Dream. Love. Faith. Create. Read!!

I am obsessed with words once again
Especially the printed type ;-)

The homeschooling seems to have settled into a full speed ahead
gentle rhythm that is finally allowing us all
  ESPECIALLY MOI
to get our hands into the paint and feet into the mud
(read: calligraphy and running through the fields,
not necessarily at the same time)
And thankfully, no time for house work

So in between reading all of Chickpea's school books
and filling bottomless stomachs,
I've been amusing myself, 

and the messmonsters,

by making these

from an idea I saw here.

Libellule, Chickpea and Pokemon made lots of delicate washi paper ones  

but mysteriously, the lollipops we placed inside the paper hearts
(see the link above)
well
they
uuummmmm

disappeared!
In the blink of an eye and right under my nose!!
JUST LIKE THAT
When I wasn't looking...

In fact, I wonder if I ever actually bought a whole packet of lollipops at all!

Am I losing my mind?
Or dreaming?
In any case, remind me to whip out the camera more quickly
whenever lollies and children are in the house at the same time.

Bless their little hearts.

Now, where was I? 

Lost in the pages of a book was I not?

 

Now that I'm teaching children I I know that the importance of using 

BIG WORDS.
can never be underestimated.
I strive every day to get the right message across.

I wonder if this ultra fabulous work by Isaac Salazar

(click on his name to see his other pieces)

will inspire us to use our words more creatively.

On second thoughts, 

given Azzy's next French book review topic...

Mmmmmm

maybe I'd better not show this to them after all...

:)

What you see...

… depends ...

...on what...

…you are...

 …looking for!

Just a reflection…

There seem to be treasures everywhere I look at the moment. 

Even after midnight

Much love

P.S. 

Stay tuned for some Indian colour :)

Even though I'm still in awe of the steely grey beaches 

on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.

Getting Wordy...

Would you think I was ludicrous for trying to bring Wordsworth to the ears of my three young messmonsters?

 Had you been at our dinner table this evening, I'm sure you would  have said YES. Then you would have erupted into the same fit of giggles as Chickpea and Libellule when their nearly 7 year old brother let out a resounding BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRP! just as I was preparing to inspire them with the profound words below:

"And I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts; 

a sense sublime 

Of something far more deeply interfused, 

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 

And the round ocean, and the living air, 

And the blue sky, and in the Mind of man; 

A motion and a spirit, that impels 

All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 

And rolls through all things." 

Effort 1: 

Skilfully Thwarted

Do you think Wordsworth ever burped at the table?

Is there a message in there somewhere? A lesson? A cry from the heavens? A couple of extra commandments for a homeschooling (desperately seeking artist within) mother to bear in mind?

Thou shalt not try to disturb the natural processes of the universe by inflicting classical poetry on under age boys, lest the natural processes of the universe rise up against you at the table.

Thou shalt not impose a routine of rules on the motion and spirit that impels life itself  (or at least thine own children) lest the spirit itself make a motion in some inappropriate form and bring you back to your rightful, humble place. 

Sigh… In desperation I ask you, what other meaning can I find in this act?? That joy is definitely present and rolling through my Messmonsters as vibrantly as the light of the setting suns and the blue of the Provençal sky?

Possums, for the moment it would seem that ''calligrapher Ange'' has taken a back seat to 'teacher Ange' - at least until the end of January when I hope to have cleared the rest of the mess organised my studio and installed a satisfactory heating system .

Thou shalt not make unrealistic and untenable deadlines for yourself.

Pffff.  Bravely flouting the rules I say to you dearies, "Be patient! We are going through some unexpected turbulence. 

Programming will return to normal, whatever that is.  There will be more Words on Wood - but in the mean time, the only inspiration I have to share with you is being provided by my three trusty sidekicks messmonsters as we bumble through our homeschooling beginnings together by the fire, for better or for worse, on a rainy Toulousain afternoon." 

Patience? Nahhh - This is it! This is life! Wordsworth and the messies would surely have had a fabulous time together!  Although I doubt Wordsworth ever burped at the table, they all seem to inherently understand that life is not perfection but a crazy roller coaster of uninterrupted interuptions and the sooner you go with the flow, the more enjoyable the experience.

Wanna go for a ride??!!

Just before I hit the pillow, as it is now after 2am, and we all know late nights aren't becoming to an over 40 year old mother/artist come teacher ;), I wanted to share a couple of important personal messages. 

First of all … To Jane, there are more prayers of strength, love and courage, pouring out to you and your family from us all here in Toulouse, for as long as you need them. 

To all my Australian bloggie friends, the fam, and all of flooded Queensland, more prayers that the waters will subside and dry land is found again quickly. 

To those of you who have taken the time to read my last post and comment so exquisitely, I do intend to drop by and write back to you all personally. It will happen. You know my fondness for late entrances ;-)

Much love to all. 

*All photos taken in New Zealand and unmodified due to severe lack of time!!

It's hard to wait around for something you know might never happen;

 ... but it's even harder to give up when you know it's every thing you want!!!

Anon.

(starring Pomo, street dog who followed us all the way up to 3,500m altitude. She was that HUNGRY!!)

I've been home for 2 weeks now - just in time for Santa to come and go.

I shouldn't tell you that, should I, seeing I have been so remiss in keeping in touch :(

I have soooo missed you. REALLY I HAVE.

I wanted to write while I was in India (sigh)

But it just seemed a bit too complicated 

sorta like "getting my ambitions mixed up with my (internet) capabilities..."

Although "getting your ambitions mixed up with your capabilities" 

is a predominant affliction in India and one I might try to cultivate carefully afterall!

I  suitably admonished myself for my lack of will power but promised myself I would make it up to you all while in Australia picking up the Messies and visiting M'ma for 4 days...

Of course, that was rather naïve on my part...

...Paying your mother a 4 day visit when you haven't seen her for 2.5 years comes with an implicit warning... something vaguely to do with not holing yourself up in an office if you want to get your Messmonsters back ... So what could I do but hit the waves in front of the Mooloolaba surf club with my M'ma and chicks in tow.?

"What about blogging in New Zealand then?" I hear you ask.

Erm, let's just say I'm currently writing the guide on how to see 20,000 cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmothers and fabulous friends in 10 different towns over 4,000km, while getting the Messmonsters to relive every possible experience I could've had before I was 11. They have come back to France proficient in Kiwi English, Aussie English and knowing what Maori airconditioning is!! We saw seals, kiwis and glow worms, smoked salmon, caught eels and trout, swam in rivers, climbed glaciers and learnt that 'If it weren't for your gumboots, where would you be?'

(Libellule would be barefoot, as usual!)

YET still NO time to blog!! 

Since I've been home the Mac has watched me forlornly from the corner while I put up the Christmas decorations, cleaned the house, shopped for Yummy Christmas dishes and swept the chimney in time for the ritual descent of the lovely man in the red suit and big black boots. 

So seeing I didn't make it in time to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and while there's a lull in the New Year's preparations, and a brief pause in the newly resumed homeschooling, I've hijacked the computer, hell bent on sending you all a humungous cyber hug complete with an explosion of colour from India...

 ... and wishing you all

a

BRIGHT &

HAPPY NEW YEAR

BONNE ANNEE!

May 2011 sparkle and shine brighter than bling for you.

And most of all may you all find the courage to never give up
when you know it's everything you want!!

Looking forward to catching up with you all properly next year!

Namaste

The world is all gates, all opportunities...

... strings of tension waiting to be struck.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Prayer beads in hand, photograph Sam Webb 2010

I too have prayer beads in hand.

They have been very useful 

ever since I realised last night 

that I'd COMPLETELY forgotten 

ALL ABOUT MY VACCINATIONS!

Which gave rise to a lovely discussion between three girlfriends 

about all the horrible diseases I was likely to catch while I away...

If I wasn't vaccinated

... did I mention my car's broken down

and has been for two weeks?

Oh well

Lucky I have a bike

and strong shoulders

 OUCH!!

Anyway, I don't need a car to announce the winners of the giveaway.

Thanks to the horsey, arty, muddy fingers of my 3 messmonsters

We drew 3 lucky numbers!

Once I had wiped the smudges off the paper

these are the names I found:

Julie, from Being Ruby! 

(A chic chick whom many of you know already, and if you don't you should)

Helen Lewis, from Illuminating Words

(who popped by for the first time to join the game - and won!)

and

Caterina at La Dolce Vita

(Whose fabulous talent I very much admire)

I do wish I could send something to all of you.

Maybe I will when I get back from India

Create a giveaway where everybody wins 

a trinket, a colour, a thought, a word

Just for fun!!

In the mean time I'd better get to bed with those prayer beads

Or more than one messmonster is likely to strike my own chords of tension

tomorrow morning ;-)

Bonne nuit and love to you all

PS - don't forget to email me your addresses tomorrow girls!

Every journey conceals another journey within its lines...

"... the path not taken and the forgotten angle. These are the journeys I wish to record. Not the ones I made, but the ones I might have made, or perhaps did make in some other place or time. I could tell you the truth as you will find it in diaries and maps and log books. I could faithfully describe all that I saw and heard and give you a travel book.  You could follow it then, tracing those travels with your finger, putting red flags where I went. "

Jeanette Winterson

Sexing the Cherry

 This is the feeling I get when I sift through the dusty old objects in the many vide-greniers and brocantes that are held every weekend for most of the year around France. Fragments of memories decorate the stalls, calling out to the passers by as if searching for their lost home. Each object has a past life. Was one of them mine? Are these lives still carrying gaily on their merry way in some parallel universe? If so, how did these random pieces slip through the cracks into our own realm? Maybe they passed through the twilight zone with the adventurous sock that always leaves an orphan in the laundry basket.  For all the socks that have disappeared from my laundry through the washing machine, not one 18th century stocking has taken its place so far. I'm still waiting though ;-) I guess some things will just forever remain a mystery.

These little goodies are only some of the items I'll be sharing between the 3 winners of my giveaway, which will  be announced Wednesday. Other strays are sure to meander their way into the pile as I'm still ruthlessly decluttering tidying up a little before I leave for my India/Australia trip this Friday. 

It's not too late to enter. 

All you have to do is leave a comment HERE (on yesterday's post) and if you want a second chance to win, 'Spread the Word' by putting the giveaway on your sidebar. Don't forget to come back and let me know.

I still have to add a sliver of calligraphy to each package, for I couldn't have a giveaway without a word or two of my own hand.

This was just a sneak peek at some of what will be in the wee packages...

And of the journey? 

I humbly travel to Dharamshala next week with no expectations. 

NONE! 

In spite of my big plans. 

This is uncharted territory for me.

I take nothing but an open mind for a compass 

and a  blank page for a map. 

This is how I most love to travel.

There will be artists, women's refugee groups, Tibetan calligraphy and pigments in colours so vibrant they leave me breathless... but in what way we will link up I can't even begin to imagine.  I dare hope I'll find some pieces of wood discarded in a corner somewhere, relics of other lives, that require little more than a tender brush stroke and a word of encouragement to draw out their wings so they can fly out to the four corners of the Earth.

  

Your kind words of support so far really warm my soul. I'm shy. I'm nervous. I'm afraid I'll come back to you "empty handed." I know it won't 'happen' overnight, or even during this first three weeks in India ('You mean there's more planned?' laments Beaker from his position at the helm of the finances??) 

I may have nothing more than my tales of friendship and discovery with which to regale you on my return in December.

A thousand thank you's in advance though for making this journey with me.

If I'm lucky, I'll have some regular internet access so you and I 

can put those little red flags on that page 

and mark our map together.  

Cross fingers :)

Spread the Word!! Giveaway!!

"Naked I came into the world, but brush strokes cover me, language raises me, music rhythms me. Art is my rod and staff, my resting place and shield, and not mine only, for art leaves nobody out. Even those from whom art has been stolen away by tyranny, by poverty, begin to make it again. If the arts did not exist, at every moment, someone would begin to create them, in song, out of dust and mud, and although the artifacts might be destroyed, the energy that creates them is not destroyed."
- Jeanette Winterson Art Objects

found again at Whiskey River but read, 
and re-read here at La Rivière

Been reading alot of Jeanette Winterson lately. So mesmerised have I become by her eloquent story telling that I race to bed every evening just to be rocked to sleep on a tide of words as wave after wave of emotion washes through me.   

On Friday, in the wee hours of the morning, my Messies and I will take to the skies on an A380 (which, incidentally are made just down the road from us so it will be soooo amazing to be in one instead of watching it circle gracefully from underneath) from France to Australia. With Beaker here to hold the fort and feed the raging beast faithful hound, and my dearest Mama in Australia to look after the grandchildren she hasn't seen for a few years, I can safely embark from there on my humble journey to Dharamsala.

If you have missed the reason for my trip you can read about it here. Wish me luck friends. This is the adventure that is my life and I know not where it may lead!

In the mean time, as many of you will have read, I've been sorting through lots of chippy crap (to coin the phrase most often used by dearest US  bestie) as I gaily set up the new studio in preparation for my return and the multiple surges of inspiration I'm sure to have after 2months away from my nest. Fingers crossed. Toes crossed!

This means I have accumulated a little trove of French vintage treasures that are just 'trop' (too much) for me to tidy away. So I thought, "Why don't I just share them with my wonderful friends out there in Blogtopia?!!!" With that I have devised and can now officially announce the 

'GREAT VIDE GRENIER SURPLUS 
(And thanks for helping me reduce the chippy crap collection)
MYSTERY GIVEAWAY'

Unfortunately, I managed to have a camera failure today so we will have to wait for tomorrow for the 'official' photos.

What will be included in the package?

Ahhh - you'll have to wait till tomorrow for the photos ;-)

All I can tell you is that it won't be these little piano parts off an early 1800's piano 

as I haven't made them into anything yet ;-)

It will consist of pretty bits and pieces.

Definitely vintage

Definitely French
Fabric

Paper
Glass
 Wood
 oh and...
WORDS

all packaged up in special packages
with more handwritten words
of friendship and good will
from moi
:)

There will be three winners.

You don't have to be a follower.
Anyone can enter by leaving a comment on this post.
Even if you don't have a blog.

But I'd love it if you would 

SPREAD THE WORD

by putting me up in the sidebar of your blog
(for which you get an extra entry)

As that is to be the new name for my ethical art project

xxx

See you tomorrow with more...

Oops! Forgot to say that the 3 winners will be announced
on Wednesday October 13th
at midnight Toulouse time.

Il est Interdit d'Interdire! The jury's still out on this one...

Whoever made that up didn't have real kids!

Messmonster:|mesmonster  ˈmesmänstər |noun [usu. in sing. ]:

* Accomplished perpetrator of immediate and apparently permanent chaos disguised in a miniature human body. Thrives on a mixture of bribery, threats, stolen jelly beans and what appears to be NO sleep. Characterised by its uncompromising strength and determination in the face of authority. Known to harbour a blatant disregard for homeschooling mothers that is cleverly dissimulated under a joyous, devil-may-care attitude. Allergic to all forms of housework and cleanliness.

Homeschooling Mother / Artiste: |ärˈtēst|noun]:


* A professional entertainer seemingly normal female adult, with l'extraordinaire capacity to understand and teach foreign languages or complicated math problems that she can't recall ever understanding at school. Thrives on champagne, the faint prospect of sleep, and bribing messmonsters with jelly beans. Allergic to housework but paradoxically addicted to cleanliness. Slightly masochistic tendency to create more housework and less cleanliness through keeping 3 messmonsters at home during a normal school year. Dreams frequently of calligraphy and paints...

Problem n°1 (Maths, Art & English all rolled into one):

If a bottle of pink champagne = 75cl,  how many glasses can Mummy have to steady her nerves while cooking dinner before emptying the bottle? 5 points

Describe the champagne's exact shade and tone of pink: 2 points

Spot the French word in the sentences above and explain the difference between Champagne and Méthode Champenoise: 3 points 

No really, I'm just joshin' ya!

I'm R.E.A.L.L.Y enjoying the challenges and rewards of homeschooling the possums, especially now that, since I've finally started transferring truckloads boxes of paints, inks and papers across to the studio once lessons are finished, I've almost been reunited with my bedroom floor. 

Still sort of tracing a path through a minefield of soon-to-be-moved books and bits just to reach my bed. You can all see a glimpse of carpet there though, can't you? It wasn't there last week!! I'm making slow progress I assure you :)

Been saving the drawers below, that I found in a vide grenier just 2km down the road, for the day I would have my very own atelier.

Loved this chippy old home-made block of drawers that I found in a mechanic's garage in the Ariège region at the foot of the Pyrenées.

All this organising has allowed me to re-acquaint myself with lots of long forgotten vintage treasures off which some will be going into the giveaway that I'll be announcing officially this weekend. Still got a bit more putting awayering to go before I can actually work in here, but it's getting there!

Pop by over the weekend for a 'full of gratitude' giveaway
The one I've been promising for months now.
French vintage. Paper. A touch of calligraphy.

Bisous
A

Just another drop in the Ocean?

If each drop of water were to say: 

one drop does not make an ocean, 

there would be no sea.

If each note of music were to say: 

one note does not make a symphony, 

there would be no melody

If each word were to say: 

one word does not make a library, 

there would be no book

If each brick were to say: 

one brick does not make a wall, 

there would be no house

If each seed were to say: 

one seed does not make a field, 

there would be no harvest

Zambian saying found here, at one of the most harmonious places on Earth...

Mmmm
Thought you'd like this as much as I do 
Fitting for a 40 year old state of mind :-)

I wanted to add lots of photos... but my attempts have been thwarted twice.

So I hope you'll just enjoy this one, 
taken from a wee boat off L'Ile Rousse in Corsica 

May your oceans be full 

Your symphony be melodious

Your library be verbose

Your crops be plentiful

xx


Laura, thank you so much for your amazing post 
about my fair trade project over at Kim Klassen's 
'The Inspiration Studio'
I am very honoured
and truly blessed.