Merry-go-round - What did you expect ?

Jump on our merry go round and join a group of artists/crafts-women from around the world as they link hands and tell you a little bit about their lives in craft.

Do look up the answers from the rest of this band of crafters (links to your left).

If they haven't posted yet, remember we all live in different time zones and check again later... Lily and Charlotte are giving it a miss this month but that should not stop you from looking up their blog and lovely craft...

This month's theme:

Did you think you'd be doing what you're doing now (craft/selling), say 5 years ago? What has surprised you the most?

Hello everyone.
I'll be brief this month because life, personal and professional, has been a bit rocky.
So, my answers to these questions, in a nutshell:
No.
How fast your life can change and how surprising it is.

To elaborate a little.
Seven years ago I left Paris and those of my friends who were not already away from me (in the provinces or abroad), and moved to a smaller and sunnier place, closer to the ocean, and also to a better job...
While I was already packing, I fell in love with cross-stitching. For about two or three years, I stitched away, always trying to personalize the patterns or kits I used, and prefering organic materials, making cushions rather than framed pictures.
Since childhood, I had liked dabbling with stuff and pottering around the house, but it had never taken up so much of my time. I often used it to make unique presents for my loved ones and as birth gifts. It was so time-consuming of course there was no way I ever considered selling my work.

Then one day, I bought a kit that included seed beads and it led me to a craft shop which also sold PEARLS.
The rest is history: more possibilities, more gifts... orders. And now here I am, working with silver, learning how to solder metal and exploring the possibilities of silver clay...
I am now an official "entrepreneur", with very little time these days for my craft, because my day-job has been particularly demanding and time-consuming this year, when my online shops have not...

Still, pleasant and heart-warming surprises there have been: over the past few months, this bloggers' merry-go-round, and more recently, the Thursday Sweet Treat, also a very warm, inspiring band of friendly, artistic souls. Check it out!

And now, if you don't mind, I'm afraid I have to go back to the drudgery...

MY car

These days, I am a bit obsessed by cars.
Only a bit, because I realize that, compared to other people, I really am not; but still relatively "obsessed" in that it 'has' become a major issue for me, finally getting a car of my own, and being free of the crowd of loonies and brats your have to deal with when travelling on trains and such...
So. Anyway.
I might actually be able to finally get a car next autumn. Just when the French car registration system has changed.
So, by the time I get 'my' car, whether it's new or second-hand, I will be faced with a major dilemma: which region do I pay allegiance to?
Let me explain: it used to be you didn't get a choice, because when you bought a car, the plate showed a sort of serial number (random from the point of view of the buyer) followed by the "département" number you actually lived in. If you moved, you had the plate changed because your car had to show where it lived.
Not so anymore.
From now on, French cars are going to carry the same plate throughtout their existence, even when they change hands or town.
Boring, I can hear you say.
Not completely. The perk here, is that when you buy a new car, or, a second-hand one still carrying an old plate, you can choose your "département" number. It doesn't have to be the one you actually inhabit.
I'm thinking French Polynesia...

Still, this is a far cry from the vanity plates you can buy in the US or even, as I just discovered, in Britain.
I just came across http://www.northumbrianumbers.com and this was how I realized how easily you could actually choose your number plate in Britain.
The site has this fun search function that allows you to look for an available car registration plate that would actually mean something for you. And the search results show you directly whether you can afford it or not...

Unfortunately, in my case, the one I would really, but really like is the one you get when you pick "jaguar" as a favourite car manufacturer... It would be so perfect for me.
Go look it up!
I'm afraid my banker would beg to differ...
But there are still a number of affordable options with the letters MEH. I would like that!
You'll see there are actually many different search keys you can use— budget (don't we all...) up or down, person, maker, etc.

This site has me back fantasizing about flying to Britain and driving back in my own Jag.
No, it's nothing to do with vanity— juste taste!

ELEGANCE

Rien à voir avec quoi que ce soit si n'est mes impresssions/perceptions/sensations/idées :

Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Cette femme vaut (encore) mieux que ses gênes (incroyables).

Je me rappelle avoir lu, il y a quelque années, dans un magazine, cette définition du mot "élégance", par (malheureusement) je ne sais plus qui, parmi d'autres définitions, toutes plus ou moins ineptes :

"l'élégance c'est ne pas avoir honte de ce que l'on fait et ne pas faire ce dont on aurait honte."

J'étais jeune et ça m'a influencé et servi de pierre de touche.

Aujourd'hui, je suis plus vieille (mois jeune, quoi) que Charlotte Gainsbourg, et je trouve, une fois de plus, en la voyant réagir aux réactions (!) face au film de Lars von Triers, qu'elle incarne suprêmement cette définition qui me sert toujours de guide. Ses enfants peuvent être fiers d'elle. Vraiment.

J'ai horreur des films d'horreur (j'aime pas avoir peur, désolée - la vie me suffit) mais je suis prête à payer ma place pour exprimer, ne fût-ce que que financièrement mon soutien...

Nothing to do with anything except my impressions/perceptions/sensations/ideas: Charlotte Gainsbourg.
This woman is much more (even) than her (awesome) genes.

I remember reading, a few years ago, when I was (even) young(er) and influenceable, this definition of "elegance" among a number of others, mostly inept:
"not being ashamed of what you do and not doing what you might be ashamed of."
I (unfortunately) don't remember whom it was from, but I'm grateful— it's served me as a guideline and touchstone since then.

Today, I am older (not quite as young as - OK) than Charlotte Gainsbourg, and I find, once more, seeing her react to reactions to Lars von Triers' film, that she literally incarnates this definition of the word.

She is elegant.
She is elegance.

I hate scary movies (sorry - life is scary enough for timid little me) but I am ready to pay for my ticket and go see that film. Just to express my support, if only financially.