croque-choux

The benefits of tiring one's self out

knackered [from knacker*] adj (British slang):
tired, dead tired, worn out, “I’m bloody knackered”, also broken beyond repair, “that car’s knackered”

A handy word indeed. Commuting to Paris everyday in overcrowded tin cans and sitting for 8 hours in front of a PC trying to cram a lot of knowledge into my little brain in a short time is taking its toll, but I won't bore you with the state of things (i.e. moi) here.
The good side to all of this is that I'm learning a lot (Adobe Illustrator this week, yay!!), and that I have an hour all to myself at lunch time to wander around Paris! I don't spend much of the time eating either- I just grab a sandwich or something and walk around shopping or window shopping. I haven't done this in years and I'd forgotten how many people do this on their lunch break. Okay, it's bad for digestion and I can hear you say: "no wonder she's too tired to update her blog these days!", but it's a rare treat for me to have an hour to myself in Paris. No kids, and nobody saying 'but I don't wanna go here or there' :o) Yesterday I went here and then I went back to one of the Japanese book shops I mentioned the other day, and bought this little Wachifield book! I fell in love with Akiko Ikeda's wonderful illustrations when I visited Japan about 12 years ago. I still have this Wachifield illustration of Dayan cat waiting with his suitcase in poster form on my bedroom wall. (I wish I now that I had bought other Wachifield things while I was there.) My poster reminds me of my trip and of all the adventurous cats I used to share my life with. This image is the first page of a neat little Flash animation presentation of the wonderful world of Wachifield by the way. Watch it!

*knacker n : buyer of old horses for slaughter.

Souvenir, souvenir

When I make presents for people, I'm usually in such a hurry to give them the gift that I almost always forget to take a photograph. Then I kick myself later. I once made a beautiful crazy patchwork bag for my ex-boss (who was also a friend), with black beaded fringe and hand embroidery. It came out really nice, and now 5 years later I can't even remember what it looked like... The sad part is that she's probably forgotton what I look like by now, but that's another story. People change.
Sigh... That's why I was so happy to see this little flower purse again! I made this for one of my daughter's best friends, for her birthday last year. Her friend came to spend the night last week, and I noticed that she brought her little flower bag along with her. She uses it as a jewelry pouch. The nicest thing about seeing the bag again is that I know she uses it and loves it. This made me really happy! My daughter and her friend suggested that I take a picture of it for posterity- well no, for my blog actually, so here's a photo. Anyone who has Kumiko Sudo's lovely book Omiyage will recognize it. There are some really beautful things to make in her book, and it is one of my all-time favorites.

Current Mood:

Me tired, very.

Bear with me

The lack of updates and general chit-chat here lately is due to the fact that I finally started the training courses I mentioned awhile back, which means that I am too braindead afterwards to do much of anything. (This also explains why I am behind in my e-mail, and why my postcards are late...)

Today was my 2nd day of Quark Xpress. Yesterday my head was spinning, but today was better. I'm no longer used to commuting to Paris everyday either, which can be very trying... The nice part, besides the classes of course, is that the classes are in an area of Paris I especially like. Near the Louvre and Opera (not like I have time to go to either!), where I can find English bookstores, a fabric store, plenty of Japanese restaurants and food shops, and best of all- I discovered 2 very cool Japanese book stores in the area! I am so stupid for not having gone there sooner! (^.^#) Junkudo's even has a downstairs which is supposed to have toys and other goodies, but since they were closing I only had time to drool over all the craft books on the ground floor. I saw at least two that I am definitely coming back for, because I haven't seen these anywhere else. The place is a little confusing because the prices are in yen and you have to look up the Euro price on little flyers on the wall, but who cares. The second shop is called Book Off which I guess must be a chain store, and I couldn't believe they opened one in Paris. Why? Because it's a bookstore with friendly staff and great prices on (now this floored me) 2nd hand books, dvds, mangas, etc- all in great condition. I almost lost my mind when I found this place. I'll have to check the craft section frequently. The other day I scored this Handmade Felt book for a 2 Euros (less than 2 bucks)!

April Softie: "miam-miam" the Monster

I truly don't know how I managed to actually finish this on the day of the deadline, but here is my monster for April's Month of Softies!
I called him "miam-miam", which is yum-yum in French. He caught this spider and keeps carrying it around... I can't decide if the smile on his face is because he's about to get his snack on, or if it's because he's befriended the spider. You never can tell with monsters.
Anyway, I made him from one of my daughter's old tops. It was one of her favorite shirts and she wore it until she couldn't squeeze into it anymore. We both loved the fabric and were happy to recycle some of it into this monster! I have some leftover, which is good because then there will be no fight over who gets to keep the monster: my daughter or my son who kept hovering around me while I was sewing. This was a lot of fun to make because I had to hunt around for stuff to recycle. Besides the shirt material, I used an old pipe cleaner, a feather my son gave me, and some little pieces of Tyvek for monster claws. Many thanks to Loobylu for a fun project!