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Every morning, from about 8:20 to 9:00, I walk outside. May it be cold, may it be foggy, may it be really sunny, as long as it is not raining, from Monday to Friday I walk as soon as my girls are in the schoolbus.

I clear my head. I think, or just follow the lyrics from my iPod’s songs. I pray. I hope. I walk as part of my Soul Care routine. I sometimes wish I was a runner, but I am not and made peace with this truth. Maybe one day, but for now I walk every morning.

You may not know but Vancouver is also known for its fog in Winter. Thick fog covering the city. Yesterday morning, while I was walking, I thought «What I like with fog is that I’m pretty sure it can create rainbows if the sun catches it perfectly», then I turned slightly my head… and there it was: a beautiful rainbow, without the rain. Power manifestation. BAM !

I call myself a Lightchaser. The way it feels when a sun ray hits my eye. The way it changes with the Sun. The way it simply makes me happy. When I take self-portraits, or even photos of my kids or even my food (yes. I know. yes. I don’t care), I always look for where and how the light hits it. Always.

It’s all about the Light.

My heart knows Darkness. Knows loneliness. Knows doubt. I have been there and back again. Many many times. 
My heart knows its way to the Light, and today more than ever, I know we are all here to shine. Our own way. But still, letting the Light in has never been easy, nor it is to let the Light out, actually.

It’s all about the Light…

Welcome on a new edition of my weekly ritual, Gratitude Friday (if you are not familiar with it, please go read how it came up and what it is about).

Count your blessings, they say. Counting my blessings, I do. Because at the end of my life, whenever that is, I want to be filled with the possibility of seeing it with all the joy that was brought to me. Small and daily one.

I know it is Monday and that I am «late» in sharing this with you but I thougt *f%ck it, publishing it anyway* 😉

About last week, I am deeply thankful for:

• The man at our Post Office, who now knows us and was patient enough to help us get through ALL our old stamps to send our New Year cards etc.
• Snail Mail
• Kindreds who loves me despite all my flaws
• Learning new creative techniques, and exploring my edges
• EA party was fun and I felt really beautiful
• My husband’s devotion to me, and endless love
• We just received the Wafu sauces I won from a giveaway, and it is double what I thought I actually won
• Possibilities
• New slippers just for my Studio
• Hot bath with new book to read, candle, magical oils and crystals. Just for me (remember that Soul Care is part of my Devotion for this year)
• Getting back to keep a Project Life album. Doing it differently this year. Or trying to, anyway

Tell me about you. Even if it one or two things that are currently filling your heart with this sense of happiness and gratitude <3

For a few months, I was SURE what my Soul Whisper for 2015 was. I had no doubt anymore because it had been in my heart, and I was seeing plenty of signs all around. But in the last couple weeks of December, for reasons I do not know (and for once, I guess I do not care), it shifted. I really thought, for quite a while, that 2015 would be my year of YES. It still resonates and I do believe it is okay to have more than one word to guide your year. It is, really, okay.

Devotion to my Creativity

During the Winter break, my family did enjoy sleeping in most morning. I am not a heavy sleeper and usually, once I am awake, well… I am awake. Tossing, turning, and staring at the ceiling is a waste of time to me, so I decided it was totally okay to gently slip into the night to head to my Studio (the bedrooms and my Studio are seperated by a floor so I knew I would not be disturbing anyone, even with my music on). And every morning, around 8am, here I was. Sipping orange juice while painting and singing along my playlist.

It worked so well for me that I decided to try to change up my routine once the school would be back. It is such a big difference in my creativity and productivity. No more excuses. No more procrastination.

And my creativity is linked to my business, this is another huge step to take, making peace with making money from it. Without killing the joy, without taming the passion.

Devotion to my Creativity means showing up.
Devotion to my Creativity means listening to the Muse. No matter what.
Deveotion to my Creativity means more explorations.
Devotion to my Creativity means more sharing of what I do with the World.

Devotion to my Wellness (+health)

I refuse to let my health define me. Not playing the ostrich game here though.

In 2014, I lost around 20 pounds all together. It was not always easy but I am so proud to finally look more of what I was seeing in my mind’s eye than in the mirror. The thing is to find what works for you; we are all different, different bodies, different stories, different struggles and strengths.

I decided that I will stop relying on the numbers appearing on my scale (that I now use only about once a month or so, versus twice a day in the past… yup…) but will focus on the feels. How do I feel in my body, how do I feel in my clothes.

I need to drink less alcohol, my husband and I went a bit too crazy, wine every night at dinner, cocktails on the weekend (he is SO good at it…). And I know it is not good for the body, for mine anyway. So stepping out of it.

I try to avoid gluten and dairies except for cheese. I am not strict Paleo but this is where I find recipes that go with what my body needs in general. And it is fun to cook differently, as well. Yes, always looking for a challenge.

Devotion to my Wellness & Health means going for daily walk after the girls are in the bus and before going in the Studio.
Devotion to my Wellness & Health means eating healthy and fresh.
Devotion to my Wellness & Health means Soul Care without guilt.
Devotion to my Wellness & Health means not giving up on myself.

Devotion to my family and close friends

I think this is where I will have to check within the most this year. I know there is a lot to be changed in this area of my life. Because I tell myself stories that do not serve me well, over and over again, and I need to find how to shift them properly, to rewrite new stories that are more positive.

I need to devote my energy for more quality time with my daughters and husband. Less anger. More play. More Gratitude. More time being together instead of everyone doing their thing individually. I want to build good memories, for them but also for us as parents.

I want to focus and give more space to my local friends. I am craving girls nights. I am craving good talks.
My Kindreds are all over the Globe. but I want to find a way to see them. Finally. I will make it work, too.

Devotion to my loved ones means no more escaping excuses.
Devotion to my loved ones means time for facetime/hangout.
Devotion to my loved ones means bringing back snail mail (!!!).
Devotion to my loved ones means going back to France for a few weeks this year.

Devotion to my Spirituality

Another biggy as my Spirituality is not the most common but yet, more and more people come out of the «witchy» woo woo closet, so it makes me more comfortable sharing about it, without going in too much details.

Raised Christian until a tragic event happened when I was 9 that turned everything upside down around in my belief system. I now have made my peace with God. And I am okay to say it out loud now, and I respect you and your own belief system. Open heart, open mind. I actually love talking with my religious friends about it, see how it could all fall into one big beautiful piece. There is no label for what I am, and this too, is okay. It is a mash up of what works and resonates deeply (thank you Jen for putting it so beautifully into words for me).

For years, in France, I was the creator and admin of a beautiful eclectic website and forum around Magic. I met many friends, still in touch decade after. Then I strayed away. Lost my voice, lost myself. Rejected everything. I am an «all  black or all white» kinda girl, or I used to be, anyway. I am passionate and it used to be all or nothing with me.

2014 saw the come back to my roots. As I described in that blogpost about coming home.

in 2015..:

Devotion to my Spirituality means trusting my inner compass.
Devotion to my Spirituality means no more shame around it.
Devotion to my Spirituality means carving time for it everyday.
Devotion to my Spirituality means knowing it is within and that everything else is just tools.

And I decided to document my year of Devotion. Back to the journal. Back to the photographs. It is okay to tell my own stories.

I told you I wanted to bring back art journaling into this space and so I decided that it would be fun to share about that new creative intention of mine…

Here is the video:

If you have been following me for a while, you know by now that I love art supplies. To the point where I think I love them a tid bit too much now, as it had taken over my Studio Space. It would be okay with me if I was actually using all this stuff. So I decided that this year, I will have to work on it. I don’t want to throw it all away (it is money I have spent, after all), so I guess I will need to be creative and find what to do.

My girls are happy to gain new things to play with (they enjoy being in the Studio with me); I  will probably create junk journals, and… I found that old Moleskine journal that I had started in 2009 when it was all the rage to use it as an art journal. This will be the base for this new series of videos I will make for you, using all these things I have no clue what to do with 😉

Here is the list of suppplies I used for this journal spread:

Moleskine Classic Notebook	Liquitex Acrylic Gesso	Catalyst Blade #6	Liquitex Acrylic Paint	Woodless Graphite Pencil
Caran D’Ache Neopastels	Golden Fluid Acrylic	Stabilo All pencil Black	Blick Matte Acrylics	Palette Knife
Dina Wakeley paintbrushes	Princeton Catalyst Polytip Bristle Brushes	Steel Shimmer	Steel Shimmer

InLinkz.com

While I am still figuring out how to set up my shop on my website, I listed two new Nixies in my Etsy shop.

Meet Lisa:

And Madison (who was inspired by Mindy’s latest online class, Primitive Portraits 3)

I have also been having tons of fun creating and flying custom Soul Whispers to help people honour their One Little Word/Guiding word for 2015. And did you know you can contact me so we can work together to create a beautiful one of a kind painting ? I love doing that, so don’t be afraid and shoot me a message <3