Glitter and stuff

Hello!
I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! We had a great time...watching a four year old zipping around preparing for Santa is very funny and a little sad at the same time, I know it wont be long before she outgrows this.

we tried to create something festive every day.
Some salt dough and cinnamon ornaments,

Felt gingerbread boys,

Glittered paper trees,

cotton beard Santas,

An assortment of oddly decorated cookies,

More cotton ball usage,(remind me next month when I rant about how we've run out of cotton balls)

I also made a sugar plum fairy mobile to hang over Helena's bed, which was so fun to do I am going to make some more to hang out in my fairy garden in a few days.


Have a wonderful evening, take care this weekend and I'll see you next year:)

Candied Oranges

Candied oranges!
They're delicious and easier to make than you think.
I followed this recipe from food network
All you need is:
6 thick-skinned navel oranges
4 1/2 cups sugar, plus extra for rolling
1 1/2 cups water
Directions
Cut tops and bottoms off of the orange and score the orange into quarters, cutting down only into the peel and not into the fruit. Peel the skin and pith of the orange in large pieces.
I got Paul to help me cut the peel into strips about 1/4-inch wide.

Put the orange peel in a large saucepan with cold water to cover, bring to a boil over high heat. Then pour off the water. Repeat 1 or 2 more times,this helps remove the bitterness.Remove the orange peels from the pan.

Whisk the sugar with 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 8 to 9 minutes (If you took the sugar's temperature with a candy thermometer it would be at the soft thread stage, 230 to 234 degrees F.) Add the peels and simmer gently, reducing heat to retain a simmer. Cook until the peels get translucent, about 45 minutes. Resist the urge to stir the peels or you may introduce sugar crystals into the syrup. If necessary, swirl the pan to move the peels around.

Drain the peels, then roll them in sugar and dry on a rack, for 4 to 5 hours. Return to the sugar to store.

Once they are dry you can dip them in dark chocolate but I like them plain.
Enjoy!

A composer & a circus act

Thank you to everyone for their lovely birthday wishes!I had an incredible birthday this year, with good food, great company and beautiful gifts.
My daughter, Gabriella made this for me using products from my favorite artist Lisa Kettell.
I LOVE it!!!

And she made this ring for me too!


We have a winner for the birthday giveaway....
Random number generator chose comment five, congratulations to Ann from tin and sparkle.
I'll be back soon, I'm off to make candied oranges:)

Birthday Giveaway

It's time to make a...

blow out the candles...

And have a huge chunk of gingerbread cake...

it's also time to leave a comment so you can win a little gift.

Thank you everyone!

Christmas swaps

Hello! are you having fun baking, shopping and savoring every single sweet minute?

I'm trying:)I've participated in a couple holiday swaps,
Wendy from Bliss Angels hosted The Christmas cheer tin swap, (thank you Wendy!)
This is the tin I made (which you have seen)

this is the inside,

Then Karen from Karen's Monday Musings invited me to join in an altered cigar box secret Santa swap (sheesh say that 3 times fast!)with her super talented friends in the Tucson Swap Queens group.
I was secret Santa for someone that likes Angels,
This is what I made..

this is the inside...

And this is what I got from my secret Santa...

The inside was filled with homemade cookies and peppermint pretzels...which are all gone:) so no pic!
I hope everyone is getting into Holiday mode, I've been busy decorating, even the gypsy wagon has a bitty tree in it..

Come back soon to get a chance to win a small bag of magical goodies on my birthday!
Have a great night!
Marfi

Birthday week (give or take a few days) & it's December

I love December!
makes me think of gold & silver glitter softly falling, pink frosting, the smell of gingerbread! Wonderful magical happy stuff.

And it's my birthday this month on the tenth:)So you know what that means???
Cake!
Candles!


And of course a giveaway for you!
I'll let you know what goodies I have in store for you soon.
Meanwhile, it's time to go outside and soak up the December weather, it's overcast, 57 degrees and sprinkling!
Have a magical day!

Sweetness

Hi, how was your holiday weekend?
Ours was very nice, quiet & uneventful, plus My dad is feeling much better (thank you!)
Once stress slips away my muse comes by for a visit, so I was able to finish up a swap I was working on.

I found some adorable lollipop ornaments,

which inspired me to make a little garland, using pompoms and foam marshmallows

November just flew by for me, and I'm hoping that December can be enjoyed more thoroughly, I'd like to squeeze every last bit of sweetness out of it if I can, and savor every moment.

I hope everyone has a sweet week.

Incipient Wings

Hi everyone
Just wanted to write and share what's been going on in my little corner of the desert with you...
My dad is feeling under the weather so I'm pretty stressed out about that.
I wont go into to detail...but prayers would be helpful:)

Another thing is that I recently found another blog using my exact name.
It's a bit upsetting because it's not just a name I picked because it sounded neat.
The title of my blog was something that I took a while settling on, I was new to blogging and afraid of putting myself out there for fear of rejection of my thoughts and ideas..
So I chose Incipient Wings because that described how I felt with everything...barely emerging, art, life, writing, photography, friendships.
it also represented how we are always learning and no matter what we all have incipient wings about something somewhere in our lives.

I just wanted my amazing friends and followers to know this, just in case this other blog leaves comments for them...

So that's the long and short of it around here, thank you for visiting a not so happy blog post.

I hope everyone had a good weekend.
Marfi

PS When I went to look at this other blog, I noticed a couple comments from people that know of My Blog I don't know who you are but I thank you for trying to help out:)

M

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!

I won I won I won

Hello again..
I got a wonderful gift in the post today:)Don't you love getting fun stuff in the mail??
OK, I unwrapped the package and this is what was in it.....

and inside this (giant) glittery box was all this magical witchy goodness!
You see I won a give away from the super generous Celia at Adventures of the striped stockings!

There's so many wonderful things to play with in here!There are pot holders, tea towels, socks, stickers, butterfly clips, stamps,(there's even a dia de los muertos stamp) cookie cutters, a skeleton key, ornaments, acrylic paint, a package of hot apple cider and a gorgeous gypsy print for me to frame and hang in my gypsy wagon!!!
Thank you so much Celia!You certainly know how to brighten someone's day.

Since we are on the subject of give aways I have my own give away winner to announce...
It's Betsy at From the mind of alphabetsy
congratulations!
Hope everyone has a beautiful Sunday.
I'll be back soon:)

Liebster picks

Hi everyone!
I have a list of my Liebster award choices.
Conversations with the muses
Tricia's blog is truly a fairyland! ethereal and stunning. The Lucky Few is her non profit organization dedicated to helping unwanted animals.
Karen's Monday Musings
Karen's artwork is just gorgeous! her blog is filled with amazing swaps and beautiful photos!
Dianie MacDesigns
Diane's blog has the most incredible little creatures!!!She is an extremely talented artist!!you're going to want to scoop up her whimsical hand made creations!
La Llorona Arts
Georgina's blog is very entertaining, she never fails to make me laugh out loud...and her art dolls are awesome!!
Sinderella's Studio
Dana's Blog is filled with her wonderful paintings and art journalings, and...she rides a Harley!!! she's too cool!

I hope you take a look at these wonderful blogs, you wont be disappointed:)
goodnight!

Blog award!

Guess what? Pattie from hollyhock farms has given me a Liebster award.It is given to recognize up and coming bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers.
I have to choose five other blogs for this award (which I will do by email) once they are notified I will post them here!
Have a great week:)

collage obsession challenge:Gracielus Cattus

The subject on Collage Obsession Challenge this week is black cats

I just made this for my niece Grace who seems to be a sort of 'cat whisperer'
and since we have so many kitties it seemed appropriate.
Thank you for visiting.

First week-end of November

Hello..we've been having delicious weather lately! the high today was 59 degrees!
To some of you with snow falling that might seem like t-shirt weather but to us here in the desert, it's a sign that winter is on it's way!
In honor of the Dia de los muertos parade tonight, I decided to post some pictures of a few things I've made.... a Frida canvas.

This chandelier was actually two separate sconces that I stuck together with liquid nails then I painted it with a green patina and added the skulls, flowers and crystals.

This mini shrine is on my work table in the gypsy wagon
It gives me great comfort to have a reminder of my mother in there.

It even has a miniature wood burning stove I found at a thrift store!
My mom had two full size wood burning stoves & making tortillas or an amazing dinner was something she enjoyed doing for us.So finding this bitty treasure was especially fortunate.

Last but not least, here's a picture of Helena in her sugar skull make-up, she's all ready for the parade!

I'll post some pictures of the festivities later this week.
Have a great Sunday.

Tea Party Under a Halloween Moon 2011

Greetings fellow witches!!Hope everyone is having an amazing Halloween weekend!
Let's join Anna from Frosted Petunias at her Witches tea party under a Halloween moon!
First, through the pumpkin patch

It's getting dark now... follow the lit pumpkins....



Oh look, here comes someone to help us get to the party

I think we're getting close, see the stars?



I smell something wonderful and sweet! It's a candy house!

Let's go inside and see what treats we can feast on...




I think I will have the magic cocoa

Oh! I think someone wants a sip...

Did you know there's a fortune teller here??
Want a peek into the future?Let's go outside to the gypsy tent...

Here she is!She looked in her crystal ball and told me that one of you is going to be the lucky recipient of a magical giveaway in two weeks!!!Yay!

Now, before we head back home lets pay our respects to the dead in honor of Dia de los muertos.
This is a shrine I created for my mother.

I'll leave a candle lit for her.



Thank YOU for joining me here tonight and many thanks to our witchy hostess, Anna.
Have a sweet, glittery, magical Halloween!!!