On our last day of school, it was snowing (yes, again!) pretty bad when I drove back home, so rather than waiting for the next day, I stopped on my way home to buy a tree. I mean, we could have been stuck at home all weekend! Actually, this time, we just had an inch of snow...

Le dernier jour d'école, je suis rentrée sous la neige (et oui, encore!). Du coup, je me suis arrêtée en chemin pour acheter mon sapin, de peur d'être encore bloquée par la neige par la suite et de ne pas pouvoir me conformer à la tradition qui veut que mon sapin soit fait le premier weekend des vacances!

And tadaam!

Et voilà!

By night...

It's quite tiny as a) it had to fit in my tiny car; b) I had to carry it on my own; c) I didn't want to buy new ornaments as I have more important house-related things to spend on.

Also, it tends to lean on the right but that's because a) it's natural; b) we had a little cat-cident yesterday!!!

Il penche un peu du côté où il va tomber comme dirait ma Maman, mais c'est l'apanage des vrais sapins, et puis hier, nous avons eu un petit "chat-cident" qui n'a pas arrangé les choses!!!

There is nothing glittery in it... Nearly everything is made of fabric or wood or paper... No plastic in my tree, please.

Je n'aime pas les paillettes dans mon arbre. Je trouve ça superbe quand je les vois en magasin, mais une fois chez moi, cela ne va pas avec l'atmosphère.

All these ornaments I bought years ago when I lived in an apartment in the Parisian suburbs and had decorated it "cottage style" (I just didn't know it was called that at the time).

Toutes ces décorations ont des années et avaient été achetées à Castorama... Bref, rien de bien folichon, mais pile dans le style!

I was already fond of hearts!!! It wasn't in fashion yet!!!

Tiens, j'étais déjà fan des coeurs!

The only "expensive" ornament I own is this litlle angel-ballet dancer that I bought in Quebec some ten years ago (gosh, so long ago? - it seems like yesterday as I remember perfectly well the shop...)

Ma seule décoration un peu précieuse est cet(te) ange-ballerine, souvenir d'une journée passée à Québec...

OK, I lied about the "not buying anything new this year"... I couldn't resist two too cute teddy bears.... The one above and the one below!

D'accord, j'avoue, je n'ai pas tenu ma résolution "je n'achète rien de nouveau cette année". Ces deux petits oursons m'ont tendu les bras et je n'ai pas résisté...

Thanks to everyone who stops by... I apologize for all the mistakes you might (will?) find both in English and French... I'm trying my best!

Wishing you all a very merry (and snowy) Christmas,

I'm linking this post to:

and to:

Je vous invite à découvrir plein d'articles passionnants en cliquant sur les sigles.

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

I so wanted to be part of The Lettered Cottage party! But what are you saying? I don't have a mantel? I'm stuck at home because of a severe snow fall and can't go out shopping? Nevermind! I'll do with what I have at home and in the garden... I know it's not half as pretty as all the posts I've been reading for two days... But it was made with love...

Je voulais vraiment répondre à l'invitation du superbe site The Lettered Cottage... Mais comment faire un décor de cheminée de Noël quand on n'a pas de cheminée... Et qu'en plus, on est bloqué à la maison par des chutes de neige qui n'en finissent plus? On fouille dans le grenier et on traverse le jardin! J'ai tout à fait conscience que ce décor n'a rien à voir avec ceux dignes des magazines que l'on voit ailleurs, mais je me suis bien amusée à le faire...

From this:

On est donc parti de ça:

To this:

Et on en est là:

It's just a couple knickknack I already had, but it gives the entrance of the house some Christmas spirit.

The wreath is made of ivy, which isn't very Christmas-y... But it's what I found in the garden, and it was very difficult to draw it from the wall as it was frozen and kept cutting.

La couronne est faite avec du lierre qui pousse sur le mur du garage et qui m'a donné bien du mal: il était gelé et n'arrêtait pas de se couper quand j'essayé de le retirer du mur...

Pour ceux qui ne connaissent pas, les petites affichettes dans les cadres blancs sont des parodies d'affiches anglaises de la seconde guerre mondiale... On peut en inventer à l'infini, mais comme je ne suis pas encore une experte en informatique, je pique les miennes sur Internet. J'en mets un peu partout dans la maison, jusqu'à ce que ça me passe...

At night:

I'm obviously linking this post to The Lettered Cottage... And remember folks, don't be to hard on me... It's just a work in progress...

Même si le site n'est pas en francais, je vous invite à faire un tour sur ce site: les photos parlent d'elles-mêmes et sont magnifiques pour la plupart.

I also link to a website I really love:

Neigeusement,

Snowly yours,

Little White House xxx

I wanted to transform the upstairs toilets during my Hallowe'en break, but instead I got 3 wonderful friends and a baby at home. It was really great, especially the fact that the baby discovered the sea (and chocolate!) while here!!!

On the plus side, I get more time to think about what I want to do upstairs... Oh, and also, they gave me really cute heartshaped dishes. It was blind luck apparently, as none of them knew I had moved to a "heart phase". (I tend to love things shaped as a heart nowadays).

Here they are, filled with a seafood pie. But, since then, I also baked a great meringue triffle in them. Everything tastes better when heartshaped!!!

So the only new project so far is to get rid of the rope that was in the staircase.

Before:

After:

I know, it looks like it took five seconds! Atually it took for ever since a) the rope had about four nails a stair; b) the rope was so dusty, the dust was like glued to the wood underneath and I had to wash it with a toothbrush so I could get to the corners!

Also when my friend's baby was there, I finally understood why the bottom stairs look so much more older than the upstairs ones!!! Generations of babies trying to go up and stopping at the third stair!!!

Later, I would like to repaint the staircase for right now there are three different walls!!! Again harmony is nowhere in the house!!!

Yesterday, I was surprised to see kids come "treat or tricking" the house: I quickly put my witch dress and hat on and it was a lot of fun to wait for them and see their face when they discovered my lighted Jack O'Lantern and black dress!

I know corridor is such a long word for such a tiny area of the house... But it's right in front of my bedroom and I couldn't stand to go to sleep waking through this:

Je sais, l'espace est tellement petit qu'il ne mérite pas le nom de couloir! Mais traverser tous les soirs ce mélange d'orange (couleur que j'adore, comme chacun sait...) et de bordeaux... avec des motifs qui ne sont même pas des fleurs (un truc incompréhensible pour moi), je ne pouvais plus! J'ai donc pris mon pinceau, avec d'autant moins d'appréhension, que je veux casser ce petit couloir plus tard... Donc, si je me rate, rien de catastrophique!

So here is what it looks like now:

It was hardwork to get the burgundy to come back to white. The walls are painted a slightly darker shade of white. I really like the light there is in that small space now... And as you notice I still have to do the landing, which is painted with various shades of yellow and orange.

From an other angle, before:               Vu d'un autre angle, avant:

After: Après:

This was my first big painting job: I'm aware that there are many mistakes... But practice makes perfect! It's a good thing I didn't choose the living-room as my first project!

If shades of white inspire you, you might want to have a look at those two blogs.

Si le blanc et ses variantes vous inspire, allez faire un tour sur ces blogs:

beige et blanc 

Dreamy Whites

Did you see how I'm getting better at giving links?

PS: This post has been sent to:

I've been dreaming to do that for a while now, but never dared... Thanks to The Shabby Chic Cottage for being such a great and inspiring blog.

A friend asked me recently if I had done anything with the house yet or rather as she put it if I had "undone" anything. It's a work in progress and I need time... But, even before I had my bed in the room, I needed to undo something.  This was my very first (and "very number one") project. Have you guessed? Do you remember that wall?

I had never held a brush or anything before, but I thought "What the ...? I can't do worse, now, can I?"

So here I am at work...

Mylène, if you read that post, these are the old jeans you wanted me to throw away. They are actually very useful!!!

I chose to have that wall white because a) the room is already very colorful (pink, grey and yellow, yeah, I know, yuck!) and b) there was no way I would find the exact same yellow or same grey...

So, this is my first before/after:

Tadam!

I shouldn't say it really, but actually, it's not as perfect as the picture shows it: you can still slightly see the green leaves... But, I will redo it when I know what I'll do with the room.

The cottage style is slowly creeping in the Little White House, regardless of the awful previous owners paintings...

Sweet dreams to you all,