Serendipity (about My Town)

My son was often with me while I was finishing "My Town".
He was going to preschool only 2 or 3 days a week, staying with me the rest of the time.

It's a choice we've made, a fine balance between a full working mom and a stay at home mom.
We enjoy our time together tremendously.

Bibu was really interested in the process of making "My Town".
He created his own models, would grab my prototypes as soon as finished (I made them twice, one for him, one for me) , and played with them for hours.
The idea of the garage model is his, and he was paid for it in brownie bites and Legos (for real).

I would spend most of my time with him when he was home, but sometimes I would work a bit while he was busy with his toy cars. He likes to play on my desk while I work and I cherish these quiet times.

I remember a busy Thursday : I was a bit in a hurry, trying to get hold of my fancy new camera before lunch time. And it was not going at all as I wanted.
I finally was about to take the picture when... 

A little hand and a car appeared in the viewfinder! Bibu thought something was missing in the shoot and trying to help. I kindly explained I felt my houses were perfectly fine without any Hot Wheels ™ addition, and since he didn't agree, I suggested I made my photo shoot and then organized his very own.

So he went for his prototypes, waited patiently (hum), then carefully created his idea of "My Town" on the set :

I helped him with the camera...Et voilà: Bibu's very own photo shoot (at 4 and a half!)

To Bibu's point of view, it was exactly what he wanted out of the book.
Lunch hour was past due , but my photos were done and his too. We ended up at a Dinners nearby eating grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries because it was too late for cooking and we felt like celebrating.

Watching the shot with Bibu, it gave me the idea to add a map with roads  at the end of the book, so you can use the little houses as a scenery for toy cars if you fancy it...

Totally nails it, right?

Find "My town" at Amazon here

Note:My town was translated from French and certainly not by me, Delphine, because my English is not good enough!

Hurray for My Town!

Do you want to spend some quality time with your favorite little one? Are you looking for a cute gift for a sweet Bday girl?

I have what you need! 

Fresh from the press! I just got from Amazon: My Town!
This is the American translation of my book who was first published in France. 

It is the cutest village to (easily) construct from age 4-5.  I did my best paper engineering on it to make something cute, playful and creative. 

Come back for more posts about My Town : I will show you how to create a village for play time, how my son transformed it for a scenery for his toy cars, how to make a mobile, and trinket boxes...All that form one inexpensive book.

I am quite proud of the result, and so happy I have a chance to share!

Order it here : My Town

Yohooo! Il est sorti! Voici la version Anglaise de mon livre, et cette fois-ci, hop, sur Amazon et chouette, encore moins cher.  Vu que mon editeur Francais ne le promeut plus, je ne gagnerais probablement pas grand chose  avec, mais je suis ravie de cette occasion de vous montrer toutes les activités  que j'avais prévues avec ce livre. Je n'ai pas eu trop le temps l'année dernière et je le regrette. Vu qu'il est difficile a trouver je rajouterais des activités "sans le livre" pour compléter (on n'est pas des rats non plus)

Alors à bientôt pour plus de fun!

Geeky post-Amazon cloud player

I recently downloaded the Amazon Cloud Player on my Mac. I wasn't about to do it. I'm not too fond of "cloud" anything for other stuff than professional work. Clouds are usually expensive, and there is always the risk that the provider interrupts the service, deleting all your assets and items. 

I use the Kindle for example, but buy paper copies of all my favorite books. I use Netflix but  buy my favorite movies in DVD format. In years from now, I will still be able to enjoy my books and movies. If I don't lose them.

So.Back in the days, like 10 years ago, I used to buy music CDs. Most of them broke, were borrowed, or worse, lost while moving houses.  For that reason I began to buy music in MP3 format. It took less room on my computer, gave us more room in the living room. The disastrous incident of the dumbbells and Air CD was not bound to happen again.

I used iTunes, because you know, I'm a Mac person, and ten years ago Amazon was not on the cloud market. No service existed in misty cloudy form, anyway. And I sticked to it because I hate to have several services at the same time. 

There is not much Cuban Jazz on iTunes , and no albums of a pianist I enjoy very muc, Ruben Gonzales.  Last Saturday, I made drip coffee with my new coffee system, it was sunny and cold outside, and a sunny Saturday morning called for some cheerful notes. So I went straight to Amazon, bought my favorite album for $5 or so, and downloaded the Amazon Cloud Player in the same movement.

To my big surprise, the player also downloaded FOR FREE some of the CD albums I bought between 2004 (when I moved to California) and 2007 when I stopped buying actual CDs. Back were all the albums lost in moves, broken or borrowed. It was a delightful surprise!

If you ever bought CDs on Amazon, you might want to download their cloud player and see what surprise is in tow for you. Maybe an old Bjork CD, some Keren Ann or a forgotten Phoenix album? It feels a bit outdated, but I loved the surprise!

Happy, sunny morning to you.

maternelles - kindergarten

My son is in kindergarden this year and I am allowed to drop by in his classroom form time to time to share paper toys ( and some fun) with his friends. 

Last time was about tiny houses. I brought this model to them and we fold it together. With the help of their two wonderful teachers, 19 friends managed to do it in record time, hurray for kindergarten!

Find here a pdf with other houses on the same model

Get here my book with sturdier and prettier models.

Ici les mamans sont autorisés, et même vivement encouragées à participer à la vie de l'école. Genre, tu as un budget et de bons profs, ou des parents,  les deux, ou pas du tout. Nous avons la chance d'une bonne école et de bons parents.

Je passe de temps en temps dans la classe de mon fils pour leur montrer comment apprendre ( sans s'en rendre compte) la géométrie avec deux bouts de papier et des ciseaux.

La dernière fois nous avons fait les maisons de mon enfance, celles que je faisais avec ma maman.  Voila en Anglais les instructions pour faire vous aussi (encore une fois). Je suis ravie, les 19 petits bouts, avec l'aide de leur professeurs, y sont parvenus en moins d'un quart d'heure!

Vous trouverez sur Vimeo un tutoriel video en Français pour faire la maison avec un carré de papier. 

tuto Maison from delphine doreau on Vimeo.

Printable washi paper

I practice origami for almost 15 years now, and I love patterns. You should think I would have printed my patterns a long time ago to create my own custom chiyogami, but the common printer paper is not really good for folding : too heavy, and taking creases in a way that doesn't feel right. Washi paper is much more supple and warm. 

There is this fantastic paper shop here in Santa Monica, Hiromi Paper and they import printable washi paper, coated and uncoated. I tested several papers, and my favorite for printing and folding is the Niyodo white. Light and sturdy, is has a beautiful texture and is maybe just a tad bit supple for folding.

So I took some of my favorite patterns ( find some of mine here) , printed and folded and I couldn't be happier. I might make a mobile with my own assorted papers!

Je pratique l'origami depuis près de 15 ans maintenant, et j'aime faire des motifs. J'ai essayé d'imprimer mes propres chiyogami , mais le papier machine est une horreur à plier, autant plier du papier d'alu! Donc j'avais laissé tomber. 

Heureusement il y a cette boutique de papiers fantastique ici, à Santa Monica,  Hiromi Paper  et ils importent du papier washi (papier d'écorce de murier) couché et non couché. J'ai testé plusieurs qualités de papier, et mon préféré pour l'impression et le pliage est le Niyodo white. Léger et robuste,  il  a une texture magnifique . Il est peut-être juste un peu peu souple pour le pliage.

J'ai donc pris quelques uns de mes motifs préférés ( vous en trouverez ici ), je les ai imprimés et pliés  et je suis ravie.  Je pense que je vais me remettre à plier plus sérieusement et créer des papiers spéciaux pour mes modèles d'origami préférés!

Smallest printable ever

It's been more than 30 years I use keyboards. It really bugged me to have something grey or white in front of me at all hours, when grey is really not my cup of tea!  So I decorated mine with cute Korean stickers  I found on eBay, a bit of mt masking tape, and home made keyboard cuties. I made teeny-weeny versions of my cute houses and now I have the cutest scenery on my keyboard. And maybe the cutest keyboard ever. How cute is yours?

Since I "dust" my keyboard by gently patting it on the back, I actually glued the tiny houses on the keys. Maybe it is not the best solution if yours is borrowed or shared.

Make sure to print the picture at 300dpi, exact size. If you print it full page it won't work. 

Please respect my copyrights , no commercial use. Enjoy! 

Il y a un an ou deux j'ai fini par agir : fini les claviers tout gris! 30 ans de claviers gris, alors que je déteste tout ce qui est high tech et main stream. Quelle barbe! J'ai attaqué franco avec des stickers de clavier Coréens trouvés sur eBay  (M comme lapin, T comme panda, c'est chez moi) , que j'ai complétés avec un peu de masking tape (sinon ça fait trop ) ...et pour la touche finale, je me suis fait de toutes petites maisons à ficher derrière les touches du fond. Ca fait un petit paysage trop chou, que je partage avec vous aujourd'hui. Coupez, pliez, et mettez vos doigts en vacances! 

C'est amusant, plus personne ne m'emprunte mon ordi depuis que j'ai customisé le clavier. Ben oui, l'ordi d'une maman, tout le monde s'assied devant, c'est libre service sans demander, vous aviez remarqué? 
Bref... Il ne plante plus ...Si j'avais su!

Attention il faut imprimer à la taille exacte, 300dpi.

Linkez, Pinterest, comme vous voulez, pas de redistribution,pas d'usage commercial, merci!

Bunnies free delivery

Society6 delivers world wide on my shop for a limited time! Free shipping until February 10, 2013. Enjoy!

Jusqu'au 10 Février 2013, Society6 livre gratuitement, oui, en France aussi!Si vous hésitiez sur un lapin ou l'autre, c'est le moment de craquer. Le lien vers la promotion temporaire : La Boutique

Hedgehog day

Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow today ( a rare event that needs to be celebrated), and neither the hedgehog of Santa Monica, who went, as usual, for a latte and maybe a walk , but didn't need sunglasses this year. So they both agree on springtime being early in 2013. Enjoy!

It's la Chandeleur in France, hold a coin, make some crepes!

C'est la Chandeleur ou Groundhog day selon que vous êtes d'un coté ou de l'autre de l'océan, et on nous promet une fin d'hiver très douce, pour une fois, joie. Crêpes ce soir?