DISCOVER THE ART AND CRAFT OF JANEL AND HELP HER ACHIEVE THE MOST WONDERFUL PROJECT ...

Hello,

You might already know i'm following at the moment Janel's online class called "New Year...New You".
What you might not know is how fun and challenging this class is all the more because Janel is very creative and kind enough to organize chat time for us, followers of her art-journaling prompts.

But i'll deal with the material of the class and what i did with it  later on, in another post.

I meant today to put the highlight on her blog, her work and her project.
Concerning her blog, all i can do is urge you to discover it and to wander through the posts to find inspiration: http://www.iheartrunwithscissors.com/

She's very polyvalent and can sew, draw, scrapbook, among other things. Her work is very inspiring and she's generous enough to share it with us.

Concerning her BIG project now. Adam (her husband) and Janel plan to adopt a baby. Anyone who has already been into that kind of process or heard about it knows that it costs money. That's were Janel's creativity showed up: she designed very nice prints she sells on her Etsy shop ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/jbarnholtz ), very meaningful and sweet. When you buy one (or 2, or 43, or 321 !!!), you buy a beautiful print and you participate in the nicest project a family could have! They're nice, cheap, moving and they make the blogosphere a little more personal ...

Here are the prints:

These prints are simple and i couldn't wait for my paycheck to arrive to purchase one, which i did this morning!
Come on, be smart and sweet, enjoy yourself discovering Janel's universe on her blog and make a nice gesture towards a couple that really deserves it!!

XOXO

LATE CHAT WITH THE GIRLS FROM JANEL'S "NEW YEAR... NEW YOU" CLASS

I'm so so late with my blog posts... Can't believe i still haven't post my new year's resolutions... Anyway, it has been a buzy day even if i'm sick and had to stay in bed most of the day.

First of all, i became an AUNT today, my sister-in-law gave birth this morning to a baby boy called Martin! We just can't wait to meet him and i guess he'll inspire a few projects in the years to come.

Then i had the chance to chat with the girls from Janel's online class "New Year... New You". You probably already know her work from her blog "Run with Scissors" (http://www.iheartrunwithscissors.com/). She's the one who made me discover art-journaling this summer with her "30 days journal challenge" that i followed every single day. I became very quickly addicted to it, as far as calling my sister to have her print the new prompts and have her send them to me when we were on holidays without any Internet connection! :) How addicted is that ?

I really have to take pictures of what i do at the moment thanks to Janel and of what i did this summer. She made me understand a very simple thing: all you need in order to create is a notebook and a black pen. I know it may sound simple and obvious but it wasn't to me... I've always been very bad with action, i suffer from heavy procrastination and i always thaught i had to gather supplies and organize my craft to come up with something which isn't true: you need a very few supplies to craft and to enjoy yourself!

So i'd like to thank Janel once more (i did it live tonight) for being such an inspiration!

You just can't imagine how much fun it is to fill these white pages with the mix of her brilliant prompts and my imagination...

Last but not least, it has been very nice to talk to the girls following the class: Emma, Nicole (Hello Jason!), Courtney, Lissy, Lori, JennyLynn.

XOXO

GUESS WHAT I HAD FOR CHRISTMAS ?

People who know me well (including my unfortunate colleagues at school) found out a while ago that i had a major crush on the Instax Mini Chocolate. The thing is we can't buy it here and american sellers won't send it to France because of taxes or something like that. We had to have it shiped from Germany and bought a bunch of films from South Korea!!! Can it get more complicated ? :)

And here it is, finally, smooth and tiny, fun and chocolate!!!

All these pictures were taken on Chrismas Ev' that we spent with my parents and my sister Pascale and on December 25th that we spent with Alexis' family.

But let me share with you a few more pics i took during this Christmas break:

As you probably know by now, i have the privilege to live in Paris (not for long thaugh but still...). The white Instax pic represents "La Grande Arche de la Défense" in the business area . The second one (the red one) represents "La Tour Montparnasse" stucked in fog. I especially like this one with the tree branch on the top right side...

As a mom, i can never have enough pics of our son Théophile who turns 19 months today! Here's the proof:

I guess i'll have to save some money to buy films in a very short term...

XOXO

"NEW YEAR... NEW YOU..."

Happy New Year ! I hope 2011 will bring you all kind of joys and accomplishments !
I'll come up soon with a post about my new year resolutions, it's gonna be fun for me to write this post as i have never made any resolutions at the beginning of a new year! :)

In the meantime, let me share with you the first pages i made following Janel's prompts in her new onlineclass "New Year... New You..." . I discovered Janel's blog, "Run with Scissors" ( http://www.iheartrunwithscissors.com/ ) this summer when she offered us a very nice and free online class called "30 day journal challenge" . It was the first time i gave a shot to art-journaling and i loved it.

So here i am, eagerly waiting for my everyday-prompt to get inspired and grab my pen!

Here's what i made those last 2 days (beside laundry, cleaning and dishes!):
For January 1st:

For January, 2d:

I've started to work on today's prompt but i have to get back to daily routine which includes cleaning (how fascinating!), preparing my courses for my students, go grocery shopping, etc. as anyone else does actually!

I'll come back later with more pics of my journal!

XOXO

TRIBUTE TO ELSIE FLANNIGAN

If you enjoy surfing the web in search of inspiration just like i do, you probably already know the work/art/craft of Elsie. I don't pretend to come up with anything new about her but i'm just willing to pay tribute to one of the women who inspired me the most these last few years, nothing less, nothing more!

I've discovered Elsie's colorful universe thanks to one of my favorite scrapbooking magazine (a french one) called "Entr'Artiste Magazine" . They started publishing in Autumn 2008 and the cover of the 1st magazine was all about Elsie's!

I was at the time looking for informations about scrapbooking, techniques and inspiration. That's how i found out about Elsie and i fell in love with her very personal style, made of all kind of supplies and i particularly loved the way she used her handwriting, giving her pages a unique look.

I started following her on her blog poetically called "A Beautiful Mess" (http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/) and bought a book she wrote with a french scrapper called Emmanuelle Ballereau. I often open this book to get some inspiration and to imagine other ways of crafting, drawing, scrapbooking. This is one of my favorite on my bookshelf!

Then i purchase a very cool little box called:

That's how i discovered Elsie, The Red Velvet Girls, "A Beautiful Mess", "Le Wedding Party" (i find the little french "le" very cute, as you can imagine!), Mr Larson, wonderful DIYs, inspiring "10 things i love sunday" and so on.

But there's a very cool thing about Elsie that i really appreciate and that i don't find that often in the blogosphere; that thing being her everlasting good spirit! She shares a lot with her followers but she doesn't "pollute" her reader's mind with negative thaughts and personal issues. Her blog is to me a real haven of peace and i like it. Elsie has this elegance and this politeness not to use her blogs as diaries and she found the perfect balance between intimacy and distance with her followers.

One other aspect of her "web personnality" that i really fancy is that she shares with us her work and the processes that lead to create but also her friends' work. That's how i discovered Rachel Denbrow (from "Smile and Wave" ) for instance. And guess what ? Elsie is surrounded by very talented people!

I've followed a few of her classes and i must admit i've always enjoyed them because this girl makes you feel like you can create. Little by little, you start following her very clear instructions and then, you start create all by yourself because she made you feel you can enlighten your own universe. How cool is that ?

To tell you the truth, i don't have much imagination but Elsie taught me that it's a bit like a muscle, the more you make it work and the more you take time to figure out how you can come up with an original idea, the more you'll feel good about yourself.

Well, ladies and gentlemen (are there any over there except my loving and supporting husband ?!), that was my tribute to Elsie Flannigan!

Night night
XOXO

"MARY POPPINS"

All right, all right, i admit it, i might be a little "old school" sometimes... But rather than "old-school", i prefer to call myself "nostalgic". I am a very big fan of "Mary Poppins" , i'm always amazed by the beauty and the poetry of this movie, cartoon, whatever you may call it.

I just love the sweetness and the "feel-good" sensation that movie brings.

I just love the memories linked to it: being a messy little girl, i watched enviously Mary Poppins clean the kids' bedroom with a song and a finger-snapping ! :)

I just love the clothes Mary wears especially in the sequences of the movie that mix film and cartoon.

But what i really really loved in that movie was... Mary's BAG!
I've always been fascinated by the huge amount of things she could pu in her "carpet bag"... Remember when she's looking for something and start emptying that magical tote ?
As i watched the movie 2 days ago on TV, i told my husband that i really fancied that bag. That's where he came up with a pretty good explanation for one of my biggest (and most expensive) obsession: BAGS !
I like to carry "my home" with me in a bag. Small ones are cute and i like them but they aren't design for me, that's for sure... I wouldn't be surprised if my passion for big bags was directly linked to Mary Poppins'...

By the way, i've found tonight a really cool page on a blog called "Amanda Schwartz Research": here is the link where Amanda explains the history of "carpet-bags":

http://aschwartzresearch.blogspot.com/2009/10/history-of-carpet-bag-mary-poppins.html

When i was a child, "Mary Poppins" was a very unusual thing, mixing musicals, cartoon and movie. Now that we have 3D children movies and all those amazing technological stuffs, i hope my son will be as thrilled by these old-fashioned movies as his mother was when she was younger...

XOXO







"THE SEARCHERS"

Western movies aren't my favorite kind but they are the first ones i discovered thanks to my father. Even if these movies are very manichean ("good guys" VS "bad guys" kind of stories), even if the natives american aren't treated the way they should be, they bring back so many memories...

Yesterday, i found one of these movies on TV: "The Searchers", a 1956 movie by John Ford with John Wayne, Vera Miles and Natalie Wood.

As i was looking for some informations about this movie to write this post, i realized its american title focused on the men who were searching for the little girl kidnapped by the Indians while its french title ( "La Prisonnière du Désert" ) focused on the little girl only. Interesting...

Why do i bother you with this movie ?

First of all because this is the first movie i can recall. I saw it with my dad on TV when i was very young and was immediately fascinted by this story, probably because i could, as a child, identify with this little girl. I'm a movies lover and i'm very fond of cinema so it has been very moving to see "The Searchers" ...

Then, i have been really surprised by the vivid memories i kept from this movie. It's really astonishing to realize that my brain kept full sequences of the film intact...

Finally, now that i'm (trying to be) a grown-up, i also realized  that there are a lot of aspects (both positive and negative) that i didn't noticed then but that strike me now. For instance, the character played by John Wayne isn't that nice, he's prejudiced, stubborn, intolerant and unfair. Another aspect of the movie that i didn't recall was the humorous side of it. You always have a character in Westerns whose only function is to make the audience smile or laugh.

What are the movies that bring back memories from your childhood ? Did you have the chance to see them since you were a child ? What did you like about them then and what do you like about them now?

I'll probably make a post about "Mary Poppins" soon because i saw it 2 days ago on TV too and this is my all time favorite children movie !!!

Take care and dig into your film-loving memories !
XOXO

A BRAND NEW PROJECT

Hey there!
My former blog has been pretty abandoned for years now and i've spent hours and hours surfing on wonderful blogs that really inspired me...
I had this crazy project to make a brand new one, in english this time, but since our baby's birth, i'm desperately looking after time.
My husband has been pushing me to start this new blog and today, he helped me and i'm pretty sure i'm back on track now.
I don't pretend to compete with Rachel Denbrow, Elsie Flannigan or Shimelle Laine (to mention just a few of these inpiring ladies) but they have been a great source of inspiration and i plan to share my thoughts and crafts with you guys!

WHAT'S NEXT ?

I've been preparing an art journal for you. I'm not done yet with the crafty side of this project but it's gonna start soon and i'll let you know when i'm ready to share it with you. It's gonna be a 30 days art journal ( "Blink" to Janel from "Run with Scissors" who introduced me this summer to this wonderful activity with her supercalifragilisticexpialidocious "30 days Journal Challenge" !!!). I'll post a prompt a day and show you what i did with it. It's gonna be a free class, of course and just so you know, the person who gave me the courage to start this project is Nicole Coffin from "Coffin Confections" who shared that kind of project last November with the followers of her blog.
Thanks girls for being such great sources of inspiration!

I'm also working on a Christmas album but all i did for now is the structure of the book... So i guess i'll show it to you way after Winter holidays! :)

I started a kind of art journal inspired by prints i found in magazines and i'll show some of these pages soon just to show you what you can do with it and how personal these pictures and adds can become with the help of a Sharpie Pen.

JUST SO YOU KNOW...

English isn't my mother tongue but i guess you already noticed it by the akwardness of my expression... So please, be lenient with me and my strange english. Actually, i'm french but i'll try not to express myself as Pepe the Pew would, i promise! :)

My husband offered me for Christmas an adorable Instax Mini Chocolate and i'll show you in the next few days my first pictures with this wonderful tiny camera i've longed for months.

HEADING TO THE END OF THIS POST...

I wish you all a wonderful Winter break and i hope you all had a delightful Christmas and i wish you all a splendid and happy New Year 2011!

XOXO

Nouvelle bannière

Mon blog ne me plaisait pas, je le trouvais assez laid, très amateur et en m'inscrivant qur un nouveau forum (Scrap Kawaï que vous pouvez trouver à cette adresse: http://scrapkawaii.forumactif.net/forum.htm), j'ai eu la chance de tomber sur Astria qui a eu la gentillesse de me faire cette belle bannière à laquelle je n'ai rien voulu changer.
Merci encore Astria !!!
Si vous voulez voir ces belles réalisations, n'hésitez pas à lui rendre visite à l'adresse suivante: http://astria.canalblog.com/

PETIT CLIPBOARD RAPIDE A REALISER

Profitons de ce que je suis lancée pour vous montrer ma petite création de la nuit (vive le week-end!).
C'est un petit clipboard de 14cm x 19cm. Je ne sais plus où j'avais trouvé cce modèle, mais je ne l'ai pas inventé, ça c'est certain! C'est ça le problème de mon carnet de scrap, j'ai noté plein de projets sans mettre les sources alors si je spolie quelqu'un, que cette peronne ne le prenne pas mal et me fasse juste savoir que ça vient d'elle, je mettrai le lien vers son site.
Ayant appris de mes erreurs, dès que j'ajoute un pas à pas dans mon scrapbook, je note immédiatement qui en est l'auteur dorénavant!
C'est très simple et très rapide à réaliser avec un minimum de matériel, je pense qu'à l'avenir j'en ferai des plus chargés, celui-ci est assez sobre. Petit truc, j'avais craquer il y a peu sur des embellissements en forme de fleur de la marque "Bohemia" dont j'adorais déjà les papiers recto-verso, très rigides et superbes. La petite fleur estdonc en crochet et je l'ai fixée avec du double face sur la pince du clipboard.

Voilà, en espérant que cette petite créa nocturne vous plaise.
Bon dimanche!