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I am spending some much needed time in my art journal lately. Trying to process. Trying to prettyfy some stuff that happens.

Here is a page I made today (it was already dark, I may take a better picture *or not*):

On the other side of the spread is a sketch of a Nixie, Just a sketch… no shading, no color. And I did not know if I wanted the two pages to be separated or a spread. I still don’t know actually.

It says:

It’s ok..:

to be mad
to be sad
to wanna give up sometimes
to feel like today is the worst one in your life
to have big hope and small dreams
to scream at the top of your lungs just to LET it GO
to smile when you feel like breaking down
to join your hands in a prayer to Whoever would just listen to you
to cry and ask for help

It’s ok to have and express whatever emotion pass through you

(it just means you’re alive)

If I am sharing this page with you, it’s only because I feel like I was just the tool for the message. The channel so people could read these words. So people could know it is ok to feel whatever they feel.

I am struggling with my emotions right now. Not understanding them. Not being successful in processing them the way I wish I would. And I guess someone may feel the same somewhere and that this «permission slip» would reach someone who needed it.

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 !

February… ok, I won’t tell it every new month of the year but honestly I don’t see where January went. Maybe it is because my mind is currently so full of everything, I don’t notice each day that comes after the others.

January made me realize how important it is to thank for everything we receive, good and less good. There’s a positive message in everything that is thrown our way.

This week, I am thankful for:

• Open-hearted discussion with this girlfriend that matters so much to me. And our mutual decision to take care of our friendship.
• Today is Cheridoo’s payday, I can finally breathe again (and buy food).
• Nothing is a coincidence I guess… I wanted to finally sign up for Flora Bowley’s class first thing this morning, and the registration for this session (that begins next monday) is now closed. It was not yesterday. Next term: June 2012.
• Mamounette (ie my Mom).
• Despite this stupid wrist/arm that has me suffering for more than 10 days now, I was able to paint and work this week. It’s weird how the only moment I notice I feel relief in my pain is when I paint.
• My girls that cover me with love and sweet words («Mom cooks the best meals in the world» «Mom is the bestest artist in the whole universe»… even if it is from my daughters’ point of view, they honestly feel what they tell me).
• The tv show Supernatural. Oooooh yes we waited forever to finally give in and watch it. We have several season to catch up with but this is good. And it is filmed nearby 😉
• I am currently reading the second book of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire. This is amazing. I am glad I waited for the trilogy to be completely released before reading it. I hate having to wait for sequels to come (and honestly, they all do several-book series now. Tsss). And this is something I can share with Mamounette as she’s read the first two books while she was here. I am trying to convince my husband to read them as well. Here is the link for Lien pour the trailer.
• My friends Kira that jumped on Skype to talk to me after something I poster on facebook. It is good to know I can vent with someone that totally gets what I am going through. And to know she cares.
• It is auite sunny outside so I am walking in my neighborhood just to get some fresh air.
• My friend Anu that listens to me patiently and support me.
• My friend Aurore that will give me skirts she does not wear anymore.
• My husband, who simply is my perfect match.

I realized I like to end my Gratitude Friday blogpost with some pictures from my week:

There is still time to sign up for 21 Secrets, that will open its doors in April. You won’t regret learning from the 21 of us.
Click on the image to learn more about it, and maybe sign up (note: the teachers are given an affiliate link so people can sign up using it and we are paid a percentage of your fee. I would love if you’d use my link above to sign up.)

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]

Today is the already the third edition of this monthly section, Paving Our Path, I do with my friend Anu from My Courageous Life. We write our hopes and wishes for the month becoming. Just paving our path with good intentions.

What a month January has been ! We’ve seen my mom go back to France (where she lives) after having her by our sides for three very great months and honestly, it’s been ten days or so now and it still feels empty without her…

While I am typing this, I am noticing something that is strange: I have no idea what I did write for my previous letters to the Universe. I can not tell you if what I wished for actually was granted or not (I will check though). This is what I call letting go (me the Queen Of I Keep everything tightly attached emotionally) 😉

And from this month on, we have a pretty button to accompany our blogposts, yaaay !
I will add Anu’s link as soon as I have it to share with you.

Dear Universe,

My heart feels heavy, and as February is the Month of the year where Love is all around, please fill me in; I promise to give back as much as I can, to anyone who needs it.
Please, help me to focus and inspire me to make the best class I could for 21 Secrets. I hope to help people heal by sharing my own process…
Give me the strength to go on my path of a better life for myself, better eating, exercising despite the fibro that seems to get harder and harder on me as the time passes. Help me to accept that pregnancies changed my body, and that what it looks like now after having given birth twice at now 26yo is not put into stone, I can still make it something I enjoy looking at in the mirror, a skin I feel good being inside of.
If you can send some clarity my way, some signs you know I will understand, feel free to do so. I am open to receive them now.
I feel lonely most of the time, a bit of company from someone more that 6 years old would be appreciated. Have you seen how I try to get off my butts to reach out ?

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Love,
Nolwenn

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 !

I’ll be honest with you, I am beyond exhausted. Not even because I ran in the cold or worked out. I’m just worn out and have to deal with it. I did not really know if I wanted to write this Gratitude Friday, as I write it in both english and french, it asks twice the energy.

I am apologizing, again, for doing it short. Hoping you won’t mind and will enjoy it as well, and that it may inspire you to reflect on your week and what was good in it.

This week, I am thankful for:

• The unexpected features of the Nixies that were born this week.
• CHA (Craft And Hobby, it is a huge show that happens twice a year in the US, where companies share their new products. It is opened both for the public and for professionals) is around the corner, and so the web is filled with sneak peaks. I love the new stencils coming from The Crafter’s Workshop designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer (and some other of their releases); the stamps and other products by Christy Tomlinson, some of the new stamps and ideology stuff by Tim Holtz, lines from Studio Calico… It is very inspiring.
• I received the beautiful mixed media portrait of me made by Joyce. Amazing !
• I started my Project Us, inspired by the famous Project Life. But I am not a scrapbooker. I still enjoy it a lot and I just love documenting our daily life in picture. Would love to have a pogo printer or other ZINK printer so I could have the pictures from my phone and camera printed quickly at home. Maybe later.
• I realized that small dreams are as good as the big ones. And feel more reachable for me at the moment.
• Vivian is now offering her «old» art journaling class for free. I took it in 2009, freshly arrived in Canada from France. You’ll love it.
• I almost have 300 «likers» over Inner Voices page. It just a number, but I like it.
• Grenouille lost her second teeth yesterday, which put her over the moon excited.
• I am carving stamps thanks to Julie’s class. Love it !
• I finally found a way to create my portfolio ! See the link in the horizontal bar. Or click here to see my mixed media gallery (not everything is in it). I’ll do an Art Journal gallery asap.

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]

As I was saying last year, I don’t really like taking resolutions anymore. But I do like have goals to meet when the new year begins.

This is all over the cyberweb, this trand of finding/chosing a word to define your year to come. I see mine as a personal mantra, a line of conduct, sometimes I can turn to when I feel lost and don’t really know in which direction to go.

This year, my mantra is a verb. I feel it like someone whispering or yelling it (kinda) at me when needed.

Expand…

Page in my Art Journal

Expand my horizons. Expand my practice, spiritual and artistic. Expand Inner Worlds even further… and I don’t know what yet.

I have this gut feeling that 2012 holds a lot of deep changes. Positive ones. With some waves because without them, the ride would not be as fun, right ? A turning point. Something that will shift the rest of my life, and of my family’s.

I am currently working hard on a secret project. Something I’ve never done before. It has been whispered to me before, suggested by friends and strangers, and was downwright told it very insistently by Angels while my Angel Attunement. It’s clear: I can’t deny anymore that this is something I have to do and stop being afraid of the what if-s….. Too many coincidences pushing me this way.
This is the first step in following my mantra…

Do you have a word for 2012 ? What is it about ? Tell me all about it 😉