I'm running to catch a fairy!!

Oops, make that ferry...the fairies will have to wait to catch up with me!

Signing out for the weekend--the fairies will miss me! (they almost made me type "mess" me!)

Just a short post today as I'm crazily getting all my printing orders (thank the heavens for my new printer who is amazing & if you want to find out who he is & give him more business let me know) & graphics finalized (& thank heaven for Lauren & NO YOU CAN'T HAVE HER DO ANYTHING FOR YOU BECAUSE SHE'S BUSY WORKING ON MY STUFF!) for the August 8/9 show before I head to Vancouver Island tomorrow. I'm going to paint on some pottery, a first for me, in my potter cousin's studio. Should be interesting for a visual artist as the glazes don't go on the same colour that they are when they come out of the kiln after firing! I hope Lynds has some colour chips for me!! And working on 3-D objects is another new creative area for me to work into.

I'm also busy creating personalized journal books and bookmarks and calendars for 2010 for the launch of my new line of magically inspired products--do you know what fairy footprints look like? I do--& the fairies have already been tromping around (well, very delicately, you can hardly call it tromping--maybe tiptoe-ing is more accurate) my books & left their marks! So they're adding their magic, I'm adding mine, & we'll see what happens when they hit the public! I've got a new email address set up to take orders, and we're working away to get all the signage & bits & pieces ready to go in 10 days.

I was inspired today when visiting an artist friend who has been painting for a long time. She feels she is getting to the end of her career (I'm not so sure about that!) & she has been so generous with her assistance to me in preparation for the next 2 shows--with time, ideas, suggestions for hanging & presenting as much of my original art as I can get out there. A lovely woman who is well loved by many & has so many contacts in the artist community it's stunning. I'm very pleased to be the recipient of her knowledge.

So, off to the Island, after the pottery painting it's a family reunion & then a halibut fishing trip on Monday with my husband to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary (that's if you don't count that we were married 3 times in one year, then we're actually celebrating our 15th anniversary!) I'm so lucky to have been with him for 30 years & the last five have been the best ever--hopefully he'd say that too but I'm not sure he'll ever be a blogger. He's more of a woodsy- type guy, few words & lots of presence.

So, see you next week. Enjoy our holiday weekend & the Aussie-type weather--I sure do! The magic will return next week--& keep looking out for the fairies in your garden!

This morning's conversation with the fairies

Hello everyone!
The days pass so fast in my magic garden that I'm just going to have to forget about day before yesterday's events & yesterday's events & report on this morning's musings...& I think I've found a better way to report the fairies' words that is more legible, both to you and to me as I'm recording it in my journal. It was getting hard to read the writing I'd done in the highlighter alone, let me tell you! So I'll try a different colour for them, just not yellow! You'd think as an artist & watercolourist I'd realize that yellow is one of the most fragile & delicate of colours that you have to preserve early in the piece, & be careful not to put much of any other colour overtop unless you're happy to lose it. So, I think I'll try the fairies' words in a variety of colours & you tell me which one you like best.

Today's entry--July 27, 2009

The fairies were calling me when I woke up this morning, but I resisted coming out back until I had a least had my smoothie & put on a load of washing (laundry for those of you who follow this in Canada as opposed to Australia or England). They whispered an invitation to come out & play with them as soon as I woke. Very seductive to come out & sit here all day & never get any work done in the real world.
Pshaw--what real world? This is the real world! You created it & it's here for your pleasure & time. And we love it here too! (That's the fairies talking by the way)
So, what did you think of my friends yesterday? (oh yes, I think I forgot to report from the previous journals that I was wondering if the fairies would be interested in visiting the corporate world & bringing some magic there. They were somewhat horrified by the idea, something about "don't like suits" but they were interested in checking people out who I brought over, into the back yard. And they certainly liked my little nieces (see previous post).
They were very magical beings--we loved the champagne the beautiful dark-haired one brought. And her--what's that word you humans use? "Familiar", that's it. Cedar, he told us his name was.
Oh, so you like dogs, do you?
Well, not all of them. Some of them are horrid and nasty & very snarly. But Cedar (we'd name him Cedric ourselves) was gorgeous. Did you notice how he led you to us?
Yes I did. And I really liked the gum-tree fairy (a present and model for me) that appeared in the fairy cave, on the fairy bed under the bird bath!
We like her too. I think she'll stay around a while so your nieces can visit with her.
I was thinking if she'd like to go back to Australia she could come with me in November. I'm pretty sure she'd slip through the customs easily enough. It looks like she came from there anyway.
They won't see her--don't you worry. Even the US Border Protection or whatever they're calling themselves can't stop us doing our magic work & playing globally.
And so, what about Nikki, my other friend--what did you think of her?
We don't know her as well as the dark-haired one, who we've danced with many times before, in this life and others. Nikki seemed more aware of you than of us. We'd like it if they both came back again & brought some more bubbles for us to play with!
Oh, so you did know about the bubble bath Nikki brought eh?
Yes, she's a very generous person and we could see what a big heart she has. And weren't you going to bring someone else for us to see? The more the merrier is our motto!
Oh, my other friend Brenda. You'll find her very elfin-like & I suspect you may be danced with her before too. I'll invite her out next time we get together to paint--I think it will be soon.
Yes, we could hear you all laughing and playing away while you painted in your studio. And we want you to come out & play with us & paint out here so we can put more of our magic into your brushes while you work! Please Please Please???
Well, I'm a little afraid well fall under your spells & not get anything done if we're that close to you. We almost got lost in time yesterday in the house, we were so enchanted. But, we'll see what we can do when they come again.

I've got to finish up now but maybe tomorrow you can tell me some more fairy stories--like, is there really a cherry fairy? & if so is there an apricot fairy? I'd like to start writing some of your fairy legends and stories for the human world if you're interested. You know, you can't be too rich or too famous, right?
Well, not too sure about the rich part but we like to be legends.
Ok, tomorrow then. And I'll be back at dusk with my candle again & call with with the new fairy bell that Sharon brought over.

And to you, my blog readers, have a great day & maybe you have some children or grandchildren, or nieces & nephews that you'd like to share this with--go ahead!!
See you soon!
e (I'm now away without the fairies at the pool)

Yesterday's magic garden story--see photos

This might be very quick as I have some more fun friends coming to show to my garden fairies, as well as to paint some magical stuff. Yesterday was great fun & my two nieces came over dressed like fairies to be painted, to paint, & to hunt for fairies in my garden. No, not like trophy hunt, (like my husband who is MIA since yesterday morning when he called), but more like hide & seek I think.

There were some signs that were found about fairy visitations, proof of a kind, & when I was writing this morning the fairies were very interested & interesting. I'll share more from my journal later when the fairy dust from today settles down.

Meanwhile enjoy the photos & look in your own backyard to see if you have some resident fairies there!

Away with the fairies

No, I don't mean, "away with them", like, they should all be exterminated, or anything like that...I meant, today I'm "away with the fairies" on some magical journey...a further iteration of the Magical Mystery Tour, I think.
After my coaching session yesterday, with my Irish-blooded coach in my garden which she called "magic", she suggested I watch for fairies in the garden. And, this morning, when I was out there writing in my journal, the most miraculous thing happened.

I'm going to quote from my journal, I must warn you, THIS REALLY HAPPENED!!
So, here goes:

(I'm generating ideas for my magical business here--give me feedback if you like!)

Maybe I could magically send my fairies to give some corporate messages..Or send myself "Representing magic & fairies in the world" through my art & other magical ways...promoting magic & art in the world...working magic with art & Ink.

(Looking out into my garden now where a hummingbird just swooped down for about 3 seconds)

The fairies even get rides on the hummingbirds. I didn't have my glasses on but I swear I heard one laughing on the back of the hummingbird that hovered to say good morning & then flew back to the shade of the big fir to deposit her. Something like a helicopter ride but even better--more natural!

(& looking downwards, towards my journal)

In the corner of my eye, I just saw some little shimmers of fairy wings approaching across the patio. And now one's sitting reading what I've written about them. Aren't they gorgeous little creatures!

(And then I heard clearly & started writing)

"I'm not a c r e a t u ! !

(you have to imagine this in ink writing, the fading type was the best I could do on this blog program.) Just to prove her power she ran me out of ink!!! So, luckily I had my favourite PHN pen with a wedge-shaped yellow highlighter on the end so I just turned it over & started using the point to write, very finely,)

Fooled you~ (ok, originally I typed this in the yellow colour that I wrote " fooled you" in, which was a lovely clear lemon yellow, but it's way too hard to read on the computer so I'll darken it a little for your reading pleasure. Say, maybe that's why we don't notice fairies writing on the internet--we can't read the colour they write in, we only notice that things don't work for mysterious reasons, sometimes? Anyway, I digress)

Fooled you--I have a magic highlighter *#$(@( (I can't read this bit because the gold is too faint & I must have scribbled so I can't tell that word) pens to continue. And this is much more lovely & vibrant & fairy-like writing anyway. I guess you were just showing me a better way, eh? Well, Thanks! (because at this point I didn't want to write anything else that could be construed as nasty & have her jinx me again, or take off)

So, should I write about you to Terry? Tell him how gorgeous you are & see if he'll have you come to stay & inspire his muse both at home & at work? (Terry's my wonderful cousin who writes music & plays it as well as doing a huge corporate job in Calgary, & who's said he'll coach me in 2 1/2 years when he retires) Oh, you have to get to know him first, eh? Ok, well, let's start writing him some emails. You can skip through the ether & watch him reading. Maybe you'd like to talk to the big corporate honcho & work some magic on him? Maybe he'd write a song about you? Ok, you'll have to hear his music first to see if you'd like that. Ok, well, somehow we'll have to organize a secret way for you to hear it, I guess.

At this point, I was at the bottom of the page, so I turned the page over to 2 blank pages (as you do when you're writing in a journal) and sat there for no more than 30 seconds, mulling about what to write next, when "poof" she disappeared.

Guess she was easily bored--I'm told that fairies have the attention span of a gnat (not, however, wanting to insult them, I might add that I sometimes do too...& I have said that out loud about myself too, as well as written it.) So hopefully she didn't/doesn't see that & decide to never again grace me with her presence for all of eternity.

Well folks, I hope you enjoyed that fairy story (& really, I must protest--it was real, not a fairy tale--I have the proof of it in my journal...which I might show to you...like, if you offered me a significant amount of money...MAYBE! )
But Lauren knows it's real, I showed it to her as I read it out loud, and we might start writing fairy messages in yellow or gold, on things to sell--that would be called, original art, I do believe!) and that's all for the evening.

I'm going off to create some magic (maybe black?) with my friend She-rah Queen of TELUSwhat you think (at least until she gets a buyout), & my sister, who creates her magic in gardens & garden designs. Maybe you want her to design something magical for you??? Her name is Phyllis & if you leave me a note I'll put you in touch with her!

Ciao for now, the fairies are waving goodbye too. bye bye! Do you see one sitting on the corner of your computer desk? (They don't like electricity much I'm told, so they wouldn't be there for long). I'm told trolls & things are much hardier creatures against the electrical vibrations of our modern world so it's no wonder if there's lots of those hanging around corporate offices (I think that was a joke).
Signing off...
e

Aujourdhui je commence a blogger en francais!

Salut les copains! Je sais qu'il y a ceux de vous qui peut lire francais, comme Lauren, Julie (la mere to Lauren), Gael, Gilles, et il y a des autres comme Leo qui sait comment le traduire, gratuitement, avec Yahoo Babelfish!
Alors, je commencerai a practiquer ma francais en preparation pour la prochaine voyage a France--je ne sais pas quand, mais, j'entend l'appel. Et, mon entraîneur nouvelle veut y emporter mes peintures! Bientôt!! (Pardon--c'est seulement possible de faire les accents francais avec l'assistance de Babel Fish--peut-etre quelqu'un peut me dire comment moi-meme?)

J'ai un tas de choses a faire ce weekend, en preparation pour la fete le 8/9 aout. Donc, je vais partir maintenant, sans beaucoup de commentaires.

Et, pour ceux qui sont toujours anglais, je ferai un poteau en anglais ce-dessous--MAGIE!!! Avec Babel Fish!
A bientot!

Hi Everyone!
I don't know how many of you can read French, like Lauren, Julie (her mother), Gael, Gilles, and there are others like Leo who know how to translate it, for free, via Yahoo Babel fish.
So, I'm starting to practise my French in preparation for the next trip to France--don't know when, but I hear the call. And, my new coach wants to take my paintings there--soon! (sorry, it's only possible to do the accents on the French words if it's translated in Babel Fish, unless one of you can tell me how on this keyboard?)
I have tons of things to do this weekend, getting ready for the art show August 8/9, so I'm going now, without any more comments.
And, for those of you who are only English speaking/reading, I will do a translation below through Babelfish (actually I ended up doing it myself because I couldn't copy/past all the above text into French to to program. And since I started it myself in English it was much easier to just write it again in my mother tongue!)
See you soon!

My Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take me away

Hopefully that's not a copyright infringement??? With credit to the Beatles...a long-time favorite!

What's happened since my last post? Well, I can see my game plan for the business starting to fall into place--& I'm not going to get the results I intend from selling my original art alone, being in the watercolour field (that is, until after I'm dead...then apparently the prices go up dramatically. Still, I'm not willing to sacrifice myself for that!! And I'm delighted at this point to be well ahead of Vincent Van Gogh--on the sales side at least!--who only sold one painting before he--sadly and much too prematurely--offed himself.) So, I've been looking at ways of having my art (& in future other artist's work) reproduced into beautiful & functional multi-purpose items, & getting these visual reminders of my art out into the world. My intent is to test market them at the 2 art shows I'm in in August. It would be great to add some income for both realizing dreams as well as contributing to more charitable organizations including supporting other artists. I foresee in my crystal ball that I'm doing this mystery tour for not only my own art but making provision in my plans for including other artists through my website (under development...and I'll let you know in this blog when & where it's up and running, as, my wise future coach says that the website is the proper place for a blog. Once the website is up this blog will be transitioned onto it, per his suggestion. Very good coaching, as is the recommendation of my first & current wise & magical coach to just start blogging in the meanwhile!)

I've just put an order in for some bags with my logo on them, ready for the first show. The next item on the drawing board, after postcards, greeting cards, fridge magnet lists, 2010 calendar-- all with my art on them, is a line of journals & art books so I'm very excited to be meeting with a local printer tomorrow, with my trusty assistant Lauren, beside me. She's proving to be multi-talented and handling all kinds of details for me, including some Photo-shop logo development as I don't have time to start off learning it right now, let alone get art-work into printers under deadlines as she did this weekend! One of the best decisions I've made so far is hiring her! She is magic herself! However she's digging in her heels when I try to coax her into visiting a cemetary to find a wreath stand, which my local watercolour artist friends say is what I really need to get to display my framed originals at the sales. Something about--"you'd have to pay me double overtime to go to a graveyard"... I don't understand why! Other than that little blip our joint spell-casting seems to be working wonders on everyone we meet as well as each other!

And I'm wondering, are you being influenced by "my magic"? I'm feeling like I want to spread it everywhere, through my work...and can I do it through technology (like this blog) too? What are your wildest dreams & how can I help you make them come true in the best magical sense--invisible, easy, just appears in front of you like it was meant to be...? Conjured up out of nowhere...miraculous & incredible... Let me know if I've had some magical effect in your life, either by commenting on this blog (I think you have to sign up with Google to do that) or through the "old-fashioned technology" of email...or maybe through a "Note from the Universe" which is a great website that sends me a fantastically cool and inspiring email every weekday morning & I just love reading--google TUT & see what you think. If I could do something like that on the web I'd be over the moon! (some people think I am already...)

That's it for today, I've still not had time to try the suggested "system restore" method to recover the 2nd half of my deleted email list--thanks to the exceptionally quick response by Joan who had replied before I even had time to cry--& has poked me again to see if I've done it yet--while I was out playing with my husband today (I love my play-time with him & that takes priority over this, sorry folks but that's just how it is & you'll have to get used to that!)

I'm really loving blogging, writing, generating ideas & putting them in ink (practising calligraphy at the same time) on paper--and it's been more compelling than putting paint to paper right now so I hope I've got enough original stock to get me through the 2 art sales!! (of course, it would be magical to sell out--then what would I do??? I'm sure I could find something though!)

Ok, that really is it for today, 2nd warning to self!! See you again soon--stay tuned for further adventures!