M-K's Chocolate Orange nibbles

 Marie-Kate receives Astrapi, a magazine for children, once a fortnight (thanks to her Mamie & Papy) and most of the time there's a recipe to do, and this time, this was it.
Organic orange peel, cooked and dried, then dipped in dark chocolate, then left to harden.

They were good, really good in fact and we'll be making some more this weekend.

Corner of Marie-Kate's room

Mari-Kate has a new chair, this time not a thrift shop find but a Skruvsta chair from Ikea. She has a new desk too, again from Ikea.  Her desk gets pretty messy, but she loves it, and actually does her homework here. She chose the chair, she loves it, I so do I.

I took this photo last night, Marie-Kate is under her duvet, fast asleep. She still has her mushroom night light. She tends to look after her things, like her sister Charlotte. MK is by far the tidiest child in the family, this is about as messy as it gets.

 Alexis and Marie Kate prepared these apéritifs today, for everyone, all by themselves, including for Gaby's friends who have slept over this weekend.  There's  a  magazine on the photo with a recipe that the children have been preparing, "chocolate oranges" that we'll finish together tomorrow, as after cooking some orange peel,changing the water 3 times, we have to let the peel dry out for 24 hours.  A game of patience for Alexis and MK.

In the meantime, Alain , we found some good Japanese Whisky in Monoprix, and it's good.

Christmas Gift List

 I have been busy Christmas shopping.  I actually started in August, by buying three paintings (one oil and two water colours) from a small gallery in Port Louis in Brittany. Since then I have slowly gathering other presents, mostly books and posters for now.

 

Alexis likes humorous books, so Tom Gates "C'est Moi" and the second book from this collection should be a success. The next two books haven't yet been bought, as they are for me and it's to remind me to buy them once I have finished "Blanche Neige Doit Mourir", which I just love, but get little time to read. 
Tales For Very Picky Eaters, won the Geisel Award this year, and although this is aimed a young readers, I just couldn't resist for Alexis, who is the pickiest eater in France if not the world.  Then there's the Guinness World Records 2013, Charlotte's crazy for these, never bought one before, but just this once...

 First another book for me, then a Carpe Diem calendar for Marie-Kate,each day just tears off like a stamp, this will go next to her new desk.  Breaking Stalin's Nose is a Newberry Honors winner this year and I hope Alexis will like it

And if Alexis doesn't like the last book, I know that he's going to love this Piggy Bank.


From here I've been shopping again after being delighted with all previous posters.
The Beer one is for Oliver, who since starting business school, certainly knows how to party and spend far too much money.  Gabrielle has space on her will for A Visual Compendium of Notable Haircuts in Hollywood, this poster is really super.




I found this night light and I love it, most likely for Alexis would has broken his last two lamps. When you finish reading for the night, you pop your book, open on the page for next time.
The Insanely  Great History of Apple is a present for Alain, this is a limited edition print, I think it's numbered 534 out of 1000 (have to check).




To wrap up for now, a new t-shirt for Alain (Pop Chart Lab again) and finally after coveting this Mathieu Challières lamp for so long, guess what...one has been ordered, so I am one very happy bunny.

A few corners of our local Thrift Shop

 Welcome to "Troc de France", a place I love to visit, despite how cold it is at this time of year, you just have to remember to dress accordingly...like you are visiting the North pole.

I always started off by checking out the furniture and finish off here, in the bric à brac section.

There's always a treasure to be found, and most time for less than a couple of euros. Today I found a retro sugar dispenser for 2 euros.

More than half of the furniture come from thrift shops, before I used to buy on Ebay (last big buy was our  1960's butcher's block, our Conran couch and of course our Eames Lounge Chair).  One thing's for sure, I just love thrifting. 

Thrift shop find of the week/month

Every Saturday we drive MK to her pony club, most Saturday's we do the grocery shopping and some Saturday's we go and visit our local thrift shop.  Ok today we did the first and the third, shopping can wait.

Look what we found, an enormous mirror. We bought it of course, especially as it only cost 56 euros.  Boy it was heavy to carry.

For now it's new home is in the entrance hall and for now it will stay.  One thing is sure, we will never try and hang this thing.  

Miss Pony

Things are settling into place here, it's taken three months, but we are getting there.  The children have been helping a lot around the house, especially Charlotte, which is great, homework gets done before we get home, unless it's too difficult. 

Weekend's are always busy, and Marie-Kate is really loving her  horse-riding club, granted she's still small enough to ride a pony.  Today she was first to arrive and she rode Gallopy today. One day maybe she'll let me take a photo of her, but for now, this is the best I could get.