I've been Tagged! / J'ai été "Taguée" !

Now these Merry-go-rounders are friends indeed! Evidence: I've been tagged, not once but twice!
In my own peculiar brand of logics, it has entailed me taking, not twice, but twenty times as long to come up with this message...
Being tagged means that I have to provide 7 facts about myself and tag 7 other bloggers. Find the rules and list further down.
I'm keeping it short and sweet, again, sticking to facts indeed, so I can also write the French version...
So I've been tagged by a great fiber artist : Charlotte of Fancypicnic and a great silver wire artist : Fabs of Easterya. Do look up their blogs to discover their work and understand why I call them great. You'll see!

FACTS
1. I took my firt plane trip when I was barely one month old. The trip took me from the island of Tahiti to that of Raiatea. I am told the plane was not a large one. Which was only fit!
2. I got my first pair of shoes just before I turned 2— on my first trip to Metropolitan France. Probably why I am such a shoe fiend now, buying all those splendid, sexy sandals I never wear. Shoes must be beautiful and make a statement!
3. When I was maybe 22 (last century anyway), I auditioned for admission at RADA (no comment).
4. Useless talent number one: I can move my ears. Provided you are not making me giggle at the same time.
5. Not that I am claustrophobic, you understand, but I will rather sit or stand near some kind of an exit. Even if it has to be a window on the umpteenth floor. In a cinema, I will never choose to sit in the middle of a row.
6. I am a compulsive buyer. On the mend (???)!
7. My favourite film ever : Jacques Demy's Peau d'Ane.

Ce manège (anglophone) de blogueuses est décidément bien chaleureux. La preuve : j'ai été "taguée", non pas une mais deux fois!
Avec ma logique à moi, bien sûr, ça m'a pris non pas deux fois mais pas loin de vingt fois plus longtemps qu'à n'importe qui d'autre pour répondre ici...
Cela implique que je donne ici 7 faits me concernant et que je tague moi-même 7 autres personnes (voir les règles et ma liste à la fin).
J'ai essayé de faire court. Dans les deux langues...
J'ai été "taguée" par deux artistes que j'apprécie beaucoup et dont j'admire le travail : Charlotte de Fancypicnic qui concocet de somptueux bijoux textiles, et Fabienne de Easterya dont les bijoux de fil d'argent sont un enchantement. Ne manquez pas de cliquer et d'aller visiter leur blogs pour découvrir travail !

FAITS
1.J'ai pris l'avion pour la première fois au tendre âge de 1 mois. Pour aller de l'île de Tahiti à celle de Raiatea. D'après ce que l'on m'a dit, l'avion n'était pas gros, lui non plus.
2. J'ai eu mes premières chaussures juste avant mon deuxième anniversaire, Lors de mon premier séjour en métropole. C'est sans doute pour ça que j'ai maintenant toutes ces chaussures fabuleuses que je ne mets jamais. Les chaussures doivent être belles, au minimum, voire fantastiques!
3. Quand j'avais 22 ans, je crois, (au siècle dernier en tout cas), j'ai passé une audition pour essayer d'entrer à la RADA (l'une des deux plus grandes écoles d'art dramatique en Grande-Bretagne, autant dire dans le monde). No comment.
4. Mon talent inutile numéro un : je peux bouger mes oreilles. A condition que vous ne me fassiez pas rire.
5. Je ne suis pas vraiment claustrophobe, pas vraiment... mais je préfère toujours me positionner près d'une sortie, même si c'est une fenêtre au énième étage. Au cinéma, je ne m'assiérai jamais spontanémement en milieu de rang.
6. Je souffre de fièvre acheteuse chronique. mais je me soigne (???) !
7. Mon film préféré : Peau d'Ane de Jacques Demy.

And here are the happy new taggee. Hopefully :
Voici les heureuses (enfin, j'espère) taguées :

ByCess
Marika
Glassprimitif
Jenny Karlsson Designs
Kalicat
Sara
Slackstitches

All you have to do, people, is acknowledge the tag from me, list these rules and give us seven facts about yourself. Tag seven more people, link to their blogs and leave a comment for them on their blogs... Then they know they've been tagged!!

Tout ce que vous avez à faire, c'est dire que je vous ai "tagué", expliquer ces quelques règles, et nous livrer 7 faits, plus ou moins extraordinaires, sur vous. Taguez 7 autres personnes, en donnant le lien vers leur blog et en laissant un commentaire sur leur blog pour le leur annoncer : pour qu'elles sachent qu'elles ont été taguées... Et ainsi de suite !

Blogging Merry-Go-Round - Scary ??!

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...

This month's question:

What is the scariest part of your art/craft?

Well— the craft itself is not the scary part, that's one thing!
I think what really scares me is the risk of "losing" it (the pleasure of thinking with my fingers, instead of my head, for once)— because of trying to "share" it (as in promoting and trying to sell). I have a "day job", a fairly exacting one, so crafting all began as (a lot of different) leisure activities that were important for my personal balance, But I've come to realize that thinking too much about promotion and what sells has done three very bad things: it has taken up a lot of of my "leisure time" when I didn't have that much of it to begin with, it has influenced my craft activities in not very creative ways and, as a result, it has taken away a lot my joy.
I'm working on it!
This is actually, why I haven't been bloging at all for the past month—trying to catch up with myself.
But I should add that this merry-go-round, with all the friendliness and great reading, remains one of my few enjoyable promotion activities. So thank you all again for this!

CONCOURS / GIVEAWAY

Vous aimez les articles faits main, par des artistes indépendants ? Vous aimez les cadeaux ?
Un peu de lèche-vitrine virtuel et vous pouvez en gagner plein !

Ça commence le 1er octobre.

Do you like items handcrafted by indie designers ? Do you like gifts ?
All you have to do is a bit of virtual window-shopping and you could
win loads !

Starting October 1st.

Blog Merry-Go-Round - What was your journey to your craft?

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...

This month's question:

What was your journey to your craft?

Short answer: the journey through life.

And doesn't that sound grand! .^.^.

The LP * answer is that, one of my earliest memories, and I think my very earliest happy memory, is of crafting. Many of my happy memories are.

When I was six or seven, I had come up with that that "technique" that would probably be called altered art or scrapbooking — or altered scrapbooking??? — nowadays. It all began with recycling (I'm a child of the seventies, I am!) trimming peels from my colour pencils, as well as the mine, whenever that broke off, and glueing them into flowers on drawing paper. Of course, I ended up destroying all of my pencils in order to get the materials for my art...

I have always remained convinced that this was a great idea. But sadly, no one else was... Still, I can remember the pride and relish in having created something without anyone telling me how to... and without anyone doing the same.

After that, I concentrated on school...

But later on, I had my mother show me how to knit, I also created the most peculiar attires for my Barbie doll (yes, you only needed one in those days, and you changed its clothes, not the whole doll, when you wanted a new style...), sewing them as best I could with more attention to texture than to style...

There were many more crafty adventures, including clay pot-making classes when I was about twelve (hopeless!), and I was eager to pick up all I could from craft and drawing classes (though I had no luck when it came to actual drawing, I'm afraid— hopeless too). A lot of pottering about and DIY, generally.

Then, about eight years ago, I got my dream Christmas present: a sewing machine! I took a series of classes at a neighbourhood Singer shop. Very well spent money, that. I then made myself several darling dresses. I never wear dresses, but these— well, a couple of them— I did wear, with pride.

And then— and then—

Until, one day, in Paris (I was living up there at the time), I was window-shopping with a cross-stitcher friend and we entered that shop. It was (still is, as far as I know) called Le Bonheur des Dames (from the name of a nineteenth-century departement store in the eponymous Zola novel, it means something like "Ladies' Joy"...). All about cross-stitching. Wonderful patterns, colours, textures (silk, linen... Ahhh!...). I bought half-a-dozen tiny Scottish heritage patterns... and I was a lost woman.

For a couple of years, I stitched away like crazy.

     Then, about three years ago, without noticing at first, I bought this cute beach-chair pattern, that included seed beads. I loved the combining of materials. I looked into beads. Then I discovered that you could actually buy pearls and... I never looked back!

I am still discovering, exploring, associating, imagining... everyday, and even sometimes creating!

*(for Long-Playing. Yes, I'm a dinosaur— I used to buy vinyl records though I'm no DJ)

DaWanda - Feature / Profil: SHEFA

Today's profile is that of a fellow jewellery designer: Orit, of Shefa. I'm sure you've noticed her truly outstanding pieces on DaWanda. She crafts her pieces from scratch and obviously knows just how to set out the beauties and wonders of nature... Well, you should also know that this time, I had no translation to do, Orit answered my questions in both languages! Lazy me happy!
Go visit her lovely shop where you can buy knowing that here is a designer / seller you can communicate with!
Shefa on DaWanda

Le profil d'aujourd'hui est celui d'une autre créatrice de bijoux : Orit, de Shefa. Vous avez certainement déjà remarqué ses créations sur DaWanda : elles sortent du lot. Elle crée entièrement ses bijoux et sait manifestement comment mettre en valeur les beautés et merveilles de la nature... Ce que vous devez aussi savoir, c'est que cette fois, je n'ai eu aucun travail de traduction à faire : Orit à répondu à mon questionnaire dans les deux langues. Ma fainéantise naturelle l'en remercie énergiquement! Voilà une créatrice / vendeuse avec qui vous arriverez forcément à communiquer. Pour vous offrir ses créations ou la contacter :
Shefa sur DaWanda


1) What is your favourite word?
Magnificent.
2) What is / are your favourite material(s) / fabric(s)?
Wood, gemstones, stones, shells, lace,
velvet, rice paper.
3) Do you have a favourite colour?
The different hues of the sea, but
basically, I love them all!
4) What good are your five senses to you?
I love all our 5 senses (including the sixth
one....) and I cant even imagine missing
one of them - they are all perfect!
When we connect with our sensitivity we can
use more of our senses potential and reach
wonderful high levels with them...
5) Why the need to make things?
I strongly believe that one of our big
purposes in life is to create, whether
it's art, children, different realities
and experiences, and so on..
6) What is your most ambitious project at the moment?
The project of life!!..- very interesting
one and includes so much....
7) What is your pet (non-creative!) addiction?
This opal and coconut ring!

1) Quel est votre mot préféré ?
Magnifique.
2) Votre / Vos matériaux / fibre(s) préféré(s) ?
Bois (particulièrement le bois de noix de coco), gemmes (pierres), coquillages, dentelle, velours, papier de riz.
3) Avez-vous une couleur préférée ?
Les différentes tonalités de la mer, mais fondamentalement je les aime toutes !
4) A quoi vous servent vos cinq sens ?
J’adore mes cinq sens (le sixième y compris...) et je ne peux pas imaginer qu’il m’en manque un seul d'entre eux - ils sont tous parfaits ! Quand nous nous relions à notre sensibilité nous pouvons employez un plus grand potentiel de nos sens et ainsi atteindre certains merveilleux niveaux élevés grâce à eux...
5) Pourquoi créer ?
Je pense fortement qu’un de nos principaux buts dans la vie est de créer,
que ce soit par l’art, les enfants, que ce soit dans de différentes réalités et par différentes expériences et ainsi de suite...
6) Votre projet ambitieux du moment ?
Le projet : MA VIE !!! projet très intéressant qui inclut tellement…
7) Votre addiction (non-créative !) ?
Cette bague en noix de coco et opale ! [NDE : deuxième photo, plus haut]

Watch for the blog Merry-Go-Round

A few enterprising crafters cum bloggers, are going to join in a blogging merry-go-round. That's with the stress on merry, as opposed to boring hard-selly... So watch for this little clipart, later on this week:



And here are the other crafty blogs on the merry-go-round:

Sara from
http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com
Ruth from
http://insidetheartisan.blogspot.com
Charlotte from
http://fancypicnic.blogspot.com
Lily from
http://lilypangart.blogspot.com
Marian from
http://florcitasart.blogspot.com
Fabs from
http://easterya.blogspot.com
Anna from
http://halfanacreblog.blogspot.com
Andreanna from
http://blog.glamasaurus.com

Concrete Tactics - Tactique Très Pratique

For a little while now, I have been wanting to make some essential changes in my life. Namely to get myself a car and move away from the excessively noisy Bordeaux city center, in order to reorganize my two-fold everyday life and work— and be finally able to go on a real holiday without worrying about finding my place in ruins when I get back. Coming back from from an instantly wasted seaside holiday, a few summers ago, to find the corridor ceiling on the floor, was quite an experience. Not one I am looking froward to renewing, you understand. But as I tend to like to anticipate trouble— not that it prevents it, obviously— I have also been considering security side effects, and the necessity for security.
So I have been surfing the net for alarm systems, trying to find relevant security stuff retailers. Well, I haven't found my ideal, house-with-a-cat alarm sytem as yet, but I have found an amazingly "tactical" site. If you are looking for the kind of bags, shoes, underwear, clothes, holsters etc. that the police or the military like to use, this is the site for you. You only have to look up their tactical pants to be convinced!
Shame I couldn't fin a more feminine version of the tartan-lined slacks...

Depuis quelque temps, je réfléchis pas mal à un certain nombre de changements que je voudrais opérer : achat de voiture et déménagement, pour pouvoir m'organiser mieux dans mon multiple quotidien... et enfin partir en vacances san m'inquiéter de savoir dans quel état je vais retrouver mon modeste chez moi en rentrant. Mais entre autres effets secondaires, j'ai commencé à m'inquiéter de la question de la sécurité : alarme etc.
En surfant sur le net, je suis tombée, non pas encore sur le système d'alarme idéal pour une petite maison avec chat... mais sur un site d'équipement policier et militaire assez étonnant. je comprends mieux où les militaires français qui doivent investire eux-mêmes dans leur équipement (!) peuvent trouver à améliorer son ergonomie. On peut trouver des vêtements, sous-vêtements, chaussures, sacs, lampes etc. incroyablement "tactiques". Pour preuve, ces : "tactical pants" (pantalons tactiques, donc).
Ça fait rêver, non. Dommage qu'il n'y ait pas de modèle plus féminin...