A Swedish treat

Martin plays sometimes his Swedish bagpipe, his säckpipa, which I LOVE. My favourite bagpipe! I just love the sound coming from it!

If you wonder about it, there is this Swedish player, Olle Gällmo, who plays (and sings too) so wonderfully! You will find on his page much of his music, one of my favourite pieces there, is Marsch efter Bleckå, oh wowwww!

Right now, listening to this music, I'd follow Martin to any bagpipe festival!
The advantage with a (passionate) bagpipe player as a husband, is that you get your own home festival whenever you want, or so (sowwy, neighbours! :P)

Welcome Perle! You were so much expected!

Perle was born a couple of days ago!
I don't know the details yet, but the mama (Michelle) is doing well, the papa is a bit exhausted (from what I understood), and I bet Perle looks like an angel!

I can't wait to meet her!

(happy sigh)

Bloody rabbits

The Shrimpette, 4 years-old, asked me the other day how Martin and I made "babies". Right, no problemo, I expected the question early and I had the prepared answer to it.

I was to tell Lola about flowers and pollen and butterflies. Beaudiful. Poetic. and just ENOUGH :)

But she stopped me saying she already KNEW all about it!

huh, well, right, let's hear about it.
And she explained that when they visited the farm the other day, the farmer told EVERYTHING while two rabbits were showing how to "make a baby".

"Main point" Lola said "is that the papa must go on the back of the mama, and tap the mama rabbit on the back with his paws. VERY quickly.Then it's
easy: the little seed becomes a baby!"

yeeeehaaaaaaaaaaa!


seed?????!!! But I wanted to keep the concept of the SEED for when she reaches 15, minimum!!!

(faint)

At least in the explanation a few chapter are missing apparently
(phewwwwww!)
Yet, those bloody rabbits have ruined my plans!


more here

Waving @Laurienna !

It's was Laurienna's birthday a couple of days ago... She's turned 16 or 26 (I always have a problem with numbers! grmppphhh)

And if you don't know yet misshhh Laurienna, she's just at the corner, here! Her blog is a treat (my word of the day!)... and if you knew what she does, you'd love to discover who's the artist behind!

(pssshit, Laurienna, it's not damn publicity ;-), just sharing of what I like!)

Again, happy birthday!!!

November rain (no kidding, it's Summer! #1)

November rains, yeah really...
...Oh wait, it's June!
So what, why am I still wearing a coat and boots!
pfff
Shit, it sucks that I'm blahblah-ing about the weather!
(Yet, I find that so strange that in some part of Europe the weather is over dry and in other parts of it, lands are lost in waters!)

(and here's a lil gift for Martin :P ... I still find Axl sings like a duck with a bad bad cold)

Guns 'n Roses November Rain
envoyé par darkblackraven

Que le meilleur gagne! (no kidding, it's Summer! #2)

(may the best one win)
I think I've never told anything about it here.
Esox is first a friend, dear dear friend, and then a man of taste (both concepts are linked naturally! :P)

Since a few months now, we've started this lil game... as soon as one of us leave for holidays, he/she will send the most kitsh postcard he/she can find to the other. It's really REALLY funny to hunt the ugliest postcard, and to receive them too! Very hard to find THE card, because some postcard are kitsh but too popular, too stylish, too "kewl". We're not looking for the "kewl" ones!

I think this summer will postcard-ly terrible, ugly and stinky. Very promising!!!

Here are 2 of the postcards Esox sent... I LOVE them! Real Art here, don't you think?!!

Final countdown (no kidding, it's Summer! #3)

9 days and school-time is over for the shrimpette!
That means... the 2 devils with me night and day for 2 months, I just can't wait for that!
Yeah, I had almost forgotten about it! I still wear thick sox but it's happy summertime already :)

Tv memories

Some people remember their first books, I remember my first series!
Gawd,I started to be addicted really REALLY early! :P

Here are some of those I really loved

Le club des Cinq
envoyé par calou20

Zora la rousse
envoyé par Golem_XIII

Silas
envoyé par Golem_XIII

- Papa Poule A2 1980
envoyé par VINCEnord

Prince Noir (Black Beauty)
envoyé par valentin73

Dick Turpin Dick le Rebelle Récré A2
envoyé par odilederey

When we wear farmers' boots

It's been a week now that we've started with a new quest. And this quest has a name (yus yus): the sheep from Ouessant!

This sheep...is said to be the smallest sheep in the world (50cm maximum)... And should be soon part of Candy's family!
No not in our Parisian flat, but to join Julia, our family sheep.

We were first looking for dwarf goats, which are said to be really fun and behaving almost like dogs with human beings. But they jump way to high for our installation in Bretagne and we don't want any electric fence.

So as we were looking for other kind of company for Julia, we really fell for the Ouessant sheep!

A week later, we know about everything about sheep. We can almost smell them from our (not so) posh lil flat here!

We hope to find a couple of Ouessant lambs by the end of July. A male and a female. We found a lil female born in Spring. And somewhere else a lil male, born in Spring too.
Not so much expensive, 60 euros for the 2 of them. I hope it will work.
Gawd, that is a new adventure! Just thinking of carrying them back to the family house in Bretagne IS something! lol

You should see them, they're so cute! And they are pretty autononous, they don't need more than what a traditionnal sheep needs (=space, company, food for winter and water, and a lil shelter against the rain and cold) + LOTS OF LOVE!

Here's the pic of a male, females do not have horns but are as cute!


The photo comes from here, great site!

PS: If you know anyone who get these sheep, please contact me!

edit: we will welcome on the first week of August 2 lil Ouessant lambs! A male and a female! We're so happy! Now we have to build a bigger shelter for Julia and them... we're drawing plans, etc! Watta work! But great one, I tell you!

Hurt

(just the name of my new painting, no worries :P)

A new painting that was supposed to start like a painting about superstition, (there was, at the beginning, a worried woman surrounded with cats).
It finished this way, a woman surrounded with blood. She's been hurt, maybe not physically.
I love it when the brushes lead you to unknown lands!


click here

Original language, no subtitle, let's Play

lately we took more time to watch the movies and series that were starting to get dusty on the shelves...
And we've started using seriously this online renting system. So practical to watch the last movies we've missed!

We've just finished watching Six feet under season 3 (yeeeehaaaaaa!) and we've started with Dexter (first time I heard of it was on Romuald's blog and it sounded like something I couldn't miss!). Dexter is pretty good, I love the idea of making a serial killer -working for the police- the heroe!



I'm not sure the series is really good for tourism buziness in Miami, but being at the other side of the ocean, I feel safe and really enjoy the show! :P

Do you have time to watch all the series you want? Gawd I don't have the time at all, and there is still so much to discover!
Now on the shelves, we have Battlestar Gallactica #3 and Six Feet Under #4...

As for movies,
we've watched 2 movies that were such good surprises! ... Little miss sunshine, in which I absolutely didn't recognize Steve Carell, and My life without me, recommended by Michelle... such a sensitive and personnal movie!
Both of them very differently enjoyable!

Anything you've watched lately that you'd recommend?
Have you seen any of those named above?

The rain Ghost

Yesterday I dreamt I had the castle of my dreams (lol that is very *me*, dreaming, almost believing my wishes will come true!).
It was not a classical castle, rather like a 19th century-old manor.
I was very excited, I invited all my friends there to tell me what they thought of it. Some came to ask me if I had noticed there were ghosts. I followed them, met the ghosts. Like teenager ghosts (probably the most devil-ish ones ;-). I tried to be kewl and friendly. They were not at all.

Re-merde. I don't want a castle anymore! no, please, not a castle!!!! I want a quiet and peaceful and very small hobbit house.

hm..
Oh?
But I have that!

Life's wunnerful!

It rained the other day, and really too much. Some ghost was behind that, I swear it!


click here

a five-stars restaurant! (huh? I'm being too modest?! :P)

Last weekend, we had planned to try 3 or 4 restaurants and also to go out for drinks, etc. We had forgotten how expensive restaurants are! Merde! And drinks too!
So we had a drink somewhere and we went to restaurant with Lola, once.

As we were limited with money (what a cruel world! ;-), we decided to make of our lil place the restaurant of our dreams. And it worked!
We all had exactly what we were drooling for...

We cooked brownies (I don't want to remember the quantity of butter in that one!), croque-madame for Lola, stuffed egg-plants (aubergines farcies, one of my top recipes), and veal's roulades (roulades de veau).

The veal's roulades were absolutely a success, very easy to do, and so so good! You MUST try it!



Here is the recipe, I'll make it in Franwch too for the lazy bums ;-)

for 2 or 4 persons (depending on your appetite)
4 flat veal escalopes / 4 escalopes de veau assez plates
4 slices of bacon / 4 tranches de bacon
parmesan / parmesan (en morceau plutôt)
fresh basilic / basilic frais
fresh sage / sauge fraîche
+ wooden picks / petits pics en bois

to be served with / accompagnement
pasta
or
tomatoes and mushrooms
or whatever you want



1.cut each escalopes in 2 or 3 slices / découper chaque escalopes en 2 ou 3 tranches (sens de la longueur)
2.put bacon on the slices / placer le bacon sur chaque tranche
3.put the basilic leaves on the slices/ placer les feuilles de basilic sur chaque tranche
4.put the sage leaves on the slices/ placer les feuilles de basilic sur chaque tranche
5.add the parmesan on the slices / finir en mettant les copeaux de parmesan (idéal) sur les tranches
6.roll the slices and fix them with the picks / rouler les tranches (pas surper fastoche mais ça va) puis les fixer avec les petits pics

7.In a pan, put some olive oil and make the roulades cook on each side; when the meat isn't pink anymore, then it's ready / faire revenir dans une poêle avec de l'huile d'olive jusqu'à ce que la viande ne soit plus rose.

Even with the picks, it cooks well
It's not dry at all and taste wunnerful!

You must try it, it's just unforgeDable!!!!

Loup and Charlie

When I think I believed it was a real trauma for Loup to be away from us last weekend ... huhu ... ;-)

Army of bones

Earlier today we wanted to take Lola to "la Grande Galerie de l'évolution" (waving @Mahie), but we took the wrong entrance (...how typical!) and instead we went to face ... a real army of bones!



That was very impressive, but inspiring, beautiful. So much life vibes from the dead!
Our imagination kept running... these feet, where did they use to run? These threatening jaws... how many fights did they win? And how come such huge and apparently such strong creatures disappeared from earth while we, little human beings, are here, alive and kicking?



Lola loved it!
Specially when her mama dared playing the best (and not expected at allllllll) jokes with the most terrible crocodiles!


(the head of the croc' was 3 meters long, well, ok, Martin says *just* 1 meter -pfff- but it was way bigger than you can see on the pic!)

Clouds' hunter

This weekend was also Lola's weekend!
With her lil bro away for a few days, we did things with Lola we never do usually, like going for a drink or a restaurant, crossing Paris from west to east, north to south to visit friends, going to a (brilliant) painting exhibition, visiting a museum, listening to LOUD music, cooking altogether, etc... and Lola had a real good time I think. If I ask her what she prefered, she answers "when the waiters called me madame at the restaurant", and also the "barbapapa" (aka "cotton candy")!
With Loup around, a barbapapa is simply the worst idea.
That was the perfect moment for Lola to enjoy it, despite the rain!

A mama's thought

So... Loup comes back tomorrow. Was it hard to spend these days without him?

Not at all!
I missed him, but knowing he was having a very good time and considering we could sleep and do about a zillion of things we never do... That was great!

I highly recommend it to any other parent! Not easy to take the decision when it's the first time, but... wooohoooooooooooo! Not bad at all! :P

Weekend pluvieux, weekend heureux

(rainy weekend, happy weekend)

I can finally sit down and relax with my bloggie! The weekend is coming to an end but I still enjoy every bit of it !

Lemme see, a glass of wine, some good music (the *dancing nekkid in the woods* type) and I can start to write all the posts stuck in my mind :-)

For now, I'll just share the music ...

First night

...without Loup!

Our lil wolf is away for 4 days in Bretagne with his grand-parents.
The very first time since his birth that we're separated!


Do I feel stressed?
Do I miss him already?

Well of course I miss him, he's my baby!

But oh Gawd, it feels so relaxing to not keep one's attention fixed on a lil devil!
It feels a bit like holidays. I'm going to sleep... wawww... SLEEP! I don't know if I can do that anymore!
And I'm going to get time for meself.

Like, see... tomorrow morning after blood exams, I'm going to sit on a terrasse (Michelle, if you wanna join, you're most welcome :P), with a pile of female magazines and I'll have 2, 3 good coffees.
Then on lunch time, as Lola has a break of about 2 hours, we'll go just together to restaurant!
In the afternoon I'll work (translations of my gallery), then Lola and I will join Martin for a drink.

The weekend should be as exciting and relaxing (all the more as Lola has parties and we should really get some time for ourselves! yeeeeeeeeeeeepeeeeeeeeee!!!)


"I love you my baby, sleep well...
and have the time of your life!"

Have you ever tried it?

(wondering what comes to your mind with this title... I'd say food!)

...have you ever tried renting movies on the internet?
We're going to try this tonight. It sound so kewl! You pay about from 1 to 5 euros (depending on the movie you chose), you download it in less than 1 hour and there you go!
For some movies you get 1 month to watch them. When you start to watch a movie, you're usually expected to finish it in the next 48 hours.

See what a great toy it is?!!!

Soooo, we try it tonight and if it's kewl enough, next time we connect the puter to the tv screen :P

Here are first movies I've noticed and that I absolutely want to see...


Marie-Antoinette
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
Azur et Asmar
The hills have eyes
Cecil B.Demented
Adam's Apples
Memories of murder

ok, (covering eyes, turning my finger in the air, pointing on the screen)
...
..... it's gonna be Little Miss Sunshine!
Yeeehhhhaaaaaa

Twenty four

24 hours ago I got an email: "good news, you're going to make some money, bad news, the translation is expected for tomorrow"

15 heavy pages to be translated from English into Frawnch... technical stuff, like the recycling of boat materials... huuuuu

I think I spent 10 hours on it, most of it during the past night. It's been awful, after 5 hours my mind wasn't working anymore, or hardly!
Now it's done, and it feels wunnnerful!

I'm going to sit down and relax and enjoy your blogs and comments!
(happy sigh)

Waving @ Bristol !

When I look at the British map, I'm a bit nostalgic, I've been there so often in the past and always loved it!

(looking at the map),I've been to Dover, Portsmouth, Southampton, Plymouth and Falmouth (sailing there), Manchester, London, York, Birmingham, Hull, Newcastle, Forth, Skye, Aberdeen, and numerous of lovely villages... but never to Bristol!



and guess what....?
....
... we've just been invited there!!!!
Yeeepeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I think we can make it there, just details have to be fixed, but I think we will haver a beer or 2 in Bristol before the end of summer ... and with the best company you can imagine ;-) !
Yeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaa!

When the lil devils are lucky ...

... they manage to find real treasures on the internet, like this one that I love!
Bravo to the artists!

Le chat dans le chien
envoyé par hakim93200

Boys and girls

Martin: "You remember what was the last James Bond we watched?"

me: "Ha yup, the really bad one with Sophie Marceau"

Martin: "you mean the one with the remote-controlled black BMW ?"

me: "... huh... what?
Oh yeah, I mean the one with Sophie Marceau"

The safest place in the universe

...where could that be, hm?

My opinion... is just down here :)


Clickbhere for details

Where were they?

Where have been those who voted *orange* last month?!
Pff, it's not fun this way!
No surprise.

(that was just a quickie about French elections)

Running after my scared bikini

attention please: this is a girlie post! You can simply jump to the next one if you're into noisy trucks and fast red cars ...

This morning I realized something wunnnerful for a goil on a diet! There are not enough holes anymore on my belt! = My belt is just too BIG for me! haha hoho

That's what I call a victory!!!
And I'll won the war, I tell you! RoaaaRRRR!

Raspberry lil faery

The shrimpette is really good at easting raspberries, putting one on each finger before just *crunching* them :)
... but she is even better at cooking them! Her raspberry pie was a success!

It still works for me

I really enjoy the showman here!

I had a good laugh when discovering this performance, a good laugh mixed with real pleasure.. a pretty perfect cocktail to me



meowwwwww !!!

just wait till the middle of the video, when Julien, just, hahem, *let it go* !

Candies, balloons, laughs and dozens of happy devils

Lola's school organized its traditionnal fair (kermesse) last weekend!
And it was really nice again! The most simple games had a total success (like 2 kids having to fill a bottle with a big spoon, or like cutting threads from the *sweets' tree* with a tissu on the eyes, etc)



I really hope school like will be that way for the next 15 years for Lola. Without troubles, with a most peaceful atmosphere.

I know our luck for the moment, I know the privilege we get living in this part of Paris.
But we made the sacrifice to live in a small place. It's worth it. Totally! :)

More of Lola's fair here !

When I win lottery

Last weekend we visited Marine, an ooooooold friend of mine. After spending 7 years in London, she came back in France last year. She rents now a wonderful 3 rooms flat in Versailles.
Her flat is like at 3 minutes from the castle. I mean you see part of the castle when you're in front of her building. And like I said, Marine does not need any garden, you see, she gets tons of prestigious ones, for free!
Wooooaaaaaa


(I love these pics, one of my best friends in deep chat with the shrimpette, and Loup listening at flowers! -happy sigh-)

I used to live in Versailles when I was a kid but not that close to the castle!
We've walked a lot in the old little streets. It's so beaudiful, you smell History there, everywhere. I love it.

SOOOOooooooo... I've just added to my "when I win the lottery" list... a flat in Versailles with a view on the kings' gardens.
An old flat, to be renovated (but then I won't do it myself, I'll only give orders ;-).

Oh I would love that!

(please, ewws generous Gods, make my dreams happen! I swear all my family and friends will enjoy and be part of my my lottery plans!!!!)

memo for self: Candles' lottery plans:
a old house in Hamburg, near the Elbe
another house in Bretagne to open a B&B, yes that's a new dream too
2 flats in Paris for my kids when they're old enough
and
this old flat with a view on Versailles' gardens
but that's all!!! I promise!


my future neighbour :P

First baby shower

Earlier today I went to my very first baby shower!
One of the goils organized it for Michelle, our courageous Queenette of the day (Michelle's expecting her third child!)



It was really nice, and not at all about food (Stephanie spoiled us with her talent as a Chef!)
It's a very nice tradition to gather before the birth, when you still can find a minute for yourself...
But I doubt it could work here in France, we're way too supersticious to offer anything before the birth. Or maybe it could work if it was more like a "parents' shower" where you could offer a lil something for the parents only.

Anyway, that was great and Michelle looked beauDiful (whatever she says! You never *feel* beautiful when you carry a 9 months belly... but ... woaaaaaaaaaaaa from my point, Michelle was gorgeous!)

Ok, now who wants to make other babies around? I'm ready for any baby shower!

And you thought you were *organized*?!! ha! ;-)

Getting REALLY XTREMLY organized is, for instance, making plans today (in June) for Xmas holidays !

Yup, all is done here, we've bought our tickets to Hamburg :P
No long trip with the car this year, we're gonna fly! weeeehooooooooo!
I can't wait for it!
Well I can, because there's summer to enjoy before, but... t'is exciting to have such plans!

Well as one of my colleague used to say, only lazy people gets really organised!
So I've qualities too, no?! :P

The thing is that when you book your tickets now, 7 months in advance (lol, crazy no?!),you get really good prices. That's kewl. Specially when you pay a full ticket now for each little devil!

waving towards Hamburg! We're comiiiiiiiing, yeeehaaaaaaaaa!

First watermelon

for the lil wolf...



and ...

...

... it was a success!

PS: don't you find Loup on this photo just about purrrfect to join the All Blacks for their Haka? :P

If I'm crazy about shoes?!!

...ermm, hmmm, well, no not really ... it's just that my feet are very demanding! (and you know how painful feet can be if you do not please them really ;-)

Actually the shoes I'm talking about today are a gift from my in-laws for my birthday. I've just got them! And they are so comfortable and it feels so good to walk with them! Yeeeeeeepeeeeeeeeee!!!!

I just had to show them here! And I hope you appreciate my professionnal talent as a photographer :P



And pshhhhit... the one who said that diamond were the girls' best friends was totally wrong, believe me!

edit: gimme back my diamonds! ;-)
I wore them all day -went in Versailles, showing parts of the castle to Lola- and tonight me feet are .... dead of course. Yeah i know it was about the most stoopid idea with new shoes! pfffff, it hurts!

We can do it! We can cook Chinese!

No kidding, since we've an "Asian grocery" just near (so much less expensive than any chinese *restaurateur*), Martin and I have started to cook Chinese and Japanese food.

And it's kewl! Even if oyster sauce really stinks, we tried it with beef and other secret ingredients and it's.. (fainting)... just miraculous!
hehe

Now we're trying about just everything they have, Lola and I have got crazy for Hello Kitty strawberry sticks!
The kids are also into pastas made with vegetables (huhu! what a perfect compromise to make the kids eat begetables ) ... whereas Martin tries every kind of tofu he can find! (Hiro san, if you get good recipe with tofu, I'll be happy to learn about them!)





Sooooo, if any of you come around, you will know what kind of food you'll get at chez Candy ;-)