Paris mon amour

I'm going to Paris tomorrow morning very early. You are looking at this shoe and surely wonder: what's the connection between Paris and a black sandal ? Actually, none but I'm also going to see my mom in the Loire valley. She's mad about shoes and always gives me some of her old pairs of shoes, like this one below...Ain't I lucky ?




I'm going for work and play...Will tell you more when I get back next week...!
Enjoy your days and nights

To be or not to be your Valentine

- So what ?, says Monchéri, why should I have to tell you, today of all days that I love you ? This is downright stupid.

- You mean you don’t love me ? You do, don’t you ?

- Of course, I do but I just hate these dates like Christmas, Valentine which are turned into big commercial events. I just can't bear it..

- I know darling but I’m leaving very early tomorrow in the morning, so why don't you just shut up and here...have a taste of that...

And a Happy Valentine to all of you, sweet blogging girls !!!

Traditional Spanish sunday breakfast

This is what Monchéri brings nearly every sunday morning : CHURROS......the typical Spanish doughnut in shape of a long golden ribbon.

At the beginning, I think my frenchitude prevented me from liking this greasy Sunday companion which tends to weigh on your stomach and now I have to admit, one sunday without churros is not a real sunday.

Still I have them with a cup of earl grey tea while Monchéri who is Spanish eats his churros with café con leche like Spanish people do.

Olé !

I love Granada

I love Granada when it shows its love to art. Until march 24th, the city hosts sculptures of Rodin, on plaza Fuente de las Batallas. The famous “Thinker” attracts many Granadinos. I am so enthusiastic whenever art is shown in the city and is not confined within a museum. This kind of event makes people talk, comment, study the lines of a body, or a foot. I myself am completely crazy about sculpted feet...

Also the clear blue sky was a perfect frame for these sculptures when I took these photos yesterday.

this is the fountain on plaza Fuente de las Batallas








this character represents Jean de Fiennes, one of the burghers of Calais

detail of his foot

detail of his hand

this character represents another burgher of Calais , Pierre de Wissant

(who are the burghers of Calais? I'll be brief...In 1347, King Edward III laid siege to the French city Calais. After 11 months, the population was starved and six of the leading citizens (burghers) of Calais offered themselves as hostages to Edward III in exchange for the freedom of the city. They came to the king, barefoot and with a rope around their neck, carrying the keys of the city. Thanks to the king's wife Philippa de Hainaut, the burghers' life was saved and they were deported to England.
In 1885, the town council of Calais commissioned Rodin to produce a sculpture that would pay tribute to the burghers of Calais)

My etsy shop

- “Your what shop?, asked my sister when she came to visit last summer.

- Well..er..etsy. It’s like an open space on internet for indie designers, handmade things and so on.

- But is this interesting for you? Don’t you think you should just sell to shops and do the shows…

- You know, I never really made money when I did the Prêt-à-Porter show in Paris, just covered the costs honestly. So I think it’s great, just being able to put a few of my designs on a virtual shop and may be I sell, may be I don't but it's free. Well, they charge 0,20 cents per item. No big deal.

So as I said, my sister came to visit me last June from France and at that time I was planning to open an etsy shop. We started to make pictures of bags and stationary items and then days passed by…months passed by...and finally I set up my shop two days ago.

It's called lalaema and right now only features 10 items, among which you will find

Valentine cards (certainly too late for those but please tell me love also exists on days which are not Valentine day, otherwise it would be too depressing)

Gift packaging

Bags


More bags

and still more bags

Of course, I plan to add more things. You see, that's the very good thing with etsy. When I'm not working on a translation, I can quickly set up my work table and make an album or a few cards or design a bag.

I will show finished items on the blog. It will be fun !

Inspiring Granada

Don’t you love it when, on your way to go to an appointment, your eye suddenly catches something which distracts from your planned itinerary and you feel like stopping and see what it is about? Yesterday afternoon, I was walking briskly on Plaza Nueva when I saw a man who visibly looked foreigner, sketching on the ground on a wide kraft paper sheet.

(this is the plaza Nueva. The artist was gone when I took the picture below. His spot was right behind the couple in the centre)



I came near to look at the drawing which represented the plaza.

A few euros coins given by appreciative passers-by were scattered on the left side of the sketch and on the right side, the price of the drawing read: 10 €.

Oh my God, so little money for at least a few hours work, studying the perspective and sketching with so much style and talent.

I bought the sketch and a few cards from the man and started to ask him if he considered himself an itinerant artist. He smiled and said calmly: "as a matter of fact, I'm quite professional. I am a photographer and exhibited in London, Berlin and New York". He then explained that he was now traveling and his idea when he came to Spain with 20€ in his pockets was to try to make it possible to work as a traditional artist or go back to London. He’s heading now to South America.

this is one of his cards

His name is John Haydn Colley (he’s Welsh). We exchanged blog address and web site address. John has a web site on which his photos can be seen. As soon as I got back home, I logged on to his site.

I particularly like the series of Andalusia in black and white.

Bare landscapes suffering from dryness…Factories which seem to have been abandoned.

Near Castril

Derelict house in sierra Pozo Alcon

this one above is titled "Middle of nowhere somewhere"


View from mountains above Pozo Alcon

Of course, black and white photos always look timeless and so graphically elegant. I love this series because they seem to illustrate a silent road movie. Also, these photos had been shot in august and it seems to me, you can almost feel the overwhelming heat.


I love my drawing....thank you John and good luck on your next trip !


ps: I then realized I was so focused on our conversation, I completely forgot to take pictures of the artist. oh well....

Sweet cosy monday

This is another lazy Monday…It feels spring is coming. My jasmine plant is singing "winter's gone, winter's gone", yet evenings are still cold and it seems everybody in the village is sneezing or is down with the flu.

Today is cosy Monday at home. The sky is grey and the snowy sierra makes me feel like wearing soft creamy white woolies

Still, if I ever go out, I would wear a little fur and wool collar round my neck…

Rabbit fur and handknitted wool collar. Ivory satin trim. Vintage pearls and sequins adornment. Design by Lala Ema

And may be a hat to protect me from the chilly wind from the sierra.

Rabbit fur hat adorned with ivory satin ribbon and vintage pearls and sequins adornment. Design by Lala Ema...

...Or shall I stay at home and write down my dreams in a pale lavender little notebook like these ones below..

Little notebooks decorated with a thread of fancy white wool. Design by Lala Ema





and write a card to a dear friend who is not happy on love and wish her lightness in her heart...





detail of a card with white feather, pearls and grey satiny paper. design by Lala Ema

Don't touch my burger

You certainly heard about the recent Food and Drug Administration's decision to authorize selling meat from cloned animals.

I enjoy a good burger from time to time but am not too sure I would like to eat meat from cloned animals. In fact I hate the idea.

Rachel, a lovely English girl I met on New Year’s Eve forwarded me an email last week sent to her by Kate McMahon from Friends of the Earth.

Kate posted an announcement about this issue and proposed to collect petition signatures from the public which will be forwarded to the Congress and FDA.

I hereby reproduce the text of her announcement in full, with the link to sign this petition in case you’re interested.

”Today, (wed jan 16^th) the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lifted a ban on selling meat and dairy products coming from cloned animals.

The FDA has buckled to big biotech and agro-business despite more than 150,000 public comments opposing the lifting of the ban, and amendments to the federal Farm Bill and Omnibus Appropriations Bill calling for more research before lifting the ban.

Genetically speaking, you meat eaters could eat burgers from the same cow for years.

Don't eat meat? We still think this issue will interest you, given the risks we take by introducing cloned animals into our food system and ecosystem.

It is too late to stop the FDA from permitting the sale of food from cloned animals, and there are no labelling requirements either, which is why we need to make grocery stores pay a price for choosing to sell it.

Starting today, Friends of the Earth is collecting petition signatures from the public that we will deliver to all the major grocery stores -- and provide copies to Congress and the FDA. The text of the petition:

I urge you to declare that your grocery stores will not sell food from cloned animals. I plan to shop only at stores that can make such a guarantee.

Sign the petition now. (http://www.FoE.org/No_Food_From_Cloned_Animals)

The FDA claims that cloned animals and their offspring are safe for us to eat, yet studies used by the FDA are incomplete.

Cloned animals have a much higher rate of genetic abnormalities than animals that reproduce naturally. Most cloned animals die immediately after birth because the intricacies of the cloning process are still not well understood. Dolly, the first cloned sheep, died only six years after her birth of premature arthritis and lung disease.|

Tell grocers that you aren't buying it! “

photos taken from the site fotosearch.fr (free of rights)