Embracing the Inner {French} Farm Girl

Again.  A week slips by.  Where have I been?  On vacation? (Much needed after the spring-break vacation move?) Mais non. Buried in writing that best-selling novel now that I have a big studio work-space.... or shopping til I drop at the now lively seasonal flea markets and brocantes.... ???

Non. non, non... 

Well....uhm.... not any of that--well maybe a tiny bit of the later.

But mostly mes amis---I have been right here--in the reluctantly arriving Normandy spring--(Yes I am very aware that we may just skip it entirely and head into SUMMER next month!) and well---in between unpacking, house projects, entertaining family, getting les enfants adjusted to the new home.... I have been...

Embracing my "inner farm-girl"....

This is Bonnie.  She shows up at the back kitchen window every morning to say 'Bonjour'.... she will give me the 'cold-shoulder' the rest of the day if I don't at least open the window to greet her.  Bonnie is actually so popular on Instagram--she now has her own 'hash-tag'... 

Oui.... #Bonniethecow.

But between face-time with Bonnie---this is happening.  Work on the kitchen---We built a small counter in the back kitchen, I am working on making drapes for a 'doggie-den' below the counter and that room is pretty close to becoming just-right for our family!  This weekend the prep sink goes into the vintage butcher's table in the front kitchen too!

 For upstairs---lamps have been found for our bedroom (purchased at Les Puces de Deauville last weekend--made out of vintage chair and table legs) and this great chest of drawers that we got from an auction house---at a steal!  STEAL---almost free!  Just needed minor repair and cleaning!

Little kitty---met very large (but friendly) BULL.

Little Sparkles...

Morning kitchen window.

Planning the great escape ... to be with the cows.

But mostly--the pictures say it all---as usual.  The poor rabbits of 'Rabbit Hill' have taken second seat to the cows for the moment. (Even though they vastly out-number them and they are so darn cute!)

French Guy thought that our Siamese, Stella should meet them face to face.... The boys are fascinated with the 'dynamics' of the herd and Petite Fille is constantly going to the windows to say hello to 'les vaches' ...

... and me---well--the inner-farm-girl thing.

... Getting used to their 'personalities' habits and ...... that stuff that the doggies keep insisting to roll-in......  eeeeek.

Charming.

Lesson #2 about farm life....

It seeps, spreads, and invades....every part of your home.... and family.

So get used to it.

It's better that way.

Hope you are having a great week!  

The weekend is almost here!

Transition and .... cows.

I wish I had more time to catch up!  Another week has gone by since I last posted--the boys returned to school--for 2 days and then had 2 days of 'vacances'.... mais oui--this is France. We are in full 'transition' mode--a few days away from finally being done with our rental house and fully focusing on the hundreds of projects at Rabbit Hill.

I want to thank so many of you for your enthusiasm about last weekend's 'housewarming' sale!  It was lovely to connect with friends from IG and this blog and I am excited to host another special event sale on my Big Cartel page soon!  In the meantime--you can see a few new additions at my Etsy shop. This weekend is the HUGE Puces-de-Deauville---one of the best outdoor French flea markets in the area.....so excited!

Still feeling that we have not come up for air lately except for a few stolen moments around Rabbit Hill.  We have gotten to know our new neighbors ....the cows (we have found that they are equally sweet and mischievous!) and early each morning and late each evening we tally up the rabbits and spring baby rabbits abound!

Mostly pictures around the farm for now---sharing those precious quieter moments when we take time to look around and count the blessings before another day slips by ......

Ferdinand the bull.

KD

Sweet Bonnie

Camille

Bonnie again....she is a favorite and very photogenic!

Hope you are able to stop and count a few too.

 Can't wait to share photos and finds from 'Les Puces'!!!

 

 See you again soon!

Shop news .... Bon Weekend!

A quick bonjour! -- just to remind you that the little sale I mentioned is now ON in my Big Cartel shop.  (Not on Etsy so be sure to check here!)

 FREE shipping to US destinations on new inventory items until May 5th!  

Things are already selling fast so hop on over!

Have a fabulous weekend mes amis!  I am off to do exciting things.... like clean my oven and chase this one ...

 

..... and maybe, just maybe ....  hit a brocante or two!  

See you after the weekend or on Instagram ... (probably in a few minutes!)

Bon weekend!

They have arrived! .... and a {housewarming} gift for YOU!

 

Not many days start like this.  We have been blessed with sunshine for most of this 'spring break' which is called 'Vacances de Paques' even though Easter was weeks ago....  It is still quite chilly but we are so sun-starved after a long and wet Normandie winter that any glimpse of golden-hues send us outside.  So yesterday morning when I needed to finish up a kitchen project and needed to have eyes and hands free (read--needed a brief break from the 2 year old)... I sent Teen-garcon out with Petite Fille to take a walk in the back field.

They were not out for 10 seconds before he came back to the back kitchen door and asked (quite matter-of-factly)  "Mommy, is it normal that there are cows in the field?"

"WHAT?!?!?"

Mais oui!  Ooooh la vache!  Just feet from our back door---COWS!  Actually--we knew that at some time they might arrive.  The fields on either side of the house are rented to a local farmer who pastures her cows here on occasion.  But the funny part was not seeing or hearing them arrive (by tractor pulled trailer) .... so literally---they were just there!

Ten ladies -- One bull.  He is a huge sweetie--We are calling him 'Ferdinand' of course!

 I have to admit, without embarrassment--that we were giddy with excitement.  As French Guy said--"You are acting like Parisians that have never seen farm animals before". 

But truthfully they are quite sweet and gorgeous... and BIG.  Really big.  Last night while I was making dinner one that we are calling 'Betty' was mooing (actually French cows say 'Meuh!') I nearly hit the ceiling as she was about 3 feet from my window!

Anyway-- all this leads me to start learning about a whole new life---starting with cows.  Life on the farm is going to be quite interesting I think.

The water happy dance.

Why wait for summer ( or a swim-suit for that matter?!) for a little swim?

Filled with icy cold water --- she LOVED it!

Lesson #1: Farm life is messy.

Between the three doggies tramping around in the mud (and other things) and the kids playing in the barns.... I have learned to expect that Petite Fille will need a change of clothes at least 3 times a day.... the dogs will need to be groomed weekly and the floors mopped daily.

End of lesson #1.

I was saved from going to our rental today by French Guy who insisted I stay at home.  I was over there yesterday and became so sick after a day of dust and mold exposure (remember our mold issues there?)  that he said he would do the big clean-up today on his own. (LOVE that man!)

Nevertheless---I am still behind and was hoping to have about 10 new items added to the shop from last weekend.

I promise I will get them in by Friday--and as a little 'housewarming' to YOU---all of these new items--pictured above will be listed with FREE shipping from France to US destinations for this weekend only when you order from my BIG CARTEL shop.

Click here to see Sunday Brocantes on Big Cartel.
...
 Look for these new items this weekend starting on Friday!



Hope your week is going beautifully so far!  ---  à bientôt mes amis!

See you again soon!

Back to it and {Inspired} by home....

I have a post on my mind and in my heart to write soon....  but as things progress around the house and I return to work and feel I am finally so much closer to launching the projects I have been dreaming about---I am still not able to dedicate the focus due to a precious story.... 

... mais à bientôt!  Oui! 

  

The end of last week brought BIG things! First---my work space finally came together--at least for a start.  The room I am using (like a few of the rooms in the house) will have a multifunction...  It is at first priority an atelier pour moi... a studio/office and creative space.  Secondly--it is a chambre d'amis (the sweet way to say 'guest room' in French).  So setting that up has taken a bit of thought to make it both workable and functional for those purposes.  I could easily make it just the prior--but then where would I put my parents when they come in THREE weeks?!  Or my sister and her husband when the come to see us for the first time in July?!  (We have promised the teen since moving to Rabbit Hill that he will not be evicted from his room anymore for guests and he can keep his queen size bed.).... in any case--the room is ready enough at the moment for me to get back to work!  A toute de suite!

 

Petite Fille already likes it a bit too much!  Busted trying to climb on my desk to 're-organize'.

 The next big thing on the weekend was that the 'back kitchen'--the part of the two room kitchen that has our kitchen table, the fridge and the sink and dishwasher (and is also the doggies room at night) is coming together too!  We are just waiting to come up with a counter solution to go over the dishwasher-- and to put up more lighting over it... but so far---it feels like a great space!

 Next big event---my return to vintage shopping!  Hoooray!  I missed going to the brocantes for the past three weekends so much and have let my own shop become very quiet!  So I was thrilled to go to a huge vide-grenier with Belle-Niece yesterday to find a few wonderful things .....

 Great finds----Inspired totally by my new home.

I don't think I was conscious of it---but everything was enamel, wicker or zinc....my favorite vintage materials.... and although everything would look fabulous at Rabbit Hill---I am parting with it all---to list in the shop this week.  All of it. Almost all of it.  I am already using one of the cast iron enameled towel racks in my kitchen----and is is fabulous!

Look for these items this week....

Vintage Metal Fruit Basket

Little zinc pots.

A large wicker-encased demijohn.

Folding salad basket.

Grey enamel pitcher.

Gorgeous French blue enamel bowl.

Tall and handsome zinc pitcher.

Simple and rustic wire basket.

 Lastly--the most important and biggest event of the weekend--was that yesterday French Guy and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary.  18 years ago we married in a little chapel on a cliff in Palos Verdes, California--at 7 pm surrounded by family and in front of God.  Feels like yesterday.  

Okay--not really.  

French Guy brought home this folding wine table as a gift...

 

Gifts of furniture---nothing better!  So did I hire a sitter and dust of the heels and put on some lipstick to go to a fancy bistro with the French Guy? ....... Actually we are so exhausted that we had a diner pour deux ... fireside at home and toasted with champagne using flutes from our wedding reception and watched 'Sleepless in Seattle' .

....because yes, we are sappy like that.

More soon I promise. We are in the third and finally stage of the move---the yucky part of clearing out and doing small repairs to our rental in hope of getting as much of the deposit back as we can in a few days when we return the keys.  (So we will not be eating Ramen noodles with the teen---for the next six months.)  Yuck.

See you again soon mes amis!

Settling {HOME}

I feel like I have been away for months and yet I posted late last week just before the move! Moving day went pretty well.  Well.  

Well--Sorta. Well let's just say we had great help in the form of my Belle Niece and her handsome husband and it was the most gorgeous sunny day!  We couldn't have done it without them--they were troupers handling all of the extra large and heavy things and being patient and kind with our disorganization!

Two truck-loads and about a dozen filled to the top car loads!

 On the more ... a-hem. "dramatic" side---while we were unloading the truck at Rabbit Hill, Petite Fille went missing for 30 seconds and it turned out she had decided to take a swim in the swamp by the barn -- which resulted in me shrieking like a crazy woman and sprinting across the field just in time to catch her before she disappeared into the murky depths.  (We call it a 'swamp' but it is a concrete apple washing 'pool'... in any case--no place for a two year old to test out the back stroke.)

 Truck rented and loaded, boxes filled, pizza lunch ... Mommy-heart-attack?--Check!  What would moving day be without a little excitement?  Later the Middle Garcon had a few (somewhat expected) melt-downs--(transition is a big thing--moving although exciting is tough on little ones).  It was a very, very long day. Oh--and you should have seen the Teen's face when he heard that there would be no Internet for four days ( or more!)..... 

... So yes, moving day ----  'survived'... and now we are HOME.

 Today I was thinking that this is only day four at Rabbit Hill and yet this house suits us so well that it feels like it could be months....Not to say that we are even a tiny bit settled in, but I have done a fairly good job not stressing over the crazy never ending mess of things--because at the moment it is way better than the disaster that we left at the rental house when we departed last weekend.  The mess which we must return to before the end of the month; to completely clean out and clean-up and I think there is some major spackeling  and painting to do too.  Ugh..... I would so much rather be doing that here!

My favorite project here has been the kitchen.  It is an on-going process and each day it seems I find a better way or a better place for things....every meal prepared sheds a new light on how it should feel.  For the time being the trek to the back kitchen where the sink is has been an interesting adjustment and I am really looking forward to having a small sink put into the butcher's counter in the front.

 But I am already so inspired by the space... and the light... and making even a simple lunch feels like a luxury....

It's been an amazing first few days--This house is 3x bigger than our last and I have been tempted to put on a pedometer to track the mileage of going up the 3 flights of stairs and back and forth and back and forth between the two kitchens.  Right now while we wait to sort out plumbing--our clothes washer is installed in the kitchen and the clothes drier is up one floor in the guest room.  

Interesting.  Good exercise. 

We are exhausted every single day.  But it is a good, bliss-laden exhaustion.  On top of the move and having the kids out for spring break--French Guy has also been swamped with work.  We have been cooking and eating dinner way past 10 PM and falling into bed just before 1 AM.

I am dying to get back to the shop.  I have so many great things to add AND this weekend is a huge and favorite 'vide-grenier'..... last year it was fabulous and the weather looks like it is going to be glorious!  

I am so excited to start shooting vintage pieces for the shop here at the house too!  I have a new 'line' of items to announce and something really special on the horizon for this summer!

I will be back soon!  Thank you so much for commenting and thinking about us during this move!

See you soon -- Hope your week has been lovely!