More feathers

First, and most importantly, BIG thanks to everyone who's said nice and encouraging things over the past week. I've absolutely needed it and you've made me feel loads better. Please know that I appreciate each and every one of you! xoxo

I managed to finish up two more little birdy paintings last night. It's a funny thing looking at them on the screen. In real life they are much more 'alive' and precious.

The Gnatcatcher Etsy listing

The Flycatcher Etsy listing

It seems the little birds have brought me a bit of luck. I found out last night that my painting of the cheeky robin below won the 'staff choice' award at the Grafton Village Inn painting competition. I'm thrilled to bits.

And now I'm off to clean, cook, bake and wrap for the onslaught of holiday cheer about to burst through my doors...

Painting birds

I told myself that I wouldn't be doing any more paintings but last night I was sucked back in. There's something about painting that I find rather meditative. It soothes me and clears my mind.

Birds have always been one of my favourite subjects. I'm not quite sure why I like painting them so much. Perhaps because they're usually skittish but cheeky... a bit like me.

Anywho, here's a little acrylic on canvas Red Breasted Nuthatch I finished up. He's rather sweet and small, measuring just a smidge over 4.5" x 7".

He's available here.

A pic or two

Given that I've been a tad miserable lately, I thought that perhaps I should go looking for lovely things this afternoon. On my short stroll the thing that stood out most were the bright mossy patches at the bottom of our hill. The dreary rainy weather has not instilled the holiday spirit, but these little spots sure are cheery.

Just look at that soft feathery moss!

Perhaps its time to find those tiny bright spots, things of beauty, and daily gifts from the wee folk once again.

Creating hope

It's been a terrible flipping week.

The attacks on children in China and Newtown have had me holding D extra close. I can't even begin to imagine that horror. There simply are no words.

And.... I lost my job. I've worked part time as a graphic designer for a not-for-profit for eons. I've been very fortunate to have had a bit of secure income that guaranteed, even in the leanest times, that groceries could be paid for every week. Despite my longevity with the place, they're small with a limited operating budget so there's no severance pay. A week before Christmas, I'm sure you'll agree, is pretty shitty timing.

I've never lost a job before and it's been 20ish years since I've been completely out of work. Frankly, it scares the hell out of me.

But what is there to do? The only thing to do is to pick up and move forward. And when you can't find hope for yourself, perhaps creating it for someone else can help. So here's the baker's boy, bestowed with striped socks and a crown and instilled with a strange thrilling wonder.

Etsy listing here

While waiting for this little monkey to cheer me up, I'm going to eat a pound of fudge and roll around in some glitter to drown my sorrows.

Here's hoping tomorrow will be a brighter day.

One of those days

Yesterday was one of those days.

You know the ones I mean.

Before my feet even hit the floor I knew I was in trouble. The kiddo was sick. The sky was grey and dreary. The Christmas tree had fallen over in the middle of the night. Before noon I'd broken three different things. I thought about going back to bed to start over but I didn't crawl back under the covers ...  I just stopped. I kept to laundry, light cleaning and angry birds. That seemed to confuse whatever goblins were meddling and I avoided any further disasters.

From now on, when I'm having a bad day... I'm taking the day off.

But it wasn't an entirely wasted day. Late in the evening I decided to see if the bad mojo had passed and made D a Christmas gift!

My kid is rather obsessed with hunting squirrels. Thank the heavens those little buggers are fast and D can't hit moving targets with his bb gun.

While at the One of a Kind Show in Toronto, the kiddo spied some needle-felted mounts by FeltFactory.com. He was awed. Finally a craft that I can do AND he likes! And so, after a rotten day I managed a rather nice needle-felted squirrel head mount for my cheeky boy.

Here's hoping the rest of my Christmas crafting goes so well!

Wish you were here...

There's a bit of a sale going on in the Pixie esty shop right now. Pop over and check out the listings in the "Wish You Were Here" section for some discounted cuties. You'll find...

Thimble Gardens  Faerie Specimen's

 Mandrake Roots

Snowballs

Sleepy Moons

Shrunken Heads

Tiny Bundles of Pixie Books

and more stuff to be listed this afternoon.
(all prices listed in CAD dollars)

Hurry, hurry! because everything needs to be shipped out tomorrow 

to meet the postal deadline for US Christmas arrival :)

xoxo

More brooches for very fancy ladies

Today I'll be cleaning house like Santa himself is expected tomorrow. How do I manage to leave so much till the last minute? I blame goblins. Surely there were one or two throwing wrenches into everything yesterday.

Today I'm just showing off a few more altered art brooches.

I think I have one little tin left to play with so I'll have to start a batch of something new! Hmmm.... I wonder what will pop out of my bag of tricks?