Vegan MoFo IV !

Unless you’ve been living under a vegan rock or something, you’re surely aware that Vegan MoFo IV is nearly upon us. This year November is the month to be rocking out your MoFo posts, spreading the word that vegan is mainstream, delicious and easy to do. Yes you can!

For you newbies, the MoFo squad has all the answers (ie: What is Vegan MoFo?) but basically, MoFo means blogging as much as you possibly can about all things vegan. It can be about anything, not just recipes – think : favourite vegan clothing, restaurants, cookbooks, blogs, kitchen gadgets, crafts…you get the idea!

Would you like to be an official MoFo member with all its benefits and privileges? Well then, head on over to the Official MoFo Sign-Up Form and get yourself legitimized. You’ll be added to the MoFo Blogroll, yes sir! Rolling with the big kids now, eh? There are even going to be mad contests and MoFo events, or at least that’s what the rumor is. I’m so excited, you are too, I can tell!

W.I.P. Wednesday : Meow! Halloween Kitties!

Let’s just pretend it’s Wednesday, ok? Great!

This is one of those too-easy-to-publish crafts, but the fact of the matter is that sometimes we forget that simple can be cute and fun. It’s two-dimensional, so there’s not messing with gussets – just cut two matching pieces of fabric and sew them together. Ta-da!

Guppy and I sat down to make some Halloween Black Cats together, and the entire project took about 45 minutes from start to finish, meaning : finding the fabric, drawing a template, cutting fabric and stitching up. If there hadn’t been interruptions like the telephone ringing, taking the dog out and gluing more googly eyes on yet even more Halloween Felties, it could have been done in an easy 15 to 30 minutes, depending on how many Halloween Kitties you wanted to make.

I just drew a basic silhouette of a kitty head, and used a simple ribbon for the tail. I cut out diamond eyes from felt, but you could embroider yours – or get more elaborate with a nose, mouth and whiskers.

Your Halloween Kitty needs a Kitty friend! Make many!

There’s still time to whip up a few Halloween decorations! Do you have any new W.I.P.s in the works? We would love to see what you’re up to! Snap a shot of your  “in progress” masterpiece and add it to the  W.I.P. Wednesday Flickr Pool. Whatever your works-in-progress, have a crafty week, and don’t forget to see what the other Wipsters are working on.

W.I.P. Wednesday : Boo!

I love Halloween!

And Guppy loves googly-eyes.

After getting our Halloween decorations up earlier this week, Guppy was rather put out that she didn’t have anything to decorate her room with. Since most of the things we put up were rather fragile/not adapted for  inevitable 5-year-old playing with it while no one is lookingness that will happen if they go in her room, I got thinking about “functional yet decorative” Halloween options.

 

I think these may become part of a felty-moblile, but I’m still not sure. Either way, I’m having fun making them (so easy) and Guppy is having a blast helping me (glueing googly eyes is the bomb, apparently).  They are also “functional” because she’s having fun just playing with them – sorting by number of eyes, scariness, etc. I’m feeling frustrated that I am out of black felt, because I really want to make me some Witchies. Thinking about that one.

What spooky (or, cute!) Halloween-inspired crafts are you working on? Do share!

Do you have any new W.I.P.s in the works? We would love to see what you’re up to! Snap a shot of your  “in progress” masterpiece and add it to the  W.I.P. Wednesday Flickr Pool. Whatever your works-in-progress, have a crafty week, and don’t forget to see what the other Wipsters are working on.

Life is good in southwestern France.

Hello! I’ve really missed you all! Ok, maybe not you, unshaven random stranger reading this post at 3 a.m. in your pj’s, but the rest of you, yes! Thank you so much for all your sweet emails and Tweets – I loved knowing you were thinking of me, as I was thinking of you! You know it’s time to blog again when your mother (aka Mamma Fish) begins “poking” you about it! (She wasn’t the only one  – you know who you are!)

As most of you know, we’ve moved across the country to the bucolic southwest where the weather is just amazing, and the people are even more chalereux than the temperature! This would explain my not spending time blogging and my playing outside, n’est-ce pas?

Yummies from kind neighbour’s garden.

The weather is still gorgeous (30°s/80°s, sunshine) but it’ll be soon time for me to get the vegetable garden plot ready. We arrived too late in the season to really plant much, though I did get some yummy tomatoes in. And figs! And grapes!

Look at those grapes! Can you see the spider web? Special effects for Halloween! A few weeks ago I was dropping a few things in the composter when I noticed something growing in the hedges – Green Grapes!  After a bit of scooby-dooing I found loads of bunches, and decided to ask our neighbours if they knew why we had grapes growing through the thick, 2 meter-high shrubbery.

Turns out our home and garden are on what used to be acres of vineyards. Now, why the original owners decided to tear up all the vines is beyond me, but the desire to live despite all odds seems not to be simply relegated to the animal kingdom as these vines yielded over 2kg of grapes. Amazing.

Long story short, I am so happy to be here, and so very thankful for my little family. There’s lots of fun, exciting stuff coming soon – hey, like Halloween. You know I love Halloween! I hope you’re all great and I can’t wait to read about your adventures now that I’m back on the grid. Bisous!