Holy Night

I thought I'd never find a minute to put my new painting online.
My day has been busy (and that is far from being the truth)...

Anyway, before starting with the illustration of another book, I really needed to make a break with a painting, based on inspiration and feelings only. It felt good working on it (happy sigh)**~~*^* *



Now just tell me you're as exhausted as I am (or maybe more??!!), That will be a precious support, thank you :)

Chat-bisous

(how can I translate chat-bisous... *playing kiss tag*?)

Anyway, "chat-bisous" is the MAIN game at the moment at school for Lola.



The game's rule (in case you wanna play it where you are) :
When you're the "cat", you run after the mice, and as soon as you catch one, you try to kiss him/her. Then the kissed one becomes the cat.

So Lola explained me that yesterday she was the kissing cat / chat-bisous.
She caught lil Octave and kissed him on the lips.
lil Octave
(thinking)
(mind boiling)

Wasn't he the lil boy who badly vomited (poor boy) when I arrived to take Lola at school?
Wasn't it the name the teacher mentioned, a name she connected to nasty devilish "gastroenteritis"?

Arggg...

I find chat-bisous very funny, except when winter's special *gifts* are involved!

Wednesdays...

ok, in front of me I can count:

60 wood boards of different size
250 screws and wood pieces of different size.
2 over-excited devils

NO indication, no drawing of how to build the kids' bed.



in the mirror: 1 desperate mama

(Bonus track: Beatles' Helllllllp)

edit: there was a drawing! We discovered it this morning, carefully hidden behind a curtain by the youngest of our lil devils!
grmpppph

re-edit: as promised, here's the result :P


(third night Loup sleeps there and it goes pretty well!)

More than a dream, a fantasy !

...2 men sweating in the kitchen!

A memorable moment

and not only because of the delicious meal we got!



...but also because of the people who were there, with who we had real fun, it was a wunnerful Thanksgiving, thank you my dear *cousins* !!!

The very best moment ...

..when you make a cake... is definitely this one:



:P

I know it's not too late! (yeehaaaaa!)

...so, happy Thanksgiving to all my friends over the big pond!
Laurienna, my inspired artist and friend, Ariel my dear *friend*, Michelle my American-Parisian favourite one, Delphine and Fred the expat', Gigolo, Fitz, NG, Shrinkie (who do not read my bloggie -what a mistake! :P-), and all of you, the ones who brought/bring warmth in my life... **~~* *thank you**~~*^* * and happy Thanksgiving!

(I've just found a quote here that I really love)

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.
~W.J. Cameron

Books on the shelves (soon?!)

The three topics for the 3 first Lola 's books have been accepted, validated.

Lola already think she's like a Hollywood star (lol). Of course, she is. :)

I am so happy!
I just hope it's not a dream and that one day I'll hold the books in my hands.

But for now I'm working on the other series. More precisely on the story board of the second book.

And tonight I'm much more motivated by wasting time on Facebook, sooooo... it's like a nature's call, I must answer it! :D

(wooooosh)

Vintage

it's one of the songs I really love. The whole album is as good. A bit old now (cough), but it's always a pleasure to listen to it.

The perfect cocktail ...

...to renovate a house (otherwise, it's a planteur -the perfect cocktail, huh-)

1)blind faith
2)inspiration
3)energy
4)money

Actually, it's the same ol' story, what really matters is money again because without it you can't do any works. Equipment, from the screwdriver to pneumatic drill, etc is really expensive too.

With the hobbit house project, I discovered that a roof could cost 9000 euros, a *modern* electric meter, 600 euros, stairs, 4000 euros or a new window, 700 euros.
I had absolutely no idea about such prices before.

The biggest works have been done (happy relieved sigh)
But now we have still a lot to do (electricity, water, heating, etc) and we've 2000 euros left for the works!

hm (thinking)... I need to learn some magical spells very quickly, huh! :P

A not so lazy November weekend

Haaaa, so kewl to use Picasa and its web albums! Instead of bothering you with too much blablas, you get the photos which will tell everything!

Only one flower left (but zillions of leaves dancing around)

I have no idea how to start my week.
I have a list, HUGE (3 post-its), of things to do, and I don't know what do to first. They are all priorities! heeeeelp!

Just a quickie

That's what we'll do next weekend.
Loup is already there in Bretagne (enjoying a quiet night here! ;-)
We have to go there tomorrow evening to work in the hobbit house on Saturday (yawn). We have a new door and window fixed, there is cement stuff to be done and shutters to be fixed. And we can't do it later.

So we'll run, again. I plan to enjoy at least one planteur cocktail near the fireplace, once the work will be done, naturally (cough cough)

Then wooosh on Sunday we're back.

So much to do in so lil time!
I'd better not think of it and spend some lazy minutes on Facebook... :P
---> on my way!

Not such a bad day ...

It went really fine with the publishing house earlier today.
They really liked my illustrations!

What next then?
2 other books to be finished by the end of February!! yeepeeeeee!

but if it was only that...
You remember the manuscript I wrote and illustrated a few months ago "Lola Tralala" ?
They want it too! ... and want to make a series of it!

3 books are expected before August!

That does not mean I will get hundreds of thousands euros, lol, but that simply means my work, my own creation, made with my lil hands, made with all my heart, with all the energy I give to it night and day, is good enough to maybe get popular.

(dancing around!!!)

It's been a good day, my friends :)

I had to celebrate it spending euros I did not have (how magic is that, huh?!)


(I swear it's not my legs that you can see on top!)

Ouch!

Falling in the stairs with a heavy Loup in the arms is not what I just needed.
I could not stop my fall till the next floor downstairs, can you imagine that?

It would be absobloodilutely hilarious if my bum did not feel like broken in a thousand pieces right now! Grmppph. Loup was a bit shocked but I managed to carry him safely during the fall.

Of course that had to happen just before Lola's dance lesson... grmppphhh

Now the pain is pretty intense, but I can't take care of it, I'm almost out again to take the devils to a birthday. Loving Wednesdays ;-)

On a happier note, Loup will officially attend school on next September. We met the headmistress, etc. We already know each other, since Lola's there. That's kewl.
I hope the beginning will be easier than how it happens at the kindergarten. Loup still cries and screams whenever we take him there. That breaks my heart. (sigh)

Tomorrow I have a rendez-vous with my publishing house. Time to present my work for them. And I worked a lot on the project! Even started to tame the graphic tablet (so so practical for the backgrounds for instance). I hope they will enjoy it as much as I do. Wish me luck!



(now back to another painting ->wooooosh>

What if ...

... suddenly Santa Claus felt like in a *French mood* ???
(eeeeeck!)



huuu, yes, it was high time to start talking about Christmas ;-)

Martin: the bird is NOT a pigeon! It's a turkey, of course it is! pfffff
edit: okok, I added a detail that make the turkey definately not a pigeon! :P

Your kids might not enjoy anything *green* ...

...like avocado, but ... they might get crazy for Blue Lagoon's Fish!
it worked for mines!
(dancing around the vegetable's totem)

As usual, no recipe, Candy la chef has not done any more than what's shown on the pics :P

My crystal ball is a bit too talkative!

I can see, I can see that the end of the year will a copy of the week I've just had. Same characters, same plots, same happy ending (?)

With Loup sick for a week (and really sick: vomiting around, having fever, ect) and with a super-active Lola, I haven't found much time to work.


(but how could I resist such a Lola!)

During the whole week I've started in the evening to finish after midnight when my eyes were just too painful.

I really hope I'll finish tonight to get a relaxing weekend. Spend some time with Martin. We'll see. Energy is almost gone now.
I know now that to make a Herman book (about 24 pages with illustrations + the cover and back cover), I need about 6 weeks... Not an easy job finally! lol

With what I'll earn with that book, I've decided I'll spend it for the kids' bedroom which looks like everything but a kid's bedroom. We've never had the time to make it this way. It's a challenge, because their room is really small and full already with 2 big HUGE and UGLY Ikea wardrobes.


the devils plan to cover them with stickers!
Yeeeehaaaaaa!

Next week will be about the same, full. I have a rendez-vous at school for Loup who will be then registered for next year (already!), I have my rendez-vous on Thursday with the publishing house, a full Wednesday before (with the usual stuff + a birthday at friends for the kids), and on Friday we run to Bretagne again for not even 48 hours to check new stuff with the hobbit house. Yawn

I want my bed
or my Facebook
lol

Oh, having school in mind ...

such a pleasure**~~*^* *

Autumn was there to welcome us

I had forgotten how this season could be enchanting!
Brittany, despite its grey weather, smelt the earth and wood, and was all dressed in yellows and oranges.
(happy sigh)

For the kids of course, it was perfect, they were with their cousins, they could enjoy horse-riding when they wanted, etc.
I was a bit busy with Loup being sick and naturally mama-demanding, but I finished to read the last Harry Potter while purring near the fireplace.

Oh that final book, great, better than expected! I'm just sad it's over now, you know. You know?
When I was there, my sister and my half-brother had just bought their Harry Potter. Can you imagine how much money the book bring if you consider 3 people in the same close family are reading it at the same time? Gawd, that's crazy!

Anyway, we also worked pretty much in the hobbit house and we had a great surprise there (you will see that in the pics).

Now I'm back in Paris with a huge amount of work (I've to give the illustration of the first book next week) and with no time to do it! Argggg! I thought I was good at multitasking but... I should improve a bit! grmppphhhhhh

here are some of the pics from old beautiful Bretagne :)

Autumn holidays in Brittany

Whether you're a born-player, or not ...

... you will certainly enjoy the cul d'chouette as presented below

(sorry you non-Frawnch speaking ones, I doubt I can translate the video ;-)

Kaamelott Saison 1 Episode 70 : Perceval relance de quinze - wideo

Auteur : Alexandre Astier


We've watched again bits of Kaamelott lately, and it is still so good. Laurienna, I'm sure you'd love Kaamelott(if you don't know it yet).
I fear I'll add the new dvds to my letter to ol' Santa! Almost all episodes are cult, and I know only 10% of them!

Just back

... from Brittany :)
I, huh, LOVED it. It was so autumn-ish you know. The feelings, the landscape, the colours, the food, the drinks.

Too bad I'm back with a sick Loup :( 3 days he's been like a zombie, feeling apparently awful (fever,bad cough, running nose, etc).
My poor baby!

Anyway, I'll be back again with pics and details as soon as I get a free minute or two.

In case it's cold where you are, here is a SO MUCH artistic film of the very first fire we made in the hobbit house. The film has absoblooddilutely no interest but this first fire felt wunnnnnerful! (happy sigh)

Light my (first) fire
envoyé par candyfroggie