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Curently…

Obsessing over Alice In Wonderland. Do you believe I’ve never actually read the book ? booo hooo

Listening to the newest album from The Civil Wars, can’t get enough.

Loving my art journal all over again.

Eating the Rainbow (in form of salads).

Enjoying regular walks with the Witchlets, while they are riding their bikes.

Missing the Water.

Reading Brené Brown about imperfections, Mary Oliver’s poems…

Writing pages and pages of letter, that will then go overseas. Snail Mail powa.

Sharing my spiritual beliefs with the Witchlets (finally).

Looking forward to a lot of things (Parrain Pierre’s visit, Grenouille’s Birthday, back to school, my birthday…)

Playing Plants vs Zombies 2 on my iPad Mini. ooooh I’ve been waiting for it, and harassing my husband to know where it would finally be out. Currently in the Sea levels.

Going deeper thanks to Visual Quest, learning shamanic Painting and Journeys.

Trusting that I will have it all figured out again.

Believing in the power of art.

Thankful for the long learning curve that my life is.

I loved it since I paused my eyes in its name. Soul Food. It resonated a lot with me when Mystele announced she was one of the three hosts (with Jeanette House and Heather Santos) gathering plenty of diverse and talented artists around this wonderful project they called Soul Food.

I was recently asked to join the rank of sous-chef alongside a LOT of other amazing artists (we will communicate the up-to-date list very soon).

We will share unique projects via video, sometimes PDFs, and…. the yummiest thing is that each and every one of us will also share a recipe dear to her. I already know what mine will be, and seen what the others are cooking up. You won’t be disappointed, trust me (there are recipes from all over the Woooorlddd).

Want to know more ? here is what to expect from the class:

Informations more detailed will come as the date of beginning approaches.

You can sign up right here (or simply get infos I forgot to give you).

I hope to see you in the kitchen Studio ! 🙂

Last Monday night (last week) was supposed to be special. We are a family of geeks, each of us in our way. See, we love constellations and it is in our family plans to learn how to recognize them in the sky together. There was a meteors shower and we were supposed to go out, lay down, and watch the sky to see them fall.

Well… Chéridoo had to work, so I worked a little too, both in our computer room. The girls wanted to be with us, so Grenouille started to play a bit on the keyboard I got last Christmas, and Koala ask me if she could use my mini djembe (an african drum) and I answered «yes, as long as you are extra careful with it» which I know she would be if reminded to (this drum was given to me by my Senegalese penpal of several years when I was a tween and it was really dear to me). And BOOM we went in a split second from having fun to my djembe complety crashed on the floor, me yelling «I told you to be careful ! can’t I trust you with that ??» to my six and a half year old (and yes, I do feel bad about my reaction).

My husband tried his best to help me calm down «she did not do it on purpose, it slipped. And YOU agreed to let her use it. YOU said it was okay for her to play with it.» and so and so. I know he was really wanted to diminish my anger and sadness, and to help Koala to feel better about breaking my drum, but it just made me feel even worst because I already knew that yes, it was my own fault (I did not want to be the «no sayer» mom once again).

I then decided that it was better for everyone that I wind down alone in my Studio, so I opened my art journal, where there only was stenciling left overs (the orange chevrons and the targets). I did not want to do anything complicated, I just needed to let it out. fast. easy. This is also one of the reasons I love cleaning my stencils and my palette on journal pages, so it gives me a start afterward.

I spread the left page with some Lindy Stamp Gang (=LSG) Starburst (it’s a brand that created two-tone spray inks and products). Then, I stamped the bubbles you see on top of the right page, it is a stamp from a set by Mindy Lacefield with Archival ink (which is my go-to ink, I use it for everything because it won’t bleed).

I did some mark making with Neocolor II (=watersoluble crayons), sprayed it with water to make it bleed and spread (be careful if you want to try that because you never know what result you would get).

I really wanted to keep what was there when I started the page, and this stencil from Stencil Girl is just one of my current favs (more on that soon).

I made color blocks with the Neocolor II, and acrylic paint. The pretty face (just the face+upper body and arms)is from the same set from Mindy, I used it with black Archival Ink.

I didn’t want perfect, so I simply went further on the lines and it became these 80s-like pants. She is holding her broken heart, not wanting to give up on it. Not yet.

While the water was smudging and blending the colors together, I was visualizing my anger going away. And it worked (I knew it would, but still). Scratching into the wet paint helped quite a bit, too.

By the time this spread was done, I was calm again, went to apologize for my reaction (and briefly explained why it was a precious item for me) to both my daughter and my husband. And we went on the balcony to watch for meteors 🙂

I’m writing to you from our car as we are trying to get on the 12:45pm ferry to go back home from Bowen Island were we joined a family of friends and their friends for the week-end.

This is the moments I cherish:
Friends.
Very good food (and wine).
Being surrounded by Nature.
Being greeted in the Island by the most beautiful doe I’ve ever seen.
Being in the Ocean.
Improvised dance parties.
Kids loving the presence of each others.

And so much more.

This is some of what I want more, just because it makes me happy.

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.

Happy Friday darlings !

I am so happy it is Friday already. Or finally. Depends on the perspective. 
It is a long week-end for us here in Canada, which means that my husband will be with us for three whole days. And this is precious. So very precious. We wanted to get away a bit, for as usual we are behind and by the time we realize we will have a longer week-end together, everything was already booked. So I guess we will create our getaway locally, it is nice too 🙂

This week, I am thankful for:

• This long week-end. No matter what we eventually end up doing.
• Having dared reaching out to friends, and their loving support.
• Real smoothies, like SMOOTH smoothies.
• Aromatherapy spray to release me from physical pain, even if it is temporary.
• Our ceiling is finally fixed in our living room.
• Showing up in my studio.
• Visual Quest.
• My order arrived from Sage Goddess. A Manifestation candle to celebrate the new beginnings I am on, and a beautiful ointed quartz that was her July special gift.
• The perspective of writing and receiving snail mail.
• Having called my father. After 1.5year without news.
• Writing.
• New books (two by Brené Brown, and one about Fibromyalgia).
• Being at peace with my Spirituality. It’s okay not to be a Christian/Catholic (I was, but not anymore (long story)).
• Learning more about how food affects my inflammation, and general ill-being. And how to change that.
• I love being on the Lindy Stamp Gang Design Team. It is truly a dream come true (it’s been in my New Year’s Intentions list for years).

Take care, darling hearts.

If you wrote your Gratitude Friday on your blog, or even on Facebook, 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):