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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.

Hello dear Souls !

Maybe this will never get to you because well, the World is supposed to end today (but they were not clear on what hour it would happen, though…). So who knows ?
I am one of those who deeply feels a shift, an extra sensitivity in the emotions, I have been feeling lost, vulnerable, on the edge all week.

This has been a pretty rough last few days (and if I really introspect, it has been there for a bit longer), but today marks the beginning of the Holiday vacations, both for my girls and for my husband, which makes me pretty happy.

This is in the moments where everything seems blurry, when loneliness seems to be taking control that taking some time everyday to reflect on all the positive that surrounds me helps the most. It kind of works the same as my relationship with writing (and my brother told me on the phone the other day that lyrics come to him way more easily when he is in a dark place that any other time): it is when I feel hopeless that the words come out with more ease and fluidity. It’s a shame, because who wants to be depressed in order to be (more) creative, uh ?

This week, as I sit down to think of what happened to me recently, I am thankful for:

• Having a car lent to us until we got ours back. We were told after the accident we’d have to wait for a week to a week and a half, it appears the chances to get our car back before the new year are very slim…
• The Christmas show at our girls’ school, was very sweet.
• We went to see The Hobbit. Like at the movie theater… which never (or rarely) happens as we don’t have family to look after our girls so we can have date nights, or time out. Thank you to our neighbors who proposed to do so, so we could go.
• Friends.
• Opportunities. Being opened to them. Letting them IN.
• New cookbooks, «Chloe’s kitchen» (discovered her a while back as she was in an episode of FoodNetwork’s «cupcake war»). It is a vegan cookbook filled with recipes you would not even know they are vegan ! And also Kris Carr’s «Crazy Sexy Kitchen», that is amazing but on the raw side. I won’t become either vegan or a raw eater but… I love new perspectives. And I am thankful for my husband’s open-mindness (is that a word ??), as he is never complaining about my (sometimes weird) tests in the kitchen.
• Christmas cookies afternoon with my neighbors.
• Honest open conversations about beliefs, theology, religion. Deepening my Spirituality. Putting words on it. Finding solutions to feel whole again. All hand in hand with my Love. Because he listens and understands and supports and loves.
• Accepting and creating new opportunities.

No pictures shared with you this week. I know I’ve recently shared with you another song from Emeli Sandé, but… I feel the need to share this one with you, called «My kind of Love»:

I wish you all a good end of year holidays. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not. Say «I love you» to your closed ones, even if it is just over the phone. Hug them. Shower them with your love. I know it sometimes tough at this time of year (it is for me, as I am far away from my family, except the one I created).

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]

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.

Hello !

My heart is heavy for the family in Connecticut after this terrible shooting (I won’t start now about the gun policy in the US, this is not the place to do so). I hope that you won’t wait for a tragedy like that to hug and show love to your friends and family. Life is short (cliché, I know), so hug them when you want, not only when something reminds you that anything can happen (it is totally okay to hug tight your kids today, I will too).

This week, I am thankful for:

• Not being hurt (nor my husband or the other guy) after our car accident last Monday. Car is broken, we may have to pay more next year for our car insurance, but no one was hurt (just very sore and shocked). And the girls were not with us, which was a chance as it’s the back of the car that was hit.
• Our neighbors, taking care of the girls while we were dealing with all the paperwork.
• Kris Carr’s new book «Crazy Sexy Kitchen». Lots of possibilities, a way of cooking totally different from what I do, from what I know. But I feel it is what we need right now.
• Hope. I am sometimes feeling like it won’t get better. But it will. There is always Hope. Always.
• Good communication with my Golden Customer who ordered two custom paintings to me. Talking with her about the «behind» the paintings helps a lot lot.
• 9 years of unconditional love with my Husband.
• Having a health insurance that pays for my meds.
• The schoolbus driver that takes care of our girls. Her kindness.
• The group of ladies from Mindy’s class «Paint your story» on facebook.

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]

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.

Hello dear Souls !

I have noticed that recently, lots of people have their mood in their socks. I do (did) too, to be honest with you.
I blamed the grey weather, the very heavy rain that started pouring, my health. But I have also realized that this Gratitude Friday ritual is exactly what I need. It helps me see the blessing in disguise. The Love all around, in me and outside.
So I really hope it will have the same effect on you, if you decide to take a moment to reflect on all the good happening in your life, and to thank for it.

This week, I am thankful for:

• Synchronicity (talked about my brother T. twice this week and then he calls me).
• My husband really loved his birthday gifts and small celebration, I managed to keep the gifts a surprise. I am also thankful for my neighbor who helped a lot by buying it for me and bringing it for me at home (I don’t drive yet…). And for my parents-in-law who participated.
• New music discovers (today: Emeli Sandé).
• The power of art. Even if I am currently in a creative hole (again) I know it is temporary.
• Knowing it will all be okay. It hard at times, being a mom. But it will get easier. And better. My heart sometimes aches but is still so full of love for these two girls I gave birth too. They are a blessing for this World.
• My new printer/scanner. Can’t wait to find the right paper and change all my prints for the better.
• New creative ideas, there is a LOT I want to try. Some things you would not think I like, but I do. I will experiment. I know my style is evolving. Again.
• The date I have with my husband tonight. Just the two of us. Three hours without the girls (it’s organized by their school). Can’t go to a movie, but will go to a restaurant.
• Explanations. Friendships reconnecting.
• Our beautiful first real Christmas tree.
• Custom paintings (you can see a bit of them in the pictures at the end of this blogpost. They’re the last two). I did two that are shipping today to their owner. And began two new yesterday. (I am still building the page where you can learn all the infos and contact me).
• Getting back on track with what I eat. And sticking to it. Already seeing results, after only a week. I am confident that I can succeed in my weight loss goal.
• The desire to write again. I have Truths that need to be shared. I may have found how. More about it later.

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]

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.

Hello dear Souls !

I wish a happy Thanksgiving long week-end to those of you in the US. I guess today is the perfect time to reflect on what you are thankful for right now.

I hope to read your Gratitude Friday, would love for you to share.

This week, I am thankful for:

• My neighbors.
• My husband, always reminding me where my limits are so I don’t end up filled with regrets because I pushed them too much.
• My customers.
• Music. Still.
• My mom. She joined a group in her city to learn English. Because she wants to be more comfortable when she comes here. I am very grateful she is doing it, for her and for us. See, it is never too late (she is 61).
• Food in our belly. The joy of transformation, of bringing it to the table, to hear «this is delicious Honey/Mama».
• Our house that feels more and more like home to me. It was not totally it, even if we moved in in April.
• Virginia from Princeton Brush.
• Other artists and the inspiration they bring in my own creative life.
• The «ahah» moments happening in the studio, when a painting falls into places.

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]

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.

Hello !

Today my girls are home from school, which starts again on Tuesday (can you feel the little despair here ? just a little). So I have to be quick, because it is 9H20am and they still haven’t finished their breakfast (which I would not mind much if they were not doing something else instead).

We’ll go in the studio and maybe finally start the prayer flag I want for our living room; Koala wants to paint and bind a new art journal as hers is already filled (I could think she eats them because of the rapidity she finishes each new journal, but now, she draws and draws… on pretty much everything she finds, actually. proud mama).

So this week, I am thankful for:

• Snail mail. I finally received my Mom’s letter (we decided to write to each other at least once a month), and the print I won from Mindy Lacefield. It is amazing, can’t wait to buy a frame and hang it somewhere in our home.
• Good honest talk with A.
• The two custom paintings I am currently working on. Each have a huge story behind it, so I channel that while painting. Can’t wait to know that my customer with them in hands.
• Project Life. Memory keeping in general.
• Art Everyday Month, it challenges me to actually share what I do daily, and I may try to keep that afterwards. Blog daily, even a short post. Sharing with you my «behind the scenes»
• The weather, very cold, but sunny.
• The outcome of the US elections
• Music (listening to: Bat for lashes, p!nk, «who you are» by Jessie J and more)
• The X Factor. There is something about the singers there (I would love less drama between the judges/mentors though). Passion. Faith. Ignited fire in their eyes. Raw emotions sometimes. Hope.

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]