Transition

There are times when the only question I can ask, the only one I want to SCREAM at the top of my lungs, is why?!

I was informed today that my beloved friend and the most playful of companions, Nimuae, was eaten by a coyote. It hurts to think about her. I hurts to realize I will never physically hold or pet her again. It hurts when I think about how I wasn’t there and it makes me angry. I feel an intense anger at having to say good-bye to another companion so soon after the passing of the first. Then again, I understand that she was happy. I could have locked her away indoors, but that’s not what she wanted. She wanted to feel the sun on her fur, to run from bush to bush after butterflies, to hunt all manner of creatures, and to simply be what she is; a cat. And the coyote was simply being what it was. It’s nature. Animals understand that more so than any of us ever will. It’s pointless for me to wallow in self-pity at my loss or fall prey to my own guilt. It hurts me and dishonors her memory  and the lessons she brought to this planet completely.

So now I will honor her. I will honor her by doing the things I have restricted myself from doing. I will go where my heart takes me, regardless of the distance or money involved. That’s what she was here to share. Nimuae was here to share her joy and her ability to simply be in the moment and follow her heart, no matter where it lead her. She was, and still is to me, the physical embodiment of joy and bliss.

I miss her and I will continue to miss my little Russian kitty, but I won’t give into pity. I will miss the way she used to wake me up in the morning when she knew I had to be up for school; the way she attacked my toes in the morning when I stayed in bed too long; the way she purred when I picked her up before letting her go outside; how proud she was when she brought her latest kill into us; the sparkle in her eyes, and all 26 of her toes.

Thank you for the time you shared with me Nimuae. I am forever grateful to you and love you with every piece of my heart. Safe journey to your next stage of life, dear one. Perhaps we will meet again some day, in this life or the next.

New? New!

What’s new this week in the grove? After much pondering and planning, I finally have little card cutouts for each adoption *cough**cough*order*cough* I send out! And by that I mean, I have a design I like. Knowing me, it’ll change from time to time, but here’s the basic design:

Not too long ago, it was brought to my attention that people would like to see little scenes offered to go along with my faeries. I wouldn’t mind a little faery village myself! For the moment, I’m exploring the possibilities of paper ‘play structures’ just to see how far I can go with them, but I am also experimenting with felted houses. There’s an unfathomable amount of inspiration out there, coupled with a delightful collection of tutorials. I love being an artist! You’re never bored because when you’ve explored one media as much as you think you can or want to…there’s another one just begging to be played with.

Until next we meet, have a wonderful Monday!

Magically yours,

Jesse Alora

Summertime treasures!

I’m a bit distracted by my music at the moment. Gotta love thick Scottish accents…ANYwho…I’m making daily themes to follow with each post these days, like a proper blogger. (huzzah! Yes, you’ve spotted me. I am a ‘Rennie’)

So, Thursdays are for Treasuries! This week, despite the fact that I am not the biggest fan of the Summer season…I’m in a Summertime mood. That being said, I’m going to take the ‘cooler’ route with this theme.

With that said, today’s Treasury Theme is: Summer in the Shade

Fine Art Decor:

Songs of Birds and Scents of Flowers, by QiQiGallery

Night Walk. Dwarves are coming home, by InkPaintFunnyPicture

Fashion:

Sun Hat in Mustard Apple Cotton, Celticsoulcraft

Sky Blue Maxi skirt, yystudio

Aqua Sweetheart Apron, CreativeChics

Accessories:

Aqua Apple Felt Flower Brooch, Brigite

Turquoise and brown wrist cuff, ArmedwithStyle

Lilac Flower Ring, KatrinSArt

Turquoise Patina Statement cuff, RedPaw

Playtime:

Old Accordion, vintagehall <—okay, now this one says ‘Summer’ for me simply because my Uncle played the accordion when I was younger and the only time I really was able to visit with him was in the Summer. It brings up memories of running around on my Grandparents little beach on the shores of Lake Ossipee, in New Hampshire, with my older cousins splashing about in the water, and all the parents lounging in the sand like elephant seals… I also add this accordion in because it reminds me of one of my Nanny’s favorite stories to tell.

There was a summer in the cottage, when I was about four, where I had just finished swimming for the day and made the tiny hike up to the house to get ready for dinner. When I got there, I saw my uncle playing his accordion. I watched him for a bit, then decided I wanted to try too. So, I stepped up to him and asked if I could play it for a minute. Well, as you can imagine, he wasn’t too keen on that idea. Rather than just saying ‘no’, which would have ended all further questions…he looked for an excuse as to why I couldn’t play his accordion. He spied my wet clothes. He then said,” No, you’re bathing suit is wet.” Well, four year old me blinked at him a second, thought about it, then without another thought stripped off my bathing suit right in the middle of the living room. With me butt naked, standing on the rug, I held out my arms and asked again, ” now can I play it?” Poor Uncle Jim had no way out at that point. He had to let me play it! Moral of that story: little kids take things VERY literally.

Sallae the Strawberry Faery Yes, she’s one of mine

Mustache Monster dolls, loveandasandwich

Art Dolls

Daydream, ConchyGemDolls

Fairy Artist Doll Wings, anndesigns59

 

I hope you enjoyed my take on summer in the shade! Have you got any summer favorites to share?

Until next we meet, have a brilliant Thursday.

Magically Yours,

Jesse Alora

Faery Favorites: Teence

On this fine Wednesday afternoon, I’d like to welcome you to the first ‘Faery Favorites’ entry. Once every week, I’ll ask a faery from my adoption center to share a few of their favorite things. Now, they could list things they’ve found on etsy that they’ve taken a shine to, recipes they can’t get enough of, crafts they relish, places they’ve been, anything! This week, I’ve invited Teence to kick us off. I’m going to let her introduce herself and her contribution to today’s post.

To read more about Teence, you can follow the link to her adoption page: http://www.etsy.com/listing/103071187/teence-ooak-waldorf-pipe-cleaner-pixie?ref=pr_shop

Hello, everyone!

My name is Teence…sort of like ‘Teency-weency”, but I’m anything but that. Summer is my favorite season of the year and June the month I look forward to the most. June is nice where I live because it’s still in that transitional stage, as the weather is just getting used to the idea of moving from Spring to Summer. Meaning it’s a bit cooler and certain fruits are just beginning to come into their season. I am all about the citrus fruits. Oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits, you name ’em I love ’em!

Today I decided I’d share a few of my most prized Summer food favorites.

This first one comes from the kitchen of The Craving Chronicles, which is aptly named for it’s mouthwatering collection of sweet and savory recipes. If you’re like me, and LOVE sugary goodness…this blog is a must for you.

As I was reading over this delicious blog, I came across one recipe that immediately caught my eye. Like I said, I LOVE citrus fruits and one of the main players in this recipe is the lemon. Another part of Summer I look forward to is the large variety of berries that are associated with the season. This dish blends them all together in a bed of lemony perfection. I think that picture does a better job of describing how fabulous this dessert is, than I ever could. Jesse Alora won’t let me near the broiler quite yet because Mina and Misha decided to use it for a prank and things got a bit…out of control, but I’m just counting the minutes until I can cook this little beauty for myself!

From the kitchen of http://cravingchronicles.com

Another favored tradition of my is lemonade. So imagine my surprise in finding, after casually searching the lemonade tag on Etsy, Strawberry Lemonade flavored cakes in a jar! How fantastic is that?? Flavors are one thing, but the look of the colors inside that mason jar just make me want to pop open that lid and dig in with the biggest spoon I can find! These cakes hail from the shop Tookies. Again, another ‘sweet tooth’ must have!

Cakes by Tookies

For my last pick of the day, lemme introduce you to another one of my favorite refreshing drinks. This one almost tops raspberry lemonade, which is saying something! Here is my version of the Orange Julius. I add a bit more to it…just because I can and one flavor is never enough.

Teence’s Orange Mango Julius

Ingredients

Ice

Orange juice

raw sugar

vanilla extract

Mango

Hazelnut milk

Now, I’m the type of faery who doesn’t measure things. Comes between me and the enjoyment of my food. So all of this is ‘ to taste’, but I’ll give you estimates of what I put in. I ask Jesse Alora to get the loud grinding blendy beastie out for me. Next, I chop up one Mango into nice little chunks. I then put 12 ice cubes, 2 cups orange juice, 1 cup hazelnut milk, 1 tablespoon sugar, 3 tsp vanilla extract, and most of the mango chunks into the blendy beastie. Be sure to keep a few pieces of mango aside to garnish the top once you’ve finished.

Wake the blendy beastie up and let it grunt and growl for a bit as it blends all your ingredients together. How long it’s awake for depends on how blended you want your drink. Once the beastie is back asleep, pour the contents into a nice size mason jar, add the remaining mango pieces to the top and maybe even a little whipped cream if you so desire. Enjoy!

Well, that’s all from me today! I’ll now hand you back to our dear faery lady.

**

I hope everyone enjoyed Teence’s list of Summer favorites-speaking of which, when she says “blendy beastie”…she means the blender. I hope she didn’t make you too hungry!

Until next we meet, have a fantastic Wednesday!

Magically Yours,

Jesse Alora, The Faery Lady

Wings and things

Whenever I go out into the world with my mobile ‘Adoption Center’, I am bound to be greeted by one inescapable question. “Where are their wings?”As you’ve noticed by now, not many of my faeries are gifted with ‘visible’ wings. There is method to my madness with this artistic choice and it is based in the traditional Irish folklore that I draw the majority of my inspiration from.

Exhibit A: A faery without the familiar gossamer wings, but STILL a faery.

The fairies we have all come to know and love are a bit different than those of our ancestors. Every culture has their own version of fair folk, from Ireland to pre-colonial America and beyond, but they aren’t always a friendly sort who grant wishes and the like. Just think of the fairies from Jim Henson’s ‘Labyrinth’, they look sweet until you go to pick them up. In Irish folklore, fairies are known by a couple of different names, some of which include ‘Sidhe’ (Shee) or ‘Tuatha De Dannan’ (Two-ah day Dan-an). According to legend, the Tuatha De Dannan were the very first people to rule Ireland, but were defeated by another race (which I can’t for the life of me remember the name of at the moment) and forced to retreat underground to their stronghold, known as “the Land of Eternal Youth” or Tir na nOg. There they remain to this day, coming out to play tricks on the unwary or egotistically. If there’s one thing they do best, it’s humble those who get a bit too cocky by knocking them off their high horse and into the mud. They are a proud race and demand respect. If respect is shown, they are more inclined to grant favors. If not, all hell breaks loose. For example, one story tells of a milk maid and a costly prank she plays on the family’s sprite. Every night, she’d leave a bowl of porridge, with a pat of butter on top for the faery who lived on their land. When she had left, he would come out, eat his porridge, and provide the family with a plentiful supply of sweet milk from their one milking cow. One night however, the maid came onto the notion that she’d play a harmless little trick on the faery. That night, when she set out the nightly offering,  she made sure to put the pat of butter at the bottom of the bowl, as opposed to on top of the porridge. When the faery arrived for his snack, same as always, he was surprised to look inside the bowl and see no butter. He looked once again to be sure, then in a fit of rage he killed the family’s only milking cow, as punishment. Still in a bit of a tizzy, he begrudgingly ate his porridge. However, when he reached the bottom of the bowl, he found to his utter dismay… the missing butter. Guilt-ridden and full of remorse for what he’d done out of anger, he went to the farm of a neighboring family and stole one of their milking cows to replace the one he had so rashly killed.

Their appearance is said to be anything from young and uncommonly gorgeous, to old and unbelievably ugly. They are also capable of transforming themselves into any creature, human or not. As for wings, we don’t hear of fairies with wings and magic wish-granting wands until the Grimm Brothers in the 17th century. Since my faeries are from Tir na nOg…they remain (for the most part) wingless.

That being said…the odd wing’ed one has been known to make an appearance. Kind of like Rose:

Today’s “Faery history 101” lesson brought to you by: large amounts of chia tea and a flurry of felt scraps.

Until next we meet, have a fantastic Tuesday!

Magically Yours,

Jesse Alora, **The Faery Lady**

A trip down memory lane

I don’t typically clear out all the old pictures on my computer, but today was one of those rare days where I had the sudden urge to purge. In doing that, I came across some very old friends of mine. What I am about to show you are a few examples of what my dolls used to look like, in the early days when I was just starting out. Oh, how far I’ve come…thank goodness for that!

I think I may have deleted the rest of the pictures from this photo shoot, but these two represent the turning point for me. When I was in my sophomore year at art college, we had a project where we had to create a book (literally…as in page layouts, binding, the works), complete with story and illustrations. I looked at some of Wendy Froud’s pieces, which inspired me to take a selection of the dolls I had made and pose them to illustrate my story. The one in the middle there is Gale. I still have her. She’s one of the few dolls that I have made just for me. Man, look at those wee skinny arms!

This one is from about the same time period. She was also one of my favorites just because of that lovely, lovely hood. Rosemary, the grandmother faery. No, not fairy godmother. Just a gran to all faer folk. Now I’m curious if I’ve still got that yarn laying around. I really like it now that I’ve got another look at it.

Yay, little roses. One of my favorite details.

These girls are a year older than the previous set. I made a group of 10 dolls for a Christmas commission. Five were all in white, the remaining five were in traditional Christmas colors (reds, golds, greens, etc). This close up zeroes in on my favorite of that set. I just really enjoy her gold trimming. I think she could have done with a larger head though…

Aaaaand Cordelia. Here’s my ‘Can-can’ girl from 2009. Hm…I think I need to do some more of those big, bouffant headpieces. And she’s got wire wire-frame wings to boot! Ha, oh. I remember trying to attach those bloody things.

Well, this has been a grand promenade through the mists of time. I’m wincing slightly looking at these, just because I can see some of the mistakes that I have long since fixed. For example, not securing the hands and feet with enough hot glue. *ehem*

Until next we meet, have a wonderful day!

Magically yours,

Jesse Alora **The Faery Lady**

Back from the Beyond and I brought tea!

Today I thought I would share some pieces from my tea collection, seeing as I am slowly working some of my favorite cups into my photography for my dolls.

One thing about me is that, for some inexplicable reason…I am obsessed with tea sets, more specifically the cups and pots. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t walk into thrift stores or estate sales without coming out with at least one new cup. In my defense though, they do come in handy and give one a rather good excuse to host a tea party…or to feel sophisticated while having a party for one.  I do really need to create a display wrack or shelf…at this point, I think I should maybe break this up into two posts. I seem to be accumulating more tea cups by the week (no, I’m not joking).

ON to the show! Let’s start with the cups.

This one I picked up at a thrift store for a dollar. I like it because of the shape. Nice and round like a dew drop just forming. I also like the folksy pattern to it. Not terribly keen on the muddy color scheme, but overall it’s a lovely piece. As you can see, it hasn’t seen a drop of tea since I brought it home. Instead, it is a wonderful wooden bead holder. I can now easily locate ‘doll heads’ when I need them.

These little ones you may recognize from my etsy shop. Another set of cups that haven’t seen a drop of liquid since I brought them home, but have found a use as scale comparison props for my ‘listing’ pictures. I quite like these, especially since I have a set of them (yay!). I love the butterfly pattern and the colors. Those oranges make me crave pumpkin pie and Spring. They are also a very pleasing size to look at, but not as big as I should like for drinking out of. They don’t hold nearly enough tea…great thing about these is that they are another wonderful thrift shop find. Fifty cents each! Now if only they had the matching saucers…

Now this one DOES have an accompanying saucer and is a lovely large size. Like Mary Poppins, it’s ‘perfect in every way’. I found this little gem at an estate sale in my area that pops up every first weekend of the month. This fine bone china, hand painted in England (yes, I am proud of this cup) is my first choice when ever I find the need to relax. It’s deep enough to dunk a cookie and wide enough so that when dunking said cookie…you’re hand doesn’t get stuck. I also happen to love the purple flowers.

And now, the crown jewel of my collection, my pride and joy…my tea pot. I have thr-five of them (egads), but this one was my birthday present. Come to think of it, I might have already shared a picture of this before, but…it’s pretty! I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this wonderful mint green beauty. I make myself a pot of tea every night, or every other. Speaking of which, I think I’m about due for a brew of Earl Grey with hazelnut milk.

Until next we meet, have a wonderful day!

Magically yours,

Jesse Alora **The Faery Lady**

Lack of updates

I apologize for the serious lack of posts, but I’m going to be on hiatus for a few days. My family is coming to terms with having to say good-bye to one of our number who is very dear to all of us.

This is Rowan. She is 16 years old and ready to move on to the next leg of her journey. Her kidneys are failing and even if this medication we’re giving her helps her to ‘bounce back’ a bit, she will not be the same energetic puppy we’ve known for so long. While she is comfortable at the moment, it’s come down to a choice made from a ‘quality of life’ stand point. We are doing our best to not let our own emotions get in the way of what is best for her now, but understandably…it is very hard for us to let her go.

I will do my best to get back to blogging regularly, but for the moment…I’m here with Rowan until its time for her to move on.

I wish you all the best of Wednesdays.

Magically yours,

Jesse Alora, **The Faery Lady**

The good, the colorful, and th-what IS that?!?

Today I thought it might be fun to share pictures of some of my recent experiments. Now, I am very incredibly tempted to just show you the successful ones, but…what good would that do? No. I’m going to share my failed ones as well. As they so brilliantly put it in Meet the Robinson’s,”From failure you learn. From success…not so much.”

This first one, I’m rather proud of and very excited to create more of. It has a little bit of a story behind it, as do most things. I was crafting in my favorite coffee haunt last week when a family came up to me. The little girl kind of clung to Mummy’s skirts, but her older brother was a bit more vocal. The mother asked her children if they wanted a doll and the little girl nodded quietly. Her brother shook his head vigorously and then proceeded to ask for a pirate with a pegged leg. After he left, I continued to work, but the thought tickled my brain for a bit. How would I make a pegged legged pipe cleaner doll? 

Like this:

Ta-da! I knew I picked up that random tree branch for a reason. I’m having a blast making more of these. At the moment, I’ve made a lad with a pegged leg, but…I don’t see why the girls can’t have ‘bad arse’ things like wooden legs as well.

Now, I’ve never really used felt before so this is all an experiment to me. I thought, what with St. Patrick’s day just around the bend, now would be the perfect time to play around with some very clearly Irish faeries. This one is one of my favorites so far:

Gah! That hair. I tried a new color blend yarn for ginger locks. I am so happy I went for it. It looks a bit more attractive than the plain orange color I had been using. The blended colors give her a bit more interest. Yay!

 

And now…the part I’ve been trying to avoid, but can’t really because I promised I wouldn’t…my failed experiment.

Dear GOD, what is that thing??

I’ll tell you what I was TRYING to do…I was aiming for a sea dragon. Seeing as I have very little experience in sewing felt patterns, it very quickly became a multi-colored sea sheep. Ugh. And now I invest in some felt patterns as a means of practice, practice, practicing. This flying blind thing, while fun from time to time, does tend to set me back a bit.

I finally have an internet connection, so I will be getting into a regular posting schedule (to be posted tomorrow when I hammer it out for certain).

Until next we meet, have a wonderful day!

Magically yours,

Jesse Alora **The Faery Lady**

LEAP DAY!

To most Leap day is just some pointless day that rolls around every two? No. Five? Every once in a while. Some others don’t even know it exists. WELL…seeing as this is well and truly my blessed day o’ birth, which comes once every FOUR YEARS *ehem*…I tend to pay a bit more attention to it. I don’t usually toot my birthday quite so loudly, but I mean come on! When your birthday is so hard to come by, I think a little fan fair is allowed when it does finally pop up.

I had planned to work on more faeries today, but alack! It was not to be. There was far too much thrift store exploration, ingesting of delicious foods, and foot massaging going on. I’ve never had a massage of any kind. It was quite an experience. Some things I would do differently next time…like not wear a shorter dress and tights….yeah. Ill-informed choices on my part. Live and learn, live and learn.

SO, in celebration of a rare day and because I’m excited….here are a few parts of my birthday that I’d like to share.

This, right here, is one of my favorite birthday traditions. It’s something my Mum has created for me every year I’ve been old enough to enjoy candy and it’s something that her Mum used to do for her. I present, ‘The Birthday Corsage”. Each year, she’ll take a hand full of sparkly ribbons, curl them, and attach them to a pin. once she’s done that, she adds the sweet bit, which is a candy she thinks I’ll enjoy. It’s a new flavor every year. For year 24 (also 6), she gave me a kick back to when I was very young; Smarties. Used to love those things. As you can see…I’ve already been through quite a few today.

Next, this is a sketch I did for my best friend and fellow birthday girl. We’ve been friends going on eight years. Honestly though, we act more like twins, so that’s what we call each other.

Last for tonight, one of the best presents EVER….a genuine hand-painted tea kettle, from England and purchased at an estate sale. Estate sales are goldmines for fantastic finds. This will go very nicely with my fine bone china tea cup (also from England). I feel so sophisticated with all of this tea paraphernalia. I love it.

Until next post, I hope you all had a wonderfully special Leap Day!

Magically yours,

Jesse Alora **The Faery Lady**