Fancy Frances

...the Fieldmouse, of course! And July's free embroidery download.

Frances has been mulling around in my head for the past few days, but I couldn't seem to find time to get to her. I'm glad she stuck around and waited patiently though for me to put her in colour.

As you can see, she's been keeping herself busy in the meantime, frolicking in the fields and picking summer flowers.

If you'd like a 4x4 image to embroider, you can click on the link over on the right. I'd love to see your finished products if you do!

Summer's Here

No, this isn't someone's overzealous interpretation of lawn ornaments. Those are real storks. And only just a few of the ones we saw in the response to my late whinging. I'll explain....

I've been whinging for about a week or two now. Mainly because the weather has been fabulous (a rarity in these parts), school was winding up and is now done and you could just feel summer all around. Except at our house. In our house, besides sweltering in overheated bedrooms and trying to calm over-excited children, it was business as usual. I so wanted to be living summer, but felt like it was just one big continuation of the winter and spring despite the warmer, sunny days.

And so I whinged. Until I finally got my way. I didn't want anything fancy mind you, just a barbeque and Pimms in the garden, a long, laid-back summer feeling evening is all. But instead, I got a wonderful weekend.

It started with a trip to Ghent for shopping. It's the summer sales after all. And Ghent is such a lovely city with a fabulous feel to it, it's always a pleasure to go. Especially when it's not below freezing winter temperatures. The shopping trip was followed by dinner out just the two of us at a bistro in Ypres (Belgium again). It was just what I needed. Not too fancy. Not pretentious. Just very nice. We sat outside on the terrace overlooking the water and enjoyed the summer air.








Sunday was meant to be a laid-back day at home getting things done, but the unusually fabulous weather got the best of us again and so we packed a picnic and headed off to the coast, Knokke to be exact, the pre-eminent resort on the North Sea coast in Belgium. We'd heard lots about it, but had yet to go. I'll admit we were slightly turned off. Not because it's not gorgeous. It is. The architecture is beautiful and if you want shopping, this is the place. It's the hot spot to see and be seen. But since this isn't among my life priorities, it wasn't exactly the spot we were looking to spend the day with our family picnic.








Fortunately we didn't give up and instead continued a couple of kilometers further north and found Het Zwin or 't Zwin, a nature reserve on the coast just on the border between Belgium and the Netherlands. It was heaven. I think I could have moved in. That's if, in fact it wasn't a nature reserve and there were houses there. But there aren't. Simply dunes and sand, ocean and lots and lots of storks. Lots!

The kids had a blast in the tide water and we had a blast sitting in the sun watching them. We'll definitely be heading back soon.

They're off to Paris!

My latest project is complete and now Annabelle la Coccinelle, Igor l'Alligator, Léonard le Canard and Bilbouille la Grenouille are off for a trip to Paris.

I was hired by Onifit France to create designs to illustrate their products and decorate their stand at the Playtime tradeshow in Paris this weekend. It's been great fun putting the Polliwalks shoes and their kids in different environments adapted to the shoes as well as illustrating the shoes that are in the shape of animals.

So the posters are printed and just waiting to go. I can't wait to see them 'in action'!

Yummy Summer Cake - Lemon Drizzle

Just thought I would share a very yummy lemon drizzle recipe with those of you who don't know this delicious cake. It's perfect for summer as it's light and lemony and super simple to make!

For the Cake
225g sugar
200g butter at room temperature
4 eggs
225 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
zest of 2 lemons

For the Drizzle
85g sugar
juice of 1 1/2 - 2 lemons

1) Preheat oven to 180C (350F) or gas mark 4. Line a baking tin with parchment paper.

2) Mix together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.

3) Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each egg.

4) Sift in the flour mixture. Add lemon zest and mix well.

5) Spoon batter into your baking tin and bake for 45-50 minutes (more or less depending on the size of your tin) or until a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

6) While the cake is cooling, mix together the lemon juice and remaining sugar to make the drizzle.

7) Prick the warm cake all over with a skewer, then pour the drizzle over the warm cake. The juice will sink in and the sugar will form a topping. Leave in the tin until completely cool, then remove and serve.

I was wondering when...

...they were going to bloom.

Oh the things they do say...

I was just reading Amanda from Household Six's blog and something made me really laugh.

Want to know what it is?

Amanda was discussing the things that kids say and among them was the expression 'legpits', the lower body version of armpits if you will. If my sister is reading this now, she'll have the same smile and memory as me, because we used to call them legpits as well! Oh the genius of youth because really, it makes complete sense (and still does to me).

I actually have a small book dedicated to the kidisms we hear around here and when a good one comes along, it is quickly written down so not to be forgotten. Among my favourites from my own children are earmuffins, fingerlids (fingernails obviously) and eyeflashes. But then there are the misunderstandings as well, when you know they just haven't understood exactly what the correct wording is. One example I remember is the famous Alice in Turnipland (as the translation from her French Alice au pays des navets would be) and when my oldest declared that she was born in 'get down'. 'Get down' you ask? Well yes. You see, she's born in December or décembre in French which sounds ever so slightly like the verb descendre or, you guessed it, to go down.

There are also the very logical explanations to such things like why daddy writes with his left hand ("He's French you know") and who is on British coins ("The queen of Snow White of course").

But maybe the best is when you listen in on your children talking among themselves:

"In Egypt, there is a huge statue with the head in a mask and the body of a lion. It's called the Great Stinks."

Has anyone seen....

some missing teeth around anywhere?

This reminds me so much of myself. I lost my teeth pretty late as a child and so when I did start losing them, it was a rather rapid fire event. Although I lost my front teeth around the same age as my daughter here, as for the others, I was more in the 11-12 year range and spent a good part of that school year bringing home teeth to my mother and with gaping holes in my mouth.

It looks like someone may be following in my footsteps!