Easing back into it.

Took a break from my blog for a few months to... be depressed?

Luckily, utter Joy may easily be purchased for the reasonable price of only $35 from a Lithuanian Etsy shop, Vaivanat.

FOX HAT!

It's a pagan-folk-costume-loving girl's dream come true. As soon as I can manage to afford it, this wonderful hand felted FOX HAT will be mine! Allegedly, it fits the average adult as well.

Victorian-esque Collage

Pretty pretty! This charming print is by Arizona artist Linda Norton and I found it in her Etsy shop.

The Carnival is Over

This exquisite Dead Can Dance fan video was created by Slovakian artist, sculptor, and director Ondrej Rudavsky. He posts on Youtube that the Warner Music Group had requested the video be removed for copyright infringement, so he wrote to Brenden Perry and got his personal permission for the video to be available on Youtube again. Not at all surprising, considering the high level of creativity and craftsmanship here! 

"So, here it is again, still not over, this carnival."  -Ondrej Rudavsky

Wonderful sculptures from the artist's website.

Perfect Studio!

I fall in love with spaces that would be ideal for a studio pretty often. This one I think may be the best I have seen yet!

Atmosphere is very important, and this space is just loaded with it. Imagine how cozy it would be in a rainstorm!

I took the photo from a wonderful website comprised of carefully selected borrowed images called Cantyshanty. The sense I get is that the poster simply enjoys collecting ideas for eclectic home decor and upcycling (and he/she probably is addicted to design magazines). It's a real treat to look through! If something doesn't grab you hard-- you aren't paying attention! Check it out at cantyshanty.com.

Here is another image I particularly fancied. As the website owner states "Images are copyright of their respective owners. I just don't know who they are." ...Enjoy!

Ornament Durability Field Test

I have placed two Wise Leaf ornaments and one Cheerful Acorn outside my mom's house to see how they stand up to the weather. Two weeks ago my friend got a leaf and asked if it was safe to put it on his covered porch... and I had to admit I didn't know! They are all sprayed with matte finish but I don't know how much protection that would offer. I'm also curious about how the waxed hemp cords will stand up to the elements.

Sooo, I hung the leaves from the plant hooks under our semi-covered porch and placed the acorn out in the open on a shrub. I feel kinda guilty sacrificing a happy little acorn fellow, particularly since it's pouring and freezing out today, but it's in The Name Of Science! (Hopefully I can fix him up again.) I'll see how they look in a week or two.

Shh! Sleeping Dollies...

I wanted to check on my dolly drawer today here at mom's house... These three Shirley Temple composition dolls are sleeping together in packing paper in my old nightstand drawer. They were my mom's when she was a child-- these dolls are in great shape considering how old they are! Mom says she didn't play with them too much on account of how pretty they were. Here are a few details about the line of dolls from shirleytempledolls.com:

 "Composition Dolls are made of a 6-piece (strung together with elastic) sawdust-based, wood-pulp material (composition), that was later painted flesh toned. These dolls had hazel eyes with hair upper lashes, and painted eyebrows, lower lashes, lip paint, and nostrils. The wigs were made of mohair and styled in golden curls similar to Shirleys'. The clothes were made to resemble Shirley's own clothes and the outfits of her movies. They were produced between 1934-1939. Most (except for the earliest dolls) were marked SHIRLEY TEMPLE on the back of the head and/or the back of the neck."     

Someday I think I'll make a shadowbox with one or more of these little ladies. Perhaps sometime sooner I'll take them out for a tea party...

...shhh!

 

The surface cracking effect is called "crazing".

 (I woke her up for just a moment...!)

Spooky Bag on etsy!

Wow! This little handmade bag posted on Etsy is constructed from fabric printed with an artist's charmingly spooky illustration on it. The digital painting is called "Pumpkin Harvest Day" and the artist is Lavennz Ooi Sin Yee. The seller, Julia, is from the UK and her shop Uniquely Different is full of unusual and affordable bags! More wonderful paintings by the artist, who is located in Malaysia, can be seen in her personal Etsy shop, where she includes a sweet little story or poem in her picture descriptions.

"Pumpkin Harvest Day: The girl named Anna, wearing black dress and her mood is very down because she was thinking of her parents that had passed away for a few years. Her parents left her a pumpkin field, where they spent lots of wonderful moments there. And today, another pumpkin harvest day. Anna carved the pumpkins, made them into lanterns and stand with these lanterns in a nebulous forest. She believe that the fairy tale of magic pumpkin lanterns can give her a miracle, let her meet her parents again....."