Who is Prosperity66 - A Lensography

Let's start our trip through my passions with the one-day Holidays. I'm crazy about those magical days. I know, there's no need of a special day to get someone a gift or to tell them how much we love them but the atmosphere of these days is wonderful.

How well I feel during Christmas time! How much fun does Halloween bring! How pretty is Valentine's Day! How magic can Eastertime be and there's no most beautiful day of the year than Mother's Day!

This is the reason why I created Web sites related to these topics and, by the way, just for the fun and because I love it, Squidoo lenses.

While Christmas, Valentine's, Easter and Mother's Day are traditional holidays in my country, Halloween's only starting to become popular and Thanksgiving isn't celebrated at all as we have our own Harvest festivities, only celebrated by farmers and other people working in the agriculture. So, I studied the history of both Halloween and Thanksgiving, I liked what I've learned and built both sites and lenses about them.

I love strawberries! Let me explain... I have two left hands (yes, I do!) and when it comes to create something, it takes me ages to get my creation done. And so, when it comes to gardening, I rather kill my plants than actually grow them.

However, I love strawberries and get excited each year when the Spring arrives as I can take care of my strawberries. Together with my rose plants and my honeysuckle, they're the only plants that survive in my garden (over the plants that I actually TOUCH). Moreover, I'm even able to grow strawberries in pots! Yes, ma'am! I grow strawberries in both the garden and the terrace.

Another of my particularities is that I don't like fruits and so, I don't like fruit pies or cakes. However, my favorite pie is strawberry pie. And along with the strawberry pie, another dessert I love is the strawberry shortcake. Strawberries are so sweet!

Still in the strawberry collection, is the Strawberry Shortcake doll - in my country, the doll is known as... Charlotte aux Fraises, just like the cake. And Strawberry Shortcake is strawberry scented, and I love dolls... so when strawberry fragrance meets strawberry doll, I can't do without loving it!

This is my strawberry collection, also known as Strawberry Love. Enjoy:)

As suggested by the title, I'm a single mom. My son and I live "alone" since he was three months old. I've had two other partners during those many years but these relations didn't last.

I used to bring my son everywhere I went. When he was 18 months, we went to Tunisia (which will become another vacation topic one day), we regularly went to Spain (Salou, San Antoni Calonge), in Britain (traditionally in Broadstairs as we definitely love the place), etc.

By next year we plan to visit a few Belgian and French castles: Bouillon and Sedan that we already visited a few times but I lost all the pictures I took. These short trips are also bound to become Web pages if I have the time to.

In the meantime, I invite you to discover Broadstairs and Tossa de Mar.

When it comes to US citizens it is "Stars and Stripes", or even "Right or wrong, my country". I understand it very well. I mean: I love my country with a passion and am proud of being a Belgian citizen. So, these mottos could apply to what I think and how much I love Belgium. Isn't it called "patriotism"?

It's important and after all, my country doesn't hurt the others, so I'm a patriot. Well, to be honest, I have no flag on my house and never diplay any flag on July 21st; which is the anniversary of our Independance. But I love my home country and my home town. Thus, I wrote a few lenses that will help people discover this fantastic little country located between France, the Netherlands, the Great-Duchy of Luxemburg and, the North Sea; a country that was part of the three founders of the Benelux; which became since the 50's the European Union.

I am also a proud European - and this implies the continent and not the Union. Below are a few lenses that are entire part of my pride.

I'm going to tell you a little story about how and why I started studying the French History; which led me to study the European History.

I was 10 years old when I dared to enter the attic in the big old house we lived in that time. I was terrified because there was no light, and just a tiny window, and every night there was some loud (I discovered later that it was a owl that was walking around). In the center of the attic was a beautiful oak chest. I opened it and discovered a treasure: my first step into French history!

There were hundreds of sheets, books, drawings and even "newpapers" all coming right from the 18th century! Most of them were related to the French revolution, some were shocking for a young child but I brought all of them to my bedroom and started to read them.

I definitely didn't like the Revolution because I don't like to see people die. So, when I was 15, I asked my family to provide me with books and biographies that narrate the French history before Revolution. Once 20, I definitely set my focus between the years 450 and 1790.

France was an important country and led the world. This implies that while studying their history, I also learned a lot about the other countries, more particularly about Great Britain (my favorite country), the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Russia, Germany, the ancient republics that gave birth to Italy...

There are different kinds of memories. Some are audio-memory, some are written, others need pictures. I fall in the third category: I really need picture tutorials to master something, whatever it is: playing music, creating a website, decorating the home... This doesn't mean that I'm stupid, simply I need to make sure I do things properly.

If there is one thing I particularly enjoy reading it is tutorials. And so, I created a few of them. I started by making a tutorial on how to best use Google Adsense, then another one on how to create an income earning website in only 30 days. Being expert at reading tarot cards and having noticed that most tarot cards teachers do not teach how to read the cards for free, I created three tutorials on how to do this.

Next, in order to perfect my English, I attended English courses and noticed that most teachers seem unable to make French speakers pronounce English words properly ; thus I made a tutorial about it too.

I was asked to review potential Squidoo-ers in a group and after having noticed that Squidoo lensmasters wannabe often made the same mistakes, I put together a tutorial on how to build a good Squidoo lens.

All these pages are entire part of my How-To collection.

While I enjoy watching a good movie or TV series, I'm not fond of it or even not expert. Generally, I dont like to write about things I'm not comfortable with and thus I thought I was unable to write something about any movie or sitcom or even a TV series.

Of course, I was wrong. For as long as one focuses on something one likes, one can write a good article or build a good Web page. And so, I created "F.R.I.E.N.D.S., the Best Sitcom Ever!" as well as "The Best Marilyn Monroe Ever, The Seven Year Itch"; not only I think they're well done but I enjoyed making them!

I hope being able to make a few additional ones, particularly about movies that are my favorites - if I have time to do so.

Some of my particularities are that I am legitimist, traditionalist and have very classic tastes. This would mean that I couldn't find any other wine good enough to compete against most famous French ones, or even Spanish and Italian wines.

As you've read in the other chapters, I traveled a bit and thus discovered not only other cultures but also other kinds of foods and drinks. I was raised in a Spanish/Belgian family and definitely like Spanish foods. In Tunisia I discovered some kind of rum that is tasteful and as good as any white rum in a Cuba Libre cocktail. Although France is reknown for their Premium wines, in England, I drank a marvelous white wine.

But there's no need to travel to find a great wine. As an instance, Overijse in Belgium produces a tasteful white wine. As I am not the kind of person who would spend a fortune for a great wine - wine that would stay in the cellar for ever and that I would never dare to drink, I investigated the supermarkets. You can find marvelous wines in any supermarket that provides both local and foreign wines!

And so, I tried South African, Australian and even American wines! All for an affordable price but excellent! While one lens of mine focuses on the wines, another one provides a bunch of gift ideas for wine lovers. Enjoy.

While I'm probably one of the worst cooks out there and I definitely don't like to cook everyday meals, I enjoy spending time in the kitchen to prepare an advanced dish for special occasions (for as long as I don't have to do it every day).

Regarding my food preferences, I dislike hamburgers and alike, pizzas, pasta... Ok, I admit, I sometimes eat pasta and even prepared cheeseburgers for my child in the past but, nowadays, he cooks them himself. As you can see, I'm not fan of... fast food. Isn't that strange for someone who doesn't like to cook???

Well, I don't like to cook but this doesn't mean that I don't like good food, eheh. First preference is to eat fine and delicate meals at the restaurant. But you surely know that eating outside can cost a lot of money and, therefore, I couldn't go to the restaurant each day. This is the reason why, from time to time and, while I'm the queen of micro-wave oven, I make an effort and cook a delicious meal.

Believe it or not, while I'm fan of advanced recipes, I'm also known for finding shortcuts to reduce the time spent in the kitchen while preparing those "advanced" recipes. And I wanted to share my way to prepare quick and easy food recipes with you.

Photo: © Paella by José Luis Hernández Zurdo