The Baron Von Kringlemas

I've been busy working on four different dolls over the past week or so. The Baron Von Kringlemas is the first to be completed. He's an eccentric high ranking Christmas elf who loves camels and hot toddy's :)

I'm pleased as punch with his hoity, twisty moustache.

He's got some pretty spiffy buttons too!

And who doesn't love stripey legs with jingle bells and pointy toes?

The best thing about the Baron is that he is a surprise! He'll be leaving for his new post shortly... I sure hope his new family doesn't mind uninvited guests for the holidays :)

Ottawa Adventure

My husband worked the big Wine and Food show in Ottawa this past weekend. My auntie lives there so the kiddo and I tagged along too and did some visiting and sightseeing.

One of our very favourite places to go in Ottawa is the Museum of Natural History. It's such a great old building and the dino displays are fantastic. It's truly an inspiring place to be and I highly recommend it if you love all that old stuff :)

Here's the kidlet on the stair case. If you visit the museum look around carefully and you'll find animals hidden all over the place.

A magnificent old specimen shadow box of strange deep sea creatures. Just look at those labels!

How fantastic is this old deep sea diving boot? The whole suit was wonderful but the boots are what really got me.

This aquarium was mindblowingly colourful. I like to imagine that some dinosaurs were colourful pinks and purples... I mean we really don't know that they weren't. Who knows, perhaps some of those big buggers were polka dotted.

Perhaps my favourite exhibit was a gallery of giant moth photos. There were so very lovely and it was tempting to reach out and stroke the photos to see if they were really that furry and fuzzy (I just barely managed to contain myself) The photographers name is Jim de Rivières and he managed to turn those lowly moths into something quite spectacular and magical.

The other exhibit which the kiddo and I loved was a collection of frogs. The colours, sizes and shapes of those things is fascinating. There was a very neat zoetrope there which showed a frog jumping and a computer where the kiddo virtually dissected a frog. I took a load of photos of the frogs but I'll just share this one for now... I wish I had written down what type it was *sigh* ... anyway it was the most fantastic shade of minty green and looked as though it was made of marshmallow. Simply awesome.

We had a grand time at the museum then had lunch in the market. We got lost on the way back to aunties house and had to call her to come and pick us up. LOL Now we're safe and sound back home from our big adventure.

Huzzah for glitter

I'm beyond busy but I have managed to finish up items for a "Legend" swap. Here's a couple of the items on their way to my partner... I sure hope she likes glitter :)

Oona the faerie

Princess Lily's book of love poems and tokens from Jack

The spiral from an ugly one horned mule... better known as a unicorn.

Heads up!

For you crafty folks out there I am organizing (at the requst of the idea's orignator cackle) the Tiny Fairy Tale House Swap on craftster. Make one wee house, max size 4" x 4", based on one of your partners Fairy Tale theme prompts. Send outs are December 10th.

I know it's close to Christmas/Yule and all that jazz but it's only one small house. Come on! You know you want to do this :) *arm twisting in action*

There are only 20 spots for this swap so get in there already!

More Landscapes

I love the nights here. The sky is like blue velvet all lush and such.

I worked on landscapes all day today... including a couple of night/dusk ones. Here's the fruits of todays labours. I know it's rather minimal but the first is my favourite :)

An Update on the Noise Thing

Before moving to this magnificent place of inspiration and fairy magic we endured months hell. Basically, we moved into our dream home, quickly discovered a neighbouring facility is making loads-o-noise, the city refused to do anything about it, and I was slowly driven crazy. While officials outright lied about the situation, company representatives said they could do as they pleased, and I was called a nut, a troublemaker and a drain on society.

Within seven months of the day we moved in, we put the house up for sale.

We moved on to bigger and better things, but for those who had to endure my ramblings I thought that perhaps you'd appreciate an update.

After conducting their own laughable noise study, city officials hired a real acoustic consultant to determine if I was a crazy lady or if there was something fishy going on. The findings? The noise, at it's peak, was compared to that of a Hercules, four-engine military aircraft flying over your house... for hours on end.

"... the eight-page noise study, completed by J.E. Coulter Associates Ltd. of Toronto, proved the neighbours right — the sound is at times 60-to-80 per cent over the acceptable level of noise.

You have no idea how happy I was to read that sentence in the local paper.

I just hope this means real, positive change for those still living there.

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Getting a jump on the xmas panic

Last week I came across a stack of fabric pages I was going to make into a fabric chunky book. I decided to make them into wee scribble books instead.  There aren't a ton of pages in them so I was able to just zip them through my sewing machine rather than get too finicky about binding.

The pages inside are from different sources (antiques newsletters, typing textbook, novels, foreign language books) that have been given a coat of white wash. They are put in any which way... sideways, upside down, and have torn edges rather than crisp neat sides.

A few of the pages have some colour splashed in for good measure.

I've also been working on these clothes pegs. I swiped this idea from someone far more brilliant than myself :) So far I've done 50 of them but I know a few people who love their laundry lines so I think I might have to buy a few more packages of pegs.

And seriously? How wonderfully quirky and whimsical are clothes pegs to begin with?