house of franglais

image anthropologie

Dear Melissa,

Can we talk wardrobe for a minute?

I think I told you my sad story, of being stopped twice in the last four months by strange men inquiring if I was a member of a certain religion. I don't want to specifically mention the religion because these comments were not taken by me as compliments on my personal appearance (let's just say I googled the religion after incident #1, and it described the typical female belonging to said religion as one who wears no make-up or jewelry, does not cut her hair, and usually wears long plain skirts or dresses). If this happens to you once, you could think, sure, I'm just at the grocery store and haven't really gotten ready today (except for that day I had), ha ha, it's kind of funny. Twice - this happening TWO TIMES makes you stop and think, perhaps time for a little look-see in the mirror and some re-evaluation.

So as I think about this - because, at the end of the day I do have some vanity - the bottom line is that really what I would like to look like when I leave the house each day is french, and kind of vaguely artistic. And cute. Can this be done? C'est possible? And can you help me since you speak french?

First, let's consider what I generally do during the day, because my new french look needs to be practical:

exercise sometimes if I have time/remember. Lately I have been frantically doing the jump-rope because I can break a sweat and be done in 15 minutes while Wren sits in her high-chair and stares at me. (perhaps on the days I forget to exercise, this is more french, because it seems like french women do not need to exercise to look beautiful.)

drink hot chocolate (this is french already because sometimes I use a very small mug).

a load or two of laundry

lots of tidying

often a visit to the school to do an art class; and if I'm lucky I might find a little time to paint while Wren naps and other children are otherwise gone or occupied. (TOTALLY french to engage in artistic activity!)

various shuttling around of children to lessons, etc. (Not so french, because I drive a japanese minivan.)

disciplining/shaping the characters of my progeny

grocery shopping (if I start substituting the word "marketing" for this, do you think that would be a step in the right direction?)

reading (alors, always in english, as I only speak very poor high school level french.)

chit-chatting (rarely in french. only if i happen to offer a friend perhaps a bit of fromage avec a cracker at my table)

So, any brilliant tips for me? Articles of clothing to acquire? I'm wondering if you (or anyone else) has found the perfect ballet flats, or the perfect little black pants, the perfect red lipstick, the perfect striped top, or the perfect accessories (because, although my male admirers would be surprised, I actually do enjoy wearing jewelry). What do you think is the ideal composition for a (frenchy) lady of style's wardrobe? And, how should one wear one's semi-long hair so that it looks semi-long on purpose rather than default?

Love,

Lynne

Our next read: Macbeth. Due: April 30. Need: your deep thoughts and if you're feeling artistic, a sketch or painting of this mysterious and dark English classic.

Home Sweet Home: my childhood house

Dear Melissa,

I was looking through my photographs last night and came across this trove of pictures I took of the old house where I grew up. Would you care to join me for a ye olde stroll down memory lane (since this house has since burned - which is a story not nearly as dramatic as it sounds for those Sugar City Journal readers not-related to me, but not one I will tell right now)

(the barn. a very good hide out but watch out for spiders falling in your hair)

It was a lovely place to be raised, this great old house. Looking at these snapshots reminds me that it is good to take pictures of the places where you live. One day my kids will like seeing photographs of what was their backdrop - where they fought, where they discovered their favorite books, where they told secrets with their siblings - and match them with their memories.

I also love that as I look at these pictures I see my parents all over them: my mom's boudoir (I used to think the watercolor painting above the little chest of drawers was so racy!), the little stove my dad would make fires in on snow days, the notes sticking out of my mom's cookbooks...

minding the unruly

Dear Melissa,

The other day I got the chance to preview the galleys for fantastic Joel Henrique's upcoming book, Made to Play. They were awesome (he is a genius, by the way), and I can't wait to get my hands on the actual book. This was one of the ideas we played with immediately that couldn't be simpler: draw stick figures, cut fabric clothes, play. I would say that we got a good twenty minutes out of this activity, which is saying something for the four year old.

Speaking of which: my social little four year old has absolutely no desire to ever, ever, ever play by herself. When I put her in quiet time, she would rather stand by the door waiting for me to come get her (shouting, "is quiet time over yet?" every thirty seconds) than entertain herself. Consequently we do not do quiet time very much any more because all that yelling from her makes me feel grumpy.

This is in stark contrast to the seven year old, who very much like your seven year old, is kind of like a child MacGyver. She can find a baby wipe and a spaghetti noodle under the table in the kitchen and in seconds devise an exciting game that most likely has to do with greek mythology, romantic love, and looking at herself in the mirror (her three favorite things right now) and we won't see her for hours. If I'm really lucky the four year old might get assigned a small role in this game (say, as the spaghetti noodle holder in the corner), which starts out being a great thing but then usually ends up with the four year old yelling: "but I wanted to be the mom!" (reflecting a serious misunderstanding of the game, which infuriates her sister even more).

Oh well. Lots of love,

Lynne

pick up your brush

clouds, oil on canvas, 8" x 8", 2011

available for sale in my shop; 100% of proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross.

Dear Melissa,

I'm very happy that you are blogging again. It's just not the same without you out there on the other end. I've really missed the fun of an ongoing shared project with you... I'm always motivated by your creativity and what you produce. You push me to think and try things that I otherwise wouldn't do or learn about, and I love that. It's so important to keep your inner life alive, don't you think?

Over the year I have thought a lot about letting the blog go as I've gotten busier with my family, or at points when the whole thing started to feel tired and overworked and stagnant. A fresh start feels good. For me, what I am constantly trying to figure out is balance - elusive, right? - and I feel like I can use this blog as a tool to help find it. I love the idea of sometimes painting, sometimes reading/discussing, and sometimes family life and things home-related (I do love a good home design blog). After reading your last post I foraged through my dusty garage and dug out my oil paints and supplies, and have been working on a few cloud pictures. I will show you when I finish. You are right, oil paints do smell so good.

The book...The Inferno - yipes! Daunting!! But in a good way. I think that has been on many a reading list I've been given in my life and I've only ever really read excerpts. I think it's poetry appreciation month or something coming up - (is Dante poetry? I have no idea but it seems like it is)... Speaking of poetry another author I'd like to spend some time with is Mary Oliver, or even revisit Shakespeare. How many pages is The Inferno? That might be the deciding factor for me. :) I will google. {More ideas, people?}

Love,
Lynne

(p.s., I re-opened my little shop, this time on etsy. It is kind of a random collection of this and that.)

new beginning

Dear Lynne:

In a few days it will be my family's one-year anniversary of living in England. I feel like I'm finally starting to feel that old familiar urge to create. I've missed conspiring on projects with you. But I think we should have a new beginning--create a new sugar city, evolved into where we are in our current lives. It is so beautiful in England. I feel constantly inspired to pick up my brush and paint what I see. I know that the spring in California must be amazing. (I love your cherry blossom painting, by the way.) What if we made a painting correspondence? We could choose a theme, it could be one word, or a photo, or general idea, then we could each paint our own interpretation.

What would you like to do for our first project? I'm thinking clouds, sad, brooding, menacing clouds. Is that too melancholic for the spring? Maybe it would be befit the catastrophic events in Japan. What do you think?

Also, I'm constantly inspired by your mind. I love how you are constantly reading good books and sharing all your interesting insights. Perhaps we could continue with your goal to read more classics. What would be a good book to read next?

I've got some other ideas of posts about my effort to teach my kids French which has been on-going for about two years, as well as some of the challenges of raising children today. What do you envision for our new beginning?

I can't wait to hear from you...

Melissa

pick up your brush

acrylic, 2010

study a bit

mental note: be jane eyre.

(my Jane Eyre-ish watercolor tree)

After I finished reading W&P last month I felt like I needed a mental break. I picked up Jane Eyre, which I last read during a summer break between junior and senior year in high school. What I remembered: Mr. Rochester - hot, mysterious and rich. Jane - poor and plain, but beguiling with her sketchbook and witty conversation. Just like Sixteen Candles minus the grandma! Totally the best kind of story for a teenage girl to read. I remembered being really into how romantic it was, but feeling disappointed at the end that Edward got disfigured when his crazy wife torched the house. My 16-year old self felt it should have ended in a more outwardly happy way.

So anyway, reading it this time around was a whole different experience. I like to think that as a 34-year old I'm bringing a little more to the table (although that sometimes feels debatable). This time, while I still found the whole Rochester/Jane dynamic wildly romantic, I loved Jane. How did I miss her on that first read? There was this scene in Mr. Rochester's study where they were talking one night, and Jane says to him, basically, right is right, and wrong is wrong. You can dress something up however you like, but at the end of the day you can't change a lie into a true thing before God. I loved Jane's refusal to compromise on what she knew to be true, even at huge cost. Man! I hope I and my girls can be brave like that. I think if you believe in God, it clarifies a lot about life that otherwise gets murky. Jane had a lot of clarity. My chosen faith is mormonism, and I've spent a lot of time and prayer figuring out what I believe, because it's hard work to really live a religion. I hope I am moving towards clarity, too - trying to act on what I feel to be right even when it's hard (work in progress).

Another thing I found myself loving about Jane was her tidiness. Kind of a small detail, but I really liked how she was always ordering up her environment - whipping little Adele into shape, putting away all of her things neatly in her room even after the ruined wedding (!), establishing a proper schoolroom for the poor factory children in the village, fixing up the house for the cousins. I must admit that I felt very lacking because on a couple of days I chose to read more Jane Eyre over (gasp!) doing and putting away another load of laundry while my baby took her nap. The irony!

Ok, this is the last one - I also loved how studious Jane was. Drawing, or learning new languages, or tackling hard books. I personally distract quite easily. I mean, seriously, when was the last time I sat down to try and learn a new language? :) I've made mental notes to try and be more Jane-ish in this general area (not really to learn a new language, just to maybe read better books, etc., and spend less time frittering). Add it to the list.

(by the way, have you seen the trailer for this coming out next week?)

kitchen saga continues

Look, my kitchen is finished!

Just kidding, that's actually a picture of a kitchen from Country Home Jul/Aug 2007 that I gave to my contractor. Isn't it pretty? We're hoping ours has some of the same elements by the time we are done: white cabinets, soapstone counters, and wood floors. It's a long process, though, and thank goodness for insurance, as much of a hassle it is to work with them.

Thanks for hanging around even though Melissa and I are barely posting right now. We actually have some ideas (I know, shocking!) to make the blog more reflective of what we do these days, since neither of us are really sewing so much anymore. Maybe in the next few weeks you'll see our new format...