The Merry Go Round Of Life Is Starting To Slowly Spin Once Again

What a hard post this is to do .....following the pain of my last post . I'd love to tell you everyone had healed and life was rosy perfect, but it has been a long road.

Our lives were turned upside down with my husband's passing. We have been down the road of grief and devastation. My Merry Go Round called Life came to a full stop almost three years ago.

Its hard to even fathom the pain that you go through when you lose a loved one the way we did. I need only look into someone's eyes who's been through it. No words are necessary, the depth of the pain speaks volumes.

But mine is a story of love. Amidst the pain and having to rebuild a life without my sweetheart, the love around me has made itself abundantly clear. I was so blessed to have had the Love of My Life but life had a way of showing me that love is still around me just in different forms.

The Merry Go Round is starting to spin slowly again, and slow is okay becasue I live differently now.

I have learned to breathe more deeply, laugh harder, love deeper, hug longer and kiss more often. 



I am truly appreciative of all kind and supportive comments everyone left me. Mwaah ......hugs to all of you .







.......amd may a little grace touch your day.

Please pray for me

It is with a heartbreak and tremendous shock like I've never felt before ...that I have to post this. My beloved soulmate and husband Alain passed away from a sudden massive heart attack Friday, October 2 at 7:10 pm. Any prayers would be appreciated. My house is filled with friends and loved ones. They are taking care of us.

21 Day Challenge

Don't you just love these quotes ? They come from this amazingly inspirational artist Rhonna Farrer Be sure to check out her blog. Not only is she a fantastic artist, but she's fantastic at motivating other to be their personal best.

So I'm taking part in this:


Rhonna is challenging us to take the 21 day challenge to either develop a habit (hence the thought that sticking to something 21 days develops a habit) or just making progress in areas in your life that you would like to see growth.

Every day is Rhonna motivates us with new quotes and her fantastic digital word art.
If you've read my blog you know how very inspired I am by "words" and quotes ....must be the teacher in me :) Add some fantastic art to it and it really works for me. We're supposed to keep a journal about our progress. I'll try to photo a page from my journal for the next post.

Sooooooo, the areas in my life I really felt I need to jumpstart were keeping to a personal fitness routine ..... for health reasons and stress management. I've got to the point that I just can't keep up my busy pace if I don't take care of myself and I always feel better when I excercise ...but I just have to make it a lifestyle habit.
My progress so far with the fitness goals is pretty good. I've made it to day 10 doing some kind of fitness everyday. I continued my biking that I've been doing this summer and I've been doing this Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred She's from the Biggest Loser if you haven't seen her. I am on day 10 and it really hasn't been too hard ....it's only 25 minutes .....three circuits of 3 minutes strength training, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs. I really do feel like I have more energy. As far as physical results I can definitely see a difference in my upper body but that dreaded muffin top is still there!

Now I'm fessing up to my other goal which wasn't too successful. I would really like to move foward with my artwork and I realized that I really have to try to change my thinking about my artwork. I always have excuses why not to take my work to a local gallery or to start a website for portrait painting etc. I actually am not sure in what direction to move and I truly feel paralyzed.
So the inspirational quote for Day 1 hit a nerve with me ......I think I am really afraid of failure which is part of the reason and can't even take the first step.



This quote from day 2 also really helped:


But in order to take:

I have to change my thinking and get rid of my fear. And you know what I really don't know how to do that. It really will be baby steps. So ...I don't think it was a coincidence that I just "somehow" stumbled upon this motivation the other day:

"You are making a big breakthrough in your life by putting your divinely inspired ideas into action. Trust that you are guided each step of the way

Honor your inner feelings by taking at least one step today in the direction of making your dreams and desires a reality. Fearlessly take one step to dismantle any part of your life that is out of integrity

Sooo, ....I feel that it would be beneficial to start the 21 day challenge over for this area of my life. The above quote will be my mantra ...along with Rhonna's inspirational quotes. And ....TRUST , I will.....baby steps, baby steps.

May a little grace touch your day,

Bre

Fall Nesting

While I'm still hanging on to the last, lingering days of summer, fall is one of my favourite seasons. So I've decided to participate in The Inspired Room's Fall Nesting




I wrote this on a previous post and this truly sums it up for me:

Autumn truly is my favourite time of year. I take in all of its splendor from rose coloured glasses.It seems to touch all of the senses - the crispness of the air, the crunch of the leaves, the intensity of the colours. But as an artist, what speaks to me most is the glory of the light.........God's Glory.

So, from an artist's point of view here's what I love about fall:

... the difference in the light
... the vibrant colours
... the crispness of the air
... the crunch of the leaves
... the smell of ripened blackberries
... the intense blueness of the sky
... going to the Pumpkin Patch with my students
... a smoky, autumn bonfire
... having to put on a warm, cozy sweater.
... the dew on the grass in the mornings
... the smell of my favourite pumpkin candle
... my kids loved and worn, handmade Halloween decorations
... pumpkins and hay bales on the porch
... scarecrows with crows perched on them
... dewdrops on spiderwebs
... smoke lingering in the air after a bonfire
... a drive in the country
... biting into a crisp apple

Oh....I could go on and on but I hope I have left you with a little fall splendor.


May a little grace touch your day !

Bre

Inspiration from Jeanne D'arc Living

Inspiration definitely comes from everywhere... but I felt like I hit the motherload when I opened up the new spring copy of Jeanne D' Arc Living. It's absolutely breathtaking. Here I was at the ballpark for my son's tournament devouring the magazine! The baseball moms laugh at me reading magazines between innings.
But every image is absolutely glorious!

I was reading Tracie's blog (Ma Petite Maison) and she mentioned that Roberta at Enchanted Treasures was selling the latest copy. So I mosied on over and I was lucky enough to get the last copy.

So here's a few little treats for sore eyes:








The lilac photos in the magazine were stunning so I played around with a few lilac vignettes myself. Enjoy !

I can totally feel a new painting coming on.





May a little grace touch your day.

Bre

Just wanted to let the lovely ladies of the blog world know that I haven't forgotten about you and the fun personalities I've met. This time of year is crazy for me. With my three athletes, hubby working shift work and my fulltime job, my feet hardly touch the ground. We have 6 weekends of tournaments in a row so I don't have time right now to even get near a computer.
But I am definitely missing the blogging world and will be back.

I've reposted one of my posts ......one that always helps me refocus .. Enjoy and talk soon !


....Been doing a lot of reflecting lately about this "Carousel of Life"






My carousel seems to have been going on warp speed with me hanging frantically on as life blurs by. A lot of things happening in my life right now are not within my control. I really have to force myself to live in the moment and refocus - refocus on what really is important.


I'll leave you with my favourite quote that's been on my bulletin board behind my desk in my classroom ever since I started teaching. Hope you enjoy it.


To Laugh often and much,
To win the respect of intelligent people,
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends,
To appreciate beauty,
To find the best in others,
To leave the world a bit better,
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition,
To know even one life has breathed because you have lived,
This is to have SUCCEEDED


May a little grace touch your day.

Chateau Chantilly

Wouldn't you love to stay in this bedroom ?? Looks totally French to me!
Try to follow me on this one.

First a little background on how I chose my blog name. About 3 years ago in 2006 I was journalling and trying to come up with a name for my painting business - one that was elegant, fun and whimsical. One that felt just right. I brainstormed and brainstormed, writing all my choices and thought process down in my journal.

When I came up with Chantilly Grace it seemed perfect. I wanted it to be unique and original so I googled it and believe it or not the only thing that came up for Chantilly Grace was - a name for a llama LOL.

For Chantilly - The French Chateau Chantilly came up . The fact that there was a Chateau named Chantilly in France made it even more perfect! Adding my favourite word God's "Grace" completed it.




Fast forward a couple of years.I decided to do a blog instead of a website. So I wanted to make sure Chantilly Grace was still unique. Although I couldn't imagine how someone else could come up with the same name cause my thinking can be quite "creatively" crazy at times. But Chantilly Grace was still original. I know that another blog has since borrowed the first part "Chantilly" but I guess that was bound to happen and I mean, it is a pretty cool name.

So, the other day I'm reading my comments and talk about SERENDIPITY ...there's a comment that says "kiss from Chantilly near Paris". Well,anything near Paris catches my attention ! So I wrote her back in French. And sure enough she does live near Chantilly with the "Chateau" I had forgotten about. How cool is that ? The bloggin' world is so fun and sometimes comes up with the most unexpected surprises.

Actually the Chateau is called: Chateau de Montvillargenne. It's located in a 15 acre park, in the heart of the Chantilly forest about 35km from Paris. It's the former residence of the Rothschild family.

So that gorgeous bedroom is from the Chateau in Chantilly. All the more reason to want to visit Paris again!
Here's a couple more pics:






May a little grace and serendipity touch your day !

Bre

Joyeuse Paques

Joyeuse Paques .....Wishing you all a joyous Easter ! Friends and Family are coming today for our family dinner so I better get off this computer !

May a little grace touch your day,

Bre

Things have gotten pretty busy "CHEZ MOI" Spring baseball/volleyball season is always crazy with three kids. So I haven't been able to blog as much as I'd like to or post the lovey, inspiring posts that I "envision" Plus my laptop blew up so I have to share the "family computer"...no easy feat LOL

So no lovely, pretties today but I do have a few photos of my girlfriends taking me out last night for my birthday which is later this week. Ten of us went for dinner and drinks at a local pub on the river. I'm a real big fan of having good girlfriends - we always have so much fun and laugh til our sides hurt. We had a great time!! The pictures aren't so great though because my camera broke and most of our cell phone cameras don't have a flash. Actually they're pretty bad but I'll be brave and post them anyway. I'm theone in the middle.
Enjoy !




Hugs
Bre

Been Busy

Just a quick post here let you know what I've been up to. I've been busy...painting again. I kind of went through a slump and hadn't painted since the summer but I had promised my girlfriend a painting of her kids for her birthday. So I worked on it all Springbreak and gave it to her at her party on Saturday.The picture is retty fuzzy and washed out and I still have to take it back and do some tweaking on the face cause one of the kids stuck their finger through their face ( It was still wet LOL ) But after several of the chocolate martinis she gave me in exchange Saturday night ....it looked... not so bad LOL.

It felt great to be painting again ...painting my own kids is my next goal. Will keep you posted. Hope you enjoy.



Until next post .....happy blogging and as always, may a little grace touch you day !

Bre