Lineanongrata

bugs and slugs

We live on a winery. When we needed to bottle our wines, there were no bottles available (a bit of a monopoly thing going on in the glass production in France), so now I'm growing them. So what if they're plastic ?

I'll admit to plastic bottles being neither organic nor as beautiful as peas, for example, but they do make good homes for peas and other little plants that need protection. Because there has been a war going on in my vegetable patch. The slugs against me, and honestly, I don't care about casualties any more. The next strawberry that I pick and find a slug living inside will provoke mean measures like beer traps. For the moment I protect my most tender plants with plastic bottles that have had their bottoms cut off (I found the idea in Country Living. A magazine I've fallen in love with because not only are the pictures pretty, but you can actually read the articles ! Not always a given when it comes to 'pretty living' and 'home ideas'. I have access to the British edition, so you'll have to figure out if the American one is as good on your own.). Every once in a while I find a snail or a slug inside a bottle, but most of them see only plastic and think 'oh no, yet another field of plastic bottles. I wish they'd grow peas like in the old days.' Ah, all right. This is the place in my post where my little sister groans something about 'not funny', so I'll leave you with images of some nice little bugs, after having ranted about mean little slugs.

summer linen

Linen feels so much like summer. Evoking sand, pebbles, the beach. It has a visual life and an organic quality of it's own, wrinkling, seemingly cracking, 'one' all the same. I'm planning to put a whole range of products made of linen in the shop during the next few weeks. Because it's summer. And because I have a new obsession.

In fact, make that two new obsessions. Printing being the second one. I know I'm being a child, but reproducing the same image over and over again gives me such a thrill.

These coasters (made of linen, of course) are in the shop now, as are these notebooks.

The print is called 'remind me', and I'll tell you more about it in the next couple of days. If ever I forget, remind me, will you ?

time

Do you think people measure time differently ? I do. Mine is measured by the things I get done during the day. If I had to measure time by how long it feels I'd say it's non-existent.

On the winery the days demand grocery shopping (that's a time-consuming expedition when you live in the country), cooking for the boys, housework (yucky piles of laundry underneath which I find the occasional scorpion), work for the winery, the garden, taking care of the zoo and work for myself. For what I really want to do. The illustrations and the things I make.
Usually I try to invent something new. For the shop. For me as an illustrator.
Which is exhausting after a while if you lack time to really think things through (all right. I'll admit to not minding any sewing pattern, ever.).
So just to see how that works, and because I felt I needed a break, I spent the last weekends and evenings simply recreating things and patterns I found in books.. Like the little elephant or this outfit which will go to Paris as a gift for someone's son.
And you know what ? I loved it. It's so relaxing. It stretches time just a little bit and feels as though I had more of it at my disposition. Because there was no inventing to be done. Only recreating.

and thus...

Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful comments and emails. I'm still trying to integrate the fact that grandfather is gone. Trying to go from the verb 'dying' to 'dead'. We'll say good bye to him next week Thursday and that will be a very sad occasion, but right now there are stretches of time when I don't think about it and even more time when I do think about him and grandma, but only happy and funny thoughts. About how it was when we were little and they in their prime of grand-parenthood.

Before burying grandfather though, my new godson and I will be baptized. Monday. And to be precise: He'll be baptized and I'll then be his godmother. Lucky him.

Jakob was born in September and is the son of one of my two best friends. Even though he doesn't like his mother to talk on the telephone (thinking she should much rather talk only to him, if she please) and wails loudly when I call, he's the the source of many happy thoughts at the moment nonetheless.

It's as my grandmother always says: 'Thus joy and tears come from the same face.'

a fleeting glimpse

It's in the middle of so much work for the winery that I become impatient and want to go back to crafting and illustrating. Weekends and evenings have been busy times, divided between quiet time and even some sun, some barbecue experiments by Vincent (delicious), watching the plants grow (Honestly. You can almost watch them grow. I look in the morning and nothing is there to be seen. Around noon I look again, just in case, and green things are showing tender sprouts.), and making things.

The second photo was taken by Vincent. I hadn't seen it before but the two photos make a nice pair.

after a sewing marathon

I was unable to post yesterday, too busy making (sewing, undoing, resewing, re undoing...) this scarf.

It's an Amy Butler pattern from this book.

Whereas this is a pattern from a Japanese sewing book with patterns even I am supposed to understand. Probably even would without a problem if I followed the images in the book. The way it went I had to undo it three times but it was very instructive.

All right: it was absolutely unnerving. But the result is nice, nonetheless.

Our photo shooting for the shirt ended in a general tangle of paws and claws and finally in song, but you at least got a glimpse of my endeavors.

Have a beautiful weekend, everyone.

if I don't post tomorrow,

I've drowned. Whole rivers are coming down the hills here after two days of continuous rain. It gives the winery a medieval feeling, because the boys can't work in the fields, electricity is going on and off, Internet is working at its own convenience (we already have two different providers because one always takes a break) and yesterday we even had to close the shutters for fear they might fly away. 'Medieval' makes me think of my kitchen, which can be the dragon's den then. You never know what kind of thing might walk out of the refrigerator to attack you, just having recently developed legs and maybe fangs.
The joys of country life.

Now that the advent game and Christmas are over though, I can again share some projects. No need for secrecy, no 'ah no, you can't come in here' or 'you may come in, but don't look behind the chair'.

It was an attempt at a coaster. But you know, it might also make a nice little wallet...

... shall we talk about those craft projects that go around all blogs and that everyone tries, and how nobody mentions to keep in mind you might want to put glasses on coasters, and that, therefore, coasters need to be smooth and regular ? Well ?

Ah, well, it will make a good wallet.

peek

Want a peek at things I'm making for the advent calendars (there will be two of them. One for the blog, the other for my sister) ?

Of course I'm not running late on this. It was all planned that way. For greater suspense.

During the midday meal preparation I had three kittens in the kitchen, all of them staring spellbound at the washing machine. TV couldn't be more attractive. We tried to tame one of them but had to give up after four days. He howled all night and all day long, and in the end we needed some sleep. I'm considering naming the three of them after three dictators or three terror groups.

winter totes

The winter totes are up in the shop. I hope you like them.

I tried hard to do angels and Santa Clauses but just couldn't do it. So none the totes but one are strictly christmassy. Rather, they are wintery and one is just funny (at least I think it's funny).

saturday sewing

Have a peaceful weekend, everyone.