Rêve d'Ange

Ce soir je fais un voeu

Je vous envoie loin sur un rêve d'Ange

Bon voyage sur votre nuage

Dormez bien....

The Marathon Awards or 7 things you (never) wanted to know about ME!

  Upon my return from Barcelona I was amazed (and pretty chuffed) to have received a Kreativ Blogger award from Julie at BeingRuby. Julie thinks she is the boring workaholic and that Ruby is the adventurer... But Ruby would be nothing without the hardworking Julie, with whom I share a love of adventure and far off places. I also hope to acquire her photographic talents by osmosis some time in the near future. In any case thanks Julie, and I look forward to sharing many adventures with you - which you may wish to opt out of once you have read the "7 things about me" part below ;-)

1) I'm an incurable optimist. I am incapable of seeing problems until I'm so deep into them that I am farrrrrr up the creek in the proverbial barbed wire canoe. Had  I been on the Titanic, I would not have seen the danger until I found myself floating in ice cold water clutching for dear life onto a piece of drift wood. And then I would surely have been rescued and taken it home as a reminder of my great adventure, to paint on.

2) I have been told that I could sell ice to the eskimos. This is probably true, as long as it's not my ice, and I like the said ice. I can however, staunchly defend, coach and 'sell' any one of my friends or their products. This is one of my more redeeming features!

3) I am a smiler. I really do believe that Laughter is the Music of the Soul so Yes! Definitely a smiler! I thought I never frowned, until the other day at my yearly dermatologist check up when it was politely suggested that I botox into oblivion the unsightly frown line just between my eyes.  Ahh - the joys of aging in a plastic society! Oh well - at least I don't have some sort of obscure skin problem to cope with...!!

4) I have soooooo much energy that I believe it has become my moral obligation to my family and the entire Earth in general, to take Dr Jekyl mummy out for a run, bike or rockclimb at least 3 times per week so I don't turn into Mr Hyde too regularly.

5) I absolutely detest cabbage (unless raw) in any form. This did not prevent me from reluctantly accepting 8 dinner invitations during my first year in Paris to enjoy 'home made' sauerkraut (choucroute) because I didn't have the heart to say no once I heard, "You don' like cabbage? Tha's cos you no taste my Maman's Choucroute."

6) For my 30th birthday in Paris I had asked for nibs, ink and paper from all my friends in order to begin to learn the art of calligraphy. I ended up starting 5 year's ago in Toulouse and cannot imagine ever leaving my lessons with Anne and 'the group' on a Thursday morning.

7) Before my 40th birthday - I will set up a fair trade project with Tibetan and other Asian minority women's groups. Every decade needs its corresponding goal!

 Now, it seems that I must share the good fortune, a bit like a fortune cookie, and pass the Kreative Blogger Award on. Sooooo these are the people and their blogs (other than Julie's) that have the most inspired me since I fell into blogland...

Lulu@ Earwig Sandwich

Leeann@ Fabulously French

Deb@ Kickcan&Conkers

Sabine@La Marquise des Anges

Judy@ A NewYork Magpie's Eye

Small Footprints @ SmallFootprints

NM@ 5 Minutes Just for Me

Wow - now that was a marathon! If you got this far down: these are my wishes for you too!

Barcelone: Colorie moi en... PROPRE

Barcelone, berceau de la couleur! Où il fait TRES BEAU

Un monde en mouvement perpétuel... Un grand rire multicolore. Un arc en ciel de formes voluptueuses. Barcelone parle, chante...VIE!

La plage, comme d'habitude, me chuchote ses conseils ...

J'ai pu jouer à Lara Croft de la platja pendant une journée:

On effet - tout est bon à colorier!

Baaaaaaarrrrrrr celona! (Thanks Freddy)

I disappeared to Barcelona for the weekend, without warning anyone. I like disappearing. Makes me feel...

 ... magic.

Barcelona has no fear of form or colour. It is a full on swirl of rainbow music, a myriad of words one on top of the other, underneath and inside as well, with NO PUNCTUATION! Breathing in and out is almost a simultaneous action with no pause. Everything exists all at once... with a permanent exclamation mark!

You don't go for a run through Barcelona - you fly through it. From Besos (Kisses) to The Big W (Hotel, not supermarket for the Aussies ;-) this was my 15k run on a 22° Saturday evening Barcelona style in no particular order, as there is no order: La Femme au Chocolat, 20 year olds in shorts and bare feet off the beach, naked men off the beach, Hewy Lewis and the News, 20year olds in green stockings black opened toed heels and patterned shirts, Don't Leave Me This Way, Miro statues, Whale monuments, Surfersinandoutofthewater, boysbands, transsexual parades, The Eagles, into the less touristy Parca de la Citadella (less than the Parc Guell at least) and its fabulous world of marginality. Real Life. Art and movement in fluid form: jugglers, capoeira, volleyballers, acrobats, singers, dancers, rollerbladers, spanish guitar, cobbled streets, flashes of yellow. Flash, swirl, poof and my feet have left the ground for my wings are out and I am no longer breathing. I have merged with and become Barcelona in all its colour...

Quite simply alive with inspiration!

Phew! I'll be back to normal tomorrow.

Counting my Blessings

Any one else have days when they think they should be doing more? Being more? Just when I sigh in frustration about not having reached all my goals - I reach for this little piece and count my blessings!

Hmm - no I haven't finished all I (unrealistically) set out to do, but I have laughed often and much! Have YOU?

Maman les Petits Bateaux

Cette planche, une de mes toutes premières, est dédiée à SkippY.

Collage sur vieille planche de toit

(sauvée de justesse d'une mort certaine dans un feu de cheminée)

Que tu retrouves tes ailes et que le vent remplisse tes voiles - et t'emplisse d'un nouveau souffle!

Open the door and light the way...

It is just an old door adorned with an albeit ornate 'applique.'
They are relics of broken pieces left discarded, wet and black, by the firemen which were lovingly rescued and reincarnated by me on return from holidays in Australia.
Amusingly, this is the piece in my house that, at every sale I have held, everyone most wants to buy.  Yet, it is one of the few things I still can't let go of...
This old door still has a story to tell.
Watch this space!
Soon its secrets will be illuminated ...

Wine boxes, book boxes : Necessity is the mother of invention!

Eureka! The messmonsters' bedside tables are recycling history!
 It always seemed a shame to send all those gorgeous French wine boxes to the cinders but I was at bit of a loss as to how to use them otherwise.

Hurray for messmonsters then! No matter how much I tidied their room, there was always a pile of books on the floor next to the bed (not necessarily an indication that they were reading them but hey, there's always hope!)

Typical weekly scenario:

Me (with vaccy cleaner in hand) - Kids, would you please tidy your books into the book case?

Messmonsters - Sure Mum! Grumble grumble, but I'm playing.

Me - If the books aren't picked up in 5 mts I will vacuum them up! (hoping that the 5 year old wouldn't tilt)

Messmonsters - Get real The books won't fit up the vacuum cleaner Mum!

Me - (Not silly are they? Must be mine ;-)

After a quick visit to Bubble in Paris and a subsequent tour of Ethan's room - I spied a fabulous invention that would put paid to my nagging, tidy the books, and make vacuuming easier: THE BOOK BOX.

Recipe: 1 wooden wine box, 4 funky wheels, paint (non toxic obviously) an hour or so to throw the lot togther!

What do you think?

Lilibelle got pink but I just couldn't resisit a splash of orange in Pokémon's one!

L'Ange de Baudelaire

Mais de toi je n'implore
Ange


 Que tes prières
Ange plein de Bonheur,
de la Joie
et de lumières!


Ange, je vous promets d'être douce avec mon pinceau.
Je ne ferai qu'effleurer vos plumes d'un souffle léger apportant blancheur et lumière.
Car vous étiez terne quand je vous ai trouvé.

... Peut-être M. Baudelaire vous aurait-il reconnu?