She Who Seeks

Friday, 7 August 2026

Friday Face OFF -- Art Portfolio Stickers

For today's Friday Face OFF link party

of art featuring faces, hosted by Nicole of

DVArtist, Art, Food and Everyday Things --

Recently, blogging buddy Mr. Shife

did an entertaining post on his blog,

Confessions of a Dumb, White Guy,

showing his use of "on-brand" stickers.

He inspired me to show you

my own collection of "on-brand" stickers,

many of which have faces suitable for FFO!

Plus there is another "arty" connection.

They are found on the front of my homemade Art Portfolio,

which I use to transport art paper, bond paper, and transfer paper

to art classes (in order to keep them flat and protected).

Behold my collection!

Rather than shell out bigga bigga bucks for a real portfolio,

I made one out of a Costco brand coffee pod box,

using clear packing tape and the world's ugliest

Mactac self-adhesive contact paper.

Here's the inside of the portfolio --

And next is the back view showing the

unadorned hideous Mactac

(it was the only roll Canadian Tire had).

The portfolio is kept closed by two big

silver "bulldog" fold-back clips --

So I'm sure you see the invaluable service

provided by the plethora of stickers on the front,

hiding that Mactac as best they can.

[Photos © Debra She Who Seeks, 2026]

Thursday, 6 August 2026

What Kickstarted My French Again

By January of this year, I could no longer bear waking up every morning listening to clock radio news about That Orange Bastard. So I switched the dial to ICI Musique, the French-language equivalent of English Canada's CBC Music.

Now I'm awakened by the program Quand Le Jour Se Lève (When Day Breaks) which plays light, pleasant classical and baroque music.

MUCH NICER TO WAKE UP TO!

Its host, François Lemay, has a beautiful, mellifluous voice, so lovely to listen to. Every morning, he starts off by saying "Bonjour, mes chers amis mélomanes." It was no problem for me to understand "Good morning, my dear friends" but WTF does "mélomanes" mean?

After three or four months of just lazily wondering about it, I bestirred myself to look up "mélomane" using an online translator. I discovered that, as a noun, it means "music lover" and, as an adjective, it means "music-loving." So "mes chers amis mélomanes" means "my dear music-loving friends."

Well! I was so thrilled -- out of all proportion, really -- to learn this new and previously unknown word "mélomane" that it kickstarted my interest again in speaking more French. So I began to ask myself -- where and how can I speak more French in . . . EDMONTON, ALBERTA?

The adventure had begun!