1. Advent

I wish you all a very merry start into the Advent

I changed the usual colourful wall-hanging (click) over our sideboard to the one I made in the beginning of this year (click) and made a quick advent candle arrangement with some wooden blocks. For now I think it is a little bare, but I count on my boys to put whatever they find around it :-)

A bientôt,
Jane

Game cards to decorative magnets

From a children's game that my boys don't play anymore, I transferred the cards to fridge magnets. Easy crafting. The only thing that costs time has been to find magnets that are strong enough to hold more than one paper. I hate if magnets are too weak and falling down whenever there is a little wind or someone passing.

Aren't they cute? Every dwarf is different.

They are for sale on the Christmas market where I have a stand next week.

A bientôt,
Jane

Encoded treasure hunt

For the birthday party of my eldest, I prepared a special treasure hunt with encoded messages that they had to decipher to get the next clue. For every boy I made an encoding disk and explained them the technique of encoding by alphabet displacement. They had been occupied quite a while with decoding, following the clues and running through the village until they found the key for the safe.

A bientôt,
Jane

cushions in white

When I need white fabric I often use bedsheets that I buy in second hand stores. They are often having a much better quality than new white fabrics. For the last sheet I bought I didn't pay enough attention and there had been some embroidery on one end. To not waste this part, I used it up for some slightly romantic pillow cases in white and beige.

There are patchwork parts and old laces and around a white braid. I even managed a nearly invisible zipper in the two square cushions.

It's not the style of my living room or bed, but I like it.

A bientôt,
Jane

Solidarité

Hold on for a minute!

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Think of what can happen every day and everywhere!

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Be grateful of what you still have.

Tell those who are close to you, that you love them.

Stop hurrying for various reasons - are they really that important? Slow down, take time to look around you, find beauty in your life and joy. 

Lutin village with lampions

The lutins (french for dwarf) are prepared for the wet season: they are having their village now under an enormous mushroom.

Autumn is not only the wet but also a season where it is getting darker and darker, so they hung up some lampions.

Fall can be so pretty!

A bientôt,
Jane

Ninja in the house

My eldest wants to be a Ninja! He is training himself in our garden and also does exercises in the basement. He sneaks around and tries to be invisible for us (impossible: he is just too cute in his play). He told me that a real Ninja needs a ninja outfit! Of course I made one, also it hasn't been easy to fulfil the expectations.

This is the example he gave me for the costume. Do you think I hit it?

A bientôt,
Jane

Halloween

Two weeks of fall vacation, leaves a lot of time for me and the kids to do Halloween crafting and yesterday evening we used it all for decorating our front yard for a party with lots of friends.

I will just show some of it here. Most of the ideas I found on pinterest.

 We transformed plenty of old jars and glasses to lamps that spend only little light, but were very decorative on the tables and buffet.

This bats my youngest made with his friend from toiletpaper rolls. We didn't invite them to the party. They are flying in the kitchen.

I like to attach a little game for the kids, instead of giving them the bonbons directly. This year I hung up some ghosts in the forest behind our house and send the kids in with torch lights to count them. Those who came back with the right number, could have sweets. 

This ghosts are made from cast. Had been a funny mess to make them. Of course my two shining ghosts from last year are also in the woods to haunt a bit. I still think they are the most friendly ghosts!

We had a fun party! Today we will tidy up and I will put all the decoration away, because after two weeks of thinking only Halloween, I don't like to see it any more. I will set up some pretty fall decoration now.

A bientôt,
Jane