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But there was also Art and History and Literature and Latin. And these were everything. Along with skipping math class they kept me sane (don't tell my children).
But in spite of all the stuff I didn't like about it I still loved Back to School time. There were rainy days, stops at the bakery when walking back from school for a Pain au Chocolat in Middle School and time with friends making friendship bracelets ( do you remember those?). And in High School the end of the day meant running in the rain to the nearest café holding your boyfriend's hand and endless games of pool with friends while smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. And coming back out in the golden slanted light of the evening sun with everything sparkling around covered in rain drops. Feeling like the world belonged to you.
And there was the shopping for school supplies. And the French don't kid around with school supplies. The papers, highlighters and pencils. The erasers that smelled like strawberry, the fountain pens that every school age child writes with in class and the inks that go with it. The smell of the white out and the flower shaped sharpeners. The coloring pencils, watercolor and pretty notebooks.
So I tried to recreate a bit of this atmosphere with trying my hand at eco dyeing paper using the Day of the Dead Marigolds that one of my daughters had planted in Spring. And I made a Note Book with it.
And you can see it all on YouTube right here: (16) Eco-Dying Paper + Notebook Making - YouTube
Let me know if you have additional questions :)
Much love,
Marie
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Much love and light,
Marie
]]>While in the south the first faint star
Lifts to the night its silver face,
And twinkles to the moon afar
Across the heaven's graying space,
Low murmurs reach me from the town,
As Day puts on her sombre crown,
And shakes her mantle darkly down.
By Paul Laurence Dunbar
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So, I decided to go to bed earlier so that I would have time to read before falling asleep. That was a total fail: after reading a few lines I'd be fast asleep.
Now I actually have made my schedule so that I have time to read during the day and I feel so much happier. Being able to lose yourself in another world is such a gift.
These last few weeks have been intense so I've been reading books that are just fun. This series was recommended to me and I love it. It's a fairly fast read, action packed, funny and irreverent. And when is time travel not fun?
I'd really love it if you told me what you are reading... I've got big reading goals for 2021!
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French people are very big on self-care because they know that if you feel good you'll be able to give 100% to whatever it is you are doing.
I have often been asked how I find the time to cook every day but I don't think I find the time... I make the time. In my family, just as in most French families, it'd be unthinkable to go out to eat the way that Americans do. Not only is it prohibitively expensive but also, no matter what the quality of the food is, it'll be too rich, too salty, too big of a meal ... just too much. Eating out is considered a treat in France and eating homemade meals is the norm. We just really don't think about it that much, wondering if we'll have the time: if you know you are cooking dinner every night you'll figure out how to do it and make it work in your life.
I'd also like to dispel a myth: French people do not cook elaborate meals every day. French family food is very simple and does not take long to make. And when both parents work and that you had to stay longer at work that day, a slice of ham + a green salad + a yogurt is a perfectly acceptable dinner.
Now that my children are older they also participate in meal cooking which is a big relief.
And I always cook double what we need for one meal so that we have enough for lunch the next day.
This past week has been very busy and one of us got dental surgery so the food needed to be soft. Since I did not plan on making this blog post I did not note everything that I cooked last week but these 2 dishes were particularly delicious and quick to make:
Pumpkin Soup:
this makes about 4 quarts
optional: Aleppo pepper
Heat the butter in a large pot. Add the onion and cook over moderate heat until it softens. Stir in the pumpkin and cook for 3 more minutes.
Add the stock and cook until the pumpkin is soft, about 15 minutes.
Turn off the heat and blend until smooth. Stir in the milk and nutmeg. Bring the soup back to a boil ( be careful the foam from the milk will easily overflow... don't leave the pot unattended).
Once it boils lower the heat and stir in the broken spaghetti and cook until the pasta is done.
Top with the cheese of your choice and Aleppo pepper if you like it ( it has a fruity, citrusy earthy flavor with moderate heat that makes any dish taste more complex without overpowering the other ingredients, truly delicious!)
Here are the links to the hand blender that will make your life so much easier than a typical blender and to the Aleppo pepper:
The second dish is not really a recipe but something I do a lot:
I cook a lot of barley on a regular basis ( it takes 40 minutes, it's very healthy and its delicious, a bit chewy and nutty tasting).
And then I top it with anything I have on hand: chopped tomatoes, Aleppo pepper, chickpeas and feta ( like I did on the picture). Roasted vegetables. Smoked salmon. Sausage and mushrooms. Mixed in a salad. Great for breakfast with eggs.
Anything goes and I haven't found a bad combination yet. It feels you up without being heavy, gives you a lot of energy and makes you feel warm.
Bon Appetit !
Much love,
Marie
]]>It is also exhausting. And at the end of the year the exhaustion and stress is bone deep.
But this past weekend was so very lovely. The tree went up. The outside lights were hung. Delicious, nourishing food was cooked ( I'll post recipes tomorrow) . Time spent with family and not in a "let's look at all the homework you did not do this week that needs to be turned in" kind of way.
Dare I say we were merry? Yes I do.
We all know there will be no big family gathering at the table this holiday season, a lot less gifts under the tree, the meal is likely to be more simple to.
But there will be love.
And that is enough.
Much love to you,
Marie
]]>If you've got any tips don't hesitate to share. This week-end we are decorating for Christmas, I need to plant a few bulbs that I ordered last spring and I'm really hoping to also get to my painting table and make a little video!
Much love,
Marie
]]>If you don't know about Marija Gimbutas I invite you to watch this video and read her books. She was a Lithuanian-American archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Old Europe. She spent her life studying and providing evidence of prehistoric goddess-worshipping, egalitarian and nonviolent cultures. Her books are phenomenal and the You Tube video of her life fascinating.
Much love,
Marie
(63) Signs out of time, the story of archeologist Marija Gimbutas - YouTube
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To come back to my promotion, it was denied of course and that is fair. They are the rules of that platform and so be it. So I went to change the picture, no biggie. And before I did that I went to check the guidelines on naked bodies that was included with the promotion 's refusal. And that is when I got angry and I wish I had taken a screenshot of all these guidelines. But the short of it is that the mere suggestion of cleavage in a woman is not ok even in a sculpture. A man's penis on a statue? That's fine. Men's nipples showing through their shirt. Fine. Topless men? That's fine too. As we know. And all of these guidelines disappear when you are young and white, no matter if you are a man or a woman. I mean you just have to search social media to know that.
Did you know that women painters used to be prohibited from studying anatomy because it was thought that they'd become too aroused... the poor men must have been worried for their safety I guess.
Basically it always falls on the women: you can't inconvenience the men by either being seen, heard, talented or wanting to learn unless they have some use for you.
(It reminds me that I wanted to do a blog post on the purpose of women in society: you can either be a mother, a saint or a prostitute. And I have a story about that but it'll be for another day. )
And that night was also the night that this blog was born. It is the beginning of what I want to accomplish which is to provide a community of like minded people with a place where the arbitrary rules of big corporations do not apply.
That and also, I hate Black Friday.
Have a great evening,
Much love,
Marie
]]>I hope you are keeping creative in this always ( and this year particularly stressful for many) time of the year.
Much love,
Marie
]]>I also went on a late walk with these two. We got to see a heron, an egret a hawk and a mama otter with her two young. So cute.
Have a good evening,
Marie
]]>Now this is what I posted on Instagram a little while ago and I soon received a message telling me that I have a beautiful home and I'm so lucky to be an artist so I shouldn't be complaining about my life ( I imagine they are talking about the part where I said that living in suburbia sucks). I get remarks like these a lot from friends, family and strangers here (although interestingly I do not get that remark from Europeans). I think there is a misunderstanding about being grateful for what you have and being unhappy. When we bought this house 16 years ago we had to remodel it for months as we were doing everything ourselves with the help of a friend and we only took care of the inside. There was nothing in the garden and I did most of it and I loved it. It was a great peaceful neighborhood with a park just across our small neighborhood street.
Now however It has changed into a neighborhood where every minute is filled with noise from power tools, leaf blowers and mowers, pool water filters, racing cars in a nearby streets, random fireworks all through the year, sirens and police helicopters (no we do not live in a bad neighborhood at all it's like that all over Sacramento). And the park has been paved over for building a school complex filling the air with more noise, fumes, wall shaking tremors, an insane amount of dust and migrating rats (yes more rats than you thought possible were dispersed in the neighborhood when they destroyed the park). Enjoying your yard in peace has become impossible.
So no I don't feel bad complaining because it took an insane amount of work to get the house and garden the way I wanted and just when it was coming together the enjoyment of it got all taken away. So am I grateful to have a roof over my head? Absolutely. Am I happy to be living here? No.
But you know what? It is unhappiness in your circumstances that propels you in life. It is the reason you want change and growth and it makes you stretch your wings. So don't let anybody tell you that you have no right to be unhappy. Life being difficult right now could become your greatest chance at pursuing your true dream.
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Li Ziqi lives in the Sichuan province of China. The region is stunningly beautiful, she is an expert cook and craftswoman. She works incredibly hard and makes absolutely stunning videos.
Jonna Jinton lives in Sweden. Another eye candy channel that is profoundly relaxing. Listen to her songs, music, vlogs and the recordings that she makes of the ice. And then there is the video where she takes an ice bath....
And there are a few videos of me painting on my YouTube channel that I think are relaxing too if you'd like to watch Marie-Laure Delage-Carlson
If you have recommendations for beautiful YouTube channels, don't hesitate to share!
Much love,
Marie
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I wanted to be an archeologist/historian/a doctor without borders/live in a forest with the fairies/be an artist/and a druid/ and save the Earth. All of that while wearing pretty clothes. Yes, all of it.
Needless to say there were quite a few chuckles at best. But I insisted, all the way through high school that yes that is what I was going to be doing.
I went on to study Art History at University while learning Japanese and Chinese. I also studied Anthropology, History and Archeology ( and I still keep current with findings in all these areas) while selling handmade Calligraphy cards through a boutique in my town.
During my University years my then American boyfriend ( and now husband) moved in together and decided that right now was a great time to have a baby. When my son turned 1 we moved to the US (that is another story). Several years later, after selling handmade jewelry online and through fairs (which was a lot of fun) I decided to pursue another one of my dreams: heal people and I studied several years to become an Herbalist. I had a practice for several years and while I loved making people feel better it became a heavy burden after a few years. As an outlet I was taking online classes. I had not painted since high school although I was drawing here and there and doing calligraphy still.
I also took a keen interest in gardening, local ecosystems and planting for wildlife.
Fast forward a few more years and I am now a full time artist, my garden has been photographed many times by people wanting to know how I do it and it has inspired other people to plant for wildlife too. I still heal my family with herbs and next year will be the year for that house in the forest with the fairies.
And I wear pretty clothes every day. Even when I turn the compost pile.
So, never, ever, let anyone tell you that your dreams are foolish, that you can't make a living with them or that they are "too much".
They don't know what they are talking about.
Much love,
Marie
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What about you, do you feel overwhelm?
Much love,
Marie
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I love videos and pictures of course, it is such a wonderful peak into someone's day but I miss knowing what people's thoughts and dreams are. What makes them truly happy ( I mean, I'm glad you enjoyed that lunch you posted on Instagram but what I really want to know is how are you doing really? What brings you joy or sorrow. How are you dealing with such an awful year? What books do you read? Which shows and movies do you watch? Do you paint? Knit? Make pottery? Photography? Where in the world do you live and what is life like over there?
I want connection in a world in a world where we are losing touch of what other people's lives are really like because we have to adhere to the arbitrary algorithm of social media. I want a space that is mine. Where I make the rules.
And I want to bring more beauty and inspiration to your life. So, this month I want to blog every day. I want to share what books I'm reading, what project I'm working on. The joys and challenges of life. Which watercolor paint I'm particularly loving today. Which YouTube, Instagram account or TV series I'm watching and find inspiring. And maybe I'll post a few little videos here and there too. Just for fun.
I hope you'll join me because I'd very much love to know what made your day.
Much Love,
Marie
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