Eye candy :: Parisian store "Merci"

I went to the French concept store "Merci". 
I like the amazing space they have and the way they display what they sell. 
It is our French Anthropologie ! With a delicious restaurant .
(I am still secretly hoping that one day Anthropologie opens a store here in Paris...)
Here are some photos of what I caught my eyes.


Enjoy !

HIGH FIVE !

And just like that she turned FIVE...
I still remember when her big sister turned Five. We had just moved from California to Paris. We had just move into our current house. We had cardboard boxes still piled in some corners. 
I remember we had lots of fun making her birthday card, dipping her hand in blue paint and then applying very carefully onto paper.


We did exactly the same with little sister. The color changed. She chose pink.  But the smile is the same, the pleasure of dipping hand in paint and then leave a trace behind is similar. 
Turning Five is big when you are Five.


Her birthday wish was to go on the very top of the Eiffel tower . Well we did ( after one hour and something waiting in line...) under a nice sunny day and ice scream cone to keep her happy while waiting. The major event for her was that we actually had picnic lunch on the Eiffel tower at 58 Tour Eiffel. And have a birthday cake in the shape of the Eiffel tower... Priceless at five year old !


HAPPY BIRTHDAY Miss Tessa-Calista !

Here was her big sister when she turned Five... three years ago...

Earth hour

Hello , just a gentle reminder that tonight is EARTH HOUR "a world-wide pledge to turn off our lights for just 60 minutes". Over 131 countries will join in on the darkness.
This is he perfect time to slow down time and enjoy every minutes of it. Peaceful, quiet moment to relax.
Tonight we are planning to have a small bonfire in our outdoor pit. Wrapped in blankets we will ejoy the silence and the darkness slowly coming upon us.

How will you be celebrating in the dark?
I would love to hear from you and your ways of celebrating this moment in pause.
Please use the comment box with a link to your blog !

Making Studio time [in bright pink]

Hello everyone, 


Somehow I am having a hard time posting regularly on this little space of mine...
I am often pulled into two many directions at once... 
I need to structure myself a bit more! 
I have BIG plans !

In the meantime, here are some photos on what I am currently working on. 

SPRING has its new screen ! 

I have been working on this one for a bit now. And finally it all came together.

The truth is that I don't particularly like/enjoy the screen making. It is time consuming and a bit tricky. But in the end it is always such a reward when my drawing is turned into something that I can use and transform and play with ! 

I have a hard time to make series of things. 

I honestly get bored... 

I know I will have to make series of things in order to have less expensive wares in my shop (my unique piece are highly time consuming and therefore more expensive than series one). I will post soon about the how I create my storytelling fabrics. Or maybe I will make a dedicated "page" on this blog.

The tools I have use the most lately have been my ink box, my printing ink, and some thread. Then I sprinkle lots of Love & TLC.

  working on piece that is now heading to Japan 

to be part of the exhibit Pray for Japan. 

AND


Here :: same screen but with a distress look technique.
This one is printed onto vintage linen.
Part has been screen printed and 
part has been embroidered. 
The chair was hand stamped with my own design stamp.
Letters have been hand stamped.
Raw edges to go with the distressed look.

This piece is a wall art that will be auctioned 

during our Eco Etsy Earth day auction. 

I will upload my store with cushions and prints that I am currently working on.

I will let you know via Twitter, my Facebook fan page an this blog

More to come soon about this big event.

And finally starting next monday :: you can also find my work on PoppyTalk new coming up market called Green Pop Hop! (Spring Market)

March 28 - April 22, 2011 - (26 Days)

Everything Eco & Spring!  From eco-friendly papergoods, repurposed goods, vintage, green, etc. and everything for Easter, spring, and a little hippity hop! (from Easter decor, softies, Mother's Day, papergoods to spring things, like "spring cleaning items", etc). (Earth Day April 22nd and Easter Apr 24th)

You can get a direct link to it by clicking 

onto the right button "POPPYTALK"

Have a lovely day/ night  !

Help Japan [Part One]

Like most of us the devastating tragedy happening in Japan really affected me. But I was facing so many "choices" how I could participe financially with so many organizations and so many associations to give money t, that it kind a like "paralized" me.

Until two days ago when  I got a message regarding "The Charity Exhibition" called "Pray for Japan" organized in conjunction with "Les editions du Jeu de Paumes" and their art gallery called "Doux dimanches".

I started working on a new mini-serie called "We are all connected". I decided to make an original artwork on heavy-weight paper. First I used the screen I made form my original drawing and then stamped my own design stamp "the love chair". I hand stamped the sentence :: WE ARE ONE. 

The only requirement besides the art size was to try to incorporate a  heart somewhere in the artwork. I decided to carve mine out of the balloon/Japan flag symbolism.

I am about to go to the post office to mail it to Japan.

It makes me feel connected to know than within a week my little piece will be in Japan among hundreds of other artists and that the sales of this exhibition will be contributed via Japanese Red Cross Society.

The story of my little piece ::

[ the screen making]

[adding details with inks]

[stamping my own design stamp]

Sprinkling Love and Hope.

Stir.

Send.

Re-tooling

photo from the Magic Onions

 v. re·tooled, re·tool·ing, re·tools

v.tr.

1. To fit out (a factory, for example) with a new set of machinery and tools for making a different product.

2. To revise and reorganize, especially for the purpose of updating or improving: had to retool the city's economy.

v.intr.

To fit out a factory with a new set of machinery and tools.

I realize that have been fairly quiet lately on my blog. I know it is not seemed a good idea when you listen to all the social media gurus telling you to be consistent while blogging. But I am the kind of person that rather not say than say for the sake of making noise.
I was (and still am) busy starting "re-tooling" our life to be more consistent with our philosophy of life.


Re-tooling our lifestyle ::


This takes a lot of energy & mindfulness as we need to prioritize and un-clutter our way of thinking. That is between what you should conventionally do and what you want to do because this actually resonates more with who you are as a person and as a family.


So, in a very near future we will implement some "unconventional" but "happy" changes. Changes (no, I am sorry but I won't introduce them to you just yet... as they are still in project !) which require a lot of thinking ahead, preps and some serious mentorship and networking on my part (not my forte). I am a Capricorn and I usually don't jump in the void without a harness...


Re-tooling my business ::

Lately, I have been super busy working ON my business instead of IN my business. very few creations made their ways to my e-store. The changes I am making are pretty invisible. But oh, so time consumming !
I first need to re-tool my handmade business. As, I  realize that I can not do it all (but at least,  I tried) I am learning to let go and trust others expertise in their own fields. So slowly but surely I will improve my way of "getting my work out there" without feeling all the time depleted... 
Because, yes, I just can not do it all by myself.  "Me not super Mama, simply Me and that is good enough to be" is my new mantra...
So, in the future I am hoping to walk you through my progresses - big and small - documenting them as I go.


Lately, I have been following a really interesting "webinar" created to promote a new book called "The right brainer business plan". It was utterly interesting and I can't wait to start going on my visual map for success as it is stated.


The newsletter # 3 takes a lot more time that I first envisioned it to be written and send out. I have the draft but I am carefully adjusting the content. Don't forget to sign up for it here on my Fan page.


Thank you for your ongoing support and your patience.

Mad March

 Jan and Earl from Poppytalk Market made a super cool LOOK BOOK ::





I am very honored to be part of it!
And by the way, this is the first time that I hear about Issuu ! What a wonderful tool for self-publishing online !
So far the only one I knew of was Lulu Publishing.


What other publishing tools do you use and would recommend ?

From Megeve with love [Part Two]

Mont Blanc

From Megeve with love [Part One]

I first intented to post those photos when we came back last week end. But life happens and this post got delayed.
To those of you who asked me if our heater was back in business :: yes our home-igloo is now a ancient history... We are happy to be in a warm house again with HOT water...