FairieMoon

In which we share new pink confections for Pink Saturday

I've been busy this week working on photographs for my shop. I signed up for my first showcase which appeared yesterday on Etsy and I wanted to have some new designs in my shop for the occasion.

Here are a few pink selections.

This necklace features a pounded sterling silver bar that has been shaped into a swirl with delicate little pink fresh water pearls attached. The chain, findings and swirl are all sterling silver while the little beads that dance freely across the bar are pure silver. You can find this necklace here.

I really enjoy taking photos for my Etsy shop and my blog, but it does represent a full day's work and sometimes you get them all taken only to have to take them again. I am so pleased with these photos.

Here is another pink confection.

This necklace is a variation on my simple noodle bar necklaces. It features a long 3 inch sterling silver noodle bar threaded onto a sturdy sterling silver wire bar flanked on each side with pink faceted crystal beads and set off with one little pure silver drop. The chain on this necklace is a very heavy flat sterling silver cable chain. The whole thing has been oxidized for an industrial, antique finish. You can find this necklace here.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my necklaces. Please visit my store to see more of my new designs and please leave a comment, I'd love to know what you think! I am especially excited to be offering this necklace and its sister which I won't show you because it is BLUE. It is absolutely breathtaking and I only have a limited amount of the tanzanite used to make them, unless I can, by some miracle, find more someplace, but I am not holding my breath because they are really special. I bought these beads at least 4 years ago.

If you are interested in participating in more Pink Saturday fun, follow the link to Beverly's How Sweet The Sound for a full list of participants!

Thank you for visiting my blog and for all of your wonderful birthday wishes last week. I had a lovely, but VERY busy weekend. Please stop by again.

If you are interested, there is a new Hitty story just below this post!

Happy Pink Saturday!

In which the Weathertops say goodbye to new friends

These last few weeks have brought much change and hustle and bustle to Weathertop manor and left all of the Weathertops in a lather, especially Hitty Dauphine.

It was decided that our new friend Sophie would leave us and travel to a new home. Although we were all sad, Sophie was very excited to have a new adventure. It seems she was not cut out to live a sedentary life here in rural Upstate New York. She was anxious to go out into the world, see new things and meet new people. The lesson here, is that it is important to prepare ourselves, for every once in a while we give birth to a soul with the heart of an adventurer and they are just not content to stay at home, making cookies and having tea parties with the rest of the Weathertops...sigh...sounds wonderful to me.

So the Weathertops undertook the project of preparing Sophie and a friend  and providing them with a small trousseau so they could take the plunge and ride the postal bus into the great sunset in the west.

It is important, when meeting new friends and adoptive parents, for each doll to look her very best. So Sophie and her new travel companion spent a day at the Weathertop spa to get their persons in tip top travel condition.

They each took turns soaking in a bubble bath and having their hair done.

Sophie's new friend had her hair washed and styled and spent a considerable amount of time making sure each hair was in its proper place...

While Sophie soaked in a bath of cotton ball oil, which we have heard is essential to the supple translucent complexion desirable for all dolls of her station.

After her bath, Sophie relaxed while getting a manicure, no dish water hands for this doll. I wonder if she is soaking in a Palmolive solution. Time for a commercial break, do you remember this commercial?

After polishing their naturally wooden complexion, the girls had a last minute dress fitting.

It was important that the hems were sewn just right.

Here they are, ready for their trip and pleased to present to you dresses 19 and 20 of the Weathertop 100 Dresses project.

The last thing to do before packing their belongings and shipping out was to sit for their portraits. (It is very important for their carving mom to have appropriate documentation and memory of their time with us here at Weathertop).

Before allowing them to leave, Hitty Dauphine presented each of them with a special gift by which to remember her.

They each received their very own hand-carved Hitty to accompany them on their long trip.

She felt that it was important for the girls to have a special companion to hug and keep them company in the dark box that would transport them to their new home. You know Hitty Dauphine and her dolls...she believes that every girl should have at least one...or fifty.

Hitty Dauphine, alone again in her big bedroom, was sad to see her sister leave...

...but she has heard a rumor of welcoming a new friend, who is excited to stay put at Weathertop and make Hitty Dauphine her bosom friend.

I wonder who it could be?

...To Be Continued...

In which we tip our hats to Nature's first green

Last year the winter was long. I think I have mentioned this, but it seemed, for me, so very, very long.

I had gone back to work after being a "stay at home" for too many years to count and I was very unhappy in my new job. But there were little glimmers of hope for me, even in that job that felt like a cage far too small to hold me. One of these, and let me remind you that these were LITTLE glimmers, was a picture on the wall of one of the classrooms that a child had taken of deep green maple leaves in his backyard during the previous summer. It was blurry. A horrible picture really, if one were to analyze it technically, but it so perfectly caught the color of deep summer leaves, the feeling of warmth and sweat, the smell of sun and grass, the feeling of ease and contentment that summer brings and the blur of small, happy memories. Each time I went into that classroom throughout the winter, I would gaze at that picture and imagine myself lying in the grass under those deep, luscious green leaves and dream about the return of summer.

But before the deep green comes the gold and it is a very fragile, tender moment.

I spent my early years in Wisconsin, so the changing of the seasons is nothing new to me. But moving to a state with 4 distinct seasons three years ago after having lived in California with its subtle seasonal shifts, has taught me to see every transition and every stage with brand new, wide awake eyes. It is beautiful really, the spiritual cycle of death, birth and new growth, even though I am not fond of the dark cold that inhabits the depth of winter months.

So in the spring, before the deep green, comes a tender, delicate golden green, just exactly as Robert Frost described it in his poem. I never truly understood what he meant before I moved east, of course there are also metaphorical implications to his poetry, but we can find so much insight in nature for the life we live. So this year, I have been trying to capture "the gold" digitally so you can see what I mean.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.
So leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief.
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

~Robert Frost

So melancholy...but like I said, I am looking forward to the deep green, leaf-subsiding-to-leaf stage (which you will just have to wait to pictorially enjoy until the middle of summer) as much as I am enjoying the first-green-is-gold stage! It is just important to enjoy each transition as much as we can while it lasts!

On a brighter note, it is dandelion season, in case you didn't notice from my photos. I have dandelions dotting the entire perimeter of my yard. It is so lovely and cheery!

Look at my lovely, birthday-love bouquet.

A humble gift from my favorite little boy. Doesn't he look proud...

...and oh-so-sweet? Don't you just adore these little love offerings? (Which again represents another level of meaning for Frost's poem...my little golden boy...I love him.)

I definitely saved the best for last in this, my golden post!

Have a golden day!

In which we celebrate a Happy Pink Saturday Birthday -- YAY!

Go me! It's my birthday!

Today, in honor of my birthday and Pink Saturday, I'd like to invite you to don the Birthday hat of your choice...

And join me on my Pink Birthday adventure.

I went in search of pink splendor. And I found that the trees dressed in their finest for my big day!

Now I want you to know that I tried to capture the splendor of these trees, but it was very difficult, perhaps because part of their splendor lies in the proliferation of this species in this region. There are pink and white blooming trees everywhere you look. It reminds me of the plum blossoms that bloom in the Bay Area in February. There was always one splendiforous week in which the plum blossoms would burst forth and show their glory. My favorite house had plum trees lining the walk to the front door. Now most of the year, these trees looked pretty ordinary but for that one week I always thought it must feel like the world was throwing rose petals at your feet as you walked to the front door.

I, like Anne of Green Gables, think it would be heavenly to climb up into the branches of this pink world and fall asleep.

Surely you'd have the sweetest dreams.

Every year on my birthday, I like to take a day and indulge myself in doing all the things I want to do. Well, realistically, I have to pick and choose because I don't get THAT much time to myself, but it is my special birthday tradition and it has become almost as important as having any one person remember to send me well wishes. Perhaps this is because I think a birthday is a perfect day to indulge in loving yourself and your very existence. If you don't think you are special and treat yourself well, why should anyone else?

So today, I got myself a Grande Light Foam Chai from Starbucks and took myself to a movie. I went to see Ghost of Girlfriends Past which, though not the best movie I've seen, was a good chick flick in which to wallow.

Afterwards, I went and got myself a very indulgent cupcake.

It is a red velvet cupcake with raspberry cream frosting. I repeat, VERY indulgent. Though I am not fond of frosting, but this frosting was pretty tasty. Go ahead, stick your finger in for a taste.

I then took myself to an antique store and found OH-so-many treasures!

First I bought these salt and pepper shakers which are very similar to a pair that I already own in coloring, style and shape.

Methinks I have the start of a collection. However, I warned my mother that it would have to be a collection of salt and pepper shakers that fit this general shape and type...no random S&Ps for me. I do have a weak spot for hand painted china.

I also found a vintage display box filled with mother of pearl button cards.

The whole ensemble is just delicious.

Lots of pink here.

 

I am planning on making a shadow box with rows of buttons cards in it. It is something I have wanted to do for awhile.

Aren't they lovely?

Finally, I came home to a sweet gift from Judy.

A carnation of the most luscious shade of pink I've ever seen.

I can only imagine that the rest of the weekend will pale by comparison...

...Well, I doubt it. I like spending time with my family the very best of anything at all.

Happy Birthday to me and Happy, Happy Pink Saturday! Thank you for attending my Pink Saturday party , I hope you enjoyed yourself!

If you are interested in indulging in even more delicious pink fun, please visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for a full list of participants.