Blanket of Snow at Twilight

The Snow Queen!

One of my friends who lives in North Carolina begged me to take photos of the big snowfall we had here. I am not sure exactly how much we got, but it is the most in 13 years! Many folks are snowed in. I only just got my car shoveled out from a ton of snow. The roads are finally getting plowed and we are lucky that in my little Village we didn't get the scary Ice Storms that some areas near us did. While I type this, I can see it is snowing again and the temperature is going down. Anyway, here are some of the photos I took of the court yard view from one of my windows. I will keep you updated if this snow gets deeper!

What's Old is Always New

Lucky me got the new Free People catalogue in the mail about a week ago. I really like this one as all the clothes remind me of what I wore in high school and college-actually what I still wear!

I love Free People's clothes, but whoah, they are expensive. I found my super soft and worn men's Levi's at Goodwill, my cotton lace tops at thrift stores and my black work boots at the shoe carnival(in the smallest men's sizes). I made my own beaded jewelry and braided my own hair.

I was also lucky to have Grandmothers and Great Aunties who kept all their fabulous clothing from the 1930s and 40s. Her is my Grandmother Gingie in her High School Granduation photo. I loved this dress she is wearing! It is a butterscotch coloured check cotton. My other Grandmother, Nonnie, had a dress in a similar colour and check but it had several ruffles along the bottom and on the sleeves. She wore it to her High School Prom. My mom got it out for me and it fit perfectly. So, I wore it to a High School Dance and my Nonnie was so happy.

I hope I have a few pieces of clothing that someone in the future will want to wear(I only have nephews but who knows? My Great Aunt Fagella from Russia was one of my true loves and I have many of her favourite pieces-maybe I will be someone's 'Fagella'). Until then, I will try to keep adding to my collection!

My Auntie Fagella in the 1920s and another look I loved from the catalogue.

Part the Third of Where the Mermaid Came From

Part the Third~
Finally, We are getting close to the end of our little story. In the last bit, our girl had shut herself away, but still dreamed of the many people and things she missed from earlier in her life. She went on alone and tried to create little things. She had always liked to make art of some kind or another and so she continued to do this as much as she could. Every once in a while, someone would stop by for a chat and she would give them a pretty bead or button and they would give her a sweet little gift. Or, a wonderful letter would arrive in the mail. Old friends were always welcome as well as new folks with open minds.



Sometimes, she would get out some clay, paint, yarn and fabric and sculpt and sew dolls. They were like little friends from her imagination. She found them to be sweet but sometimes other folks thought they were scary. This, she did not understand. How could these little creatures be scary or have bad intentions? They were made from a place of joy. It was a good thing no one was being forced to look at these creations.










And, since she had several Faerie Friends who loved anything sparkly that caught the sun or moonlight, our girl collected beads and strung necklaces to hold little vials of their pixie dust for her friends and made them little crowns to wear which made her happy and made the Faeries happy as well. They would fly to her window and she would show them their new crowns and they would laugh with glee and stay for Faerie cakes and Jasmine tea tell her fantastical stories from the magical woods which would inspire our girl to make more art. She loved her Faeries friends dearly. They held her hand many times as she fell asleep at night and this helped to ease her anxious mind.





So, with this inspiration, sometimes our girl would get out her paints and paper and make art this way. Again, she would be inspired by vintage fashion and history, cultures from around the world, and Folk and Fairy Tales. And again, while some liked her paintings, others said that there must indeed be something very wrong with the girl as her creations were "off", "not normal", and "too dark". Our girl tried to see her pieces like this but she could not. She just saw all the gorgeous colours, people, animals and things she loved.




Our girl did not need or want to be seen as odd and not normal on top her sad state so thought long and hard about giving up making all her art(she never even really called it 'art'-it was just something she had always done). She would try again and again, but all these ideas would come sneaking back into her head. Fantastical people and creatures would whisper "Make Me!". So, she would get her supplies back out and start again. This is where we will leave her for now.

next~ Part the Fourth

photos~
Mariano Fortuny's studio, photos of my own dolls, jewelry, faerie friends and paintings, illustrations by Angela Barret and Trina Schuart Hymen