January sunrise in Normandy.

Last Monday morning, as I was preparing to link my mosaic to Mary's blog the little red house, I happened to look up and notice a beautiful light coming through the French doors that lead to the front garden.
Whilst I had been travelling through blogland the sun had been making her entrance, and she was coming up in a blaze of glory.
I quickly grabbed my Nikon camera and headed outdoors to capture the moment.

January sunrise in Normandy

Thanks to The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday

and also

Mary for Mosaic Monday.

Click on the links above, or on the sidebar buttons, to participate in these weekly events.



Introducing........la faience brocante.

As you know my word for 2011 is "de-clutter" and so begins my exciting new venture.
I am so thrilled to finally be able to tell you my surprise.
After mulling it over for several months I've finally opened an Etsy shop "la faience brocante".

The clue was in my mosaic on Monday.
I'll be stocking the shelves with "les jolies choses".
French faience will be the star attraction with Quimper pieces to the fore.
However, you'll also find majolica, enamelware, lithographs and other vintage French items that I have gathered together over the years.
The French actually have a word to describe a person who loves to hunt out antique and vintage treasures at flea markets, vide greniers, brocantes and auction houses.
Je suis un "Chiner".
I love nothing more than to "chine" and Mr B and I, with dogs in tow, have travelled far and wide uncovering wonderful things.
Oh! those early morning starts at Le Mans or Le Bourget markets!
The exchange of banter with Maître Bailleul at our local Hôtel de Ventes in Bayeux, who would often berate his clientele with "les Anglais sont la" if he thought there was a chance we might steal a bargain from under their noses.
I hope you'll enjoy browsing through my Etsy brocante, where perhaps you'll discover a French souvenir for your home.
You'll find a link on the sidebar.
Bon chine!

New beginning?

la faience brocante

Linking this post to Mary's fabulous Mosaic Monday @the little red house why not call in at Mary's to see who else is sharing their collages this week? It's a great place to see amazing mosaic creations from around the world.

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" ~ Seneca.

Last week I told you about my word for 2011 - declutter, and I've thrown myself into the project with wild abandon.
I began by clearing out my wardrobe.
Really Margaret, how many "gardening" sweats and T's does a girl need?
Will also need to take a trip to the local Emmaus collection point very soon with the items that didn't pass the 6 month rule.
During the winter months, when it just gets too chilly for me to sit up in the grenier (my attic office/craft room) and freeze, I just plop myself (avec laptop) down in front of the wood burner in the sitting room to blog.
However, the sun was out today and I decided to tidy away all the "stuff" that had accumulated whilst planning/organising the Quimper Club's annual meeting in Savannah last October.
Out it all went, whee!
I'll have plenty of space and time now to start scrappin' again. Chouette!
After twelfth night, when all the Christmas deco had been put away, it was time to begin filling all the empty spaces on the library and dining room shelves and tabletops and mantlepieces, throughout the house.
And that made me stop and pause.
Just what was I going to place out on display, what goes and what stays?
Now, I can hear you all thinking "she's rambling on today" and also probably "what has any of this got to do with that great mosaic, and what is la faience brocante?"
Well, come a little closer and I'll whisper.............................................soon!

Mosaic Monday.

2011 has got off to a very good start here at Le Presbytere with fine weather, good company and books to read by the fire.

I'm not a great believer in "New Years Resolutions" any more. I used to be.

Every year I would resolve to lose weight; excercise more; drink just one glass of wine with dinner; volunteer more; improve my language skills etc, etc.

But as I get older I realise that, although I may be overweight, I like me this way.

Daily walks with Ben are probably enough excercise for me, (although I have promised to get back on the WiiFit very soon).

That my husband is a gourmand, a very good cook and knows a bit about fine wines too, so why should I deprive him of convivial company at dinner?

As for volunteering..........................I think I'm just a bit volunteered out after all my involvement with the QCI during the last two years, although I wouldn't rule out some other type of charity work in the future.

So, I decided no Resolutions, but everyone needs a goal to aim for and I think I have come up with something to focus on in 2011.

My word for the year?
De-clutter!

Not sure if this is just a word, I feel it could become my mantra for the next twelve months.

So, with this new urge upon me I gave my full attention, this afternoon, to my Photo editing program and cleared 100's of photographs from my memory stick and upteen folders on my PC.
There's something so cathartic about de cluttering, but also what fun it has been to "review" 2010 through my photographs.

I've created several collages from some of my favourites. Double click on any of the collages for a closer look.

Some you may have seen before as they have appeared in previous posts.
I'm not quite sure but I think I have one from each month.

I'm joining Mary at the little red house for 2011's first Mosaic Monday.
Mary has created a wonderful calendar for the New Year, click on the link here or on my sidebar to see it and other bloggers participating this week.

Happy New Year. Here comes 2011.

To quote the late, great John Lennon..................

Let's make it a good one without any fear.............................

Happy New Year.

See you in 2011.

Fall Reading Challenge 2010. Update.

Back at the beginning of October I joined in with a Southern Daydreamers Fall Reading Challenge and I'm back today to let you know how I got on.

This was my original list:

Tales Of Passion, Tales Of Woe - Sandra Gulland. (Book 2 in the Josephine Trilogy). No.
The White Queen - Phillipa Gregory. (Elizabeth Woodville -17th century Queen of England) Yes.
A thoroughly good read, and I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series "The Red Queen", which DH bought me for Christmas.

Getting Out of The House - Isla Dewar. Yes.
A so-so coming of age book, didn't thrill me but it passed an hour or two.
breaking her fall - Stephen Goodwin. Yes.
A difficult one for me this, the main character didn't "grab me" and I found the subject matter a little disturbing. Perhaps because I'm not a parent?
Mercy - Jodi Picoult. No.
Just Between Us - Cathy Kelly. No.
the Return - Victoria Hislop. Yes, recommend.
A very interesting book, set in two time periods going back & forth throughout the narrative, I style that I don't normally enjoy. To my shame I knew nothing at all about 1930's Spain and the Civil War before opening this book. From Amazon
"Beneath the majestic towers of the Alhambra, Granada’s cobbled streets resonate with music and secrets. Sonia Cameron knows nothing of the city’s shocking past; she is here to dance. But in a quiet café, a chance conversation and an intriguing collection of old photographs draw her into the extraordinary tale of Spain’s devastating civil war.

Seventy years earlier, the café is home to the close-knit Ramírez family. In 1936, an army coup led by Franco shatters the country’s fragile peace, and in the heart of Granada the family witnesses the worst atrocities of conflict. Divided by politics and tragedy, everyone must take a side, fighting a personal battle as Spain rips itself apart."

The Killing Floor & 61 Hours - Lee Child. What do you think?
DH is sitting on the couch, beside me as I blog, reading "Worth Dying For", which  he snaffled from under the tree before I could!

Wild Comfort - Kathleen Dean Moore. No.
A Taste of My Life - Raymond Blanc. Sort of, recommend for foodies.
I'm keeping this book on my bedside table to dip in and out of. I'm enjoying reading about his early years in France learning culinary skills from Maman Blanc and to love a "potager" and all it's bounty, from Papa Blanc. Raymond Blanc is a strong protaganist of seasonal cooking and of course named his famous Oxfordshire hotel "Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons" . I would love to dine in the Restaurant at the Manoir one day.

Well, I managed 6 out of 11, not bad I suppose.

But I did read some others that weren't on the list.
I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of The Help by Katheryn Stockett, many months after most of you read it I know, but wow, what a great book.

Well worth the wait and I highly recommend that you read it too, if you haven't already.

 

A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg was another book which I enjoyed in the run up to Christmas, I suppose it should  have been on the original list, since I reread it every year in December!

DH surprised me with the new Fannie Flagg book for Christmas, I didn't even know there was a new Fannie Flagg!

"I still Dream About You" and the heroine's name is Maggie!
From Amazon:
Meet Maggie Fortenberry. To others, her life seems pretty much perfect – she’s beautiful, charming and successful, just as you’d expect of a former Miss Alabama. But, in fact, Maggie is perfectly miserable. By now she should have been living in one of the elegant houses on Red Mountain with the adoring husband and 2.5 children. Instead, she makes a living selling that dream to others – through her estate agency Red Mountain Realty, where lately business has been going from bad to worse. But just as Maggie is about to give up hope, she comes up with the perfect plan. And that’s when strange things start happening. As Maggie finds herself catapulted into one surprising discovery after another, she learns valuable lessons about the nature of friendship, the challenges of modern life and the dangers of impossible dreams. She also learns that everybody, dead or alive, has at least one little secret . . .
I Still Dream About You is a delectable romp of a novel. Part murder mystery, part feel-good comedy, it bursts with the Southern charm and good, old-fashioned wisdom that have become Fannie Flagg’s hallmark worldwide.

Two other books that I received for Christmas were the new Jilly Cooper "Jump" and "One Day" by David Nicholls, so if Susan issues another Reading Challenge for Spring 2011 I'll have plenty of books to join in with.
I'd love to hear about the books you've been reading this season and the new ones that Santa left under the tree for you.
Just jot them down in a comment below.

The snow is back and are we glad to be home once more!

Last week we decided to take a pre Christmas break and visit the port city of Brest, Brittany.
Our main reason for going was to attend the December, Thierry-Lannon & Assoc., sale of Quimper held at the Port de Plaisance de l'Hotel des Ventes.
If you would like to hear more about the auction and see which treasure came home with me, click here to visit the Quimper Club International blog.

Traffic at a standstill outside of Morlaix, Brittany.

We had booked three nights at the ultra moderne Hotel Oceania in the city centre, close to all the shops, restaurants and bars and just a short walk away from the Place where each year they hold a Bavarian style Christmas market.

However, once again the weather interfered with our plans and on Thursday, after the auction had ended, we decided that we would leave for home the next morning.
The TV news was full of reports about the heavy snow fall expected in the region and we wanted to be home for Christmas!!

We left Brest around 9.00am on Friday and pretty soon ran into the bad weather.

Several times the autoroute traffic was down to one lane and the "poids lourdes"/HGV's were having a terrible time of it.

Drivers on the opposite side weren't faring much better than us.

We took a quick break at McDo's in St. Briec for a burger and coffee (BTW, McDo's coffee in France is wonderful!) then hit the road again.

At the Les Routiers just outside of Torigni, we met up with Steve an English guy who has a thriving business selling English food and supplies, to ex-pat's like us who sometimes yearn for a taste of good old Blighty.

Mirror reflections in the library.

Thank goodness he made it through the blizzard, we now have a butterflied turkey, sausagemeat, double cream, a Christmas pud and many, many more treats to make the season jolly and bright.
We were surprised to see that the snow had not yet made it to our little village when we arrived home around 5.00 pm but shortly after, it did arrive "big time" and hasn't stopped falling since.