Fairy SHOES!...(A Teeny~Tiny Tutorial)

 

~

Happy Weekend, Everyone!

 

 

Here's a fun tutorial for you...

 

 

I thought my Fairy Houses needed a little more "Fae" element about them,

 

 

so what better than teeny-tiny shoes left by the front door?

♥

Easy-peasy, too ~ honest!



~

~




All you need are some little smidgeons of clay, a needle-tool, and a paintbrush



(or something similar) with a narrow, round-tipped handle.



 Mica powder (I like Pearl Ex) is fun, too, if you have it.



~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~




BTW, at this point I used a drop of liquid polymer clay



to stick the shoes together...you don't have to, of course,



but it makes them easier to keep up with and to position them "just so".



Don't tell the Fairies this, though.



It would be like when you buy Walmart shoes that are fastened together



 with one of those plastic thingies, and then you can't put them



on until you get home and cut it off.



(Unless the cashier has scissors.)



This won't come off, though, so it could be a real deal-breaker for the Fae.



~

~




Bake at 275° for 30 minutes.



That's all there is to it!



(Disclaimer: You may become hooked and have to make all color combinations...;^) ~)



~

~


One more thing!



Here's another little "FloraLuna" brooch that I just finished



(this one has Lapis Lazuli beads)



and am adding to Kathryn's (The Dedicated House) Anything Blue Friday ~ ♥



More Fairy Houses tomorrow!



Love,

 

Read More

April Fool's Day!

April Fool!

 

 

Did anyone "April Fool" you today?

 

Well, no one did me...

 

But when I was small I used to fall for my Mom's "Look, it snowed!!"

 

every time...wishful thinking on my part!

 

(With the weird weather this year, it could well be true!) ~

 

~

 

Here's something interesting, I think!



(I got this information here ~ learningfrenchcritic.com.)

 

In France, April
Fools’ Day is known as poisson d’avril, or the fish of
April.

Where we’re more
apt to employ whoopi cushions and plastic spiders, French youth have a different
tradition: schoolchildren will stick a paper fish on someone’s back, hoping not
to be discovered. (Using the old ‘kick me’ sign tactic of a pat on the back and
saying something along the lines of, ‘We’re such good friends!’ seems to be an
effective method.)

When the paper
fish is discovered, the perpetrator yells, “Poisson d’avril!“

April Fish!

April
Fools’ (or Fish)
Day is, in fact, a French tradition dating
back to the (at least) 16th Century. No one knows exactly how it began, though
there are several theories.

According to one
legend, until the 1564, the New Year was celebrated in April. The then-king of
France, Charles IX, made the rather arbitrary decision (as kings were wont to
do) to to set the New Year on January 1st. Okay, it wasn’t totally arbitrary, it
did have something to do with the days getting longer, but still. It was then
said that anyone who still celebrated the New Year on April 1st was a fool.
However, references to poisson d’avril have been cited as far
back as the 14th century, most notably in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales,
so this rather regal theory may be debunked.

The tradition
could also be associated with Lent, during which the consumption of meat is
forbidden. As fish was and is often consumed in its place, and as April 1st
falls near the end of Lent, people (perhaps driven a bit mad by over
consumption) began playing fish-related pranks. One such jest may was to offer
someone a fake fish. Falling for the prank made one a fool.

The beginning of
April also falls under the zodiac sign of the Pisces, the fish. Pisces is the twelfth and
final sign of the zodiac calendar, marking the end of the year and supporting
the first theory of a New Year being celebrated around that time.

 

~

 

Here are some fun vintage postcards from around the turn of the (20th) century ~ ♥

 

~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~




Pigs were good luck, too ~ like on many of the St. Patrick's Day cards ~ ;^)



I personally will never think of "April Fool's" the same way!



Have a great Tuesday, all!



Love,

Read More

Another Fairy House....or Two!

Hello again!



I sure hope I don't bore you with these Fairy Houses...;^)

 

♥

~


"The Blue Fairy"'s house is off to New Mexico later this week!



~

~


And...



I have acquired a helper...very much appreciated...



Mr. B is a much more precise shingler than I am!



(I have learned to kind of embrace "wonkiness"...;^)



~



~

~

 

The "Pink Rose Fairy"'s house is well underway!

 

~

~

Look at this "freebie" I found!

 

I got one of those boxes of 24 "mini" cupcakes at Walmart the other day...

 

and the divided plastic holder was far too cool to just throw away!

 

At first I thought I'd save it to sort beads in, then I remembered all the little-bitty

blends of polymer clay that I had sitting on plates all over my worktable...

 

It's perfect!

 

~

~

...And the lid keeps all the dust and ~ ahem ~ kitty hair off the clay!

 

(Polymer clay acts like a magnet for those things!)

 

~

~

And last but not least, Tallulah, watching from her post above my worktable!

 

Jonathan has been playing with her with the laser a lot, lately, and she is constantly

 

looking for it!

 

Have a wonderful week, all!

 

Love,

 

 

~

Read More

"Vintage" Me at Easter!

I know these photos won't be of much interest to most of you,

 

but I wanted to post and comment on them for my girls and boys...

 

♥

~

~ My first Easter, 1958.

I guess my Dad is taking the picture, as there is my Mom's

hand, getting ready to catch me if I fall!

(Which she would continue to do for a lot of years!) ~

We still have Uncle Harry's little rocking chair that I'm sitting in,

even though it was in the fire...

Restored by daughter Mandy and her boyfriend Jim ~

(Thank you again! ♥)



~

~





Daddy and me, Easter, 1959.



~




~



With
Queenie, Daddy's English Setter ~



"Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth" ~



at our farm, 1960.







~




At Grandma and Grandpa Launius's in Essex, Missouri ~ 1960.



~




~




My favorite Easter picture with my Mom, 1961.



I still have this basket!



~



~




With Daddy at Grandma and Grandpa Launius's, 1961.



~



~




Oops! I don't think anyone said "Say cheese" for this photo!



~



~




At our house in Bloomfield (1961) with my favorite person



in the entire world ~



(my other Grandparents would understand)



 Grandma Collier.



I'm sure the picture was taken by my sweet Mom,



as she was known for "cutting off heads"! :^)



Look at that cool (and I do mean cool, in winter...sticky in summer)



1950s gray vinyl couch!



~



~


 

 There I am with the Easter Bunny spoils!



I am just now noticing that the basket's handle must have always been wonky...



I thought that had happened with age!



(Thank you for looking at these, even if you are not one of my children!)



♥



Love,



Mom

 

 

Read More

Some Vintage Easter Postcards for you...♥

Oh, I have been such a bad, bad, blogger!

Bad.

 

I hope all of you have had a joyous Easter!

 

I don't know what has happened to me with my posting lately,

 

but it isn't a good thing!

 

I've seen people stop blogging because they weren't getting anything

 

else done, but contrary to that, I don't seem to get anything of note

 

done if
I don't post about it anymore...

 

So, I'm not going anywhere!

 

♥

 

Honestly, though, until last weekend I thought we still had about

 

three weeks until Easter...

 

I was in my own little world...

 

I was going to get so many creative things done to share....

 

But, like Grumpy Cat says..."Nope".

 

 

As with Christmas, I seem to be inspired anew by the day itself

 

and then continue the celebration for a few more days!

 

So, I may do that.

 

Bear with me!

 

~

 

In the meantime, here are some more vintage postcards...

 

(For next year, right?)

 

Pretty large files, so you could use them for lots of projects;

 

if you need larger pics of the horizontal ones, let me know ~

 

I'm happy to share them!

 

They're just fun to look at, too!

 

:^)

 

~


I love the Easter Bells story!



From Wikipedia...



Church bells are silent as a sign of mourning for one or more days before Easter in The Netherlands, Belgium and France. This has led to an Easter tradition that says the bells fly out of their steeples to go to Rome (explaining their silence), and return on Easter morning bringing both colored eggs and hollow chocolate shaped like eggs or rabbits.

In both The Netherlands and Flemish-speaking Belgium many of more modern traditions exist alongside the Easter Bell story. The bells ("de Paasklokken") leave for Rome on Holy Saturday, called "Stille Zaterdag" (literally "Silent Saturday") in Dutch.

In French-speaking Belgium and France the same story of Easter Bells (« les cloches de Pâques ») bringing eggs from Rome is told, but church bells are silent beginning Maundy Thursday, the first day of the Paschal Triduum.



~

~

~

~

~

~

~

~





~





~





~


Love the Thiele cards!



Such detail! You could make up a story



to go with each one!

~



~








~






~






~




~






~






~





~




~





~






~






~


And just when this little tabby kitty had the perfect shade of lilac!



~





~


Look at these bunnies! Mr. B said they looked carnivorous...



Katie said they looked like scary donkeys



and Jonathan said they looked "pig-like", even down to their feet!



I think they kind of look like chubby lambs.



Chubby mean lambs....



~



~







~


I'm always drawn to the "painting eggs/artist" ones!



~





~


Love the shoes...



~



~


There is a story here, too!



~



~






~





~


Not sure about these Egg People...;^)

~




~


Knitting socks...hmmm...



~



~


Ha, ha!



Though I have to say, if a rooster appeared on my bed



bearing colored eggs and pussy-willow branches,



I would probably have the same reaction!



~



~





~


Jonathan said he thought these were a little "disturbing"! ;^)



Don't they remind you a little of that moon in the Little Caesar's commercials,



saying "Pizza time!!" ~



 (Which creeps me out just a little, yet I have to watch it each time!) ~



~



~


Don't you think this one wins for the oddest Easter postcard ever??



More posts coming...



Love,

 

Sharing these at Beverly's Pink Saturday, as well!

Read More