One little baby faery has flown the nest!

Just a quick note to let you know that the baby girl faery wrapped up in the rose petal blanket has found a new home already!  She will be winging her way to the other side of this wide brown land, just as soon as I add the final touches.  I'd better paint some more!

Plight of the Bumble-fingered artist.....baby faeries and bedroom make-overs...

Oh, I couldn't resist, I will blame it on my mum, who loves puns!

 My two baby faeries are FINALLY in my Etsy shop.  Yes, I AM the Queen of Faffing About, I admit it.  I considered adding beads or glass leaves to these, but in the end I decided I liked the ribbons the best.  Which is just as well, as I have discovered one of the liabilities of being a guitar player (well, a learner at least) is that I CANNOT PICK ANYTHING UP WITH MY LEFT HAND!  Once upon a time, I had soft, sensitive finger pads that could pick up small beads, pieces of paper, needles, thread......now, I have these rock hard and completely numb finger tips that can barely FEEL a needle lying on a table, let alone pick it up!  I can't hold anything small in them and manipulate it...I spent this afternoon dropping beads and accidently snapping the tops off crystal drops...how frustrating, and how unexpected.  I didn't realise learning a new skill could compromise my old ones!

I ummed and ahhhed about what to charge for the faeries too, and settled on $40.  According to this article on Etsy, I'm not charging enough, but I don't think it's a very realistic formula.  Speaking of Etsy, there are all sorts of changes afoot and not a lot of people are happy about it.  If you haven't checked your Etsy profile lately, I suggest you go and have a look at what they've done to it and judge for yourself.

You can find these two here and here.

Now....drum roll please.  How many of you remember the Super-Bedroom-Makeover?  Well, if you don't or have joined up to read my ramblings since the last SBM post, you can always click on the 'bedroom makeover' label at the top of this post and get the whole story.  But to cut a VERY LONG story short, it is finished.  Actually, it has been for a few weeks, but as I have already admitted to being the Q of FA (now, don't be rude, I didn't mean THAT!) I've only now gotten around to posting about it. We haven't moved all the furniture back in that needs to go in, but it won't be much more anyway, and about all it needs beyond that is a nice rug on the floor.  So what do you think?  He's a clever chap isn't he, that other half of mine!

Composite picture (I do love Photoshop) from the doorway

The bedspread I bought years ago because I fell in love with it even though it didn't go with any of the colours we had at the time.

This WAS going to be Beloved's special TV chair in the lounge room...but it looks awfully nice here.

Featured on FAT Tuesday...

Click here to visit Beth's blog!

The lovely Beth over at Beth's Artworx has a Featured Art Tuesday on her blog, and I am one of today's featured artists...woo hoo!  She saw my little Christmas ornaments and loved them, so they are featured along with some lovely work by several other artists.  Please pop over and check out her blog, and be sure to follow the links to the other artist's websites to see more of their work too!

Hmmm...I'd better finish those ornaments and get them into my Etsy shop quick smart!!

A short scribble for today, because I'm feeling a bit like this....

And shall I erect my cathedral in you?

The architecture of my mind striving to find

a silence of sky blue enough to reach to.

All this jingle-jangle daily bump and bang

grinds my too-fragile-for-today bright towers down

and my feet cannot ascend the stairs and leave the ground behind.

© Christina Cairns 2005

I'm not sure about the last two lines but one.  There was a temptation to write "all this jingle-jangle daily bump and grind / wears my too-fragile..." so it would neatly rhyme with find, and behind.  But I think that's too neat, too cliched.  I like 'almost-rhymes' so 'bang' and 'down' it is...for the moment anyway.


Hmmm...typos often present interesting possibilities.  I just checked my preview and realised I'd written 'jungle-jangle'...I quite like that.  I shall think on it further.....

"Waves" is in a new Etsy Treasury!

This little painting is getting around!  It's just been featured by WillyNillyKnitter in a treasury that is all things HAIR!  I'm loving those long red plaits!

I have been creating LISTS in a (more than likely futile) attempt to become ORGANISED!  We shall see what happens.  I did spend today cleaning and sorting out my laundry because it was ON THE LIST...but how long I'll be able to keep it up I don't know...I know myself too well, and my dreamy, disorganised, procrastinatory inner (and outer) child will pretty soon be whispering "oh, it can wait...what's a few dishes...you KNOW you want to go and paint something...anything!"

Christmas pendants/hangers...and some slow stitching...

Christmas is coming and like many people, I love handmade decorations.  Of course, I have my fair share of plastic (ie. small people friendly) ones, but I can probably jettison a few of them now that my girls are big enough to be a little more careful when decorating the tree.  So with that in mind, I thought I'd make some that were special, OOAK, unique and customised.  A Christmas decoration that is a perfect gift all by itself.  These are the first, painted today.  An old mother winter, with her wise face and long silver tresses, and two little tiny faery babies fast asleep in their tiny cradles, rocking gently high up in the Christmas tree.  Customised with name (on front) and dates (on back) added, these two would be perfect as a gift for a new born's first Christmas.  I'm still twiddling around trying to decide on details, but thought I'd 'show and tell' to see what you thought.  I've done a very rough 'dummy' up in photoshop to show you how the lettering might go, though it would be hand-painted on the actual pieces.  As with my other hangers, these would come in a small hand-made gift bag, and I'll probably include a little certificate of authenticity or similar.  Any suggestions are welcome, including what you think would be a reasonable price...yes, I'm hand-balling that to you, my trusty followers, because it's the part I hate the most.  I am NOT the fastest artist out there, each faery baby took almost an hour to paint (and the wise winter woman took almost an hour and a half...but her face was being very troublesome!), though these are the very first and hopefully I might get faster with practice!

There is a little of this happening now...VERY slow stitching this is...I suspect it will be a long while in the making.

The wonder of the world wide web...

...that my little paintings can be seen on the other side of the world.

A week or so ago I received a lovely request from drama teacher Russ at Grassfield High School in Chesapeake, Virginia USA!  He and his students are putting on a play about Theodosia Burr Alston (sounds like an interesting story...mysterious disappearances at sea!)  He asked if they could possibly use one of my paintings for their poster.  I wouldn't normally say yes, willy-nilly, to anyone using my artwork, but it's for a school theatre production, and as an ex-theatre student myself, I couldn't say no.  So, if you happen to be in Chesapeake on Thursday, Friday or Saturday this week, do drop in and tell them all to 'break a leg' from me, as it's a little far for me to go!  Here's the poster they designed, with my 'Waves' featured.  I'm looking forward to receiving a T-Shirt!