Gingerbread Love

Hello!

I hope the first week of the new year has been sweet to you!

We had a great time,

 there was a Stephen King  marathon,

We had  some fudge, a cheese platter and sparkling cider:)

I was asleep by half past😴

Now I'm ready for the next  holiday!

Yesterday our local classical station featured a live audio stream from the 

Metropolitan Opera.

It's one of my favorites..

Humperdinck's

'Hansel and Gretel'

 

I love it for various reasons..

1.Candy!

2. I had the little golden book 'Hansel and Gretel' when I was a child💕

(which, by the way I just got for Christmas from these awesome girls!)

3.I love gingerbread cookies..

they're my favorite kind of ornament, doll, pillow, drawing or shape to collect.

4.When Gabriella was eleven, she was part of the gingerbread chorus

with Arizona Opera.

I helped organize a party given for the children on opening night

(making the decor, favors and treat bags, etc)

 I was dubbed, Gingerbread Queen!

lol, I even got a certificate.

It was a lot of fun.

5. The music.

 

Before it began, Helena and I made some gingerbread cookies.

 While it was on we made some cute little crafts..

 

 

 

 

It was beautiful as usual..and as usual I cried at the end..haha!

It really took me back...

  (via Pinterest)

I made this digital art to show you

what my house would look like if I could have it any way I wanted:)

I'd live there and make art and never turn any children into cookies..

well, maybe just the bratty ones! haha

 That's it for now....

I will be stopping by to visit your blogs very soon.

Thank you for the New Year wishes!

December Days..

 (pinterest)

How was your November?

Ours was alright..other than having a bit of unpleasantness at the beginning,

it turned out better than I thought it would.

To me, November is a time to take a breath, take down the Halloween decorations

and start getting the Christmas stuff ready to go.

I like Thanksgiving and we definitely celebrate it..but we give thanks every day,

in fact, Helena and I have a gratitude journal we write in every night before bed.

 We have to write down three things we are grateful for, no matter how trying our day was..

(pinterest)

 But. my favorite time of the year..(okay, second favorite :) is here already!

I. LOVE. December.

The weather cools down, there's baking to do, cozy sweaters to wear..

and..

My birthday is this month!

that means

 I'm going to have a birthday or... un-birthday give-away soon!

(pinterest)

 

It's been cold here and it's made everything seem more festive.

I'm very excited!!

The cooler weather often inspires me to create, much like a stormy day does..

These are new little goodies I made. They are the start of a fairytale banner

I'm going to hang in the little reading nook I have for Helena.

This is Queen of the Sweets...

my version of the witch from Hansel & Gretel...

and .

Dumpty Sumptuous, haha..

I swear this name was what the phone autocorrected

 'Humpty Dumpty' to a few years ago...

When I got this doll out to paint the other day, I had to think hard about his real name  

because I've been calling him dumpty sumptuous for a long while now.

I gave him wings, just in case he has a great fall, 

So this time he can just fly away if he feels like.

 

I started another piece to this banner last night, which I will post soon.

The cute little doll head and "humpty" are Lisa Kettell Design products.

I also used Beacon glue (3in1) to attach everything to the card-stock. 

Well, I have not forgotten the wonderfully enchanting post that Magaly created

not long ago...

I have a winner for the 'Spring Witch' painting...

It's Holly's Horrorland! 

shoot me an email so I can get the details for your painting.

I'll be back with more crafts and glitter in a day or so..

We both caught a little chest congestion/cold 

so I'm a bit behind on posts.

But we're on the mend and ready for this amazing month!!

I hope you have a magical day.

 

Peter Pan Book/Puppet theatre

Do you believe in fairies?

I think you all know that I do!

Here's a Lisa Kettell Designs project

that has everything you need to help you believe!

Supplies

Cigar box or book shaped box (available at craft and hobby stores)

2 Baby Bailey unpainted dolls

Fairy silhouette

wooden scrolls/trim

alphabet stickers

England stickers*

gold glitter washi tape

purple ribbon

treasure map

hot glue gun, glue sticks

white glue

glitter in gold & pink

craft wire

green scrapbook paper

acrylic pant: white, peach, orange, gold, pink, red, light green,

 dark green, dark blue, brown, black

 

 Directions

paint baby bailey dolls to look like Wendy and Peter 

hot glue purple ribbon to top of her head, add pink glitter to top of her ankles

fold a small amount of green paper to resemble a hat for peter, hot glue to his head

poke craft wire into back of dolls, set aside

paint the wooden trim gold and add glitter

paint inside of box dark blue

add white to create clouds

position Big Ben sticker in front of the clouds, or, paint him on:)

glue green paper to lid of box

paint outside of box gold

open box add wahsi tape across the top 

hot glue wooden trim to frame inside of box

add stickers and silhouette to box lid to create the cover

put a small amount of hot glue on tips of the wire attached to the dolls

and position them to look like they're flying 

add treasure map to inside lid

dry brush gold paint on corners of cover and the map

Hope this was fun...I've been outside most of this week adding arches and making a bed out of

bent wood and an iron cot!

when it's ready it'll be covered in vines and flowers.

(that's my next post)

ok, stay tuned for the winner of the blog anniversary gift!!

Thanks for visiting!

 

A Book and a Blanket...and a Mermaid

 Welcome back!

How has everyone's week been?

I swear I meant to get back on here at least

three more times, but I've been

so sleep deprived lately!!

You remember how I hurt my back in July?

Well, it's acting up again...in the form of

excruciating leg and foot cramps every single morning.

It's to the point where I'm actually afraid to go to bed

because I know how I'm going to be woken up:(

So I apologize for not visiting with you sooner.

I always get anxious when it's time for
Random number generator to pick a winner...

you know how I feel about you all!

But I'm going to be having giveaways until the new year

(December is my birthday month!!!)

so everyone will get a chance to win something for sure.

This week's winner is 

Tessa

send me your details please!

I'm a huge fan of fairy tales...

I can't get enough of them,

 I love Hansel and Gretel,

Snow White and Rose Red...

The little mermaid!

The book I want to share this week is called

Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon.

I actually suggested this one about two years ago...

But it's so incredible, I wanted to talk about it again!!

 

 

It's a modern fairy tale and it's absolutely mesmerizing,

beautiful and magical.

Totally loved it!

This author has written a few books that have the fairy tale spin

to them..I enjoyed them all.

She writes in a way that just takes you there..

you feel the cold wind

and smell the sea.

I hope you get a chance to read them all.

I'll be giving away a copy of this

treasure next week..

with a blanket of course.

and extra goodies!

 

Yummy marshmallows 

 

 

and a box of cocoa.

Leave a comment and you get a chance to win.

 

Hope everyone is doing great and keeping toasty.

 I'll see you soon.

 

Marfi

Mushroom Fairy

Once upon a time, in a tidy little cottage, there lived a woman.
Every night she would sit at her window and gaze up at the glittering heavens and imagine her true love. Night after night she sat hoping he would appear, but to no avail.
So one rainy afternoon, she made a decision. After digging through a beautifully carved trunk of books, she found the one she needed.
Armed with a cauldron filled with roses, candles, herbs and her magical book, she set off through the damp, tangled woods.

In a grove filled with wild flowers and poisonous toadstools, she cast a love spell so powerful, even the predators of the forest felt no animosity in their hearts when they spied her amongst the trees.

Once the moon had risen, golden and ripe, she carefully poured the elixir into a vial for safe keeping.
Not noticing the single drop that fell silently to the ground, she packed up her cauldron and headed home.

From that errant drop sprang a beautiful fairy, so tiny, the wildflowers towered over her.
Her small heart was overflowing with love, and everything she touched felt the power of it.
Birds sang sweeter, wild beasts grew tame and human hearts beat faster.

She lives among wildflowers.So remember next time you are out walking on a trail or camping in the woods, if you happen to see a flash of bright red or feel a fluttering in your heart, it could be her. To actually see her, means true love is near.

As for the lady that cast the spell, well that's another story.

The End

Song to the moon

I think I have four favorite fairy tales, & most of you know that The Frog Prince is one of them. Now I'd like to tell you about another one...
The Little Mermaid...
everything about this story is beautiful to me.. her incredible garden under the sea, with it's treasures salvaged from ship wrecks, the immense love she feels for the beautiful prince, even the way she perishes in the end.

Sometimes I find different versions of this story which are good, But I recently read this..

It's absolutely enchanting!If you've not read it yet, I highly recommend it.


I've created this painting in honor of The Little Mermaid and for another of my favorite things, the opera Rusalka. The first song on my playlist is from that opera, in case you want to give it a listen.

Have a magical day!

My Frog Prince

hi everyone,
remember when I posted about my favorite fairy tale?
Well about a week later I get this in the mail...

Paul saw my post and bought the album for me!Isn't that sweet?
Oh, and I've been painting a bit and I wanted to show you my version of Little Miss Muffet,

her dress is crushed up tissue paper and I used paper doilies for the apron.
I have a few more things I want to share with you, but I'll wait until after the Gypsy party.
Thank you for visiting,
m

A trip & a tale

Guess what?
I made a fairy house to put in the tiny garden I have!!
There's all kinds of fun stuff in this garden, magical secret things that I will only be sharing with you...but not all at once!
want to come see?
We have to go through a tunnel of leaves,

To a place where the roses are as big as dinner plates...

fairy plates...

where flowers are pillows and teacups are chairs.. (click for a closer look)

and fairies are in plain sight!

It's one of the best places to be...under the moon, sharing secrets, watching the fairies fly by...
since we are here, in the magic garden, I will tell you a tiny story..
when I was a little girl, my older sister had a record player, it was red and white, and it closed up like a suitcase when it wasn't in use.
This was something I'd coveted for a while...it was FINALLY given to me along with a few old albums.
One album had the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Another was a night in a haunted house (loved that one)
But my favorite one was a fairy tale, The Frog Prince.
I don't remember what was on side B anymore, I just know I felt so bad for that poor frog! I wanted the princess to be nice to him.I wanted to punch her nose!!
And I was always disappointed when the frog transformed...a talking frog was more magical than a prince! Don't you think?
What's your favorite fairy tale?

I guess we should go back now, it's almost dawn, and it's quite a journey home.
Luckily we have a gigantic kitty to guide us:)

thank you for letting me share a little bit of my garden with you..Have a magical day.