Sunday, September 12, 2010

English Roses from France - Giveaway Winner!

Well, I'm about to close my giveaway and draw the winner, but please bear with me while I go through my progress on those Rentrée Resolutions - that's what my (now traditional) back-to-school giveaway is all about! If you haven't looked at all the comments on my original post, they're well worth a browse - and also a check back to the previous year, when resolutions had a slightly different 'feel'. I think my favourite this year may be Autumn Mist's, which is : "To stop interrupting people when they're talking, a terrible habit I've had for years. I think I'm improving in this, but I daren't ask anyone!" I love it and I identify with it. But that doesn't make her the winner! I shall sort that out with random.org in a minute... So, my resolutions: Join the Library - getting there! I popped in when I was passing by unexpectedly the other day and discovered (unsurprisingly) that I'd need a 'justificatif domicile' to show my address before I could join. So now our electricity bill is tucked into my diary for the next time I pass:
Buy and read the newspaper: I'm doing that quite often and have learned a lot and, I should think, improving my French too. But doesn't it create a lot of recycling?
Cycling more often: I've buzzed about town quite a lot on my bike this week. I've only done one planned cycle ride, though.
I'll just take this opportunity to show off our improved bike-storage facilities:
The spare bikes are on the wall and only the four we need every day are in the rack. This should make it a lot easier to get them out, and back in, on school days. The helmets are on new hooks on the door, too - thanks, Ben!
And finally, the Forum des Associations didn't come up with any craft classes or groups that really tempted me. Where is the French version of Vicki's and Dawn's group, or Josie-Mary's? Answer - I don't think they exist. So I have decided on a project based on a book I picked up at a Vide Grenier a few years ago:
I'm going to collect together photos of our gîte holiday and put them into a Scrap Book (yes, a Scrap Book, not just a scrap book) as a Christmas present for my parents in law - if you remember, it was a full family holiday to celebrate their golden wedding. I'd love any advice on scrapbooking from you all - I've bought (some of it new - eek!) some materials, as I realised I would have spent quite a lot on joining a group and buying equipment, so there seems no harm in setting up properly for a home project. I need to timetable myself some weekly time on this - I'm really looking forward to it!
So now I'm going to pop over and close my Giveaway, and then I'll head back here and tell you the winner!
HURRAY! The winner is Kit! Kit has the blog A Montana Life and she currently has a fantastic picture on her blog - you've got to go over and see it! Congratulations, Kit - please email me your address and I will post you your roses!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I just love scrapbooking, I have only ever bought the book and just used little bits and bobs and scraps to decorate rather than buy anything special, one has lots of pressed flowers and lettering chopped from magazines with pictures from 2005 because lots happened that year, including my 21st birthday party and graduation ceremony. The other is a holiday book, it was huge fun keeping all the travel tickets and stubs, and I tend to gather free leaflets from hotels, museums etc to chop up and use for decoration (this worked really well for our weekend in Rome, lots of pretty stubs from the Vatican, colleseum etc). Oh do show us some pics as it takes shape!

Nina said...

Congratulations Kit!!!!

I do love that last image...and happy to hear how they have found their way to you.

Kit said...

Hello! I am sooo thrilled to have won your give-away. Thank you so very much Floss! And thank you for your lovely comments about my blog. I hope to see you from time to time. Thank you to Nina for the congrats also! Take care, Kit

Marigold Jam said...

Congratulations to the lucky winner. Re your question about Scrapbooking you could buy the magazine Histoires de pages in your local Leclerc or bookshop and take a look at that - I have a couple and the ideas are easy to follow. You would also be practising your french as with reading the paper wouldn't you so 2 birds with one stone. Maybe someone in the magazine swap would be able to send you a used UK scrapbooking mag - if not let me know and I'll send you one of mine.

Thanks for your comment on mine and yes please I would love the recipe for the sloe jelly.

Jane x

Autumn Mist said...

Congrats to the winner, I did think it was me for a moment there! Glad you liked my comment, it was sincerely meant. I can't live without a local library. I LOVE scrapbooking, there are some good blogs around if you start a search. I list mine on my blog labels, if you want to have a look. I'm not saying they're particularly brilliant, but they'll give you an idea. I agree about the newspaper which is why we don't buy one now. By the time I'd waded through the Sunday supplements it was old news!

E. Charlotte said...

I love your blog! I will definitely be back to visit! Thanks for your kind comments on my last post. :)

(My mom is thrilled to have won your give-away too!!) :)

Elderberry-Rob said...

Congrats Kit, lucky you.. but it was fun thinking about resolutions, thanks Floss. Betty xxx

Cape Cod Rambling Rose said...

We really need to re-organize our bike storage area; thank you for the inspiration! And congrats to your lucky winner! ;)

magsmcc said...

One of my new week resolutions is to pop into Cleo Crafts and see if they have a scrapbooking class- I realsied I was losing track of holidays with suns now that there have beeneight years of them! So I want to start a scarpbook with maybe only one or two pages per year. And then I thought I'd like to have little books recording what they got for birthdays, with party photos- so I'll be watching your progress with interest!

magsmcc said...

And also- do look for the Philosophy of Lists blog to see a brilliant idea for a holiday "scrapbook" with a twist!

VintageVicki said...

Well done to Kit on her win :)

Have never done scrapbooking - it looks like the sort of hobby that fun but can be very expensive with all the tempting bits on sale.

VintageVicki said...

Just had a thought after I posted - I suppose blogging can be like scrap booking? with all the background to choose from and photo editing sites to play with.

Jane and Chris said...

Congratulations Kit, on your fabulous win!
Congratulations Floss, on keeping up with your resolutions!
Good luck everyone else with keeping up with the resolutions we all posted!
Jane

Heidi said...

Congrats to the lucky winner, I found an amazing vintage red bike thrifting this year and all it needs is a new tire and fall is here and it never did get that new tire....next year?

Serenata said...

Congratulations Kit!

Floss, I know the answer to the newspaper problem...Get guinea pigs - then you can use it for the bedding underneath hay! :-D

carol at home said...

Congratulations to Kit and good luck to you all with your resolutions.

Selfsewn said...

gifted thrifter!!

Nina said...

Thank you.

Kit said...

Hello Floss! I just wanted to say, the package arrived today and it is wonderful! I am so tickled with all my new treasure; from France to Montana. Thank you so much! (see my blog for the story) Always, Kit