Hi to all

Two years ago today I was hammering down a French motorway with four distressed cats in my car! What a way to start you new life! Our train had been delayed by nearly four hours and at this point of the day my cats had been in the car nine hours. I did hand write a funny post about our move, how I was frantically spraying so much Feliway (a drug that works a bit like Valium for cats) that I am sure I was as high as a kite when we arrived at our new home in Sarthe at about 1.30am.

One of the cats had shit in it’s basket before we even got on the train and when I posted the fact on Facebook as I waited in the queue one witty friend said “Isn’t that meant to be lucky!” Thank you Tim!

But never to be deterred when we arrived we opened the wine at 2am to toast our new life and cooked lamb chops and chips!

But here we are two years on, we have learnt a lot and I cannot say that it is not a big adventure, but I do not regret it at all. I have learnt so much and moved forward so much.

But now it is time to face my fears. Everybody who knows me tells me that I should be decorating furniture and people’s houses for a living, painting beautiful floors and using the skills I have; in fact only this week a friend has emailed me to say that this is what I should be doing. I know she reads my blog a big thank you to her. I don’t think I will earn a fortune but I will be doing something that I love and I think that this will show in the work I do. So for the past few weeks I have been painting mirrors, hand painting them with different designs. They are not quite finished as this one needs to be varnished but I am really pleased with the result, and this gives you an idea of the design. Look our for the finished photos.

I have also experimented with colour and this one is also going to be distressed now I have hand painted a design on it and then varnished

I can shabby chic all day long if anyone wants a piece of furniture distressed email me for a quote, we can collect and deliver back to you.

Look out for the other items I will have and if anyone outside of France is looking for particular small things that are typically French that I can send to you then please let me know and I will source them for you. I am thinking lamp shades, milk churns, wall lights (you would have to have them converted to English electricity)

I have also started to embroider by hand 100% Egyptian cotton sheets with my own designs and here is my first one complete

This is only one design, but there will be more and I can accommodate any colour scheme, if you are interested again please message me. I can say that they are hand embroidered in France. I have tried to keep them simple taking my inspiration from other simple designs that sell well.

It is fair to say that the last two years have been a roller coaster of extremely difficult times, to wonderful peaceful times.  In the time that has passed I have met a dog who I fell in love with who now lives with my dear friend Mary in England, a mad cat that now comes out to chat to me, and chickens who love me, (none of them at my house!). But at my home I have my beautiful girls who survived the journey, including my oldest cat Molly who will be seventeen in May.

Of course the Harley boy came back to France with us after we had come over to France to collect him and give him a home. But we never envisaged that we would be blessed with a naughty cat poo eater, who smiles at us with a wonky smile, taps us on the head when she stands behind us on the sofa and greets us every morning with an “Oh!” as she yawns.  We could not imagine our life without her ,,, The Wiglet

And last but never least the mad cat, who was found so nobody really knows what happened to her, but she is clearly away with the faeries in our garden some days (for those readers who don’t know that saying it means mad!) She has had a hard time to integrate into a house with four other cats and a Welshy, only to have another Welshy join the clan. She has no teeth, sits on Rich’s shoulder like a parrot and is also known as “Oh No!” because she is too mad to know any fear and just keeps going into situations she really shouldn’t go into. Ladies and gentleman I give you Sophie the sofa loaf.

My friend Mary carried on her lap from one house to another when we moved to our house from our rented property; she was in a box and kindly shit in the box twice whilst Mary carried her on her lap. So I drove Mary on her first soiree through the French countryside in a car smelling of cat shit!! I know how to treat my friends!

There is a recurring theme here!

I cannot write this anniversary blog without mentioning the people who I know miss us, but have supported us, even though they have found it hard at times; because one of  them worries (my sister) and the other felt lost without his mum and dad close by (my son). Thank you to them both for  being there for us, we love you both (and my lovely Irish brother in law.)

There are others of course, Mary because she can no longer pop into see me, and she works so hard to ensure we see each other; and Jo and Mike, I know they still miss not having us next door; and my darling friend Nic, who although she has been out to visit has had a hard time over the last year and misses her bestie not coming over to give her a hug. She tells me that she misses me every day, and I miss her too.

But seriously I do believe that life shows you the way, and it is about meeting new people, and we have met some wonderful people. The Yorkshire-man  who is the founding member the grumpy gits club (but we love him and his wife dearly). Then there is  our other new adoptive parents who I cannot name, but they look after us and we love them. My sister commented how, given it will be twenty years since I lost my mum this year, we were destined to meet them for various reasons. (I value their privacy I will say no more.) All of the lovely people who have congregated towards the French class that I have in my home, the main stays all seem to be like minded people, and not least from them I have met my wonderful mad friend Jan. (More about her later!)

Our friends in England who have come to visit, sent us supplies (not least my wonderful mum in law) and medicines; so many people, too many. (People not medicines, I had us sounding like druggies there!)

 

I have made cyber friends through this blog, especially my fellow blogger Roz; and friends from years ago have returned into my life; they just had to get off my mini bus and go to another stop for another journey for a while. But they picked my bus back up and they are joining in the ride with me now.

But last but never least it has to be my loving husband Richard. Ten years ago I did not know if we would make it through, but that man’s love for me knew no bounds and he would not give up; he, quite simply, adores me; and I am blessed. I could not have had this adventure without him.

You have all shown me that there are good people in the world and my husband is right up there with the best.

I know that this blog has inspired people and that is just what I wanted to achieve, just to make people think what if…..?

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to you all.

But there is more to come, of that I have no doubt!

Moisy