Falling Leaves

Yesterday it was hot and muggy, but today it's cool and cloudy. Autumn is approaching and my co-workers at the day job are bemoaning the loss of summer. But that's not the case with me at all, this is my favorite season and I'm looking forward to raking leaves in the back yard, warm sweaters, and a big fire in the Fire pit for Halloween. I've updated Wyrdhaven Workshop with one of my favorite fall images, Falling Leaves.Can you feel the wind in your hair? Something magical happens when autumn leaves fall, and this witchy beauty is in the middle of it. The beautiful sorceress of this golden wood graces canvas bags, keepsake boxes, framed tiles, fashionable Tshirts and cozy warm sweatshirts. The throw pillow makes a wonderful fall accessory to take you from Halloween to Thanksgiving. Make Fall a magical season for friends with the notecards, or record your poems in the Falling Leaves Journal.

Blue Moon Faery

It probable seems like I only update this blog once in a blue moon. I've been a little busy picking up my life and moving it from Minneapolis to Brooklyn Center. We managed to get most of the furniture moved at the end of June, and we are shooting for October to get everything else out of the other house. I'm feeling much more at home here, and I managed to throw husband David a 50th birthday party last month. So it was high time to get back to beefing up Wyrdhaven Workshop with some of your favorite images for fall. Of course this means Blue Moon Faery.

She has always been one of my personal favorites as well, so I wanted to do something special with her. On the back of the mug, I've added the following poem by William Butler Yeats:

Come away, O human child!
to the waters and the wild
with a faery, hand in hand,
for the world's more full of weeping
than you can understand.

It really is a lovely poem, even though it is a bit melancholy at the end there. But it speaks the truth as well. With my retirement savings used up, my dream of being a full-time fantasy artist dashed after five years of trying, and the house I was married in now going into foreclosure, I've had more than my share of weeping over the past year.

The thing that I remember is that Arthur Rackham has a day job, he was a bookkeeper. Nothing artistic about that in the least. Now I work in a billing center in the health care industry. So I feel like I'm helping people a bit. Thanks to Wyrdhaven Workshop, I can finally have my artwork on all those cool products that I've seen other artists selling off of their websites for years.

Perched upon the head of a rather surprised owl, the Blue Moon Faery comes to teach us about how rare and beautiful wisdom is. Inspired by the Blue Moon.
Add fairy fun to any room with our comfy Throw Pillow. It measures a sprawling 18" X 18" with an 11” X 11” image area so you can lounge in comfort. It’s made of ultra-soft brushed twill with a sturdy canvas image area. Ships with pillow insert. Removable zippered cover for easy laundering.

Fourth Street Fantasy Convention

Yesterday I went to Fourth Street Fantasy Convention, because years ago it was a great con where I had some wonderful times. This year was wonderful too, and just like everyone else, I lived in the programming room. As a convention for writers of fantasy fiction, and readers who like to listen to writers talk about their writing, it's the best of it's kind. In fact, it's the only one of it's kind that I know of.

To be honest, I had my doubts as to whether or not they could pull it off again after all these years. But they did it, and I'm glad I went. Today I worked in the garden, transporting my wedding flowers from the garden here to Applewood Cottage where we will be moving to over the coming weeks, but my sister reported that the programming was top notch today as well.

One of the great discoveries was Shadow Run, the best SF TV show that never was is currently in re-runs, and I snuck out before the spoiler because I want to read the episodes without any of that coloring my response. They even have their own CafePress Store for merchandise. So I'm really looking forward to finding time to do that after I get settled into the new house. Where else do fictional characters have their own livejournals? I've gone ahead and friended Elizabeth Bear & Emma Bull because they are the evil geniuses behind all of this. They're smart and cool.

On the List of Books To Read

On the list of my books that I need to read is everything ever written by Tate Hallaway, because I used to work in an Occult Book Store. Now she's been features in MN Women's Press under her normal name, and the one that I know her by, Lyda Morehouse.

"I guess I'm fascinated by the darker side of people," Morehouse said. "I really wanted a character like Garnet who chose to call a dark goddess to defend her coven, and she wound up-with some complicity at least-engaging in murder. I wanted to pair her up with a parasite of humanity. I wanted her to have some darkness to go with his darkness."

Yup, Lyda knows how to take things to a new level. I am already a fan of hers with her SF books, and I've started reading a little romance lately, as a book was loaned to me to read over my lunch break. I'm a regular reader of Lyda's Live Journal, and I really need to keep up with her books. It takes a lot less time to read a book than to write one, so I'd better get started right away!

Also, I sadly missed the deadline for pre-registering for CONvergence, so I'll be paying the at the door rate. That really sucks, I thought I had until the end of May, but noooooo the cutoff was May 15th. So now I find myself wondering if it would be worth it, especially since we decided to save our pennies and not get a room. Decisions can be so tough sometimes!

House as Art Project

I'll be completely honest with you, it's been ages since I sat at my drawing table or easel. But that doesn't mean I haven't been painting, I have, mainly walls. You see, I'm working on the biggest art project of all...my house. And I have a vision of how it will look when it's done. It will be beautiful and warm, an old house that Elrond himself would find comfortable. That's right, I'm creating my own Elf Friendly Hideaway here in Minneapolis. I have dreams of parties with live music and laughter, art on display everywhere and someone playing one of MacGregor's games in the corner, someone else is getting a tarot reading or maybe some Reiki in the studio...ah yes that is my dream. And the gardens, don't forget the gardens! We have a brick patio with a lamp post in the backyard, just like in Narnia. Along with the hedge of Lilacs, what more could a person want?

Well anyway, I've been busy painting walls, and pulling up carpeting in the upstairs hallway, as well as on the stairs themselves. The hardwood floors underneath are in beautiful condition, and I know just how I'm going to decorate the hallway. I still have to pick out the main wall color for the stairwell, and then there's wallpaper to take down in the spare room that we will be renting out. So you can see why there hasn't been much time for painting on canvas lately. Oh I have plenty of ideas that I would like to get to, but I need to get this house decorating business out of the way first.

And the stairs are solid wood, I'm guessing Oak like the rest of the walls. What more could a girl ask for? My husband doesn't quite understand my love affair with the hardwood floors, it was like Nirvana taking them up. I feel like hundreds of fairy folk were trapped underneath of the carpeting, and taking it up released them all. This is the first time I've worked on a scale this size, and there are always more details to get taken care of. Like all the staples in the stairs that have to be pulled by hand, and then there will be the cleaning and filling and polishing. You get the idea. Weeks of work ahead of me and me having to work to pay the bills too. But I love what I'm creating, and since we're planning a big party in July I want to get as much done as possible before then. So I trotted across the web over to Amazon.com to get myself this nifty Wallpaper Steamer so I can start tackling the wallpaper around here with a little more than just my muscles. But I might just have to sneak some art time in there somewhere, between practicing songs with my sister to sing at the Bardic Circle maybe. The creativity is still flowing, just in some different directions.

the Joy of Painting or Happy Clouds

I got up early, trying to adjust to my earlier sleep schedule even on the weekends. With my breakfast of coffee and cinnamon burst toast, I sat and watched The Joy of Painting (r) with Bob Ross. Bob has long since departed from this world, but Bob Ross Incorporated lives on, and has it's own website. I wish I could put a picture of Bob here, but "Copying and reproducing of any graphics in this website is strictly prohibited."

I remember watching his show when I was a teenager, and even trying some of the techniques a bit. He was all about painting to make you happy, if it doesn't make you happy, don't do it! Now there are Certified painting instructors that you can take classes from, even here in Minnesota. It's art as a hobby, so it's all about being happy.

Don't worry, I'm not about to change my painting techniques or style. But I am starting to experiment with other tools, namely a carpet cutter and pry bar. That's right! I'm working on the house, removing carpeting to reveal the beautiful hardwood flooring beneath. I've also painted some of the walls and am looking forward to sprucing up the trim as well. I'll post pictures once the project is complete

Sense and Nonsense

I just finished watching the conclusion to Jane Austin's "Sense and Sensibility" and it seems somehow both fitting and ironic that Jane never married herself. Her romantic notions breath life into the heart of every longing for love that a woman has, but it seems to me that life doesn't work out that way all the time.

The day to day existence of the modern world doesn't fit with the romantic view of things. People are more cynical nowadays than they were back then, or maybe we're more honest. Often, I meet men who find the decorum of Victorian times to be too much of a restraint on their manly selves. Honestly though, I've rarely met a woman who didn't enjoy Jane Austin's work.

Has loyalty, truth, and honesty taken a back seat to this modern shunning of all things genteel? It seems it has, except among a small group of people...namely women. Since I've been married, I haven't spent nearly enough quality time with my girly girl friends. This is something that I intend to remedy in the near future.