About Clouds, Flowers and Dreams

It seems that my perception of time is slightly of lately. By lately, I mean months... It's possibly due to my lack of sleep and other joys of getting older. Am I slowing down of sorts? I sure enjoy little musings and off time more then before, and I'm not even feeling guilty about it! Last week we had some lovely autumn weather and I thoroughly enjoyed laying on my chaise longue contemplating my last flowers and watching clouds passing by.

They were so fluffy, creamy and sugary that I was seriously tempted to fulfill my childhood dream and climb on them with a spoon to eat them.
Yeah, I was firmly convinced that the clouds were made of tons of whipped cream.

 So much beauty in the moment, transformed to happiness of one dreaming hearth...

About Clouds, Flowers and Dreams

Happy Birthday to Me !

One thing is clear: a normal person wouldn't jump for joy seeing so many candles on the cake. There, I said it! But I started to see things differently several years ago when my good friend lost her husband suddenly. He was just about my age. Ever since then I have been seeing my birthdays differently. Each year on my birthday I think to myself: “He hasn't  had a chance to be my age.” Those moments make me feel very grateful and I appreciate life even more knowing that every moment of it is a gift. And everything that happened to me, good and bad, is a gift too. This is my life and I finally am able to embrace it in it's greatness. No, I'm not getting all spiritual on you, but there was a moment (or two) when I refused to accept that this is my life - because I had it planned differently long time ago. George Bernard Shaw said: “Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness but it is greatness.” Story of my life.

Finally, of what importance is the number of years, it's just a number. It's what you pack inside those years that counts. Let me tell you one thing:  I've got enough material for two or maybe even three lives. It's not that I have chosen to do so, life simply happened to me. And love. And pain. And joy. And change. And disappointment. And happiness. Life is the greatest teacher. And love is the greatest gift. I'm fortunate enough to have three loves of my life. I just spoke to one of them, he called me from England to wish me happy birthday. I miss him very much. The other is arriving any moment from Montreal to celebrate with me. I can't wait. And the one who was there first, responded to my question: "Do you think you can still be romantic?" with these:

Happy Birthday to Me !

Very Special Family Portrait

I woke up one day and my children were gone...somebody took my little princess and my smart little boy and left me with two troubled teenagers I didn't recognize at all. They were not bad in pretending to be my children so I played the game and pretended to be their mother for several years. Nightmare! I'm so glad it's over... I'm now a happy mother of two wonderful young adults! My princess lives in her own castle far, far away from us. My smart big boy still lives with us for the moment but I can see his wings getting bigger and stronger. They're both working, studying and dreaming... Soon I'll be left with memories and photos wondering where the time went. We actually don't have so many family photos, we have lost almost all of them fleeing from the danger of war in our country. I learned only much later that that was the most prized possession we had. Even after that, we  didn't take so many photos. I guess we humans have this fascination for capturing moments in our lives, whether by camera or paint. So I was very pleasantly surprised when my son gave us a very special family portrait, made by him, as a Christmas gift.

Several days before Christmas, I couldn't help but notice that something strange was going on, my son was very busy with something. Any attempt to learn what was going on failed miserably. Till the day we saw a very mysterious big package under the Christmas three. What a nice surprise it was! My very talented son created a "warholish" family portrait of our family using individual pictures, framed it nicely and made a gift for us. We just instantly fell in love with it and decided to expose it permanently in our living room. We placed it strategically  in our home, so we can all constantly be reminded of each other as we hectically chase through life. The value of the portrait my son made for us can be measured only by hearth. 

"A heart is not measured by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others." — Wizard of Oz

Very Special Family Portrait

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year !

At the end of this year, I would like to wish all of you, and especially all of you bloggers out there who inspire me, a wonderful holiday season!

Picture disclaimer for this post

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year !

Longing for one more journey

My daughter called me yesterday morning, she was worried about me and she wanted to know why there were no posts on my blog for several days in a row. She is my most  avid follower. She caught me unprepared, I was searching for the right words to describe what is happening to me. I told her something about being struck by nostalgia and some new ideas that needed reflexion time. Having said that, I was almost in tears, it hurt so much. I woke up  one morning of this week with this uncomfortable feeling that I absolutely have to change something in my life, that 'something' that bothers me for quite some time now. Just as I convinced myself  that the journey was over and that I can sit down now and live my 'happily ever after' life, everything came out. Everything that I tried so hard to hide from myself. And from those who know me. And from those who love me. I know what it is, I know exactly how I should do it, but I'll try to think it over this winter and then, if this burning longing for change is still there, I'll move in this direction.

  What you should know, my DH is in on that one and we are going to take this decision together like we did so many times before. I leave you today with a wonderful quote that sums so nicely my feelings at the moment:

Longing for one more journey

Another follow up: birthday cake

The frog on the strawberries birthday cake that I made for my daughter didn't survive very long but I'm not sorry for him, it was his destiny. I finally got some news on his karma, take a look:

Don't you love making people arround you happy? I sure do!

Another follow up: birthday cake

Tomorrow is Halloween!

Since tomorrow is Halloween and all fun involved belongs to kids, I'll comment no further. A picture tells more than thousand words, and this one is over-cute:

Happy Halloween to you!

Tomorrow is Halloween!

Last bouquet from my garden

Every autumn, very late in the season, I pick the last flowers from my garden and make my last flower arrangement. As I looked trough my pictures on the computer, I noted that I have a picture of every one of these bouquets for the last couple of years. As if I wanted them to last even much longer this way. Here is the picture that I took several weeks before the first snow arrived:

Lovely colors, lovely autumn morning light in my kitchen...makes me happy.

Last bouquet from my garden

Everyday Schmuseday

Do you know what "schmusen" means? Yeah, I thought so! It's one of the German words that I conserve in my personal Love Dictionary. Just so you know, German isn't my mother tongue, but I've studied it and I love it - after all, it is the language of Goethe... To translate it in English words like cuddle, snuggle or smooch are used. Attention: not to be confused with "schmooze" even if it does have some connection with "converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make social connection" as in "cuddling" yourself in a conversation.

More than a word itself, I like the mindset behind it, smoothness and goodness, rarity of the moment, emotions and aftertaste of it. You can "schmuse" with your lover, your husband, your children, your mom and dad or other person you love tenderly. You can, you should even "schmuse" with your animal, especially dogs and cats are very big Schmuse-Fans. Even if "schmusen" (pronounced shmoozen,) implies body contact, it never means very intimate relationship, but it implies deep relationship between two beings. You really don't need much to schmuse : just a moment of time and the person you love near you. Schmusen should be prescribed by the doctors, it'so god and beneficial for all involved. Shouldn't we proclaim every day of the week "Schmuseday"? It would be a self medication of sort, no more need for antidepressants. It is free, green, benefits two or even more persons at same time. Start today, start this weekend: proclaim your own oficial "Schmuseday" at home. Make it twice a week after that and you will wonder how it affects you and those near you. You could even create a poster to display it at your place telling everyone that it's your "Schmuseday" holiday. From there, it is literally just one step to the official national "Schmuseday" holiday!

Everyday Schmuseday

Cute (and scarry, brrr...) Halloween decoration

When little French children await impatiently an event like Christmas or Halloween they often count time left in "dodos" - how many times they got to sleep till the day "X". Encore 3 dodos, encore 6 dodos... in our case, "encore 9 dodos" till Halloween. Well, there is plenty time left for both, parents and children to craft something scarry for this day. I stumbled upon a lovely Cathie Filian blog "How To Be Domestic" and found a cute little Halloween project just for you :

Cathy creates, produces and co-hosts the popular lifestyle show Creative Juice on DIY Network and HGTV. You can find her project, and many others, at this link : Halloween: extreme glitter skull

Happy crafting !

Cute (and scarry, brrr...) Halloween decoration

Sidebar melt alert!

I'm in a state of panic, what should I do? My sidebar dropped completely down, right to do bottom and other inexplicable things happened. Well, OK, I am a novice, but this is ridiculous! Heeeeeelp !!! Do you know how to fix this? Please...I really love blogging... I am currently searching for solutions, apparently I'm not alone with this problem.

In the meantime, consider yourself invited to the Wonderful Color Exposition in the basement of my blog, LOL...

UPDATE : ZENITUDE is back in my life!!! As of yesterday evening everything went back to normal. And I even don't know what I did exactly to repair it... I got to admit I tried several methods found on the Web but I really don't know which one worked. Anyhow, thanks to whomever helped me, I'm a happy blogger again !

Sidebar melt alert!