Sweet november

For me November used to be just a damp and cold month, not any more... It is still damp and cold, but it is time for a change in my lifestyle. It is time to swap the wellies for the high heels, the french for the english ( language!), and the loneliness of my studio for the jolly crowd of christmas fair. I love living in the countryside in my tiny village in my tiny cottage, I love this slow pace of life. But there is nothing more revigorating at the begining of the cold season, than to emigrate a fortnight to busy London. It is just long enough to appreciate the restaurants, the theaters, mmm and the shopping too !

Out with the country girl , I am off to the city!

I may see you there next week with all the baubles on stand D3 at the country living magazine fair.

Scary halloween !

A day late, I am always behind !

Busy bee

I am working on sweet unedible stuff for the fair next month. I love it when I manage to produce fake cakes that look perfectly yummy. Some days I wake up thinking what a silly job, doesn't sounds very serious and still it is my "profession".

It always is a very akward moment (for me) when people I just met ask me:

"And what do you do ?

-...Fairies...

-Sorry, I didn't quite get that.

-Fairies, and then faced with their blank look, I mumble again, fairies, you know,... with wings."

Then comes the big "Oh!" pronounced with a tone of commiseration that is quite puzzling to me.

They very often jump to the conclusion that "oh god! poor girl , she must be struggling to make a living."

And in less than two minutes all the credibility and seriousness that I gained slowly over the past ten years (took me quite a while to look my age, when I was 25,some people thought I was 16, I am now 34 and looks it), all this just goes, and they assume I must be one of those silly head in the clouds girl with her head not properly screwed on!

It was the anniversary of my business in september, and it has been going on for 12 years now , so the good side of it, is: when the people who asked me several years ago what I was doing how I am today and they add "Still doing fairies?"

Yep! I still do ! And more than I ever did...

And then comes the "It is a nice little business you have here, working for yourself, nobody to boss you around..."

Yes it is, and I cherish every moment of it.

We are the choices that we make !

Back to school...back to work !

After long, very long holidays...I can go back to work now that my daughter is back to school, and so I start accumulating stock for the Country Living fair and all the other christmas markets I am going to attend. The blog is bottom on the list of priorities unfortunately . I would love to be able to share all I saw this summer and I have just visited a brilliant trade fair in Paris but I don't think I will ever be able to make time for everything. Hence, as usual a quick picture a quick hello! and back to work!

From the Hampton court flower show

I visited it for the first time this year, and I have to say it is the best show I have seen ever (it tops Chelsea!)...really worth the trip! It takes about 6 hours just to walk down every corner...so imagine to decide on what to buy!
The british can really be proud of their Royal Horticultural society!

They are back

I have made those again, I will be putting some in the shop soon.

Roses and lavender

I visited the Chelsea flower show last week, and I was amazed by the displays, and always puzzled, how do they manage to get all their roses and lavender to flower just for that week, the timing must be something of a nightmare...last week my roses were all in buds but nowhere close to a proper bloom, and with one day of sunshine they all blossomed.Are they putting them back in the fridge if the weather gets too hot ?
Only in this kind of show you can see tulips and roses in bloom together. In my garden I always get a kind of a break between tulips and roses, everything green, but no flowers to be seen...
If you want to see some more pictures of the chelsea flower show, my mother blogged about it there.