Celtic & Ren Faire Music

One of my favorite things to do is listen to live music, with my favorite being folk and celtic music. I am longing to get out and do some singing you see, which can be kind of difficult without an instrument to sing along to. I tried taking up the guitar a couple of times, the first time in high school with a six string, the second time in my late twenties with a twelve string. I loved the sound of the twelve string, but my tiny fingers had problems with holding down two strings and a time. But all those strings sure were yummy!

Fast forward to last Saturday night, when my husband and I went to see Riverfolk play at the Riverview Cafe & Wine Bar. When I saw Becca pull out an Autoharp memories of my childhood flooded back to me. You see my grade school had an Autoharp and they let me take it home to play with. I sat for hours strumming away on it, and I remember that I was loathe to return it to school after the weekend. A quick search on Autoharp and it yeilded some fabulous YouTube videos.

Next weekend is CONvergence, can you beleive it? Riverfolk is scheduled to play Friday Night in the Harmonic Convergence Room, and I'm certainly going to make an effort to go hear them play again.

Caught in Lucinda's Web

Today was supposed to be the day I got caught up on housework, where all the dishes would be done, floors would be mopped and clutter would be de-cluttered. Then I decided to start reading one of the books I picked up at Eye of Horus. Nine hours later I'm typing the review, now that the book has been completely devoured. Essentially, I got caught in Lucinda's Web and lived to tell about it.

The story got me from the beginning, because I love a good fantasy and I love a good mystery, and this has elements of both. Throw in a couple of steamy love scenes and we have the romance genre covered too. But I digress. It is a romp worth romping for those of you who enjoy Mercedes Lackey. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I do.

Walking the path between a century old spell and reincarnation, Dorothy Morrison spins a tale about a writer, Tess, who is also a Witch of the Wiccan variety. As such, strange happenings begin when she moves into a new rental house in the South. Overall though, it left me wanting more, more depth, more character development, and more drama. But clearly I found this a fun read, since I refused to put it down despite gentle nagging from my husband that there were dishes that needed attention. So Lucinda's web saved me from that fate, at least temporarily. Overall it's a nice little book.

Wyrdhaven Studio Notes - June 2009

It's June at Wyrdhaven Studio and the new garden is in, complete with birdbath which is being used by very stealthy (or possibly invisible) birds. The water has gone down and there's fluff floating, but we have yet to see our first bird in the birdbath.

Geek Update
In general news, my computer had a virus, and Norton eventually got it, but it took more than one try. My geek friend Ben went through everything, and found a couple of oddly behaving programs and deleted them, so it shouldn't be back any time soon. So that's why not much got posted this month in the blog.

Art Update
Creatively, my juices all flowed into planting the new flowers, now I'm eager to get some new work done in time for CONvergence. Speaking of which, they are looking at having a more formal "Artist Alley" so I'm not sure of the status of my demonstrations at this point. It was going to be a free-form event before, now they are talking about reserved time slots etc. I'll post any new news in the July edition of Wyrdhaven Studio Notes.

Upcoming Shows
This Friday at Eye of Horus Metaphysical, I plan on attending the Faeries Gone Wild book release party. I'm not involved with the book or the event, I'm a fan just like everyone else at this event. Except for the fact that three of my original paintings are hanging in the gallery there at this time. This event is not for children, the book has very adult themes, so do not bring your child or teenager to this event.

June 5th (Friday) 7-8:30pm

• Location: Eye of Horus Metaphysical, 2717 Lyndale Ave S., Minneapolis, MN 55408
• 612-872-1292

Four sensuous stories of pixies, stardust, moonbeams, and fae lust . . .

Lois Greiman, Michele Hauf and Leandra Logan, contributors to “Faeries Gone Wild” will be in the house, schmoozing, signing books and generally exciting the Faeries. These are Faeries for Grown ups .

Featured Fantasy Gifts for June

This Fairy & Fantasy Art gift collection is officially licensed with Ellen Million Graphics, one of the world's most trusted licensors of fantasy art. She's really cool, not only because she lives in Alaska, but because she has been a great resource for emerging artists in the field. Check out the collection:

	A Gift Available as: totes, cards, magnets, bookmarks, stickers, buttons, unisex t-shirts, cap-sleeved ladies shirts - CLEARANCE, babydoll shirts
	A Merry Meeting Available as: mousepads, cards, magnets, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, button
	Ebony Available as: mousepads, totes, cards, magnets, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, buttons, unisex t-shirts, cap-sleeved ladies shirts - CLEARANCE, babydoll shirts
	Ella Available as: mousepads, totes, cards, magnets, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, buttons, unisex t-shirts, cap-sleeved ladies shirts - CLEARANCE, babydoll shirts
	Leaf Walker Available as: mousepads, totes, cards, magnets, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, buttons, unisex t-shirts, cap-sleeved ladies shirts - CLEARANCE, babydoll shirt
	Lilith Available as: mousepads, totes, cards, magnets, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, buttons, unisex t-shirts, cap-sleeved ladies shirts - CLEARANCE, babydoll shirts
	Lira Available as: mousepads, totes, cards, magnets, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, buttons, unisex t-shirts, cap-sleeved ladies shirts - CLEARANCE, babydoll shirts
	Queen's Knight Available as: mousepads, totes, cards, magnets, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, buttons, unisex t-shirts, cap-sleeved ladies shirts - CLEARANCE, babydoll shirts
	Tara Available as: mousepads, cards, magnets, bookmarks, stickers, keychains, buttons

That's all that I have for you in this edition of the newsletter. Have a wonderful month and maybe I'll see you this Friday for Faeries Gone Wild!

Pirate Impressions

Now that I've had some time to digest the viewing of Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest, I must say that I quite liked it. Sure, the first film was great, but this sequel was quite strong, and the action and performances were all engaging. I was so happy to have seen it, that I couldn't wait to see the exciting final movie, so I popped the DVD back into the mail, and hopefully At World's End will arrive before the weekend.

Because this was Netflix, I only got the first DVD, so no DVD extras there really. It is on the consider list for adding to my permanent collection, but I'm honestly not wure how many times I can watch a pirate/action/comedy movie. If there was more pure drama, I could maybe do it, but the comedy aspects lose their funniness when you see them again and again.

All in all, a good movie and I give it two thumbs up!

What's Better Than a Dead Man's Chest?

A live woman's chest...Arrrrrrghh...or so my husband says. I know from 20 years of history of attending these shindigs that the two months between now and CONvergence will be going incredibly quickly. So I have some catching up to do on my fantasy films, and those saucy Pirate films are just the ticket. I got my email today that said that POTC Dead Man's Chest will be Arriving on or around: Thursday, May 07, 2009.

That's right, I subscribe to Netflix so I can watch all the movies I want and not fill up a house that's already overflowing with videos and books. I've tried to have the conversation with my husband, when he was saying what a great gift such and such book would be. I told him "No more books!" and he promptly responded "But you'll really like this one..." to which I replied, "I'm sure I would love it but we don't have room for more books...NO MORE BOOKS!"

I know, I'm really evil, it's completely wrong of me to say, but we have to cull the herd one of these days so we actually do have room for some NEW books.

Half Blood Prince is Coming!

After several years of multiple fantasy films coming out, the selection has dwindled and I am eagerly awaiting Movie 6 in the Harry Potter collection. So much so that I like to stop by Mugglenet to check out what they've uncovered as we get closer to the release date of July 17th. The latest news is that you might be able to catch a glimpse of it in AMC theaters:

We've now learned that AMC theaters have started playing a Half-Blood Prince sneak peek of their own, and MuggleNet visitor Ellie wrote in to tell us all about it. This feature was seen during a showing of the new Disney documentary Earth, before the trailers.

New footage included a shot of Slughorn's head popping out of his armchair disguise. The armchair then unfolded and shrunk into Slughorn. There was also a conversation between Harry and Dumbledore atop the Astronomy Tower, a group of Hogwarts students in the Quidditch stands looking up at the sky (maybe at the Dark Mark?), some funny shots of Lavender hitting on Ron, and new interviews with director David Yates and producer David Heyman.

As excited as I am for the new movie to come out, I also see that the end is in sight for this era of fantasy fandom. Once Movie #7 has come and gone, what will become of all the people on Mugglenet or other Harry Potter fan sites? The sites themselves will go the way of the dodo and become only a memory in our minds. This is the web and things change pretty quickly around here. All the more reason to enjoy the present and make the most out of the fan resources that are out there!

Wyrdhaven Studio Notes - May 2009

Happy May Day! I'm taking my newsletter and putting it on the blog for everyone to enjoy. I've done it in the past, sort of re-posting the html version that I send out, but it makes more sense to just do it right here in the blog, and send a link to the post to everyone with a few highlights. To begin, the blog has a new masthead and title "the Wyrdhaven Chronicle" to make it sound more like a newspaper from my own little fantasy village of Wyrdhaven. Want to link to the blog? Here, download this banner:



New Store!
So now that we've freshened up the blog a bit, the really big news is that we've launched the Wyrdhaven Zazzle Store! (And the crowd yells Huzzah!!!) In fact, I will be concentrating on that store pretty heavily over the next couple of months. I want to get all of my artwork on some zazzley style stuff. All seven sprites have made the transition and are settling in quite nicely. A Fairy Realm is currently being developed, and did you know that you, yes YOU, get to customize your stuff? Because it's all about you baby! Do me proud and make something cool and magical.

Since the store is BRAND NEW, I could use a little help getting the word out about it. Luckily, there is a solution for that: The Promote This Store Page has several options from sending your friends an email, to posting a flash panel on your own website. How cool is that? Even if you're not in a shopping mood, you can go and leave a comment on your favorite sprite and tell the world how much you love my artwork! It's like getting a hug every time I read something nice. :)

Upcoming Shows
In the previous post I talk a bit about CONvergence. Well, I contacted the Art Show Coordinator, and I will be able to do demos during the Convention! Here's the details on that from my email:

It's a fairly laid-back process. A few years back, one of our artists didn't want to give up the painting time to come to the convention, but his wife dragged him to it, so he set up shop in the art show and painted all weekend. People seemed to enjoy watching the process and it drew people in to watch, so we set aside a few of the tables along the wall with the windows for artists to setup and work. It is also a promotional tool for the artist since they can say "If you like this, my art is hanging right over there...":-)

But as for the process itself, if you just show up and say you want to demo, we can find you a spot. Any time we're open. Sunday you might get the dazed look, but that's just because we're fried on Sunday. Currently we don't schedule it or anything like that so that people keep coming back to see what's happening.

That's the skinny on doing demos at the con, so if you're an artist, bring your sketchbook and take a seat in the Artshow anytime! Click here to Register for the Convention - pre-registration discount expires May 15th.

Wyrdhaven Studio
Don't forget my main website, where there are links to all kinds of fantastic treasures for you to choose from like...

Officially Licensed Stickers, Bags, Magnets, Mousepads & More from Ellen Million Graphics ~ Click Here for Fairy & Fantasy Gifts

Wyrdhaven Gallery
The archival prints in the print gallery are available in a variety of sizes, our hottest selling print this spring is Greenman Awakens. Carved in stone in many churches of Europe. This pagan nature spirit is also sometimes called Jack O the Green. Here he comes to life out of the stone, he has awakened to his power. A butterfly, a symbol of transformation, flies near. Celtic knots on the corners remind us that as life is ever-changing, it is also never ending.

Thanks for stopping by the blog, you can also follow this blog throughout the month by becoming a Follower of Fantasy, just look to the side panel for that or RSS feed options.

Enjoy your May Day!