back ...

from a wonderful week in some lovely places, in which we ...



visited lots of Christmas markets



became addicted to Glühwein and Lebkuchen



took a boat trip on the beautiful Konigsee



ate lots of apfelstrudel



played in the fresh snow





and even managed to catch a nice day of skiing



more photos to follow in the next days :)

snow addiction

One week has passed by ? Already ?? It's hard to believe we're back from the ski trip, it was a great week. Exhausting as always, but in a good way. I got back intact with just a couple of minor bruises, and these probably made during the last morning when we were skiing in fresh powder that reached our knees (which made falling down quite easy and extremely funny)

The Grand Massif domain was a nice surprise, especially the Flaine side which for me had some of the best slopes (where some of my favourites just had the most suggestive names: mephisto, lucifer, faust and belzebuth !). I really enjoyed this resort (and the UCPA centre as well) so next year I think we'll probably return.

We got all sorts of weather, very sunny and warm during the first days (incredibly the snow condition was still ok), then a terrible day of fog, another day of sunny but much colder weather (and icy slopes), and finally some snow during the last day.

As always I have tons of photos to show, but managed to sort out this small pile to post here ...


me and F., freshly arrived and posing with the slopes of Flaine in the background


first day of skiing


moguls ... arghh, how I hate them :P


in the Samoens area, at the top of the Chamois slope descending into the lake ... amazing view !


beautiful sunset


on wednesday it was terribly foggy, and we had next to zero visibility at the top. Of course, it didn't stop us from skiing ...



riding up on the Grandes Platiéres cable car



the most photographed slope during our stay, the red "Mephisto" in Flaine. The views on this slope are fabulous



again the same slope, this time with a mer de nuages that is so often seen in this area



combe de veret ... or a very steep lift indeed !


finally some snow during our last night


and on the morning after ... everything was white



skiing in fresh powder ... a totally different experience



as you can see, it was a bit cold


and this is how A. looked after a couple of falls in that powder



and right before we left, the day turned sunny again, showing us this perfect postcard picture of Flaine

And that's it, the rest of the photos are here if you're not already tired of seeing so much snow.

Hope you're having a nice Carnival day today ... here it's rainy and I'm not much of a Carnival person anyway, so I'm staying in, watch some movies and start knitting my shopping tunic. And quite probably make some Earl Grey tea cake later on (I'm quite addicted to Earl Grey tea, so this recipe is just right my alley)...

a (small) shop update

I'm so-o-o-o sorry, but the weekend just flew by and I didn't finish any of the items I had planned to. The weather was just too nice, so we had another try at inline skating (I'm getting better), and yesterday we went hiking in Sintra. Actually, this whole month has been flying by since New Year's, can't believe we're getting to the end of January already ... I had so many plans and things I meant to do, but I guess other things just got in the way. I've been sewing less and knitting more, as you might have noticed, mainly because I find knitting is more relaxing these days. So the plan to have a big shop update this week kind of failed, but I decided to have a small update nonetheless. Just some regular bookcovers for now, the pencil sleeves and fairytale pocket bags will come next, in a couple of weeks, I promise. I'm also waiting on some new fabrics for that, some treats from kitty-craft



Next week we'll be going on our ski trip, and although the weather hasn't been very obliging, I'm still certain we'll have a great time. We are experimenting a new resort this year (La Plagne was fully booked already) so if any of you has any recommendations about Flaine, I'd love to hear them. We are staying at the new UCPA Flaine Lindars, and so far I've only read good reviews about it.



(The bookcovers are available here)