Sweets for Shrove Tuesday

Here's a fairy selection of dainty treats for Shrove Tuesday. I have been busy teaching art classes this winter as well as working on new fairy images for an art show that is coming up in June, just in time for International Fairy Day. More about that closer to the date!

I have posted some of my art lesson material over at my other blog, All Around the Palette. Please do drop by and see the other side of the canvas, as it were.

It has been a mild winter for once, with just enough snow on the weekend for this charming scene on the nearby creek.

"Snowmen fall from heaven... unassembled." anon

Fairy Purses

The fairy purses have been mentioned mentioned before, they are Avril's crochet creations that were inspired by an antique "miser's purse". This one was in my Christmas stocking just a couple of weeks ago. Not miserly at all, these are stylish joined pockets of ingenious design; the entire work is a single continuous chain of crochet from one pocket to the other. Hard-to-find silky thread of just the right weight is necessary for the pockets to hang nicely and to support the beaded fringe.

Each pocket is 2.5 inches wide. The multi-layered flowers are Avril's invention too, plus the slider ring to keep the cords from tangling.
Designed to hold a few coins, perhaps or a sovereign or two, they are small enough to hang stylishly from a belt or belt loop.

Coming soon to the Etsy shop are these, in silky aquamarine

and fairy green.

Little fairy purses are beguiling things to shape and consider.

Peace on Earth

"....Thus spake the seraph and forthwith
appeared a shining throng
Of angels, praising God, who thus
Addressed their joyful song:

All Glory be to God on high,
And to the earth be peace;
Good-will henceforth from heaven to men
Begin and never cease."

Thank you for visiting Fairy Lanterns this year - wishing a Magical and Merry Christmas to all.

Merry Chris-Moose

I have been busy, on the move from one sales event to another with our books- though not as far afield as Santa travels!

Perhaps all nationalities see Santa as their very own. There is even a sense in this country that the North Pole is not so very far away, especially with the first snows falling. And if Santa is close to our northern woodlands wouldn't it be logical for the local creatures, like the moose, to be involved on Christmas Eve?

I have camped and canoed through this Great White North of ours, portaged around waterfalls and pitched tents beneath tall pine trees, and although I am not hardy enough for year-round life in the wilderness I find, like many artists before me, that the experience of the north inspires one's work ever after. Even to seeing Santa on a moose!
The "Here comes Santa Claus"card is now available on my Etsy shop.
Wishing a continuing safe and happy Advent to all.

Woodland Nutcracker, on the move

Woodland Nutcracker and Grandmother's Tree are up on the Etsy shop! And here are some of the Christmas fairs that we are going to with our books and cards, starting tomorrow:

November 5, 9:30-4:00, East Plains United Church,375 Plains Rd E, Burlington
November 12, 9:00-2:00, Church of the Epiphany, 141 Bronte Road, Oakvile
November19, 9:30-2:30, Appleby United Church, 4407 Spruce Avenue, Burlington
November26, 9:00-2:00, St John's United Church, 262 Randall St, Oakville.

December 2 - 24, Under The Moon Fine Arts, 217 Ottawa St. N., Hamilton

December 15-24, Arcadia Gallery, 680 Queens Quay West, Toronto, opening reception Thursday December 15, 5-9pm.

More dates to come. Woodland Nutcracker is also available at

A Different Drummer Books 513 Locust Street, Burlington
Bryan Prince Booksellers, 1060 King Street West, Hamilton and
The Acorn Card Shoppe, 221 Lakeshore RdE, Oakville.

" Woodland Nutcracker"

Our beautiful WoodlandNutcracker book, which was chosen as The Children's Picture Book of the year in 1999 by the Canadian Book Review Annual, was orphaned earlier this year when the publisher went out of business. We are fortunate to have obtained the remaining books from the publisher's warehouse, boxes of mint-new copies full of Christmas magic and adventure.


As with the earlier Woodland Christmas, the story was inspired by many camping trips and cottage visits in Canada's boreal forest, "far away from highways and city lights", where one can travel for days and not meet another human being or even a camera-shy bear. In a story that parallels the Nutcracker ballet, Clara is given a wonderful carved Nutcracker Bear who transforms into the dashing Nutcracker Prince. After settling a midnight battle between the tin soldiers and invading field mice with a Christmas Eve truce, giving the hungry mice food for their families, Clara and Nutcracker fly away to the Ice Palace of the Great Bear, Ursa Major.

At the Great Bear's palace an international cast of bears performs for Clara - juggling pandas and trapeze artist koalas and more, plus some of her dearest woodland friends. I have made two posters from the illustrations, grizzly bear Mother Ginger with her junior hockey team, and the polar bear Yuk Tuk dancing to the strains of the Russian Dance, pictured below. For the purposes of the poster I have placed a copy of the book in her gracefully extended paw!Sorting through the book images I rediscovered this little Nutcracker soldier, whom I have added to the title bar as a friendly exclamation point.

We are dedicating a portion of our sales of Woodland Nutcracker to benefit St. Matthew's House, a charitable agency in the Diocese of Niagara. We are taking the books to several Christmas fairs and the posters will show off the illustrations from across crowded rooms. The books will also be up on my Etsy shop shortly and I will be happy to sign copies or add a small embellishment for the finishing touch.

For the Bees

Further to inventions that imitate nature, here is one of a series of bumblebee-themed images I was asked to design some years ago. A "friendly bee" was asked for, one that was busy about a garden. It was a fun assignment and I eventually came up with several versions of BumbleBee, a family of them and their garden, including hollyhocks. I have been reviewing the images recently, going through the files, and this morning as I walked by the lake I came upon this:

an end-of-summer drowsy bee nestled in the hollyhocks that have naturalized along the unfinished harbour wall, among the small convolvulus and michaelmas daisies.

"And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease.. "
"To Autumn", John Keats