This year again, I danced with Mandy’s troupe from Down Hips Dance Studio, these are the Belly Donnas whose show was medievally magical.

at tech rehearsal the night before, my swords did not want to stay on my head, so my sleep that night was filled with angst, and many random attempts at placing the swords on my head all the next day in preparation. Yay, for the show, they stayed on.

my veil poi (or voi) however, got tangled about halfway through my intended plan. I guess my plan got “voiled”.  Here I am with the plan still on track.

at the faire, you meet all sorts of folk. I mistook my fairy Godmother for a scoundrel, now I have to go on craigslist to find a new one.

Rapunzel asked me to take a bit off the top and an inch off the ends.  Ok, Ok, I was overzealous….

His chainmail made a nicer jingly sound than my coins, and frankly, I can’t have that.

I’m considering this post to be both Art and Garden /Nature.  I only have a cheapy point and shoot camera….but I have way too much fun with the macro feature.  Last night, Alf and I went out wandering in the back yard enjoying one of the most wonderous snowfalls of this season.  The night was so still and the flakes so fluffy.  We experimented with a flashlight as our light source for this photo.  Between my dire need for bifocals, and my shakiness with my advancing age…frankly I’m surprised I got a shot as nice as this

Then we took the pups for an amazing walk along the river and caught this last little snowflake that hasn’t melted like the rest of his friends have….

Can you tell I am just itching to get out into my garden and start sniffing things and digging?

Here is a very happy Turbo!

Siren’s long hair collects the snow nicely, I like to call her Cap’n Snow Beard….

Siren likes to tug too….but she’s a girl…so a bit more gently…..

…. I found this KICK *** candle holder thingy at a garage sale for $10. It also comes with chains and an ornamental medallion type thingy….but so far won’t use it for this installation.

Then I put a curtain behind it to give it more of a grand look, this will be the temporary headboard for the bed in the guest bedroom. ( I have grand plans for a real headboard)

 Next I hung up this wicked dragon wall sconce as the  bedside lamp. 

Here is the same shot but I’ve also added LED tea lights onto the candle holder so that you can see how awesome it is!!!

I’m a big fan of repurposing, so this old ugly bi-fold door that used to be in our front porch area has now become a shelving unit.   I gave it a good scrub, then painted it black, cut a top shelf from some particle board kicking around, and voila!  Now it is a place of honour for this gargoyle. (this is the very first gargoyle in my collection.  It is a gift from my sister Laurie, and I think she meant it to be for the garden but it is so beautiful and delicate (for a gargoyle) that I just can’t put it outside.  Now it can stare at her as she sleeps in the guest bedroom.)

Here are the 3 projects all together.  I think I will paint the walls a lavender-gray color to give it a deeper feeling of gothic.  I also have a few other things to get in to the room, 2 decorative Medieval axes,(that I blogged about earlier) and I have quite a bit of medieval/gothic art, as well as Dragons, Gryphons and more gargoyles to add to the decor.  Also that cord hanging from the dragon lamp bothers me, so a project that I will work on very soon will be an “appliqué quilt” type deal to set in front to hide the cord…I think I’ll wimp out and use glue instead of intensive sewing though….we’ll see how I feel about it when I have the pieces cut out.

I formed the roof of the yurt by baking it on top of a sauce pan lid that was yelling at me ” I’m a yurt roof form…really I am”. it just needed a tin foil lining for easy removal.

A coffee can served as a wonderful form for the yurt walls.  I actually used one of my silpats to bake the walls on the can, but here they are resting and cooling without the silpat. (there is waxed paper under those cookie walls)

Decorated the roof.

This is Ginger and Meg (Nutmeg) standing in front of the yurt.

Tribal belly dancers standing in front of their Yurt. from Left to right:
Cinnamon, Ginger, “Clo” (Cloves/Chloe), Meg (Nutmeg)…and Marge…for ( margarine/butter…even though she’s not spicy….).  Notice they are guarding the cookies in the yurt…snowflakes, (their food source for the winter ahead).

Of course gingerbread bellydancers travel around on reindeer….(have to find a camel cookie cutter)

Alf and I got back from the Cambridge Center for the Arts, where the current show is the beautiful acrylic paintings by Amy ferrari. At times I marveled at how some pieces reminded me of the work of Alex Janvier, of Gerogria O’keefe, and Lawren Harris.  I have been meaning to do more painting and drawing, and I am certainly inspired again after seeing this show.

http://amyferrariart.tripod.com/

My next bit of inspiration comes from a garden blog I stumbled upon.  It is February already…and that means one must start planning the garden for the summer ahead….I already know that my color scheme for the front will be intense pinks and oranges in black containers and other black accents. ( this is not only planning for the summer, but of course halloween….you can never be too prepared for halloween!)

http://empressofdirt.blogspot.com/2010/06/tour-my-garden-2010.html

I really enjoyed reading her blog…I think I “merely scratched the surface”  but feel like she’s my lost twin… and look forward to seeing her garden develop ( she has just moved to a new house and has a blank canvas  to work with!!!

 one of the reasons I enjoyed reading her blog so much was that it is a nice little history of one’s work…and I went back and perused my blog….then felt sad that it has been so neglected…..but that in turn, renewed my vigour to revitalize my little cyber diary.

 (apologies if anyone is offended) but they make me giggle.