The Vlog: Memories of France

OK, so on today's blog I thought I would try doing a vlog for something new!!! I got a new idea!! Along with all of my paintings and other creative things, I would like to add a new recipe from around the world.  I spent a lot of time when I was younger travelling to many different lands (I think around 35 countries). I desperately miss travelling and though I wouldn't change having kids for anything, it has changed my lifestyle in a Big way.  So once a week I will be doing a recipe from one of the lands that I have travelled as well as other creative blog entries.  As you will see, my video is done very much like I had travelled... by the seat of my pants.  So this week's land is France.  I had spent one year living in Paris as an au pair and was there on a mission to learn french.  As you will see from my video, my french is very rusty!  My time in France was very memorable and I will list some noteworthy things!

1. Most significant moment: Praying in McDonalds (I ate only in the finest restaurants LOL) with some missionaries and gave my heart to Jesus.  I was completely changed from that moment on and haven't been the same since.   I received peace of mind like I had never had before and it thankfully  led to a complete new direction for my life!

2. Favourite site to see: Sacre-Coeur.  I loved the view.  You could see so much of Paris, and behind it was quaint streets filled with french music and artists painting.

3. Craziest thing said to me: I was approached by a man while walking down the street in Paris.  He began to rhyme off all kinds of different dances.  I looked at him with a very blank look on my face and he finally asked me, "which dance do you do? Your a dancer no?"  I said "me????" (I have been known for my lack of coordination...if any at all!) He didn't believe me when I said I am not a dancer and gave me his card anyways.  He owned a dance academy in Paris and wanted me to come.  I never went.  I think I may have missed my calling!

4.Something I will never forget: Dodging dog poop everyday!  The streets were covered with bombs!  Everyone had a french poodle and they didn't have the poop and scoop law in effect!  I think they do now!  The unforgettable moment of stepping in one of those bombs!!

5. Learning the French culture: I had a few slip ups!  Ok more then a few since I came to France only knowing the words bonjour and merci... and people thought my french sounded like I was Chinese.
Going to the market buying food was always fun as I often would try to speak in my best French only for the French to politely speak back to me in English.  Strolling down the famous street Champs -Elyisee, I called it in my best Canadian accent exactly as I read it Champs Elise.

That all seems like so long ago!  But memories really do last a lifetime and I am so grateful for the time I had in Paris, the people I met, and the experiences I had.  I look back on it all and see what a beautiful gift it was.  Through the good days and the homesick days I wouldn't have changed it.  Maybe one  day Paris I will return?  But for now you are memory I will always cherish!

Me overlooking Paris.

Believe it or not but this was my toilet! Sure missed home when I saw this.

The subway system in Paris.

Me trying to buy some fruits and vegetables.

Bon appetite!!

Introducing The Lucy Collection

The last little while I have been inspired to put together a new line called the Lucy line.  My inspiration has come though sitting in quiet places and praying along side with my sketch book.  As I painted and drew these pictures I felt not only a tender place in my heart for children, but also for the little child that is often still within us.  I really enjoyed created this line and felt so much peace and joy as I did.  With each little character I have a little story to tell.  The original paintings are going to be made into prints as well as greeting cards and pillows.  The originals are all done on cradle board 16x20 and in acrylic paint mixed with lots of water as you can see from the many drips.  Each painting/print comes with a little tag explaining the story and can be customized to any name.
Enjoy!

FAITH

Little Lucy went out to plant a garden

Except she had no seeds to plant.

All she had was a watering can full of water.

Day by day she watered the stoney ground. 

Nothing had ever grown in this ground before

But little Lucy wasn't bothered by that .

She faithfully went out day by day watering the stones

Until one day out from the stoney ground

A beautiful flower bloomed that was made just for her.

(This is a true story from my little Lucy)

CREATE

Marvelous Mable loved to paint

But the way that she painted made her so different then everyone else.

She didn't have a pallet full of paint to dip her brush in.

Instead she would raise her brush up to the sky.

With a prayer of praise and swoosh of her brush 

she would pull down colours from heaven 

And paint all around her.

LOVE

Little Emma spent her day in her lovely garden.

She wasn't out there planting vegetables or even flowers. 

Instead she was planting seeds of love.  

As she planted she prayed that showers of love would fall. 

It didn't take long for love to grow all around her 

And all who came to the garden were well loved.

GIFTED

Dearest Drew had been given many gifts 

Not sure what she should do with them all she took them to the gift giver.

His response was to take them into his garden and grow them.

So off she went to the gift givers garden.

To her surprise the gifts grew and grew and grew

Into something so much more then she ever could have imagined,

Bringing great joy to her and to those around her.

ROYALTY

Ruby Rose didn't see how valuable she was 

until one day she came face to face with her maker.

He took her rag clothes from her  

And dressed her in the finest robes. 

He told her she was part of a royal family

And he placed the medallion ROYALTY around her neck.

FREE

Anna-Grace was an adventurous soul,

She loved to travel the globe and see all she could see.

With the wind in her hair and skip in her step,

She strolled all around shining her bright light

For all to see and lighting up the world around her.

The Return Home: Seasons Change

Saying good-bye to the beauty of summer.

Well it's been one week and here we are back home.  People keeping asking me are you glad to be home, and to be honest I am really not sure how to answer that!  There are some things I really missed about home and other things I did not.  Looking back at the summer at the RV, I see how much of a blessing it really was.  I am way more relaxed and rested.  I think I can say the same for Steve too.  My kids had a fabulous summer living at the RV.  They haven't ever spent so much time outdoors.  I didn't even miss the space of our home.  I did miss the bathroom though!

Coming home I feel like we have some new perspective on things and we are in a place of wanting to continue living out a life of creativity.  At this present moment we're not quite sure how all that looks.  We're trying to weed out the extra things in our lives that take away from the very things that we are to do.  I really see how when we left we were way too busy and it caused a lot of extra stress.  So things are busy here, but it's a matter of not falling into it!  I am determined not to rush anymore! (unless necessary!)  So the work on the RV will have to continue into next spring.  The curtains are done, just not fabricated into curtains yet.  We left locking up by saying bye to the Champ and with tears in my eyes I thanked God for a great summer.  Good memories that last forever are something you can't put a price on.  But just as the seasons change so do our lives and we are now entering a new season.  You never know what to expect but that certainly makes life adventurous, and to try to hold onto summer when fall is arriving just wouldn't work.  So as much as I may love a season, I have to let go of it to make room for next.  Somehow it seems way easier to let go of winter!  Looking through photos of the summer to put in my blog, I realized how very special it all was!  The way I know that I really loved a time is when it seems too painful to look back because you realize that time is over!  None the less we are home now and it is time to unpack.  I don't mean literally because I did that within the first day, but mentally somehow that always seems to take longer.  New memories await us and I can only hope and pray that we can have another season in our lives like this summer.  Good bye summer we will miss you!!

One last time at the beach! 

One last stroll. 

Harvest time is coming.

Seasons changing.

The kids are buckled in and ready for home bound...

...and with a turn of the key the door is closed.

Children's Book From Start to Finish

The beginning of the book On Top Of the World.

So after a long summer of tweaking the children's book, I am happy to say I have sent it off to the printers.  Doing a children's book is a much longer experience then I ever thought it would be, and yes, it is a lot of work!  So on today's post I thought I would share with you the whole process that I have gone through to put this book into reality.

For the past few years I have been saying I am going to write  a children's book but thought I would never have to time to do it, and like anything else you won't have the time unless you make it.  So that is what I realized I had to do, and why not now when I have small children to enjoy it.  So it all began  with a doodle. For those of you who don't know, doodling has become an essential part of my art.  I doodle daily for about 15 mins and from that I create my art.  So I did a doodle and really liked it and a little story was coming to mind about living on top of the world.  That was my starting place.  I then took the concept and began to write a story.  For me I find I write much better to music (instrumental is best).  So I got in a quiet place (kid free) and began to write.  It didn't take long to come up with a story and I thought to myself, "I will be done this book in no time!" (HA!)  I then began to draw illustrations with the story and section off the story page by page and that is when the story changed again.  I had a hard time coming up with some of the illustrations and felt a bit stumped.  That is when I went back to my doodle book and began to look for inspiration.  I found things in my doodles that would fit with my story.  It just meant me changing up the story to fit the illustrations instead of the illustrations fitting the text.  I found that this brought even more creativity and imagination to my story and things seemed to flow much better.  (goodbye striving!)

After doing rough drafts of all the illustrations, I then chose my colour scheme.  I wanted something bright and uplifting.  I did the whole book using marker.  I then re-did the illustrations again as some didn't look quite right and got good quality marker paper to work on so the marker colours would be at their best.  I outlined all the illustrations in my black felt tip markers. which made the illustrations stand out even more.

Bits and pieces of the book.

The next step was to begin laying the book out on the computer.  We got scans taken of all the illustrations and loaded them onto our Mac.  We worked in Adobe Indesign to figure out the layout process (Steve spent many hours doing this).  We also then went through numerous fonts to find one that would fit my story and would be easy enough for children to read.  I had to change the first one because it was a little too whimsical to read.

After putting the book together I realized I need more or less pages.  Children's books are printed in increments of 8 so 32 pages is typical.  However mine was at 34 pages so I had to then bump it up to 40 (which meant more illustrations!!)

Adding extra fun pages.

After reading the whole book I realized if I could convince my musical husband to rhyme the whole thing it would be even better.  So without any complaining and in very little time he did.  I loved it even more!  This again required more tweaking and after adding a few more pages such as a dedication page, an about the authors page, and some fun doodles I finally had my book.  The last step was to edit, which I got a good and very talented friend (Becky) to do.

So where are we now? We have sent the book off to the printers (which by the way was more work as we had no idea were to print a children's book).  We spent much time researching printers and whether to do hard cover vs. soft cover.  I found a printer that is very reasonable and prints hardcover!  YAH!  Out of province but still in Canada.  I am waiting for a proof of my book and then I can begin the printing!  Wow, lots to learn.  I am in the process of starting a kickstarter program to help raise some funds for printing.  So please be watching for that soon.  Another whole new thing for me as well.  Then comes my least favourite part of all this: marketing!  It feels good to see something through and I can't wait to have a copy in my hands.  Lots of work but well worth it!  I encourage anyone who is wanting to do a children's book to go for it!  Just be prepared to put some time and work into it!