Tout ce que j'ai pu écrire...

...je l'ai puisé à l'encre de tes yeux

Francis Cabrel

Seeing it's nearly Valentine's day ...
I thought I would share the words to one of my favourite French love songs
by someone who is arguably one of France's most loved singer/songwriters, Francis Cabrel

And seeing it's all about writing, and ink, and love ...

it just had to be accompanied by the very blue black ink 

within whose depths I love to lose myself so often

Which is like a love affair in itself you know... At least it is to me...

So you can either stop here or scroll down and listen to the song ... 

the words are underneath for all you budding French speakers, 

with a vague translation for those of you who aren't!

The video's nothing special: just an old door with "je t'aime" randomly scrawled on it ... 

LOve that !

L'Encre de tes Yeux

Puisqu'on ne vivra jamais tous les deux
Puisqu'on est fou, puisqu'on est seul
Puisqu'ils sont si nombreux
Même la morale parle pour eux
J'aimerais quand même te dire,
Tout ce que j'ai pu écrire
Je l'ai puisé à l'encre de tes yeux

Je n'avais pas vu que tu portais des chaînes
À trop vouloir te regarder j'en oubliais les miennes
On rêvait de Venise et de liberté
J'aimerais quand même te dire,
Tout ce que j'ai pu écrire
C' est ton sourire qui me l'a dicté

Tu viendras longtemps marcher dans mes rêves
Tu viendras toujours du côté où le soleil se lève
Et si malgré ça j'arrive à t'oublier
J'aimerais quand même te dire,
Tout ce que j'ai pu écrire
Aura longtemps le parfum des regrets.

Et puisqu'on ne vivra jamais tous les deux...

Here's the vague translation ...

Because we'll never live together

Because we're crazy, because we're alone

Because there's so many others 

Even convention's on their side

I'd still like to tell you that everything I've ever written

I drew it from the ink of your eyes

I hadn't noticed you were wearing chains

I was so busy watching you I'd forgotten my own

We dreamed of Venice and of Freedom

I'd still like to tell you that everything I've ever written

It's your smile that wrote it for me

You will often walk through my dreams

Always coming from where the sun rises

And even with all that I still manage to forget you

I'd still like to tell you that, everything I've ever written

will long wear the perfume of regret

Now, I'm going back to my love affair with my ink ... 

see you on Sunday for Valentine's day!

And more inky blue Francis Cabrel

Stand up and speak the truth...

One of the things that most strikes me about Nevin's blog, 

apart from her very exquisite art, 

is this photo on her sidebar...

This has been my guiding principle over the last couple of years or so.

Not that I witnessed a violent act in a dark alley or anything... It's nothing more horrific than  that little inner voice of my own that's gently but firmly fighting its way out of a Burberry style cocoon and a corresponding conventionality that I find far too restrictive, albeit inherently well-meaning. I dream of Tibet while Beaker and social circle dream of Venice. I dream of sledding in Greenland while  Beaker et al envision balmy golf days at club Med... Was I alone on this Earth to wish for such things? Tant Pis! Alone I would be... 

Then Jeanne, another astute woman, sent me this: 

February 8, 2010 The Real You Virgo Daily HoroscopeYou may feel an intense need to express yourself more authentically today and let others see the parts of your personality you have previously kept hidden. A down-to-earth mood can inspire you to let your guard down in front of close friends and relatives in order to see how they will respond to the new you. You will likely be happily surprised today to discover that the people who care about you most are neither shocked nor put off by your revelation. This can be a good time to meditate on what you enjoy most about your relationships and contemplate why you felt driven to veil your true nature. When we let others see who we truly are, we come to realize that the people we care for will appreciate us no matter the nature of the idiosyncrasies we exhibit. Many individuals are loath to share their true preferences, opinions, and values because they fear they will be rejected for their honesty. Yet it is only when we are willing to risk this rejection by being ourselves in the presence of the people we care about that we discover which of our peers love us for who we are. Those that would prefer we wear heavy masks of conformity quickly retreat from our lives, uncomfortable with the new freedom we exhibit. And we are liberated from the need to hide ourselves behind conventionality. Your willingness to appear authentically before your loved ones today will help you understand how deeply others care for you.

Jamie Ridler asks us on Wishcasting Wednesday 'Where do you wish to travel?' 

Apart from Tibet, Greenland and the South Pole I would have to say ...to me!

Guess I'm on the right track...

And you?

"Dingue dingue dingue de toi"

Pokemon said to me this evening as I was putting him to bed with a kiss, "Maman, je suis dingue dingue dingue de toi."
I sighed in pleasure and told him I was 'dingue de toi' too.
Then came the little voice again from underneath the covers, "Maman?"
"Yes Darling"
"What does 'Dingue de toi' mean?"



"It means crazy about you darling, Goodnight"
Giggles all round...
Sigh - what an inspiration...
Think I'll have to listen to that song again...

Ne croyez pas que...

...si l'esprit s'apaise, il ne sera plus bon a rien et que vous ne pourrez plus rien faire.
Plus l'esprit est calme et concentré, plus il est capable d'agir.

Swami Muktananda

Avec un gros rhume, sport et agitation sont loin de mes capacités pour aujourd'hui. Le calme forcé me permet de travailler...
Par cette journée de février bien grise, j'écoute ma respiration et je retrouve le soleil à l'intérieur de moi.

Remarque, ça aide de travailler sur une citation de Vincent Van Gogh pour Anita.
Un artiste que je connais et aime beaucoup, je m'inspire des couleurs vives dont il est si connu pour écrire ses paroles...

Real Lovely things

In our electronic age of blogs and the internet, I find something reassuring about handwriting. To my mind it is what makes a person real. Unique. So when I received this parcel of lovely things all the way from my gorgeous friend in the US, I sat there for 5 minutes just enjoying reading her hand writing:

Studying the flow of it. 

The waves, the feel, the colour.

Purely for the pleasure of reading it!

I'm not a graphologist though. 

I'm a calligrapher.

which means I love words and especially

what they look like once they've floated out of a writing instrument 

that has been held in a hand, that belongs to a person...

So once I was significantly convinced that she was real and not a figment of my Mac's imagination, I set about opening the box... 

I knew some things were coming for Mlle Mimi Charmante has a shop full of beauties from which I was enticed to buy for her Haiti fundraiser. How could you not?

But, Oooh lucky me, there were some extra goodies,
the likes of which I was not expecting at all!
Things as lovely as the hand writing...

Including notebooks... (for hand writing of course ;-), 

The date is now marked firmly in my Moleskine ...

Merci ma très chère Mimi Charmante pour tous ces trésors.

J'attends avec impatience ton arrivée chez nous!

Colour: the green influence

Outside the fields are lush and rich under the pelting rain ...

Inside, Chickpea is under the weather.

So we made up some emerald green spirulina this morning 

to brighten the spirits

and strenghten the immune system.

Takes me back to my very first Spirulina at Atomic Café ...

Nothing like some colour therapy for mother and daughter

(she drank directly out of the jug)!

The girl who wore ORANGE - Nearly

If you don't like something, change it. 

If you can't change it, change your attitude. 

~Maya Angelou

I was going to write a post about the 'The girl who wore orange (Christian Lacroix pants to chase away the winter blues).' But I watched 'Slumdog Millionaire' first. Full of orange and yellow and every bright colour in the rainbow. It's about ATTITUDE. And Luck. And Love. A winner. 1 in much more than a million. Too much for me for tonight.

My flippant Paris Episode on that girl who wore orange will have to wait for tomorrow. Can't do flippant straight after sad (insert more appropriate word here, I'm speechless), whether shrouded in a happy ending or not...

I share the same opinion as Maya Angelou. Normally, I'd concentrate on making my own world full of sunshine. At worst that makes us one less household to worry about on a global scale and at best maybe even an inspiration for others who in turn can inspire even more others, sort of like the butterfly effect... But tonight, that sunshiney world just feels like a very very inconsequential drop in that huuuuge ocean that we're all part of.

Full of gratitude that my messmonsters are tucked up safe and warm with cuddles and laughter, and they only want to kill each other once a day. Hopefully they will have 'enough' around and within them to have grown out of that by adulthood ;-)

Better go nurse the attitude so it comes back tomorrow
in full flippant force!

A domani

G.E.T Attitude et get 'taguée'

"G.E.T. Attitude!" Je vous dis.
Voilà les trophées pour les heureux gagnants
du Garonne Escalade Trophée
qui aura lieu à Pibrac ce weekend.

Allez les jeunes...

J'y serai avec mon petit stand pour vous encourager

Bon - le but c'est aussi de leur offrir un trophée 

qui les inspire à se dépasser encore plus. 

J'espère qu'ils les aimeront...

Et c'est un grand jour!

Carotte, ma bloggeuse bricoleuse préférée m'a transmis un défi. Eukkkk - je dois raconter 7 choses sur moi - ce qui est plus facile en anglais (voir ici et ici), qu'en Français... 1.2.3 On y va et MERCI Carotte pour le coup de pouce ;-)

1 Après m'avoir expliqué les mérites de la pensée positive pendant toute mon adolescence, mes parents m'ont dit que je ne devrais pas devenir comédienne ni artiste car je passerais mes années à travailler dans un restaurant sans peut-être jamais devenir célèbre ou gagner mon "pain."
2. J'ai quand même payé mes études de commerce internationale en travaillant dans les restaurants... comme quoi ;-)
3. A 38 ans je me suis installée officiellement comme 'artiste' et bien que pas encore célèbre je suis super contente de l'avoir fait. Bravo 'la pensée positive!'
4. J'aimerais être vraiment végétarienne mais j'aime trop des sushis et le canard cuit...
5. Je voudrais apprendre le chinois, le tibétain et l'italien avant d'avoir 100 ans.
6. Je ris quand mon fils rote à table malgré tous mes efforts de rester sérieuse et le gronder. C'est cela d'avoir un petit dernier trop rigolo.
7. Mes enfants m'émerveillent tous les jours - avec eux j'ai l'impression que la vie est une éternelle leçon qui m'offre quelque chose à apprendre tous les jours.

Alors - à qui je passe le flambeau? 

Mimi Charmante car elle veut apprendre le Français

Lise artiste d'un grand talent à Bohemian Caravan

Hmmm - à qui d'autre? Faut que je refléchisse... 

Hey I managed to finish a project for Creative Every Day!!

Elements of Real

"Time is an invention
Now is a reality..."
Bhagan Shree Rajneesh

I have personal proof of this. Very recent and believable proof too. Somewhere between today and last Thursday (date of my last posting), Time would have me believe that 4 whole days existed. 

That cannot possibly be true. 

In fact, I find this assumption completely preposterous and REFUSE to believe it! I think time was playing tricks on me, trickling through my fingers and flying by... Décidément, Mr Bhagan Shree Rajnees is right! There was no TIME at all you see. There were only successive NOW moments of Libellule's  swimming competition, oysters to be eaten with friends, the school lotto fundraiser, more friends with truffles and porcini mushrooms, runs in the forest, Bright Star ... (will put the video back in later...Gremlins got it!) Brocantes to be visited and girl guide meets. Somewhere in there I managed to squeeze in getting those 2010 cards out, housework, cooking, baking and cuddles with the messmmonsters.

But that was then and THIS is now...

In NO TIME at all over the next three days these gorgeous wine crates will transform themselves (with a little guidance from MOI) into 24 trophies to be given to the winners of the GARONNE ESCALADE TROPHEE; the fab local rock climbing competition for juniors.

(Go on - you're dying to know if I get to drink all the bottles aren't you now? ;-)
Then there are 3 more wooden pieces that have already been prepared and are awaiting final touches for the winners of my contest. They must be finished before Feb School holidays when the 'call of the ski slopes' will be too great for the family to resist.

And in case I still have a little time on my hands and ideas of doing housework manage to seep in through the cracks, I have a whole lot of little vintage pieces like these under my wing, that are in dire need of some brushwork and a little script to give them a new purpose and direction in life... soon for my ETSY shop

Tonight ... when all is quiet and the world has gone to sleep, or my world anyway, I shall sneak away from my brushes and escape into the world of YOUR blogs where time no longer exists.
Hope you're having a wonderful time... just don't do as I do and let it get the better of you!

That's all for NOW!

Love Ange