New header and a hommage to a few artists

Yes, I've finally been able to change my header. Gone for a very simple design.

I'd like to put forward a few artists from Etsy. The place is simply amazing and full of terrific eye-candies.

1st of all Anne Julie who is a French artist of great talent. Her etsy shows her prints, original art, jewellery and more. She reminds me a little of theblackapple but their styles are still very distinct.
I've also had a crush on Molly Jey. Her paper sculptures are simply whimsical !

I crave for scrapping but can't give in, because I'm finishing an album for my colleague who had a baby. He and his gf love it classical so I'm feeling a bit frustrated and I'm not sure I'd even be able to scrap in my style anymore ! lol ! Here's a sample of it :Classical I told you !

Been cleaning up

I think I must be the least resilient person in the world. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm still looking around for China. The pain has faded a little because I'm under prozac (had to go back on the med anyway), but it still lingers though.
I feel ashamed of whining like that, cause I know so many people who lost their family/husband/friends/parents...or just survived tragedy themselves, and still keep their chin up.

Anyway, I've been trying to move my @$$. This must be part of the mourning process (if you've lost someone dear to you, please don't be upset about my using the word "mourning", because for us pet owners, it is a real loss when a pet dies) : I have felt the urge to clean up and change everything around.
Here are a few (bad-it was getting darker when I finished) pics of the deco.

This is my "geeky corner" with toys and old vinyls and my Avengers collection (let's all pretend you haven't seen that).

And this is the "Alice in Wonderland" clock in the kitchen. Ok, everybody has this Ikea clock, but I just love it. Just bought it in red too for the future house.

And I have also changed my hairdo, and for once in a blue moon I don't hate it !

Ok, it's the basic "longer at the front, shorter at the back" do, but I still like it. The girl adapted it to the length I wanted, and she actually listened to what I wanted.

Also, isn't it funny how life has a way of playing with you? Everytime I have lost one of my dear cats, a newcomer showed up in the garden. Many of my neighbours adopt cats that they let astray, and they don't spay them. And it seems that there is a guide of "best houses to stray to", because all the cats in the neighbourhood end up in our garden !
Well, anyway, we have a new visitor, a small red-headed cat that looks like a stayer. Red-headed cats are always stayers, mind you. We have one who showed up in the garden like 3 years ago, and was then fighting all the other cats. We spayed him, talked to him, tried to get him to obey, but he still fought everyone, so we had to give him away to one of my mum's customers. Presumably a reliable guy. Well, the next day he had works at his house and let the door open. I mean, who lets their door open right after adopting a pet ?! The cat ran away, obviously; there was much shouting and crying on my part, because of course I felt guilty for having given the cat to the mor*n !
We went looking around his house (which was 2 miles away from ours), in all the streets, shouting the cat's name. Nothing.
And then before the end of the week the red-headed cat showed up in the garden again, covered in dirt. Only difference was that he never fought the others anymore. Poor cat must have thought that we were "punishing" him by sending him away.
Anyway, I have a feeling that this newcomer is probably in the same vain ! I'll have to take a pic of him one of these days !

Bad news

Hello everyone
Been a while since I have written anything. Shortly after my latest message I have learnt that China suffered from pleurisy and that the issue was more than likely fatal.
So I had been watching her closely every night after work these last weeks, and we had to put her to sleep as her health had dramatically worsened on Sunday night. We went to the vet last Monday morning.
I'm still looking around hoping to see her, and I feel like I let her down (inexplicably, as I've stayed with her her whole last night and I think we couldn't have done anything else, but still).

Here's a video of my sweet little girl a few days before she died :




It was very dark on that day, but you can still see her breathing hard and you can see how sweet and loving she was.

Hopefully I'll be able to post something happier on Sunday.

So What's up ?

I have been back at work for 2 weeks, and predictably only have been able to update today !

The atmosphere at work has been of a big and general comatose. My colleague has to stay up all night because of his new born baby, and I just can't seem to have a restful night (maybe the Dr who said I was suffering from sleep disorder was right).
We've had an evaluation. And it looks like we're getting the raise we had asked for considering the amount of work we had done on top of our assigned tasks.
We're getting 45$. Yoohoo ! (said in my cynical voice). We were both hoping for at least 65$, but I had told my colleague not to be too optimistic, and it turns out I hate being right !

On a happier note, I shed another 2 lbs, but I'm still dubious as I have no clue why. I'm sure doing less exercise than I'm used to. I've been putting weight on and off for no reason before, so I'm defiant. But maybe it's just how I am.
I have received new clothes from torrid. I had to pay 65$ for custom fees, but I'm trying to persuade myself that I couldn't find these clothes around here anyway!
First, this skirt

that I am too old to wear by a good 6 years, and that I sure can't wear for meeting officials. But I wanted it sooooo bad.
And then this dress

that I can wear more easily at the Museum. Matter of fact, it just is über referential ! This is da dress to kiss young GIs in their tanks isn't it ? It kinda screams May 1945 at you. lol !
I need to find a red turtleneck to wear it these days, because what with global warming and all, it's still on the cold side here in Northern France !
And I've finally managed to find a pair of red tights to wear with it, after a whole day of searching, on this site that carries an impressive range of plus size tights and stockings, plus cool stuff like petticoats and garters !!!

I've also been scrapping a bit, doing an album for my colleague's kiddo. They like the classic style, so it's a bit hard on me ! lol ! But I'm doing my best.
And I've been doing a monsterlet for my cousin's daughter who came for a visit. No pic, cause I've done it in about 15mn before she had to go home. But here's the recipe :
take this stamp

and shrinking plastic, some color pencils, cook the plastic monsters, and Voilà ! A very happy kid permanently holding her arm up in fear of losing her monsterlet ! lol !

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Now playing: The Cure - young americans
via FoxyTunes

Would you believe ? 4 lbs off !

Yeah, but I'm not too enthusiastic about it, because I put weight on and off without rhyme or reason.
In this specific case, it must have been because I was on holidays, so less stress for me ! Too bad I'm going back to work tomorrow. But I'll be starting sophrology, so let's hope it'll help !

And yet I sure worked out less : when I'm at work I spend half of the day on my feet walking or climbing stairs...So let's hope I haven't lost 4 lbs of muscles ! No, I know there isn't that much muscles in my whole body, lol...

I think we're the only family I know who is susceptible of LOSING weight during the Xmas holidays. We've such small appetites ! And in the past years I drunk more but I find that alcohol now sets up my migraines if I drink more than two glasses ! Sure to put me off !

Well, of course, that leaves 36 lbs to go, not for me to be thin, but to be acceptably-in my own criteria-fat. Ha !

And now on "lighter" subjects (no pun intended).

We don't have the second season of Heroes here in France yet, and my brother has so been telling me that it was well below the expected level, that I wanted to watch some. Si I found a streaming of the last episode, and watched it.
I mean, who in their right mind would watch a season final without having watched the rest of the show ?!
Of course I've never minded spoilers too much. I'm the one who always reads the end of a book at first (no, not just in case I'd die before I read it !). Don't know, I must have a cyclic mind.

But still, that was pretty silly, uh ? Now I have to go back and watch the other 10 episodes.
And I already have this sinking feeling that Heroes is going all Lost on me, with writers killing my favorite characters and losing sight of a thread and all...erm, of course, the circumstances are rather peculiar with the writers' strike.

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Now playing: Dinah Washington - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
via FoxyTunes

On more futile subjects

When I said I had showed the family Xmas trees on my blog, my aunt insisted a lot on my showing her nativity scene too.
Well, some of you know nativity scenes are not really my trade, since I'm not a religious person, but I must say in all fairness it really is a family tradition.
Every year my aunt settles a creche with "santons" (traditional southern France characters, whose name I believe means "little saints", but they really embody villagers, shepherds). And every year we buy her a new one at the Xmas market.
She has also added a few from abroad.
Luckily, the creche is confined into the limits of a closed cupboard for now, because nativity scenes don't traditionally include 15lbs cats ! Baby Jesus, yes, ass and ox yes, but no cat !

So here is da thing :
And a few details :
The traditional Provence scene

The manger and the three kings

And this little guy comes from Southern Italy.

And as we're talking about my aunt, here is what she got for Xmas (along with a new flat screen for her comp) :
Not that she's a George Clooney fan, no, she's a con and robbery fan ! The kind of "no gun, no victim" stuff that you only see in movies.
She's always dreamt of setting up a big plan. We've always been teasing her about that !
Family, right ?!

Please keep Christine and her fam in your thoughts !

I feel terrible for babbling about my little insignificant problems when I've just learnt that Christine is going through a terrible time right now.
Please send her and her family your support if you can.

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Now playing: Gorillaz vs Scissor Sisters - Dirty Harry vs Laura
via FoxyTunes

Happy New Year (late)

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Now playing: Nina Simone - Try A Little Tenderness
via FoxyTunes Hello all and Happy New year ! May all your wishes be fulfilled for 2008.

Everybody seems to be writing up their resolutions these days, but I never make these. My commitment-impaired me forbids me to.

But there are a few things I would like done in the coming year :

1. I want to get the house NOW. I have so been postponing this project by fear of, well, commitment ! I want to go and ask for a credit in April or May max.

2. I need to go back to the gym. My subs ended in November, and I have to try and find another, cheaper subs. But as it will be at least 500$ a year, and I'll have to pay maybe at once, I have to wait till the end of the month for that !

3. I have to go and find a surgeon.
I have been horrified by my New Year pic. (there was an ugly pic here, but I had to remove it, couldn't stand it being on the blog for like ever, even for honesty's sake)

If I were any fatter I'd be absolutely square.
I won't give in and do any diet ! Diets have led me to this ! Before I started them I was healthily plump and had a nice figure; after every diet I put on the weight back with a bonus. And it gave me compulsions that took me years to shake off.

Admittedly it worked even worse for me, because, in the Dr's words, I have a genetic anomaly that helps my body adjust to very severe diets. So it stocks up on fat at the slightest occasion. Thank you Dr, can I return this anomaly to the store and rather curb time or read minds? No? Oh well...

Obviously, as I'm a small eater (no junk food, no soda, 1600 kcal a day), I can't go under stomach operations either, would be of no use.

So aesthetic surgery it would be for me ! Now I just have to find a surgeon (and the money ! lol !), and make some tests to see if it wouldn't be too dangerous. Some surgeons don't like to operate obese people when it's not absolutely necessary because the anesthesia is more hazardous.
I don't want to be operated to be "thin". This is not possible. Not gonna happen. And if I could have Paris Hilton's figure in the blink of an eye, I'm not sure I'd want to.
But I want to get a figure back. Curves.

P.S. I'm totally not one to feel sorry for.
I've just learnt that one of our relatives' new born child was born without skin on some body parts. Please keep the child and his family in your thoughts, not me.

4. Yes, Dutch for dummies ! Need to get back to studying Dutch.

I think that's it for the main wishes for 2008 !

On the craft front, I haven't been scrapping much during my days off.
But I've been doing a few necklaces :





And as a good-bye note I will leave you with a few kitties and garden pics (just hoping to make you forget the part about my ugly pic) :


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Now playing: Miss LI - Let Her Go
via FoxyTunes

A few pics of a good day

Finally, I thought I should take pics of the Xmas trees :
Here's the big one in the living room
This year's colors were white and green. And yes, these are wood elves.

And the little tree
Note for myself : it's hard to take a pic of a fluffy feathery tree in the dark without a flash.

We had a nice sunny morning today
La Petite was chillaxing


The shrubs were gleaming in the sun

The pig was ashining.


The afternoon was cloudy and windy, so everyone went inside for a comfy spot of sleep

"Why do you have to annoy me every time I take a nap?"

"Please let me comatose"

"I said : put the d*mn flash off"

TFL ! Wish you all a very nice day !

My own 10 fave los this year

Answering Bernadette's question here, here are my 10 favorite los of mine this year :

This one because there is such a dreamy quality to it, that I hadn't really foreseen. I love the colours here !

This one because I really enjoyed Gretchen's challenge of creating a lo with colours that are not usually associated with your precise theme.

This one because the journaling was really true and I loved the colours even though they are not colours I usually use.

Well, there's a gnome, need I say more?

Because I could go all the way with the Kawaii thing.

Because for once it was effortlessly right. It just fell into place, and once again, not really with my usual colours.

Cause I loved working with textile and I particularly like this one with the exotic birds. And I also loved the various journaling spots. I also very much liked the theme, it was a very striking thing in Malta.

This one was very unusual for me and I just loved it ! Loved the pic on a transparency, too !

And this story was so funny I could totally go crazy with the colours and Bam Pop stamps.

Cause I just loved the theme so much and the colours involved here were so peaceful !

And a new videoclip

No, I wasn't tired of the Scissor Sisters (can you even get tired of them ?), but it was high time the one and only made an appearance on this blog.
And you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find a Bowie video on the net to put on your blog. There's only videos from the 70', or from the Let's Dance era. And let's face it, I'm a fan of the snobbish stock.
See, there are different types of Bowie fans : one is the young enthusiast, who'll PIMP just watching a Labyrinth video. One other is the old cynic like me who will pluck out one's own eye to avoid watching a Labyrinth video. Even typing the word hurts !

So Life on Mars it is.

Which makes me think : I totally need these
Cause I've finished my 2 seasons of House DVDs, and my QI game...Need something to watch on my long geeky wintery nights !

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Now playing: Hawksley Workman - Tonight romanticize the automobile

MUST. BLOG. MORE. OFTEN

Or take more days off - as I only blog when I'm on holidays, apparently.
So what's been up since, whew ... 18th November !?
Lotsa work, again ! Mucho burn out at work (I bursted into tears in front of a very embarrassed janitor at the Museum).
But the exhibition was OK, finally. Everyone told us how clear and well presented it was this year (no one guessed we had to do this in two months ! )

I took the Xmas holidays off, and I very much think I'm going to take next week too !

Xmas was basically the family thing, like every year. And like every year I was the only one who hadn't got the memo about not giving gifts. It's pretty much like going to a party and being the only one thinking it was a costumed party, but more depressing.
Well, it's the same every year of course, but this time I needed to feel important for someone and obviously it didn't help...

Well, I just gave myself my own gifts : I bought a rather expensive face cream, and this beauty :

that I'm totally gonna wear for New Year's Eve (of course, I'll look like a sausage in it, but whatever ! )

Pfiew !

I'd have sworn I had updated this last Sunday. Apparently not so.
So what's been up in my world ?
First, we still have that much work to do at the museum. I thought it was going to calm down, but noooo. The exhibition is due to start on the 8th of December (it was supposed to start on the 24th of November but it was obvious it wouldn't be ready) and we still have to send a few panels to the panel designers (not sure what the tech word is in English).

Yuck ! And it's driving us crazy. See, I have a degree in History, but not my colleague, because he chose a shorter, more practical and professionally oriented carrier. Which is great, because he knows a lot more stuff than I do about events setting and all that. And he sure knows as much as I do in 2nd Word War History, as he's been in the job for 5 years.
Well, we have this woman who claims that she is the "historical caution" of the Museum (says she, because she doesn't have any official status), and because my colleague doesn't have a History degree, she keeps bringing him down and telling him "you don't know anything, I do, I was a high school teacher" (and I'm not talking figuratively, I'm quoting her exact words. I know, hard to believe anyone would steep so low as saying that).
So she made the preparation of this exhibition a long hell by criticizing everything we wrote...
I can't wait till it's all up and we're rid of that.

And it's sad. Because, while you're searching the land for pictures of your witnesses, archives...while you're making up plans to kill the damn woman who's making all this a hell, well, you forget why you're doing that job in the first place.
I was watching a lame TV movie the other day about the same subject as our exhibition (people who helped Jews and resistants during the war), and I noticed I was moved. And I couldn't help thinking how stupid I was to be moved by some made up story in a lame TV movie, while I was so harsh at work dealing with REAL people's lives.
Sometimes things become blurry and you have to slap yourself to keep what really matters in mind.



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Now playing: Cibo Matto - About A Girl (Nirvana cover)
via FoxyTunes

I'm on a shopping spree

Someone please save me from myself !
I've been putting some money aside these last few months, and since September I've completely gone mad with shopping. Has to do with my general compulsive behavior when I'm depressed I guess...
Well, anyway, here are a few of the latest acquisitions :


These babies are from margin

And they had some special Jibbitz for Halloween. I mean, come on !

And this is just the top of the iceberg, really.
How can I expect to save money to move, if I keep doing this ?
And yet everytime I'm depressed it's the same thing. And once I'm out of this phase I can be perfectly saintly for months...

Just weird me !

And now I got started I just can't stop

Oh, and in the past months I also had something else on my mind.
I am single and make about 1050€ a month at the Museum. With the real estate business being what it is now, I can't even imagine getting a home on my own. It so happens that my aunt is single too and she owns a very small home in a bad neighbourhood. So we've been thinking about getting a bigger house in a nice district together. How Agatha Christie does that sound like ? She'd put half of the sum by selling her old house and I'd take a credit for the rest.
Turns out one my other aunts told her to be careful lest I should rob her of her part or whatever.
She didn't pay attention to it of course, even less so as we had already planned to investigate about the statuses that could protect us both.
But still, I'm just infuriated at this woman. And she just turned up last week all smiling at me and expected me to be friendly. Needless to say I was totally unpleasant and whiny the whole time...
I guess family isn't always a big bed of roses...

Going all Frankenstein

Ok, time to play God a bit and revive this blog.
Those of you who frequently go to might know that I haven't been feeling well of late. Nothing serious (as far as I know), but I just couldn't bother posting on the blog. Felt really really tired and depressed and the whole shebang...Hopefully I'll have more info soon as I have an appointment to the hospital at the end of the month.
On top of that I had too much work to take care of my health/blog, but I hope it's going to be a bit quieter soon. We are currently working on 2 exhibitions at a time for the museum, one about all the people who helped/evacuated/hid Resistants or Jews during the war, and another one about the First World War Resistants.

I haven't been totally idle scrapwise though, as you can see from the slide, I have managed to knock a few los down.

A bit of time to scrap

I finally found some time to make a new lo.
I was definitely inspired by what I saw on my way to the museum the other day.
Working for a Resistance museum certainly makes you meet larger than life people.
Casimir, who lives near the museum, is NOT one of them.
Casimir has started Resistance when he was 15, and he was living with his mom in their occupied farm (his dad was very ill and he would die in 1941). His mum was one of these women you only see in old movies about Resistance. When the Germans were occupying her farm, she called them names because they dared drink HER wine ! LOL !*
He is our "low profile" Resistant, compared to Georges who blew a guy's head (long story, and you don't want to hear it) and sabotaged a station, or Yvonne, the catholic communist (!) who went to Ravensbrück and kept resisting there. He always claims that he has "only" worked for the Intelligence services and has never been arrested, and that the true resistant was his mum. And what is very unfair is that people seem to not be very interested because his story is less spectacular or tragic. I mean, the guy had a few German planes destroyed (planes that were used to bomb London ! )
Well, the 18th of June is the anniversary of De Gaulle's call to French people to start Resistance.
On that morning, as I passed Casimir's house, I noticed the flag at his window !
For Casimir, De Gaulle is still his leader and protector. It's very moving to see this kind of fidelity 60 years later !
I wanted to document that right away.

The LO is unnormally "patriotic" for me (as it is unusual for Casimir to flash the colors ! ) but I wanted something that would look like a traditional image of France, in the old days...So I picked the flag colors.
I kept it a bit vintage because that gesture seemed so old fashioned and touching at the same time.
Pp is Sassafras Lass, the journaling card is from Daisy D (and it bares a very pertinent phrase), stamps are from Pink Sugar Pop, 7Gypsies and Bam Pop.
Wish you all a very happy day (or night)
* BTW, please don't be offended if you are German and reading this. At the time, Casimir's family had lived two occupations, so they rather had a germanophobic feeling. But Casimir is the first to relate how he met soldiers who were nice and only longing to go home. Now he has made a specialty of charming our young German visitors or colleagues !

Sneak peaks

Hello all !

I'm doing a library pocket and card swap and I'm going to be xxxxtra late !
We owe 10 cards and I'm at my 5th 1/4.
So don't worry swap girls, your cards are on their way, and in the meantime, here are some sneaky peaks :



Sorry for the pour quality - couldn't yet invest in a new lsr and I didn't have time to scan. But it's just a sneak peak anyway ! ;-)