welcome to the pumpkin patch

despite being ill all weekend (sinus flu-bug. nothing major, just enough to keep me tired and achy and feeling yucky), it's been very productive! a couple of weeks ago, i was flipping through magazines looking for halloween gift ideas for my friend juli (every year i give her some kind of a halloween gift and try to make it as fun and creative as possible). in one magazine i found an advent calendar...of sorts. it marked down the 13 days of halloween with paper cones filled with candy and little gifts. in another magazine, i found a how-to on creating tissue paper pumpkins filled with candy to give out on halloween night...so i combined the two ideas and created this:

the 13 days of halloween pumpkin patch

i took a box top, covered it with green tissue and stuffed more bunched up, green tissue on the bottom. i bought or made 13 small gifts - all halloween related, wrapped them up in orange tissue paper, making them look roughly like pumpkins and twisted the "stems" with green floral tape. it was simple and fun and i know she'll love it. juli did something similar for me for christmas last year; she worked for an accessory store and made up 25 tissue paper roses that held many, many pairs of earrings, bracelets and necklaces. i got to unwrap one rose every day from the beginning of december to christmas - it was so much fun and she really stocked me up on earrings! so starting october 19th, juli can open one pumpkin a day until halloween for little treats like a tee-shirt, a copy of a cd i know she wants, candy, earrings, a bracelet, a pin, a an autumn scented candle, candle holder, a small decorative clay witch's hat, etc. etc.

the other thing that i worked on this weekend was a fairy house and fairy that my old roommate from university (who lives outside moncton, new brunswick) asked me to make. she said that her aunt is creating a fairy garden at her home in alberta (i think it's an indoor garden) and jenn wanted to give her something fairy and unusual to go with her new garden for a christmas present.

jenn said that her aunt loved bright colors, so i went with a festive orange...not because of the autumn season, but because i found that striped fabric (that her shirt is made of) and the colors from my stash just fell into place. you can see more pictures here, some close up and singularly of the fairy and her house.

i also have an imp that juli and my friend maddie commissioned. there are only 2 more things to do on it and it'll be done! i hope to finish that tonight (have pictures by thursday) and start work on a quilt fairy for my aunt's friend.

what i learned wednesday (the thursday edition)

Drawing Class - Week 2 (Mass Gesture), originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

yesterday was just a loooooooooong day, but the conference was very interesting! it consisted of several workshops on the revitalization of maine's downtowns and the creative economy. i'm thankful that the conference wasn't happening today - we've had nonstop gale winds and downpours all day (and the conference was being held in several different locations from one end of waterville to the other - all of which you had to walk to). and today i'm having blogger issues...first the homepage wouldn't load, then when i finally got it to load, i couldn't upload pictures! so i'm doing this through flickr and hopefully it won't give me any trouble when i try to post it, then go back and fix it in blogger.

anyway...enough about that and on to the good stuff!

tuesday night's class was ah-mazing and the hour and a half FLEW by! we started the evening off with experimentation - using all of our tools, getting the feel for them, not drawing anything concrete, just making loose lines and seeing what the different charcoals and conte crayons and china markers would do. this was fun...and very messy! i loved it! there are 3 older women in my class who can't bear the mess that we make. they said that they are bringing gloves to the next class...i wanted to say get over it, but...to each their own! the teacher, helene, told us during the first class, "expect to get messy and don't wear good clothes". they obviously weren't listening.

(did i happen to mention that my teacher is of the "go hardcore or go home" school of thought? she wants no little drawings in her class - no small sketch pads. all work is to be done on the 18 x 24 sketch pad and should take up as much of the page as possible! needless to say, scanning these is next to impossible - so i'm taking pictures of them)

after "experimentation", helene set up a still life in the middle of the room with wine bottles, beer bottles, a tea cup, a vase, a light bulb and a jar of glue. as she did this, she talked about "mass-gesture" - about how it depicts volume and a sense of movement. she told us to move our hand as if we were touching the objects in the still life, to move our hands in a round/oval direction and to use a soft tipped charcoal.

she wanted us to really look at the still life as we drew and barely glance at what we were drawing, as "what" we were drawing wasn't as important as "how" we were drawing. she stressed paying attention to our subject, noticing the relationship between each object. we were to loosen up, draw life size or larger and relax.

she wanted a loose circular motion to be revealed in what we drew and no lines...we could blend with a fingers and give the object a little shape, but absolutely no lines - it all had to be circular motion!

i still need to learn to relax and pay more attention to the subject, but i really had fun with this!

next week's homework: to practice this technique by drawing 5 items of any shape on a table.

so much fun!! i love it!

i hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far! the weekend is almost here and i've got projects galore on the go - a ton of fairies, a fairy house, 2 bonnets and some lap quilts, plus my drawing class homework and not to mention building a doll house (but the dollhouse story will be for another post - maybe when i actually get it started). i swear every weekend from now till christmas will be packed with things to do - but that will be good, because these are fun things!

Drawing Class - Week 2 (Mass Gesture 3), originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

wednesday

so i forgot that i'll be away all day tomorrow at a conference on revitalizing Maine downtowns and how we can reinforce our creative economy - so if i'm not too tired from it tomorrow night, i'll post my "what i learned wednesday". if i am too tired, it'll be a thursday "what i learned wednesday if we pretend thursday is wednesday".

anyhoo, i thought i would share this lovely picture taken through the tree in my backyard.

i love the color of these leaves - i think i'd like a sweater or a shirt this color.

have a wonderful wednesday!

week 1 homework

"mini heirloom pumpkins"

vine charcoal

last week, our instruction was to take 3 round objects, put them on a table and draw them. they didn't have to be perfect - this was just to gauge how well, or not so well, we draw. this is our jumping off point, what we compare our work to at the end of this 6 week class.

so here it is...my drawing - without any instruction. this is how i draw now...and in 6 weeks, my hope is that my drawings will pop off the page, will have depth and a realistic feel.

i can't wait for tonight! yippee!

i hope everyone had a good weekend (long weekend in the US and canada). i must go catch up on my blog reading and comments - i'm a little lapse in doing so!

have a great tuesday everyone and i'll see you again tomorrow for a new installment of "what i learned wednesday."

food for thought

shari's inspiration posts have made me really look around myself and as i sat to eat my sandwich i thought: "food as inspiration? hmmmm....yes, i think food can definitely be inspiring" (it inspires my tummy to rumble!)

the last of this sandwich, though not inspiring to look at right now started off very colorful and interesting, with it's bright cranberries and leafy green lettuce and golden bread (and if it hadn't smelled so yummy and if i hadn't been so hungry, i would have taken a picture of it when it was whole...too late!).

the little snackbar at my work makes the best chicken salad sandwich, called the "chicken coop". it starts off as 2 pieces of homemade apple cranberry bread, which gets slathered with chicken salad, topped with cranberries and walnuts and romaine lettuce....oh it is yummy. messy but yummy.

in further experimenting with driving pictures, i took these last night on my way out to melissa's to visit. they are veryvery blurry, but the patterns of light that oncoming cars and car brake lights make while snapped in motion are very interesting! this one is odd to me; there is an electric green streak off to the left and i cannot for the life of me figure out what it is! any thoughts?

and during my lunch, while i devoured this glorious sandwich, i had a chance to wander through some flickr pages and found junkado, whose photos are so amazing, but the titles of each one are even better! like, quirky smile funny and laugh out loud funny. i highly recommend checking them out!

well, must dash! phone calls to make, people to meet, letters to type, yada yada yada.

i hope it's as sunny and bright your way as it is here in maine!

:^)

what i learned wednesday

yay! the first installment of what i learned wednesday is here!

today's topic: me gushing over how cool this class is going to be...

my very first class was, of course, the introduction to what this class will be all about. my teacher, helene (pronounced HAH-lane) is amazing! she not only has a studio not far from where i live, but she is also an art teacher at the local community college. she's so energetic and really got us fired up! just listening to her last night and seeing some of her student's work made me believe that i can really do this. that by the end of these two courses, i will be able to make my drawings pop right off the page!

helene showed us what tools we would be using (here are the goodies that you asked about, louise) :

vine and willow charcoals
standard charcoals
conte crayons
india ink w/ chinese brushes
china markers
sharpie pens
tortillions

then of course we have to get gum and kneadable erasers, an exacto knife, masking tape, pushpins, a sketchbook, a toolbox and a portfolio - i've never had a portfolio before. i know that i can make a really inexpensive one out of cardboard...but i kinda wanted something "official", not extravagent...but something with pockets and zippers and...well...i splurged and ordered this in the larger size. it's not expensive and i know there are much better ones out there, but this will be just right for me!

we went over the outline for the class and...did i tell you that i'm doing the happy happy dance of joy? :^)

week 2 (next week) will be all about experimenting with our drawing materials and getting the feel for them. we will also be learning about volumetric drawing through mass gesture, blind contour and we'll have an intro to contour.
week 3 will be a continuation.
week 4 will be about negative shape and "viewfinder usage to locate composition".
week 5 will see us creating a value scale, laying tone and "drawing with the eraser".
week 6 is all about beginning a portrait with ink studies and we'll get to use our china markers with turps (helene said that turps really draw out the lines that china markers make, giving the image a wispy feel). the next 6 weeks will be a whole new course with emphasis on landscape and portraits - we don't have the outline for that yet.

during the last 15 minutes of class, helen did a powerpoint presentation showing us various works by different artist (some of whom are her college students) and WOW - they were so incredible and inspiring! i wish i took notes on who the artists were but i was too busy ogling the pictures. there were only three that i recognized, frida kahlo (who's work is so unusual, but it sucks you in because there is so much within each work); gustav klimt (i've always found his work very sensual and his use of color and shape has always intrigued me); andrew wyeth (whom the great state of maine claims as our own because he had a summer house here...he's really from pennsylvania - but many of his works depict maine, some bleak - some striking but all beautiful in their own right).

okay, i think i've blabbered on enough! friday night, i will be heading to artist & craftsman supply in portland for my supplies and to just hang out in the old port for a bit (something i rarely get to do since it's about an hour drive from my house).

so here's to inspiration! i know we've all been contemplating it, thanks to shari. to reviving that much needed inspiration in our creative lives, so that it may seep into our daily lives!

oh btw, we even have homework this week - we are to place 3 objects on a table and draw what we see as best we can, spending no more than 90 minutes on this! i can't wait to get my stuff so i can start playing!!!

like a kid at christmas...

i can't wait for this evening. tonight is the first night of my drawing class...the first night of 12 classes! i got the supply list and there are so many things on it that i've never used before and wonder what we will be doing with them? the teacher will be supplying what we need tonight and then it is up to us to find our supplies before next week.

i had an idea that, since i have class every tuesday until the week before christmas, i'd institute a weekly "what i learned wednesday" post to show you what new techniques i've learned and scan & upload my drawings where i've put these techniques to use.

i'm bouncing around doing the happy dance wondering when this day will be over and for this class to begin!

oh, i just can't wait!


oh, had to share this picture. it was taken through the window of my truck while i drove to work this morning. the sun was shining but near the river and in all the low lying areas the fog was so thick. it was beautiful to drive through - especially with the sun so blurrily shining through it.

there are more here (some a little blurry from the moving vehicle).

p.s. the headache and stiff neck are gone and i have freedom of motion once again! whoo-hoo!

wishing i was here

i slept wrong last night and have the worst stiff neck which turning into the worst migraine...and i'm still at work...but i'd rather be here - wandering through waist deep grass, listening to the birdsong, the buzz of bees and various insects, the water lapping the shoreline, an occasional boat puttering along.

it was warm that day, not hot, but comfortable - the perfect jeans and t-shirt weather.

a very slight breeze was blowing - barely a whisper through the tall grass.

and the sun was setting across the lake.

even after the sun set, it was warm...and so very relaxing.

so physically, i'm here at work on a very cloudy day, listening to construction and wishing away this headache...but mentally, i'm walking through this luscious field...watching the dragonflies and the butterflies...

here's hoping your mental landscape is as peaceful!

music nostalgia

since i cleaned out my room and moved things around, i've been finding old things that i forgot i had - once well loved items that got pushed to the wayside as new things found their way into my life. i took the time to reorganize my cd collection - a strangely diverse group ranging from classical to punk, rock to indie stuff and so on. 2 cd's have resurfaced from this clean&move:


edie brickell & the new bohemians - shooting rubberbands at the stars: i actually had this on tape in high school and played. it. to. death by the time i graduated. so i mourned the loss, got in my old blue buick and went to brunswick, to bull moose music to get it on cd.

i can still sing every word to every song...even after years of not having heard it.




indigo girls - swamp ophelia: this was another tape that i have since replaced with disc. with "shooting rubberbands", it somehow snuck into a collection that was fraught with concrete blonde, ani difranco, the pixies, sleater kinney, L7, the beastie boys, mazie star, the violent femmes etc. etc. so on and so forth.

music has such a way of pulling you back to a certain place, a certain time in your life...a moment made crystal clear just by lyric or guitar lick. it has a way of reminding you of a person or an object, loved or hated, and suddenly those feelings fill you once more.

* cruising around with friends in the middle of a summer night with all the windows rolled down, blasting concrete blonde and howling at the moon.

* coming home late at night from work, sitting on the porch in the dark with stravinsky or vivaldi playing softly, stressed out and crying at how much i hated my job, how the money wasn't worth the long hours and my sanity.

*singing along with joni mitchell while baking in the kitchen of an old apartment in canada and being startled when i realized that the boyfriend i was living with was watching me the whole time - smiling, he told me how much he was in love with me.

the best part is that music can produce imagines and links to things for absolutely no reason! like nick drake's "northern sky" - it makes me think if alaska. alaska? um...okay. i've never been there, never seen it anywhere other than in pictures and on tv or movies, but hearing that song conjures up images of evergreens and snow pack, mist drifting through the trees and the scent of wood smoke. how weird is that? now i'm sure we could pick apart my brain and link alaska to the song a million ways from sunday, but i like blissful ignorance of not thinking too hard on it. northern sky = alaska. i'll keep it that way. simple.

any broad, seemingly unconnected jumps your brain makes between songs and real life? or is it just me?

a cloudy T for me

really not much has happened this week.

no exciting news, no finished projects to show, no WIPs that you haven't already seen (or that i have pictures of at the moment).

it's really rather sad.

so i'm just going to share with you this picture i took
yesterday as i was heading out to work.

it's a T for me! (albiet a wispy one)

have a great day and maybe i'll have inspired words and pictures tomorrow.

early autumn evening walk

dark of night

shadows skulking with luminescent feline eyes

stars peaking through wispy, grey black clouds

orion's constant presence felt

chill autumn breezes gently caress my hair,

floating leaves down from trees up high

warm wood smoke perfumes the air with it's heady scent,

wrapping me in a quilt of familiar comfort

oh, how i've longed for this.

fall fabness

fabulous fall has arrived here in the great state of maine
and with it,
a wash out of a weekend.

i wanted to go to the common ground fair, but alas, an hour drive coupled with a trek through the woods in gale force winds and pouring rain didn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me. yup, i'm a wimp! i opted for a weekend of mostly staying indoors to finish insulating that room (yay, it's done!!) and rearranging my existing bedroom. i feel so much more organized now! my computer is in a better place with more light, my bed is in a cozy nook under the slant, my chair is by the window (and now a favorite of tallulah, as she can stretch her fat feline body across the top of it while watching the world below from on high!) and there is soooo much more floor space!

also with the arrival of fall, came the arrival of my new coat (yes, like many others i am a coat addict! and all those coat posts cracked me up, because i thought it was just me and i had just ordered this one!):
this little beauty is a 100% boiled wool pea coat, double breasted, with a stand up collar, big buttons and it's the perfect length. i found it online and picked it up for 20% off! it is perfection personified as far as i'm concerned; lightweight and oh so warm. we'll see how it holds up to a maine winter. i just wanted something dressier than my L.L. Bean parka but lighter than my heavy black wool pea coat or my thrifted long blue hooded wool coat with the toggles. ah yes, wool is our friend here in the north!

now i need to rummage through my sweater trunk to see what needs to be purged and if i need to buy any new ones. yet another addiction...sweaters! soft and fuzzy, warm and woolen.

happy weekend highlights
* set up my DSL
* dyed some bonnet fabric
* worked on my halloween tree (which i will post pictures of soon)
* i went shopping with my parents
* found copious amounts of books from university that i forgot i had. they were packed willy-nilly into boxes and crates. many were required reading for my english classes, many obscure canadian authors that i had never heard of until moving to new brunswick and started studying them. i can't wait to start rereading!
* remembered that a week from tomorrow, i will be starting 12 weeks of drawing classes! (soooo can't wait for this either)
* talked to my friend andy, who went off to law school a month ago and caught up with all the goings on in his life

tonight, i make no plans. if i get a chance to play with my fabric, then yay! if not, so be it! but i'm in great hopes that i'll get to play!

here's wishing you all as much playtime as you can handle!

i heart ray lamontagne and other friday randomness

i am in love with ray lamontagne. i’ve been listening to his latest till the sun turns black ("be here now", so becoming a favorite!) it is so mellow and dreamy (shades of damien rice?). i have to keep myself from gently swaying to each song when there are other people in the office (it would confirm their suspicions that i’m a little off my rocker). i don’t think my friend melissa and I have really listened to anything else in the last few days!

speaking of mel…the instigator! guess what she talked me into?

chickens!

yes, i am the proud owner of 10 chickens currently residing at her house with the other 15 that she ordered (and no, the pictures linked to this are not the new chicks but the ones melissa already has). i’m not allowed to get attached to them, though (i personally am not allowing myself to get attached), as they will only be with us until they are plump enough to become dinner. they’re called fryers – a chicken bred to be fast growing and can be taken to the butcher anywhere from 7 to 13 weeks. their meat is very tender and they can be broiled, braised, fried, roasted or grilled – for those of you who are not vegetarians: hungry yet?

i know that some people think it’s a bit of a stretch, a bit barbaric to go from cute little baby chicks to roast chicken dinner in the same thought-line, but those little chickies, cute as they are, will be dinner all winter long for me…and i will be grateful for their sacrifice. blessed be to the baby chicks and the dinners they will provide!

other randomness:

melissa (who’s title should actually be "grand high poobah of the fraternal order of instigators") also asked me if i wanted to do a craft fair with her in december. uh, rock on and yeah! buuuuuuuttttttt, now all i can think is…what am i going to make for this? i know it’s two months away, but if i don’t start making stuff now, i’ll have nothing to sell. so i’m definitely making my fairies/angels and some simple fleece-backed lap quilts. i’m also going to make some very simple earrings, as i've ordered the stuff for them. i'm still thinking of little things and how to display them so they are interesting. i'm going to get my brother the metalsmith to make me a tree (to hang my fairies on) out of rebar. it would look similar to a morning glory vine pole, only the ends will curl around in a swirl and i'll have him solder a star at the top of it.

tomorrow there will be happy birthday celebrations for my friend john who turns 31! (thought it was tonight but i was wrong)

i'm going to attempt to make a plexi glass window on my screen porch (if it works, i will end up making more so that the screen porch will be winter secure!)

i was supposed to do up a dye batch last weekend, but...uh...didn't, so that will be on the list of things i'd like to do...maybe i'll do that up tonight - whoo hoo, fun with dye! yippee!

***************************

this has been a very random week - not crazy busy, but no day was discernable from another; it was very blah in many spots. i'm not sure why.

so here's to fun weekends with no blah spots! have a good'n!

another WIP done!

meet hilda. she's a winsome witch, but a bit flighty!

i finished her the other day and i'm totally in love with her! but despite that love, i've put her on etsy.

she just rocks with her black and purple striped leggings (which i painted), her sparkly star dress and that funky hat! she even has sparkly eye shadow and lips (which you can't see in the pictures). even her broom is homemade (it's a tree branch and hay gathered from the field next to my parents house).

she was so much fun to make, that i've started on another one, only she has black and orange striped leggings. since this sunday is supposed to be rainy, i may take the day to work on her (make her dress and her hat, do her hair, find some broom material...)

anyhoo, had to share!

mail call

so this morning, i got up to walk the dog at the usual time (5:30, ugh) and decided to leave the house by way of the front door rather than the back (like normal) and i'm so glad i did! i found this

waiting for me on my front porch! it was a wonderful package choked full of fun stuff from the amazing and sweet paula! (when i got the mail yesterday, i didn't go out onto the porch, because i grabbed it from the mailbox on the way back from taking sadie for a short walk, then went in the backdoor) i couldn't wait to get back from the morning walk to open this package and see what was inside! i think i hurried the dog along a little more this morning than normal (poor sadie).

so here are the goodies that paula sent me:

beautiful fabric, the best orange buttons, oh so cute cards with bears on them and a portuguese craft magazine that has creative sewing ideas from embroidery and quilting to knitting and crocheting! some of my pictures are a little fuzzy, but by this time it was 6 am, coupled with the lighting in my kitchen not being the best anyway (but you get the idea).

i poured over the magazine while i drank my tea. it is so amazing! and even though it is in portuguese, much of it is self-explanatory what with the very detailed pictures. oh and the patterns!!! there are 3 huge (HUGE) pullouts of patterns. oh my god, they are amazing.

paula, this was so sweet of you! i love everything! thank you thank you thank you! what a great way to start the day...with presents from portugal on the porch (say that 5 times fast).

here's hoping for happy mail for everyone today!

tiff*

dyeing w/ tissue paper how to

Dyeing w/ Tissue Paper, originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

i've wanted to do a tutorial for a while and this was a fun and simple project that i attempted over the weekend. it is definitely an outdoor project (which i learned the hard way...and so did my mother's living room carpet).

it's very simple, all you need are 5 things:

1) light colored cloth

2) plastic covered table (i used a garbage bag cut open. don't use newspaper as the print ink will get on the fabric)

3) spray bottle full of water

4) scissors

5) bleeding tissue paper (found it at a local craft supply shop. 20 sheets of 20 colors for $4.99)

simple instruction: set your fabric out flat on your plastic covered table. cut your tissue paper into whatever shapes you wish. spray your fabric with water so it is wet (not damp, wet) and now place your tissue paper. i tried two different sized pieces of fabric: a small and a large. with the large, i did single layers of just strips and squares and layered pieces over in places to see what colors i would get. on the small, i used the left over strips and folded them over twice to see if i would get deeper colors. then lay flat outside. once the tissue paper becomes very dull and mostly dry, peel it off and hang your fabric on the line to fully dry. there, very simple!

this was all experimental and now that i've played, i think i'll try making shapes with the tissue paper. the only bad thing about this project is that i can't wash the fabric. it would strickly have to be for wall hangings that wouldn't be washed. i tried to heat set the fabric, but excess color still ran from it, fading the colors more. i've also seen that you can fabric paint your fabric, put the tissue on it and drying it in the sun for more unique color arrangements (this also makes the colors more bold).

to see the individual pictures, go here.

and i'm having issues with blogger, so the finished projects are in the post below!

i hope you enjoyed and will maybe try this. my next attempt with this will be to try it on card stock, but i'll save that for another weekend!

have a fun filled day, all!

finished product

Dyeing w/ Tissue Paper - finished product, originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

friday 5...make that 6

a quick friday five (unfortunately no picts) before i head home for the day to start insulating. then i'm taking the weekend off from home projects, heading to my parents and i'm going to play with fabric!

taste: this morning, mel brought blueberry muffins with brown sugar crumbled on top from slate's bakery. yummm!

see: sunny skies and ominous clouds

hear: continuous construction that thankfully stopped early this afternoon.

smell: coffee coffee everywhere! the perils of working in an office...everyone's brewing coffee at all hours of the day. it makes you crave!

touch: beads and buttons and ribbon and paper goods at the local craftstore during my lunch break.

and number six today is the sense of "happy happy fun crafty stuff that i can't wait to try out" (how's that for a sense?): i found bleeding tissue paper to use as a dye for fabric (it's extra bright and will bleed out color when you wet it. if you put it on wet fabric the color will stain through onto the fabric and create a mosaic!)

okay, gotta run! hope you all enjoy the weekend!

the busy-ness of this week

this has been such a busy week...it hasn't seemed like it, but i've found it hard to get some internet time! work has been a bit crazy busy and i haven't installed my dsl at home, so i have no home internet access for the moment.

there's nothing stopping me from installing my dsl...well, yes there is...it's called anal retentivity - as in, everything must be perfectly set up right for me to be happy. i've been wanting to rearrange my bedroom and move the desk to a more convenient spot, but part of me wants to wait until the new room is done and just move my bed and dresser and a bookshelf in there. i've come to realize that that is unrealistic, as the insulation isn't in yet and the sheetrock isn't up yet. i think the new bedroom will be an ongoing winter project (well, in regard to getting the sheetrock up, the room painted and the carpet down). so i think i just need to suck it up and move my existing room around. i just haven't been visited by the "moving muse" yet. you know, that muse that strikes you, making you - out of the blue - want to rearrange your entire home? i think my muse may be on vacation still...or she's being overshadowed by the muse that has me painting my kitchen cabinets, thinking about insulation and making fabric fairies (which i have a halloween one almost finished - she is a super cool witch with black and purple striped leggings. she just needs hair, a pointy hat and her broom! i'll post picts when she's done).

but, speaking of kitchen cabinets...they are almost done (a layer of primer and 4 coats of paint later). i need to touch up some areas and then i don't have to think about them again! and i can concentrate on that bedroom.

oh, i have an idea for this wall, rather the wall to the right, without the window - the ucky paneled one. i'm going to paint it pale pink (like the rest of the room - with green trim. i'm really into the girly pink and green thing lately) and then paint a vibrant, hot pink tree (similar to this this but without the birds and ducks and stuff...just the tree), in the corner near the window...maybe some rolling green hills and an inspirational message that i can wake up to every morning. what do you think? any suggestions on a quote?

anyhoo, must get back to work and off of my break!

have a fabulous today!

for the love of all things mini

i've always had this fascination with miniature things, especially little doll house things. so this weekend, as i waited for paint to dry on cabinets and laundry to wash, i was over taken by mini-mode and broke out the fimo, paint, a bit of fabric and bits of wood to create this little scene:

okay, so maybe i do have a little too much time on my hands, some might say i need a hobby...but isn't this a hobby?

i had so much fun making this scene. the little hutch i bought, as well the pumpkins and the little fabric leaves, but i made the hanging mini quilt, the folded mini quilt on the mini quilt rack (which i made out of wooden 2 prong toothpick things, a wooden skewer and some glue). i also made the tea set and "pottery" and the little witch's hat on the top of the hutch.

i have a doll house, somewhere....in the attic, i think...that my mother made for me. it's not too big, and only has 4 rooms but it's cute. i should dig that out. i even made mini furniture in a wood shop class in the 7th grade for it because they looked so cool (and again, the mini-fascination overtook me!). you know, the more i think about it, the more i want to find it. maybe i'll go up there when it gets cool and the wasps and spiders get out of my attic. i could take it out and dress it up for halloween and christmas! is it sad that i'm almost 30 and i want to drag out my old doll house to play with it...well not really play so much as display...yeah, that's it...display.....

anyhoo, i want to recreate this scene (not exactly, but similarly) for my sister and my mother for their houses. i think they'd like it! of course, then i'd have to go over there and change it out for the holidays and seasons...not that they'd mind of course.

well, must go, just thought i'd share my weekend mini creations. have a wonderful monday, all!

the bonnet

this is the "test" bonnet. the inside is a super soft, funky patterned flannel that i absolutely loved!









the outside is a heavy duty twill (that i got for 99 cents a yard! killer bargain) . i didn't add any ribbon since it would be a waste to put it on the test bonnet.






doesn't this seem really small on my head? do i just have a freakishly big head, or is the pattern a touch too small? (lets got with the pattern being small, so i don't get self-conscious).

it just seems really short, but that's how the picture looks. i want it to be almost shoulder length, so i can wear it in the winter. i guess i will be adjusting the pattern for it and trying again, but i think this time i'll try to dye the twill first to see how that works. i do have to say that this was by far and away the easiest pattern i've ever used! i whipped this puppy up in an hour!

(oh, and shari, i didn't forget that i promised to make one for you...i just want to make sure i've perfected the pattern to my liking before i make yours).

anyhoo, happy friday to all. have a fun-filled weekend - my will be spent attacking the kitchen cabinets with paint!

so i lied

sunlight through the trees
Originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

yup, i'm bad. i said i was going to post a pict of the bonnet and you know what? i never took a picture of it.

i was a lazy slug last night after returning home from the dinner party. only 2 of us showed up and it was marvelous! so much better than a whole group of cackling women...and mel planned a wonderful meal of a moroccan-style veggie soup from her soup bible, a green salad with walnuts and dried cranberries, cheese and melon, olive oil and rosemary bread and i brought hummus & pita crisps. oh it was so yummy and followed up with ice cream for desert that teen brought!

it wasn't a late night, but it was when i got home, i sat in the recliner to baby my sadie and flip through the day's mail.

today has been a...well (i hate to admit it, since i am at work, but)...a waste of a day. i have done little to no real work and can't get my head out of the clouds. i'm not saying this is a bad thing, but i just keep thinking up these things that i want to do and none of them are work related. they are art related.

one of the blogs i lovelovelove because it sends me into visual overload is anahata katkin's blog. she is an amazing collagist (is that a word?) and often talks about self discovery and being the person that she wants to be, doing the art that she wants to do, etc. etc. we've all experienced these feelings. one of her...inspirations, i guess you could say is sabrina ward harrison, whom i know has been out there for a while now, but to me and my little sphere of reality, she's new. i just read her story of how she got started and wow! how amazing is she? i mean really...after reading, i delved deep into a "what am i doing - what do i want to be doing - where do i see myself with my art - how is that so many others can make a living doing what they love - am i doing something wrong?", but it wasn't a depressing tortured artist kind of thought process. i've found that since i started blogging and reading others' blogs, that a) i'm not alone and b) if i think about it, i can answer these questions. i'm feeling less wishy-washy these days! and can i tell you how great that feels!?! it's like sighing out a breath you didn't know you were holding.

here's to great revelations, i hope you all indulge!

construction rant revisited

remember how pretty it looked outside my window at work?

and then how i said that they were starting construction?

well now this is what i have to look at outside my window until they finish in november and then it'll be a parking lot.

they've ripped out all of the flowering crab apple trees and that beautiful little maple! i am very depressed about this! all to put in a parking lot! stupid parking lot - right now it doesn't matter that we need it. they have stripped a small section of beauty from this place.

well, i have to run. tomorrow should be a better post, not so cranky. hopefully i will have a picture of the newly attempted "bonnet" that i made (pattern from amy over at kingpod and angry chicken). but first, i must go home and then off to a dinner party! (wow...sounds frivolous paired with the environmentalist's outrage at trees being ripped out for a parking lot, doesn't it?)

have a lovely lovely, all!

september sun and the summer *to do* list

the sun is shining brightly through my bedroom window, while a cool autumn breeze blows through the trees and little bitty finches play outside on the twig wreath that hangs between my two windows above the porch roof. i can just see them at the corner of the window and jumping about on the roof top. i've never seen them do that before. it's those simple things that bring a smile to my face. it reminds me that i promised to fill their feeders and i haven't! that will be a *to do* before i go shopping!
speaking of *to do*'s, at the beginning of this summer, i created a list of the things i wanted to do (you can see it on the right hand side of this page). looking back over it, i've found that i accomplished just about all of these things...to some degree.

i cleaned my porch and turned it into my own little zen-happy place; i take time everyday to wander through and enjoy my garden; i went swimming and explored; i ripped down that wall and muraled my downstairs hallway; i wrote almost everyday (in my blog - which counts!); my brother taught me how to make my own fire pit and i taught myself how to make capri's and pants; i also dyed fabric, made a quilted wall hanging and a baby blanket, and i currently have 11 fairies in progress; i made many smoothies this summer and bbq'ed with friends a few times; i caught up on some old books and thanks to my friends here and blogger friends, i was introduced to different music.

now that autumn is upon us, i'll be taking more time to bake; i'll be finishing that wall and hopefully that bedroom, as well as painting the kitchen cabinets (now that it's cooler). the fencing and outdoor, backyard, garden sanctuary will have to wait until next year. and if the gas prices continue to drop, road trips will be back on the agenda for fall. there is nothing more peaceful than a drive in the country on a sunny fall day when the leaves start changing!

well, now i must go (i didn't think i'd get a chance to even post today!) - i need to feed the little finches and let sadie out before i head out for a fabric shopping extravaganza with my mother and aunt patricia! yippee!

have a happy day and a wonderful weekend!

demolition done

the wall has come down!
and in my travels through the world of horse hair plaster and lathes, i came upon this:

an old wasp nest with a bird's nest underneath (and in between two other wall studs, i found a bird skeleton). i didn't want to know what was in the nest, i felt so bad for the dead bird...so my brother is coming over to take care of it. i'm just not good with dead things -- or wasp nests...even if they've long since vacated it. now blogger is giving me issues - it won't let me create paragraphs. every time i hit enter, it makes the cursor disappear. so i apologize now for this being all jumbled together, but it's just being tempermental. anyhoo, my aunt is up from maryland and the next few days will be busy ones; fabric shopping tomorrow, a true maine country fair on saturday and a birthday party for my aunt on sunday. i will hopefully catch up with you all on monday! have a lovely weekend (long weekend for everyone stateside)!!

plaster, lathes and all that jazz

ah, the thrill of demolition!

i wanted to share what i've done so far in my parents old bedroom, which will soon enough be mine.

originally this house had only 3 bedrooms. when i was born, my sister (who is 8 years older than me), had to share her room...that is, until i turned 2 and my parents realized that we needed our own rooms. so they put up a wall in the middle of their huge master bedroom. 2 years ago, i ripped that wall down and turned it back into a master bedroom for myself. now the plan is to move into that soon-to-be newly renovated room and make the master bedroom a craft/quilting/spare bedroom (with more emphasis on the craft and quilting, rather than the spare bedroom aspect) and eventually (when the budget permits) renovate that room.

the only bad part about this job is the plaster dust. it's everywhere! but i have everything covered, an exhaust fan in one window and i've been keeping the door closed. when i walk into that room i'm in long pants, long sleeved shirt, dust mask, respirator, gloves and ball cap, but it still really makes you itch - i was never so thankful for a shower as i was last night!

blogger won't let me upload anymore pictures (don't know why), but there are some before pictures here and i'll be sure to post "during" and "after" picts on flickr as well!

the wall is calling, so i must go - wish me luck!

all the world's a stage

last night, i took marcia and deb (coworker friends) to lakewood theatre in skowhegan, maine for the production of "sarah, plain and tall" starring my friend juliana as sarah.
oh, it was wonderful! we had dinner at the the lakewood restaurant, then wandered around until showtime. we had balcony seating. they did such an incredible job, all the actors did! juli even had to sing on stage - which i find very brave, you wouldn't catch me doing that (unless forced to)!

per tradition, i always bring flowers for her and have them delivered to her "dressing room" and these were also celebratory flowers for another reason: juli quit her job after 5 or 6 years being there! i'm so proud of her!! she stood up to her boss (who was evil incarnate) and stood up for herself! for her to up and quit without another job to go to, that is a giant leap of faith for her and i'm couldn't be couldn't be prouder!

anyhoo, just had to share my saturday night with you all, tomorrow will be a deconstruction post, as i'm ripping out a wall today!

have a wonderful sunday all!

the autumnal cusp

(by photographer Paula Corsaro)

fall has hit...no wait, it's still summer - oh, no, no now it's fall. oh but if you face this way - yup, summer again.

no, i'm not going crazy...maine is on the cusp of autumn. it was 54 degrees outside when i walked sadie this morning, bundled in my heaviest sweatshirt, fleecy pants and knee socks and it was still chilly!

at noon, i ventured out for lunch while a brisk breeze blew and the hot, hot sun beat down. by this evening, it will drop into the 50's again, much like last night.

autumn stirs so many emotions in me. everyone knows that it is a time of change; every autumn for 17 years it was back to school time. like spring, a time for new beginnings; you looked forward to it, to making new friends and meeting up with old ones, having parties and going for walks, it was so social! then suddenly, once college was through, there was no back to school, friends scattered- moving back home or to a new home altogether, the old college haunts were suddenly 4 hours away...fall became just one more season you worked through, no big "ta-daaaah", it was same old same old. for a few years after college, i was getting that autumn feeling of expectation, an anticipation of good things to come, only to be disappointed that the only things that were changing in my life were the leaves.

but one autumn day, as i was taking a detour on a road i'd never been on, through the country, i had an epiphany; before me lay a hay field in need of a mow to one side and a pumpkin patch to the other, behind both were trees in the most vibrant of colors with dark mountains looming distantly over and the sun...that glorious october sun setting in the most breathtaking array of pinks and salmons, purples and golds. suddenly, something clicked inside me. it was less of a verbal "well this means this and that means that" kind of epiphany but more of a visual, internal, everything falling into place, relishing the change happening in nature epiphany that filled me with such happiness...that i cried. the disappointment was shed, the blinders of misery were gone. it was like seeing something so spectacular for the first time, and in essence, i was.

i realized it was up to me to take that autumn anticipation and turn it into something fun, rather than letting it pass by without celebration! now, i have lists of things i want to do to celebrate fall! collect fall leaves, carve pumpkins, decorate with gourds and cornstalks and hay bales, quilt - oh but this is the best time of year to quilt! - bake bread and cookies and country chicken pie, pick fresh apples and make apple pie, stoke up the fire pit outside and breath in that wonderful scent of wood smoke, watching full moons near halloween - halloween...mmmm....i have a huge smile on my face right now, it is my favorite! it's not the tricks, it's not the treats...i can't explain it. there is a happiness linked to it that stems from childhood. it could be that it's a time that encourages young and old to dress up and make pretend...it's...i can't put my finger on it, but now i'm yearning for it.

"oh bright moon, oh goddess of the night, bring on the change, those autumn delights"

i'm ready for it! are you?

doin' the happy dance!

yesterday i was swamped at work (still trying to catch up from last week) and then had a bit of a family social butterfly night where my sister, mother and brother converged on me one right after the other, whether in person or via the phone. you'd think it had been ages since i'd seen any of them! it was 8:00 before I got to eat dinner and look at the mail.

in the mail was the adult education fall course guide (which i love to look at because they always have interesting crafty courses to take). i leisurely flipped through it, then stopped dead on page 15 and became awash in happiness.

they are offering drawing classes again!!

3 years ago they offered a class that filled up within 2 days of it being posted and i missed out. i was so bummed! so i vowed to call as soon as they opened today and register. i was in luck! there was still room left! yippee!!!! and when i talked to my mother about it, she said she would go halves with me on the cost of the 2 courses as a birthday present (since one starts in november). double yippee!!

i have wanted to take a formal drawing class forever! in high school, art classes conflicted with my english classes - which i needed to graduate - so i lost out on art and went on to major in english lit in university.

i've always been able to draw to an extent...but i knew that i needed structure and instruction. my drawings lack life, lack dimension and it frustrates me because i can see how i want it to look in my mind, but trying to translate that down my arm, through my hand and onto paper...well, something gets lost.

there are 2 classes: the introductory "drawing for the true blue beginner" starting october 3rd and running for 6 weeks, then the continuation "drawing for the almost true blue beginner" starting november 14th (2 days before my birthday) and running for another 6 weeks! i cannot wait!

the classes are being taught by artist helene farrar of artdogs studio. her works are just so vibrant and alive with color, she's amazing! and she will be teaching me! so again i say, yippee!!!!!!!

oh, in other good news today, i received my letter of notification that i will get my 1 year step increase at work starting in october! so hooray for more money to pay my bills and fund my increasing list of projects and home renovations!

today i am so doing the happy dance - i really hope it's a happy dancin' sort of day for you as well!

home where my thought's escaping, home where my music's playing

ahhhhh, it's good to be home! oh what a crazy time nashville was! so many people from every state...tons of really interesting workshops...so many social events...free booze and free food as far as the eye could see...freebies from different companies from every state! it was...wow!

and the resort and convention center was "oh my god!!!" amazing! when you walked into this place, you were greeted with "welcome to the gaylord opryland, where it's always 70 degrees and sunny". the rooftop was glass and housed a climate control system with a simulated breeze to keep you perfectly cool, which was much needed as the temp was in the mid to high 90's all week with crazy humidity. i've never been so thankful for air conditioning in all my life!
there were also cascading waterfalls, magnolia's and jasmine in bloom, an indoor river that you could take riverboat rides on! i was so relaxed walking through this hotel, but i swear i walked 15 miles just in the hotel! it. was. huge! all the workshops spanned throughout the many levels of just the convention center, then there were 4 or 5 different registrations for guest rooms (and i don't know how many rooms, tons!).

i went to a country fair outside the country music hall of fame, where there was a live band, game booths, tons of beer tables, a "cosmo/appletini" booth, tons of fair food and on to an intimate concert in the ford theatre by a singer/songwriter named james dean hicks. after that it was back to the convention center to top off the evening with a party being hosted by a group of canadians (chocolate fountain and mountie martinis - which had lime juice and i think a fruit punch mixed with gin - very interesting combo).

on wednesday, the texas delegation held an event at the wild horse saloon that was ah-maze-ing! the food was an unbelievable mexican feast (best guacamole i've ever tasted next to my friend melissa's - which i could eat by the bowlfull!). it was really fun and myself and two others got to ride down to the saloon with a member of the texas senate and his wife. very nice people (even though they are republicans)! especially to offer a ride to 3 complete strangers from maine - and his wife was just a kick! wonderful people!

it really was a great trip and all my fears were for naught! never missed any flights, never got airsick, got lost in the hotel plenty of times, but at every corner there was someone willing to help. i'm really happy that i got to go. my only regret is that i didn't get to wander downtown nashville more. it was 30 to 45 mins away from the hotel and there were no shuttles to drop you off down there or pick you up unless there was an event, but those were mostly at night and i was not about to wander around a strange city, alone, at night. next time, i'm bringing someone with me, just so i have a familiar face willing to pal around with me. the next conference is closer to home (boston). and despite all the fun, i'm so glad to be home! i was beginning to feel like all i was doing was going from hotel to hotel and airport to aiport, all the while living out of a suitcase. the best part about traveling is coming home - it makes you see home in a whole new light and makes you thankful for the familiarity of it!

anyhoo, i have a ton a ton a ton of blogs catch up on, as well as a ton of work to catch up on in the next 4 days before i go on vacation...again...for 11 days (this is my fall clean-up vaca - i put in for this long before i knew about nashville) and i have a fairy project started at home to get a jump start on christmas (i was doing mad dash marathon fairy making until the week after christmas because so many people ordered them from me here at work - i promised myself that this year would not be a repeat and that i would start making bodies now and would only have to dress & bead them later)

check out the rest of the tennessee photos here. i got some great sky shots from the plane!

"well my bags are packed, i'm ready to go..."

"i'm standin here outside your door

i hate to wake you up to say goodbye"

(i love chantal kreviazuk's version of this song!)

well, okay, i'm not packed just yet, but i have started putting things together, figuring out what outfits to put together to maximize wardrobe potential while minimizing actual stuff to bring with me. this is proving very difficult; i have to dress business casual to meetings being held in air conditioning, while the outside temps range from the high 80's to mid 90's all week. and sadly, all my business casual is black. black dress pants, black dresses...i'm trying to temper them with light weight shirts.

i know i know, i'm obsessing about clothing when i really only have 3 days of meetings and 2 days of flying. but, as i always am before doing something i've never done, i'm nervous (less about the flying and more so about the being in a city i've never been in). my brain is playing the "what if" game whether i want it to or not...."what if i miss my connector in ohio?", "what if my luggage gets lost?", "what if i can't find my hotel, the hotel where my meetings are or meetings rooms within the hotel because it's huge?" then i calmly and rationally answer myself, "you catch another connector, you're packing a small carry on with a change of clothes and there are shuttles and taxi's to take you where you need to go, as well as a ton of hotel staff to ask questions to." i'm still nervous.

well my friends, this is goodbye for a week. since i don't have a laptop, i don't forsee myself getting online at anytime while i'm away. i have my camera and will try to take as many pictures as possible! i hope you all have a wonder-filled week and i'll be back with "tales from tennessee" on the 21st!

so much to do!

i'm starting to get nervous. i fly out of portland on monday for a week in nashville and i feel like i have 800 million things left to do! not to mention the whole "airline terror" sending the u.s. into red alert with super crazy heightened security and the fact that i haven't flown anywhere since 9/11.

see i had this plan, since i was only going to be there from monday to friday, i was only bringing one bag that i could put in my overhead compartment (see i've mastered the art of travelling fairly light!). every thing in one bag that wouldn't have to be checked and wouldn't have the potential to get lost when i switch planes in ohio (where i have an hour delay for a 10 MINUTE FLIGHT on to nashville). i've always had a fear of losing my luggage and getting stuck somewhere with no clothing and with my budget, buying a new wardrobe is out of the question!

so now i'm making lists, mental and physical. i found out that the meetings i'm attending are business casual, so i've been doing my own clothing remix - pulling out long sleeved button down dress shirts to make them 3/4 sleeve and summer comfortable. i'm googling different places i'd like to visit (the zoo, the local harley shop for birthday and christmas gifts for my brother, the local fabric shop to look for different things than what i get in maine, etc. etc.)

i'm very excited and just very nervous! for the most part, it will be me, no friends and no family accompanying or meeting me there...pretty well me alone for the first 2 1/2 days. and at that, i'm the only staffer going, the rest are legislators. no one to really hang out with till my boss shows up and even then, she'll be in meetings and events that i won't be. so i have to make my own fun, do my own exploring and traverse nashville on my own...scary and exciting, all at the same time!

must go home to finish remixing shirts now. my day is over!

have a lovelylovely evening!

corners of my home - an ode to the porch

last night was so quiet and peaceful. the muggy day faded into the mid 60's with a breeze. it's so weird how quickly the weather has really shifted gears around here. autumn feels and smells like it's just around the corner.

i threw on a pair of jeans and a hoody, grabbed an old book and a cuppa with the earl (an aromatic cup of earl grey, that is) and headed for my happy place, my sanctuary...the porch.

my porch is a place where wind chimes gently sway in the breeze, where christmas lights shine and rosemary and lavender scent the air. it is also the place where many nic-nac odds and ends go that i don't want to let go of just yet.

my porch is my window on the neighborhood. where i can listen to the crickets and peepers; children, distant tv's and radio's; dog's barking, bird's singing and phone's ringing. sitting in my old papasan chair, out of sight from the street, hiding away from the bugs in the summer, wrapped in a quilt in the autumn, decorated in christmas greenery and red berries in the winter even though it's too cold to sit out there.

it is my happiness, it is my place of relaxation, it is my porch.

walking the dog

sun through trees
Originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

so i actually remembered to take my camera with me the other day when i walked sadie.

here are the shots.

i would post more picts in this post, but blogger obviously doesn't want me to!

it hasn't been very exciting around here and i have a ton of stuff to finish before i leave work, so i'm letting my flickr pictures speak for me today!

enjoy the evening all! (it's only the beginning of august and already autumn smells and feels like it's in the air!)

WIP to done

from this:

to this:

to this:

and "grazing" is done!

i'm feelin' a sense of accomplishment right now.

have a wicked evening, folks!

the friday five - in no particular order

waking up to the soft pitterpat of rain hitting the porch roof

sleepily walking the dog on soaked streets

gravel and sand underfoot with contruction equipment looming overhead

seeing lilies in bloom, catching their heady scent in the mildly humid but definitely (thankfully) cooler air

low hung, rain soaked tree branches showering little drops upon my shoulders

the noise of cars, trucks, vans passing by on their way to/from work

the euphoric smell of coffee brewing mingling with the sweet taste of that caffeine-y goodness

a quick sip of chocolate milk from a real glass jar with a smiling cartoon cow printed on it bought at a farm stand in waldoboro maine (and bought solely for the glass jar - but it's maine milk and very good!)

feeling a sense of accomplishment for finishing a very belated thank you gift for a friend

planning a menu for dinner this evening with my oldest friend (we've been together since we were 14 and seen each other through the best and worst of times) and then figuring out which movie will we go to see tonight (probably "lady in the water")

smiling with the knowledge that there is a possibility to go horseback riding this weekend (for the first time in 22 years!)

today feels like a lazy friday, but it's moving faster than i expected.

i hope everyone's weekend is relaxed and filled with things you enjoy doing!

ewwww...but wow, too

Lake Spider up close
Originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

i have a death fear of spiders. not daddy long legs or the little ones. i can deal with anything smaller than my fingernail (legs and all), but when their bodies are the size of my fingernail and they have huge long legs like wood spiders, i freak. this guy fascinates me and terrifies me all at once. i've seen it (and it's predecessors) over the years, always huge (seriously, it's body is bigger than my thumb and it's legs rival the length of my pinky), always scary.

but i can't help starring at it. i try not to kill spiders as i know they are very beneficial creatures. they take care of the flies at my house and i despise flies! but we have this agreement, the spiders and myself; if they stay out of my territory (the house and garage), i won't relocate them. if i find them anywhere in my bathroom, they're dead meat! they tend to stay in the garage, but even then, they like to cover the inside of the garage door with their webs, which means i have to unlock the garage door quickly from the inside, then go outside to open it (so nothing drops on me when the door goes up) and take the
broom to them!

in the picture, if you look behind the spider, you can see the baby spider sack. it was writhing when i took this picture. soon enough, there will be hundreds of little versions of this spider spewing forth from it! the thought gives me chills!

i have to stop looking at this picture. maybe someday i'll get over my fear...but it's not today.

have a great day, all! and sorry if this gave anyone the creeps!