I can’t believe 2020 just happened. It just does not feel like we have really left last year though. It feels as if 2020 was not really done yet. It just wants to be a longer year than it already was. But I really don’t want to spend the first blog of the year ranting and complaining about 2020. I’m back here with some life updates, etc.
First off, I got myself a new iPad. It’s the 4th generation iPad Air. It’s really fancy-schmanzy and all coz I bought with it the Apple Pencil and the keyboard which also acts as a protective cover. So far, I’m really loving it. I bought it for the sole purpose of using Procreate coz I find that Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop nowadays are such an expensive scam. Since I’m already at ease with Apple products, why not just use Procreate, the much cheaper version?
Self-portrait created in Procreate and watercolor
Anyhoo, I’m thinking of creating some digital artworks with it, which I would like to mix with the old and familiar, watercolor. If you could see my new profile pic, I actually did the portrait sketch in Procreate but I did the soft-focus background with watercolor. I just love how the foreground seamlessly merged with the background. After unsuccessfully attempting to achieve this simple effect using Gimp, it is such a welcome respite to find how easy it is to do this with Procreate.
First of all, some updates… It’s been a while. I have been super busy with my Christmas Greeting Card for a Cause project the past few weeks. I’ve also just recently put up my online shop. Add to that the fact that I’ve started studying French again. The French government has been kind enough to approve my request for full financial support to study one-on-one, customized French course for myself online, so as to improve my conversational skills and to pass the exam to B2 (Advance Intermediate) Level. The last time I took the exam, I was B1 (Lower Intermediate) Level, and that was like 5 years ago, I think. 🙂
Anyway, just want to keep you posted. Been busy with the Christmas shopping, updating my online shop for more items and making videos. Also, preparing documents to submit for a Master’s Degree I’m looking to apply for next year. I might also enroll in the meantime in an online Garden Design class to a prestigious school in the UK. I’m excited about this! I’ll let you know more in the coming weeks.
Anyway, here is a video of me painting one of my Christmas greeting cards. You can follow along, or just watch. Watercolor is so relaxing to watch. Plus, I’ve put some nice and cheerful Christmas songs in the background. It helps to feel more relaxed, more zen and more cheerful, especially during this times of confinement and gloomy winter weather.
Paint-along watercolor painting tutorial of a Filipino themed Christmas card courtesy of yours truly
This Christmas greeting card, along with all my other watercolor artwork prints on Christmas gift items are up on sale, folks!
Also, there is now a new item in my menu (Link Tree) that links to a page containing all my social medial sites, FYI. I first had the idea to do this via linktree (the web site that allows you to create a “link tree” of you social media sites). But then I thought, hey why not just create a link tree of my own in my web site. It’s more practical and I get a nice URL with my own domain name instead of using theirs. Haha! 😉
POST UPDATE (20/11/2020): A portion of the sales from the first batch of orders of my Christmas Cards for a Cause project is now being used to help victims of typhoon Ulysses in Cagayan Valley in the Philippines via AFPMP (Association of Filipino and French community in Toulouse). Thanks to all those lovely people who supported me on this charitable project! #paintingitforward
150 families (victims of typhoon Ulysses) in Cagayan Valley, Philippines each received a grocery package courtesy of the association of Filipino and French community in Occitanie
And… my online shop is still up, both here on my web site and my online store via zazzle.com (with some Christmas gift items in my product list)!
Please do take the time to check them out. This is a personal project to make a donation to the Filipino-French association here in Toulouse for their various charitable projects in the Philippines. It’s always a good feeling to give back your blessings. It’s not only good karma, it’s good for the soul as well.
I have started selling them two weeks ago via facebook, and I’ve had so many orders from my lovely friends all over the world! It made me so happy how my project was so well-received, even by people I have not even seen for more than twenty years! It was very touching.
It’s always true that the people who are most blessed are the people who know that you get more when you give more. 🙂
Just a short blog here to let you know that I was appointed Editor in chief for the newsletter of the Filipino-French community (AFPMP – Amitiés Franco-Philippine en Midi-Pyrénées) here in Toulouse.
This was a special request of the association’s president since the previous Editor in chief has resigned.
The old newsletter had always been sent via email on PDF, or published in the old defunct web site of the association.
For this year’s first issue, we have decided to create a web site for it.
The articles are mostly about the social gatherings of the association (personal and virtual), profiles of the members, and the charities in the Philippines that we support.
Here is one of my favorite articles that I have written myself, regarding the profiles of the members of our Watercolor Painting Meet-up:
During the confinement period, like most people I know, I have rediscovered my love for plants. Particularly, the indoor kind. I suddenly crave for more greenery inside the house as a result of not being able to visit my favorite garden (Jardin Japonais) right next to my old office. I have accumulated quite a collection of them, some of which, I am about to obligingly enumerate in this blog post… starting with my beautiful tall plants…
Pendant la période de confinement, comme la plupart des gens que je connais, j’ai redécouvert mon amour pour les plantes. En particulier, celles d’intérieur. J’ai soudain envie de plus de verdure à l’intérieur de la maison, car je ne peux pas visiter mon jardin préféré (Jardin Japonais) juste à côté de mon ancien bureau. J’en ai accumulé toute une collection, dont certaines, que je m’apprête à énumérer obligeamment dans ce blog… à commencer par mes belles grandes plantes…
If you have read one of my previous blogs, you would have already seen my Bird of Paradise, which is a Mother’s Day gift by my husband and my daughter. It has grown a lot of new foliage now. It looks quite happy and healthy. I have not repotted it for fear that I might damage its roots. So far, it acclimatized quite well. To take care of this plant, you need to put it closest to the window and water it every three days, or so. Of course, I also wipe the leaves with disinfectant once a week because… why not? I do this for all my other plants as well. Seriously, it’s a good way to remove the dust so that it could absorb more sunlight, and helps ward off bugs at the same time.
Si vous avez lu l’un de mes précédents blogs, vous aurez déjà vu mon Bird of Paradise, un cadeau de mon mari et de ma fille pour la fête des mères. Il a maintenant beaucoup de nouveaux feuillages. Il a l’air très heureux et en bonne santé. Je ne l’ai pas rempoté de peur d’endommager ses racines. Jusqu’à présent, il s’est assez bien acclimaté. Pour prendre soin de cette plante, il faut la mettre le plus près possible de la fenêtre et l’arroser tous les trois jours environ. Bien sûr, j’essuie aussi les feuilles avec du désinfectant une fois par semaine parce que… pourquoi pas ? Je le fais aussi pour toutes mes autres plantes. Sérieusement, c’est une bonne façon d’enlever la poussière pour qu’elle puisse absorber plus de lumière du soleil, et cela aide en même temps à éviter les insectes.
Next on the list is my Red Abyssian Banana. The hubs saw this basking in the sun outside our favorite plants shop in a town nearby. He took a picture and sent it to me. It was love-at-first-sight. So I just had to get it. Like most bananas, it grows sooo fast. I couldn’t believe my eyes. We’d eventually have to plant it outside at the rate that it’s growing! But I really hope not coz it just looks so gorgeous inside the house.
Le prochain sur la liste est ma Red Abyssian Banana. Mon mari a vu cette banane se prélasser au soleil devant notre magasin de plantes préféré dans une ville voisine. Il a pris une photo et me l’a envoyée. C’était l’amour au premier regard. Il fallait donc que je la prenne. Comme la plupart des bananes, elle pousse si vite. Je n’en croyais pas mes yeux. Il faudrait qu’on la plante dehors au rythme où elle pousse ! Mais j’espère vraiment que ce ne sera pas le cas parce qu’elle est si belle à l’intérieur de la maison.
Yesterday was my last day at work. It’s been almost two years since I fell in-love with this application that I have had the pleasure of working on as a Full Stack Developer.
Hier, c’était mon dernier jour de travail. Cela fait presque deux ans que je suis tombé amoureux de cette application sur laquelle j’ai eu le plaisir de travailler en tant que développeur Full Stack.
Those airplanes moving real-time on the airport map caught on radar and video cameras with a backdrop reminiscent of Star Wars is an intricate labor of love consisting of complex Math, the latest innovation in video analytics, and computing technology.
Ces avions se déplaçant en temps réel sur la carte de l’aéroport, capturés par des radars et des caméras vidéo avec un arrière-plan rappelant la Guerre des étoiles, est un travail d’amour complexe composé de mathématiques compliqué, de la dernière innovation en matière d’analyse vidéo et de technologie informatique.
I have always worked in (boring) banking applications but I have always dreamed of working in Aerospace… because… how cool is that?! It’s the ultimate in geekiness! Aeronautics is the closest thing to it. And everything was so new to me. It felt like starting from scratch. It was definitely challenging. But I made it, and it was ALL WORTH IT!
J’ai toujours travaillé dans des applications bancaires (ennuyeuses) mais j’ai toujours rêvé de travailler dans l’aérospatiale… parce que… c’est vraiment cool ! C’est le nec plus ultra du geekisme ! L’aéronautique est ce qui s’en rapproche le plus. Et tout était si nouveau pour moi. J’avais l’impression de repartir de zéro. C’était vraiment un défi. Mais j’ai réussi, et TOUT CA EN VALAIT LA PEINE!
Finally had some time to paint my daughter’s photo which was taken during a school performance when she was five years old.
Mother’s Day in France was surprisingly celebrated on the first weekend of June this year. I have always thought that Mother’s Day here always falls on the last weekend of May. It is a little late to talk about Mother’s Day but it’s better late than never.
La Fête des mères en France a été étrangement célébrée la première semaine de juin cette année. J’ai toujours pensé que la Fete des meres ici tombe toujours sur le dernièr weekend de mois de mai.Il est un peu tard pour parler de la fête des mères, mais il vaut mieux tard que jamais.
Starting now, I have decided to blog both in French and in English so that I can practice more written French and not lose this skill during these times of non-exposure to written French.
Dès maintenant, j’ai decidé de faire mon blog en Français et en Anglais en même temps pour que je puisse pratiquer mon Français à l’écrit et pour que je ne perde pas cette compétencependant cette période où mon occasion d’ecrire en Francais est bien limité.
What have you all been doing these days? As for me, since lockdown has ended here in our region in France, I have been able to visit some nice places close by. We are still limited to the distance we can travel, though.
Qu’avez-vous fait pendant ce temps? Moi, depuis la fin de la confinement ici dans notre région en France, j’ai visité quelques beaux endroits aux alentours. On peux déjà se deplacer mais la distance est encore limité.
