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Fat Quarterly Retreat – 2014

March 13, 2014 by Tsoniki 1 Comment

The modern movement in quilting has exploded online and in person. There are retreats, summits, sew downs, and the Modern Quilt Guild’s Quilt Con, so awesome it is only held every other year (so far anyway). I attended the Sewing Summit in 2012 and had a lot of fun. I was disappointed to not be able to attend QuiltCon, but yay I am going to the Fat Quarterly Retreat!

I am super excited! I am also nervous because I don’t know anyone who is attending. I am looking forward to the flickr group becoming more active and the various side events (swaps, plans for sharing finishes, etc.) that are planned. I had roommates when I went to the Sewing Summit (Hi Jessie and Rebeckah!) and loved that experience. I want to have at least one roommate and so the search is on.

Monday Monday

March 10, 2014 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

It finally stopped raining and so we went for a walk along the beach.

I realize that part of the reason I do not do a better job of writing, by that I mean as frequent as I have been in years past, is because I feel like I don’t do anything. I mean I barely have any errands to run, grocery shopping takes mere minutes because the grocery store is on the next block, and all three of the kids are in school for most of the week. This means I have a lot of free time, which I generally use for sewing. But we do live in France, and that deserves to be talked about. I never thought I’d live overseas, much less this far from family.

And so let’s start with Monday’s. I am lucky to have a housekeeper. She comes on Monday’s and I love her, we all do. She’s so sweet and kind. She always brings us something she made, which is both slightly confusing and happily accepted. I like her to actually clean, versus picking up clutter or the kids things, so I go a room ahead of her and straighten up before she gets there.

After she leaves I generally have lunch and either sit on the couch or lay on the bed just enjoying how nice everything looks. I live with little tornadoes that look like kids so once they are home from school there are shoes in the entry way and school bags in the living room. They have a snack – which is called gouter (goo-tay) (and this deserves a write up of its own!) – and do their homework, a math lesson from the Saxon math books I bought, or read.

The French school system is quite different compared to the US. For one, there are two week holidays about every month and a half or so. We are on the middle of the winter break right now. We have the language tutor coming every day and have enjoyed getting out and exploring since the rain has let up.

I finished the HST BOM top that is my goal for the month so I will hopefully get pictures of it tomorrow.

First Birthday Party in France

February 24, 2014 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

Our baby is 4!

We use a refillable card to ride the local transportation (tram/bus) and JW has wanted one since we all got one. We don’t have a car so having a great transportation available to us is awesome. Every time we asked JW what he wanted for his birthday, he said a korrigo card. He never wavered from wanting the card! Chris took him to the office on the morning JW turned 4 and it actually took a little bit of talking before the card was issued.

JW doesn’t technically need a card. He’s too young to have to pay for it if he is traveling with someone who has a card. Since he’s too young to travel by himself, he won’t need to pay while we live here. Chris tried to get him a card and the guy at the office kept saying why are you trying to pay for this, why do you want a card with money on it because he just doesn’t have to pay. Chris explained that this is the only thing JW has been asking for, so the guy said, “Oh, I can just make him one!” And so he has his own card.

The party was crazy and chaotic and after it was all over, we were all exhausted. JW’s teacher helped tell me who he plays with during the day and so we invited six kids. I hoped at least three or four would be able to come, I made a mistake with the date and how much time I had to invite kids so I wasn’t sure if everyone could make it. All of them came. It was a pleasant surprise.

I made small goody bags for the kids to take home and put various Haribo candies inside. Parties here are VERY low-key compared to how crazy they can be in the US. A friend gave me some advice about what a party is like here – be sure to do paper invites just because some people are turned off by verbal invites (I appreciate paper just because it is a better reminder), much less food compared to the US (we just had cake and juice), some parents will leave the kids with you.

The leaving of the kids was a little surprising to me. We live in a small town, and I feel like we are a part of this small community that involves the kids at the school, the parents, the people who work at the hotel, and the handful or so of military people we have met. The community of ours will expand as time goes on, but the leaving of the kids was still a little surprising because we just moved here and we don’t know each other too well. One of the parents stayed, but the rest left their children. It was a loud crazy party, but it was fun for all. The kids played with Mr. Potato Head (all JW wanted for Christmas was this huge Mr. Potato head we saw at a toy store here. He ended up getting two – one from my Mom and another from my best friend), colored, played with swords, and legos. I tried to be organized with opening gifts but it was over in seconds as all of the kids descended on whatever they brought and tore the paper off. It was funny to watch.

The older kids’ birthdays are both in August, which, like in the States, is a non-school time. We don’t have our summer holiday plans figured out yet, but maybe we will be in a fun city for their birthday’s.

Weekend Happenings

February 22, 2014 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

Instead of apologizing for not being a regular poster, I’m just going to dive back in. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

~ I spent the day with a friend this past week and had a great time. She drove us to a couple of beaches, we walked and took pictures. It was very windy but we ate sandwiches and watched the waves.

This would be a great place to go when it is a little warmer. I am planning on spending a weekend day here at least a few times this summer!

I lightened this picture because I used my iphone to take the pictures. This was one of many houses along the beach, a few had major damage due to the storms we’ve had during the past few weeks.

It was very windy, so we sat higher up on the rocks and ate lunch.

~ I don’t know how I found them, but I found a couple of plus size bloggers Nadia and Gabi. I fail at fashion most of the time so seeing their blogs made me interested in what I wear all over again. I default to jeans and boots since living here, which is not good. Everyone here is very fashionable. Few wear jeans, no one wears sneakers, and all of the women wear makeup daily. I don’t see fashion as a way to make myself feel good about who I am, I am confident regardless of wearing sweats or a dress. But I want to wear different things. I have found a few new to me stores to shop at thanks to those blogs and look forward to a few purchases!

~ Anne over at Play Crafts started a Quilt Design a Day group on facebook, based on the design seeds picture a day. I really love a few of the designs shared so far and this week I plan on sitting down with Electric Quilt to give myself a review about how to use it. I have been sewing all the time, every day actually, and I easily have a dozen (I haven’t counted) quilt tops finished. I have only completely finished a baby quilt (and that’s using a top I finished last summer) that I am giving to a friend for her new baby. I would love to design and I think a quick design a day is the way to do it.

~ I don’t know why I can’t find it, but I can’t find baking soda in the store here. I am going to a different store today to look around, otherwise I may need to have my Mom send me some. We wanted to make banana bread but realized we didn’t have any soda. I also want to do the ‘no poo’ thing. My hair is so long now (I’ll do a picture this week) but it feels weighed down and thin. I know going no poo will help so I am looking forward to trying this out, even if I am not looking forward to the week and a half of adjustment everyone says it takes. Anyone out there gone this route? How do you feel about it?

We Made It – France

January 16, 2014 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

We’ve arrived. Okay, we’ve been here since October. (And I’ve already shared four tips on moving to France). We lived in a hotel and ate out for every meal, negotiating with our landlord and taking the bus and tram to school and work. It has been fairly easy to get settled in, but we have only been in our apartment for just over a month.

The first few months here have been fun, frustrating, educational, but overall a good time. The food is amazing – I can eat bread here! For a non-gluten eating girl in the United States, moving to France was scary. I wasn’t sure what I would eat because of course all anyone talks about is cheese, wine, and bread. Well no gluten means no bread, and I really don’t drink all that often. I thought maybe something would be different here, maybe the wheat is different, bathed in red wine at night or white wine in the summer, maybe the French are so interested in their long lunches someone forgot to overprocess something. And I reluctantly tried a croissant.

And I had no pain (I do not have celiac disease, I don’t have anything that’s been diagnosed, but once I quit eating anything w/ gluten in it, the odd body aches I had been experiencing for years have disappeared, I’ve read a lot and came up with a non-celiac gluten intolerance). So I tried another croissant. And a sandwich. And a cookie. And I realized that I can eat anything here. This made me very happy because if you can’t eat bread in France, it is hard to eat. I worry for when my Mom comes to visit (she has the same issues, I am watching my daughter to see if this is inherited) but have to wait and see what happens. I will be prepared with salads and soups though.

We don’t live in Paris, we are way out at the end of the world in a small city/town about five hours by train from Paris. We technically have a US address, so I can still order from Amazon but our post office is still a couple of hours away. We did not bring our car (more on that) so we have been getting around by tram or walking, which means we haven’t left the city just yet. It’s confusing for some people because we’ve been here and haven’t gone anywhere for vacation or sightseeing. They forget we just got into our apartment, we haven’t settled in, and we have time. So far, so good. Bread, wine, cheese, tramway, tutor for the kids to help with the French language, very nice Mom’s at the school the boys attend, and good weather.

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