Small cool kitchens 2012

Guess what?

Last week I entered this competition thinking I probably wouldn't get in. I hadn't had any news by last friday and had more or less forgotten about it. Then we went to Lille for the weekend (more on that later, it's a lovely place full of cheese). On sunday morning I was bored waiting for Boyfriend to wake up so I decided to check my emails on my Blackberry (I don't usually do this, it's my number one rule to decide when and where I'm available) and after a lot shouting and jumping on the bed I managed to get the message through to Boyfriend that our kitchen was officially on the interwebs. Totally rad. (I'm trying out the word rad at the moment).

I'm so excited. The best part is, they've just decided to extend favouriting until thursday, which means I may not end last of the last with 11 votes (this was the case yesterday). 

You know what to do...... Vote! Vote! Like a man in a boat!

(obviously I will never stand for election, my slogan still needs a bit of work).

Click HERE to go straight to my page.

Country life

Thank you pixel-o-matic, for making the French countryside on a beautiful day look even more dreamy than it is.

 

And for making my cocktail look even yummier.

It's too darn hot

This is more or less what I look like right now:

Berry part 2 - kittens and cocktails

Sigh. I've had my first blog related incident. I just wrote a post. A big one with photos and everything. Then I clicked somewhere, and BAM. All gone. I tried undoing, I tried going back, I tried stamping my foot and screaming. Nothing came back. So after a nice lunch and a watermelon smoothie I'm giving it another try.

So. Last weekend we went for cherry mojitos and home made lasagna at one of Boyfriend's school friend's house. She and her boyfriend just moved into a beautiful house they had built. I didn't take any pics of the inside as it's obviously still a work in progress, they only moved in two weeks ago after all. Hopefully though I'll be back in a couple of months with photos of the stunning kitchen, beautiful bathrooms and the pool. This is one serious swimming pool. Actually I do have a picture of it, though it's not very good. Should I?

 

Yes that is solidified sand that you can see around the pool. Yes, there are in fact TWO pools, and yes, the rock wall is hidden by a waterfall when the pump is switched on. The bottom of the pools are lined with blue tiles. This is one hell of a pool in my opinion.

Now for the photo avec cocktail

What? I had a difficult week at work, I deserve this kind of luxury.

The other main attraction of this house was the tiny 2-month old maine coon kitten. 

She didn't have a name so we called her Fluffy. As in "it's so fluffyyyyyyy!"

Some of these are going straight to www.cuteoverload.com

 Isn't that tummy just screaming to be rubbed?

But no! We must play at attacking everything around us!

And now time for bed. With my nose on the floor, so comfy. 

Actually given the heat around here I would be quite happy to lie down on the cool floor for a little snooze.

Berry part 1 - flowers

We spent last weekend in the centre of France at Boyfriend's parents' home. Its a cute little pink house in the middle of a tiny village (even the bakery is tiny: a van that comes round once a day! Of course everybody knows each other and the boulangère always stops for coffee at the pink house). 

Boyfriend's Mum is quite the gardener. She wins prizes for her garden most years and last year she was even awarded a distinction from the state! Crazytown. So I thought I would show you how a tiny garden can be jam packed with flowers. Let's go! 

This is the front of the house

And this is the side

The main garden is actually just across the street!

I can't remember what these are called but they're one of my favourites and I've never seen any in bloom before. aren't they stunning? They look as if they would need a ton of sun though. Our balcony would not be the best place.

 Now get ready for a picture explosion

 

 

 

The blue spots on the tomatoes are some kind of plant food. Not sure I would spray my vegetables with chemicals, but they seem to be growing nicely...

Now for some fun. There are three creepy crawlies and two feathered friends hidden away among these photos. Can you find them? (warning: trick question)

As a reward, here is a photo of a cat. Guess what it's eating. On second thoughts, don't.

Pin up

I've decided to add a sort of weekly feature where I share my favourite pins with you. Ready? 

 

Found here

Found here

Found here

 Found here

 Found here

You can follow me on Pinterest over here, or hop on the link right up there on the right!

Instagrumpy

Since I'm the proud owner of an obsolete BlackBerry, I'm banished from using Instagram. This made me rather sad, until a friend pointed me towards this website. It's quick and easy to use and the result is very similar to Instagram. Ok so I can't post my pics with my phone. Well, I could, but I'm far too lazy. All I want is a good picture I can stick in a blog post.

Have you noticed my pixlr'o'matic-ed photos lately? No? Here they are:

And here are some new ones:

 

  

My friend is just getting into photography and I think she's got a real eye for it. Check out her website, its full of beautiful pics!

Little red children (and plates)

On saturday we met a couple of friends for lunch at the Marché des enfants rouges, one of my favourite places to eat and apparently the oldest market in Paris.

 (This sign says: you are in the right place. Very true.)

It's fairly small and over 50% of the stalls are open-air restaurants. Yummy food from all over the place. I've only tried 3 of the stalls so far but I've been impressed. It's best to get there relatively early to avoid having to stand in line for a table (probably what I hate most about Paris). I always finish with a vanilla aragostina from the Italian stall. SO. GOOD. 

Half fresh produce and half posh Parisians smoking after a good lunch

I can't remember what region the food we had was supposed to be from.  I had the weirdest salad ever.

Yes, those are flowers. Prickly flowers! And what looked like little succulent shoots. There's mozarella and something else hiding under there too. Was it tapenade? Not sure...

Anyway, it was good! We also had a cheese platter but it looks like we scoffed it without bothering to take its picture first.

The others had Turkish and other delights for dessert. I stuck to my vanilla aragostina. Of course I didn't get a picture of it! But this is what they look like:

I even found a recipe in Italian, in case you're feeling adventurous.

Who wants a mepon? 

Then we wandered around in the Marais for a while and checked out some thrift shops. Not my favourite place to be. I love a good flea market or antique shop, but old clothes that smell of other people? Nope, not my thing.

I love weird architecture though, and go to be a bit of a tourist in Paris for once.

What a crazy mix.

True that.

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with T.

And something beginning with B! (I took this just outside a church and I'm guessing it has something to do with a wedding)

I'll admit that on a nice day and without too many people around, Paris is pretty stunning.

But then you go into a cafe and are forced to pay 7 euro for a glass of tomato juice. That's when you change your mind again. 

But since you just came across the cutest little shop and found a beautiful plate on sale, you decide that in the end, Paris in the summer is rather sweet.

How many animals can you see?

This isn't its final spot. I just thought it might look cute like that. It doesn't really, but I couldn't be bothered to change the arrangement.

So that's what we did last weekend! Tomorow we're off to the centre of France to visit Boyfriend's family. I'm getting ready for long meals and lots of enthusiastic shouting: "oui oui oui!!!" "non non non non non! Où est la plume de ma tante?"