Deux oiseaux, une otarie et un poisson

I've finally finished my calendar!

I'll just print the pages, cut them at the right size, and offer them in a package with the little shelf you can see below. The pages are 10x7 and the self is A4. Maybe I should add the year on the shelf, above the pages. I don't know.

Only three days left and I'm on my way to Paris to see the family. With all the little shelves in my bag... And the prints, if I can find some color ink for my printer before tuesday, and that's not certain. I've only managed to print two calendars so far and couldn't find the right cartridge when I went shopping yesterday...

That's the kind of thing that happens to me all the time. I wish I was able to think ahead and be organized, sometimes. It must be really nice, not to be late all the time and worry and run everywhere like a chicken without its head.

I'm definitely not Kazumi yet...

Nemo et plein d'étoiles de mer

Only four months left, I think I'm going to finish the calendar in time... It's not that it takes that long to do the pages, but between work, daughter, house, and my terrible habit of losing myself in reading and daydreaming... Time flies!
This is Nemo, for august :
And little stars for july. In France we also have our national day in july, I thought the stars would look festive : )

Going to buy the christmas trees and decorate this afternoon, with daughter. Love that! The cat is going to be happy too, she will play with the decoration and send half of them crash everywhere. Lucky we don't walk barefoot at this time of year...

Une tortue, une seiche et un papillon

The new months... awfully difficult for me to paint. Not too happy about how they turned out, especially the backgrounds. Not too unhappy either, but I liked the others more.

I think I'm going to manage to finish on time for my family, but I'll never be able to finish fast enough to have the time to print it like a regular calendar. I began too late for that.

To be able to offer it, I'm going to print the pages on thick paper with my own printer, then present them on a little wooden shelf. Some of my students made the shelves for me in their wood work class. I'll show you the photos soon.

If you're interested by the calendar, just download it! Next year I'll try to do something more finished!

And I'm happy to show the award I received from June, and to pass it on!

June has given me the Butterfly Award! I feel very happy about that! June has several great blogs, and makes fabulous photos and drawings.

Here are the rules that go with the award :

1. Put the logo on your blog, you can right-click and copy it from above.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded you

3. Nominate 10 other blogs for this award

4. Add links to those blogs

5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

6. Give a reason why you consider their blogs cool.

Now, ten cool blogs I love (I love many more but ten is already a lot when you think you have to tell all of them about sending them the award...)

Mark great ideas, very cool drawings, now a great series of drawings in alphabetical order!

Margaret Ann wonderful art, celebrating nature and colors

Anita Davies great journal pages, great drawings, sketches and paintings

Anetka always something new on her blog, great drawings and a lot a ideas and great work!

Starr beautiful drawings, beautiful lines and ideas

Andrea Joseph I'm totally awed by her drawings. So neat.

My Fiddlestix beautfiul drawings and great journal pages

Alla Prima great paintings, beautiful unique style

Monette draws and paint a lot of birds, beautifully

Rock Kyndl great neat, precise drawings

Christina Jonsson she's an illustrator and I love the neat lines of her drawings.

All this reminds me that I didn't say as much about the other blogs in my last posting so I'm going to edit that one as well.

That's not good... I was supposed to work on my calendar...

Marie Antoinette, avec sa tête

Still not having much time to blog these days, but Mark from Paper Raven Art, whose blog and drawings I love, sent me this Marie Antoinette Award, and I wanted to enjoy it and pass it on!

Here are the Rules for the Award:

1. Please put the logo on your blog
2. Place a link to the person from whom you received the award
3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs
4. Put the links of those blogs on your blog
5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them.

And I'm passing it on to :

Jim cool drawings and subjects

The Happy Painter great paintings, wonderful portrait galery

Captain Elaine cool journal pages and lovely paintings

Mia great drawings and journal pages

Linda Sarah wonderful illustrated poems and songs

Freebird cool and beautiful drawings

Kathleen beautiful art, great drawings and paintings, love her style

All nice, fun people with great blogs and great art - every one from Every Day Matter's group, except Linda Sarah, who does amazing whimsical, fun and wonderfully illustrated stories, songs and poems.
All done!

Oh, by the way, my message title, Marie Antoinette avec sa tête, means Marie Antoinette with her head, because the poor woman lost it in 1793...

Un iguane, un crabe, et six trucs sur Bibi

Two new ocean related animals for my calendar!
I wonder if I'll manage to get it finished in time... I like this one, he's cute in an ugly way. I'd love to have a pet iguana (but only if I could leave someplace where he could be free).

This one gave me trouble. Not easy at all. He looks a lot like Captain Crab - Bob Square Pant's boss (don't know if he's got the same name in English?)

And I've been tagged by Lynn to say 6 random things about myself...

So, very randomly...

1) I didn't know I could draw anything other than rotten doodles until may 2008 when I found art blogs and tried to draw something for real. I've had a lot of fun with drawing since then.

2) I don't watch tv much, except a few animes and comics with my daughter (I mostly hear them) and sometimes an action or funny movie or tv show.

3) I love to laugh. I laugh easily, I have a rather rotten humor and I tend to friend people who don't take things very seriously. On the surface, at least.

4) I love to read. And write. And dream. I have a very active unreal life... I never get bored when I'm alone.

5) I've stopped smocking twice. Hope this one is the last one. Been not smocking for 1 year and a half now. I've spent nearly half of my life smocking, began very young. Not proud of it at all.

6) I feel at home everywhere and nowhere. I like where I am because I'm used to it and I've made friends, but I could easily go elsewhere. I'm staying mostly for my daughter to keep her friends and daddy near.

Now I'm tagging every one who's coming here on my blog! Feel free to play or not!

The rules:1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

I've spent way to much time on the internet today... It was great!

Deux ours polaires, un vieux phoque barbu et deux auteurs en -da

I have not been blogging much recently. My real life has been a bit complicated, especially at work - it is, still, but I enjoyed the blogging and sharing, and I don't want to abandon that.
I didn't draw much but I did two pages for a calendar I want to make for me and my family. If I manage to finish it on time, I'll print it, I think. I like to have deadlines, otherwise I usually do nothing...
Two "little" bears for january. I found them in a cool book about oceans.

An old bearded seal for february. He's called "bearded" seal, I don't know why, he seems to have a mustache, to me, not a beard.

And the last two books I read - not reading a lot of serious stuff these days, more silly things on the internet than real books...

The one on the left is from French best seller author Anna Gavalda, the kind of books you read in two or three days and nights, and get tired for not sleeping because of it.

The one on the right is from Luis Sepulveda, and as usual, it's awesome, and makes me want to go to Patagonia now.

That's all! Hopefully there will be more soon...

Des trucs qui flottent et 4 cartes

I couldn't not do something for the last EDM challenge, something that floats.
Because like everyone, I know that witches don't float, but ducks do, and sometimes hats too.


And here are the four last cards I received from the EDM postcard swap we began in june, I think :
From Jen Hook in Australia, this beautiful railway station :

From Kelly in Texas, those lovely colorful flowers:

From Deb in Virginia, another beautiful railway station that's now a museum :

And from June, this superb door that leads to the castle and a place with swans and everything you dream about, I suppose!
I was very happy and thankful to receive the cards. This swap has been a wonderful experience!

3 matous

I finally finished the second part of my cats drawings. I'm not very happy with them but they're done and I can think about something else... I rather like the kitten, though. I found the photos of the kitten and the white cat in a book called "Chats insolites", by Anne Camberlain.

This is Mia, my cat, in her usual active position. I was quite happy with the drawing I managed to do of her before she moved! Of course I forgot to scan it and I'm not as happy with the color part...

This is Mia again. She's a nice cat. Lovely and a bit skittish but she can be affectionate sometimes.


I'm not drawing very often these days and that's not good... I need to do something about it - preferably something fun!

Un après-midi, une fanfare et un faune

Today I went to a little town called Collobrières. They organize festivities each autumn, three sundays in a row, to celebrate chestnut season, and sell the chestnuts.
It's a remote and beautiful place. You have to drive on a narrow road for half an hour in the mountains and forest to arrive there (in France that's not often - small country!)



This is a special pan for chesnuts. It has holes in it. You have to cut the chestnuts before putting them in the fire or they will explode!
I didn't eat any because the weather was too warm. That's food for cold times, to get your hands warm! (burnt, too, if you're not careful).
It was a fun day. I saw a faun and his girl friend.

And heard fabulous music.

They're called La Fanfare A Bout de Souffle (out of breath brass band). They were playing Rom (eastern European gypsy) music. It was magical. You can hear them here http://www.duzef.new.fr . They're based in Marseille.

Zorro and Bernardo danced and played the clowns.

I bought 2 kg of cristallized chesnuts, to make desserts and to offer. It's very good!

Beautiful day! I'll think of it when I'm at work and smile.

Monte là-dessus et tu verras Montmartre!

Thanks to your comments and good advices on my last post, I dared color my roofs drawing! And I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and it wasn't that difficult, except for the sky.
I seriously need to practice skies and clouds...

So this is for my parents, who have almost the same birthday, and I had to hurry because they're going back to Paris in a few days and I wanted to give it to them in person.

I love Paris, even if I wouldn't want to live there anymore. It's still a wonderful city!

When I'm more skilled, I hope one day... I'll try to do another with the incredible cloudy sky of Paris.

Des orques et du rouge

Today my kid was sick (nothing too bad - but she's coughing and contagious) so we both had an unexpected day off. No school, and plenty of free time!
So I finished things I had begun last month.
This, from photos I took in Antibes's Marineland last year. I loved it there, especially the whales, it woke up something deep in me - and I usually don't like water and things related much... until this.

And since I had fun doing the yellow book mark and mosaïc the other day, I made some in red, that time.



Two posts in two days... incredible.

Les toits et un lampadaire

This is something I've been wanting to try for some times : views of roofs in Paris. I found some photos on flickr and chose one that didn't seem too difficult... It wasn't too easy either ; )... I want to offer that to my parents for their birthday. I'm going to add color but I like it like that and I'm afraid I'm going to mess it completely... so here it is, before destruction (or not, I hope...)
If you look very closely you can see the Sacré Coeur on the left, very small! It's a view of Montmartre, a famous place in Paris, and it really deserves its reputation because it's beautiful and fun to visit.
What I really love in Paris is the colors, the sky has incredible colors, especially when it's cloudy (which is most of the time), the grey roofs, with pink reflexions, and red chimneys... I don't know another place like that, it's special.
I forgot to note the name of the person who took the original photo... I need to go back and search for that too...

Youpi, un Award!

I feel very happy and honored because Margaret, from Water Blossoms, sent me this award! I love and admire her art and joyful, deep spirit, so I'm very touched - and happy! Did I say happy? ^^

This is an award for arty blogs in WORDS, PICTURES, DRAWINGS and THOUGHTS...
I'm sending it now to :

Starr

Kathleen Hammered Player

Donna the Happy Painter

Anita Davies

Ann Blue Bird Hill

Judybec

Monette Satterfield

Linda Sara Travel and Sing

David Vallejo

Kunstrxns

R. Chun alla prima

Anetka

Rowena

Barbara Weeks Drawing Breath

Susan

You know the rules, now pass it on!

Un conteur et quelques fleurs

This is for the prompt of the week at Inspire me Thursday, it was "storyteller". I couldn't not try to make something with this! I almost didn't make it in time, and I almost managed to talk myself out of it because I thought it was too difficult for me but I tried, and drew this while my daughter was doing her homework and sighing a lot beside me.

It's a bit akward but I like it anyway. Especially in this small version where the errors don't show as much!

This I made quickly tuesday evening after a crappy day at work. It says "un peu de douceur dans un monde de brutes", and it means "a little bit of softness in a brutal world". It was the words in a TV add for chocolate, a few years ago : ) It worked, I felt better!

Beaucoup de jaune et deux Gorfous macaronis

This is for the week's prompt at Inspire me Thursday : Yellow ("jaune", in french). A little (actually it's rather big) bookmark,

and a Flickr mosaïc because I couldn't resist, I love the Flickr Toys!
All the photos come from objects in my house or in the neighbourhood.

And this is not yellow and has nothing to do with Inspire me Thurday. These birds called Gorfous macaronis live in the South Pole. I drew them for a card I did for my parents's birthday (I wanted a couple!) They come from a beautiful book I found about ocean life and scapes.

Poumons

I'm a little late for this week's theme at Inspire me Thursday, but I wanted to try it anyway because I had this image in mind and I wanted to make it :
(the prompt was "Breath")
I'm afraid of the water but I 'm facinated by the sea. I'd love to do scuba diving and I think I'm going to try this year. I feel trapped easily. I love wide spaces and nature, and escaping in writing and books! I want to learn to breath under the sea.

3 livres, un calendrier et un mariage

Another little book sketch, I'm really enjoying doing these! On the left it's Tortilla Flat, by John Steinbeck, it's an old edition that's always been at my parents place and I used to read it every summer when I was young. I re read it this year and loved it all again, and it's a strange little story... in the middle is a serious book, the first I read in years! And it was very interesting.

The last one I've not finished yet, it's fun and a great read for book lovers because the story is taking place in the books world. Very special world!

This is my calendar page for september, it's blurry because the page is bigger than the scanner. Where I live summer is not about to end, not before the middle of october, maybe later, so I'm totally not going to think about autumn now!

And this is something I did after a friend's wedding, but I had some trouble with her face... I finally scanned and printed my first version and painted on the print, of course the paint mixed with the ink and gave those strange colors. I gave it to her but I'm not very happy with it. And I just couldn't do it all again, it was too difficult the first time!

Cinq petits chats

I've been drawing cats. When I saw the theme for EDM challenge n° 185, Draw a cat, I wanted to draw my cat, but I don't see her much during the summer, she hides under things to sleep to escape the heat, and when she's awake, I'm not fast enough... So I found a cool book at the library, that's called "Chats insolites" (means "weird cats"), by Anne Camberlin. It has fun photos of cats, like this one :

And these :

And this one :
The book says all siamese have a squint, and there is an explanation, but after three readings I still can't understand it clearly : (

All the cats are on the same accordeon card :

And I think I'm going to do more because it's fun, there are still many fun/beautiful cats in the book, and I still haven't drawn my cat!