Linaloo

The art of handwriting

 
With one learning child learning les lettres attachées (cursive) and the other left handed, fine motor challenged child proudly mastering his lettres miniscules (lower case), la calligraphie (handwriting practise) has been a familiar theme at home for a while. And on our new chalkboard door and anywhere else for that matter, sweet little notes crop up around the house.
 
I went to a junior school where the headmaster placed a great deal of importance on good penmanship and once our technique was deemed good enough in pencil, there was an official ceremony where our status was elevated to that of “scribe” and we were awarded our first fountain pen with a broad nib.  From there grew my love of calligraphy and I spent hours practicing and honing my new found skill.  An unusual hobby that later on, in my teens, earned me a little extra pocket money writing lots of invitations.

Countless house moves later my pens and nibs were lost and forgotten.
 
I’m not sure what inspired me to start up again – the need for instant craft gratification perhaps, but I’m glad I did. I had this idea in my head to make a very simple calligram for a Christmas card, topped with a little bling.  Et voilà!
 
 

Happy Halloween!

 
Ours is a white one!

Autumn colour week :: orange

  
Most of these are pictures dug out from the past. The second one is from a preschool pumpkin picking trip three years ago.  Back then, Tommy was a bolter - regularly delighting in running as far away from me as possible whenever he could. He didn't stop and would keep on going forever.  It was a pretty long (and nightmarish) phase that lasted over two years...I could never take my eye off him and even lost him once or twice.   If you're a parent of a bolter you know how stressful it is.  Anyhow, he was wearing an orange hat that day when he jogged off into the distance, and I thought it made a cute photo. 

Needless to say, I had to break into a sprint to fetch him not long after.
 

Summer holiday blues

Hello.  No prizes for guessing where we've been lately.  I'd like to share some photos of our wonderful trip back home, but quite frankly I took a bazillion and the task of sorting through them is just too overwhelming, I'm back to work,  the children start school next week, we have an end of season soccer party to organize for the weekend and the youngest member of the family turned six yesterday.

We had a fabulous time and I'm definitely suffering from post holiday blues and jetlag - still waking at 4:30am. 

A reminder of some of the things we loved and missed about England. 

Stately homes
Legoland
Royal castles
Clotted cream
Hedgerows
Monsoon
Accessorize
Hobbs
Hob knobs
Marks and Spencers
Warm beer
Wagamamas
Stone walls
Driving on the left hand side
Roundabouts
Radio One
Flake 99s
Beach huts
Cats eyes

And of course, most of all our lovely family and friends who made the trip so special. Thank you!

Pool life

Much like last summer and the year before that, a large part of our summer is being spent at the local pool.  Swimming lessons, swim team, diving, synchro, water polo, let alone just hanging out with neighbourhood friends over a BBQ make this a very special community indeed.  Also perfect for cooling off when there's a heat wave - its 7pm, 33C with a humidex of 43C right now!  
If you need me, I'll be poolside...
 
 
 

The past two weeks

 Have been busy.  Crazy busy, but happy times with good friends and family. There's no sign of it letting up for a while with the last week and a bit of school to go...roll on summer holidays, we're ready!
 

The view from behind...

Way back, well may be not so long ago, when I started this blog in September 2007, I decided not to post pictures of my children's faces.  I'm not sure if it really matters from a security perspective but it was more of a privacy issue for them.  I figured they didn't ask to have their photos splashed about in public, plus there's always the potential embarrassment factor as they get older, with a mother who gets excited by buttons, doilies and vintage sheets. 

Anyhow, since then it seems that I have become very adept at taking pictures of the backs of their heads and other bits of their bodies...I have lots of photos like these from a few weekends ago when we had a scorching long weekend.

 
I love that these picture capture a different, and in many ways, a more initimate view than a standard head shot.  Another reason to be grateful for the perspective that blogging provides.

Union Jack pillowcase

Nearly a year after I finished his quilt and promised him a pillowcase, I finally finished it this morning.  It's been languishing in the "nearly finished pile" since last summer.  Somewhat ironically, it marks our almost 4th anniversary of living in Montreal (we arrived on 06.06.06 from the UK).  Tommy was just 19 months old when he arrived but still has the remains of a British accent, and is very aware of his Englishness.  He fully embraces his roots, and proudly exclaims to anyone who cares to know, that he is one half English, one half Greek and one half Canadian. 

That's a whole lot of boy!

 
His puppy, "Fluffy", is wearing the Montreal Canadiens jersey -they're playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs (um that's hockey if you're not a fan) at the moment - go Habs go!

That time of year again

Now that I'm into my third year of blogging I can confidently say that there are definite patterns that seemed to have emerged in our lives.  The most recognizable one for me is that May seems to be a month of huge growth by my children.   I wonder if that's just my family, or whether spring has that effect on all children?  The warmer weather seems to be the catalyst for a period of blossoming where another set of childhood milestones are reached.

Thomas learned to ride without his training wheels this weekend.  It has required much patience (not to mention running!) on the part of his Dad as although all the signs showed he was perfectly ready, he really wasn't too keen after a lot of falling to begin with.  We agreed this morning that he should try one more time and if he still felt scared we'd put the training wheels back on.  By the afternoon it all magically clicked into place and his confidence sky rocketed.

Whilst all this was going on, I was gardening and Ruby, spurred on by a successful culinary venture the night before, had made us all lunch as a surprise.  Tortillas with salami, spinach and cheddar! On Saturday evening she had made spaghetti bolognese with very little assistance from me, using ground beef, onion, carrots, courgettes diced using a pampered chef chopper and homemade canned tomatoes.  After I stopped fretting about her possibly burning herself while stirring on the stove top, I realized that with a little supervision, she was completely fine. She has begged me to let her cook for everyone on Saturdays from now on.

Now I could get used to that.

Not mellow yellow

Quite the opposite in fact.  I'd say it's more like "so screamingly bright you couldn't possibly miss this" yellow.  It's our new picnic blanket, or sunshine quilt as I am optimistically calling it, made from thrifted pillowcases for the top, a thrifted fleece blanket for the batting and a thrifted sheet for the back.  
 
That's right, thrifted, thrifted, thrifted and very loud.  
The pillowcases have been purchased over the last year ever since I finished up my baby zig zag quilt. I'm not sure if I'm just drawn to their sunny cheer, but there always seems to be an abundance of vintage yellow sheets and pillowcases to be found, more than any other colour.  Not that I'm complaining of course. 
For the first time ever, I sewed the binding by machine because I was just too plain lazy to do it by hand and you know what?  It looks absolutely fine. I'm so rebellious, I may never go back to hand sewing binding again.

The weather has been spectacular this weekend, so it had its first grass testing and I'm hoping the craziness of the patterns will cover up all manner of spillages and stains. 

Let the picnicing begin!