Happy New Year

Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year 2015!

From my family to yours,

Alexandra

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

I cannot believe it is Christmas next week.

I still have so much to do!

Are you all ready for Christmas? 

I love our Christmas trees this year!

Yes, this year we got 2 trees! 

Our main Christmas tree and a little one 
just for our son to decorate! 

He is now 2 1/2 years old and we are constantly amazed by the things he says and does. 

We got the trees nice and early this year 
and we put up the tree lights right away, 

but we did not fully decorate them, till a week later.

I like having a different theme each year and  this year it is 

Traditional Red & Gold.

By the way, it is our first Christmas in our new home 
and we are loving it!

James decorated the little tree first.

I had got all child-proof plastic ornaments 
and battery operated fairy lights.

As soon as I got all the decorations ready for him, James started decorating like a pro!

He just simply knew what to do, 
without my showing him anything and he was so into it! 

First, the tinsel garlands...

Then, the baubles and nutcracker ornaments.

Admiring his tree...

James loves the little nutcrackers.

Then, I decorated the big tree.

We like to put our star tree topper together as a family, 
so we waited for daddy to be home.

James did not want any help being lifted up. 
He stood on his little blue chair 
and wanted to put the star at the top of the tree, 
all by himself! 
It was so adorable!

James was so proud of himself!

A work of art!

It was getting late, so we decided to put up the big tree star the next morning. 

I love our Christmas tree!

Don't they look beautiful, together? 

Thanks for stopping by,
Alexandra

My Birthday

Wednesday was my birthday!

I would like to share 

my special day with you.

I received those beautiful flowers from my parents-in-law. 

Aren't they beautiful?

They look so lovely in our home, all decked out for Christmas.

I also received tons of birthday wishes 
from my family and friends!

Every birthday and Christmas, 

my husband and I give each other a wish list.

There were a few things that I wished for, indeed.

My sweet husband spoilt me again this year and got me all the things I wanted! 

When I got up, 

some delicious waffles and soft-boiled eggs awaited me, 

along with a "Happy Birthday!", a big smile, a kiss and a warm hug from my hubby and son.

My husband had decorated our living-room with balloons, 

a birthday banner 

and the 3 of us had a little party hat to wear.

All in the theme of Jake and the Neverland Pirates-- our son loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates 

and my husband thought it would make it even more exciting for James 

to include his "little friend" in maman's birthday. 

What a sweet idea! 

 So we had a little breakfast birthday party!

What are those 2 big presents?

After putting it all together, here is what those presents were.

The big blue present was an exercise bike!

I thought that would be very useful to me. 

It is not always easy to go for a walk, hike or run in the morning. 

James and I have a few morning activities throughout the week and when we have nowhere to go, 

it is really nice to just stay at home, relax over breakfast and spend time together,  before daddy goes to work.

With this bike, I can exercise anytime, 

in the comfort of our home.

My husband and I already tried it and it works great!

I chose this particular one, 

after doing a little bit of research online.

It always came up in the top 10 best rated exercise bikes, 

with amazing reviews!

This bike is very affordable.

It is super quiet and has a very comfortable seat. 

The computer is simple to use, the LCD display is easy to read and it indicates distance, 

calories burnt, time, speed 

and has a heart rate monitor. 

The pedaling is very smooth.

It is compact and can be easily folded for storage. 

It feels strong and stable.

It can be effortlessly moved from one room to the other, thanks to its front wheels.

The tension control knob allows you 

to challenge yourself a little.

It even has a tiny compartment to hold my cell phone!

The assembly is straightforward, it took me less than 30 minutes to build it!

I think it looks good and I am really happy with it.

Great value for your money!

You may find it HERE.

The big pink present was an easel!

I have been itching to paint for a very long time.

Seeing James paint at his art class, made me itch even more!

I am not a painter, but I love being creative, 

I want to explore my artistic side 

and painting is very appealing to me.

I took a painting class last month.

An introduction to acrylic painting, 

which I thoroughly enjoyed!

One of my sisters from Paris came along with me, 

while on vacation here in Los Angeles 

and it certainly was a wonderful experience together.

We both left the class with our own painting 

and we learnt so much!

I did not know anything about easels.

I found an interesting website that had a handy overview of artist easels HERE.

I also learnt a lot on the BLICK art store website HERE.

I decided to go for an H-Frame easel.

The Richeson Dulce Easel is made in Lyptus, 

the new concept in sustainable, noble hardwood.

Lyptus is produced in Brazil from forest plantations interspersed with native forest reserves 

to ensure a balanced ecosystem.

I absolutely love it!

It is beautiful and very affordable. 

Some H-frame easel can cost up to $1500!

I would also like to share with you 

my very first painting.

I am quite proud of it!

I realize that I made a couple of mistakes, 

but I still like it very much.

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein

Then I took our son to his art class, like every wednesday morning.

A class that I enjoy just as much as James.

It was a group project this time. 

Mummies and little ones had to build a "Winter" fort 

out of cardboard boxes. 

The children thereafter painted it in white and winter blue

and decorated it with little squares of paper as snow and snowflake cut outs. 

Here are a few photos that I took.
❤ Our little Matisse ❤

For dinner, my husband took us to a sushi restaurant.

I love sushi!

Yummy!

That's us!

We were seated next to a pretty Christmas tree.
That's my birthday card!

The staff was super nice!

They all brought us a huge fried green tea ice cream 

and very enthusiastically sang the "Happy Birthday" song,

clapping and everything!

That was very sweet! 

Later, I got more presents!

A coloring book for grown-ups and some colored pencils!

Here again I got inspired by our son.
Seeing him coloring for hours and having so much fun at it!

It is said that the act of coloring is not only fun, but can also be relaxing and bring about a happy emotional state.

Then my mum told me that she had received a coloring book as a gift from one of my sisters 
and that she had started coloring and really enjoyed it.
I checked online to see if those books were available 
in the States as well; and they were!

This coloring book may be found at 
Barnes & Noble or 
on Amazon 

Look at those beautiful colors!
I love this brand!

Faber-Castell, one of Europe's oldest industrial companies, is a leading international manufacturer of 

high-quality products for writing, coloring and creative design.

It was founded in 1761 and it is still run by the same family, now in the 8th generation!

You may purchase those colored pencils HERE.

This is the first template I started working on.

Some of them are more intricate.

I also like the fact that there are 6 themed chapters:

Nature

Animals & Babies

Music

Food & Drink

Whimsical Imagery

Art & Architecture

Cupcakes!

Voilà!

I had a lovely birthday!


Thanks for stopping by,
Alexandra