Let's get funky...

I don't know if it's because I've read so many blogs of people being in a funk lately... or if it's the beginning of work jitters... or the full moon... or something else... I just haven't been very creative lately. I feel lazy and only want to curl up on the couch and watch bad television or even just lay down on my bed, watching the ceiling fan go round and round and listening to the street noise and the sounds of nature. I don't know. I've got too many ideas in my head running around and bumping into one another (thus sometimes creating more ideas!) yet I can't seem to get them out of there.

I need to get rid of stuff. I have too many things that aren't being used and that just gather dust and create silent chaos. I'm going to start taking pictures of things I won't keep and then just get rid of stuff. More than likely, I'll offer things on FreecycleMtl if people are willing to come and get them. Have you ever heard of Freecycle? It's a great way to give a second (or third or fourth) life to some of the things that clutter your life. As they say: One person's trash is another one's treasure!

New beginning

Today was my first day back to work. In my new school. It started easy enough, going through kids' files to make sure everything is in order, checking for allergies, etc. Some of my coworkers had started earlier so I watched their groups while they went on break (one after the other.) It gave me a chance to meet some of the kids. Like in every school, you have the trouble makers. They usually don't hide their nature. That's ok. I'll know which ones are trouble right away. I only work about 4 hours per day but since I hadn't worked in 2 months, it was a bit hard. When I came back home a bit after 1pm, I ate a light lunch and fell asleep for 3 hours!!! I guess I was tired. So I didn't do any of the things I wanted to do (well, the day's not over yet) and I'm feeling a bit sluggish from my "nap" but I'll get a move on for the rest of the evening. After all, dishes won't wash themselves!

If you haven't done it yet, please go to The Hunger Site where a simple click will trigger a donation from a sponsor. It doesn't cost you anything. The same thing can be done at Care2 and if you register, add me as a friend. Doesn't it feel good to be able to help others and help save the planet one click at a time?

50th post and amazing news

Yeah, I know most people celebrate their 100th or more post but I'm at 50 with this one and I think that's great! I certainly don't post every day mostly because I prefer posting happy posts or showing works or art. This blog is not about my day to day ramblings (that's what my morning pages are for!) There was a time in my life where my blog (on another website) and my journals would focus more on the negative things that happened or on my negative thoughts. That's not what I want here. Since reading The Secret, I realized how mane "false" positive thoughts I had (you know, the "don't wants" and "won't bes"...) Now I focus on the positive. Even when stuck in traffic for an hour!

Which brings me to the other part of today's post. This morning, I was up early to pick up my mother. We have the same job but in different schools (daycare educators in elementary schools.) Today was a sort-of-meeting where, if we had signed up for it, we could decide to go work in another school for more hours or proximity to home. It works by seniority. I'm about half-way through the list. A former coworker of mine was also present and just a few names ahead of me.

To get to that meeting, mom and I got stuck in traffic for more than an hour. I kept smiling, humming tunes, thinking that "it's ok, we're going to be on time, they won't start before we get there." This whole thing was suppose to start (I think) at 9:00 or 9:30. We got there just after 9:30 and noticed a lot of other people seeming out of breath and eager to walk if not run inside. Luckily, they were having technical difficulties and were aware of the traffic so it took another 15 minutes to get the meeting started! Yes!!! Positive thoughts worked!

Not only that... For the past 2 days, I knew that a position was opening in a school 3 streets from my place and with more hours than what I already had. For those 2 days, I've been thinking "that job is mine, I'm going to work more hours, save tons of money on gas, walk every day to go to work and have a good change of scenery work-wise." Lo and behold, I got the job!!! I couldn't believe it! My ex-coworker also got the position she wanted! We were thrilled! Positive thinking REALLY WORKS! I'm a true believer!


So tomorrow I'm going to call my new boss to see if she wants to meet me Friday since work starts on Monday. I'm so excited! And the best part is, I know that next year, I'll be able to have even more hours!

Thanks for letting me share this wonderful news with you!

A quicky

We picked up our ceramics tonight. The ice cream bowl, at the top is mine. The inside is a purple sun/octopus/spider on a yellow background. The outside is purple polka dots on apple green. The rim is blue.




The cereal bowl is my mom's. She painted the inside yellow and orange with a flower in the middle. The outside has 3 orange flowers on a blue background. The rim is green as is the outline of the flower inside the bowl.

We'll probably go for more. We love the results. Have a nice weekend!

A happier post...

Finally, my electronic woes are over. Everything is fixed or should be momentarily. I've been busy accompanying mom to appointments and going to feed my aunt's cats and bird. In fact, we're going to care for the poor little creatures again tomorrow. My aunt comes back Saturday night. She's been away all week. Unfortunately, it's not an easy task for us to go feed her cats since she's at the other end completely of Montreal and we usually get traffic in between. Fun.

Anyway, I created these little treasures this week. The inspiration came from something by Lisa Guerin in the Somerset Studio Nov/Dec 2006 issue. I have so many of these little paper spools and love working in such a small size.

The first one was my first attempt. The image and text are from a used book I had. You can see I put a piece of twine through the hole so I can use it as decoration or a tag.








All others have images from ArtChix, the text is from an old french dictionnary and everything else is from my goodie drawers. I have tons of stuff and am trying to use as much of it before buying even more!









These might eventually be used as brooches or decorations to hang on a tree (and not necessarily a christmas one at that!)









These are really fun to make. If anyone wants to try this and can't find the paper spools, contact me and I can send a few via mail.

Enjoy!

Argh!

The electronic gods are out to get me! Or so it seems. My internet service provider can't fix a simple problem over the phone. My cell phone's web site isn't working so I don't have access to my monthly bill. I keep getting calls from an automated machine that ISN'T FOR ME! Isn't technology swell?!? I'll go cool down with some paints now... Thanks for listening.

Keeping us in the dark...

Tonight, my parents decided to try something different. We went to a restaurant downtown with my brother and my aunt. So far, pretty normal, right? But wait! The restaurant is called O Noir (noir means black or dark for those who don't know.) You absolutely need reservations to go there. But it's worth it. The menu is short and simple. You decide what you'll have as soon as you walk in, place your order while you're still in the entrance. Then you meet your waiter. He (or she) is blind or visually impaired. Everyone in your group gets in line, touching the shoulder of the person in front. And then you walk in. It's COMPLETELY dark! You are brought to your table and you have to feel for your chair. The whole meal is spent in total darkness. The idea is to experience what blind people live everyday. It's very different. I loved it. The food was amazing (I had the shrimp platter while everyone else had steak) and the ambiance is indescribable. You really have to live it to understand. I'm definitely willing to go again. When you walk out, almost 2 hours later, everything seems surreal. It was a wonderful experience. If you can't make it to such a restaurant, try the experience in your own home, wearing a blindfold. You might want to start with something simple at first, like toast! Just spreading something on bread can be quite a task!

New experience

For a while, I've been wanting to go to a new café that opened not too far from my parents' place. It's Artista Café Céramique. It's a place where you pick a premade ceramic item and for a small fee, you get to paint it there and they bake it for you! Tonight, mom and I finally decided to go. I picked an ice cream bowl and painted it with vibrant colours. You'll see the results next week after I pick it up. It was really fun to do and not expensive at all. For 2 ceramic pieces and 2 studio fees it cost under $50! That's cheap! I definitely want to go again.

Today was a productive day even if it started late and I didn't go walking. I made a second layout in my aunt's cats & dogs scrapbook. I might try to do another one tomorrow. We'll see how I feel.

Have a great weekend!

Lazy Day

Today was just that: a lazy day. I went for my morning walk and that's about the only productive thing I did all day. Didn't even go for the evening walk. But that's ok. Sometimes you just need to sit back and relax.

There's a soapy smell near my computer and I have no idea where it's coming from. I don't smell it anywhere else. Weird!

Goodnight! Going to read some more...

SuperOrdinaryBoy - SuperUpliftingWalk

This little guy appeared to me this afternoon, after a satisfying bit of cleaning up. I've had a few characters popping in my head lately. No no, I'm not schizophrenic. No worries. I didn't use to draw characters before but I like how they come out now.

I just came back from my evening walk and what a lovely walk it was. I saw quite a few bats flying from tree to tree. Impressive. There was a little cat (gray with white on his/her chest) who was having the best of time chasing bugs by an outdoor lamp. A cute Yorkshire sized me up from his pedestal in a bay window while I walked past his house. Boys playing hide & seek with a cat... at least I hope it was a cat!

I'm satisfied with everything I've done today. I started with the worse (complete cleaning of the cat's litter box, yuck!) and went on from there. My living room still looks like a war zone but what do you expect an artist to do in a small 3-1/2 apartment?

I "sadly" have to finish my last 3 pieces of dark chocolate otherwise they won't be good. And I am now officially in love with Cranberry Jell-O! Mmmmmmmmm...

Now I'm gonna go read Stardust and decide what I'll do tomorrow. Have a magical evening!

A new addition...

Last week, while preparing a yummy veggie salad, I decided to throw some yellow pepper seeds in a plant pot. Friday morning, I had one little sprout and this is what it looked like when I came back on Sunday evening! I don't know if they'll ever grow big enough to actually give me peppers but I'll sure help them as best I can!

Went for my walk Tuesday morning. It felt good. Forgot to go in the evening. Oops!


Wednesday is all about errands and cleaning and organizing. My living room looks like a glittery war zone again!

I was in a commenting mood tonight. Left quite a few comments on different blogs... it happens once in a while.

Time to go to bed and gain some strength! Goodnight!

The weekend was lots of fun. Magnificent weather. Great friends. Beautiful things to see and hear. The first picture is of a band called Skarazula, which was very interesting. They made their own instruments and played wonderfully! I could've listened for hours, I'm sure.

The second picture is of some dancers in costumes. I didn't see much of it but what I saw was fun.

The third picture is of one of the Giants that walk through the streets. You can see from the man taking a break next to her how big she is. Just minutes before, the man was inside the Giant, maneuvering to "park" her.

I wish I had seen more of everything but it was very hot and we had other plans for the rest of the day. That's ok. Now that I know what it is all about, I will definitely go back and will probably invite my parents to come next summer.

I didn't do my morning walks after all. On Saturday, I knew we would walk quite a few hours (and going up steep stairs and even steeper alleys!) so I took it easy in the morning. In the evening, I unfortunately hurt my right foot and it was way too sore to walk at a steady pace in the morning. I should've made up for it this morning by going for a walk. I planned to, even if it rained. But then there was thunder, so close to my neighborhood that I didn't dare tempt the Gods. I could've walked at my parents' since they have a treadmill but I just simply forgot. Oh well! Tomorrow is a brand new day. And it so happens that tomorrow is my father's birthday. He's turning 55. Gonna celebrate with my family!

Mini Trip...

I'm off to Quebec City for the weekend. It's the New France Festival (Fêtes de la Nouvelle-France). Looks like fun. Will probably post pictures when I come back. Have a nice weekend!

In the Old Port

Today was a most beautiful day! My morning walk felt really nice even though I didn't really feel like going in the first place. But I did. The afternoon and evening was spent with my parents. We went walking in the Old Port and in Old Montreal. We looked at 1000 Femmes which is exhibited on one of the quays. Very interesting. We ate at Les 3 Brasseurs in Old Montreal. Yummy! And when we came back home we stopped first for milkshakes and then went for a swim under the stars in the backyard pool. Fun day!