Work and fun in my life in the French countryside

Bonjour, welcome back to a new video. Olaf has made great progress this summer on getting our bedroom finished and bathroom. Maybe you've seen my previous video where I shared a building update and he's now preparing everything to be ready for painting. I'm recording this outside and I hear a deer barking. It's in the evening, it's always so wonderful to sit here and listen to all nature's sounds. But I am doing a voiceover for this video. This is also recorded in the evening when temperatures go down. I finally feel like I'm getting a little energy to be doing things. I need to be testing what color we're going to put on the doors, the doors, the window and also on the cabinet doors for our wardrobe. And these are three sample pots that I got from Fairworm Ball. The left one is actually not at all for this project. I don't know why I brought that out. The middle one is a color that I think might be really nice, but it might turn out to be much too baby blue in real life. And the mouse is back, the right one. I think that might be good for the window, but picking colors is always the most difficult thing, I think. And I have learned that I just need to allow myself to make lots of mistakes and try everything out. And what I always like to do is to paint cardboard like a pretty large piece in two layers so that I can see and bring it into the space and see how it actually looks. And this has saved me many, many design mistakes in the past. The other thing that I find makes it difficult to pick a color from a swatch like this is that they always look darker on these little swatches because everything around it is a white or a cream or very light color. And so for the other brand that I work with, which is called Ressource, I have bigger swatches. I don't have those at Fairworm Ball. So it's always good to have a big example. I can already tell that I find the light blue a very baby blue color, and I don't really like the mouse's back. So I don't think either of these are going to work. And then I remembered I still have a small pot left from when we painted the cabin. I have the color Old White on the exterior woodwork, so the windows and the door. And I was just thinking that actually might be perfect, so I'm going to make a swatch for that as well. I also find that the paint for the sample pots is very different. That's the Estate Emulsion, I believe, which is a wall paint. And so this pot that I'm using here is exterior woodwork, which is a very different finish and texture. I think it actually works better, but then you're not going to buy a pot like that for a sample. I will have a look with these sample swatches during the daylight in the space. I will have to get back to you about that in a next video. So when I am not working to welcome our guests or prepare the cabin or cottage or grocery shopping and all those other things, I am spending most of my time cooking recipes for my cookbook, working out all the measurements, taking all the pictures, which again is something I fully, fully enjoy. And every day I get new ideas for this book. And I honestly feel this book is getting better and better. And I like it more than my first book, even though it's not even finished yet. But I'm really, really excited about it. And I have shared a preview for my Patreon. So some of you don't know that I actually have a Patreon page. You can support my work by becoming a Patreon. You support me every month with a certain amount that you choose. You do not have to keep doing this for months and months. Even if you do just one month, I highly, highly appreciate your support. It helps me create these videos and pays for some of my expenses that I make for traveling to go filming homes, the equipment, the music. All of that is not free for me. So if you want to become a Patreon, that would be so much appreciated. And you will be able to see the preview of my book on there. I can't wait to hear what you think about it. So one of the wonderful things I believe about self-publishing, which I've done for the first book and I'm doing for the second, is that you have the full power and control over the end result. I have a couple of friends who have gone through a publisher, which sounds wonderful. But in reality, what I've learned from them is that it's actually pretty limiting. The publisher has certain ideas about what will sell well and they will take decisions for you is what they've told me. And my project is genuinely mine. The end result will be exactly as I envision it. Maybe that's not the thing that sells best, but at least it will be the truest expression of me, which to me as a creative is very important. The downside is, of course, that you have to pay for everything yourself. So the entire production is for me to be doing and paying for. I have a couple of photo shoots because I love to work with other creative people on such a project. But many of the other photos is just me, as you see here with my iPhone taking pictures. But I love just this really simple way of working on this book, of enjoying that creative process, making mistakes, trying again, and then seeing how everything turns out really nice and the book is becoming exactly as I have imagined. So you just saw me cut a piece for Olaf, but he's so busy with the building works that he came to eat later. The last thing I wanted to share is that my dear friend Manon came for a couple of days and she actually went with me to a couple of meetings I had for the book. And during those meetings with local people, French people, they asked if I could please publish a French version of the book this time as well. So next to the English one. So if you feel that would be interesting for you or a friend of yours, please let me know in a comment. And so Manon and I were having such a wonderful time being a tourist in our own region. And we ended up having a lovely picnic in the vineyards and seeing to each other how much we enjoy this life and how blessed we are to live like this.