This year is going, let it go...*

*Alfred Lord Tennyson

There is something inherently wonderful about celebrating the ringing in of a new year. I much prefer January 1st to December 31st. It always dawns with so much promise. As T.S. Eliot put it: To make an end is to make a beginning.

One of my resolutions for the new year is to do more crafting. I always spend early December making things for friends and family, which I get so much enjoyment from. I always ask myself why I don't extend this activity on into the year. In 2013, I plan to spend a bit more time doing so, starting with some paper mâché sculpture. I really enjoyed making these last-minute juggling girls. If I spend a bit more time at it, I can hopefully refine my technique.

Christmas is the one time a year when the whole family gets together in one place for several days. For us this spells hours of cooking, game playing and crafting. The atelier becomes a great big mess, piled high with supplies.

This year we decided to create a family almanac for the year 2012 in order to capture in one place the highlights of our individual and collective lives. Each family created several pages to be included. It was my job, after everyone had gone back home, to bind the books together.

I bought a Zutter Bind-it-All, which is a handy-dandy little machine. Rick, as usual, was the technical guy, calculating how the books would go together.

We made three spiral-bound almanacs, one for each family. Our collective resolution for the new year is to each have a big receptacle (like a cookie jar) and whenever anything memorable happens, write it down and put it in the jar. It can also collect interesting newspaper articles, lists of things... what-have-you. At the end of the year we can read them aloud to one another and have the basis for a very nice 2013 almanac.

A lot of my pages concerned art projects. Some of my favorite times from the year were in the atelier.

The Bind-it-All can handle pages of all different sizes and weights.

Emily made a 12-page accordion book which nicely folds out to reveal a page for each month of the year.

We have recipes, maps, lists of books, a CD with favorite songs and lots of photos. It makes a wonderful keepsake.

James and Adric had their civil union last January. James has also been working on his PhD. and several other writing projects.

 

We got excerpts of his thesis and family-history theater project. Cool!

 I hope your new year is filled with fulfilling activities, creative ideas, loving moments and beauty of every kind.

Always be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. --Benjamin Franklin

Christmas Projects & Fun

Days this week have dawned clear and colorful. The whole family has been in residence and activities, cooking extravaganzas and games of various sorts fill days and evenings. I do love the holiday season and this one has been an especially jolly one. Quinn is fully aware of what's going on for the first time which makes it all the more magical for the rest of us. He has been so enthusiastic and curious.

We made most of the gifts we gave this year. It has become a kind of family tradition. For each of the adults we made pendant blank notebooks. They are about 3" high and hang around the neck with a leather tie. The idea is to always have a place to jot down a phone number or other piece of information when you're on the fly. They have removable/replaceable pages. This one is covered in suede. We had a great time figuring out how to attach the loops and fastener. We were pleased to find some very small but nice pens in our local stationery store.

For James I made a satchel out of some beautiful quilting patterns I found in our local fabric store. I made a pocket inside and found an antique scout compass and whistle on ebay to put inside it. I also added a handmade book cover in which I placed a 1950's era scouting guide to camping and trail blazing.

For Emily I made a purse and book. The purse is made, on the striped side, out of a sweater I bought with her years ago in California. She has one just like it. I felted the wool earlier this year and it is now a nice soft fabric. The turquoise side is from an angora scarf I had. I stamped a couple of images on hand-dyed linen fabric and then embroidered them onto the front and back. I love applique and embroidery, although I've never really learned how to do it beyond a few basic stitches. It's one of my New Year's resolutions, to experiment with it. The big red flower stamp is one Emily bought me as a gift from the Victoria and Albert Museum Store when we were in London together last April. It's a genuine Indian fabric pattern stamp. The trim at the top of the bag is an antique one I bought with Emily at the flea market in Paris a few weeks ago. The book is covered in a paper Emily brought me from Italy some years ago. It has strips of bright paper sewn onto the base off-white sheet. The book has favorite recipes in it.

For Quinn we made a game called "A Visit to Nana and Bobo's House." We mounted a large scale photo of our house and pasted it onto foam core. It stands about 18" high. We printed out more photos of some of the family members and mounted them on foam core as well. Rick made nice wooden stands for everything. So it is stable on the floor or a table.

We also made him a finger puppet theater. I found a fantastic site where you can download a huge variety of copyright-free images. They have this wonderful old theater image there.

We love puppets in our family. I bought this old puppet theater in Prague when we visited there several years ago. Quinn is getting old enough to begin enjoying making and watching shows.

On Christmas morning we had fun watching Quinn discover his new toys. Here three boys are fascinated by a wooden robot whose limbs rotate around on elastic cord which allows the robot to contort himself in various funny positions. I can't tell here who's enjoying it the most.

Often on Christmas either James or Emily thinks up some original activity for the family. This year Jos and Emily created a magical crafts fair in the atelier. They secretly set it up on Christmas Eve and invited us down to participate in it on Christmas afternoon. Emily had purchased all kinds of luscious supplies, lots of fabrics, buttons, ribbon and notions from La Droguerie in Paris (a fabulous resource) as well as fancy papers, clay, pottery paints and various other items so we could have a family crafts party. James, Emily and I spent quite a lot of time in the studio making various items.

Quinn joined us occasionally as well. He painted a butterfly mask and a big cardboard "Q". He made some clay animals. My favorite was a Fimo leopard with orange sequin spots which he carefully arranged.

James worked on making a tie for Adric, who wasn't able to join us this holiday season.

It turned out very well. Emily made some very cute brown corduroy pants for Quinn. I made a little purse and a pencil pocket.

Our traditional Christmas meal is a plateau de mer. This year Jos and Rick also made watercress soup. It was delicious.

The day after Christmas was bright and sunny and we took a walk in the woods. Jackets began to be peeled off as we strolled through the sunnier parts.

Quinn tried out his new "early rider" bike which was waiting for him under the tree on Christmas morning. He got the hang of it very quickly.

The new year is right around the corner and I intend to have a slightly different format for the blog beginning next week. It's always good to have a few New Year's resolutions and to use the energy to start something afresh. Wishing all of you a very happy New Year.

Week 32: Happy New Year

A beautiful winter day in Montmirail! Happy 2011.

If the year ahead portends its themes on New Year's eve and New Year's day, then we can look forward to a year of very hard work and lots of sunshine.

Last year was the first time someone requested Maison Conti to host a New Year's eve dinner party. I was happy to oblige, as frankly new year's eve has never been one of my favorite holidays. I'd just as soon be putting on a party as attending one. A participant from last year's party contacted us again this year. Wayne and his wife Katherine are Canadian but have lived in Paris for seventeen years. Wayne works for the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and wanted to organize a feast for a group of his co-workers. He proposed a menu for us to prepare. It was much more complicated than last year's, including six courses and several choices (two entrées, two main courses, two desserts) Plus homemade rolls. We were full-steam ahead all day long making the various dishes.

Our guests were international, French, Italian, French Canadian, English Canadian, Irish, English and Thai. The party went off well. Many bottles of champagne and wine were killed and the festivities went on into the wee hours of the morning. A few arrived at breakfast with swollen heads, but after a few cups of coffee and some orange juice, all seemed to recover. Jonathan the Brit told us a groaner of a joke:

Why does a Frenchman only have one egg for breakfast?

Because one egg's an œuf.

***

This year brings an exciting new project for our family. My daughter Emily, who is creative from head to toe, invited her brother James and me to participate in an idea she had cooked up. She wanted to launch a web site where we could share creations. The idea was that we would choose a monthly theme and take turns posting our response to that theme. We could post prose, poetry, art, videos, recipes, quotes, photography, and anything else that strikes our fancy. It gives us the opportunity to collaborate and share ideas.

We have been working for many weeks to put together our new web site. We joined Squarespace and learned how to build a very nice site with all the widgets we could ever dream of. We will continue to add more functionality as time goes along. We searched for a name and finally came up with a line from the poem Horse Fiddle by Carl Sandburg, one of Emily's favorites:

FIRST I would like to write for you a poem to be shouted in the teeth of a strong wind...

We call our site To Be Shouted. I hope you will come by and visit us. We also invite you to be a guest collaborator, if you have anything you'd like to share around our themes:

January: Home

February: Maps

March: Sunday

April: Green

May: Birds of a Feather

June: Bread

July: Capture

August: River

September: Kitchen

October: Branch

November: Soft Spot

December: Tomorrow

James has inaugurated the site and will be posting various entries during the coming week. I will take over next week and Emily on the third. And how about you? Do you have anything to share on the fourth week?

 

***

I was overjoyed to see the sun come out this weekend. Clients gone, dishes washed, beds stripped, and our calendar clear, we had the chance to get out into the countryside for a brisk walkabout. It was chilly, but with blue skies it didn't seem to matter. Even in winter it is very beautiful in the village.

It was quiet in town, not many people were out and about, although we did see Guy with his baguette under his arm, and Patrice leaning out of his window, as he often does.

Bonne Année!

Meilleurs Voeux!

Pour tout l'année!

The guardians of the castle were at home but not at work on the grounds. They stayed inside by the fire in their cozy bungalow.

 Down by the bus stop one can look up and see all the layers of the village. The road spirals around like a snail's shell.

There  are several grand stone houses throughout the village, built during different centuries.

 Some have incorporated parts of the old defensive walls into their facades.

 The winter sun cast its long shadows and we tried to stay within its rays.

***

I have made my resolutions; the usual ones. I also like to use the impetus of the new year to reorganize. I have devised a new system for storing my plates and prints, making it much easier to find them. I have been working on labeling and packaging my cards and tags and designing a few new objects for the boutique when it reopens in the spring. I have come to love the winter months when days are very free and quiet.

***

I am happy to have green hills to look out upon again. I do not miss the snow, although Mme Guedet, the baker's wife, says it comes again this week. Goggle disagrees. We'll see who is more reliable.

***

Quinn turns two at the end of this month. He got a haircut while he was in Belgium visiting his other grandmother. He looks like such a boy now. He used to call himself "baby" but now when he points to himself he says "boy."

"How big is Quinn?" we ask.

"So big!" he replies:

Happy New Year!

There is no limit to improvement. --Moshe Feldenkrais

At Maison Conti we celebrated réveillon (New Year's eve) with a full house of clients from Paris. We served a large meal, killed an amazing number of bottles and rang in the jour de l'an with champagne flutes held high and American-style noise-makers and poppers.

Menu: amuse bouche raita & cheddar bread sticks entrée choice of foie gras with spice bread & fig jam or coquilles saint jacques & prawns soup: vichyssoise dinner rolls de la maison main course: herb-encrusted roast leg of lamb melange of roasted winter vegetables baked apples choice of 4 cheeses with a salad of baby greens dessert: chocolate torte layered with rum-flavored cream

This is the point in the evening when both the camera and the camera-operator stopped functioning in picture-taking mode, so there is no more documentation of the meal! I found it lovely to have a house full of guests, especially such pleasant ones. The new year begins energetically! On Monday we have an etching course beginning in the atelier. I will be working with two fabulous artists from Singapore who will spend the week experimenting with aquatint. I expect I will learn as much from them as they will from me. I am familiar with their work and greatly admire them both. I'll report back after the course is complete next weekend. In the meantime, I wish for a wave of unreasoned hope and joy to wash over you and send you sailing into this new decade with promise and fearless delight.

Hope is the dream of a soul awake. --French proverb