France, June 2013

Our base for the week - Moulin de Garreau

 Hello all!  We got back from a lovely week in France in the middle of the night, the Sunday before last.  Our car came back the following Friday!!! But I don't want to start on a negative note, because we did enjoy ourselves, so I'll leave that until later.

The lake we walked around or fished in.

 There was so much to do at the house we could have amused ourselves there for the entire week, but we did take time out on a few days.

The Green Room (ours!)

 The weather picked up nicely after the drizzly drive down from St Malo and we didn't have another bad day until the day we left, which meant it was more comfortable to drive in.

 This is the first of four evening meals we ate at the house.  I think I enjoyed these meals more than when we ate out. It was quite a rural area where the locals didn't speak much English, so choosing from a French menu without much help was a bit hit and miss.  Who knew that 'gesiers' were gizzards!! Apparently they were quite nice.

 This is our communal sitting/dining area with the table set for dinner.  That shoe dumping area became quite messy by the end of the week!

 We dined alfresco a couple of times, making good use of the brick BBQ in the garden.

A couple of glasses of Pimms went down well while the BBQ was cooking.

A day on the beach at Isle de Re was just the thing on the hottest day of the week.

The 15 minute walk to the pizzeria was through the beautiful French countryside (You can't see the brick and tile factory on the other side of the road from this angle :-) We met an ex-pat at the pizzeria who works at the factory. He helped translate a little for us and arranged for us to go with the owner of the pizzeria to one of his wine suppliers, after we'd asked if there were any vineyards we could visit.  We met them one evening at 4pm and they led the way.  We would never have found one without their help because they don't seem to advertise for tourists.

There seemed to be a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, in general, towards tourists in the area, and sites of interest were tucked away down side streets with no signage until you were right there.  We followed a town map of Fontenay le Compte, that was in the house, in order to find a couple of gardens and a castle to look around.

This was the fate of our car after filling it up, following the day on the beach.  To cut a long story short, the steering 'went' when we were 45 minutes from the house. The following days involved 3 taxi journeys, 3 different hire cars (one with a crack nearly all the way across the windscreen) and many phone calls.  In total, we probably lost about 8 hours to-ing and fro-ing but, luckily, we had taken out extra European cover with the AA. The car couldn't be fixed in France so we still have that cost (and we haven't had the phone bill yet either), but it could have been so much worse.

Incidentally, in attempting to converse with the first taxi driver we told him we were from Wales (Pays de Galles).  OH told him, more specifically, 'Raglan' which he repeated like he knew it, which I thought was odd.  He must have been trying to think of the right words for the rest of the journey, because, when we got to the house, he turned to us and said, "My - girl (daughter we presume)  - work - Raglan - Arms"!!! We managed to communicate to him that our son worked there too and he said, "Small - world!"  

Small world, indeed!

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I haven't heard anything, yet,  from Penny who won my giveaway before I went away. I've joined Google+ but have yet to find a way to get in touch.  If I don't have any luck soon there's a chance I'll be re-drawing the winner.

Bye for now

Teresa x

Giveaway Result!

 Just a quick post to announce the winner of the The Hand-Stitched Home by Caroline Zoob.  I was surprised there weren't more entries because I had lots more visitors than usual.

A little something I've been working on.

I used an online random number generator which picked number 8 out of the nine comments, which was lucky Penny Edwards.  Congratulations Penny - I hope you read this post because I wasn't able to find an email address for you as I'm not on google+. Please leave me a comment with your address (which I won't publish) so I can send the book to you.

If you'd like another chance to win, pop on over to Very Berry Handmade where Ali is also offering a copy as a giveaway, with a much more professional-sounding review than mine! But hurry because there's not much time left!

A pic from our local music festival - The bell ringers on the hotel terrace.

I'm off on holiday for a while so I'll check when I get back whether Penny has been in touch. 

Bye for now
Teresa x

Book Review: The Hand-Stitched Home by Caroline Zoob, and a Giveaway!

I was surprised and excited recently to be offered, a free copy of The Hand-Stitched Home by Caroline Zoob, by the publishers, to review. Obviously, I jumped at the chance to receive a lovely, shiny-new, stitching book to look at. Not having reviewed a book since I was at school it was a little daunting. But of course, it was nothing like school; actually wanting to read this book, being the main difference.

It's been a little while since I've done any embroidery but, after being inspired by this book, I'll definitely be picking up a needle and thread again very soon. Caroline Zoob doesn't profess to be an expert embroiderer but rather calls the process 'drawing with a needle', the result of which is a very individual book, full of designs that are brimming with character. The stylish cover is the first clue as to what is in store.

Lovers of a simple, minimalist style would be in their element with this book, but those who prefer more elaborate decorative touches will also find much inspiration. I've picked out a few of my favourite pictures to show you.

Using the projects in The Hand-Stitched Home you could add embroidered detail to personalise your own possessions, or create new, decorative pieces from scratch. Whether an experienced or novice stitcher, this book has ideas for all levels of skill.

The projects in the book are arranged into five sections; Making pictures, On the edge, At the table, The soft stuff and At the window, followed by the extra, useful stuff, like templates, stitches and techniques. My favourite projects are the place mats, window pelmet and cushions.

It's written in an easy-going, chatty style, with Caroline's love of the art of embroidery, and the whole creative process, shining through. I like the fact that the list of materials required for each project is not too specific, allowing each individual stitcher to use what they may already have, match the design to their own colour scheme or put their own twist on it.

The instructions are easy to understand, and detailed enough to complete the projects, as pictured, but Caroline positively encourages interchanging the designs between projects, and experimenting.

The photography is amazing, showing off the designs to perfection, and I'm pleasantly surprised that the photo captions contain 'new', useful information (and are not just regurgitated from the main text).

Luckily for you, I've decided to give away this copy!! All you have to do for a chance of winning it, is to leave a comment on this post. It can be about anything you like, but if you need a little nudge, how about telling me your experiences of embroidery. I would also be very happy for you to blog about this giveaway, leaving me a separate comment telling me so, and, therefore, earning another entry. The competition is open to anyone, anywhere. I will draw the winner using a random number generator in 2 weeks time, on 19th June, and announce the result shortly after.

If you are not the lucky winner but would still like to get your hands on a copy here's a special offer for you.

To order The Hand-Stitched Home at the discounted price of £16.00 including p&p*, telephone 01903 828503 and quote offer code JS219. Or send a cheque made payable to: Littlehampton Book Services Mail Order Department, Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3TG. Please quote the offer code JS219 and include your name and address details. *UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

Bye for now
Teresa x