Baby it's cold outside

I love this!




I can tolerate this.




But this really blows!




It's time to head south.
So T3 is on vacation, and for the next few months you can find me back over at Mexican Madness

I hope to see you there.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pillow talk

So, I had this idea to update this room.










It's the garage/guest room #2 at Casa del Sol.
See those hideous bedspreads? They came with the house. As did the gobby headboard thingies.

So it's time for a change. Don't want to break the bank though, because it is, after all, mostly a garage.

A little on-line searching yielded this duvet/sham set:









Perfect! Bright, colorful, and half price! I ordered 2 of them.

While I was waiting for them to be delivered, I wandered into a store and saw the set on display. Gaaack...they look much better when you can only see a tiny corner in a crisp photo. In real life, they were just too, too, what's the word I'm looking for here? Oh yeah - ugly! We already have ugly, so back they went.

I chose instead, plain white quilts and bed skirts, with a splash of cushions, and coordinating crocheted throws.

The plan (Or rather, the idea; the word plan implies that I might have actually, you know, planned this out.) was to crochet a blanket, and make 2 patterned cushions, and 1 plain cushion for each bed.







So, I found a couple of fabrics that I'm hoping are the right colours, and bought some. Not enough, as it turned out, and of course, there is no more to be had, but that's what not planning will do to you. I also bought some piping, because the plan included piping around the cushions.

Piping is no big deal, right? After all, I managed to do these chair cushions with no problem...








Seems that was just a fluke. Piping was definitely NOT happening on this project.







I was resigned to plain pillow case type covers until Connie suggested buttons to dress them up a bit. Great idea CJ!
Found some nice white buttons that I think will look nice against the white quilts, and voila - cute cushions.







I was a few inches of fabric short, so I was only able to make 3 of each kind. No problem - one bed will have 2 patterned and one plain; the other bed will have 2 plain and 1 patterned. Yes, that was my plan all along!







The crocheting project should keep me busy all winter, but at least it's going well.

So, what about those bed frames?







Spray paint them white? Dark blue? Or deposit them in the nearest dumpster? (With the painting!)

The final few days

Lyon La Foret is touted as one of the prettiest villages in France. No argument from me.

Bakery treats for breakfast (mais oui!) in the main square.




Dogs are welcome everywhere - even at the bakery!




















Beautiful, tranquil, sleepy little village, right?
Well, not quite. I tried really hard to crop the traffic out, but there was a lot!




Rouen. Infamous as the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. There was a street named after her, a small statue, and a plaque, in a tiny, ill-kempt garden, but other than that, they were pretty low- key about it.










I guess it's not an easy concept to market. What are they gonna do? Sell little figurines with maybe a tea light candle underneath?


Of course there is the requisite gothic cathedral.










And some great lunch options. We chose to have a picnic across the street from the spendy restaurants.





The town of Le Nourbourg has an open market one morning a week. It was huge! It covered several city blocks, and you name it, and it was on display.































We had another nice picnic lunch in a little park by this house.





Les Andelys, Chateau Galliard.
Because we hadn't done enough hills and steps lately, we decided to climb up to see this ruin. It was quite a work-out, but the view of the Seine valley from the top was well worth it.































Val de Reuil.
We had dinner reservations for our last night in France in the next village over from Connelles, but we couldn't hold out that long. We went or a drive in search of lunch, and found ourselves in a little hole-in-the-wall pizza joint in a strip mall in Val de Reuil, with our local buddies.







Strangest pizza ever! Scallops, mussels, olives, & squid bits. Yes, really!




Our last dinner at Jules & Jim's looked like a better bet.







And just like that *snaps fingers* our once in a lifetime trip is over.

Sigh!

We had a blast, and now we have a thousand new memories in the friendship bank.

Thank you, Debbie & Cheryl. We'll always have Paris!