Worldless Wednesday – Red Wheelbarrows

Autour de l’Amour

I didn’t blog all that much last week, not like I usually do. I haven’t been tweeting as much either… and I didn’t turn my computer on for a few days which was a nice treat in itself. Sometimes I just need to do something else, spend my time on one concentration instead of spreading my time over various endeavors…

Last week, and for the past two weekends, I have been mostly doing needlework. Finishing projects, starting new ones and continuing works in progress… I’ve been cross-stitching, sewing and quilting. Of my current four projects, I have just completed one, that I hope will please…

Every year at the trade show/exhibit Salon Créations & Savoir-faire, the magazine Marie-Claire Idées does a sort of creative contest, collecting hand-made pieces from their readers to sell at the show – all proceeds going to a selected charity. Each year a theme and an association are chosen. This year’s theme is Autour de l’Amour (around love) and the charity benefiting is L’Etoile de Martin. Founded in 2006 after the death of Martin to a brain tumor at two years old, this association supports children’s cancer research and helps the little stars live a better daily life through music and movement. I am very excited and proud to participate in this project for the first time this year!

I decided to make a mobile. I liked the idea of being surronded by love, to have hearts floating around us… At first my idea was to cross-stitch hearts, but that would have taken me too long and I would never have made the June 5 deadline. So I settled on sewing different sized hearts out of different yet coordinating fabrics. I chose the color blue as the main color because I think this could be used for a little boy baby or little girl baby, or even decoration for an adult or adolescent. (while waiting to package and mail it, I have the mobile hanging in our stairway – an appropriate location, I find, because we all pass under it as we come and go, as love is all around us!) And who said that little girls always have to have pink things or that little boys can’t have organic floral motifs?

Past associations chosen by the project have included Les Blouses Roses, UNAF, Perce-neige. Entries are open to worldwide readers, so if you would also like to participate you can! You just need to send your hand-made item by mid-night June 5. Contest rules and shipping info here.

Gâteau au Yaourt

The French are famous for their delicious and delicate pastries, savory deserts, and to-die-for chocolate mousse. Though, often overlooked is this family-friendly, fun and easy cake, perfect for children’s goûter (snack-time)!

The fun behind baking a gâteau au yaourt (yogurt cake) is that all the ingredients are measured using the yogurt container! It’s a prefect recipe to initiate kids to cooking and baking.

This cake is a classical in French households, especially ones with children. My recipe originally comes from my sister-in-law, though I have tweeked it a little over the years… Today, while I was making the batter I decided that instead of using the usual cake tin, I would make individual cupcakes, and since I had some strawberries on hand, I decided to top each cake with some!

The cute little delicacies were oh-so-yummy! I was able to get 18 cupcakes. We had some for snack time and some for dessert at dinner, and have just enough left for a breakfast treat tomorrow morning!

Recipe
Gâteau au yaourt (using yogurt container to measure)
In a large bowl mix :
1 plain yogurt (I used a 150g/ 5 ounce yogurt container)
4 yogurt containers of flour
3 of sugar
1/2 of oil
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of salt
3 eggs
Bake 45 minutes @ 350°F/180°C (about 25 minutes for cupcakes)

Wednesday Wisdom

I came across this contemporary bit of wisdom the other day and find it noteworthy to share. I like that the message is modern but presented in a sort of old-fashioned way. I’d like to use this as inspiration and brainstorm other present-day phrases in a stylish antique format…. ilovetypography.com

Auriez vous une pièce pour le caddie?*

I tend to grocery shop once a week, sometimes twice a week. That might be excessive to some, but we have a really small fridge for a family of four (only slightly larger than what most college students have in their dorm, no freezer!) and very little cupboard space. Shopping in France for groceries in supermarkets (or supplies in hardware stores) is not unlike what you find anywhere else in the world, except for two aspects.

The French have a very efficient method for assuring that shopping carts remain in front of the stores and parking lots and avoid banging into cars when the wind blows. Each cart has a lock mechanism into which you insert a euro coin. Once inserted, the coin releases a chain connecting it to another cart. When you return the cart and reconnect the chain, your euro coin is returned. Often jetons (tokens) are used in the place of a euro coin…

I don’t believe the French, left on their own would have the courtesy to return the shopping cart to its place if it weren’t for retrieving that one euro after shopping… they’d most likely think it not their job to return the cart…

The other difference that exists while shopping has been in practice for a very very long time – long before America ever picked up the habit, long before any talk of the environment was being spoken. Here, you bring your own reusable heavy duty plastic bags, or basket to the store, and you bag your own groceries…

When I first returned to France 15 years ago I would panic that I counldn’t bag quickly enough, and the next customers groceries would get mixed up with mine. Now, I’ve had several years practice – I have a plan, a method. The key is placing your items on the conveyor belt in the order in which you want to place them in the bag, i.e. heavy items first! – this also means organizing your groceries as you place them in the shopping cart so that you can easily access bigger items first. In the town where I currently live, people are a bit more laid back – rushing less, and not getting so upset. It makes for packing your groceries so much easier when you don’t hear people sighing with annoyance.

Did you remember your reusable bag?

Here’s our trunk filled with groceries, heavy items in the bottom, lettuce, eggs and flowers on the top. Diapers, milk, beer, and other bulk items just placed in the car as is… Most aggravating is when you just run into the store for a quick something, end up remember you need several items and don’t have your bags with you because originally you were just running in for one thing. Even more aggravating is when you don’t have a euro coin on you, or a token for a cart. Then you have to go into the store, to the service desk and ask them, *Do you have change for the shopping cart? But eventually you learn to have extra bags in your purse and car, and tokens or euro coins reserved just for the cart!

An Inspiring Nook of Creativity

I always get so giddy with excitement every time the new Marie-Claire Idées magazine comes out. Starting this past January, the magazine now comes out bi-monthly rather than tri-monthly which has been such a treat!

I was a little less thrilled with the last couple of issues – the magazine always features good ideas, but I was less inspired by the projects of the past issues. Thursday (April 15), the May-June issue was available on newsstands.

This recent issue features fascinating projects with recycled old jeans, a shopping spree to London for design-y, trend-y fabrics and accessories and hip and fun quilting projects. My absolute favourite project is this lovely sleeping stuffed dog. So precious, you just want to cuddle with him and fall asleep too! Hopefully I’ll get to tackle this design soon. I am not at all a dog person, but I could definately take loving care of this one!

In other creative MCI news was the announcements of dates and theme for the next Salon Créations & Savoir-faire. I went to last year’s and had such a fabulous time. This year the Salon will take place Nov. 18 – 22, 2010. The theme for the upcoming show is “in Wonderland”. The organizers of the trunk show are having a contest for the most creative items made, inspired by the enchanted world of Lewis Caroll. If I have time, I will try to create something for the event. The winners will have the priveledge of having their creation exhibited at the show. Entries are being accepted until Sept. 2, 2010.

Taking place every year at the trunk show is a project for an association. Yet another activity I’d like to participate in, MCI readers are asked to make a creative design that will be sold during the trunk show, all procedes going to this year’s association L’Etoile de Martin. The theme for this year’s project is “Autour de l’Amour” (Around Love). Entries are being accepted until June 5, which gives me a little over a month. I have an idea using embroidered hearts…. Though, as I am famous for begining projects but not always finishing them I must be careful to not get carried away with my ideas to take on too much!

Itching to Stitch!

It’s incredible how liberated I feel since my last post. I feel fresh, renewed, filled with the sunshine of this warm spring morning, able to move on to more important, fun things now that I have gotten all of that disappointment and anger out of my system!

I have been browsing the blogosphere recently and have come across some more lovely blogs. Vanessa’s is one that I am particularly enchanted with. Seeing her creations has given me the itch to resume my cross stitiching projects, which I realize I have neglected for the past four months!!

For my birthday, Christmas and Valentine’s day, my sweet-heart husband has been offering me books from the cutest little embroidery series. I am not quite sure exactly how many books exist in the collection; so far he has given me RED, GREEN, PINK, WHITE, & ANGELS.

Each book features designs for classic embroidery and counted cross-stitch, showing photos of various items made with the stitched motifs. A needle, piece of linen and two skeins of DMC embroidery floss in the color of the title accompany each book, perfect for starting immediately on a project without having to run out and get supplies!

Naturally, I had no other choice but to abandon my other unfinished cross-stitch projects (Home, Leaves) to begin a fresh new design with the materials so conveniently tucked inside the cover! I started with the RED book and chose this matryoshka motif in a deep red (DMC 815). I am not sure how I will use the finished piece once I am done – if I will frame it or make it into a cushion or bag, or other decorative or useful item…

I love these following motifs from the PINK and GREEN books for my next projects… I find the sweets so deliciously cute and think the airplanes, cars, boats and scooter motifs would be perfect on items for my little boys… My fingers can not stitch quickly enough!

References : Marabout d’ficelle

A Question of Faith

I have been in turmoil, consumed with disappointment and anger for the past two days. Tuesday, during my meeting with the priest of our new parish for my youngest son’s baptism, my realizations were affirmed. I am losing my religion. I’ve heard enough, I’ve had enough!

The religion, the church, the parish, the pastor, the Vatican, the Pope, the institution – all fill me with apprehension and alarm, strike me with disgust and revulsion. Feelings I have had for several years now, feelings that deepen everyday, knowledge that is asserted ever more. I feel, more than ever that I am a true “cafetaria Catholic”, choosing myself what I will believe, which parts of the doctrine I want to follow, the way in which I will manifest my faith… I question the authenticity of this organization, the foundations of their establishment, their shameful actions and closed mentality, their brainwashing techniques, their arrogance and naive judgement, their inability to introspect and their incapability to be humble. They do not practice what they preach. I no longer want to be a part of it. Laws are made by men, Love is the only law of God. My trust, allegiance, commitement, dedication to the institution have wavered. I no longer feel welcome, I no longer welcome advice suggestions commands on my faith and morals, the upbringing of my children, the managing of my family, the living of my life, from men who have no notion of how ridiculously closed minded and out of touch with reality they sound. I just won’t take it!

In my Catholic life, I have received 5 of the 7 sacrements (all but becoming a nun and receiving last rights at my death…), I have pilgramaged to the Holy Land and Rome, walked in Jesus’ footsteps, stood in the garden where he was betrayed, prayed where he was crucified – I have followed the traces of his disciples, stood were Peter and Paul were imprisoned before being martyred. Twice, I attended, in person, mass by Pope Jean Paul II (who delivered greater reassurance and emitted deeper understanding and open-mindedness than the buffoon we currently call Pope – since his election I have been so dissapointed with Pope Benedict XVI… feeling that the Church is going backwards after all the progress made…), our eldest son is baptized and we are in the process of having our second son baptized. Being Catholic isn’t just about receiving sacrements and attending mass. It is also living the Ten Commandments and living a life in God’s divine grace. I know I am not perfect and have much more to learn on my spiritual journey, but the way in which the priest questioned the depths of my faith with such arrogance was insulting. Now looking back, upon asking, my fidelity amazingly and suddenly retracted, so now the priest is right to question me faithfulness.

The ways of the Catholic church vary from country to country, are different from one culture to the next. For those who preach and teach the fundamentals, those who follow and practice the faith, the religion is interpreted differently in various locations.

I’ve lived in four different countries, on four different continents. I’ve gone to mass in four different languages. And while there are some evident consistencies in the religion, there are plenty of individual/ parish/ pastor interpretations. Some priests let us dunk the host in a chalice of wine during communion, some forbid it, and some don’t even propose wine during communion. Some priests do individual confessions, while others do group confession. Some priests have you prepare your son’s baptism three months in advance while others prepare you in three weeks. And these are only brief examples of three out of seven sacrements! With my travels, I’ve not only been able to see my own religion from a different perspective, but I’ve also had the priveledge of being exposed to other religions, other points of view, of being in a synagogue, a temple, a mosque in addition to being in a church. How dare the priest thus critisize me, make allusions with such arrogance and superiority that I am practicing my faith wrongly, inadequately. He should critisize his own kind before questioning me! From my experience, there seems to be several interpretations on the preperations of the sacrement of baptism! Who is he to tell me how to practice my faith! I am sure he has some reflecting of his own to do on his behaviour and faith, I suspect far from perfect.

Perhaps I am reacting too strongly. Perhaps it is only in this country where I now reside that the religion is always manifested in such a twisted way, closed, narrow-minded, unsympathetic and unreceptive. The priest would have done better to ‘get to know me better’ by asking me about my personal spiritual faith journey first to see ‘where I’m coming from’, rather than judge me and jump to conclusions! I.e. To have been more welcoming to a new parishoner in his congregation would have hurt no one! No wonder there is such a lack of church-goers, so few who wish to be ordained priest. The priests are too busy being superieur in their closed world to relate to us ‘commoners’, and abusing their positions. Any other priest would have been thrilled to learn that our family priest who married us, baptized my eldest son, married my brother, baptized my nephew, and administered last rites to my grandmother was making the trip over the Atlantic to baptize our youngest son. The priest I met Tuesday was indifferent, jealous, skeptical. His response and thoughts were the last straw for me. I will not be understanding, I will not make excuses to defend him, I will not take advice from someone so disagreable who has lived a life so out of touch with reality.

Before, I had a hint of hope entwined in my feelings of dissapointment and ideas of withdrawl, but now I know for sure. Enough is enough! It’s official, I am ending this 30+ year relationship, I am dumping the church. Sorry to let my family down. I will perform the ‘minimum duties’ until my son’s baptism July 31. Yes, I will go through the routines during mass, feign enthusiasm at the nearsighted interpretations of the Word of the Lord, forgo receiving communion, play Mrs. Barker* at the remaining two meetings of baptism preperations we must attend. I will give the opportunity to my son to choose later where to carry his faith, to be open-minded enough to question it. My prayers are in my heart, my spirituality is awake, the Holy Spirit is present within my being, I shall interprete on my own my faith in God, between the two of us without interference from hypocrites… Perhaps someday I will be fortunate enough to encounter a more tolerant, open-minded Catholic community like the ones I have been a part of in the past (FCC, Igreja Matriz) who will restore my faith in the church, but until then I will not be a practicing Catholic in the Anet Parish.

*reference to a character (that I once played) from The American Dream, a play by Edward Albee that attacks the substitution of artificial for real values in our society.

Wordless Wednesday : Yellow

Clarity for Uncertain Weather

Perfect for those spring days that don’t quite feel like spring at all, but more like we’ve gone back a step to winter (like we’re having today!), treat yourself to a Quick, Simple, Certain Mixed Fruit Crisp

Ingredients:
An assortment of fruit of your choice – Apples, Pears, Mangos, Banana, Kiwi… peel and cut into cubes (I used four apples, two kiwis, two bananas, and two handfulls of dried cranberries), sautée in 1/4 cup (1/2 stick or 60g) unsalted butter.

For the crumbs –
1 cup (200g) sugar
1-1/2 (200g) flour
1-1/2 sticks (180g) unsalted butter, room temperature
Combine in a bowl and mix by hand until large crumbs form.

Fill four ramekins (or a baking dish), first with a light layer of crumbs, then fruit and finally top with crumbs.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 350°F (180°C) degrees. Let cool slightly before serving. Serves four.