My little trinkets for Christmas

With a slight delay, we wish you all a Merry Christmas... It was mostly a lovely, quiet affaire here, by our beautiful Christmas Tree, in our new living room. Ahhhh. More pictures of "humans" soon, but first a few pictures of what I worked on to put in the stockings: maps for the kids (they're big on Dora the Explorer these days, and always on the lookout for a lost treasure), a Chocolate Moose for Kyan, a Hermit Crab for Anastasia, and a sweater with a gazelle for Michael.

Solstice

Since it was raining too much last night to go out and welcome the Solstice, we improvised a little celebration inside, with candles and glow-sticks. And tried to create a few non-computer generated special effects...

Living Room... The Return

Our living room is back. With a whole bunch of things to finish, paint to touch up, trim to install, a few boxes to empty, and a staircase which should arrive by boat very soon, but it's already starting to look like a real house again. On Sunday, we finally removed all the protection from the floor and got to meet with our hardwood floor again. Ahhhh. And, as a bonus touch, we now have a beautiful Christmas Tree.

Blah blah blah

A few quick news until I can find an interesting subject with matching pictures. The house renovation is painfully moving along, the walls are starting to get colors again, and we're rushing to get at least the living room in shape to set up the Christmas Tree (the kids have been asking for it three times a day). Mojo, the black manx cat, just got another holiday at the vet clinic, same problem as last year, interestingly at the same time of the year. He's all good now, but I'm worried this may turn into a costly tradition. As for the rest, lots of fog over the Bay, and the leaves are finally falling...

Starting to look a lot like Christmas...

Hard to ignore that Christmas is just around the corner. Christmas lights, decoration, fake snowmen and fake snowflakes are everywhere. Makes for very hungry little reindeer...

Cloth rack, oh my clothrack...

Another reason for the extended silence on the blog, beside the endless construction on the house: getting ready for the Christmas Fair at the Lycée Français. At the end, I broke another record... I didn't sell anything. I had worked quite hard, the support crew was ready, I had come up with new creations and even special christmassy items, but, nothing... At least, I'm very likely to do better next time...

All is well

Back after a silent few weeks on the blog. And yes, all is well, just very busy.

First, there was Thanksgiving. Initially, Kyan thought that Thanksgiving, it's when we go scuba-diving. Not sure where the link is, but he now knows that it's a time to be grateful.

And, like every year, the snow was in town, brought on trucks. It lasted only a few hours, until the rain washed most of it away during the night. We still go to enjoy it for a brief moment, under the stars. Kyan loved it but was a bit frustrated that he didn't get to build a snowman on the edge of the slope. He had already planned to bring a carrot for the nose.

Anastasia

A post just for her, with Mizoune's cow and Grand-Maman's cute shirt...

Marin Mammal Center

It was raining pretty hard on Sunday when we had just decided to go visit the Marin Mammal Center, a big "hospital" which takes care of sick or injured mammals found along the Pacific Coast. We took the risk to join a class, followed by a guided tour, with Kyan and Anastasia, and, surprise, they behaved impressively well and were totally absorbed by the presentation. Granted, they had been there before, with Grand-Maman and Grand-Papa, so, unlike us, they knew the place.

Kyan was very interested in seals, sea lions and other sea creatures skeletons, their different kind of furs, and especially in the rescuing methods (I've been overhearing a lot of it through his plays since).

And for more infomations about that great place, it's HERE.

Kimonos and Eskimos

I'm busy making new products for the Christmas Fair at the Lycée Francais, next month, and on top of whatever products I have in stock (pillows, toys, printed shirts from last year), I'm hoping to have a few new things ready, like little kimono tunics and collections of sweaters sporting my own prints. Kyan and Anastasia are, of course, always the first to get them.

Kimono with big pink, mint and coffee flowers, and hoodie with eskimo print.

Halloween

So, Halloween finally arrived. Many kids on the street, much laughing, great costumes, and Kyan and Anastasia brought back so many candies that we don't know what to do with them. Kyan even treated each house with the owl dance (he picked the colors for his costume, he loves pink). Anastasia was dressed as a hedgehog. And Jacqui, our little neighbour, was adorable as a Candy Corn.

Puddles

It must be the Pre-Hallowee spirit which is making kids hyper. Kyan and Anastasia have been jumping all over the place lately. To try to calm them down until the trick-o-treat, we went puddle-hunting. We only found one, but we sure enjoyed it.

And don't miss the little movie at the bottom. No comments necessary...

Pumpkins

We really waited for the last minute to go get pumpkins for Halloween, and there really wasn't many left. That didn't keep the kids from spending a very long time looking for the perfect pumpkins to decorate our front yard.

Colors under the rainy sky...

It's raining, but I don't really care, I have a hedgehog, an owl and a whole bunch of cute creatures in the car...

Renovation, still going...

But we should start seeing the end soon. The latest buzz is that we'll be moving the front door to make enough room for the staircase. Not especially a bad thing, except that the room where the new door will come, the Sunroom, is just where we had piled up all the furniture from the living room. So, last night, we migrated most of what was there to... our bedroom. It's really starting to look like a souk, or a cramped chinese appartment, with stuffs everywhere, including all of the cats gears, for the poor kitties confined there during the day as well... But we're really looking forward to the result. Instead of the front door we should soon have a big window, a welcome addition to a living room we always felt too dark.

And while Michael was busy working on the electrical for yet another weekend, I started sewing the Halloween costumes for the kids. On the last picture, you can get a glimpse of the tiny workspace I rescued from the construction. By swindling the chair, I can just slide in front of the machine, with my head in the lamp shade...

Important things to do

I offered my help to Anastasia's daycare to decorate the class for a contest. I was asked to design... a giraffe... Could not have been better... But a ten feet tall giraffe, and pretty skinny so it would fit on the pillar and leave enough room for its friends the Sheep...