A Charm of Gnomes

Well there doesn't seem to be an official collective noun for a group of Gnomes so please feel free to make up your own if you don't like mine. I thought of saying "A Garden of Gnomes" but those are obviously another branch on the family tree. Any who, here is my

"Charm of Gnomes "

and they are definitely a charming group! While I was trying to get these shots this morning I had a little rascal trying to steal into the shots. Don't be fooled by her nonchalance...

I'm not the least bit interested in what you're doing!

See! Actually Calliope loves that cherry red doll and has been trying to get it since it was made!
And she's fast too!
This last one is for Bea, I took it even before you asked! But Calliope is too fast for my creaky old camera.

Little Gnomes

Here's a peek at a my newest doll design, a sweet little forest gnome. I've got 3 more in various stages awaiting completion in the studio so hopefully I can show you a group shot in a few days. I'm so pleased with how they turned out. They're so sweet, have a really original body design AND you can put your fingers in their arms and use them like puppets. Pretty cool huh? I'm not quite sure how to photograph that though, so far the shots just don't work... any ideas? And I'd love to hear what you think about the design as well. Also check out those buttons! Aren't they wonderful? They're from The Button Shop and I just love them. Thanks Jenn! You'll see more of those on the new dolls too.
Back to work now, I'll post more soon! Lots of toy making to do for Santa!

Witches!

"By the pricking of my thumbs something wicked this way comes..." - William Shakespeare "Macbeth"

"I know of the leafy paths that the witches take
Who come with their crowns of pearl and their spindles of wool,
And their secret smile, out of the depths of the lake..." - William Butler Yeats "The Withering of the Boughs"

Well not too wicked. Meet Tabitha and Penelope. Two witches who personify the "trick" and "treat" of Halloween. Tabitha is all about the tricks. She can be a terrible nuisance; soaping cars, putting tangle spells on hair, spilling milk, and hiding keys or shoes...but there is one way to avoid her pranks. Because of her great love of pumpkins, she'll never play tricks on a home with a jack-o-lantern outside! On the other hand, Penelope and her cat Poe are MUCH more interested in the treats and love to make all kinds of goodies for the neighborhood kiddies...the yummy kind because Penny is a Good witch! They live together despite their differences and figure between them they have all the Halloween bases covered.

In the spirit of these two I give you some bits of classic witchery that I love...

Witch-Wife
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

She is neither pink nor pale,
And she never will be all mine;
She learned her hands in a fairy-tale,
And her mouth on a valentine.
She has more hair than she needs;
In the sun 'tis a woe to me!
And her voice is a string of colored beads,
Or steps leading into the sea.
She loves me all that she can,
And her ways to my ways resign;
But she was not made for any man,
And she never will be all mine.

Witches Chant
by William Shakespeare

Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.--
Toad, that under cold stone,
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble.

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witch's mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangl'd babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,--
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble.

Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

Unbeliveable as it may seem I knew this second one one by heart at a ridiculously young age. I'm not sure what that says about my upbringing but it certainly was a literary one....

...And here it is!!

Well to start I have to show off this little fellow that I just finished. I was so inspired by the fauns some of the other members of the NaturalKids team made that I had to make my own. This is Timothy Tumnus, great, great, great, great grandson of the famous Mr. Tumnous of Narnia legend. I'm so pleased with how he turned out, he's just so sweet.


And then I thought you might like to see the results of last week's insane remodeling effort. Do I love the new furniture? Oh Hell Yes!! It is so awesome to have a Queen sized bed that I can hardly believe it...and matching furniture? Incredible.


The new guest room is finished, walls painted and furniture moved in. I think it looks pretty inviting!

So now I'm heading into the studio to try and get some serious work done! All kinds of shows are just around the corner. (She said, with a slight edge of panic in her voice!) Stay tuned, I should have some witches to show you soon....

Grownup Tales...

I have been insanely busy lately simply because we decided to buy new bedroom furniture. Now this is a major event for us because we have never owned a new bed in 25 years of marriage and we never buy matching furniture...Everything in our house has a cozy mismatched ... okay picked up from the side of the road and refinished...feel. But the time had come to act! We needed a bed and dresser so we got them...and it made us feel weirdly grownup. I guess since I'm almost 50 I probably need to feel grownup at least upon occasion.
So the furniture was purchased. This set off a chain of work involving moving my son to his new room, painting his old room and turning it into a real guest room...another grownup moment...giving away some of the truly beat up old furniture to the nice college kid next door...who gratefully gave us some of his awesome home brew in exchange...and on and on. The new stuff arrives tomorrow and I will be so thrilled, and so exhausted! Please tell me I'm not the only person who does major remodeling on the spur of the moment?
As you might guess little doll work is getting done in the Nest, but since school starts next week that will definitely change. In the meantime I leave you with a mini of some of the wonderful kid stuff from the NaturalKids Team....



Also if your interested, Rebecca, or Birdie as we call her, has done an interview with me over on her blog In My Cottage Garden. So there's that! Hopefully I'll be back with some new fairies next week...

Attack of the Giant Beetles!!!

I have my nephews visiting this week so not much work is getting done on dolls, but it's a good thing they were here to do some beetle wrangling for me 'cause as you can see we've been infested with giant beetles lately.


Here's a peek at some of the new work in my shop. I re-did this wallet and gave it a really pretty mushroom print lining.

A sweet little fall pixie

Annona, the Fall harvest fairy, with a pumpkin made of recycled sweater felt...Love that stuff!!

Trips, Teams, and Tabbies!

Hi all! I just got back from a trip to the mountains, where much fun was had despite my stomach acting out again. ( that darn thing!) I visited Schoolhouse Fabrics and bought some yummy new fabrics that I'll show you soon. But in the meantime I thought I'd let you know some other news....

I am on a wonderful Etsy team called NaturalKids that is made up of some of the nicest people I've ever met; supportive, caring and wonderful artists who all make items for children of natural materials and believe in trying to live in a sustainable and ecominded manner. Well one of our members wrote a terrific article for the Etsy Storque blog and you should go take a peek here. I love all the pictures of kids actually playing with their toys, great stuff.

And speaking of the team, I ordered an early birthday present for myself from FreedomRainbow, one of our members. I Love her shop! It's full of the most unique and charismatic stuffed animals I think I've ever seen, they're simply wonderful! He hasn't arrived yet but Sarah sent me some sneak preview pictures that I just Have to share...

Isn't he adorable?

I'm one of those people who just never get themselves anything unless it's completely practical. It's a depression mentality I seem to have inherited from my Dad. But I was oohing and aahing over Sarah's dolls and my sweet husband said..."well why not?" and I said "you're right, why not?!" and I did! Such decadence!