A talented friend

I've just spent a lovely week-end! Romantic diner with my beloved in a very gay restaurant which was most fun...then sweating in the dance floor with a remix disco sound! Too bad they feel the need to remix it...i simply love disco even before the huge success of "Mamma mia"!  In Lisbon, singers like Claude François, Dalila who are icones in France are definitely old fashioned...so i end up dancing alone in my house for a few minutes my friends nodding with compassion....waiting for the real music to come up. 

Then we had this very dear friends who came by our house... on sunday and while we girls were chatting endlessly men were preparing the meal! and what a diner it was...a tree stars Michelin. 
This friend is an artist who doesn't recognize himself as one. Sad but true...at least for the moment. It's such a waste when one finds many excuses to keeps us apart from our inner self. He's so TALENTED but seems to never find the time to dedicate to his creativity. I suggest him "the artist's way" by Julia Cameron who is truly "the artist's bible". She provides us with so many useful exercices and liberating ones. Our creativity flows if we take the time to just aknowledge that it's there, maybe hidden but still there each layer screaming for freedom. 

What does it take to be creative?
What does one need to create?
What prevents us from our true self?




I paint two walls in my kitchen, so we can draw, write whatever we feels ...and here is this beautiful elephant draw by my dear friend, looks a bit sad to me but hey.......who am i to say so!
it's a good omen as his tail his opposite the front door so that means GOOD LUCK. 


Hopefully his creativity will reveals itself don't know when but in opinion the "when" is not important what is vital for all of us is truly to let out what we are here for.




TO BE WILLING TO
TO BE BRAVE
TO BE HAPPY NO MATTER WHAT
TO ENJOY THE BLESSINGS OF LIFE...

Good health

There's nothing like being in good health and when one is usually in good shape to take it for granted!
So out of the blue i caught this intoxication back in San Francisco...was it the fear of crossing the Golden Gate that made me vulnerable plus the pouring rain! Don't know for sure but i'm pretty ill for a week now which is unerving as i have SO  many projects...Don't we all? 
Today back to the hospital with a violent pain in my right ear which prevent me from sleeping last night and a double otite as a result! I'm much enjoying my holidays! Tomorrow dentist!  
The extraordinary part is that the otites is truly my body eliminating scories from the past. I am doing this regressive therapy, check at www.barbarabrennan.com  (for those who are interested) and yesterday was a very powerful session! It takes courage and determination to start a therapy, to heal from our deepest wounds and fears. I had never sensed so rapidly in my body the healing power at work so i accept it and even cherish it though it means feeling vulnerable in the middle.
I hope of course that the outcome will be a more criative and loving Life. 

 I have so many ideas and projects going on that now i must be assertive! Which is very complicated as i tend to avoid it.Being assertive is not being selfish! everyone knows that, i know it but still...in my mind that means i come first for the moment so i m not very available for those around and i feel...GUILTY. Thanks to our catholics education being guilty for no particular reason seems to be the natural way... and escaping from it takes again courage.
I'm in the process of growing up, of being a woman who has a Life of its own, who is able to made her own decisions and TRUST her inner thoughts and intuition. See why i'm ill! Pretty scary hein... but very much challenging too.
Tonight, even with all my medicine, I'm going along with my husband to assist a conference held by Matthieu Ricard, budhist and personal assistant of the Dalai Lama. Researches have been made, in his brain and the results are spectacular as his degree of total happiness is so prodigious that it escape all statistics! We are very excited to be able to listen to a holy man and to benefit from his imense aura.


Tomorrow there's "NOITES DO PRINCIPE REAL" Rua D Pedro V em festa. I'll tell you more...


HAVE FUN ... RELAX 

I did it!

My inner child is HAPPY... A week ago I receive a mail from SIC(portuguese television) to know if i was ok to realize an album for Fátima Lopes "Vida Nova" for her birthday! I was so excited that i imediately say yes without thinking...i'm leo ascendant sagitarius.... so when i opened my timetable i discover that her birthday were in a week ahead and not in 15 as i  had guessed. To tell it was an enormous challenge is still far ahead from the true as i usually made my albums within 2 months in a calm  and relax way! 
So here i was confronted with the" task of doing a good job" for the most popular  portuguese talk show presentator. Her team are not only professionals but most of all kind and true people so in the end it turn out easier than it seemed.
As ideas were flowing came the worry "what should i dress" know the feeling girls!!! i've got absolutely nothing to wear total panic so here i go with a very sexy friend.......who choose for me ......a very sexy outfit......that my husband and mom hate from the start. Everyone was giving those wild ideas even my friend Franck told me to wear......my wedding dress so it was fun in between panic.
In the end ........ Fátima Lopes loved my present and she even cry with emotion. I mean what more does an artist want! She was deeply touched and made me a compliment that almost make me cry as well:" People do trust you, Alex, to confide their most precious treasures to you, you are blessed"
I've learned once again that we are more capable than what we think at first.
New doors have opened to me can't wait the next challenge!


Have fun....

I am happy...

 Those were definitely happy times, no worries at all, everything was cool and easy. I'm doing a diet for two months now, so far so good! It's the easiest i've done till now but still...there are times like now for example where i could eat 2 tablets of chocolates plus biscuits plus pasta at pestou plus....okay! you've getting the point i'm not starving because i can eat whatever proteins i want but is there something better than waking up in the morning preparing a large bowl of hot coffee and french baguette with plenty of butter and marmelade? My mental is swirling again so i'm rushing to the kitchen to eat my low fat iogurt with plenty of sweetener. 
Today is one of those difficults days when i just want to be in bed for the whole day, savouring an old romantic movie with a chocolate coffee vanilla ice cream...
Instead i'm going to eat my hamburger with my sunny side up egg, which is not so bad!
Step by step, one day after another with patience . My new mantra starting today " my life is easy and smooth, each day is getting better" What do you think? My mother is studying astrology and told me that  i have Saturn apparently in an ackward position where it meant" life is difficult, i have to struggle....bla bla bla......" Stop i will stop, starting today, at least i will try as it's becoming with ageing "less fun" to fight endlessly.

As we say in french "suite aux prochains episodes" step by step i will succeed in being more relaxed, less stressed...and most of all in being more patient with my husband.
i'll tell you all about it. Have a good  and a happy week-end.

Portugal Treasure album

• My little brother gave me this exciting idea about a making a portuguese album... I love everything that is old, i just took old vintage portuguese postcards, made two drawers, inside them  write down what is portugal to me, like Mosteiro dos jerónimos, Fado, Alfama, Torre de Belém, Dom Afonso Henriques, pastéis de nata...  a very small notebook with a portuguese traditional old boat, add a knitting made by my mother with a necklace "remember"and Voilà! 
• I love it ...
• I call it treasure album, as it will (i hope) always be a reminder for the lucky buyer how Portugal is a beautiful country, rich of his past and positive about his future. We are a land of imigrants, of travelers, of seekers, of courageous man and women. Our past is a magnificent one, we are proud of who we are and of whom we became.

I love being portuguese (and french too that's another album!!!) I know where my past lies through my father, i can trace my family back to the 17th century, so my roots and my sense of belonging is very strong and that gives me an inner strengh to go worlwide  with an open and curious mind .

• 
  
  

A wish little house

I

I made this wish house for a 11 years old boy that i m very found of. He's very creative and has a wild imagination, i sincerely hope that he cherish my little wish house. There's a box for him to write down his secret desires and i told him he should keep them for himself! He loves the idea...... let's see what happens!!!!!
Today i get up very early at 6 am...wow and spend my day in my studio. The morning was quite frustrating, i started some cover books but was stuck in the process of "now what i'm going to tell inside the book? Very unnerving, in the middle my cat frimousse was very excited too (guess whose fault!) and my coffee machine that i absolutely love and brought from Paris, as they don't sell this branch here in Portugal just broke!!!! grrrrr relax breathe in breathe out... there's still my favorite tea with plenty of milk and sweetener. 
My mom and her overwhelming generosity brought me some "fromage blanc" so i could create!!!!!!!!!!! and gave me the idea of what i could put inside my books; old postcards from Portugal. So that was it, my good mood came again like the tide i was flying again.
Wish reminds me that it happens a lot when we are supposedly stuck that's when we are about to move on a little forward.
So i'm tired but fully satisfied. it's been a rewarding day.

BE HAPPY....... CREATE and DREAM A LOT

Bon anniversaire Maman...

A friend told me recently that all the girls think their mom are beautiful! My mom is beautiful inside in and out. She sparkles when she enters a room, carrying her luminous energy, her incredible charm and charism. I have always profoundly admire my Mom for her beauty of course but most of all for her strengh, outstanding intuition( she knows it all.......) her wits, her culture, her "savoir vivre and savoir faire".

One doesn't forget Sylvianne Jung...she's quite a character!

she's fun

she's happy no matter what

She has fought many battles in her life never gave up

she's a natural leader

She acts every day trying in her own way to make a better world, in helping others via therapy so they can feel happy and accomplished or with her day care with elderly people.

My mom is always there for us and for others. People do love her for her incredible energy and utmost strengh.

I am truly blessed as she's my best friend, my confidant, my support, to be able to rely on her, to know that i can trust her no matter what, she's has and always be there for me as i am for her. One of my deepest regrets over the years was that we are not alike......at all physically we don't look like mom and daughter! I remember when trying to find my perfect wedding dress that the ladies used to tell me: how nice of you to come along with your mother in law!

I remember too how it would have been great to have my little Sacha that resembles her grandmother!

So over the years my mother is like a good french Bordeaux wine, she's becoming more and more luminous and compassionate and tender and........... Je t'aime schoune

Je suis fière d être ta fille

Today is Adriana birthday too a very dear friend, mother of 6, who has this incredible intuition too. Wish you all the best as she's going through rough times but she's got the ability and the strengh to come over it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY....BON ANNIVERSAIRE...PARABENS....

Feira Craft and Design april 2010

The market was quite a success. The sun was shining,i had a beautiful spot, people were happy and smiling... A perfect week-end! Though it's quite tiring i love being there all day, just chatting around, getting my work to the world! I haven't fully recovered from Port Townsend this year maybe it's my protein diet plus the jet lag plus the forties?Maybe i should slow down a little but...there's so much one wants to do. I think the omega 3 it's a marketing product! it doesn't work on me neither the spiruline! Maybe i should try to get more sleep... I had plenty of friends who come by, meet a bunch of new ones which i love even if it's always unsettling for me i'm the type who could live in the middle of the forest with my husband and cat. Get the pictures! but i'm improving there again that's what ageing does to a person i can say that i'm a far better person today than back in my thirties. More tolerant, understanding, patient, loving, caring...I have been learning, wisely the lessons that God send me. I've got a new workshop next sunday and there again i walk out of my safe zone trying new things, opening to the world and his judgement. I'm reading again and just beguining the 12 weeks program of Julia Cameron "the artist's way, a spiritual path to higher creativity". Yesterday i met an artist who is turning a medieval movie here in Portugal who ask me "where does your inpiration come from" wow! that's a damn good question. Julia Cameron says that it come mostly from pain? does it? My obsession one could say for nest are an easy one but unless you know me it doesn't show on my art which i like as for me the goal is to inspire people not to sadden them. Life itself is more than enough for that. So today i m happy , unsecure as there are too many projects going on and my mental loves to control as you all know by know that's why "The artist's way" comes in good time.There were yesterday this beautiful young teenager who is studying art, and told me how difficult it can be as teacher are sometimes so cruel they just cut your wings... in purpose or inconsciously but the harm is done, i replied to her there will always be "a cruel teacher" criticising, judging us most of the time is within us so one has to be aware! Being an artist is not an easy path but it's such a blessing and rewarding Life. Listen to your inner voice.

HAVE FUN...BE HAPPY

Working in my studio

Since Artfest i haven't been sleeping very well, at 8h30pm every night i almost fall of tiredness  and then it just passes till 3am..... as i resist on pills i just have to be patient while my husband....and my cat are fast asleep. So the bright side is that alone in my studio i create those albums. I bought this old book in Artfest this year, had an idea that of course turned out completely different. It's for sale on next week-end "craft and design".It's meant to be a gift as inside you can add photos of loved ones, there's 2 little drawers, a postcard... i cherish when i receive a present the wrap as much as the gift and it's good to make it last as long as possible, to have little surprises inside the big one! This one is simpler as there's a niche when you open it where you can add one photo. This one will be my third workshop; a day well spent learning how  to transform old books in beautiful albums. Recycling as the papers inside the books are used as canvas to paint, to resin, to sew, whatever anything but the bin!  RECYCLE the era of shopping is recessing more and more people are aware and concerned that one needs to change. So i try at home to reuse my materials and be less consuming even in my craft stores! I don't see the point in buying one more pair of jeans when there are so many in the drawers and i have to say that what really was the turning point to me was a trip to India severals years ago. We stayed with Mom in a magical place held by Dodies in the Rajasthan. One loves or hates India there's no in between. I love it from crowded and polluted  Mumbai to ancient palaces in Jaipur and Jodhpur to the superb food, the colours of the saris, the beauty of the people  their open smile, their deep spirituality. It's a life changing trip! I wasn't very much into addict shopping but now even less, i tend to buy what i really will use or need. My addiction are books but they are food for my soul so it's ok to keep on buying them. Is it? I would love to made "a life changing" trip to Peru too but there seems never to be the right moment! I definitely was Indian and peruvian in a former life as well as native american. Just finished this beautifully written book "a thousand wifes" by Jim Fergus and caught myself crying in the end when the cheyenne camp was dismanteled and all of them were killed by a ruthless  white army. Something within me was deeply moved,it felt real to me if you see what i mean? Ok have to hurry up and catch my mom at the airport (for once is not me...) and off to a beach restaurant, nice fish and shrimps! Still on the protein diet Amanda! it's worth it as now one can sees the difference...cool HAVE FUN....SMILE and LAUGH A LOT

Feeling dizzy.........

I just arrived from New York, i'm very tired it's been a long day! I haven't yet integrated Artfest  and fully unpacked that i was in a plane again.......which is kind of unsettling. This year maybe because the winter here in Portugal was rude i'm feeling tired as no matter how long i sleep i still wake up feeling dizzy......which is very disturbing for me as i'm used to do a lot of things 

is it the forties? I have this sense that time flies that maybe my creativity is blocked will i evolve will i have new ideas??????? Artfest was overwhelming for me as i was last year but i feel that my brain is out of control that i haven t fully grasp the techniques that i ve learned will i be able to do them again? did i understand correctly?  i'm a slow learner i need time and everything is going so fast but maybe that's the overall idea now that i try not to control! Let go......accept welcome the unknown.......  In his class Susan Lenart Kazmer told that we have to be aware of  "pretty things" that's precisely what we do not want to create, we want people to focus maybe on the message or.....well that was very disturbing for me as know i'm wondering gosh am i creating just... pretty things? which sounded so awful in Susan's mouth would she look at my stuff and just snorted? grr.......maybe that's a necessary path to take 3 steps behind to move on? i feel like she's peering in my studio telling me rubbish no good no good must improve .......see? i really need to sleep maybe tomorrow, my mood will be a sunny one? maybe it's just this enormous jet lag? I've had the confirmation that i will be flying mostly to Asia in june which i must say is unnerving as though i'm excited with all the treasures i will find in old markets in Pekin and Shangai the +8 hours is scaring me a little. Will i be able to sleep? will i ........stop there is my mental again taking over. Okay i took this photo below in Meat packing district, new york which is one of my favorites spots in big apple plenty of street art around changing every week. go to this place called "pastis" who looks like an old french bistrot very charming with delicious breakfast though for me it was only the sunny side up eggs as i m still on a diet! Good for me is the dukan diet, mostly proteins but very easy to accomodate so far so good lost a few pounds becoming addict to the black earl grey with plenty of milk and sweetener!  there's nothing like a good night sleep, my husband being away i let Frimousse (my tiger from Malasia.......) staying with me which seemed a good idea except at 3am when he starts miaw miaw grrr......plenty of work to do as next week end is "craft and design" so cross my fingers that my creativity will flow.... i'm excited with the resin and the encaustic wax let's see what comes up. i've been reading "a thousand white women" by Jim Fergus which i higly recommend if you fancy stories about americans natives. so i would love to make a resin album about the cheyennes, love their world and their concept of life.  HAVE A GOOD WEEK......oh happy easter almost skip it!!!! no eggs chocolate for me this year... LIFE IS GOOD .......BE HAPPY