Fairies flying forth..........

Estelle

Mathilde

Estelle and Mathilde flew the coop today to go and live with two lovely lucky little french girls.

On my desk.........

Patch of people eating pom-pom pumpkins.

Watch out kids there coming your way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some zines.......

I joined up for a zine swap a while back over at Nikkishell. Mine have gone out and now I am receiving the fruits of everybody else'e labour. The ones that have turned up in my mailbox so far have been of a very interesting nature and all completely different. As one would expect!

Here are the zines so far-

A full & meaningful life.

Care instructions for vintage clothes.

Projects for pretty papers.

Of apples and raven, Of ravens and herbs.

When I receive them I put them in my bag so I have something to look at while I am waiting for the kids at pick-up time.
I am waiting patiently for the rest to arrive. Only 11 more to go!!!

Winners & Grinners..............

With fingers as quick as lightning the draw was done this morning but it has only taken me all day to get here to post the winners. Our day went slightly out of the order that I had planned but in saying that we ended up having a very nice day together.
So without making you wait any longer the winner of the main prize is..........

Nomes. Yippeee!!!!

And the 2nd prize winner is .........
Naomi. Yippeee to you to!!!!

I had a 2nd prize because I have two children and they both wanted to draw a name, of course! So Naomi I will send you a 2nd prize winners pack of some lovely Noumean treats.


And sorry everybody about the big toothless grin. I have two kids of the same age and one is losing all her teeth and the other hasn't lost one.

P.S If you gals would like to contact me at noumea(dot)mermaid(at)gmail(dot)com with your details that would be great. I have been sitting here trying to figure how I can send an email to you from the comments as other people do to me but I am stumped. If anybody can help in a few simple words, please do. Cheerio for now!

Love Friday with great big surprises...........

I have had a reasonably busy morning, french lesson's, visit to the market, feeding the masses and finding out I am a winner of a giveaway I entered. This particular one was from Prints Charming. How excited do you think I was about 5 minutes ago when I sat to check emails and there it was. 'Send us your details to collect these wonderful fat 1/4's. See what goes around comes around. I have a giveaway, I win a giveaway.
I didn't mean for my Friday to be busy like this, usually it is the one day of the week I don't have to run around like a mad women doing stuff. Oh well sometimes the routine changes. My afternoon though is going to be spent going to the blogs of all the lovely people who have visited/discovered me in the last few days. I've got the cup of tea ready and I have two hours before I picks the kids up from school, so here I go.

Don't forget giveaway closes tonight.

On my desk.........

Well today see's the kitchen table once again my desk for this Wednesday. The kids had another day off school so not much crafting but some mighty fine cooking was done. We made chocolate balls. Never tried in this household before and it was a thumbs up for all involved from the cooking team to the eating team so much so I would have put up a shot up of them but they disappeared before my very eyes. One moment they are there next there are three lone little balls in the container. Bad form I told everybody now what will I show the world! It just means now you can leave this poor excuse for a post and pop over to Kootoyoo and see what is happenin' elsewhere. I hope tomorrow to have something interesting to show.

Now I have to say a big thank you to a couple of gals - Big Cat , Badskirts, Curlypops who put me out there and helped me on my way to having a record number of comments on the last post. Big posts call for big comments obviously. Now all you gals who commented you need to keep comin' back to check in from time to time. I will get over to everybodies blog and cheerio back. That's a promise.

It's a celebration.........

Guess what everybody this is my 200th post! I am not a super dooper regular blogger so it has taken me a while to get here. There is not always a lot happening on this wee island to write about. There is also only so many times you can tell everybody about the beautiful blue skies or the kids swimming in winter or how good the patisseries are here. I am hoping to hit the next hundred a bit faster but I thought in celebration of this major event I will have my first giveaway. This may be incentive for the few lurkers I have leaving a comment. In the give away will be one of my new girls above, clothed of course! Also I will include some lovely polynesian fabric and maybe something French. How good will that be!

Now go on girls comment away. You can put a note of which colour gal you would like.

Edit: You can comment away until Friday night 24/10- I will draw a winner on Saturday. Good luck

Mixin' it with the Frenchies......

This afternoon for the first time the kids had non English speaking friends over for a play. Usually we have kids of mixed marriages who are all bi-lingual. This makes life easy and I need to admit this I have been avoiding it. For obvious reasons- language barrier! But I am going to say right here and now I need not have worried. The kids now have a level of French that far surpasses mine and so for them this is normal day to day stuff. For me it's a great learning experience and I should be thankfull for it. I know we read this and people are always saying that kids are sponges and it is all just soaked up but I am very proud that my two have had to learn a new language as well as learning the very first basics at school e.g reading & writing. It gives me such a thrill when I see them sitting around the table having gouter with their buddies and yabbering on in a language that isn't their first.

Bon courage Django & Juliette.

Love Friday with a meme theme.........

This week I was tagged by my new buddy Amy at badskirts so I thought today is a good day as any to fulfill this request as my diary entry for this particular Friday has nothing in it.

Here goes and the rules are as follows;
- Link to the person who tagged you
- Mention the rules
- Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular or random details about yourself
- Tag six other bloggers by linking to them
- Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged

-It's was somebody in this families birthday this week and on the night we first meet we discovered we both loved to eat pickled onions and tasty cheese together. We have been eating them together ever since.

- I love a cake stand so bought the birthday boy a lovely pink one for his birthday.

- Every other book I read is usually a period novel.

-Can pick up a stray cockroach that is running around the house and throw him/her out the door. None off my girlfriends can do that.

-Am stoked to find that the French are still printing Hollie Hobbie books and that my daughter is bringing them home from the school library for me.

-I loved to draw Holly Hobbie in this manner because I could never really draw faces properly.

Now for the tagging of some others

-Big Cat- it will give her something to write about.

-Handmaiden- she is a new gal to me.

-little arty crafty crow- I love what she does.

-The bird bath- she looks like she has a lovely family.

-That silly lil' doe!- she loves a Blythe doll.

-Prints Charming- these girls are great.

On my desk.........

Two sleeping rabbits who are made from the same pattern but who have turned out quite differently. Why is that? These snoozy fellows are wee gifts for two lovely girls.

Lists..........

I'm not one to make lists usually but today it was a list day. I had things to finish and send out. I thought the only way I will get these things done is to mark them off a list one by one and I did it. I have finally sent my zine swap parcels out. Only 13 days late. I haven't received anything from the 15 other participants yet so maybe I am not the only one who had fallen behind. I am sitting excitedly waiting for them though. I have one other parcel to send out this week. It's going to Big Cat. But this one is a little bigger and needs a bit more stuff in it. I think I should make a list for tomorrow and put it on it along with cleaning the toilet, cooking something interesting for dinner, washing the floors, blah blah blah.........................

Lost and found......

I made this armless little mermaid when we first arrived here in Noumea. I didn't have much to do at the time. The kids hadn't started school, we didn't really know the place that well and I didn't have many books to read. So she was born for Django.

She has no name and she disappears quite regularly but she always turns up somewhere. As she did yesterday. I have now put here in our basket of shells. Maybe that is where she will stay.

Love Friday...........

Another Friday has come and gone and it has been a nice one. Not to busy, not to many chores done, but that's ok. I don't mind that sometimes. Hustle and bustle early in the week then go slow. I didn't have to make any meals today apart from breakfast. Out for lunch with some friends than out for dinner with the family. It always seems to happen like that. Haven't been out for ages then twice in one day. After lunch with the girls I had a few minutes before picking up the kids so I popped into my local craft shop. It's not huge and really only covers a few mediums of craft but it gives me a bit of a fix. There I found these tiny wee canvases. They are only about 2.5cm by 2.5cm. They will be useful for those times when I want to craft but don't want a create a big mess.

Well it's late now in this part of the world and I am off to bed. All that eating out has made me tired.
Bon Weekend to all.

On my desk.......2

So this is much later on in the day, evening in fact and I have a photo of stuff that has been done. I didn't get everything finished but oh so close. Zines are finished off, the most important part of this exercise. It is now just a few extra bits to pop in the envelopes and voila I can visit the post office. That is going to be an interesting experience in itself. If anybody doesn't already know I don't have a whole heap of French but doing this job should be easy. The little parcels are fairly self explanatory. Addresses and all but it could still end up another one of those stories I have to tell of me walking out of somewhere and feeling like I have made a complete idiot of myself!

On my desk.......1

I am supposed to be working on my zine swap that was due to be sent out last week but what can I do when summer has come early and the days are like this. Blue, blue, more blue and warm. I do have a plan for this lovely day even though all I want to do is be out in it.

-Get out and about in the day- tick. been for a walk
- come home do a bit more on the zine - no tick yet. too busy on the computer doing blog post
- deal with kids as they only have half a school day on Wednesdays then get back to zineing -no tick yet either-school finishes at 10.45am.
-go to the beach for catch up with friends later on- can't miss this one day is just to beautiful!

I will come back later on in the day and let you know what I actually achieve. Wish me luck.

This Sunday has to be my best Sunday yet since I have started blogging because I have just received my very first blogging award. I got it from a gal who I literally only meet a few days ago over at badskirts but boy have I made an impression on her. I'm not always super quirky like others nor am I an everyday poster but what I have put it down to is the sheep. She liked the sheep! Hopefully this will also get me a few more readers and a few more people making comments.I don't get many and I love a comment as much as the next gal.

I now have to pass this on to 5 other blogging gals I like. I have seen this award going around on the blogs I read, not 88 as Amy does. I may find it hard to pick some that haven't already received it but I will try very hard. I promise.

Here goes-

Comfy & Cosy
Lily & Agathe
Woollyrockers
bricolagelife
littlebighead

and there you have it. See you all sometime next week and welcome to any new readers.

Love Friday...........

This Friday i'm going to be taking it easy. The week turned out to be a bit more hectic than I would of liked but that is what happens sometimes. The spontaneity of life. You gotta love it! I have a swap I need to work some more on today. It was meant to be sent Tuesday. If any of you girls are reading this then don't. I'm also going to find a new recipe for dinner. Hopefully something that kids and parents will like equally. After 7 years I am beggining to find it a pain in the butt cooking separate things. If anybody out in blogger land has any suggestions I would love it.

OK I'm leaving you with a shot of my first fan in my collection. While we were holidaying in Vanuatu I decided I was going to start collecting them hence the name on this one. she's nice don't you think?

On my desk with Night time Nancy.........

On my desk for this week is some more going away gifts. Another family we have made good friends with are leaving the lovely shores of Noumea to return to Perth. This is the fourth family we have said goodbye too this year. We will be sad to see them go as we were with the others. New families arrive so there is no shortage of people to have as new friends but that doesn't make it easier.
Anyway Jess willow got a lovely new girl by the name of Night time Nancy and she was named this because when I made her dress today it turned out like a nightie. So the shoes quickly became her slippers.

And Luca got herself an owl.

Bon Voyage to the Friedmans!