home exterior: August 2012

Show and Tell Friday!

Welcome to Show and Tell Friday!

As you can see I've been having fun making these motivational posters on Big Huge Labs! You can make your own, just go to Big Huge Labs Motivator! It's Free! (I am not affiliated with this website, just passing on something I thought you may enjoy).

At the time this post goes up I will be in Santa Cruz for a girl's weekend away! There are four

Pita Bread Pizza - Show and Tell Friday

Welcome to Show and Tell Friday!

Today I'm sharing one of my new favorite easy-to-make meals! It's a Pita Bread Pizza and it's Weight Watcher friendly!

I start with a Pita Bread. Mine is made by Sara Lee and they are 3 Points Plus points on Weight Watchers! I then spread a wedge of flavored Laughing Cow cheese on the pita which turns into a delicious white sauce. Then I pile on

August Giveaway N° 4 - a portrait of your home - Sharon Santoni

Dear friends,

Have a look at this wonderful give away!

Summer greetings from France!
xoxo Victoria

August Giveaway N° 4 - a portrait of your home - Sharon Santoni

My Favorite Blue Paint Colors: Show and Tell Friday

Welcome to Show and Tell Friday! I've been getting a lot of emails recently about some of my blue paint colors so I thought I would take this opportunity to share the links to my colors. I love gray-blues so I painted my kitchen this color. You can find the colors on my original post here: My Kitchen is Painted

I always get emails asking how I painted my blue china cabinet. You can

Hello from France

The little town has put a spell on us all, we're living a dreamy country life, quiet and yet not boring at all. We explore small towns, markets and enjoy walks around the country side. We take all millions of pictures and mostly enjoy each other. Has it been already almost one and a half weeks? Impossible!

The charming house we live in for the summer...

I've met the sweetest townspeople, often from abroad themselves and home now in this lovely southern corner of the Perigord! The town itself, an old Bastide, which means a ancient fortified church town, is small. A five minute walk takes you trough it, but already I befriended Prudence, a perfume designer with her small delicate shop and delicious perfumes, living here for 20 years, her sister, owning the most charming design store, both from Australia and utmost French by now...
A fashionable jewelry designer, working for Christian Delacroix, creating fun pieces, which are not to be taken too seriously!
We've met an ex-pat American, living here for ten years now, from Boston....
And a wonderful lady, Catherine, who owns the local Brasserie, waiting for us, to enjoy our 'cafe grande' every night.
All are extremely helpful and ready to share their stories. We feel very much 'at home' here and in love with the magic of this place. Many 'Bastides' around here were founded in the 13th Century by the English and a lot of Brits visit every summer!

We have had a country fair here, complete with live animals- huge cream colored cows with their calves and oxen.... markets with everything from the most delicious cheeses to Fois gras and strawberries, delicately tasting of raspberries, old linens and crockery, honey and home made jams.
We enjoy the wines of Bergerac, Bordeaux and St. Emillion.

Detail above the door

Old posters

Today's 'brocante' yielded some old posters and a small linen towel, at least as old as I am....Ha, not old at all....Or an antique??? It all depends, right?
I dug through paintings, brass buttons, plates and derelict pieces and odd ends....

Then we lounged by the pool, nibbled some cheese and fresh vegetables, drank a little wine and slept in the sun!
This is a wonderful daily routine, beginning every morning with a two minute stroll to the 'Boulangerie' to get fresh baguettes, croissants and something delicious, called pain de noix, a dense dark bread with walnuts.... Hmmm. So good!
We often cook in the evenings, fresh fish and salads, with more baguette and cheeses, the local, stone hard salami and the freshest and juiciest peaches.
Or we explore the local restaurants, which are amazing and always refined.
This is also the home of canard and fois gras, duck and liver pate, where almost every town has their very own specialty of it! No menu is without it!

Fountain in Bergerac

Small sidewalk cafes

Fois gras advertisment

I will post a little more in the next week, I do enjoy sitting and just feeling everything! So to tell you I am very active would simple be an overstatement....It's a lot of small joys ....the boys, the sister coming tomorrow, my darling in- laws.... Just simple pleasures!

Greeting, my friends! Here is a glimpse of about half the gang!

All images private.

How to dry hydrangeas - Show and Tell Friday

Welcome to Show and Tell Friday!

First and most importantly I need to wish my dad a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! His birthday is Aug 9th! I owe so much to my dad! Growing up with so much love from both my parents has made me a happy adult! Thank you so much DAD! I LOVE you so much!!!

My poor hydrangeas didn't get watered enough this summer and they are prematurely aging now! We

Show and Tell Friday!

Welcome to Show and Tell Friday! ...and August! I can't believe it's already August!!! I've been at my "new" job 5 months now! Time flies!!!

I don't have much to share this week. Lauren had her wisdom teeth removed on Monday and now it's Wednesday evening at the time I am writing this and I am EXHAUSTED! I don't do well with seeing other people in pain...at all! I think I would

Little post in between

Returning from one trip and preparing for another, time to post is spare and yet I long to talk to you.
Some of my dearest bloggers are back from their own travels and adventures, I apologize for not commenting often enough, but believe me, I read! My thoughts wander to Scotland and England, Hungary, France and Germany, Poland, Australia, around the corner and around the world! They travel around America and I adore your thoughts!
You all inspire me! Thank you all. I can't say it often enough, blogging and reading all your posts lifts me off the ground...
After coming back from New Orleans - oh, has it been two weeks already ? - we had the younger kids back from their respective camps, loads of laundry piling high, medical check ups before school, a new client - hurrah, and plenty of social engagements, mostly all last minute, before going away again.

Woodpecker, hammering away....

As busy as I...

The beauty over the neighbor's fence...

Our regular visitor... hope the cat never gets him...

Still I found time to marvel at the raindrops and the birds flying around the house....I am a hopeless nature watcher and I can drop everything to follow that woodpecker with my camera....We fed hummingbirds with honey the other day....
We are going away in August, to spend time at a wonderful place in France, the Dordogne area, near Bergerac.... yes, the place of Cyrano De Bergerac fame.

Cyrano!

And the wonderful landscape near the Dordogne river, which has been made known around the world by the prehistoric wall art at Les Eyzies, Lascaux and Font-de-Gaume.

But most of all to reunite with our family, the older boys and their beloved ones, my in-laws - the sweetest people around and my sister and her family.... All to have and to hold for awhile in our arms, to make again memories together and fill up the emotional tanks....

I can't wait, I can't wait!

A house is awaiting us, a wonderful old house, in a tiny town, which we will discover. And more then that, the people, the food, the wine, the landscapes around and the sure treasures to be found!
More about that soon to come!
I promise to post, I can't help it sharing with you all!

Au revoir, mon amies!

Photography by V.Zlotkowski, images via websites