Spring Introductions

Dear readers,

I am full of joy to be here with you today on this glorious day.

Please indulge my childlike enthusiasm here. 

I have succumbed to spring folly.  Whilst March is usually the month of hares I have been busy dreaming about rabbits.

Let me introduce you to:

Mademoiselle Potager,

Mademoiselle Myosotis (Forget Me Not),

Mademoiselle Viola,

and finally, Mademoiselle Jardin anglais and Mademoiselle Primavera.

These two have become good friends.

I started making these five -and it has been such a pleasure - a few weeks ago for a very special couple - Sylvie and Xavier - who have brought happiness into our family's life.  When we first arrived in Touraine in July 2009 I spent a year wandering like a lost soul looking for the perfect resting place.  I found plenty of gardens of course.  What a multitude of Edens there are nestled in the idyllic countryside on both the north and south banks of the Loire river.  (Can you imagine how excited I am that the garden season is soon upon us?  I cannot wait to share some of its magic with you.)  The kind of place I am referring to here  however is a special café or tea room to which you are drawn.  A place with the best quality products, beautiful, comfortable surroundings and warm people.

We found it in June 2010.  A newly built little corner of heaven most aptly built opposite the eleventh-century village church (how did they get planning permission for that, you might ask yourselves) just down the hill from our house.

This is Xavier hanging up the freshly concoted menu for lunch and his wife Sylvie is preparing blinis.

A perfect mix of restaurant, café and grocery shop which is also a space for exhibitions.

Most fortuitous indeed.

Wouldn't you love to come here for a drink and a chat?  I wish you could!  You would immediately understand my fondness for this lovingly crafted place which has become a success over the past two years.

Sylvie (pictured above) asked me if I could create a few rabbits for their shop to bring a bit of spring fever into the place.  A sort of pre-Easter exhibition with a garden theme.  I was delighted and so set to work often late in the evenings after the children were in bed and during quiet moments carved out of our busy lives thanks to Mickaël, my dear, patient husband.  These rabbits of mine are a little strange looking but their long, slender bodies lend themselves well to carefully stitched clothes and a little ornamentation.

There is also a beautiful walled garden arround this sunlit terrace with a large, gnarled apple tree which casts shade on this otherwise hot place in summer.  Sylvie and Xavier are passionate about gardening as well as food and art.  They really are the most wonderful of people.  I thank them both for giving me the chance to make some spring creatures for La Part Belle - which translates roughly into English as "The Best Portion" or "The Choice Slice" - and look forward to spending many, many happy moments in their company.

Thank you all so very, very much for your sweetly worded comments on my last post.  I still feel a need a little more time but I shall be back soonish.  In the meantime I will continue to visit your little corners of pleasure and I am so grateful you take the time to visit me here.

A bientôt,

Stephanie