The Talesingr: The Tale of the Wolf Bride

The Tale of the wolf bride

In the time of ice when hunger bit deep, a hunter was tracking game along the sleeping white river. But the river yawned in its sleep and the hunter fell into its mouth. A wolf saw him fall and went to the edge and looked down. The wolf looked at the man and thought, “This man will make a fine meal, for my bones are rubbing my skin it is so long since I last ate.” And the man looked at the wolf and thought, “That wolfskin will make a fine coat, for my bones ache and I cannot remember what it is to be warm.” But the wolf could not get to the man, and the man could not get to the wolf. So both decided to bargain. The wolf said, “If you will give me meat, I will pull you out.” And the man said, “If you will pull me out, I will give you meat.” But the man was foolish and thought, “I will trick the wolf and when he pulls me close I will take my knife and I will have that skin.” So the man threw his rope up to the wolf, and the wolf caught it in his teeth. And the man held the end as the wolf pulled. When he was safely out, the man took his knife and stabbed, but he was clumsy and the knife did not kill. The wounded wolf could not fight the man, so he turned and ran, leaving a trail of blood and anguish at such betrayal. The man was cold and hungry and went home to find food and fire to warm himself.

When the man arrived at his tribe’s camp, he was welcomed for they had feared him lost or dead. And the hunter told them the story of his rescue, and laughed at how well he had tricked the wolf. And his son and eldest daughter laughed and told their father how clever his trick had been.

But the youngest daughter was silent, and she saw the look the Dreamspinnr gave her father, hooded and dark. And she thought, “My father has broken an oath, and no good will come of this.” So she went to her hut and packed her medicine bag, took her knife and bow, and in the dawn before the tribe stirred, she crept away. She found the river of ice, and followed the blood in the snow to the wolf’s den. And she found the wolf, cold and close to death. She wrapped it in her new reindeer skin coat, and dressed the wound with herbs and bark, and took her bow and went to hunt. She found a snow hare and brought it back to the den.  There, she cut the meat into small pieces and fed the wolf from her own hand.

In the days that followed, the wolf grew stronger. His eyes grew brighter, and the ribs that pressed against his skin were covered with flesh as the girl hunted for him. She made fire to keep them warm, and at night she lay beside the wounded wolf and wrapped them both in her coat. In this way, the wolf grew well, and grew to love the girl who saved him. In return, he taught her wolf ways and wolf lore. How to track, to sniff the wind and find game that men could not, to hunt like a wolf and how to sing the moon song when the curved moon grew fat.

One day the girl said, “Now you are well, I have righted my father’s wrong doing, and I must return to my people.” The wolf was sad to see her go, but she had saved him and he could not make her stay. And the girl returned to her people, who were overjoyed to see her but unsure why she had chosen to leave. She said nothing, but the Dreamspinnr knew and smiled, for the girl had averted the fate that might have befallen the tribe with the breaking of an oath.

But the girl could not settle, she no longer felt she belonged to the human tribe, she saw them through different eyes. She hunted strangely and they began to fear her success, for it seemed like sorcery. She could smell and hear things they could not. And she would sing the moon song when it rose full and fat, and it frightened them. She longed for the company of the wolf, for the smell and touch of his fur, his bright eyes that saw the wind, his loyalty and lack of human guile. And once again, she packed her belongings, and in the dawn before the tribe stirred, she crept away. The Dreamspinnr saw her go, and nodded. The girl followed her own tracks back to the den, and found the wolf waiting for her, for he sensed her coming. And she knew this was her home now.

And it is said by hunters who pass that way, that they have seen a wolf and a woman dressed in white fur running beside each other, swift as the wind. And their feet never touch the ground.

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All text and images © Christina Cairns 2011

‘The Talesingr’s Children’ is a story invented by Christina Cairns, and all accompanying ‘anthropological information’ was found hidden in an old wooden box with aged brass handles, in the attic in a corner of my mind that doesn’t get dusted very often. Or perhaps it’s all true...............................

I must share this, I love it!

This gorgeous illustration is by Lecte on Etsy!  It's called 'A Net for the Birds'.  Hmmm, does it ring any bells?!  How many birds are there?!  Lecte added me to her circle and so I popped over to her Etsy shop to have a look around, liked what I saw and something about the thumbnail for this piece jumped out at me and I clicked to have a closer look.  I looked at the picture, then noticed the title, it was all looking very familiar and I thought 'Oh my goodness, I must have read the 'Tale of the Seven Bird Spirits' somewhere and completely forgotten, I obviously didn't make it up at all!!!' (Well, aside from the fact that it's intentionally based on a fairytale that I hope people recognise, because if you believe my controversial...and fictional...Professor Woodford-Harding, the Talesingr's Tales could be the ancient prototypes upon which famous fairytales are based!)

So I quickly read through Lecte's description.  And NO, I haven't...it's actually an illustration of MY story!  How cool is that?  Someone all the way across the other side of the world was inspired to illustrate my little Talesingr's story.  And how cool is that drawing?  I love the dynamism in it, I love the strength in the Dreamspinnr's arms, I love that she is tattooed just as I imagined she would be.  It's just stunning, isn't it!

And I love the way the world wide web makes this kind of thing possible...it really is a kind of magic!

Another Etsy Treasury inclusion! Yay!

Got back from a few days away down south (relaxing with the other half sans munchkins, and window shopping for blocks of land!) and found my little Autumn Hanger included in this lovely treasury of all things Autumnal, by Robyn at Cardstamps http://www.etsy.com/shop/cardsstamps.

The Talesingr: The Tale of the Mountain Spirit and the Fire Bird

The Tale of the mountain spirit and the fire bird

Various, fragmented versions of this story survive. It appears to be a creation myth, though specifics differ between tribes, particularly in the geographical details, as one might expect from people so closely linked, and reliant upon, the landscape surrounding them. In some versions of the story, the fire bird comes from an island far out to sea and flies to the dark mountains. Clearly such geographical details are dependent on the location of the tribe, and what lies to the east and west of the land over which they journey. The mountain spirit is male in some versions, and female in others, and sometimes not considered to be either, or perhaps both. 

In the beginning times, the world was cold, dark and still. There was no light to wake the spirits, so they slumbered. Only the mountain spirit was awake, silent and watchful, for he was the oldest spirit. But the mountain spirit was lonely and wished for company. So he began to sing. And as he sang, the fired that burned deep inside his belly began to rise, and as it rose, its red glow could be seen, becoming brighter and brighter. And the slumbering spirits began to awaken to this new song and this new light. And still the mountain spirit sang the fire up, until at last it flew out of his mouth in the shape of a fiery bird, sweeping on great flaming wings towards the water-without-end. And all the spirits awoke and the world grew bright and beautiful and the spirits moved over its face and they began to join the song, singing all the peoples of the earth into being, the fur and feathered people, the human and scaled people, the green growing people, the small and large. And when the flames of the fire bird had faded and the world grew dark again, it crawled back into the mountain spirit’s mouth, to sleep and grow strong again. And the mountain spirit was so pleased with the beauty and brightness of this new world, that he has sung the fiery bird out of his mouth each day from that time to this.

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All text and images © Christina Cairns 2011

‘The Talesingr’s Children’ is a story invented by Christina Cairns, and all accompanying ‘anthropological information’ was found hidden in an old wooden box with aged brass handles, in the attic in a corner of my mind that doesn’t get dusted very often. Or perhaps it’s all true...............................

The Talesingr: The Tale of the Seven Bird Spirits

The Tale of the Seven Bird Spirits

There were once seven bird spirits full of self-importance. All believed that he or she was the most powerful, and they argued day and night driving away the peace of the forest. To decide once and for all who was the greatest among them, they proposed a contest. Because the bird spirits had power over the seven winds, they would each harness the strength of one and for a whole month would blow as hard and as fierce as wind has ever blown since the beginning times. At the end of seven months they would hold a council and each spirit would cast their vote.

First, the wind of the summer morning blew, bringing the smell of first greening, of fruit budding and herds returning. Then the wind of winter morning blew, bringing the smell of hardship and hunger, and the earth froze and the herds did not come. Then came the wind of summer afternoon, bringing the scent of the sea-of-sand and no-water, and melted the frozen earth and all was turned to mud and slush. And the wind of winter evenings, endless and cruel, froze the mud like rock and the trees were bare. Then the scorching wind from the home of the sun burnt all before it, and the trees burst into flame, till the blackened stumps were frozen by the wind of the tomb of the sun, bringing darkness and death. For six months the people of the forest, human and animal and growing thing, endured the contest of the winds. And the people knew if the seventh wind, the wind of the spirit place, was unleashed, all the spirits of the ancestors, good and bad, would be hurled into the world of the living. All was chaos, and the people feared starvation...or worse.

So a great council was called, and the chiefs and Dreamspinnrs of all the tribes, human and animal and growing thing, met in circle to say what must be done. And the oldest and wisest sat among them and listened and said nothing, as they shouted and argued for a whole journey of the sun. But in the end they fell silent, for none knew the answer. Then the oldest and wisest opened her eyes and touched two fingers to the geisan on her chin, and spoke. “I will dream.” She went to her hut and lay on the reindeer hides, and slept. And in her dream she wove seven nets, made of hair from all the people of the tribes, to make it strong as the tribes. And into the nets she wove the thorns of the Martuk tree. She spoke no word but the spell of net weaving. She did not eat, nor drink, nor could she lift her eyes from the work. And when she had finished, she bound a strip of cured fish skin across her mouth, for to speak one word would cause the nets to break. She tracked the bird spirits to their meeting place, and waited for them to sleep. And when the curved moon rose and the fire sank low, she threw the nets over the bird spirits. They woke and struggled to free themselves, but the harder they fought, the deeper the Martuk thorns bit into their skin and tore away their feathers. They begged and pleaded to be released but the oldest and wisest said nothing. When all the feathers had fallen away from their skin and with them the power over the winds, all that remained were strange creatures like wizened human children, and they crawled away into the caves of the snow mountains and were not seen again.

This was the dream of the oldest and wisest, this was done, and order was restored.

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All text and images © Christina Cairns 2011

‘The Talesingr’s Children’ 

is a story invented by Christina Cairns, and all accompanying ‘anthropological information’ was found hidden in an old wooden box with aged brass handles, in the attic in a corner of my mind that doesn’t get dusted very often. Or perhaps it’s all true...............................

For a stunningly beautiful illustration of 'The Tale of the Seven Bird Spirits', please visit Lecte's Etsy Store.

The Talesingr: The Tale of the Coming of Humankind (for Mo Crow!)

The Tale of the coming of humankind

Only a tiny fragment of this tale survives, a brief outline with little detail. Woodford- Harding collected it from a seafaring people he stayed with very briefly, most likely in 1904, but he recorded almost no information about the tribe itself, thus it is difficult to determine who exactly they were or even their exact location, though it is believed they were most likely people living along the coast of the Bering Sea in far Eastern Siberia.  Unlike modern western perceptions of killer whales (also known as 'Orca'), this tribe clearly thought very highly of them and considered them to be the ancestors of their people.

Two spirits eloped together, for the laws of their tribe forbade them to marry. To escape they turned themselves into fish and swam down river to the sea. There a Killer Whale came upon them. She was hungry but she could see they were spirits disguised as fish, so she said to them, “I am hungry. If you will give me the fish bodies you wear, I will hide you from your families.” So the fish swam into her mouth, and she swam far away from their angry tribe. And in her belly, the two spirits took off their fish bodies as they had promised. But they were afraid they would be found again and punished for breaking the law. So they stayed in the belly of the Killer Whale. And in the spring, she gave birth to a woman and a man, and they became the mother and the father of the first people. 

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All text and images © Christina Cairns 2011

Psst...a Talesingr and a few Wandering Souls have made it to my Etsy shop...

...Songs for Wandering Souls being the name I decided to give my other little hangers, as the Talesingr's Children were getting all the attention and glory!  More will be uploaded to Etsy later this week, but I want to post the Talesingr stories onto my blog first.  Stay tuned....

Success...in an unexpected manner!

Yesterday turned out to be something I wasn't quite expecting...fun!  I've never done an art show/expo/stall type thingy before, and thought I'd possibly be nervous...shy...uncomfortable...bored...but actually I was none of the above, once I'd managed to calm myself down and actually get the wing nuts done up holding my sign onto my table (very fiddly, and already responsible for one broken nail on my guitar plucking hand)!

What you can't see is my ugg boots...it was VERY cold yesterday (mind you, that's Perth cold, which of course isn't REAL cold!)  But it's OK, they are very swish ugg boots...purple with braid around the top, he he!

What was also unexpected was that I didn't sell any small items other than 1 print and a few cards, though lots of people showed a lot of interest in the wooden hangers.  But what I DID sell was 'Storm Spirit Moving', the large painting in the lower left of the photo.  I thought that the smaller and cheaper items would be the bigger sellers (seemed a logical assumption!) and didn't think it very likely that any of the big ones would be sold.  Not that I'm complaining!  I actually made a profit after taking out the $350 or so costs.  But I think it was a bit of a lucky fluke, the right people happened to come along, and if they hadn't I would be very out of pocket.  Has anyone else found this to be true, that market type situations often defy all your expectations and you end up with a most unlikely outcome?

But 'Storm Spirit' has found a new home, and it was rather wonderful too.  A lovely couple and their daughter came along, and admired all my work and we chatted for a bit.  Then they moved on to look at all the other stalls and I didn't think any more of it.  But a while later they came back and wanted to have another look at 'Storm Spirit', and then they said the magic words 'Yes, we'll take it, thank you!'  It turned out that their daughter turned 21 last year, and they'd promised her a painting for her 21st birthday, and she has been looking and looking for the right one.  I think 'Storm Spirit' whispered to her, and I wonder if perhaps she whispered back?  Perhaps the 'true' owners of a painting are the ones who know the painting's story and the painting senses it and whispers "you are the one who can tell me my tale, and only you."  What do you think?

Other unexpected things happened too.  I've long despaired that my work is so eclectic (or rather, all-over-the-place with no rhyme or reason!) that there doesn't seem to be any unifying theme or identifiable style.  And yet, I found myself telling people over and over yesterday that the one thing that appears in all my work is STORY.  It was only when I'd said it about 5 times that it dawned on me what I was saying and I realised, that's it, that's what holds my work together, whether it's a large acrylic, or a pencil sketch, or a stitched piece or a piece of wood and pyrography.  It has a story.

I also found myself being told very sternly that I am a writer!  I was chatting away to a lady who told me I should really do book illustrations, and I laughed and said it's a one-day dream and that I'm just a frustrated writer.  Then she listened as I chatted on (waving my hands around a lot as I do when I'm excited and enthusiastic), telling her the story behind the 'girl in the boat' paintings and 'Shipwreck Coast', and she listened as I talked about the Talesingr and all the little stories I'd written for her, and she flicked through my book of 'prints available' and asked me if I'd written the info and little 'blurbs' for each one.  And she said 'so you wrote this?'  Then she pointed to the flyers and sign about the Talesingr, "and you wrote that?'  Then she looked me right in the eye and very seriously said, "so you're ALREADY a writer, aren't you!"  Perhaps I am.

I even plucked up the courage to take Cordelia along, making sure my neighbouring stall holders were happy for me to play guitar.  And I plucked away (as well as I could with no decent fingernails!), and even sang a bit, very quietly.  And the lady in the stall next door told me it was lovely, and when I stopped and put Cordelia back in her stand for a bit, the lady opposite popped up and came over to tell me not to stop, that it was beautiful!

Perhaps the most surprising thing I learned is that I'm actually quite good at the 'chatting to the customer' thing.  Normally, I'm pretty shy and the idea of starting up a conversation with a complete stranger makes me nervous.  I'm just no good at all at small talk and general chit-chat, utterly hopeless at parties.  But if people stop and ask me about my work, I can chat away and tell them all about it and enjoy doing so.  I had some really interesting conversations with people, getting their impressions and ideas about my work too, which is always refreshing and interesting, and lots of people took my cards and pamphlets, so perhaps they might even pop in here.  So if any of you are people I met yesterday, thank you so much, I had a lovely day and enjoyed talking to all of you!

So while I DIDN'T learn what is a 'sure fire' seller at an Art market, I did learn lots of other things that may ultimately be more useful!

Art Expo July 10th!

Now I realise it would be very a long commute for most of you (requiring rather more than a cut lunch and a water-bag!), but just in case you are in the neighbourhood, or know anyone who might be, here are all the details of the Art Expo that is happening next weekend.  I'll be in Hackett Hall, stand No. 7 (diagonally opposite the entrance in the far corner), with some big paintings, some little paintings, lots of Wood Hangers (including 5 'Talesingr's Children'), some prints and cards, and the small original works on tea-bags you've already seen here.  Please pop in if you're in Perth, there will be lots and lots of wonderful art to look at, as well as demonstrations, activities for kids, food stalls and coffee!  And me...of course!  And it doesn't hurt that the University of Western Australia is a gorgeous campus to visit!

Late Harvest...

Autumn colours mixed with the colours of our southern winter...intense greens, of grass and leaf and tree washed clean and bright with rain.  Some more little wood hangers for my art stall.  Because I am a novice at this, I did not realise that my 'allocated stand' was actually 'allocated floor space' and nothing more, and now must scramble to knock together some kind of display stands to put my larger paintings on.  Beloved says he can make something...ah well, I suppose it's all a learning experience.

And another tea bag leaf

I have something waiting in the wings to show you.  A slightly different direction...or rather, several directions at once.  I have the first pieces completed, but their stories are still floating about my head like a cloud of butterflies, beautiful, but the details are elusive and hard to pin down.  So we must be patient and let them land and become still so as to observe them closely without harming or alarming them.  Stay tuned!

Making and painting...

I've been busy the last couple of days.  Making and painting.  I've been fighting a headache on and off since Monday morning, so I gave up on housework and when it subsided in the afternoons I decided to do something fun rather than cleaning.  And I have a good reason to get moving on the creative front, I've committed to this Art Expo in a month, so need to get some smaller works done for my booth/stall.  I've never had an art stall before, so this will be a learning experience.  I'm keeping expectations fairly low, I hope I can cover my costs and learn some useful things about running a stall, and anything on top of that will be icing on the cake.

I've taken the smallest booth available, so have room for 3 large paintings, a few smaller works, some wood hangers, and I think I'll have a small selection of prints for sale, though I haven't decided which ones yet.

If anyone has any brilliant advice on what to take, what not to take, even what to wear (!) please don't hesitate to leave a comment!

Anyway, here's what I've been working on.

Two more olive wood hangers.  Beloved has just cut me a whole STACK of them, so I will be busy!

Having fun with teabags!  An ink sketch of a leaf skeleton, on an opened tea bag (post cuppa!), hand sewn to an old book page.  Biggest munchkin found the tattered book with pages falling out and brought it home because she knows mummy likes stuff like that (though she's told me in no uncertain terms that she found it so it's HER book, but I can have a few pages!)  It's in Russian, but that's all I can tell you, it could be a book of hymns or the Communist Manifesto, I wouldn't have a clue!  All neatly mounted and packaged in cello...gosh, I'm so organised!

And acrylic painting of an ornamental pear leaf on tea bag paper, with metal (gold) leaf, hand sewn to an old dictionary page.  This one is my favourite so far, it has a little bit of magic in it, because I didn't notice the words on the right until I was almost finished!  So it now has a little poem for a name.

The red 

season

harvest

the full

autumnal heart

Another pear leaf.  No mount yet (ooh, I must remember to sign it!)

A closer view

And finally, a couple of things that are not for the stall.  Do you remember this?  I think it's finished now, though I still don't know what it is or what to use it for!

And this is a choker for moi!  Well, unless someone offers me oodles of dosh for it!

We have actually had rain, REAL rain, but it's far too little.  And maximum temperatures for the next week are all around the 20ºC, so not very wintery.  Everything in my garden is topsy turvy, all my bulbs are coming up, my apricot tree hasn't lost it's leaves yet (they're just starting to yellow a little now), meanwhile my almond tree has lost its leaves, started flowering, and now has all its new 'spring' leaves!  Mad!

A December birthday...

...and a gift for someone very special.

Fire Angel and Ice Queen...

The little Fire Angel is finished, and also Mother Winter who has been waiting patiently for her ribbons and bows.  Perhaps she has been sleeping, hiding away from all this heat and bright sunlight and dreaming of long dark nights and ice festooned trees.

She is lying on the small gift bag I made for her, 

hand-sewn out of linen dyed with onion skins and eucalyptus leaves.

And just for Oya's Daughter...the trick is actually a tiny, very fine pen nib, 

mounted on a feather for lightness, and gold ink!

In the end, I decided not to try looking for a suitable quote as I would be here till next Christmas on the web trying to find something.  So I just wrote a little poem that I think/hope will be appropriate for its new owner.

Old Mother Winter with her ice leaves and crystals.

Another little poem, about rebirth and the circle of seasons.  Within the dead of winter lies the seed waiting for spring (goodness, I sound like a Bette Midler song!), and here, in Western Australia at least (apparently in the East States summer has yet to put in an appearance) in the harsh dry summer we wait for the greening that comes with the Autumn rains.

It has been a busy weekend, I always have this pie-in-the-sky Christmas dream of a perfectly clean and tidy house ready to be decorated with gorgeous home-made things, but I never quite seem to get there.  Always there is a mad scramble of cleaning and dusting (accompanied by much sneezing), of putting away (or when that fails, shoving into the spare room), of cooking and Christmas always arrives at least a week early. I made my Pan Fortes, but will need to make more as they are likely to disappear without a trace when the other half is anywhere near.  Mind you, the munchkins will also magically disappear them now, despite the fact that they are quite spicy (Chilli has become a compulsory ingredient in the last few years)!  But today I decided I'd had enough with the cleaning, and spent a little time making a Christmas banner for my kitchen window.  Brown paper and string never looked so good, I think!

An angel in progress...

A work in progress, a 'sort of' commission.  The red background will become gold wings.  I need to find a suitable quote...something about rebirth, renewal I think.  I will post pics when it's finished.  Christmas is coming much too fast and I have too much to do and not enough time as always!

12 hours left to enter my giveaway!

Quick, go get your skates on.
Don't worry too much about poems and such,
It was just an excuse for some fun!
So leave a comment today...
And tomorrow we'll find out who's won!

Off you go and leave your comment HERE to win this!

I wish, I wish upon a star...

I could go to this, but it's just too far.... :(

Vali Myers is one of my absolute favourite artists.  She had an amazing life, a wild, bohemian, gypsy soul who created the most incredibly detailed artwork.  Unfortunately she's barely known in her native Australia.  She lived most of her life overseas, but returned to Australia in the 1990s and died in Melbourne in 2003.  For a while her studio was kept open as a museum/gallery of her art and life.  Sadly, lack of funds forced it's closure...and even more sadly, I made a trip to Melbourne in 2006 to visit her studio...a month AFTER it had closed...sigh!  And I would so dearly love to be there tomorrow night for the opening of this exhibition, but there are several thousand kilometres between this side of OZ and the other side, and I simply haven't the funds for the plane fare.  So, if you happen to be in Melbourne, go and have a look, for me!


And don't forget to visit my Giveaway post HERE and leave a comment for a chance to win!

The mermaid turns ONE...and a gift for you...

Well, today it is my first birthday...well, the first birthday of A Mermaid in the Attic!  Yes, I have been rambling on about goodness-knows-what and playing show-and-tell with my little pictures for a whole year now.  And marvel of marvels, there are 191 people out there who find something worthwhile in my oft mad musings and ponderous ponderings.  So, that all seems like a good reason for a Give-Away, don't you agree?!  So, to thank all my readers and regular commenters for all your lovely support, I've decided to give this pendant away to one of my dedicated followers.

 So, what do you do to win this little OOAK hand-painted Olive Wood pendant?  Well, I'm sure most of you know how these things usually work, it's all very simple.  You need to be a follower, and leave a comment on THIS post.  Hmm, let's see, shall we make it a bit more interesting?  How about a 4 line poem (well, you can do more if you like, limericks are always fun) on the funniest (or weirdest) thing that happened to you this month?  I'll allow for a certain amount of 'poetic license' so don't get too worried about it, just have fun.  Don't forget to make sure I can contact you if you win.  Then I'll pick a bunch that make me laugh the most and put them into the top hat and draw out a winner.  Sound fair?  So, you've got...ummm...how about till midnight on Sunday?  That's midnight here, where the mermaid lives, which is GMT +8.  But I'll warn you when the deadline is approaching.  So, hop to it, off into your various garrets and summon up the poetic muse.  And if you really MUST use a goose quill pen to get the creative juices flowing, go ahead!

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.