Finding the key (right under your nose)

Hi possums,

After a brief stint of doing nothing for oh, all of five minutes, I got the impulse to get busy again. There's a definite magnetic pull towards my studio when the messmonsters are engaged in their own frenzied activity hundreds of kilometres away from the house. I guess I can legitimately count my meditation time as delightfully doing nothing (or just 'Being' - as you so eloquently put it Pooch).

My studio however, actively draws me in. When I open the door, I enter another world. An exciting world so full to overflowing with possibilities I feel I may never come out. It's a little like Alice falling falling falling down that rabbit hole. I could drown in possibility. The music goes on LOUD - will it be Reggae or Rock? Country (Can't hide it - my father used to sing country on stage and I still have a fondness for the lilting tones that take me back to my childhood) or Classical? And then I become lost in a shroud of melody that takes on a silence of its own. Time stands still.

I'm not sure you needed to know all of that but I had to share :) Thanks for listening. I still have to pinch myself everyday that I have this space. I even nearly bowled poor Skippy (ie: my landlord) over in a public display of blubbering teary gratitude for allowing me to redesign his garage. Luckily for us both I held myself in check and regained my composure just in time offering a pointedly shiny-eyed, meaningful look  instead. You see, he wants me to dismantle my atelier if when I ever leave this little haven in the Toulouse countryside. Yet he keeps 'just passing by' with some feigned interest in what I've been taking my brush to.  Secretly, between you and me… I think he likes his new garage ;-)

So do you remember this? The airplane of my imagination?

With a little pfiffing and pfaffing, the tweak of a brush, some sunshine and great music, it's transformed into this… I thought I'd show it to you anyway. It's the same text, in both French and English, as this one and the same 'curvy Roman' hand.

I've found my key. It's having my own space. Previously I've always had to find it inside myself. Now I have an outside that equals the inside and the joy is palpable. Hope you like what comes of it :)

Now tell me,

What's the key to your happiness??

Ange

P.S. Lime putty recipe - sans photos tomorrow. Really! MAC still resolutely refuses to hand them over :( and I can't spend any more time trying to dig them back out. A promise is a promise after all and I'm already late getting it to you so you can rush out and change your interior design immediately as I'm sure you've been dying to do ;-)

Mixing the blues… colour of the sky, flying high!

As you can see, I've got a case of the blues. 

Up to my elbows in it. Literally!

You have to use your fingers to knead out the bumps made when mixing lime powder and fine sand with water, before you add the acetate that binds it all together so you can plaster it to the wall.

There's something that drives me crazy about blue pigments

Bleu Céruleum…

Bleu outremer...

I know I have a big load of visiting to do.

But this weekend I am taking the extra special friend 

who spent ALL last Monday helping me 

apply lime putty to my new studio wall 

with a big blue border around the door frame :) 

to

LONDON

for the weekend.

In fact there are 3 of us taking her.

And we have reason to suspect she's never taken a plane before.

So it was quite a job getting an identity card for her without her guessing ;-)

We told her she would need her bikini and skis.

So far, so good! She hasn't guessed where we are going!

Although she did try and wheedle a clue out of my messmonsters on the sly!!

It's amazing how kids pull through in urgent situations ;-)

I love girly weekends

Especially when they are a big surprise

for someone so lovely as my sweet friend Nath.

She doesn't read my blog. Or anyone else's for that matter.
Internet is not her thing.
Fortunately for me she is the world's leading expert in mixing and applying blue lime putty or 'la chaux' as we fondly call it here.

So she will never know I wrote this, thank goodness.

She is uncomfortable around verbal outbursts of affection.

.

She doesn't speak ANY ENGLISH

Hehe. The weekend is going to be a blast.

When I get back, I shall grab a wine and tell you all about it,
(as well as doing a bit more visiting from the seat of my chair :)

She'll be like a messmonster in a lolly shop

Hope your weekend is bright blue too :)