Paint or not?

I found this cute little bedside table for MK at a local thrift shop.

Can't decide if to paint it or not, we shall wait and see. Marie-Kate loves it.

Oh yes, it only cost 10euros!

(I haven't yet painted the radiator)

1st December

One of my most fond memories from Christmas as a child was waiting for Mr and Mrs Christmas to be unpacked for another year. Christmas only began when they were wound up for the first time to turn around to music, it was magical. I wasn't allowed to wind them up though.

Mum gave me Mr and Mrs Christmas during one of my recent visits back in the UK. Apparently this eldery couple date back to the early 50's, even if they are a little kitch, I still love them so, and my children do too. And guess what, I let my children wind them up so they can see them turn around as if they were dancing.

Yesterday we decorated the Christmas tree. We seem to have lost a box of decorations between Sanary and here so the girls made some salt dough stars and snowball shapes and then painted them gold or silver or both.

When Charlotte and Gaby were younger (5 and nearly 1) they made an angel for the top of the tree and there is always a fight about who should put it on the top of the tree ( our teenagers excluded for the first time this year, way too grown up for that, in their opinion...sniff, sad really).

This year Alexis had the honor. Our tree is so tall that he needed a chair and a papa to reach the top!

Snowy House

It's been threatening to snow all morning and much to the children's delight after lunch it began(not enough to make a snowman use yet, maybe it might even stop...).

Our house is right in the heart of the village, this is a view from the garden looking down on it. On the right is our future summer kitchen. Where the roof is lower on far left hand-side of the house, you can just make out the triangle topped shutter , well, this will be our future studio, it's actually very big (36m2), but it's the last thing on our lonnnggg list.

In our garden we have two outside caves that were used (this one the sure) to store beetroot).

The other cave is behind that wall, I find this one a little creepy.

Don't suppose we'll be dining outside for a while.

Cat

Gaby's cat drawn in Art class, she got a 17, I think she did great.

Qu'en penses-tu Dédee?

Christmas Spirit

Gaby and Marie-Kate made our advent calendar this evening (the walls are bare still as we haven't had time to go to Brittany to pick-up all our art work from Mamie and Papy's...besides that, probably better off painting before we get them back).

And then papa brought back the 2m80 Christmas tree, tomorrow we will have to go and find the decorations in the basement.

J'ai Froid

View from stairs of the little bit of the garden (there's a well behind the low stone wall)

It snowed a little during the night, only a little though, much to the children's disappointment.

It's really cold and my children who aren't used to such cold weather are now faced with having to wear hats and gloves, my my what fun I had trying to get Marie-Kate to wear them for school...boy she's so stubborn

The temperature hasn't risen above -2°c all day.

M-K's blue bedroom

The bedroom wasn't finished on Friday, I was way too optimistic. After a weekend of getting the glue off the walls, cleaning et cetera....painting all Sunday and Monday it was time to seal the wood. Still lots of finishing touches to make like paint the bookcase, hang up art, and school board ( I found on of those school blackboard's which in fact is green in a second hand store, which is made up of three parts, the biggest part is in the entrance and the two others which are smaller will go in MK's and Gaby's bedroom.

I'm not going to paint the desk, luckily, M-K likes it as it is, too.

More photos when the floor is completely dry.