Stars Stuffed in Jars

I recently met an artist who used "starsstuffedinjars" as her email address - I love the imagery of that! Last night was a perfect example of stars everyone that phrase brings to my brain. This summer Missouri has been humid, warm and RAINY. But finally last night the sky was once again clear, filled with stars.

Standing on my deck late in the evening, the sky about the woods behind my house was filled with stars, the trees, flowers and grass were filled with fireflies! It was magical. A few crickets made the silence friendly and it was cool enough to sit and let the twinkling fill my senses.

I TRIED to take a picture, but even my cool new camera couldn't grab the fireflies lovely lights. (Could this be because fireflies are really faeries, who won't be photographed?) More likely that their tiny lights were way too far away from me standing on the deck. But it was a great way to end my busy day.

It's Spring Down Under!

In the midst of our wintry weather and bare trees, its hard to imagine setting up little faerie gardens in the back yard . . . but that's what's happening in Australia. I recently sold a couple of my faerie garden gates to Etsy customers from Australia. Perhaps simple things just make me happy, but it was a thrill to ship off my handiwork to the Land of Oz!

The first gate went to a creative mom, planning a faerie birthday party for her 6 year old daughter - complete with faerie invitations, costumes and a new gate for the real faerie garden in their back yard. Check out their wonderful faerie birthday party and more at http://liscassey.blogspot.com/. (Lissy's a scrapbooker and a VERY creative mum!)

The gates are about 4" x 5" and usually made from copper, steel and/or brass tubes and wire. Sometimes I also make wooden gates, like the faerie beach-house gate below. I used recycled slats from a salvaged old rolled blind that I just couldn't throw away when we moved cross-country. Dale thought I was dingy, but those thin wood slats work just great and are better off in a faerie garden than in a landfill in Calfornia!

 

Insects/Small Creatures KCPCG Challenge

Today I finished my Insects/Small Creatures KCPCG Challenge piece, just in time for next Tuesday's meeting deadline. To see pictures of the process go to my online Picasa web album.