You can't be part of the beach with your shoes on!

As a would-be (by origin, not location UNFORTUNATELY) beach babe, toes-in-sand scruncher, and all round vagabond, imagine my joy when I stumbled on this colourful book :

Inspiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired was I. Am still going through a yellow phase which I have subsequently put down to withdrawal symptoms: it has now been 5  months since I have had the pleasure of glimpsing, let alone scrunching, a single grain of golden sand. This means I have to resort to using a pumice stone in the shower… not quite the same joy ;-)

Anyhoooooo! Tis my Mama's birthday and she sort of subtly (like a sledgehammer) dropped the hint last time I was home, that her walls could do with a piece of my work. Alors, drumroll please! VOILA! Ze Masterpiece ;-)

In case you were wondering, which you may not have been, it is surprisingly delicate trying to dance a metal nib across a discarded roof plank, which is why I often use brushes instead. Roof planks are ornery things - having spent most of their life NOT being part of the beach - and highly resistant to being danced across with a metal nib (known in France as a 'plume'). Even if said nib is gaily dressed in shades of yellow. Sadly, I have been subject to a mutiny. My brushes are all ganging up on me at once, sporting punk hair cuts and brandishing rebel attitudes, supposedly due to my recent neglect. What then is an artist to do, but go back to square one?

Ah oui! Patience is definitely a virtue when one is wrestling with unbending 'plumes' and unforgiveably ornery wood. Of course, if your 'plume' has a distinct penchant for blue, then you oblige and drape her in turquoise. Only then will she really dance… like sea water sliding across the sand ...

Happy birthday Mama! Dutiful daughter now recommends that you remove your shoes and become part of the beach as you wait for your parcel to arrive :)

Thanks to all of you lovely people who commented for letting me know that my last post did indeed inspire you and make you smile. I can take off to Wales secure in the knowledge that you are smiling and well. Did I say 'take off to Wales.' Bugger! I knew there was a story I still hadn't told ;-)

See you in 10 days. I don't know if driving over the Severn River counts as glimpsing the sea… but it's as close as I'm going to get for now.

Much love
xxx

P.S.

I've put a few more photos of recent work HERE on my Facebook Page (click on the link for those of you who didn't know I had one!!) so if you want to check them out, don't forget to stop by and 'like' my page. It'd really make me smile too.

Gratitude: discovering the meaning of life

Go on! Watch this.
It's less than three minutes  long
It will make you smile
It made my day 

So - did it make you smile? Do you feel a little gratitude for those crème brulées that you love? Have you been following your heart (to the crème brulée section of the supermarket)?

I have a little personal gratitude to share. For Jeanne, who gave me a sweet blog love award a few weeks ago (yes - I do have my tail between my legs, and am now virtually looking up at her with big, pleading brown blue eyes hoping she'll forgive my rather late lateness)
and …

...for all of you who keep popping by to check in on me, even though I'm lagging behind in the 'post' stakes ;-).  My new motto is ' the finisher is the winner.' I borrowed it from the Nice (as in French Riviera, Nice) Triathlon finisher t-shirts, thinking it was pretty apt for many aspects of life especially housework.

Every day, life has an uncanny way of teaching me humility: that I'm not, no matter how hard I try, ever going to be super human, and never will I be likely to grow even ONE extra set of hands in my lifetime - how ever many affirmations I write to the contrary ;-)

As I watched that film above though, I mentally ticked off each piece of simple, meaningful advice it gives, and realised that a good many of them are part of my daily or weekly routine.

So, while being consistently behind in blogging finishing off my own art projects, inspite of all the disorganisation and constant restructuring that characterises my homeschool beginnings, I'm happy. And grateful for life.

Just wanted to share that with you… including the 'blog love' award. I just love 'youse' all as we say in Skippy speak ;-) If you feel like sharing a little 'blog love' then pass it on to some inspirational, motivational and just plain likeable bloggers that you know.

Dutifully, I am posting a link to my first (actually second,  because it has a photo) post.

A Virgo always acts virtuously Jeanne so I am denying the rebel in me and obeying instructions ;-)

Now tell me dear friends, what are you grateful for? And what makes you happy?

Sunday oops Monday Morning, up with the lark...

...I think I'll take a walk in the park 

Hey Hey Hey it's a beautiful day :)

6.15 wake up

½ hour drive to the pool

1hr training

back in time for breakfast

Beaker leaves for work 

9am start torture lessons with messmonsters

1.00pm feed the starving hordes

3.pm finish torture lessons

EXCEPT FOR GEOGRAPHY

The four of us striding through the fields with compasses 

in order to reach the village town hall 'the back way'

making our way north west through the fresh cut hay

4.30 pm

One hour to don my 'domestic goddess tiara'

5.30pm racing off to rock climbing...

Messies in tow

8pm home in time to cook dinner

9.30pm all in cleaning their teeth 

(we're late tonight so no reading)

9.48 pm finishing blog post

10pm Yogi tea and starting a 'word art' project

Just another ordinary day

A little less (stress)full than usual

Bed time???

Some time later;-)

Hope you are all well

What was your day like???

Smooth sailing

The world is bathed in sunshine...

Butterflies and bees sail effortlessly over the waves of 

daffodils, dandelions and daisies that decorate 

the sea of green that is our lawn

'La vie,' in all its splendour, calls me outside...

But before I swan off...

Just wanted to leave you with this thought found 'here'

It struck a chord in me today :)

Compromise. It is one thing to meet another halfway. It is another to cave in and betray our own truth.

Adieu mes amis, à la prochaine...

Setting sail with a pop!

It's been nearly a month since I blogged… Does that sound like how a confession should start?  Oh paff! Winter is over. Spring has popped it's flowery yellow head around the corner and shouted a big 'cooooooooeeeeeeeeee' to us here at La Rivière. Well, maybe not Cooooeee as that's Aussie Speak and we're in France. You get the picture I'm sure. 

It's time to start afresh! 

I'm setting sail again. We've finished here in the boat yard; the vessels are all ready to hit the high seas and meet the oncoming waves that life tosses their way ;-) Tonight will be the last fire in the hearth (FINGERS CROSSED!!!!) as we toast our dreams and visions of the future.

Soon this 'dreamer' will be berthing near Les Adrets in Provence. 

Home of my godson Dorian. 

Cargo aboard? None visible.

Only wishes ...

The one below has set its compass in the direction of Barcelona. As it navigates just south of our base in Toulouse, TRUST that Beaker won't now, after 12 months of careful use, rip a button off one of his designer shirts and have to go looking for a spare as I've used it for the rigging. (sheepish grin)

 Do you think that the écolier who was surely whiling away his school hours in the early 1900's dreaming of becoming a hero, ever once imagined that pages and pages of the handwriting from his history book would one day be used to make a small, papier maché boat for another child. 

(Trust in yourself and everything will fall into place)

Three more boats are ready to hit the water but I thought you may have had enough for one post. From NO news to 10 pages of news in one hit seemed a little overboard - even for Moi ;-) So I have outsmarted myself and given myself something to write about next week: the remaining boats, Pokemon's 7th birthday, how excited I am about having finally picked up the window for my new studio, my first mountain bike orienteering race by night with an all girl team last night, all the secrets the astrologer said to me yesterday...

Thrilling stuff - I'm sure you'll all agree!!!

 

Until then, may the great ocean that is France Post please be merciful with my vessels and speed them on to 'bon port.' Which, incidentally, doesn't mean 'a damn good port' my friends but does prompt me to ask, " Shouldn't I be popping open a bottle of champagne to launch my ships?"

Chin chin possums :)