Happy 1st of March - I dare not go a hunting/For fear of little men

To celebrate I have been out with my camera to our local woods searching for faery haunts, dells and dancing places.

 I found a ring that one of the fay must have dropped

 One of the first flowers of spring

 A leftover drinking horn?

Another secret nook

 A mystic snake, guarding the entrance

 A magical toadstool hat, it must have been worn by one of the musicians

 Alas, I had to leave all too soon. If I stayed out  late I might have joined them in their dancing and never been seen again

I confess

I confess I have been as Lax as a very Lax thing the past couple of months in my blogging. I have been busy but that is really no excuse.

One of the things I have been doing is a custom order for a Baby Prop Blanket in the style of my Cinderella cowl

Another thing I have been doing is giving one of my Mannequins a make over. She was originally a grey fabric covered piece that was fine and servicable but I was getting a bit tired of her so I have spent a couple of hours covering her in book print so now she looks very attractive and will be perfect for our fair on Saturday

Blue Danube - The River of Light Treasury

Uniquely Yours Feature - Thank you

Thank you to Linda for featuring our Odyssey Torc on her thursday blog post on the treasures of Etsy. You can find her post here along with the links to our necklace and some other wonderfully talented Etsy artist's creations. I especially like the Cafe Flapper Dress

A very Steampunk snowman

Well I thought I'd have a go before the snow vanishes.

This is one of my snowman as a scary monster oooooh!

 This is our front garden, complete with black and tan cocker spaniel

 My snowman has borrowed my sari scarf and my top hat and become a Steampunk Snowman lol

Cinderella - Art Cowl - She's off to a new home

My beautiful Cinderella art cowl is off to a brand new home, more specificly to Nemi in London. She was posted yesterday and should arrive at her new home on Monday. I hope her buyer has as much enjoyment wearing her as I did making her and I'm sure she will be surrounded by compliments.

A few more roses

This time in cream satin with pink pearls, mother of pearl button and white tulle net

Romantic Roses

Its amazing how some plants and trees have the abilty to keep going in all sorts of conditions. We have a rose tree a few doors down that has been blooming since early spring and is only now on its last fading blossom.
The houses have been abandoned for many years but this beautiful old tea rose is nearly as high as the house and seems to be getting more and more beautiful every season.
Of course roses are the most romantic flower in the whole garden although the colour of the bloom is a very important choice to get across the right message. The roses I see everyday are a beautiful bright pink and to thank them for their graceful beauty all last year and to put my mind in the spirit for valentines day, the next festival of the year I have started work on a selection of rolled rose fascinators and other fabric pieces to brighten up my studio and to remind me that the worst of winter is soon to pass.

 

 

A selection of pink shot satin rolled roses with tulle veils

 Pnk shot satin rolled rose with lampwork ladybird and gold net veil

 

 Sepia toned roses with beads, buttons and salvaged embelishments

Treasury - I need to be shipwrecked

January and the promise of spring

In my soul I love january but I must confess that like most people I loath the weather.
 I am more at home in a soft warm day  walking barefoot in green grass with a light breeze around me then I am in the midst of winter with the rain, the mud, the icy air and the cold dark nights. It may be jumping the gun a bit but january always seems to breathe a promise of spring, of snowdrops, green grass and the possibility of actually being able to take off your socks and wiggle your toes.

When I thinkof spring I always think off ballet, The tradition is to have ballet in the winter with Cinderella, The Nutcracker, all the festive favourites but my love is the floaty, springlike effect created by the traditional romantic tutu. When you think of ballet you simply have to think Dega, his beautiful, soulful dancers in shades of blue and cream, yellow and grey, the traditional hues of spring.  I'm currently examining the possibility of making myself a full length romantic style tutu to celebrate to birth of the new year and I know for a fact I have a huge amount of both white and black tulle, the white being a lot softer fabric then the black so I may have a go with tea dying it as I'm not a fan of white and black seems to put a damper on the romantic notion.

I have found a couple of tutorials online from various sources, there is a nice on on ehow and another from balletshoesonmyfeet but I want to steer clear of too much poofyness as it really isn't my style.

I cant do a post on ballet without images of dancers and here are some of my favourite Dega paintings.