Keep Your Head Up Girl!

Hello, hello!

Here's a quick update on my past two art-filled weeks. Last weekend, I took it pretty easy as I was still quite jet-lagged. Sunday was a fun day: I headed to the Art market ( where I found many possible Christmas presents, wink wink), stopped by Starbucks to show my English friend, Emily, what the American super café is all about, and then walked along the quai.

Marché de la Création on the Saône.

Apparently this is just a little bit of whipped cream in French.

The past two weeks have also (quite obviously how could they not be) full of cooking and baking. I decided to attack a Butternut squash for the first time. It wasn't so bad considering how I'm now a professional with pumpkins. (If you don't remember, France does not do canned pumpkin puree, or rather i've never seen it). Homemade is healthier anyways (or so I keep telling myself!)

Homemade Butternut Squash soup

Anna's amazing German biscuits

Like mother like daughter. I stole my mom's recipe for these rosemary and strawberry jam scones. Perfection in two bites!

Before

After

Friday was a national holiday here in France (Veteran's Day in America, Armistice Day in most of Europe). We all took advantage of sleeping in until noon. After baking, Anna and I decided to head over to the Sucrière to check out one of the current contemporary art exhibits. Apparently, the Biennale comes around to Lyon every two years. I've seen signs all over the place for it, but never thought to go until I was asked (since I'm not a HUGE contemporary art fan). I was quite impressed.

I finally had my camera after a year of trying to capture this sign!

I found these beautiful leaves outside the building. Oh fall foliage how you amaze me.

Contemporary Art Festival Poster

There are apparently 10 exhibits across the Lyon region. Here are my favorite findings from this visit. The first three pictures featured below are creations by the Argentinean artist, Marina de Caro. Her explication: "J'ai alors pensé qu'ils étaient des hommes graines- métaphores d'hommes nouveaux en pleine renaissance, qui réapparaîtraient avec de nouvelles façons de faire les choses. Tout commence par une naissance [...] C'est le mythe du possible: une nouvelle façon de voir les choses, qui, je le crois, permettrait de nouvelles utopies, ou au moins la création de nouveaux projets possibles."
I thought that they were "seed men"- metaphors for new men full of rebirth, who come back with a new way to do things. Everything starts by birth. [...] It's a myth full of the possible: A new way to see things, which I believe, allows utopias, or at least the creation of new, potential projects."

(It always sounds prettier in French.) Below are my interpretations of these "seed men."

"Ah, I'm squashed!!!"

"My what big hands you have!"

"I'll show you what a sucker punch is!"

The following artwork made me upset. Considering I've been literature geek since I could hold a book in my hands, the sight of destroyed documents made me livid! At the same time, the chaotic nature of it all is just beautiful. It made my ponder questions that normally come up in conversations with my little sister. What if I were a librarian or a publisher in the late 1800's and I came back to work to find this? What did someone do if there was a fire or robbery in their warehouse; did they give up their work forever or continue on? Furthermore, let's go way back...What if I were a scribe and these were all hand-written? 

I didn't understand this artist much but I do know that K is for Katie! 

French lesson #40313: Gauche= Left, Droite= Right. How to remember this amazing information? Droite and right have "r"'s in their spelling!


Life with my 14 children is going well since i came back (well besides their runny noses.)  I'll show you all of our artwork later this week! Until, enjoy this Adele song that should be overplayed rather than that sappy "Somebody Like You."

Oh and just a little shout out to my amazing cousin, Emily, and her new trophy farmer husband, Michael! Congratulations you two!