldn't believe it when I said yes to all their requests for treats. For my birthday girl I was happy to indulge.


And the highlight of the party? Checking out the cool shoes on the last day of les soldes!

India was born on my 28th birthday so you can do the maths and figure out that this year's number was a big one for me! Not content with Paris on my doorstep, I'm getting on a plane in a few hours to spend the weekend with Keith in Rome. It's our first visit. If you have any must do's please let us know.

Bon weekend!

We love Mondays

The girls had a couple of extra days off school this weekend while the teachers did some Professional Development. They (the girls not the teachers!) decided this would be the perfect opportunity to go to Disneyland. They pooled their pocket money, did chores without complaining and convinced me there would be no queues on a wet February Monday. They were right. The waits were short, the rain stopped and everyone had a great time. We met up with some friends, so while they took the big girls on the scary rides, Florence and I hung out in Fantasyland. She doesn't watch the Disney Channel or know who the princesses are but she was beside herself with excitement to be there! And the best thing about Disneyland Paris? Nutella Crêpes!

Happy World Nutella Day!

Quoi de neuf ?*

* What's new?


This week, I met another blogger friend for real. Virginia and her friend Mary came to visit and we spent the afternoon in picturesque Marly le Roi where we found this vieille maison. Watch out for lots more photographs from the charming streets of Marly on Virginia's blog Paris Through my Lens.


I signed Florence up for Maternelle (French Kindergarten) which she will start in September. I had expected to have to deal with a mile of French red tape, especially as we don't have some of the required documents on the registration form - no Carnet de Santé or Livret de Famille, but my substitutions were deemed perfectly acceptable and the whole registration process took me less time than it took to buy our evening baguette. I can't help feeling that was too easy - we will see when I attend the compulsory parents meeting in June! I hope she likes it. She could do with a break from looking after her family of seven!


Sacré Coeur seen from the fifth floor of Le Marché Saint-Pierre
I had a wonderful day out all by myself shopping in the fabric markets of Montmartre and somehow managed to stumble into an excellent French bistro for lunch in a sea of tourist traps at the foot of Sacré Coeur.

I needed fabric for a dress I'm making for my niece's christening. Whilst searching the web for design inspiration I stumbled across this film at Baby Dior. Le sigh...

Not sure how long that link will last so here's another film for the Paris lovers. Check out the girl in black. Her dress. Her hair. Turns out India wasn't so far from a Dior outfit at THAT Bar Mitzvah after all!



And last but not least, I am thrilled that Jillian over at Jillian in Italy interviewed me for her A Kid's Life series. I found her gorgeous blog one time when we both linked up to Love the Place you Live at Design Mom. It turns out that as well as loving where we live, we also have a love of sewing, photography and twin girls in common! It was such a pleasure and very thought provoking to answer her questions so hop on over to see what I had to say about our life in France. You might find out something you didn't already know.

Bon Weekend!

This Moment. Snow Smile

{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

Winter Wonderland

We've had some snow here in France.


A lot of snow for here and just like last year most of it arrived on Saturday night. All the better for playing in, but this being France, snow ploughs don't work on Sundays!


While we figured out how to rescue Georgia & Savannah from their Saturday night sleepover, the rest of us walked down to the market to find something for dinner.


This being France, the markets don't stop for anything (not even Christmas Day). Normally open to the elements, Sunday's temporary, snow covered roof created a cozy atmosphere for all the shoppers who had ventured out.

The hill that provides me with my weekly workout carrying home the groceries was transformed into the perfect sledging hill for India & Florence.




We did eventually get Georgia and Savannah back with plenty of time for an afternoon of snowball fights and sledging through the woods.


And after a day spent energetically outside we had our first slices of the Christmas cake that I finally got around to decorating this weekend. Well worth the wait!

Christmas Crafting

We took down our Christmas decorations this weekend, but at the risk of bringing down the tone of the neighbourhood, I think I'll leave up my Christmassy blog header for a little while longer. At least until the boulangeries stop selling galettes des rois!


The picture of the girls which I used on our 2012 Christmas Card was a big hit with the friends and family and everyone loved seeing Florence peeking through the letter O. (It was Keith's genius idea to move her to that spot after she insisted on holding her letter up in front of her face). Lots of people asked me how I made the letters so I thought I would give you an insight into my foolhardy creative process and pass on what I learned. I suggest you get started now if you want your own set for next Christmas rather than waiting until three weeks before the big day like I did!

I first saw the idea for the letters on the blog Oh Happy Day, loved it and pinned it with a note to myself to make a Noël sign for Christmas in place of the original Bonjour. Whilst trying to come up with some cute way to photograph the girls for the Christmas card photo I suddenly realized that each girl could hold a letter giving the card a suitably French flavour. If I had known then how long it would take to make the letters I would have stopped there. It ended up being a much more fiddly project than I expected, but I do love the end result so I'm glad I persevered.

The tutorial is very clear and it helps if you also check out the instructions from the large Movie marquee sign also on Oh Happy Day. I was lucky enough to find mini globe lights in Habitat and decided to make the letters with red card as I could see spray painting them as the tutorial suggests, with all that was going on in our house, would be bound to end in tears, not to mention the fact that the choice of craft supplies in France is fairly limited. I got all my supplies from Truffaut, France's one stop garden and craft centre.


The tutorial comes with a free downloadable alphabet, but after I cut out the letters I needed I realized that they were going to be too small for what I had in mind. Cue much despair and tearing out of hair. After reading through the tutorial's comments though, I figured out that the original letters were made using the font Rockwell which is thankfully installed on my computer. I created my own N, O, E & L stencils by enlarging the font to 700pt and then making them outline only to save ink. (Format>Font>Outline if you're working in Pages on a Mac like me). Once I had my red card letters cut out I started punching holes for the lights and quickly came to the conclusion that the weight of my lights was going to be too much for cardstock alone if the letters were going to survive a photo shoot and a toddler. After a not so quick trip back to Truffaut for some foamcore I stuck my cardstock letters to it and cut them out with my Exacto knife, leaving me with this rather pleasing negative that decorated my sewing room for the rest of the season.

It was now time to create the holes for the lights and this was when the project got really hard! The holes have to be big enough for the lights to go through but somehow not so big that they fall straight back out again. After a lot of trial and error, I found that the best way was to cut out a small square with the Exacto knife and then enlarge it by pushing a Sharpie pen through the hole to get the diameter I needed. This took the best part of a Sunday afternoon. In retrospect, drilling the holes might have been better but that would have required more technical set up than I could be bothered with at the time.

Once the holes were made all I had left to do was to glue the frames around them. I had expected this to be the hardest part of the whole project, but after the faff of the holes it was surprisingly straightforward. Accurate measuring and careful scoring is essential though. I couldn't get hold of Tacky Glue here in France but I found another quick drying PVA glue that worked fine for me. I wouldn't recommend using hot glue for this step as it doesn't give you enough time to work and will leave a lumpy look to the edges of the letters.


One last tip if you want to photograph the lights, turn your camera to manual if you can. The photo above was taken on automatic. The little lights are on but the exposure kills them. After stumbling across this tutorial on Pinterest I was inspired to really play around with the 'correct' exposure - overexposing to make the lights glow. The shot that made it onto the Christmas card was taken at f/4, 1/40, ISO1600.

Having triumphed as a Christmas card prop the Noël mini marquee sign spent the rest of the holidays decorating the mantlepiece of our dining room fireplace. Also the home of another of my crazy last minute Christmas crafting endeavours. A new stocking for Florence. Sometime around Christmas Eve a year ago I remembered that she didn't have a stocking like the big girls and quickly stitched together something for her. When I got it out again this year it looked decidedly wonky so on Christmas Eve I just had to make her a better one.


I made it using this Purl Bee tutorial and some Liberty and linen from my stash. It was a tough choice between these fabrics and some Anna Maria Horner velveteen, but in the end the deep red Liberty and French linen won. Bought for two completely different projects, these fabrics were meant to be together. The colours match perfectly and they feel delicious. Instead of hemming the cuff, I left the selvedge on the linen to give a fluffy cozy feel and this time I'm happy with how the stocking turned out.

Of course, Florence was much more interested in the treats she found inside on Christmas morning, but I think hanging it every year will be a nice memory of our time in France.


Another memory I'm already looking forward to unpacking next year is this red clay angel. Florence made it for us at her French Halte Garderie and it perfectly matches my treasured collection of clay angels that all the other girls made while they were in pre-school in California. We have another crafter in the family and the glitter all over the floor to prove it!

Our Twelve Days of Christmas

Well Christmas came and went in a flash with a flurry of last minute crafting, cooking and wrapping. We just about got all the decorations out before Santa came down the chimney.


My favourite addition to the collection are these santons which are a souvenir from our trip to Provence.

Just like last year, we attended the Christmas Eve service at the American Cathedral in Paris adding a tour of the lights along the Champs Elyseés on the way home.


Christmas morning starts early in our house. Several hours before sunrise which makes for grainy but excited photos.


This year Florence figured out Christmas and encouraged by her sisters was thrilled to open all her presents as quickly as possible. For the first time India received all grown up gifts of clothes and jewellery. Slightly bittersweet as she had nothing to play with on Christmas Day. Growing up is hard to do!


We ate our second turkey dinner in a month, but with traditional British extras of bread sauce, parsnips, brussels sprouts and Christmas Crackers containing paper hats that must be worn until the flaming pudding arrives.


After reviving our traditional afternoon Boxing Day Party for our Paris friends that was still going strong at midnight, champagne having replaced the mulled wine, we spent the next day packing for a short but sweet trip to California to see our friends there.


The arrival of the Paris and London New Years were noted before we officially celebrated the dropping of the ball in New York and then just about kept awake until it was New Year on the west coast!


On the must do list while were there, was bowling with best friends, seasonal ice skating, shopping at Abercrombie, dinner at Chipotle and coffee at Starbucks. Yes, we can do most of that in Paris but it's not the same and it costs twice as much!


We got back to France just in time to mark Epiphany with a Galette des Rois. This year our boulangerie's almond filled puff pastries have been voted number one in our Département. Délicieuse!


Each Galette has a feve baked inside it. The ones from our boulangerie are local street signs. We have quite a collection as the cakes are sold all the way through to the end of January and we have to support the number one baker of Kings Cakes in Hauts-de-Seine!

Tradition says that whoever finds the feve in their slice of cake is king for the day. India won, but now it's back to reality, school and laundry. Well it will be once my broken washing machine gets fixed!

Happy New Year!