Archives

Today is the welcome back of my Inspiration Mondays. Everybody with me: “yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah“. I know I know, the last one was ages ago. I want to do it on a more regular basis, especially with all the goodness I want to share with you.

You know how much I love Samantha Kira, aka Journal Girl, right ? She’s currently very active: a weekly vlog on uStream (every tuesday, at 5pm Pacific Time), she just launched HodgePodge which is a huge e-zine in 4 parts, she is moving in the other side of the US soon, she journals, she paints… wow ! And she found the time to create something awesome: the Secret Art Pen-Pal Swap.

Do you remember when you were a kid and that you exchanged snail mails with other kids you didn’t know “for real” ? I loved it, and don’t tell anyone but this is how I fell in love with Canada 😉
I really miss receiving snail mails. I remember how excited I was to go to my mailbox everyday and check if someone sent me a letter (and I still am, but except bills… we don’t receive lots of personal letters).

It’s free (you just have to pay the shipping), and it’s simple: you create something (6×6 maximum) and you write an handwritten encouraging letter to someone that also signed up. And this person will do the same for you. You’ll make someone’s really happy.

When you sign up, you answer a few questions so your paypal will know you a little bit better.

Samantha describes it better than me:

This swap has two parts:

Create a piece of art.

It can be any of the following:

ATC
Tag
Journal Page

Pretty much anything 6”x6” and under and flat.

(No canvases or boxes, unless you’re okay with paying extra postage.)

Write a letter.

Be encouraging. Write about life lessons you’ve learned, tips and tricks dealing with art and life, send a favorite recipe. Your letter doesn’t have to be about art, but it should be uplifting and loving.

I am so exciting to know who I am paired with ! Last time I heard about it, we were 57 people. Fifty-seven !!!!!!!!

You have until August 30th to sign up. And when you know the identity of your pen-pal, you have until September 20th (my birthdayyyyyyyyyyyy) to send it.
But only do it if you are sure you can, of course.

So, are you in ?

I think I’ll never say too much how my BIG experience is affecting who I am. I am no longer affraid to say that yes, is some way or another, I am an artist.

And I realize that you don’t have to sell artwork that worth billions of money to BE an artist. Even people who don’t paint, or draw, or sculpt, are artists.

Click to enlarge

A few weeks ago, Connie shared a moving text where she declared her artist self. And each of us did the same afterwards. I read so many beautiful statements that tears fell off of my eyes many times.

I wanted more than words, something I can look at when the Gremlins attack and cast doubt about it.

I took a big poster board and just started to create. I had no idea what it’ll be. I just knew I had to do it. So it’s not pretty. It’s not the most beautiful artwork I’ve created. But I like it. Because I am not perfect.

And you know what ? I recorded it, i always keep somewhere in my head what Kerri told me once: “always record, you can always erase if you don’t like it” 😉 Very good advice, isn’t it !

It says:

My Artist Statement.
I am an artist because I say so
I am an artist because I create my life everyday
I am an artist because I feel I am my self whith paint on my hands
I am an artist because I collect art supply instead of shoes
I am an artist because I am BIG & FEARLESS
I am an artist because when I see skies, I imagine them on canvas
I am an artist because I’m proud to keep (tons of) diaries
I am an artist because it flows in my veins
I am an artist because I fill my walls with MY canvases

Of course, this list can go on and on.

I’m sorry, I had some issues while editing the video, it’s not the best quality but I really wanted to share it with you 🙂 Here it is:

PS: there is still room for you in the next tribe of BIG, so have a look, if you want to experience something you’d never imagine so juicy and so life-changing. No need to be an experienced painter to join. Read more about it here.

Gratitude Friday is a weekly ritual I started in order to focus on all the small and big positive things that happened during my week. I invite you to join me, you’ll see how much being thankful can change your life. If you want to know more about it, read my introduction post.

A new week is ending, again…

Today, my brother-in-law arrives from France for a 2week vacation with us; he was our first visitor last year and we’re more than happy that he’s spending his vacations with us, and that he’ll be there for Grenouille’s birthday next week.

Thank you to the Sun that still warms me despite some cloudy rainy days this week. I read several times yesterday “autumn is there”, I like fall but I want to enjoy every bits of Sun I can have because soon, the rain will be there non stop for months.

Thank you to my Lover, who takes some time every evening to work on my soon-to-be-launched shop, and for redesigning my blog/website.

Thank you Paola, for taking some precious time to waving a hi to me while she’s spending a vacation week with her family.

I’m very thankful to all the people who take part in my projects, like Gratitude Friday, and take some of their time to share. I can’t wait to tell you more about my big secret project 😀

Thank you to my fellow Art Journalers at Art Journal Love Letters, for this week chat. I love the energy flowing there, and I was able to witness the bloom of what will be absolutely wonderful, powerful, giganormous (go Lisa ! DO IT !!!).

Thank you for everything I receive. I learn everyday to enjoy what the Universe brings in my life, small as well as big, positive and negative. Eventually, it’s all good. It makes me stronger.

Thank you in advance to all of the wonderful people that will take a leap in their creative business buy buying Kelly Rae’s ebooks, via my affiliate link so I’ll earn a little bit of money to invest in my shop (you can read my thoughts about this awesome class here)

If you wrote your Gratitude Friday on your blog, don’t forget to enter your NAME and URL below so I’m notified and can come to read you (you can also join by commenting this post):
[linkme]

I am a big lister. Lists allow me to not forget, to keep some traces. I love writing but sometimes, I just prefer listing things, no pretty words, simply the facts.

Deina (TheAmpleGoddess) shared her list not so long ago, which reminded me of mine. I neglected it complety for months, and the clock is ticking. But I realize that I achieved more goals than I thought, it makes me happy and help me to go through the “guilt” !

Setting goals can be useful to stay on track, and you can always change these goals along the way…

I discovered this project in 2008, via the blog of my friend Sandrine. I thought that I needed goals, and that having 1001 days to achieve them was the right amount of time: neither too short nor too long (1001 days=nearly 3 years).
Some of everyday life goals, others are life changing ones. As I re-read them to post this article, I noticed that I should modify some because of what my life is like today. I don’t erase them, just twist them.

Here is the thing: build a list of 101 things/tasks you wish to accomplish. These things have to be precise, without any ambiguity. You have to check your list often, because you can forget about it. It’s okay if you don’t finish it, but the fun thing is to see crosses on every point of your list when you reach the 1001th day 😉 Keep track of it, what is currently being done, what is done etc.

You can use this tool to calculate your end date: time & date.

Start date: August 27th 2008

End date: May 26th 2011

My code:
Items that are crossed are done
Items in italic are in progress

Self-Help/Esoterism
#3. Finish my 1 Creative Journal, and then start a new one. (complete August, 2010)
#15. Do not use anymore the manual book of my Oracle Gé when I do a reading.
#18. Create my prayer necklace.
#31. Learn and use lithotherapy.
#32. Learn about 50 plants to use in phytotherapy.
#35. Experience a shamanic travel.
#39. Write daily in my Journal.
#43. Master alpha meditation (or another meditation)
#57. Buy and read 3 books about shamanish in order to know more about it.
#67. Create an altar.
#68. Sort my Book Of Shadows, and maybe do it again completely.
#73. Gather some informations about the Art-Therapy Institute of Vancouver. (Complete in 2009, unfortunately I don’t have what it’s asked to attend…)
#78. Finish Julia Cameron’s program via The Artist Way.
#94. Become a Reiki Master.
#95. Give a tarot/oracle deck as a gift to Grenouille.
#92. Initiate Grenouille & Koala to the power of Energy (how to feel and use it).

Home Sweet Home
#2. Become home owners in Vancouver area. (gathering money to have the needed downpayment; creating a Home Wish Journal, found the area we’d love to settle in)
#44. Decorate our home with paintings I created (at least one in our bedroom, one in the kitchen, and two in the living/dining room). (still in progress but because I want to add more personal touches. There is one painting in our bedroom, some in the living room, but there’s no space in the current kitchen to hang someting)
#65. Have a vegetable garden and eat our own vegetables/berries/fruits
#101. Create our own decoration for the whole home (define precisely our style, and do according to it)

Well-being
#7. Lose 20 pounds
#8. AND do not gain them back
#16. Practice the 5 tibetans every morning => I have to twist this one into another morning ritual
#17. Swim at least once a week. => no pool nearby, and as I don’t have my driver license it’s challenging
#47. Do yoga with the girls, three times a week, as long as they still like it. => they both still do yoga ! but I have to integrate more structure, and to learn yoga myself first.
#49. Go to the beach or the pool in a 2-piece swimsuit. (COMPLETE, but it’s not in a bikini yet)
#51. Weight myself only once a week
#52. Wear my beloved Levi’s pants again => it won’t be possible. I have to replace this goal.
#66. Learn digipressure (find the exact name of this)
#86. Do not use chemical deodorant anymore
#89. Find how to love my body and feel sexy again

Family & Couple
#12. Ban definitively spanking in our home
#33. Learn to recognize trees with the girls
#42. Writing again a journal about the girls’ life, so that they’ll have traces in the future, maybe with some pictures
#56. Meet my half-brothers
#88. Renew our wedding vows
#90. Do the Montessori method at home (the material is too expensive, I have to find how to create it myself)
#99. Have a midnight bath with my lover somewhere in the Pacific
#100. Top secret

Money Money & Organization
#9. Find long term solutions for not being overdrawn
#10. Sort our clothes, give the ones we don’t wear anymore (COMPLETE December, 2009; when we moved from France to Canada, but a new decluttering would be good)
#14. Save up 50 cents a day in a piggybank for 1001 days
#21. Planning the week meals every sunday (we forget to do it sometimes)
#22. Do the grocery shopping only once a week
#48. Eat lighter and more balanced dinners
#61. Fold and put in order clean laundry as soon as it’s dry (I hate doing laundry, it’s really a chore to fold the clothes etc. But we do our best. Still some improvements to be done though)
#70. Compost our garbage => I want to change this one.
#80. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables in a market once a week. (We don’t go to a real market and I don’t know how these fruits & vegetables store we got to are called, so I’d say this goal is 50% achieved.)

Cooking
#5. Bake a fraisier on my own (COMPLETE for my 24th birthday in September, 2009. It was very good but a visual disaster. I related it on my cooking blog, but in French. Tell me if you want the link)
#20. Succeed in baking macarons (COMPLETE, with my friend Nathalie)
#27. Bake our bread so we don’t have to buy some (i don’t do it everytime, so we eat both store bought and homemade bread)
#28. Eat light for dinner
#53. Write a blogpost on ABC-Cooking every other day (I decided not to write there anymore, I still cook and still am a foodie, but the passion of having a cook blog is gone so i cross this task)
#24. Become an expert in japanese cooking (I am on the good way. Living in Vancouver making this a lot easier than when we were in France !)
#79. Bake some chocolate croissants (my brother in law arrives tomorrow with the chocolat, 1,6kg of chocolat specific to make chocolate croissants !!)
#93. Cook a magical meal once a month

Creativity
#4. Draw 5 characters I really really love (I have to count, but I think it’s COMPLETE)
#13. Make manual activities with the girls
#25. Create the digibook of Koala, from before her birth to her first birthday
#26. Create the digibook of Grenouille, from before her birth to her first birthday
#30. Learn how to knit again (My mom taught me how to knit when she came in June 2010. I just know the basics now. I used to knit a lot with her when I was a child, but forgot completely over the years)
#38. Learn how to develop black and white photographs
#40. Learn the basics of sewing (idem that for knitting)
#58. Take 20 pictures of meals I like (I have to count ! I took a food photography class last year)
#64. Contact Violette Clark to know if she does workshop for adults, if yes attend one (I contacted her, but didn’t attend one of her workshop yet. So it’s 50% done)
#81. Journal outside at least once (COMPLETE in April, 2010. And it was art journaling with both my daughters, so even better ! some pictures on my facebook, if some of you are friend with me there)
#82. Attend one of Suzi Blu’s pajama chat (gosh this is old ! this was when I was in her Petite Dolls class 😉)
#83. Create 10 candles
#84. Create 2 woodburned mixed media artwork

Reading
#37. Read the 7 books of the Harry Potter saga (COMPLETE in 2009)
#41. Read all the books of the Earth’s Children saga
#76. Make 5 of my books travel
#87. Read all the books of my spirituality section that I began or forgot I had (As I am an avid reader, I buy books often and the list goes longer ! I’ll list the book, to have an exact idea of what waits for me)

Social Life
#6. Have at least one new friend in the real life (COMPLETE Nathalie, met thanks the forum PVTistes.net, and that is my best friend here in Vancouver)
#29. Write at least two letters a month that I send via snail mail
#36. Meet C. et P. (50% done on January 11th 2009, the day before our big departure from France, I met C.)
#74. Organize a game night with friends before the big departure
#75. Organize a girls only week-end

Travel
#50. Discover Seattle (we went a few times, but we have to list what there is to see because the 1st time the girls gone crazy exciting, the 2nd we were tired and only went to Blick)
#55. Go whale watching
#69. Spend some days in Yukon
#72. Do the transcanadian in family

Geek Life
#54. Write two or three blogposts on Inner Voices every week (COMPLETE)
#60. Learn to develop in PHP
#85. Learn the basics of css

Miscellaneous
#1. Create this list and organize it
#11. Define what I wanna do professionally and do everything possible to achieve it (I don’t know if I can consider this as complete or not. But it’s on the really good way)
#19. Try a drug to know its effects
#23. Learn how to speak and write japonese
#34. Learn signing
#45. Finish to translate the book I started, even if it’s only for myself
#46. Know all the canadian provinces, their major cities, and where they are located
#59. Get a new tattoo
#62. Write a cookbook
#63. Watch two movies in english each month, without subtitles (COMPLETE, now, I watch everything in english, I really improved my english !)
#71. Become totally bilingual in english/french and vice-versa (almost done, there are still words I don’t understand, but it’s an everyday learning)
#77. Pass my driving licence
#91. Go to the movies once a month (very impossible without a baby sitter !)
#96. Have another reading with S., with my lover with me
#97. Attend a pow-wow concert
#98. Attend one of Lisa Williams’ show (she’s coming in Canada. But only in Montréal and Québec city. I’m very disappointed that she’s not coming in Vancouver. But I know I’ll go, someday)

PS: I don’t know why, WordPress erases the option that marks the things as done. So for now, I put them in a different colour until we find a solution.

This week question is very hard, I don’t have answers as I am writing this. But I hope that by writing, it will come, as by magic !

I always try not to look back too much at my past. I acknowledge it, I know it’s there but I prefer to focus on today and tomorrow because the past can’t be changed.
It’s funny to say this as my book project is about the past and so I have to think of it quite often. Sometimes it is fun, sometimes it brings tears and nervousness. I can’t modify it, so I have to cope with it and accept that my past makes who I am and that today will be tomorrow’s past: I can create it as I want it to be ! Never forget that.

So… saying that, I wish to make a fresh start in the relation I share with my Self. Not only my body, but with my psyche too.

Because my worst ennemy is simply me. Or at least, it used to be like that. I want to make a fresh start in this relationship. I am not a bad person, sometimes I make choices people do not understand, sometimes I am a little harsh, but I am also loving and compassionate. I help whenever it’s asked and in the measure of my possibilities.
I wish I could turn back time and change some choices I made that are still affecting my body today (don’t worry: I’d keep my baby girls LOL).

It’s a hard wish today, really.