NaNoWriMo

That's it, it's finally confirmed - I'm insane. As if settling into a new home and lifestyle, trying to find a new working and homeschooling rhythm and living with three children and a husband at home all the time wasn't enough, I've decided to write a novel in a month. Yay!

From the moment I first heard about the National Novel Writing Month project several years ago, I've wanted to be part of it. And as my other half put it, if you don't do it this year when will you? We don't know if in one year's time he'll be back in full time work or still out cutting logs in the garden so... This is it, this year, this November, I will write 50 000 words. Yippee!

 

Autumn

I love autumn. The slowly changing colours on the trees and the sudden bite in the air. Finding ourselves indoors more and the way the children turn to their long abandoned knitting. And the apples, picking them, cooking them, eating them and this year crafting with them! Thanks to Jean over at the Artful Parent we spent a great afternoon printing with apples.

We began with Jean's bunting project. I used some Kraft paper and old brown paper bags we had in the art cupboard and some scrap paper from the printer as I liked the idea of the apple print being over text, as well as some plain white paper. We used windfall apples from the tree in our garden which are unfortunately not very tasty but perfect for printing. 

All three children joined in (8, 5 and 2) and really enjoyed themselves. I cut out the triangles and provided red ink and red water colour paint (from a tube) as that's what we had in the cupboard and then let them get stuck in. 

When they'd printed on every single triangle I'd cut out (and there were a lot) Noah still wanted to do more. So we decided to have a go at apple printing on fabric. I grabbed some thick white upholstery cotton I happen to have a lot of (in a previous life it was the tablecloths at our wedding supper) and some red fabric paint and the fun continued. The sisters were back now we were moving on to fabric so I cut each child 2 oblong pieces of fabric, in the back of my mind were visions of apple totes.

I've long been a fan of Jean's blog which is full of really fun craft activities for children and parents - I had an absolute blast with the apple printing too!

Photos from Paris

Our life is a bit split between two places for the moment. It seems we just settle in here and find a rhythm to our days and its time to pack the suitcases again and head up to Paris. Seeing friends is our priority when we're in the city, the landmarks like the Musée de Moyen Age at Cluny or the Eiffel Tower are a bonus. And still, even in the city we tend towards the wild and time spent in the Fôret de Meudon surely helped create continuity between our two worlds.

Poem Published

Back at the beginning of the year, which seems a very long time ago now, I hesitantly took my courage in my hands and sent off a very favourite poem of mine to an independent press' first annual writing competition. That press was Mother's Milk Books and a few months later I was over the moon when I found out that my poem had won! I remember dancing around the kitchen in elation. 

As part of the competition's prize the poem has now been published in a small anthology. You can buy the book directly from the editor or here via Amazon. Earlier in the year it appeared in the summer edition of Juno Magazine.

I feel very proud of my little poem making it's way out there in the world. It was a wonderful moment to finally see it print. A big thank you to Teika at Mother's Milk Books for running the competition and making all this happen!

As both the poem and a prose piece I wrote which also made it into the anthology were inspired by carrying my babes, here are some of my favourite carrying pictures...