I was away visiting my kids in San Diego. Thought I'd be blogging from down there but their wi-fi was down so instead I just disappeared on everyone for a week - sorry 'bout that. I'm back.

Just a few photos of interesting things from Coronado Island.


I loved the unusual lines on this window. The rest of the house was a bit shabby but really neat as well, unfortunately I didn't get a good photo of it.


We split a sandwich in this little deli downtown Coronado. They had these interesting chandeliers, three of them if I recall, which I really liked a lot but also couldn't help but think if they ever fell, they'd impale someone!


I was looking for turquoise for this week's color theme for Shades of Inspiration. Here's a really pretty home with a turquoise colored door and window.

Another pretty turquoise door in the same neighborhood.

While my son drove up above the bay on the Coronado Bridge I snapped a couple photos. Lots of pretty boats floating down below.

If you want to see photos of the granddaughter and other cute and related beings, hop on over to Beach Treasure.

This is a Lookee What I Got! post. I went to the local thrift shop a couple times since I've been back from the faery festival, for no other reason than I had some real cash in my pocket and you have to pay cash at the shop.

The first time I went they had just set out a big box of old jewelry. I picked through it all and bought all this for fifty cents a pair. I got some really pretty pieces for whatever I want to use them for. I thought that was a pretty good deal. But then I went back again and....

..... the person minding the shop said that no one was really buying them so if I wanted the rest of it, I could have it all. For free. It's a charity shop, so I offered to pay something. I got all the rest of this for one dollar. It's mostly just bright colors and shiny metal but there's a few really good finds, like a vintage Christmas pin I really like and my favorite, a wee little cowbell. ("We need more cowbell!")


And then I asked her how much the real silver and china tray was that the old jewelry was sitting in and she sold me that for $2!!



Other goodies. I got this cute little pillow. You can see a little bit of how shimmery it is in the photo. Depending on which way the light hits it it looks purple or blue. In other words, periwinkle, my favorite color blue. I kept the tag sticking out because I know a lot of you would like the name - it's a company called Bella. I don't know how much it cost me, maybe a quarter.


This is a cute little appointment book with scenes of Paris on it. It's in good shape, even had a working pen with it. The inside calendar and note papers had been used but they have the replacement stacks at Walmart. It was kinda fun though, it was obviously owned by a teenager and it was chock full of embarrassingly personal notes and messages - who she loves forever, who she hates forever, what one friend was trying to do to break up her and her boyfriend who she loves beyond measure (but later in the year apparently hates more than time itself). LOL. It made for some very entertaining reading.


I got about a dozen of this little silvery swirly thingies. I think they were for a wedding, they have these really lame paper hearts tied to the ends. I plan to take the hearts off, or maybe just use them as background, and add all sorts of things like spiders or skulls or whatnot for the S&S swap. Mwahahahahaha.


I saved my favorite for last - these adorable wee witch shoes. I put my tiny owl on there to give you an idea of how small these boots (real leather!) are - my owl is maybe 3" tall. Aren't they sweet! They're a bit dusty and I'm not sure if I like them like that or want to clean them up a bit so they're shiny and black. I have to come up with a clever way to display them this year. Any ideas?

Faerieworlds - Wings Part III

This lady seemed surprised I wanted to take her photo. Yes, her outfit was on the simple side, but how can one resist black and white polka dots! And her wings matched her dress and then she added red feathers. I want an outfit like this just to wear to the supermarket on any old day. Wouldn't you feel cheerful just wearing it?


This was one of the girls that "our Victoria" hooked up with on the last day. Three young beauties, they wandered about giggling and getting their photo snapped. This girl, well, young woman (sorry, I'm old, I might call you a girl if you're under 30) had these gorgeous swallowtail butterfly style wings that stood out from all the way across the festival.



Here's Victoria in some goregous lunar moth style wings. The wingmaker was a vendor at the festival who asked Victoria to walk around modeling them. It really finished off her costume beautifully.

I loved the soft shimmery wings and the shimmery soft dress as well. I'm thinking of making one of my outfits something along these lines for next year. Maybe not these colors, but this soft raggedy look.

Oh, who's this wee fae in the feather rimmed wings dragging her blankie around? My Joli! She's worn these wings for two years now. She also had some little red, black and orange ones for her Bad Faerie Day outfit.


Another drapey sheer set I liked, particularly the detailed cut along the edges.


Sort of hard to separate out from the crowd here but, there are four young girls all wearing similarly styled wings - one in pale blue and turquoise, one in gold and white, and two in maroon and black. We saw them walking about and conjectured that they must have had some adult help them spend an afternoon wingmaking together. What a lovely memory for them to all look back on some day.


Pretty leaf wings and I really like the red gothic bat style wings. Or maybe vampire style?


Either hand made or bought and then hand embellished. I liked the mixture of whimsical and woodsy.


These were much larger than the red, white, and black "French Fairy" wings that I made, but similarly made methinks. They were very big and very dramatic, I'm guessing these were her "dressy" wings - y'know, for special occasions.


And just when you think you've seen them all, here's another pair of wings Victoria brought home with her. Henna'ed wings. (she's not glistening by the way, she's got glitter lotion on her skin) I have no plans to ever get a permanent tattoo but if I was forced to get one, this really appeals to me. Maybe I'll get myself a henna pair next year. Or maybe I'll get them on my ankles, like Mercury (appropriate for a writer, eh?) so that I can enjoy seeing them for as long as they last.

Faerie Wings - Part II

I liked these long, sheer, drapey wings.

Same wings, seen with the sun behind them. It really picks up the lacy pattern.

Rainbow colors and lots of swirls, dips, and added winglets.

These were probably store bought but it looks like someone added some sparklies on this young faery's wings.


These autumn faeries had the most glorious wings! Lots of people took photos of these two but I think my photo, with the sun caught in the top of their wings, was one of the best.


Wings don't have to be large to catch one's interest. Aren't these sheer rainbow colored mini wings wonderful! And they were light enough to wear on a strapless frame that fit inside the back of her outfit - a big plus to smaller wings!


More simple but pretty wings. I liked the leaf shape and color and the deep red roses. And I liked the black sheer lace on the other pair. Oh, love those spiderweb stockings as well!


Dramatic, punky, matching young women in contrasting colors. They must come from the same faery tribe.


Some people wore wings in different places than their back. A few had wings on their head, hat or ears. A few had them on their chest or on a wand. Some didn't have wings at all (or....maybe their wings were just INVISIBLE! This faery gent had wings on his face! And hey, isn't this just a great photo! (Here, let me toot my own horn a few more times - TOOT TOOT!)


Another pair of a that new style I mentioned yesterday that combines a natural veining look with a sheer form and no outer framework. The wings look delicate but someone let me touch theirs and they are actually quite sturdy. This particular pair was possibly my favorite wings of the entire festival.


Adorable costume and fantastic wings but boy oh boy, I sure don't envy her limited maneuverability. That's a lot of width from wing tip to wing tip to keep track of while walking through the crowds. Even with my smaller wings, which I kept within or just an inch or two past my shoulder width, I quickly learned to do the "fairy twist" where one twisted sideways to pass by in a crowded space so you wouldn't clip someone with your wings, or even "lock" wings with someone.

Part III tomorrow.

Over at Beach Treasure today I've treated you to a bit of whining and to make up for that, a handful of photos of pretty Paris street scenes.

I've been sharing the bulk of my Faerieworld photos over on Beach Treasure, but I took a lot of photos of wings. A LOT of photos. I had no idea how many until I tried to upload them all here and realized I would have to break it down into three posts to share even the best of them! I decided to share the wing photos here as it's a reflection of the amazing artistic (and technical) talents and creativity of all the magical people who attended the festival. The majority of these people are not professional wing makers or even professional artists, but all of the wings (and outfits) were uniquely wonderful.

These transluscent wings were new this year, or at least they seemed so to me as I didn't spy any of them last year. They were perhaps my favorite new fae fashion.


I also liked the more natural wings. These are nice because I'm sure they're meant as camouflage in the faery's native surroundings.


A vendor was selling these incredible accordian pleated wings. They were very expensive and yet probably couldn't be sold for less because of he volume of fabric and the work involved in creating them. They were great for dancing and had the advantage of draping flat when not in use so that one could walk through a crowd without catching your wings on anything or anyone.


I liked the holes and the periwinkle blues of this pair. She was one of the few fae I saw in denim but it she made it work.


A variation on the accordian wing vendor was a vendor who made these stunning frayed, hand dyed full size dance wings. This is Sue from Gaia Consort showing off a pair. They also came in a smaller version for children but I think they'd be nice for adults as well who wanted something less voluminous. This was the one major cost item that I was really considering - she had a stunning pair in greens - but I behaved msyelf. I did bring home her business card though.

What's that Joli has? Oh dear! Looks like some faery shed their wings!

There were some amazingly complex wings but sometimes simple did the trick. These shimmery, plain wings looked lovely with her outfit. And were a nice contrast to her awesome rainbox color faery hair.


These wings were huge, very dramatic, but I wonder if she regretted their size as they just never seemed to perk up.

Hubby also had problems with his wings on Bad Faerie Day. It wasn't so much that they were too large as, they were too heavy. They kept twisting in the middle and hanging sideways, crooked, upside down. I didn't get a good photo of them in their proper alignment but even here you can see how beautiful they were. It's unfortunate that he had so many problems with them. He ultimately gave up and took them off. I think I can probably make a better rigging for them and he can give them a go again next year.


I thought these were pretty. I liked the how the vibrant colors were set off by the black.


I can tell these were store bought wings but even still, I thought they worked so well with her dress (which is so incredibly beautiful) that they were a good choice. Although, now that I'm thinking about the possibilities - that dress with something all wispy and stringy in the same colors .... ooooh!

Tomorrow, part II of this fascinating three part series on faerie wings. (I feel like I'm doing a documentary on faeries for the Discovery Channel or something!) If you need more Faerieworld photos before tomorrow, hop on over to Beach Treasure where I've put up photos today of all the other creatures and beings I captured with my camera lens.

This week's Shades of Inspiration is both a color and not a color. It's a..... state of being?

RUST!

Here's a rusty ol' jack-o-lantern smiling in my summer garden.

For more of rusty photos, visit the Shades of Inspiration Flickr Group.

I always thought I was sort of an odd duck since I start thinking about my favorite holiday in earnest just about the middle of August. I try to hold off on actually putting out any Autumn decorations until at least September though. October 31 might seem a long way off, but I like to celebrate for at least a month.... or two. Two and a half. As many Autumn holidays as possible in as many ways. I feel completely in my element with pumpkins and harvesting tomatoes late at night before a threatening frost and leaves crunching underfoot and bats and witches flying outside or in my kitchen and balanced between the summer's bounty and the winter's rest. But with the internet, I'm beginning to discover that I'm far from alone in my feelings.

Apparently I'm already "cutting it close", too late even, for most Halloween and Autumn art swaps or Challenges!!!! A girl wanders off into the land of the fae for a bit, comes back to discover that everyone else seems to have moved past into Autumn while I was missing! Everywhere I go, Halloween Swap Buttons are showing up on blog sidebars and the original posts announcing them and the deadlines for joining are long past. And I thought I was an autumn early bird... early crow?

Here's my dining room window scene last October. All those smiling jack-o-lanterns and dancing skeletons make me clap my hands in glee!

Honestly, it's just as well that I'm too late to consider joining all those swaps. I was fortunate to get into the swap I enjoyed last year, Artsymama's Sweet and Sinister Swap. I have not only an official swap partner but at first I thought I had missed getting in and I hooked up with another of last year's swappers who missed signing up this year, so I have TWO partners. Yah me! I've already got a bunch of fun ideas to get started on. I had soooo much fun making things last year.

But if I joined all those other wonderful swaps out there, I probably would get so stressed out my head would explode. As decorative as an exploding head might be this time of year, I think I'd rather keep it on my shoulders, thank you. Besides, I have lots and lots of other autumn activities to keep me busy.

Here's my grandbaby Joli "giving me a hand" in setting out the outdoor decorations last year. My daughter-in-law and granddaughter, with DIL's friend in tow, are coming to help decorate and celebrate again this October. It's quickly becoming a tradition to have a full house for Halloween. No one else does it up quite like I do and who wants to miss out on that! Too, there's no competition from other relatives like there is for Thanksgiving or December. But it's really the fact that I have people to help me enjoy all the activities that make it the special time that it is. The pumpkin patch, raking leaves, buying candy, setting up an ancestral altar, making a graveyard in the front yard, making Halloween art, eating candy, watching favorite Halloween specials and movies, picking out and making costumes, candy (did I mention candy already?), decorating the Halloween tree, trick or treating... All fun things to do regardless. But doing them with others increases the fun exponentially. It can't get any better than that, having family and friends help me celebrate my favorite time of the year. It turns fun into FUN!