Christmas Fair

A selection of the artwork for sale at the Christmas fair.  

We manned the art stand and the the hot waffle stand for the kids!  

The best combination of jobs in the world!

Customized Family spoon portraits!

Pain Quotidien Spelt Quinoa Scones

There is a Pain Quotidien near the kids' school. I got their Spelt Quinoa scone this week and it is amazing. Crunchy with quinoa and almond flakes, just sweet enough with the currants. 

I googled the recipe from http://www.eatcookexplore.com/spelt-quinoa-scones-recipe/ and this is what I am making for Sunday brunch!

Used a great round cutter for many round watercolors to come! Just did a fab herbal wild medicine course and it was pointed out that square shapes are static and do not exist in nature therefore stress the brain. Round shapes (think Mongolian round houses) represent mocement, celestial objects and are not seen by our brain as something odd to work on!

Bordeaux Sun

Finally, a large dose of sun overexposure in the beautiful region of "Entre-Deux Mers".  Meaning "in between 2 seas", t is a region featuring 2 major rivers.  La Dordogne river in particular is a delight to swim in, all light and clear and very slow in some places.
Fresh herbs for foraging are plentiful as this is a wetter climate than the riviera, all the better for landscape diversity.
The Bay leaves are from the herbalist medieval garden at La Sauve-Majeure and will do extremely well in the next ratatouille.

Aloe Vera plant and soap making - the start of an herbalist

In keep with my herbalist interests, I got a couple of aloe vera plant a while back.  They are so hardy and easy to keep.  Squeezed on the skin for burns or rashes they are a trusty and effective plant.
The Aleppo soap batch I made is also skin nourishing, enriched with essential oils of rosemary and lemon to clear the skin and organic milk and olive oil to soothe.

Soap Making:  Drying in the evening sun after 24h of curing.

End of Year books

Parent reps organised the cutest book as an end of year present for the teachers. Each child drew or wrote on an A5 bristol card and the messages were sooo sweet ("Ms Swann you've changed my life" etc...)
These are the book covers I did for the book.

Step 1  Quill and ink

And the finished result. Hope they like it!

Honey Bee and Spear Resurgo at Burgh House

I donated this larger-than-usual piece for a Spear charity fundraising.  Spear helps young underprivileged people getting into employment or education via a short life-changing program where 70% of the graduates get into employment or full-time education. This was held in the historic Burgh House and so much fun.  Congratulation to the highest bidders!