Happy Halloween!

Hope you have lots of fun if you celebrate it! Otherwise, Happy Wednesday! :)
This marks the end of Blogtober and I'll be summing up my experience in another post coming soon.

Almost Halloween!

Not that France is well-known for its Halloween celebrations. We always have candy for the 1 or 2 small groups of kids who stop by trick-or-treating. I enjoy seeing them in their costumes so it's a good trade-off. :)

Grey boots for fall/winter

As the  weather grows cooler, I've been enjoying wearing my black boots. My brown boots have yet to make an appearance, but I find myself wanting some grey ones. I haven't decided on which style yet, but a quick search on Amazon.fr came up with a few pair I kinda liked:

As you can probably guess, I prefer a low heeled boot.

I'm still in the window-shopping stage at this point, but I'm thinking sometime soon I'll and try on a few pair and maybe, just maybe come back with a pair of grey ones. Suggestions are welcome. :)

Fall Tag

1. Favorite Fall lip product? Dior Lipstick in Mysterious Mauve - glossy and beautiful! Less scary on than in the tube :)

2. Favorite Fall Nail Polish? Chanel nail polish in Ballerina - not exactly a "typical" fall color, but I've been wearing it a lot lately

3. Favorite Starbucks Fall Drink? no Starbucks here, but when I'm near one, I tend to go for some kind of mochaccino
4. Favorite Fall Candle? I don't have a specific scent or brand in mind, but lately I've been enjoying fall fruity scents like apple and pear
5. Favorite Fall Scarf or accessory? Definitely scarves
6. Haunted house, haunted hay ride, or haunted corn maze? None of the above really. Being scared if not my idea of fun, but if I had to choose, I'd pick the hay ride minus the "haunted" part ;)
7. Favorite Halloween movie? It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown :)
8. Favorite candy to eat on Halloween? I really miss candy corn
9. What are you dressing up as for Halloween? Not dressing up as Halloween hasn't really caught on in France. Hopefully, that one group of neighborhood kids will drop by as usual, so we will have candy :)
10. What is your Favorite thing about Fall? changing leaves

If you do/have done this tag, please send me the link. :)

Belle-Ile en Mer Part III : Sarah Bernhardt's fort

One of the attractions at Belle-Ile en Mer, is Sarah Bernhardt's fort which she had built and she lived for many years.
Here are a few photos we took from inside the fort decorated as during her time there:







More info about her can be found at http://www.sarahbernhardt.com/bio.html :)

How's the organizing going?

Actually, it's slow going, but moving right along. :)

Blogtober continues :)

I kind of dropped the ball this week, but I have been busy organizing and reorganizing as I've no doubt mentioned tons of times.

I'm currently resorting my make up, nail polish and brushes (and possibly some of my jewelry) into this:

It's the MALM 6 drawer chest from Ikea. Not that special looking, but it goes with the rest of our furniture. There are other color choices, too.

While I really like this piece, I'm currently annoyed with Ikea for discontinuing the shelving we have in our storage room and also the bookshelf we had seen this summer and were planning to add to our soon-to-be new addition's bedroom. So now we have to find other solutions.

On another note, yes, it's still raining and yucky so I've not been able to do a day in photos, but maybe I'll remember to take photos of what I ate tomorrow. :)

No sunshine in sight

Still can't believe it's been raining for nearly 2 weeks straight and is supposed to continue all week. I've been a busy bee these past couple days so today I took some much needed rest.
Today, I thought I'd share this somewhat "artistic" photo my hubby took in downtown Nantes on a sunnier day.



One of our friends remarked it reminded them of Italy. :)

Friendly weekend ahead :)

It's already Saturday and I didn't get to all the posts I had planned this week, but there'll be time for those soon enough. I've been busy organizing  and reorganizing around the house all this week and this weekend will be equally busy and also, friend-filled. Hopefully, I will remember to take photos. Today we saw friends from Indonesia that we hadn't seen in 8 years. My, how times does fly! Despite the rainy weather, it was still an exceptional day. :)



We met our friends near the cathedral (see another view of it from yesterday's blog post). This is a view of it we took on a sunnier day.

TGIF

downtown Nantes, near the cathedral

TAG : ABCs of Me

A. Age: 35
B. Bed size: Queen
C. Chore you hate: Washing dishes
D. Day: Thursday
E. Essential start to your day: Getting out of bed
F. Favourite colour: Purple
G. Gold or Silver: Silver mostly
H. Height: 5'8" / 173cm
I. Instruments: I played the trumpet/cornet for years
J. Job title: Currently on maternity leave
K. Kids: 1 on the way! :D
L. Live: France
M. Mum’s name: Elizabeth
N. Nicknames: Spicey online, none really offline
O. Overnight hospital stays: 6 that I can recall
P. Pet peeve: Rude people, hypocrites, let me stop there ;)
Q. Quote from a movie: "J'ai un sacré coup de pelle!" ("I shovel very well!" in original version)
R. Right or left handed: Right
S. Siblings: I'm basically an only child
T. Time you wake up: usually around 8:30am
U. Underwear: try to find the right mix of pretty and comfortable, currently, comfortable is winning
V. Vegetables you dislike: Leeks, eggplant/aubergine, most squash, cucumbers, radish, raw tomatoes, zucchini/courgette, and beets
W. What makes you run late: Feeling like I forgot something
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Both feet at different times
Y. Yummy food you make: Cookies, cake, homemade pizza, broccoli salad, apple tart, other random stuff :)
 Z. Zoo favourite animal: Panda

Belle-Ile en Mer Part II : Le Palais

Here are a few more photos from Belle-Ile en Mer. Very, very beautiful place and these photos don't do it justice:


The dock


As seen from our hotel Citadelle Vauban


Another view from the hotel


View from the ramparts

Manic Monday

Just another Manic Monday. . . *sigh*

Still waiting for the sun to come...

Still very cloudy with rain every now again on this Lazy Sunday.Still feeling a bit sick and tired, but getting better. So far I'm really enjoying Blogtober even though my past few posts have been a bit short. I'm still liking coming to post them daily. :) I've lots of posts planned this week including more photos from Belle-Ile-en Mer, "what I ate today" and possibly a tag.

View of Loire River on a sunnier day

Rain, rain, go away

Yesterday I was excited about seeing the leaves change. Today, it's raining and yucky outside. The weather was okay in the morning so we met my mother-in-law for a morning "outing". Sometime mid-morning it starting raining cats and dogs and didn't stop til early evening. I'm still getting over a cold so we spent the day at my mother-in-law's and actually had to cancel our afternoon outing. Not complaining. I was just planning to do a photo montage of my day, but with the rain, it just didn't seem feasible.
I guess that blogging daily won't always be interesting, but hope to continue for the rest of October.

Here's a sunset from this time last year:

Oh, how I love Nantes in autumn

Growing up in an area rich in pine trees, I rarely got to see the leaves change. Now every autumn it's definitely something I look forward to. :)

I 'ave a co'd in my node

Nothing major, mind you. Just an annoying head cold that started yesterday. I really dislike breathing in and out of my mouth. Is that odd? I dunno, but aside from the runny nose and congestion, that's what I dislike the most about having a cold. Anyway, that's my excuse for not having a more exciting day. ;)

10 years on

In July, my other half and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We decided to go to Belle-Île en Mer.
The hotel was called the Citadelle Vauban and was absolutely gorgeous. Here's a photo taken on the grounds.



View of the port from the hotel



View of the ocean from the hotel



View of the coast from our room

September Sunset

As cliché as it is, time really does fly. I really can't believe it's already October. Saturday I noticed the leaves have already started to change. I must get to the park and get some photos before the weather starts turning too cold. In the meantime, here's a photo of a sunset from earlier September. My husband used HDR for it.

Blogtober?

I miss blogging. I really do. But, the truth of the matter is that once you get out of the habit, it's hard to jump right back in. So I was thinking that Blogtober was a good way to start. Now, to be honest, not sure it will be everyday in October, but my goal will be at least 3 post per week all this month. This should definitely help ease me back into things. :)