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. :)

No Fireworks for Bastille Day

Despite it being mid-July, the weather has been rainy and a bit chilly. Our barbecue held up, but it rained shortly after dinner. So, in place of fireworks photos, here are a few photos from on of the art displays from Voyage à Nantes

Photos from Lyon

Yes, I have a bit of catching up to do. Here are a few photos from our vacation in Lyon last year.
Pont Winston-Churchill



Théâtres Romains Les Minimes



Place Belcourt



Mur des Canuts - the largest fresco in Europe



View of the city as seen from Arc en ciel Bar on the 32nd floor

Promenade in the Park :)

July was an extremely raining month. It was nice to be out between rain showers. :)
We tend to go for walks in a different park, but hadn't yet gone to this particular park in a while. It's called the Parc Floral de la Beaujoire. Very beautiful! :)










The roses were gorgeous. Some of them were especially fragrant and there were prize-winning varieties as well. :)
The weather has been kinda weird this week. Sun, rain, clouds, storm, sun, clouds, sun, rain, etc.

Mmmmm!

Here are a few highlights from my anniversary dinner. We always celebrate by going to a fancy schmancy restaurant. :)
The photos were taken with my husband's smartphone and although the quality is pretty good, it definitely doesn't do the food justice.


The menu :)



Hubby's 1st course



My main course



Hubby's dessert



L'Abélia

Tables

After a thorough search on my hard drive, I was able to find the table settings from Christmas (at my MIL's) and Thanksgiving (with friends and very belated).


My MIL and I got the decorations and decorated the Christmas Eve dinner table together :)




























I got some extra of the clear balls since I liked the idea so much and used them for my Thanksgiving table. Silver and fuschia were definitely a first for Thanksgiving. :)

Happpy Independence Day (USA) + Small Update :)

Happy 4th of July! :D


(This photo is actually from a July 14th (Bastille Day), but that's when I tend to get my fireworks "fix" living in France. :)


I thought I'd also take this time to update on a few things that are going on:

First, I'm having a sale over at Spicey Creations. You get 30% off your order with the coupon code SOLDESETE11. :)





Secondly, after an extended hiatus, I've re-opened my Etsy shop, http://Spicey.etsy.com. I've only got a few items there, but I'll be adding things on slowly. There's also a discount code ETE11 there, too, to save 15%.





Third, and lastly, I've added my Heartsy referral link to the side bar. If you use it to sign up, we both get a $5 voucher to use on the site. Feel free to ask me any questions about it if you have them. :)

That's all for now. The weather has been amazing so I hope to take lots of photos to share. I did have a request to show some more table settings and I never posted the ones from Christmas or Thanksgiving so I'll try to get those posted this week. :)

Stuff I didn't have

Unfortunately, I was under the weather and didn't have any of this, but it looked soooo yummy



Actually, this little chocolate guy is still in one piece. :)



Dessert from my nice's christening/baptism. (You can see it's raining through the window. These photos were taken last weekend and sad to say, the weather has not improved. :/ )




My other half's dessert plate. The strawberries were fresh from the vine brought over by the strawberry farmer whose a friend of my SIL. :) They were delicious!

3 Photos from March

From a lamp shopping trip (we came home empty-handed)




A tree from a walk we like to take




A sunset in springtime