“Perhaps I can get in the pool once a week this winter.” says me, every year, no joke. I love the idea of swimming but I just am not disciplined about doing it.

There was this one time when I got pretty serious about swimming; it lasted a few months and I managed to improve enough to ‘comfortably’ swim 1000 metres. My cousin talked me into doing a duathlon (swim 750m and run 5km) and lets say it was not pretty. You know the sympathy clap? When everyone cheers for the last one out of the pool? Yah, that was me. I managed to make up for it with my run but it was a good lesson to learn – swimming takes practice and I need more of that. Plus, legs only and breaststroke are not ideal for these events. So, will this year be the year? No promises but I can say, not everything about this post is a FAIL.

One of my to-do items for the summer was buy some art. Not sure where this came from, but likely because I have a surplus of frames waiting to be filled (thanks to a 50% off sale and having a good friend in Montreal who buys me stuff at Ikea).

So what did I buy? A print from someone I pinned a long time ago. I love her stuff, so much so, it was hard to pick one. Honestly, it came down to two things.

1. There is a palm tree (or what I believe is a palm tree) in Breakthrough
2. It fits one of my frames with no need for cutting, cropping or purchasing a new matte

Here is the print up on the wall – next to the portrait of Henry. In the dead of winter, while watching one of the many dreary Netflix series online (currently addicted to The Killing), I can glance over at my swimming girl and remind myself to swim more. It really is the best.

Check out more of Samantha French’s paintings here

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