The Brambled Goat and other things....

In the few months since we arrived in France our family has more than doubled in size with the addition of a few choice animals.

Today when I was sat at the table supping tea, one of our two (very naughty) goats, Willow, appeared at the front door, he was quite a sight!

It seems he had a rather disturbing encounter with some brambles. He is half Angora, so pretty much anything gets knotted into his wooly coat, I tried in vain to remove some of the brambles, but Willow was having none of it, so a Brambled Goat he shall remain until he figures out a way to remove them himself!

We brought 4 cats with us from England, the youngest, Wilfred, who belongs to my youngest daughter, Hazel, was quite taken by rural life and decided that Home encounters were no longer his style, he now lives semi-feral, undoubtedly patrolling various local farms for mice, and returns home occasionally to let us know he is alive and well.

Hazel was none too impressed that The Wilf (as we call him) had upped sticks and left her bereft of a cuddly kitty to suffocate, ooops I mean, snuggle. When we visited some French friends recently and saw the litter of stray kittens that they had been feeding, I wasted no time at all in obtaining one to replace The Wilf.

The day after Christmas this little darling was delivered to us in a wicker basket.

We called her Minnu, since this is the only word she knows, the French say this to their cat's all the time, I think it is a bit like the English version of "Puss", kinda like "here puss, puss, puss!", only in French it's "Minnu, minnu, minnu!".

Anyhoooo, little Minnu had never been handled before and hid under the bed for a couple of days. She has now pretty much settled in and Hazel has wasted no time at all in squeezing her to her chest and whispering sweet nothings in her ear, I just hope this one doesn't decide to revert to being feral!

I joined swap-bot recently, and have really enjoyed all the crafty little projects the swaps I joined have demanded of me.
I just made my first Dottee doll! I had never heard of these before, but it was fun to make and my girls have demanded Dottee doll's for themselves, so I doubt this will be the last one I make.

In case you hadn't guessed, it was a Valentine theme, this little baby is going all the way to Canada, I hate to admit I am rather sad to see it go, I might have to make another for myself, I really hope my swap partner likes it.

I also wanted to share some recent vintage postcard finds.
First up, these two cute lil "Happy New Year" ones, rather fitting given the time of year.

I reeeally do love these old illustrated style postcards, especially ones of childrens and animals, hence I could not resist this next set...

Aren't they cute? This one is my favourite of the four, I just love the little lamb, and the little girl reminds me of Hazel when she was a tot, she had hair just like that.

I have been collecting lots of French vintage postcards lately. I have no idea what I am going to do with them, I am waiting for inspiration to strike....