galette des rois

This week end, I baked a traditional French dessert: la galette des rois, or King's crown here.

It is traditional to eat it in France, in the first 2 weeks of the new year. I actually never made one for my family before as it usually made with almonds. But this year, my Mom mentioned a new recipe she tried and was quite tasty (and nut free!) So of course I googled it, and found it,  the recipe I used on 750g.com.
There is enough filling for 2 cakes. And it was gone within minutes!
Happy day!

another manicure kit

After making Miss C.'s manicure kit, I realize that my sister would probably like one too. Another little present, perfect for her many travels.
  the one on the left is Miss C.'s, the pink one is my sister's. I decided to coordinate the prints to the shoe bags I made her a few years ago,
totally makes sense to me, since it is for her toes...

Happy sewing!

a little deer, the triplet!

I made another deer for Christmas, another Dandelion doe! The first one was for my Mom, with a modern Liberty of London dress,


that one was for my niece with a traditional print,

this one was for my sister.

The doe wears another Liberty of London print, but this time it is even more special: my mom had made a dress for my sister out of that same print when she was a little girl, so it was fun to recreate a similar dress. I added some French lace at the bottom hem of the dress, and a little pocket. Happy sewing!

Happy New Year!

I wish you all a Happy New year.

embroidery by my mom.

2016, here we are!

a year in review

This year was a pretty good year for us as a family and for me personally, work has been going well with interesting prospect for the future (more research on vaccines for developing worlds), but this little blog had a mid life crisis.... Hopefully it can get over it without a sport car! Now let's review this year top 3 favorites: My kitchen remake from a few years ago was #1, more specifically this post here.

It is still actually a work in progress since we just finished adding a back-splash, I will blog about it later next year.... #2 was again as my brownie vest, everyone's favorite: here for the tutorial
.
Oh I do miss sewing for the dolls! #3 was this cute plush macaron I made for Miss C. as a sweet treat to get over her new braces.

My favorites for this year were: the outdoor couch, the entryway storage and the sewing configuration book.

For the nest year, I see a few more house projects, like redoing the coffee table (I received the wheels for Christmas), some sewing of course, and probably a few odds and ends things, the usual really!
Thank you for reading.
Farewell 2015.

a wood Christmas tree

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Ours was fun: presents, Star Wars, family and food! I managed to make the little wood tree I was talked about a few weeks ago. Not as good as the inspirations, but I am OK with it.

It was made from scrap pieces from the fence we built 3 years ago, and some 1x2 for the back support. I stained, painted and distressed it to keep it interesting. I only installed one shelf at the bottom. I decorated it with a string of droplet light, and a few simple ornament. I added a red pompom garland for some color.

I stuck the tree in this cool bucket from Michaels, and put my baby slippers at the base, I think they came from Lapland more than 40 years ago, probably made of reindeer fur. I hope to have more time next year to properly decorate it....

Happy day!

a little manicure kit

Miss C. is a big fan of nail polish and nail art, like most tweens, so I made her a little manicure kit as a last minute Christmas present, it is supposed to be a travel one, but I think it would be perfect for home too. I followed this tutorial from Positively Splendid, very fast and easy, the hardest part: finding 3 fabrics and 1 ribbon that worked together! For hers, I used an Australian/Aboriginal print, some green solid and a super cute turquoise kangaroo fabric. (since Mon Cheri traveled to Australia, we are having down under envy!) The mat is a piece of black chalkboard fabric, Inside there is space for some nail polish removers, nail polish, clipper and file. Of course, there is no need to match the nail polish to the kit, but at eleven, one needs green and turquoise nail polishes! Happy sewing!