Made-up holidays and a giant black tick

The Knickertwist family headed up to Ottawa this past weekend to celebrate Canada's newest, and most questionable holiday, Family Day. We had a grand time on the Rideau Canal. If you're ever near Ottawa in the coldest of months check to see if the canal is open for skaters, it's a real treat.

Here's me bundled up against the cold looking like a giant black tick :P Unfortunately my bum foot prevented me from skating along with the kidlet and husband. Instead I hobbled pathetically along the edge of the ice trying not to fall and break my foot... again. Ah, well, there's always next year.

My Pixie Hill experiment isn't quite done but you can go for a peek at pixiehill.com. I'm hoping to add a bunch o' faerie themed mess making goodies over the next couple of months. Grand intentions... hmmm,  we'll see what comes of them ;)

FINALLY

Ever get that feeling where you work and work and nothing seems to get done? That's where I've been for a while. It's frustrating. It's sort of depressing. It sure is nice to see the results when the things are FINALLY finished.

Yesterday was such a great day. Birds singing, sunshine, 'spring' cleaning... and I managed to get three whole projects completed last night!

A Star Gazers Wishing Wand

A Miniature Moon Shrine

A Terribly Important Shrine

A new project

This morning these lovely things were left on the path leading down to the bus stop. I don't doubt for a moment that they are from the faerie folk here. The robins and sparrows were fluttering about and singing so happily yesterday that I am quite certain there was some sort of revelry going on last night.

It's a funny thing really because over the past few months I've been slowly working on a sister site for Knickertwist's... Pixie Hill.

Pixie Hill will be dedicated to faerie goodness and fostering creativity. It's really rough at the moment, and a bit of a mess, but in a week or so it should be up and running proper. I'll let you know when she's decent and ready for a peek :)

Anyway, part of the new site includes 'a journal of proof'. It will be a sort of record of the faerie sightings and magical activity that goes on here. I'm taking today's find as a sign to get the darned thing up and running already and have started the blogging here.

Hop on over and have a look at pixie-hill.blogspot.com/


Enjoy!

Airy Faerie Sneaky Peeky

Danni over at the Whimsical Cottage is celebrating February Fairies and has kindly let me in on the fun. Hop over and check out the faerie goodness posted by all the great guest bloggers. I'll be posting next week. Here's a sneak peek...

"Make your own damned mess" Giveaway

Here's the deal, I want you to be inspired. I want you to make a mess. BUT it has to be your own damned mess. No copying off of your neighbours work. Got it? Ok.

Over the years I've managed to build up a pretty nice collection of photos for use in my mess making. For the next month or so I'm giving away a high res sheet of grubby kidlet inchies made from my collection.

Here's the deal...

#1. Don't sell or give the file/sheet/images.

You can make as much stuff as you want from these. You can make as many copies as you like. You can sell or give or trade your finished artwork. Just don't distribute the images. You can direct others here to get their own, but don't distribute it, in any way, for free or for sale, in part or whole, in print or digitally, till death do you part.

I'm not one of those nice 'white' witches, and I am not above jinxing, hexing or cursing anyone who does not follow this very simple rule.

#2. Comment below on why it's wrong to steal, or the consequences of intellectual theft. Or, even better, why it's important to MAKE YOUR OWN DAMNED MESS. You get the idea.

And that's it! Everyone who leaves message will get the file... though I do reserve the right to refuse someone I think is a sneaky bastard.

Make sure I can contact you via email through your profile and you will be sent the full high-res jpg of the above. Email me at info (at) knickertwists (dot) com if you can not be contacted through your profile. I cross my black little heart that you won't be added to any sort of list, and I won't send you chain letters.

***Please note: I will send a 200dpi file at 1.5K which is absolutely suitable for printing. You can request a 300dpi file which is rather large at 3.5K.

The WIP is still IP

The 'work in progress' I showed yesterday isn't done but I've filled in a few of the compartments with happy things like old pencil crayons, buttons and birthday candle stubs.

I still have two compartments sitting empty. I'm waiting for the pixies to pinch me and give me a nudge to let me know what else they collect ;)

Today's WIP

Freshly papered, painted... today's project is just waiting for some proper lovin'

What are you working on today?

Frrr...rrr.rrr...eeez..zing

We've had a good and proper Canadian winter this year with a crap load of snow. I took these during the morning rush and the chilly walk down to the school bus. My darling husband was very kind and cleared a path down our hill so that the kid and I didn't have to walk on the road.

My favourite find this morning...

I'm sure inside there's a cozy place where the pixies are huddled in a warm pile, snuggled close together.

I can't wait for spring.

Sketchy

I came across an old sketch book tonight. I've become addicted to carrying one around with me. I feel naked without one... just like when you forget to put on a watch.

Do you keep a sketch book? I take one with me almost everywhere. I usually have two or three small books for doodling at any one time because I'm so scattered that I always misplace at least one of them.

My sketch books aren't really all that sketchy. They are mostly filled with word associations, lists and written ideas with a few quick scribbles here and there. If I didn't put them on paper I'd totally forget 3/4 of the things that run through my head :)

I really am curious how many of you keep a sketch book or journal type thing...

Here we go again.

Today has been a bit of a bummer. I've came across a couple of items, from different people, that are exact rip offs of my stuff. I'm not going to lie... it's getting to me. It's especially disheartening because one of those sellers is from very nearby, and I've actually purchased from them :(

I want to show off my artsty fartsy things. I want to share my work so that others might be encouraged to make stuff too. However, when I see two vendors in one day passing off items that are replicas of what I make, it's frustrating to say the least. I don't even want to think about what I'd find if I actually searched.

You know what the funniest thing about this whole thing is? Someone mentioned paper theatres a couple of months ago and felt I should have acknowledged that when I posted the Faerie Theatre. I didn't copy anything, or swipe an original idea, paper theatres have been around for hundreds years, but she felt that her post should have been mentioned. Truthfully I had forgotten all about it, I had been influenced by a load of historical and fanciful fantasy things that I had seen in the past few months, but I had no issues acknowledging her original post. Somewhere in the mess in the middle of my brain I'm sure it had become part of the inspiration.

The thing is, it's one thing to be inspired by something that you see and to make your own version. Hell, if it's just for you, go ahead and make a carbon copy. But, it's whole other ball game when you start selling or passing off other people's ideas without changing a damned thing.

I don't make a heck of a lot of money from the things I make. Mostly I'm happy if I can make enough to buy supplies, and sometimes even that doesn't happen. When I see other people trying to make money off of the things that were born in my head, it's really upsetting.

*sigh*

Listen, if you're going to sell stuff, just play nice would ya? Use my projects as a springboard for your own creativity. I know you can do it! You are pretty damned fabulous after all.

Two Wee Books

I've spent the morning finishing up two wee books. One book is a sort of pink colour study, the other is about the night sky. Here's a gander...

I'm really glad I made a load of extra pages for the night sky book because I think I'll be making a few more of them.

Before I make any more books though, I think I need to tackle this lovely mess... and yes, that is a box of Popsicle sticks on my desk :)

Thrifting!

The Big D went to a 5 hour birthday party today. The husband and I were at a loss as to what to do. I honestly don't remember the last time we had 5 hours alone together.

We went thrifting... and to the pub.

It was a pretty fantastic day :) Here are two of our grand finds.

Isn't this wee rocker gorgeous? Best of all it was a whopping 50 cents! One man's junk as they say.

And I think I've found my next revamp project. I've sort of got an idea for this... kind of along the same lines as the faerie theatre but a tad different. We'll see where it ends up and just how long it takes to get there :)

Anywho, huzzah for birthday parties and thrifting and lovely husbands :)

Blah!

Ug. I feel like poo. A big pile of poo. A pile of poo that feels sick. It's like I'm constantly on the cusp of full blown illness but instead just feel crappy and nauseous all the time. Ick!

Despite feeling like poo (did I mention I feel like poo?) I've managed to finish my entry for the craftster challenge for this month, Super Ugly to Super Awesome!

Here is what I started with....

This is what I made...

You can see a boatload of pics and some in progress shots here.

Death, Estrangement and a Pint of Cider

There's about a zillion and three things that I should be doing... instead I'm prepping pages for some new wee books. They look rather pretty, hanging by colour, in my studio window. At least I've been productive.

I'm feeling sort of blah. Not quite maudlin, certainly not depressed, just blah today.

We drove to the big city for a memorial service this past weekend. A family friend passed away the other week. He was a nice man who bought plenty of rounds at the pub, danced with me at my wedding, argued with me about which was better Holiday Inn or White Christmas. He worked until the day he died at age 77.

I won't lie, I wasn't extremely close to the man, but he meant enough to make the 3 hour drive.

It was pretty clear that he wasn't close to his 5 children. They felt that he was distant. His affections were not demonstrative. The term "estranged" was used by one of his sons.

I can understand their sticky position. My own father hasn't spoken to me in years. It's been over 20 years since I've actually seen him face to face. If I were asked to speak at my fathers funeral, I'd politely decline. I don't know my father, he doesn't know me. He has chosen to not be a part of my life. I may not agree with his choice, but I accept it and carry on.

Honestly, I don't even know why I'm sharing all this. I suppose when someone passes you can't help but think about your life and the people in it. I'm definitely not the huggy kissy type. I admit to living more in my head than in the real world. I sure as hell hope that the people in my life know that I care about them anyway... even if I don't want to kiss them :)

Gah! When I'm dead tell my loved ones not to even bother with a service. Just have a pint and spare a thought or two about something funny we shared. Much better than uncomfortable ceremonies, tears, and bad music.

A WIP of the big D

I've been meaning to do another painting of my fantastic kiddo. Somehow between the swim lessons, another trip to the dentist (where I awoke mid-sedation to find the masked bastard still working away on my chompers!) and a power outage that lasted hours upon hours, I've managed to squeeze in some painting.

It's far from done. I'm guessing it's only about 45% there at this point. There's a whole whack of pushing paint around left to do but it gives me a total thrill that my camera recognizes it as a face :) I'm really hoping that it turns out well because I love the graphic effect of the black and red.

Is it February yet?

Holy crackers!

So far we've had death, birth, sickness, celebration and all of the stuff in between and we're not even through the first month of 2011! If I owe you an email, or dinner, or anything please know that I'm not ignoring or avoiding you, it's just that life has been a bit nutty these past few weeks.

Giveaway winners, your winnings will be popped in the mailbox tomorrow evening directly between dinner and swim lessons. I'm really sorry for the delay but every single time I get set to send, something pops up. Barring a freak snowstorm (fingers crossed that doesn't happen) your goodies will be on the way quick as can be.

I haven't really been doing very much crafting but I will let you peek at these...

Wee pixie houses! I'm pretty pleased with the direction of them... we'll just have to wait and see how far I'll get with my grand ideas for improvement :)

Anyway, here's hoping that all the drama for 2011 decided to get itself out of the way quickly and that it's smooth sailing and cotton candy kisses from here on out.

The Stargazers Cottage

She's finally done (except for a few minor paint touch ups)!

This is the stargazers house.

To see more photos hop on over to my craftster post

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

P.S. Attention giveaway winners: Your prizes will be on the way next week. We've had a bit of a 'to do' beyond our control but everything should be sorted by the end of the weekend!

The Star Gazers House sneak peek

Sorry for the silence... I've taken all my spare moments from the past two days to work on my second wee house. She'll need another day or so but here's a sneek peek...

And the winner is....

Using a random number generator VooDoo Queen wins the big bundle!

The winners of the three herb packs are...
Jennie, D. Suplicki and Moon Daughter

Congrats all! I'll be contacting you for your info and your giveaway prizes will be on their way shortly.