anniversary

Hey there! Today is our 4th anniversary! We were married at the Botanical Gardens here in Asheville. It was the most perfect day, we had a fairy procession up tho the gazebo, while Greg played his guitar as I walked up. That was the best day.












Azalea and daddy, having a rest from searching for water fairies. You have to be very quiet, or the pixies won't show themselves!






That's me, staring at my doll with love in my heart, while Andrew digs around in the bank. I think he was hunting for what he colorfully referred to as 'frat kid glass' (the garden is next to a college), lovely, tumbled glass pebbles from broken boro pipes. We deduced this from partially intact specimens laying nearby.










I love this picture, it reminds me of something on a cd cover. Everyone looking off into the distance, slightly bored, except the lead singer, who always gazes right into the lens. I could be just that I'm really tired and everything looks good in this light.
















This is my darling, Eva. We named her that because are bestest buddy by the same name, came immediately to mind when I opened the box. She is from Wilde Imaginations new line for fall. Look at the trouble maker heading for a hole in the tree.









Another view (because I know you can't get enough) looking gothic and overdressed in the warm sunshine. I have to say, I love her clothes and shoes and wouldn't mind being 16" tall so I could try them on. Although being any shorter than I am right now doesn't sound that great.

What a day! We went to 'our' garden, visited the place where we said 'forever' and wished our happiness would last another 40 years. We drove the mustang around, praised her purring engine, then promptly ran out of gas. Not surprising in a gas guzzler. We went across the street and filled her up and continued the adventure. I can't count how many times I've run out of gas. In that car especially, the gauge is off, so even if its running on fumes, it shows as having half a tank. It used to not work at all when I was in college and had to gather some art school boys to help me remove the tank from under the trunk. That was an amusing sight. Skinny girl getting dirty under the car with six guys standing around looking blank. Eventually one read the manual and helped. Those were the days I could fix my own car, 'cause I was too broke to take it in to the shop!

Anyway, we got back and worked on the book, Andrew wire wrapping crystals and me writing away. I love the process, so many layers to work on. I've painted backgrounds with jewel toned watercolors, inked decorative borders and made transparencies to lay over backgrounds, to add texture. we are really having fun laying out the pallette of beads to use. Goods are coming out that I didn't even know I had, vintage swarovski's, baby blue kyanite strands, faceted pearls....Andrew jokes that folks are going to get annoyed if I use too many hard to find beads! I can't help it, I'm a collector and my collection is vast. So, I'm dying to post pics of our progress, but its all unfinished and I don't want folks to see before its done- pieces can change so quickly. We shall see what I have the nerve to show.....

Weirder and weirder

Ok. I've been tagged to list seven weird things about me. That should be fairly easy- or hard to decide which seven of the dozens of oddities that I posess.



1. I love cosmetics. Passionately. Especially perfume. I could spend hours in Sephora, trying out lipsticks, spraying colognes, perusing eyeliners and smelling creams. Although the weird thing is, I don't really wear much at all. I think its the promise of a product that will change my life, like the way vanilla essential oil eliminated my depression forever. Totally true. Sephora is my candy store.



2. I am obsessed with dolls- it was Barbies, Little Kiddles, Strawberry Shortcake and oddly Golden Girls (a type of She-Ra doll that has nothing to do with the show) when I was kid (is 14 still considered a 'kid'?). Now its artist dolls and most recently, Ellowyne Wilde, a gorgeous doll that makes me feel like sewing for her. Now I need man dolls. And shoes.



3. I tried to have a home birth for Azalea Belle. I didn't have so much as an aspirin when I was birthing her. If I ever get knocked up again, I will probably not try to give birth in the house. There aren't enough pain killers here.



4. I despise musicals. The moment characters begin singing and dancing for no reason (a good reason is they are performing on stage or recording) I begin to feel very aggravated and annoyed and start looking for a way out. The Phantom of the Opera is an exception and happened during my opera phase (which could be a weird thing, I was very into Luciano Pavarotti and saw him up close in concert). I never saw The Sound Of Music or Annie. An American Werewolf in London and Dragon Slayer were favorites when kids were talking about disney movies (shudder).



5. I love junk food. Especially spam. This is terrible, I know, but its love so I can't help it. I also love fancy food and slow cooked meals, but my heart is all aflutter at the thought of fair food.



6. I bought a lime green Neon with a black racing stripe down the front, when I was young and ignorant. Now I know that a fancy paint job does not mean good, or fast. Man, I looked like a fool.



7. I used to work at a haunted house prop workshop and made all manner of nasty, gross and scary masks and bodies. I had a real gift for making a corpse look like it was writhing with maggots. Very convincing.


Ok, that's all I can think of right now. I could mention my deep respect and utter admiration (maybe stalker-like obsession) for Neil Gaiman. I check his blog a few times a day, to see what's new and ready to read. He is just so interesting... no facinating! But I don't like him like that, of course! Greggy is the apple of my eye. Well, luckily for me, I'm too wiped out to mention anymore tidbits. We worked long and hard today on polymer samples for my book, they look really neat.

NY to Asheville

Little Miss Sassy Britches.













Posing with new paper wings acquired from a vendor at Faery Con.

Look what was waiting for us! A huge box from Theo and Holly Black, a surprise package of her most recent books and lots of fun things featuring her fantastic stories of 'Spiderwick' and also art from Theo's company The Black Arts. I love those guys!

My newest, most favorite doll, a brownie by the talented and friendly Wendy Froud. She worked on Yoda, from Star Wars, and the puppets in Labyrith and The Dark Crystal. She also created several childrens books featuring her beautiful dolls. He will be right at home with my family.

My new hip pouch from the fancy-pants steam punk company Skin Graft. I liked their leather jackets, but decided against dropping 1200 dollars on one....I do have a doll habit after all.

Yes, my baby dog was happy to see me! And yes, I did fall to the siren song of comfort that is Crocs. They are metallic purple and very comfy. I like them.

One of the best things in NY, Max Brenners Chocolate- go there and enjoy their deliciously thick Italian hot chocolate. It is so good. I highly suggest the banana bread served with a hot flacon of melted milk chocolate and strawberries. It is soooooo yummy.

Ok, I'm finally home! Thank goodness. I like NY, but it is a different way of life. For example, driving is like some kind of a sport, where the rules are unclear, although one of the objects is to not hit the famished models wandering into traffic. I got very good at paralell parking and navigating through all the illegally parked cars. I loved the shopping, the fashion watching and seeing familiar things from tv. I had an interesting experiance when I went into a Fresh store in Union Square. I love theier fragrance Lychee and Sugar, but I'd never tried their makeup, so the shop girl suggested I try it. She sat me down and proceeded to put concealer on my eyes (yeah, I know, what the heck) and then a generous coat of silver and blue eyeshadow with a considerable dollop of mascara. When she was done, she turned to my brother and asked "what do you think?" his grinning face said it all....she turned me into a working girl. Azalea looked amazed and said 'Mommy you look like Barbie!" I just laughed and bought an over-priced face cream and lip gloss. I noted that the new look attracted a few crazy people, so I won't be sporting that business again. I had a good time, all in all and I'm glad I could run around and see everything. Its good to be back and I am so ready to work on my book! I 'll show some progress pics soon.

Faery Con 2008

Hey everybody! Here are some pics of our recent adventure...Faery Con!

This is Azalea and Greg posing with Toby Froud and his goblin (can you believe this guy is the baby in Labrynth with David Bowie?) Azalea made fast friends with the goblin, attempting to tame his wild ways with Snapee Crisps. I think it worked, at least it did on Toby.








Here's the view from our hotel window, overlooking the city at dusk. It seemed otherworldly in that lighting.







Azalea posing in front of the view. She's a ham, in case you didn't know.













Look at the concentration on that painted brow...determined to make the finest fairy finery for mama. The folks at Faery Con thought up a good plan to keep the little ones occupied, Faery Academy, a place for kids to make corn dolls, wands , crowns and also to paint faces.

Well, Faery Con is over and I'm relieved. I don't think I want to vend again, its three long days , you miss all the talks because your'e tending to customers and its exhausting working all day, then going to the masquerade after. So we will just go next year to meet the authors and artists.

We had the best time visiting with Wendy Froud, the acclaimed doll artist and Holly and Theo Black (she wrote Spiderwick ) it was nice catching up and talking about artistic processes. That is my favorite part, spending time with artists I admire so much. That and shopping the market- buying wings and masks is so much fun!

So Azalea, me and Andrew are in NY for the week. Since we've been here, we explored Chinatown, ate dim sum, went to FAO Schwarz (to look for Ellowyne stuff) strolled through Central Park then went home to make a pork tenderloin with roasted apples and onions and mashed white sweet potatoes. It was yummy. Now we are heading out to find big shrimp, perfume and possibly more dolls. I brought one of my girls so I could take pictures, but I've found that I don't like haling a lot of stuff around. What i need is some kind of wagon or cart to put it in. Now that would make it easy. And slightly crazy.

Hawaiian happiness

Here I am, at the edge of the world. This was a beautiful, if not treacherous place - the ground was made up of sharp lava rock.

Greg and Azalea at the serene Byodin Temple. See the black swan and huge koi?

Andrew discovered an 'egg' of some ancient water beast, it seemed out of place among all of the black lava rocks. We found this amazing location where one particular tide pool would continuously fill with water and recede, leaving loads of sea glass. We couldv'e spent the day there, pocketing treasures.

Greg and Azalea hiking through the beautiful Manoa Falls, a lovely forest that changed as you traveled higher and higher. It started out an easy walk through a valley, ascending through a bamboo forest, a damp rainforest and who knows what at the top. I decided to turn back after nearly plummeting to my death down a steep ravine, as my thin flip flops slid around the muddy path. I didn't need to see the falls in person, after all a pic is worth a thousand words.

A sweeping sunset at the very tip of the west side of the island.

Giant clams grown in a huge tank. They put me in mind of stories my mom told about using clam shells as sinks and tubs and how one clam could provide a feast for a big family. I had no idea they were so colorful, or so patterned.

Andrew looks thoughtful as he gazes at the beauty all around. As the sun set and the light began to to dim, I started to get seriously creeped out, as there were weird sounds (probably just the wind blowing through the slash in the mountain that was a cave). I kept imagining sea creatures emerging from the dark pits dotting the shore, so we left before it got too dark to see the holes.

I'd like to say I'm happy to be home, but I'm actually a little sad to have left such a beautiful place. I've traveled to lovely places plenty of times, but the friendliness of the folks combined with the landscape make it such a wonderful location I can't wait to return to. I love the bustling Waikiki with all the shopping and the small towns, rich with polynesian culture. I want to live there and see the ocean every day.

So I'm home and really jet-lagged and too tired to get to work on goods for Faery Con and the NY show next couple of weekends. I spent today unpacking all the goodies I acquired and pretty much relaxed all day. I'll get cracking tomorrow!