spirit of christmas

i spent my thursday morning putting up our christmas decorations. at first, i planned to put them up on the 30th (tomorrow) but océane has been asking me why can't i put up our christmas decoration early. some cleaning.. then our parol -- the traditional filipino christmas lantern. oh yes, my family sent this lantern to us six years ago.

then our christmas tree. another six years old decor:-) for our christmas tree decoration... year after year i add new pieces. i haven't add something new on our tree yet.

winnie the pooh & friends chipboard tree decorations belongs to océane. she got them 2 years ago from her winnie the pooh magazine. since she got them, i gave her the honour of hanging them by herself year after year.

our nativity... is another six year old item.

i made our christmas stockings last year.

the musical dog was from tonton dan. he sent it for océane last year.

océane's advent calendar is new this year. it is from tonton eras. a starbucks advent calendar and i just used my scrapbooking skills to change the look. i have my own starbucks advent calendar too! lol

that's it for the day:-) happy thursday!

journal your christmas 2007 - cover

today, while my husband was preparing our lunch.. i got busy and finally decided to make the cover of my christmas journal. this is an online christmas scrapbooking class with shimelle.


here is my cover...

materials: heidi swapp 9x9 spiral album in crimson, making memories white

shimmer alphabet stickers and prima flowers christmas bubble - red

album title... i chose three words in three different languages but have the same meaning. being a filipino, the word pasko have to come first. pasko is tagalog (philippine language) word which means christmas. since english is my second language... christmas comes second. finally, the word noël which is french for christmas. well, my husband is french and our daughter is half-french. obviously, i must use the french word.

merry christmas!

photos of the day

this morning we went out... it's so grey and cold:-)

la poste, 8th arrondissement - right in-front of our building

sad trees at avenue percier

along the highway of A13 (paris suburb).... and yes, since océane was a baby she always fell asleep in the car.

along avenue foch, 16th arrodissement (district). one of the prestigious avenues in paris, with homes that at various periods were maintained by onassis, shah of iran, prince rainier or monaco, etc.

christmas lights

early this evening i brought océane to see the chistmas lights of printemps & galeries lafayette. she was amazed with the beauty of the lights.

strike, scrapbooking, poem, etc.

monday... the french public transportation is still on strike & on it's 6th day already. my movement is limited since some places i want to go (to check out christmas decors & scrapbook stuff) are way too far away. as in minimum of one hour walk, one way.

tomorrow is another day... bigger strike with other government offices joining the transportaion strike. i had to rush three stuff for mailing and mailed them today.

christmas scrapbooking... yayyyyyyy i've joined the journal your christmas and it will start on the 1st of december until the 6th of january. it will be my first time to join this yearly online scrapbooking. i'm excited!!! my brain is already busy working overtime for the stuff i'll hope to use. i'm thinking of traditional red & green, plus blue & white (perhaps) christmas theme. i will definitely on making my own 8in x 8in album instead of buying one. ***not many options here in paris except for 21cm x 21cm spiral craft book available at muji or the 9in x 9in at the scrapbook store where i frequent. then today shimelle offer christmas in a box (stuff to use for the entire journal your christmas) for 40£+. oh dear..... the father christmas kit is awesome!!

perhaps because of the massive strike tomorrow, today océane recite the poem for tuesday. it is:


l'Automne

Il pleut
Des feuilles jaunes
Il pleut
Des feuilles rouges
L'été
Va s'endormir
Et l'hiver va venir
Sur la pointe
De ses souliers gelés

Anne-Marie Chapouton

happy friday!

wishing you all a happy friday from 0°C paris! :-)

beaujolais nouveau

throughout france the 3rd thursday of november at exactly 0.00 hours beaujolais wine is available, not earlier than that. it is a law & definitely respected. earlier majority of the bars in france opened at midnight for the beaujolais. it marks the official tasting of the new crops of wine. for french, it is a ritual and very popular festival. beaujolais wines matches well with most dishes.

these are the 2 bottles of beaujolais nouveau we tried. the bottle with harlequin is good!

ahhhh c'est la vie!

freezing tuesday

it's really freezing here in paris with the current temperature of 1°C. the tip of océane's nose was red on our way to her school. suddenly my brain is singing " rudolph the red-nosed reindeer...."

have a nice day!

havin' fun

océane enjoys posing for me. we are both camera crazy... i take the pictures and she poses for me. not bad, huh? :-)

the pink béret matches with the jacket that her tonton boyet sent for her. cool!

galeries lafayette

from printemps, océane and i walked up straight to galeries lafayette. their christmas decoration theme is "noël brillant."

océane immediately noticed this first window display.... it is dedicated to diddl, one of her current favorites.

here are the other pictures...

océane told me that she wanted us to go back there tonight for her to see the evening lights:-)

printemps window display

printemps haussmann


although, it is very cold autumn morning earlier (5°C), océane has been looking forward for our early morning walk. it is wednesday, her school-free day and she woke up early. however, due to the 'usual' public tranportation strike all over france, the streets are already crowded.

year after year, océane and i take an early morning walk to see the annual christmas window display at printemps department store. this year's theme is nordic fairytale.

red is for christmas

last night, we got a package from tonton eras and this is what océane got.....

a red jacket! however, océane have to wait until next year (?) to be able to wear it coz it's a little too big for her:-) anyway, it's beautiful and thank you, tonton eras!

1st poem -- november

Points de chute

Voyons, se dit la sorcière
En descendant vers la terre,
Si j'atterris sur un clocher,
Je vais me piquer les pieds,
Si j'atterris dans un trou,
Je vais me casser le cou,
Si j'atterris dans la rivière,
Je vais mouiller mon derrière.

Je crois, se dit la sorcière,
Qu'il vaut mieux rester en l'air.


Corinne Tibaut

chilly autumn day

5°C in the morning
champs élysées

in western europe, we are having a chilly autumn weather. it's 5°C here in paris and this is how it is here in paris right now. the photos were taken at champs élysées. the french flags were all up and hanging along the long avenue of champs élysées for the end of world war 1 anniversary (november 11 - armitice 1918 or the end of world war 1). one photo is of sephora -- the largest perfumery shop at champs élysées.

sephora at champs élysées is open sunday to thursday from 10:00am to 12:00 midnight and on friday & saturday, it is open from 10:00am to 1:00am. i like to go there on midnight when there are less people.

~~~~~~~

this afternoon, right after i picked-up océane from her school we went to champs élysées (it's less than 5 minutes walk from her school) to buy a gift. we passed by at disney store which is currently close for decoration and this is their window display (excluding océane.. lol).

happy birthday, tonton dan!

today is tonton dan's birthday. here is océane's birthday gift...

back to school

yes it's back to school for océane after the toussaint break.

cheers to the christmas holiday from starbucks! i just had the mocha praline.

tonton boyet's day

bon anniversaire, tonton boyet!


to celebrate tonton boyet's birthday today, we begin playing christmas songs.

st nicholas

while bernard & i were grocery shopping yesterday, we found this...

it is gingerbread. in france, we call it pain d'épices. since it is made in germany, they call it schoko-lebkuchen. now, there are so many gingerbread cookies in the supermarket for st. nicholas day.

st. nicholas? the saint who is recognized as protector of the children. for many, he is the santa claus. in france, st. nicholas comes primarily in alsace, lorraine, nord-pas-de-calais and brittany (northern france). the whole family gets ready for the saint's arrival on december 06 with grandparents telling stories of the saint.

bakeries and supermarkets are filled with special gingerbread cookies like we bought or shaped like st. nicholas. at the school, children learn st. nicholas songs and poems. they draw and pint st. nicholas pictures.

on the eve of the saint's day, children put their shoes near the chimney and sing a song to st. nicholas before going off to bed. in the morning, the shoes are overflowing with special st. nicholas sweet treats -- chocolates and special cookies.

bernard told me when he was a child, his grandmother would give him coin-chocolates for st. nicholas day. this coming st. nicholas, i've already prepared something for océane.

perhaps, on st. nicholas day, we can treat ourselves a chocolate or gingerbread to remember how good it is to be a child and how eager we used to wait for santa claus.

dreamin' of christmas scrapbooking

yes, i am currently dreamin' of christmas scrapbooking after seeing the very recent released of love elsie noël (christmas collection) products in u.s.a.

the pattern papers are these:

the fabric papers:

cardstock stickers:

epoxy stickers:

rub-ons:

chipboard alpha(bet):

chipboard frames:

chipboard bottons:

soft charms:

ribbons:

clear stamps:

this time around, it is not dreaming of a white christmas. lol

it's broken!

océane was looking at the window when she noticed that she can hardly see the eiffel tower. then she said: "the eiffel tower is broken!" so autumn... heavy fog.

a walk...

rue la boëtie

don't be deceived on what you're seeing on the photos... paris street is not always 'this empty'. it's public holiday and we just took a walk and enjoyed the empty street. on regular days, this street is filled with people walking, people on scooter, people walking while reading their newspaper (figure it out), people standing on the sidewalk right outside their office building smoking (by the new french law, smoking in the building is forbidden), people roller blading, tables & chairs outside the café/restaurant and cars, of course.

océane knows that whenever we are out, she must hold on either of our hands. here she is holding her papa's hand. she's always busy talking, looking at things around her, so one had to watch out for her for some "merde" right on the middle or just somewhere on the sidewalk.

happy week-end!

fairy or witch

post halloween


océane couldn't decide whether to be a fairy, princess or witch. then she decided to be a fairy and wear her pink costume. i put a little make-up on her... lots of glitter dust, pink shimmer on her eyelids and pink gloss on her lips. oh she was right in-front of the mirror looking at herself. she was happy! she doesn't even want to take off the make-up. lol

in the evening, when bernard arrived from his sap training océane changed costume. this time she became a witch with fairy-like make-up. she told me not all witches have dirty face, so she's keeping her pink shimmer eye make-up.

thus, here are the pictures of océane..... from fairy to witch. i guess, there are no rules that one must stay in only one costume for one halloween night. lol

decorations will be put down later. goodbye halloween 2007 and looking forward to christmas.