A Few Things

French Chateau in Rouvrou

Image and text by Gabrielle.

Hello, Friends. How are you doing? Was it a good week? It’s been a landmark one for us. As you may have seen, on Monday we finalized the purchase of our little cottage in France. We can still hardly believe it. And our friend Caroline has been setting up appointments with roofers, plumbers, electricians and gardeners like you wouldn’t believe. We even hit our first bump in the renovation road: looks like we won’t get electricity at the cottage for 3 months. Hah! But we have good news too. Caroline met the neighbor, said he’s friendly as can be, and he’s willing to let us borrow his electricity until ours is installed. So we don’t have to wait 3 months to move forward. This is going to be quite the adventure.

While we make our weekend plans, here are a few things I’ve wanted to share with you:

– This Benki project looks like the future.

– I’m nuts for this braided basket DIY. Gorgeous. And made from old t-shirts.

– Why there’s no French Harry Potter. Thanks, Annie.

– A Finnish Toddler’s Room.

– And did you see this article about the Finnish Baby Box? Thanks, Sara.

– Dispelling 10 myths about child sexual abuse.

– Man oh man we are lucky to be alive right now. Check this out.

– The most incredible memorial in the Sahara Desert. Seriously stunning.

– These beautiful women! This project made me emotional. (Lots of beautiful bare real-life mothers’ bodies. Just want you to be aware of what you’ll see if you click play.) Thanks, Sara.

– War through womens eyes.

– Last week, I featured DIY gift ideas for Father’s Day. This week, it’s Breakfast in Bed recipes!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. And I hope you have the chance to show love for the fathers in your life. I’ve been missing my dad like crazy these last couple of weeks! I think he would get a real kick of the projects his kids are working on. I think he would like his grandkids too. : )

I’ll meet you back here on Monday. I miss you already.

kisses,
Gabrielle

P.S. — I snapped the image at top last Saturday in a tiny town called Rouvrou. There was no front gate, the yard was way overgrown, the shutters needed attention — made me wonder if it was abandoned. Looks like a fairytale, right? Feel free to follow me on Instagram for this weekend’s adventures.

9 thoughts on “A Few Things”

    1. Thank you, Erica! And my apologies for the blog being so wonky this week. I am still trying to sort it out, actually, but hopefully it will be improved soon.

  1. Thank you for mentioning the basket, Gabrielle! And thank you for introducing me to “A Beautiful Body”. That is something I can totally get behind, and will.

    Congratulations on the cottage. What a dream come true, even without power! :)

  2. Ha! Until last week, our house in the Loire Valley looked a bit like this. We always close the shutters during night and the grass was screaming to be cut. Thankfully we were able to get a handyman to come tend to the lawn, so we look a bit less sleeping beauty house. Love this image! It does make you wonder!

    xoxo PARIS BEE kids blog

  3. that beautiful bodies book is amazing! thank you so much for sharing it. i’m trying to pinch pennies right now but i feel i MUST contribute to that kickstarter. such an imperative message for women and girls. :)

  4. I love the Finnish box. It is perfect. For a few (pre recession) years Irish toddlers were given baby books by the government. I Wrote To The Zoo, Rosies Walk and (I think) Miffys ABC. It was nice thinking that every child would have those books in the collection. Congrats on the house!

  5. So many thought provoking things on your list this week! That series of photographs of war were so moving and hard to look at. The images of the women refugees made me stop and think “could I do it?”. Could construct a home out of sheets and not know that my children were going to eat? It is gut wrenching. Also, the link about sex abuse. We learned in our foster care training that today, in the US, children are most likely to be sexually abused by a grandparent. Devastating.

  6. Thanks for posting the link on childhood sexual abuse. My husband and I were both abused by someone of the same gender who was just a few years older than us. Neither of us told anyone until each other, years after we were married. My mom was very thorough in educating us about sex abuse, but she always used an example of an older male, so when a friend just a few years older than me did, I didn’t realize what was happening.

    We both have forgiven and are on good terms with our abusers (both of whom were likely abused themselves, as young as we all were), but I don’t know if even we understand the ramifications of what happened and how it affected us. At any rate, we can use our experiences to protect our children, and the article you posted is spot-on.

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