An Introvert Quiet Summer, Progress on the Dollhouse

Summer is the most extrovert season, the season of loud joy, of being outside. It's the most intense and excessive of all seasons which require the most adaptations from us and from our bodies. My summer days as an introvert who likes being at home, being inside, being in my studio, start every day outside on the balcony, in company of the swifts and the joyful songs and I like to read a few pages, to journal or to write some gratitude on my little notebook and sometimes all of them at the same time, while contemplating people starting their days in the street just below. For those of us who prefer still traveling, who need quiet and silence in their lives, who don't like busy crowded places, summer can also be the most contemplative comforting season because the wind, the light, the shadow, the trees and the birds have an underrated healing effect on our emotional state and our nervous system. This is actually my vision of a perfect introvert summer, being more outside, enjoying more outside delights in the grass, among trees and birds, in quiet adventures in my local area. Summer more than any other season is also the season of unexpected and little miracles if we are careful as everybody spends more time outside during this time of the year and a lot of fun things can happen. Summer don't mean also necessarily doing crazy expensive adventure at the other side of the world. Every time I go in my local park and it's almost every day, I can notice buzzards flying sometimes just above my head. I like to notice and look for the simple and beautiful things around me and I think it is so important to train our eyes and our mind to look for all these things which are there and have always been there but we forget them sometimes. And for those of us who are very easily stressed and anxious, I think nature at this time of the year can be so healing too. I find in my case, as years go by, I need more and more quiet and silence and developing this habit of making the effort of going at the park at the top of the hill almost every day during the middle of the day and being present and contemplating nature around me is so calming and so uplifting and so soothing. It's really something now I start to see the results. We sometimes forget how stressed we are during the rest of the year. Finding a real deep peace is so important and so life-changing. In her book published in the early 2000s, I already mentioned Jacqueline Kellen talks about the cycle of season. It's a book about happiness and the little joys of life and she writes how precious the season and this cycle of season is in our lives. And about summer she writes, summer is the season of rest and holidays, traveling and naps but it's also the euphoria of light, the delight of shadow, the contemplation of stars at night. She writes that following the four seasons a human being lives an entire life in one year. Childhood, adulthood, maturity, older age and all starts over again. This way life offers new beginnings, new chances, new adaptations and new transformations over the month. Over the month our body change and our soul too. Yes I repeated that I didn't like summer. It was too hot, it was too intense, it required our body to stretch so much but I found that it's also a mindset thing. Once you adapt, once you decide you are going to enjoy it, it makes such a big difference and I have to say I was so so tired of all the people complaining all the time about the heat. So the cold in winter and the heat in summer. I just couldn't handle it anymore and I didn't want to be one of this person who constantly complain about everything. I think it doesn't help anybody, it doesn't make the life better, more enjoyable, quite the contrary. So it's hot too for me, don't think it's colder. My home at the end of the day is at around 30 degrees celsius so it's not cold. But adapting and trying to go outside when it's hot, being active, of course with water, of course in a reasonable way. In the past centuries they were handling really intense weather so much better than we are. Everything was not adapted to the perfect temperature of food, perfect temperature of the room or all of that and they were living and they were stronger than us. I think we became maybe a little fragile, little weak creatures who have to have everything adapted to them. So I didn't want to be that person, I wanted to prove myself I could be a little stronger and I think being active and doing a bit of sport and all that and moving helps so much adapt to weather, different weather conditions, to different weather temperature. It really makes a difference to remain active and and forcing our body to go a little further than that it would normally do. Summer in my kingdom doesn't mean a break in creating and in working in the studio. And here is a little update of the French dollhouse from the French dollhouse workshop. So this is the main living room here, sort of parlor in the ground floor. There are doors which open and of course they are different on each side. There is a painting all inspired by Chantilly so I took the inspiration of the Chateau Chantilly because it's the same period we want which is the Napoleon III era. So I took example of that, this typical wood floor that you have everywhere in Versailles. You could have it too in apartments or in other private hotels from normal bourgeois people. They could have this one and here a little painting. So it's exactly inspired by a Chantilly painting which is located above a door. So I really took this example and I really like this contrast of dark and white. We still have all the molding ceiling to add which are different for each room and of course there is a mirror above the fireplace which is in wood which is not really classic to have. It could happen once in a while but in France it's mainly in marble but once in a while you can have one sculpted in wood. And we have all the wood panels which are going to be adjusted at the bottom of the walls and of course the wallpaper because they have a bit of wallpaper for the other side not for this side. And of course the window open here so they could have a lot of light in the living room. It's going to be this one which goes there, this one goes here. Yes there will be a lot of wood panels. You can close the window if you want to. On the other side the entrance hall which has also some wood panel and there are others which are going to be located on the other side and need to be finished to be painted. Also a painting above the door also inspired by Chantilly or well always because it's the same period and I was inspired by this decor. The doors, the staircase you had already seen it. It's the case which lead us to the to the kitchen actually. And we have another wood floor here, a wood floor in Pointe de Hongrie which is the classic French wood floor from the but I think it started to be trendy in the 17th century. And of course this room we have the balcony with the door windows which open completely. So this is going to be the dining room here. So the fireplace needs to be done and there will be quite nice molding ceiling. I think it's this one for this room which are going to be really nice. So we have this and this is going to be the kitchen which is a bit unusual to be on the first floor but it could happen once in a while. It was not always on the ground floor especially in Paris actually it could happen once in a while. This is where the kitchen will be. I thought it would be handy because there is a dining room next to it. And we have another typical tiles which are a bit classic to have in the interior of this time. And the two bedrooms, the two floors for the other bedrooms which is the same one. Another one inspired by Versailles and another one in Pointe de Hongrie. This way we have quite many different floors. And this one will have this molding ceiling which is going to be really nice. We have very sophisticated molding ceiling. They make the difference. They just finished the room really well and I really took inspiration from all the different ones I saw also for homes of this time in Paris. So there are different sophistication possible, different width, different pattern, different thickness. So yeah it's going to be fun to finish the entrance hall and all the rooms really. And of course the furniture is going to arrive very soon. Summer is also the season of white and light dresses. And a precious summer delight is certainly enjoying extra tasty sweet cherries under the trees of a wood with the pleasant summer wind to cool the heat. A novel by Balzac celebrates light white summer dresses. It is Lily of the Valley, I already mentioned this novel, and the main character Madame de Morceau only wears white dresses who are going to be noticed by the young man of the novel Félix de Ventenès. This is what the narrator Félix de Ventenès writes in the novel. Sa robe de percale produisait le point blanc que je remarquais dans ses vignes, sous un albergier. Elle était, comme vous le savez déjà, sans rien savoir encore, le lys de cette vallée. Où elle croissait pour le ciel, en la remplissant du parfum de ses vertus. If these summer days start on the balcony, they also end there. When the intense heat of the day has cooled down, there is nothing more pleasant at this season to me than spending this evening reading outside, when everything starts to be a little more peaceful, the temperature is really nice, and there is a light just next to the balcony so I don't even need an extra light to read. And it's something I can only do for a very short period of the year, for just a few months, as most of the summer delights which last for a very short period of time, so let's enjoy them fully this year. So I'm continuing right now to continue to film the dollhouse workshop, I know I've said that many times, and I'm still working on the inside, but it's a huge workshop actually. I'm getting there though, there are a lot of technical things which are finished now inside, and I'm getting to the furniture, there were a lot of decor in the inside, but I think people will be happy to have all that, those who have started to make their dollhouse, who have joined the workshop last spring. I'm going to show you of course the final result once it's all finished, and I will also show you when the first ones have finished their own dollhouses, I will show that of course also in videos, even before the dollhouse reopens, it's going to reopen next year, but I will still show you the final result. So I'm still working on that, and the two Alice in Wonderland workshops are going to open in July, in a few days. If you have joined my workshops newsletter, you will be notified in advance, and you will be notified of the launching offers for these two workshops too. So this is coming, and I promise I have other videos coming in the making that you will see very soon. Now let me know what do you do to add some extra magic, some enchantment to your summer, which is such a beautiful season after all, even if it's intense, even if there are a lot of heat, there are also so much magic. So what are your plans for this year to make your summer extra magical? Especially if you are an introvert who doesn't like too many crazy loud things, or if you don't like to travel and you rather like to stay in your area, what do you do and what do you plan to do this year to make it a little different on a daily basis, on a weekly basis? What sort of little adventures you plan to add? Thank you very much for watching, don't forget to subscribe if you don't want to miss the nice videos coming, and I will see you very soon!