This is a story - a story about a little kitchen in an old house in the French countryside.

Sometimes it is a little scary, but don't worry- like all good stories (the ones I like, at any rate, everything turns out ok in the end....

Once upon a time, in a little old house, there lived an evil witch. Her house had a little kitchen. It was an ugly kitchen- as ugly as dirt. Really unattractive dirt. Actually, now that I think about it, dirt was probably more lovely than this kitchen.

One day, a king and queen came riding buy and decided to purchase the little house. The witch was selling out, as she was getting on in years in need of cash to buy a small appartment with easy access to shopping and doctors' offices.

The king and queen fixed up the crappy kitchen as best they could. The queen took care of their baby princess, while the king tiled the countertops and tried to cover up the cracked walls.

It was a nice kitchen and they very nearly lived happily ever after....


But time passed and after a few years, the king and queen (and the many tiny princesses and the handsome prince) were sent into exile in a distant land. When they returned, they found that the little house was again....kind of ugly. Fifteen years had gone by and the little kitchen seriously needed an update.

First, everything had to come down.
And I do mean down.

The plaster crumbled, mildew blossomed and new frontiers in incompetant plumbing were revealed.....

It was very scary.
The king asked if maybe he could go fight dragons instead. But he was basically very brave. So, he called up a young knight (that would be our pal Cristian ) to assist him with the huge task that lay ahead.

First of all the walls and ceiling had to be torn down and covered with all new plasterboard. This was kind of difficult, but the king and the knight did a good job. They even got some help from the handsome prince...

To be continued......

There are two new household members chez moi and it's about time you all met them.

This is Dexter:

(Don't worry, he is not a serial killer. As far as we can tell.)

And this is Daisy:

Shortly after our beautiful Cleo was killed, I drove the girls down to the local animal shelter. We stood in a room among about 20 lovely cats, hard-pressed to choose only one.

So, we did what any decent people would do: we chose two.

Daisy was sort of a wretched specimen, really. She was quite thin and her fur was scruffy and matted. The eye passed right over her...well, mine did, anyway. But she caught Mallory's attention.

"This is a good one, mom!" she insisted.
And she was right.

Dexter also kind of blended in at first, but when Valentine picked him up the first time, he put his paws around her neck and gave her a big hug. And who could resist that?

As you can see, Dex and Daisy really enjoy the new addition to the house. (nice transition there, no?) The little blue sofa is cosy and Mallory loves to curl up there to read. But the cats prefer it when some unlucky soul leaves his jacket on the coffee table, as that provides a perfect bed/cat fur repository.
The left corner of the room is nice and sunny- perfect for the huge ficus plant that used to loom ominously over our dining room table. It was a little....overwhelming for the space it occupied before - but now the giant plant is out of our way, safely tucked into a bright corner.

So, you can see that the room finally has a real floor and actual furniture.

And even better- it now has fancy decorations:

We picked up this old mirror at the thrift shop on Saturday.
So, we've got that whole "shabby chic" thing working for us.

I've got plenty more pictures for you...mostly from our kitchen remodelling project. I hope to get them up soon. I don't seem to be doing very well with my blog lately, though. Lots of stuff going on here, blah, blah, etc. ...
But luckily Tya is taking up the slack. In contrast to me, she's blogging more than ever.
Go check her out!