a list

A couple of years ago my sister told me that I needed to start posting my own "happy lists".  My sister is the queen of lists.  I love her lists.  Today, I was feeling a little homesick and I thought to myself, I need a "happy list!" 

things that make me happy in France:

1-The market

2-the heart of the city 

3-exploring old villages on Saturday mornings

 4-shutters and doors

 5-drives in the countryside

*thank you to Lindsay for the fist two pictures!

outside the city

City life has it's up-sides, but the kids definitely miss the great-outdoors sometimes.  Thankfully we have a few friends who live outside the city in the countryside who are kind enough to let us invade their space from time to time!  Hooray for friends and hooray for happy kids!

Thank you again friends!  We love you!

decorating on a shoestring (literally!)

What do you do when you move across the world and leave all of your decorations behind?  Find yourself a piece of string (I just happened to have some of this lovely twine that my mom gave me before we left) and a colorful magazine or catalog along with some scotch tape or glue.  Make yourself a diamond shaped template.  Place your template onto the brightly colored areas of the magazine pages and trace & cut.  Fold the diamonds in half along the string and hang in a happy spot!

 Charlie and I made this one day when I really needed to do something creative and was especially tired of the white, bare walls everywhere! This door leads from the kitchen to the entry-way. I see it every day and so this little banner was just the thing to brighten it up! :) 

p.s. Can I just say thank goodness for IKEA?!  That clock (among many other things) is an affordable IKEA find. :)

Lovely Lyon

We've been thrilled to have Grandma and Lindsay here this week.  The time FLEW by and saying goodbye was oh-so-hard to do.  We had so much fun with them shopping, playing, coloring (the kids LOVE to color with their artistic aunt Lindsay), eating (we are in France after all), and being together.  Today, for their last few hours here in Lyon, we took them downtown to the old part of Lyon.  Lindsay is happily reunited with her camera and she got some great shots.  I love the pictures on the bridge because they show our beautiful city in the background.  Thanks for a wonderful time girlies!  We miss you already!

p.s. Roland has been published again!  Check it out here!

perfection in Paris

I'm in Paris this week with these two-

For updates from Paris click here

the kitchen

here are a few shots of the kitchen.  We have a little bar which will be nice once we get stools but the counter-top is too high to be useful to me when I'm cooking most of the time. The stove-top has a lid so that it can be used as a counter-top as well.

above is from the other side of the bar looking in to the corner of the kitchen.  The framed print is the only decoration I brought in my suitcase.  It has sentimental value and plus it makes me happy to have one little decorated corner! :)

Same view only further back.  The big thing on the wall back there is our water heater.  It is actually an instant water-heater so we don't have to wait for it to re-fill.  A nice perk!

in this picture you can see the bar on the left.  straight ahead is the fridge and the washing machine (yep laundry is in the kitchen too!).  to the right there is the sink, the small cabinet and all the way in the bottom right corner of the picture you can see the edge of the oven.  You can also see the dishes and mess everywhere because we have nowhere to put them yet!  :)  Although it is a small (dare-I-say silly?) kitchen, I do like how light and bright it is.  The sun comes in from the balcony doors and lights the whole area.  I'll post some more pics in another post.  Now go cook something in your big kitchen and count your blessings! :)

Our {little} home sweet home

This is what we see when we step out of our building and look down the street.

Finally!  We have a place to call home.  After 4 months of displacement, it is really nice to be able to have a little space of our own.  We have 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, an itty bitty kitchen, a family/dining room and a "water-closet" (the toilet has it's own room in this country. Bathrooms are just for bathing!).    The bedrooms all have closets (which is uncommon here!) but the funny thing is, the closets have nothing in them.  No shelf, no hanging rod, NOTHING!  The kitchen comes with a sink that has a little cabinet underneath and a draining board.  That's it.  No cabinets, no appliances, nada.  Finding all the appliances and everything so that we could even move in was a little overwhelming. With the appliances, the kitchen is filled to the max.  No room to store anything.  We do have a big coat closet in our entry way so I will be using half of it for my pantry and we are on the look-out for a buffet for the dishes.


Overall it's been very strange to start over.  Not having a couch or even enough chairs around our table at this point could be a little depressing but somehow we're not depressed.  We are very busy figuring things out and we're happy that we're here all together.  There is still a lot of mountain ahead of us but one step at a time we're climbing!  


p.s. I will post some pics of the apartment soon
p.p.s. can I just say that I really miss my dryer?!  Clothes hanging on the line might be charming but it sure isn't practical! :)