Tongue in Cheek

King Louis Wore Pink, and Lace too

 

 

(All photos on this blog belong to Corey Amaro unless otherwise stated.)

 

 

I found a locket at the brocante. The locket is of two children sitting next to eah other. The little boy has a ruffled collared shirt, with ruffled cuffs, his vest and shorts are in velvet. 

When Sacha was little I use to dress him like that, ruffles, velvet, in sweet baby things. Many people would say to me:

 "Sacha is a boy you know?"

    "Yes I know."

       "If you keep dressing him like a girl he is going to be gay."

         "I don't think that way. He is who he is, regardless of how I dress him."

 

I wonder of the little boy, in the photograph, mother had to put up with that?

 

 

 

 

Photo source Simple Writings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lately, I have been wondering am I who I am because of nature or nurture?

Would I be different if I was nutured differently?

Would the world be different if faith wasn't celebrated, encouraging us to love and forgive?

Are we loving, forgiving... trying to do good because of nature or nuture?

Surely, both form us, but if nuture wasn't generally loving would we be?

Can you tell I watched the Tree of Life last week?

 

 

 

 

 

Photo source Creative Something.

 

"What’s one thing you can do differently today?

 

 

 

 

 

.

Photo up above: A little girl sat in a very big chair, she wore a white dress, she did not smile as she was told because she could not wear pants in the photo like her brothers did,

"Only boys wear pants." She was told.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sacha was about three years old when one day a group of mothers asked me if my child was a boy or a girl. I told them Sacha was a boy.

Sacha had curly locks, wild curly locks. They said, "For a boy he sure has long curly hair?"

I replied that I loved his curly hair and didn't want to cut it. But that "he" was a boy with long curly hair.

They were not convinced so they asked, "Yes, but the child has a ruffled shirt, and a necklace?"

I smiled over my frustration and repeated that "He" was a boy wearing a ruffled shirt and a necklace, and that I found it sweet.

Still the mothers persisted that my child was a girl.... they pointed to his red, button down, Mary Jane shoes... "Those are girl shoes."

I looked at Sacha's feet and sure enough he had on Chelsea's shoes... I shrugged and said, "He likes to wear his sister's shoes. I don't think that means anythng about whether he is a boy or a girl."

Then they laughed out loud, and smirked, "Look at her fingernails! That isn't a boy it is a girl!"

Looking at Sacha's little chubby hand I noticed Chelsea had painted her brother's fingernails...pink.

I laughed and said, "You are right he is a girl."

They shook their heads knowingly and muttered, "She didn't understand us, she is not French, she thought her child was a boy."

 

Notes:

King Louis wore pink, or at least ruffles...

 

DIY Creative Ideas for Art Saves Saturday

Photo Source Fellow Fellow

 

 

One of my New Year's blogging resolutions was to feature artists, designers, crafters, and or bloggers who create and share their talent (DIY= Do It Yourself) on the web and link to them on my blog every Saturday.

This week the ideas shown are ones that are easy to do, and when I saw them I thought... Why didn't I think of that! How clever, how sweet! I love when an idea can be accomplished without alot of blood, sweat and tears.

Click on any link under each photo and it will direct you to a different artist and blog.

 

 

Photo Source: Fellow/Fellow's, "Houses at Night" and how to do them yourself.

 

 

 

 

Engravings cut out, then illuminated by electrical tea lights.

If you want to do these, I have old engravings that would be perfect for the project .... if you are interested let me know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Source for Do it Yourself Garland

 

 

 Paper garlands sewn together over at Cocoa Daisy, plus many ideas for Scrapbooking and where to buy supplies.

 

 

Photo Source for Do it Yourself Garland

 

The variety of colors and mixed papers. Such a sweet idea. An easy fun project to create.

 

 

 

Do it Yourself Mercury Glass Imitation.

 

 

 

 

Old mercury glass is a favorite of mine, especially candlesticks. But they are not easy to find and hyper fragile... I love this idea, Mercury glass and how to do it yourself.

If you try it send me a photo, and I will add it to this post.

My friend Pascale over at VOX POPULI added mercury to large clear old wine bottles, the effect was beautiful!

 

 

 

 

Photo Source The White Bench

 

 

 

 

Roses out of coffee filters!? Who would have thought it? So don't toss out the filter... just the coffee grounds! Viola (as they say in French) the perfect tint and shadowing for a faded rose. The White Bench gives easy to follow step by step how to make them yourself.

 

 

 

 

Photo source The Sweetest Occasion.

 

Plastic children's toy animals. I love this idea! Isn't it charming.?

My mother made our birthday cakes, she would ask us what theme we wanted, and what type of cake. I remember my brother wanting a motorcycle race track, my mom added plastic motorcycles on the black pavement frosting. My brother was thrilled so much that he asked my mom if he could keep it and not eat it. We didn't have cake that day.

 

 

Plastic children toys candle holders, sprayed painted in gold and drilled on top to add a candle holder.

Dang clever!

 

 

 

 

Photo Source White Life

 

Do you have old CDs that you do not listen to them because you have them downloaded everywhere? 

 

Photo Source: White Life Photographed Lifestyle and Decoration

 

Coasters?

Small clocks, by adding a battery operated clock to the backside.

Artist touch.

I am tickled by this idea. Make your own clock face.

>CD clocks. Blogger White Life has free printables for you to use to make your own CD clocks, How generous is that! Now only if we can figure out how to have those clock face be musical as well.

 

 

 

 

Photo Source

 

 

 

 

DIY dixie cup lampshade garland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Source All Things Heart and Home

 

How to make your own ruffled tee shirt. I wonder if the body comes with the step by step DIY details too?

 

Photo Source: Artmind.

Make your own scratch off lottery tickets. Artmind gives step by step DIY on her blog. Lottery ticket gifts. Or Valentine hopeful choclates, massages, and kisses.

Pretty cute.

 

 

 

 

 

Do you parlez merde ou pas?

(Photographs on this blog by Corey Amaro unless stated otherwise.)

 

 

Why doesn't French Husband speak French to me? Really after twenty four years you would think he would... and if he can say to me, "Rubber Beer" for Root Beer, "Bob Lights" for Light Bulbs, and "F-ck" for Fork, I should be able to attempt the same faux pas with him.

 

 

(Our good friend, Philippe a few summers ago remember him?)

 

 

 

Our good friend Philippe, came to dinner last night. I was in the other room when I heard him whisper to French Husband, "Do you ever speak French to Corey?"

I heard French Husband clear his throat, I could hear his brain twist and turn thinking how he was going to answer that one, then he began, "Well, actually..." and before he could utter another word I shouted out for him, "NO HE DOES NOT...EVER!" because I am impulsive like that.

Our friend laughed and laughed, in which case I asked, "What is funny? Nothing Funny here. French Husband is tête tu, incapable, to speak French with me! UUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRgh!!"

And our friend laughed harder and mustered, "Oh la la! Chaud, tres chaud!" And I added, "Pas chaud.... Bouillant!"

French Husband remained silent with a boyish grin, that didn't melt my heart.

Our friend, seeing he had put his foot dans une situation delicate, offered, "Alors, Corey if you spoke French to Yann, well then my English would not improve, as I wouldn't have anyone to practice my English with...."

"Traître!" I teased.

After which we sat around the kitchen table and had dinner.

We spoke at length about the elections, vacations, work, love and why the two of them do not speak French to me...

Yann spoke French to our friend,

Our friend spoke English to me,

They spoke French to each other

 

I spoke Franglaise to them, comme d'habitude.

 

 

 

 

 

Life is never dull.

Life is full of surprises.

Life calls you in many ways--

as my Father use to say, "Though, hopefully not late for dinner..."

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi

Brocante day, ce soir ou jamais.....

Does it matter how you sing it?

I guess it only matters if you don't understand.

Sign language?

 

Notes (Click on the following links to read more...)

 

Hilarious video (ATTENTION: very bad words repeated) regarding mispronounced words. An Italian goes to Malta, but it could be French Husband at Home.

 

 

Are you there God? Did you ever read this book when you were a pre teen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Listening. Silence as a voice.

 

 

Photo Source Flickr: Jenni Penni 'its raining hearts'

 

 

Chopin's raindrops

 

 

 

 

Photo Source Twig Hutchinson

 

 

"A parable about why human beings have two ears but only one tongue. Why is this? Probably so that we have to listen twice as much as we speak." Henning Mankell

 

 

A Lion on the Stairs

 

Annie came over yesterday.

She said if she stayed in her house any longer she was going to go crazy.

I told her I was nursing a headache.

She said she never had one in her life.

God I wish I could say that.

Instead I said, "I never had high blood pressure, long legs, a little nose, a single chin, nor bronchitis which shouldn't be confused with brocanting, which I have the bug badly."

"What! You have beautiful thighs. And well we all have our weak spots." Annie replied lovingly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 My headache is gone, how I wish forever...

But if I had a wish really would I wish for that?

No.

 

 

 

 

 

How are you today?

 

And why did I title this post: A lion on the Stairs?

I don't know, and it doesn't matter....

 

A lion, a blue urn, an angel, you, me, today and hopefully tomorrow.

 

 

 

Valentine Tease

 

 

 

 

 

The turn of the century music booklet cover says,

"I dreamed of loving you."

Sounds good to me.

 

My Mother made a Valentine

for my Father every Valentine's Day,

and placed it on his dinner plate.

 

Besides my Mother's handmade Valentine she would also composed a poem for my Father.... Now you may think how sweet, how tender, how romantic, how loving.... and all that is true. But my Mother's Valentine poetry to my Father had to do with an incident that happened before they were married.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Photos: Nancy Puzzle Purse Valentines.) Click on link to find out how to make your own.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long long time ago when my Mother was a Mere Babe in the Woods, yet danced a mean jitterbug at the Grange Hall in Bayliss... my Father, a Dashing Guy with A Red Convertible asked my mother to a Valentine dance. My Mother being (and still is) a tease said she already had a date. My Father knowing her teasing ways laughed and said, "Right, you do. So I'll pick you up at eight and don't be late!" He teased her back. My Mother pursed her lips, tilted her head to her shoulder, waved her finger and said, "Don't bother, I'll already be there with my date."

My Father laughed and drove home to milk the cows.

 

 

 

(Photo: Sugar Lumps Studio at Etsy where you can buy a handmade Valentine treasure such as the one in the photo, click here.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Mother was teasing, she did not have a date... and my Father knew that. But as teasing- lucky-stars-above-her-sweet-head-would-have-it, a boy called and asked her to the dance.

She couldn't say yes fast enough.... and squealed as she raced to get dress and out of the house before my Father came back to pick her up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Photo: Go to Ulla's blog to learn how to make these sweet hand's for Valentines.)

 

My Father drove up in his red convertable, with a heart shaped box full of chocolates in his hand.

He sat on the couch while waiting for my Mother, and talked to her sister (my Aunt Frannie)... Later he would say, "Gee, Dolores is running late isn't she?" Only to be told, and my Aunt Frannie had to tell him several times cause he didn't believe her, that my Mother was already at the dance with another guy.

Oh that tease!! The Stinker! The Hefer (A favorite nickname that I wish I could hear my Father say to my Mother now...)

 

 

 

(Photo: Dolled up Valentine's over at Such Pretty Things, vintage Valentine's.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As my Father drove off, he tossed the Valentine box of chocolates out of the car.

Later he would say, when he saw the Valentine chocolates from his rear view mirror, be bopping along the pavement he thought to himself, "That was dumb. Those were good chocolates."

 

 

 

Photo Source Brandy.

Photo Source: Brandy

Photo source and Valentine Supplies from Brandy, click here for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

I remember the homemade Valentine's my Mother made for my Father. The poems she wrote were funny... they told the tale of their Valentine Tango long ago... the tease, the date that wasn't, the tossed chocolates... then she would write how she loved him and hoped he would bring her chocolates....

Which he never did.... That Valentine tease!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Need a cupid?

 

After dinner my Mother would take the Valentine and stuff it in her red checked Betty Crocker cookbook.

As a child I liked to look at through the cookbook and see those Valentines.

A few years ago I asked my Mother about them... as I couldn't find them... had she hid them somewhere?

My Mother simply said, "Now that Dad is gone I didn't think they mattered."

Oh they were the only Valentine's that I ever mattered to me....

 

 

Teasing, loving, ever true.

 

______________________

 

 

 

 

 

Sacha and his Girlfriend

 

 

Sacha hasn't seen Mila in over a year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we live in a small village in the country, when Chelsea and Sacha were in junior high and throughout high school they would commute by bus, then train, then by metro to go to school. It made for a very long day. Their adventures to school, from home are many. My favorite involves the first time Sacha took the train... he didn't get off the train in time, the doors closed heading for Nice, he was eleven.

 

Luckily for Sacha, Chelsea did get off the train and ran for help. Meanwhile, Sacha sat down and thought to himself, "Well, it will work out... tonight I'll be home sleeping in my bed with a good story to tell in the future."

 

Forty five minutes later Sacha was coming back on another train.

 

That has been Sacha's attitude, "... it will work out, so enjoy the ride."

 

Anyway, when Chelsea graduated from high school, Sacha would spend every Monday night at our friends Philippe and Manu's house. They have a little girl name Milas. Sacha's girlfriend, or I should say Mila's boyfriend.

 

A few months before Sacha graduated from high school Philippe and Manu were expecting their second child.

 

A boy.

 

And guess what they named him?

 

Sacha.

 

________

 

 

Who was your first crush?

 

 

 

If I were a Tree in my Village I would be Afraid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the French village where I live there is a

river that runs through it, plus many century old Plane trees

that grow around it...

 

 

 

 

 

Tall, shady and strong.

 

 

 

 

 

Trees that have grown alongside the memories of Annie's childhood, and my children's too.

Trees that I have gathered leaves from for Halloween and Thanksgiving decor.

Trees that keep us cool in the summer, and let the light pour in during winter.

 

 

 

 

Trees that house the night owl,

that have beared witness to the hidden kiss of lovers,

with initials carved in their trunks to prove it.

 

 

 

 

Yes the river and the trees.

Symbols of running freely and being rooted at the same time.

Soaking in that which is good from both.

 

 

 

How many photos have I taken of the river and trees that surround me?

Not enough.

 

 

 

 

Not one season overlooks their beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know how many trees there are in my French village.

A couple of hundred or more.

Some are over four hundred years old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are called Plane trees, though nothing plain about them.

Nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

"...Clear are the depths where its eddies play,
And dimples deepen and whirl away;
And the Plane-tree's speckled arms o'ershoot
The swifter current that mines its root."

Bryant alluded when he wrote of the Green River.

 

 

 

 

But if I were a tree in my village I would be afraid. I would pray with all my might, I would shake my branches wildly, and teach my leaves to scream.

Thirty six trees have been cut down recently, six in the last two weeks.

I cannot bear to take a photo of the aftermath.

Why?

The last six were cut down to widen a small section of the road... by one yard.

Crazy, stupid, reason.

In less than an hour, hundreds of years gone.

It is awful, and I am sad.

 

If I were a tree in my village I would be afraid.

 ____

 

 

Notes:

Traveling through the history of France.

 

Tree Hugger

Etsy Tree Wall Stickers

How to Hug a Tree

The Giving Tree on You Tube

 

 

Photos by Corey Amaro.

 

Chelsea in Mexico City

 

Chelsea has been in Mexico City (for two weeks so far) she is doing her internship (for her masters in business degree). She has sent us some photos, messages, videos and most importantly her happiness.

Chelsea's photo: El Angel de la Independencia on Reforma, a monument to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico's War of Independence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were walking around Coyoacan in the South of Mexico City and just like that we found ourselves in the middle of Sunday afternoon dancing...

 

 

The music, salsa, the food, the weather, the people. and the language, she is also learning Spanish, her fifth language.

 

Her goals:

1) Learn Spanish.

2) Find a dance class.

3) Wear more color. Chelsea added that this will be the hardest goal of them all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chelsea went on to say:

"... One of the difference, is that in Marseille when it rains, everyone stays in.
Here, no one seemed bothered and everyone kept on going.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked around the Old Center and the Zocalo for awhile...

 

 

.. but we ended up in a Starbucks with hot cup of coffee !

It was too tempting not to !

Though her favorite drink in Mexico is.....

Agua de Jamaica

 

 

Chelsea wrote, " Agua de Jamaica is probably one of the reasons I came back to Mexico... I tried to make it on my own after tasting it two years ago but it just never tasted the same...

You can't just buy it in a bottle, it has to come from a vendor on the street like in the picture above... that makes it taste a million times better.

Well we found one on Sunday and it was the best I've ever had.

About a dollar, less than a euro, for that huge american size cup ... made my day.

According to my dear friend Wiki, it's called Hibiscus tea in English and it's "the infusion made from the calyces (sepals) of the Hibiscus sabdariffa flower, an herbal tea drink consumed both hot and cold by people around the world."

 I know that I plan on drinking an unreasonable amount while I'm here." Chelsea wrote.

I am glad my daughter is well, that she is finding deep pockets of happiness in the simple things life has to offer. Moreso, that she is not afraid to discover, venture, and learn a new language.

Mr. Espresso, her boyfriend is also doing an intership in Mexico City. The two of them rented a car this weekend, and headed for the coast.

I am awaiting news and trying not to be nervous.....

Though Chelsea reassures us:

"I am happy here, yep, I like it!"

Creative Sources for Inspiration

 

(Photo: SugarbSupplies)

 

 

 

Etsy is a treasure trove, a creative sources for inspiration, a wonder for artist and collectors. On Etsy you can buy unique handmade and vintage items directly from independent sellers from around the world.

Here are a few of my favorites for SATURDAY ART SAVES SERIES. Each Saturday I will focus on an artist, collector, cook, shop... that inspires me to be creative. 

Click on the link underneath any photo and it will take you to the site of the blog and or source of creativity.

Above photo:  Vintage inspired stickers.

 

 

 

 

(Photo: SugarbSupplies)

 

 

Wooden letter form to make your own letter/envelopes.

 

 

 

 

 

(Photo: SugarbSupplies)

 

Kraft paper long labels.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Source Made to Order Hearts.

 

 

 

 Photo source: Antique toile fabric

 

Old bleu toile fabric from France.

 

 

 Photo source lace flowers.

 

 

 

Photo source French Wedding Blossom Crown.

 

 

1880 French wedding crown wax orange blossoms.

 

 

(Photo: SugarbSupplies)

 

 See through lace tape.

 

 

 

 

(Photo: SugarbSupplies)

 

 

Vintage inspired letter tape.

I think I like tape... it must be from all those pacakges I tape up and send from my online brocante.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Photo: SugarbSupplies)

 

Cannisters with chalkboard labels.

 

 

Photo source for Pink paper straws!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo source

 

Old frames!

 

If you have a favorite or your own ETSY pages/site please list it.

 

Bretagne

Family,
Good friends,
Galettes,
Beautiful places.