An open letter to a thief.

Dear You-Know-Who-You-Are,

This site and my work is mostly pretty damned happy, airy fairy, hugs, kisses, candyfloss and butterfly wings, but I take my work very seriously.

As you know, I have a number of tutorials on 'how to' make several of the items I offer. I do this because I love to make stuff and to encourage others to do the same. I think that creating is just about the greatest thing in the whole wide world. It lifts the soul, engages the mind and is the best therapy around.

Now, while I don't want people to follow my tutorials, make exact replicas and then sell them...  I sort of expect it's going to happen. I'd be thrilled if my work inspired you to make your own 'what-cha-ma-jig' or 'doo-hickey' and you made a bazillion dollars selling it. But just plain old copying my work to sell? I'm not so happy you chose to do that.

BUT EVEN THEN I can get over it because I know how much work goes into making that stuff and that eventually you'll get bored. Perhaps you'll realize that you're making less than minimum wage, that sales are slow or that you might even lose money making those silly things. I mean, if you're too lazy to come up with your own ideas the hard work and long hours might put you off.

What DOES bother me is thievery on a magnificent scale. Copying my work, my photography style, my wording, my philosophy and wrapping it all up and calling it your own and labeling it as 'unique'. Not cool. Not going to lie, I'm pretty angry right now. I'm sure the other artists you've stolen from aren't impressed either.

Here's what I propose, I think you'll find it VERY reasonable: Remove all of your listings that clearly violate the intellectual property of others, rewrite your "About me" page so that it's actually about you, then buy a journal and write in it every single day to develop your own ideas. Never ever swipe other peoples work again and we'll call it a day. Consider it a lesson learned in etiquette.

Not keen on doing that? No worries! In three days I'll be submitting the appropriate documents to etsy pointing out that you have violated not only their terms of services but also international copyright and intellectual property laws. As an added bonus I'll fire up the cauldron and pull out my trusty wand. Trust me. I'll do it. Really, it's just better all around if you don't steal my stuff.

I look forward to your decision!
Nichola

P.S. I hate to tell you, but I'm not exactly rolling in dough. It's not money that keeps me motivated... it's passion, and you can't copy that.

Jaida in the Grass

Here's the other painting I've been working on. It's a portrait of one of my very favourite little people, the little sister of D's best buddy.

"Jaida in the Grass" Acrylic on canvas. 16" x 24"

I've got one more painting in mind but I think I may attempt it in oils. I hate oils and they rarely work well for me but the image I have in mind would really work best with that lovely (though frustrating) stuff.

Painting and peanut butter

First of all, congrats to Diane at Craftin Your HeART Out! for preforming some sort of voodoo and getting the random number generator to select her comment for the Gypsy blog hop giveaway!

I've got a number of paintings on the go at the moment. Today I finished (I think it's finished anyway) a portrait of my kiddo. Here's the big guy hanging with himself.

People often ask if D is creative. They wonder if he likes drawing, painting and making. He likes photography, LOVES taking video and, like most boys, enjoys building things. Being surrounded by paintings and art and craft... he doesn't really take notice of my sort of making. He's far more interested in that peanut butter sandwich than the square thing he's holding.

The end of the tour...

Our open house has come and gone. The fairy tour was a great success and I'm looking forward to inviting some of the wee folk back next year. Here's a few pics of a few stops on the tour...

The super sweet Vineeta Moraes took some fabulous shots which can be found on her flickr account HERE

Someone did voice concern over if the wee folk would approve of revealing their spots. I can tell you, as someone who gets along rather well with the little people, that they didn't mind one bit. They were the ones who showed me the way, who sparked the idea, and it was done with the greatest of respect.

Now that's over it's on to MOAR MOAR MOAR stuff. This month I'll be hauling ass to try and finish a couple paintings for September. Then September will be Halloween madness and a super secret project in October that I think you'll think is pretty damned nifty. It'll be the biggest sneakiest thing I've ever attempted!!!

Until then there's a few new goodies in the etsy shop. Hop over and take a gander....

 A Little Happy Moon Shrine

Fairy No. 247 - A little shrine

A Tiny Fairy Town in a Tarnished Dish

Grumpy Mandrake Roots

...and lots of other new listings too. Hop over and take a peek PixieHillStudio  xoxo

Alpha Stamps Gypsy Fever Blog Hop!

Woo hoo! It's the Gypsy Fever Blog Hop!

If you visit all 4 Design Team Members' blogs and figure out the fortune, you will have a chance to win over $100 of art supplies chosen for the Gypsy Fortune Teller Swap! Be sure to leave the Gypsy Fortune on the Alpha Stamps Blog!

Now on to the crafty gypsy goodness...

 Here's my gypsy caravan made with lush papers, trims and other bits and bobs.

Inside there's a fortune wheel, a palmistry hand, a crystal ball, and all sorts of ways to find out if you're a lucky duck ;)

Those tiny chairs inside are made of twigs and cork. They're just like the ones from The Squirrel's End pub I created not long ago.

Now, were you paying attention? Did you find the secret word? If you think you've figured it out (and collected the words from the other blogs) jump over to Alpha Stamps. If you're feeling lucky, you just might win that fab prize!

Leave a comment here and I'll pick one fabulous visitor to win a little something too. What exactly the prize will be I don't know yet... but I do know it'll be WAY better than getting a bill in the mail ;)

xoxo

A door

We spent the whole evening driving around for supplies for a little idea that was bumping around in my brain. What I thought would be a very simple, quick, super cute project has now been abandoned. Who knew  it would be so hard to find 18" lattice! Ah well, thank the heavens for the sudden appearance of this little door.

 
The door was noticed this very evening at the base of one of my favourite trees on the hill. It's a very old Black Locust tree with wonderfully gnarled bark. Sometimes I have to do a double take when passing it as I'm sure there's a wise old face or two staring back at me!

Strange things are afoot!

This week will be mostly devoted to'uncovering' all the fairy haunts on our hill. I managed to get some work done yesterday and found a hobbit door which was sneakily hidden under a patch of long grass.

Tonight after dinner I was delighted to find several little pixie houses had sprouted on the old stump under an old gooseberry bush.

Uncovering all these unbelievable finds is quite contagious. After a little bit of photoshopping I've turned a snapshot taken by my son into this...

... and am bound and determined to convince him that it wasn't a regular old rabbit he captured a photo of, but was a jackalope!

I bet he wavers for about 3 seconds then rolls his eyes at me.