… apart from enjoying their wonderful company? Laying on the inflatable mattress and let my weight deflate it.
Feeling my body be consumed by this mass of moldable plastic is highly meditative. I come out of this experience refreshed, with a big smile on my face and the desire to do it again.
So please, if ever you come to our house for a night or two, let me deflate the bed, please! Or OK, I can let you try it, but I’ll have to re-inflate it to get to go on the ride again :)
Today, I was still feeling sick and decided not to go to a party I was invited to, in order to keep my germs for myself. I then had to create projects to keep me entertained. So I did the dishes, I put my pile of clothes away, I entered some pictures in my genealogy tree and I painted.
I thought of a concept a while back, not claiming to be unique, but at least interesting to me. I’m just starting to explore it…
Here’s the concept: apply a layer of paint and put bits of tape on it. Let dry. Apply another layer of paint and more bits of tape on it. Let dry. Apply another layer of paint, etc… So that when all is dry and you peel off the tape, it reveals the layers you “saved” with the tape.
Here’s my first attempt: a very spiky flower. I want to make more!
PS: I need to take pictures of my “art” with a tripod!!
It’s the first time I’ve seen Yosemite with snow… what a treat! We were there last weekend with friends and snowshoed to Dewey Point.
Justin and I rented a pimpin’ mini-van and took our friends Joy, Kyle and Marcia on the winter adventure. We totally took our time to get there, but were just in time to witness a beautiful sunset on Half Dome.
We stayed in one of the heated canvas cabins in Yosemite’s Curry Village.They were really fun, pretty warm and could fit all 5 of us (well, Kyle slept on the floor… but it seemed OK, I hope!).
The next day, we started the snowshoe adventure at Badger Pass (45 minutes away from Curry Village), went up Glacier road and took the “hard” trail to get to our destination. It went up and down and up and down. The landscape was beautiful, we stopped to take pictures (probably too many times because we ended up in a rush to head back and make it to the snowshoe rental return time).
Right before our destination, we stopped to have some lunch… Hot Dogs that Justin cooked on our little camping stove with buns, ketchup and all! Other people passing by looked jealous… hellz yeah we’re cooking in the snow! (Joy has some evidence!)
We were almost just going to turn around because we were pressed with time, but some cross-country skiers told us that Dewey Point was really just around the corner. Ok… we went the extra few yards.
Man it was worth it!!! It was like ending up on top of a cliff, covered with snow with no security railings whatsoever, with a view of all of Yosemite Valley. It was actually pretty scary and we made sure not to go too close to the edge where snow could have just decided to slide off its support and drag us into the mountain abyss. Seriously, I wonder if people ever fall? Anyway, let’s not get into dark and depressing things, we’re all alive and enriched by the stunning view.
Justin and I at Dewey Point (courtesy of Joy).
We then turned around and took an easier route (thank goodness!) to get back to the rental place. Gotta say, that chunk of the journey was the hardest! We were all tired, it got really cold, our joints were starting to hurt and muscles were quiting.
The clock was ticking, we had to get back in time and so we did! Well, we were 5-10 minutes late, but the shop was still open. Pheew!
All in all, it was a fantastic short little getaway, with great company, some physical challenges and a rewarding experience.
Here are the highlights…
A bigger version of this slide show is available here.
One of my urges lately is to create. To be artistic. I used to choreograph and paint all the time and now I’m not. I’m not closing my eyes anymore, to visualize something and make it happen outside of my brain. I still don’t really have the need or energy to get back into creating movement, so I decided to take out the paint brush again.
Since it’s been a while I haven’t dipped these tiny little hairs into the wet paint, I decided not to go free flow and to actually use somewhat of a model. I don’t really have a style, I don’t have a “stroke”, I like painting things that look like something or that is completely abstract or that is the fruit of a concept without an aesthetic purpose. But in this case, it’s the picture of a very small street in the old Nice that inspired me.
I actually started this painting months ago. I looked at it, put it away, added some more stuff, put it away again and finally tonight I took it back out to make the final little color changes and accents I wanted to add.
You’ll see that I simplified a lot of details and only kept the ones I found interesting. I also was true to the color scheme but not to its arrangement. I added a little bit of texture to the wall, so that they wouldn’t look like I just filled in a coloring book.
The colors of the photo of the painting are not quite true to the original hues, but pretty close.
I’m not sure what I think about it yet… I just know that it doesn’t hurt my eyes and it felt good doing it… so I guess I’m pretty satisfied.
… that means “my nose is a potato”.
In English it doesn’t seem to translate, but a French person would know that it means I have a cold and my nose feels like a potato because it’s raw, feels huge and ugly!
Why potato? Is it because French people tend to have big noses? I wonder.
But right now, yes. My nose is a potato.
2007 was an exceptional year of growth. I think I’ve accomplished many things, went many places, met or reconnected with lots of people, moved my body… and I actually feel a little smarter than last year.
Here are some highlights…
Things I did for the first time…
People around me also influenced my year in a great way, like my sister having her baby, Luna, and my Dad getting his American citizenship and Eveline having her baby, Zacharie.
What about resolutions? Nah..not for me. I know that if I force myself to make a list of changes, I won’t do it. If I need change, I will feel it in my guts, I don’t need a date to be set for this and I just trust myself to always want to evolve, move forward and keep growing. Staying balanced and happy is my year-round resolution, and it takes work! It’s just not on a list.
Looking back at the year that just went by makes me feel pretty strong and wondering how I can top it off! But at the rate I feel like I’m growing, I think I’ll be just fine.
This New Year starts very Happy!
