two cute little pouches

Over the years, I made many pouches and make-up bags,

who doesn't love little zipped containers, right?!

So of course I made a few more,

as usual mostly as gifts for girlfriends and family members.

For these 2 pouches, I used a retired pattern from Michelle Patterns :  the inset zip clutch & pouch.

I have used some of her patterns before: the dumpling and the grocery bag,

always with great success.

This pattern has a neat inset zipper, making the top of the pouch very clean and professional looking.

I had fun matching a solid with a fun print, even if it made for not so perfect top-stitching!

Someday I need to make one for myself!

Happy sewing!

dolls and horses at the stable

Hello there, we are off to the stable,

would you like to come and join us?

Since you last saw the ranch, we added a rope at the entrance,

there were too many risks of horses running away.

 Well, come on in,

there is a lot of space here, and it is full of friends!

Our 2 horses Diamond and Gem are enjoying all the attention the girls are giving them,
Gem especially appreciates the carrots Camille brought him.

The girls like to spend some time in the club-house-part of the stable,
showing off their trophy,
Miss C. needs to make some more to complete the look,
may be some ribbons?

The hay stack can also be used for resting,

taking care of horses is a lot of work!

Camille, our newest friend from France, is Polly's little sister,

(the girl with the cowboy hat)

she has the same blond hair and blue eyes,

it must run in the family!

Rebecca is an animal lover (just like Miss C.)

and supervises Camille and Gem's interactions,

foal can be so unpredictable.

We hope you enjoyed your day with us,

at the stable,

it is so much fun to hang out there and play with the horses.

See you here back soon!

happy day!

doll stable/barn: how to

Miss C loves horses,

noting unusual for a girl her age,

she would love to ride horses and hang out at a stable,

it is financial impossible, but I think I made it possible for her

to do it by proxy, through her dolls!

They love horses too, we have a full horse and a quarter horse,

they have a ranch to run free,

well now the horses have a place to rest

and the dolls a place to hang out.

Here is Miss C.'s birthday present:

a doll stable/barn.

It all started with Ana White's plan for a horse stable,

I admired it for a while, even considering building, but it was quite large,

and decided against it last winter.

Ana White's stable

Well this summer, it is still as large as before,

but that did not stop me, I actually made it even bigger!

I figure it would be nice to not only have a place for the horses,

but also some space for the accessories and the girls.

I also felt it was too opened and needed some enclosure.

I was also inspired by this barn from Payne Street Doll Boutique

Barn from Payne street doll boutique

So I followed Ana's directions and built 3 trusses out of 1x2s,

well almost I do not have a good tool for pocket holes,

so I had to use some metallic L shape to attach the roof part to the wall parts.

After building these 3 trusses, I used a 36" x 19" piece of 1/4" plywood for the back.

I skipped step 2 from Ana's plan.

I also added some plywood to the back of one of the truss to make a solid wall.

While I was building it I also added a shelf to the wall.

I then attached the last wall to the back.

Here what the structure looked like, the horse space is 12", the doll about 22".

at that point, I stained the structure in Early American.

Then I followed the rest of the instructions: I attached the roof,

and built the gate (it is a little larger than the one is the plan).

I stained the roof in a garnet stain, and painted the inside of the gate

with black chalkboard paint.

I found a little metallic bucket in our fall decoration stash,

the bigger metallic container is from Michael's.

I sewed a couple hay bales from burlap,

following again another Ana White tutorial!

I also found a cool horse pic from an AG magazine,

just the right touch for a stable!

Now I need to take it outside for some better pictures,
it might be difficult, Miss C. really enjoys playing with it in her room,
even if there is no more place to move around!

Happy day!

little treasures from France and the loss of Black dog

No trip can be complete without bringing back

little treasures...

Mine are of course mostly fabric,

no surprise here!

The top fabric is a lightly plasticised fabric, which would be perfect for food related things

I know the second print is Japanese but I had to bring some back with me...

and it looks so good with the macaron timer I found.

I purchased these cute labels, they are printed on embroidery fabric,

so it would be easy to add a nice hand touch to them,

I am not sure how I will use them yet...

I also brought back 3 Liberty of London prints, too pretty to resist.

This treasure is for Miss C., a little scrapbooking kit I found at the BHV in Paris,

a prefect little project to keep her precious souvenirs from her 2 day stay.

My Mom is also responsible for my fabric hoarding!

When she was in vacation in Provence, she brought me back these 3 beautiful fabrics:

lavender, coquelicot (poppy) and olive.

My Mom has a tablecloth made of the olive fabric and it is just stunning,

I cannot wait to start making something out of them,

unless I find them too precious and freeze....

The kids spent a lot of time at various touristy stores, but never really liked what they saw.

But they fall in love with Montmatre's painters,

and chose painting as souvenirs,

I could not be happier with their choices.

Brick Master went for the skyline of Paris with the Sacre Coeur and the Eiffel Tower.

Miss C. chose a small oil paint of the Eiffel Tower,

she was very interested in the way the artist was painting, mostly with a knife,

they had a nice chat.

I also came home with a sweet aquarelle, a water color painting.

While all these art works are for tourists (which we were!)

we felt we came home with something special....

and it looks really in each of our bedrooms!

A few days after our return,

our 13 year old dog passed away,

I am glad we were here to send him off.

The kids think of Black Dog being reunited with his best friend, Great Big Dog.

Our puppy has some big paws to fill!

Back from vacation in France

It has been pretty quiet here for the last few weeks,

we were enjoying some family time in France.

It was fun, the weather was nice (pretty unusual for where my family lives),

we visited many places and even spent a few days in Paris at my sister's.

After Miss C.'s birthday party inspired by the Eiffel tower, it was great to be able to take

the kids there to actually see it for the first time,

until then I thought they were just too young to visit such a large city.

At 9 and 12, they really enjoyed it, even if there were a lot of tired legs and feet at the end of the day!

Mon Cheri was able to come with us, so it was a truly family vacation.

We visited a cool attraction park "le Puy du Fou",(no rides but a lot of cool shows)

a lot of history from Roman games in occupied Gaul, to Vikings, to fight against

 the English during the hundred year war, a lot of fire, water, horses and birds,

what's not to like?

(if you understand French, it is a little cheesy at time, but for non-speakers, it is awesome!)

We managed to spend the best day of the season at my childhood beach, near canons and islands,

the kids found the English Channel quite cold but that did not stop them.

I must have grown weak, as I was unable to enter the water past my waist,

I used to bath there from Easter till late October!

Brick Master and Miss C. enjoyed spending tons of time with Papi and Mamie,

going shopping with them and eating lots of croissants and bread ans butter.

Now it is time to return to reality

and get ready for back to school,

just one more week of vacation....

Happy Day!