The Village Christmas Market

This year I once again had a stall at St Pierre d'Allevard's Christmas Market. Organised by the local farmers it took place on the Sunday before Christmas, and along with the local food producers were local artisans showcasing their work.

For me the highlight of the day was yet again the fabulous lunch organised for the stallholders, wild boar casserole with polenta, wine, bread, cheeses and a selection of tarts and cakes - all made by the stall holders. Fabulous!

It was quieter than last year, maybe because it was too close to Christmas or maybe the economic climate has just got everyone watching their centimes, but nevertheless it was a good day :)

Setting up the stall

local wines and pottery

tarts etc

fruit and cheese producers

my next door neighbour Jean-Francois Marmet and his honey

sculptures by Jean-Louis Bernard

M. Baboud and his art in wood and metal

furniture made from old wine barrels by M Roland Pons

after lunch it got busy!

Samhain - a stained glass garland

This garland, with it's rich red glass and little red stars like sparks, reminds me of the bonfires lit to celebrate the Celtic festival Samhain marking the end of the old and the begining of the new year. Yes, I know, I really should have made this one a few months ago ;)

you can find it in my online shop here

A Day in the Life of ...

A few days ago I documented my day for Heli Sengezer's weekly blog series "Friday is my Day".

You can read the results here!

Happy Holidays!!!

Secret Santa!!!

The European Street Team had it's 2nd annual Secret Santa Swap - this year organised by the lovely Mitsy aka Artmind. She did a fab job matching everyone and my secret santa was





........Eleraine aka Mabel!




It is a beautiful knitted scarf in Mabel's own handwoven and hand dyed deep pinky red yarn - totally exquisite!!!! I love it! and she sent me a little chocolate bar too .....mmmm, I do like my chocolate :)



Thank You Mabel!!!

For beautiful yarns and scarfs visit her online shop here

Steps to My Atelier

in the snow (my internet is working tonight so taking advantage to post stuff!!)

Snow Drifts and Internet Rifts

During the week we had more powercuts and telephone outage after heavy snowfall. Even after 'normal' service resumed our internet connection is pretty terrible (it has been getting worse and worse over the past few months) - we can wait 30 minutes to load one page, our neighbour is suffering the same fate and he is trying to run a business from home too just like both Aaron and I. The service providers are blaming France Telecom and France Telecom is blaming the service providers. Thankfully I'm not trying to add new work to my online shop - that would prove almost impossible at the moment.

Wha'ts really maddening is we were expecting to have adsl in the hamlet before the end of the year but the deal between the provider and the local mayors has fallen through at the last moment (after we'd all signed up and handed over our cheques of course) and the earliest we can expect it now is early summer - we have to find an alternative or I'll need to stop selling online for awhile if I want to keep what's left of my sanity.

The Loire Valley looks more tempting by the day - it's no wonder that St Pierre d'Allevard and Allevard are turning into ghost towns ......

anyway the snows gorgeous if nothing else.

Shop Local - France

A few days ago I was featured in Lapomme's Storque article, Etsy Shop Local - France. French sellers were asked to send in a photograph with a few lines about where the pic was taken, why it's important to us etc etc. I discovered some great new sellers too :)

You can read the feature here

Leave a smaller footprint and shop local :)


Mr Lawrence leaves his mark after having paused for thought on the chopping block

Home

I was back in Ireland for a few days visiting family. It had been a year since my last visit, and over 8 years since I moved away. I can’t believe how much Belfast has changed! Usually when I visit I get ‘goosebumps’ and not only because of the weather. I get goosebumps because I always feel nostalgic, I worked in the city for over 12 years and my nights out were nearly all in the city too so the place has great memories. But this time I didn’t feel any nostalgia, except when I walked past the Waterfront Hall at dusk and saw the figures inside silhouetted against the windows….and maybe if I’d gone to Lavery’s for a pint I’d have felt a little sad for things long gone but I never got to have a guinness there this time round. Instead I found myself thinking of how much I love France . Time to finally move on .....


"Sheep on the Road" by Deborah Brown (outside The Waterfront Hall, Belfast)

My Garland in Etsy Finds!

Whilst I was away, one of my glass buntings was featured in a Christmas home decorating Etsy Finds!!! Although I've written a couple of Finds, I've never actually had any of my work featured in one before - so I'm very very happy :)
You can see a copy of the email in the Storque here

Christmas Decorations

It's snowing, it's December 1st, it's time time for the Christmas tree!!!! It may be plastic, and falling to pieces but I like our little fake tree - we keep getting grief for it from "the Christmas tree purest" (you all know who you are!!) but whenever I buy a real tree I kinda feel a little guilty for killing a tree for 4 weeks of decoration. Even when I buy one with the roots attached so as to replant it I feel bad....because they always die within weeks of replanting!

Anyway......I decorate our tree with the same red and gold baubles each year adding the occasional odd piece like the sheep-angel and the clown-cow...every piece is loved :)



The rustic fireplace gets a garland,

and the birdcage gets some extra sparkle.