The face-paint obsession continues. This time we did flowers in honor of the sun that finally peeked out from behind the persistent blanket of grey sky that has been with us for the last few months. And I do mean “peeked”: it was there on Saturday but gone again today. It’s teasing us. Come on spring! Get your act together! What do you mean it’s still early February? Excuses, nothing but excuses.
See that picture there in the middle, with the focus on her eye-lashes? I’ve been trying to get a picture like that for over 4 years now. And how did I get it in the end? I waited for her to be playing Super Mario Bros on her Gameboy DS: it’s the only time she actually stops moving for long enough for me to get the focus right. Sad but true.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Yesterday evening, as she was getting into bed, Amélie suddenly announced that she HAD to have a clown outfit for school today. No no no no no! I cannot make a clown outfit in an hour without any warning or any materials or… And anyway, her teacher would surely have said something. Right? No no, Amélie must been confused… But she seemed so adamant, so convinced that she absolutely had to go to school as a clown. She was distraught. It took me nearly an hour to comfort her and to convince her that I didn’t need to make a clown outfit that very moment. Phew, thought I. That was close. She’ll forget all about it by morning… “Mama, where’s my clown outfit?” These were the first words out of her mouth this morning. She hadn’t even opened her eyes yet! And we were off again. “Amélie – you do not need a clown outfit for today!” – “Yes. I. DO! Madame Sandrine said it’s clown day today! All my friends will have clown outfits!” and so on and so on… I went from confident (no way – someone would have told us) to a complete wreck (I am the worst mother in the world! My daughter will be the only one in her class without a clown outfit!). But it was too late by then to do anything about it so we got her dressed (with some difficulty) and took her to school. I was very apprehensive… But… NO CLOWN OUTFITS! Not one to be seen. Not anywhere! Yes! Not a terrible mother after all. But I was traumatised enough (pathetic, I know) to seek out her teacher for a chat. It turns out they had been drawing clowns yesterday and talking about how they would dress up for Carnaval next week. I shall repeat that: next week! Can you imagine if she had turned up with full face-makeup and over-sized shoes today?! I would have felt very very silly indeed and the teachers would finally have had their proof that I was completely insane. Haha! Anyway, Amélie was still keen this evening so we practiced the face-paints when we got home. You know, just to make sure we know what we’re doing for NEXT WEEK.
Clowns are scary. Even the sweet little ones.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
It’s winter. I want to hibernate. At least until a bit of green starts appearing in the parks. Or until I stop shivering every time I get out of bed. One or the other. Still, I did emerge from my nest today long enough to pick up my camera for the first time in a month. Hanno thinks this is a good sign. When he saw me at the computer flicking through my pictures and doing a bit of editing he grinned and gave me a big hug: “what was that for?” “you’re playing with pictures again! It’s a sign! You must be feeling better!”. Ha. Well, I’m not sure about that. I have spent most of the day hiding under a blanket but maybe he’s right. Maybe the sun will come out again soon. In the meantime, we’ve got Amélie in teenager training. Except I don’t think she needs much training…
See, she’s nearly there! Not that we’re in any hurry. It’s so much more fun being little.
My camera seems to be sulking at the moment. Or maybe it just ate too much over Christmas and is therefore finding it hard to perform to its full potential. Or maybe it’s just been so long since I picked it up that I’ve completely forgotten how to use it… Who knows. The result is, anyway, the same: no photo. So I picked up my pens and pencils instead.
After I had scanned the picture into my computer, I decided it needed a bit of colour. So I completely cheated and used the Lavender Skies texture from Flypaper’s fabulous Tex Box 2. I utterly recommend these textures by the way: they are addictive and delicious. Happy New Year everyone!
Monday, December 21, 2009
My secret-santa parcel arrived today (with a ton of other stuff – looks like the post-office might at last have realised that our postie had gone AWOL and replaced him)! We’ve been doing a secret-santa “thingy” (it’s the technical term, dontcha know) with a group of on-line friends for a couple of years now and I love it. We get to open our presies as soon as they arrive too, so it gets Christmas off to an early start! And this year, again, I have been spoilt: I got a lovely soft silky cashmery pashmina, a great book that I can’t wait to dig into and, for Amélie, the best ever tutu and a brand new copy of Where the Wild Things Are. It’s one of Han’s and my favorite books and, although we do already have a copy, it’s in French and it is so so old that it crumbles on contact and so sits out of reach and unread. I’m really excited about finally being able to introduce Amélie to it (she’s had a WTWTA poster on her wall since she was a tiny baby). So, to my Secret Santa, whoever you are (no, I have no clue!), thank you thank you thank you! You have made Amélie grin from ear-to-ear and that, all on its own, is the best gift anyone could give me.
Friday, December 18, 2009
It snowed! It snowed! It snowed! Lots and lots and lots! AND I was on holiday AND Amélie’s school had a broken water pipe so they asked us to keep her home for the day AND did I mention it snowed?! Well it did. Everywhere! Can you tell I’m a little bit excited about this? And don’t worry, I did go back out without my camera so I could get my revenge on both Han and Amélie. And I’ve discovered the best way of throwing a snow-ball: don’t compact it. Actually, don’t make a ball at all. Just scoop up a big hand-full of the powdery white stuff and throw that. It’ll cover your victim from head to toe with the added benefit that it will stick and then start melting, slowly dripping icy-cold water down their backs. Unless of course you mis-judge the wind. In which case you’ll get a face-full yourself. As did I. Happy holidays everyone!
Yes, I know… I took lots of pictures. I’m sorry. But IT SNOWED!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Today was the first day of winter: bright blue skies but bitterly bitterly cold. Not that it stopped Amélie from spending half the day outside with nothing but her cardigan on. But then she did have an excitable dog to play with so there was no point in trying to stop her. Believe me, I know this from experience. I did eventually manage to get a scarf on her but then I gave up and just tried to comfort myself with the thought that she was running around like a lunatic and would probably be keeping herself warm that way. The dog is not ours. She belongs to Lys and Nessim, friends of ours from university who moved to Belgium just after we did. Despite living only 30 minutes away from each other we only ever seem to manage to get together once a year. But it’s great fun every time and every time we promise each other we won’t leave it as long again. Fingers crossed!
You know Saint Nic. Or you think you do. Lots of red and white, cheery round fellow, reindeer, elves… Right? Well, yes, but not in Belgium (and, probably a few other countries, but I’m in Belgium so I’m going with that). In Belgium, Saint Nicholas is a bishop who carries a staff and rides around on a donkey, together with his side-kick “Zwarte Piet” (or “Père Fouettard”). But we’ll gloss over that part of the tradition because I really object to the idea of telling kids that if they’re good they get presents from St. Nic but that if they’re bad then they get coal – and possibly a good hiding (”fouetter”, after all, means “to whip”) – from someone with a blacked-up face. You can probably guess why. Anyway, he’s an impatient bugger that Saint Nic: he can’t wait until the 25th of December. Oh no. He’s here distributing his presents – and a whole lot of chocolate – on the 6th. And he is taken very very seriously.
My company organised a bit of a party in his honor. There was a show, a games room set up in our canteen, balloon blowing, face painting and, of course, a visit from the man himself. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, Amélie had to come to my office to doodle on my white-board…
OK, yes, I cheated! These are both before- and after-party pictures. The face-paints gave that one away. Talking of which…
And damn damn damn! I forgot to blur the texture after applying it so now Amélie has a cross-hatched face in the bottom two pictures. Grrr! Anyway, here’s the main man himself, the one you’ve all been waiting for: Saint Nicholas (telling Amélie to clean her teeth properly because that’s the only thing a certain person could think of that she could maybe do better at):
And that should do for today! Happy Saint Nicholas!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
I promised some pictures of the Brussels Christmas market so here they are. I’m not very good at this kind of thing but hopefully you still get a sense of the twinkle-fest that this thing is. And I have a month to practice and get something better before they dismantle the whole thing again at the end of December. So watch this space…
PS: I just uploaded my Christmas album to Blurb so that I could place my order for Amélie’s gaggle of Grandparents. If you want a sneak-peek, you can have a look at a few of the spreads here. Warning: if you are one of the aforementioned Grandparents, don’t look – you’ll spoil the surprise!
Friday, November 27, 2009
I promised myself, when I started this blog, that I would post something at least once a week. And already I have failed. Boo Cass! BOO! Oh well, better late than never. My excuse, by the way, is that I’ve been traveling a lot for work and that we’ve had my parents to stay meaning that the computer room became their bedroom and out-of-bounds for a while. But my absence has given me time to play with my luuurvely new lens. I have taken a gazillion pictures of nothing (and when I say nothing, we’re talking bog-roll holders, floor-boards and, if I was feeling a little adventurous, the corner of our microwave) but I have also taken a few pretty pictures of some old shells and pebbles I had collected for Amélie and, last weekend, I even managed to take her (the lens) out for a walk. My did I feel grand with such a fancy piece of bling hanging round my neck! And oh wow! She takes the most gorgeous pictures! I’m still trying to get used to how close everything looks compared to my old 30mm lens so I keep on chopping off heads willy-nilly but still… I am in LOVE.
This, for your information, is Amélie trying to get Hanno to carry her. We dispensed with her buggy quite some time ago because it was such a pain on the cobbles around here (not to mention trying to get on and off the old trams!) but she has replaced wheels with an uncanny ability to climb up people and attach herself barnacle-style to their sides… At this rate, we’ll still be carrying her when she’s 21. I’ll have her in my arms while Han struggles to balance her boyfriend on his shoulders. It could happen!
Oh, and here she is again with some leaves.
Next up: some pictures of the Brussels Winter Wonderland (Christmas market). It opened tonight and I was out there with my camera like a shot. Let’s see if I can post something before the weekend is up… You are allowed to tickle me if I fail.
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