Teeny Weeny Fairy Cottages

Just some wee things to share...

Absolutely inspired by Phizzychick's Gnome Homes.

Think Happy Thoughts...

While I work away on my messes I often pop in a movie to listen to while I work. This past week it was Amelie. Listening to the commentary was really interesting. Jeunet, the director, would point out where all the little inspirations came from... he had been collecting things he liked for years.

Here's Jeunet's short film "Foutaises (Things I Like, Things I Hate)" from 1989


Somewhere this past week, I heard someone say "Where your focus is, that is where your energy is directed". It's hard not to focus on the crappy stuff life hands us, the things that distract us from far better things. Negativity is a glutton that feeds on attention so I'm do my best to starve it.

Anyway, here's to placing focus on the good things, the little things that make us feel good and happy, moving on to grander things and collecting things you like :)

Jumping on the Moore Bandwagon

It's seems that everyone and her sister is on a Teesha Moore kick lately, myself included. It simply can't be helped!

Completely inspired by craftylittlemonkey's tutorial on craftster this is what I made yesterday...

I really love the texture of it and will defo be making some more of these.

In other news, we had a great time camping at Sharbot Lake Provincial Park. It's a beautiful park although the sites are a bit small and you can hear the truck traffic from the very near highway. We saw loads of frogs and toads and the fishing was great :)

In the middle of everything.

I've got a load of things on the go at the moment but nothing is finished and pretty just yet. One of the things that I am working on is a second wee house. I'm thinking that this one might end up as a House of Mundane Magic. We'll see where it takes me. Here are a few 'in progress' shots...

It's got a fair way to go but it's getting close to the fun part... filling it up with goodies. There are a number of things that did not get included in the last house so I'm excited to see if they will fit in here. If not I've got two more houses that are quite large to work on after this... those ideas will fit in somewhere.

In other news, we went herb shopping today and are planning a rather large herb garden. By "we" I mean I say "Oooh! Wouldn't it be lovely to have a huge patch of silvery wormwood over there!" and the husband is stuck doing most of the work because of his much greener thumbs :)

Soapwort Floor Wash

I decided to try my hand at making a magic floorwash using soapwort. Here goes...

I grabbed some soapwort growing in the ditch across the road and gave them a quick rinse.

I filled up a big pot with water.

Tore the leaves, stems and roots into smaller bits and tossed them in the pot.

I brought the whole she-bang to a boil...

Then boiled it some more.

After about 10 minutes I took out some of the liquid.

Not very bubbly. Wonder what would happen if I gave it a shake...

Lovely foamy bubbles!

I strained the liquid into a bucket and added some water.

Just look at that!

At this point I added some essential oils to my floor wash (grapefruit, gerainium, sage and a drop or two of ylang ylang to encourage a happy household)...

which made all of the bubbles disappear but smelled an absolute treat.

Next time I will add herbs to the pot  instead of using oils and hopefully keep that fantastic foam for just a little longer. The few minutes it took to prepare the wash was a nice way to focus on the magic at hand so I just might add this to my cleansing routine. If you want to give this a try, keep in mind that this is a very gentle cleanser, as a magical wash I think it will work very well, but for dirt and grime it's not exactly the bees knees.

FYI soapwort roots and stems can be dried for later use.

Spooky Words for Halloweeny Inspiration

I have Halloween on the brain even more than usual at the moment. I've signed up for the Vintage Halloween swap on craftster.org and my mind is racing with all the crafting possibilities.

To get the juices flowing I typed up a list of Halloween-ish words on an old Underwood typewriter I bought last month. You can download the page and use it in your own crafting if you like.

*sigh* Nothing quite compares to old type.

Herbs, Magic and Wildcrafting

I think I've made a nice start to the Knickertwist's wildcrafting section. I haven't really bothered with the medicinal uses of these herbs, focusing mainly on the folklore and magical properties. So far I've got Chicory, Dandelion, Goldenrod, Soapwort, Queen Anne's Lace, and Yarrow, with plans to add more as time goes on.

The internet can be a good resource but there is a lot of silly misinformation out there. It's sort of like that telephone game where people repeat things and the message gets all messed up. If you are interested in herbs and herbalism consider investing in some great books. These books are my absolute favourite herbal resources:

Culpeper's Complete Herbal, published 1653, by Nicholas Culpeper,

A Modern Herbal, published 1931, by Mrs. M. Grieve,

Rodale's Illustrated Encycopedia of Herbs, published 1987

Magically speaking the most popular and useful book on herbs is probably Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham.

Enjoy and be safe!