Recently, I was inspired by an article my boyfriend sent me to write another book, one of the many in the works, about the unusual and unique butterflies and moths that are all around. While I was thinking about this, it struck me that a fairy would more likely be a moth than a butterfly? It seems an odd thought, but hear me out.

There are many legends about fairies going underground or disappearing all together, right? Reasons are left to speculations and those vary, but generally it is agreed upon that you don’t see fairies unless you believe in them and they want you to see them. Fairies are masters of hiding, right?

Not to out my winged friends, but if you were going to hide, the best place to do it would be in plain sight. Moths, in particular, are geniuses when it comes to this, and I don’t just mean camouflage.

Where I live, we have this miraculous moth called a hummingbird moth. They only come out at dusk in the summer. They look, move, and act like hummingbirds.

Moths are known for copying behavior of other insects and animals. Now, consider how many times have we seen fairies depicted as, or with features inspired by, other animals or creatures.

Clap your hands if you believe! 😉

Some might remember dryer balls from that one aromatherapy business I used to do craft shows with. Since then, I not only learned the craft for making dryer balls and have taken over their production, but the fairies and I are adding our own magical flair to the mix, such as with our Vanilla Spice scented Phoenix Balls, with help from the original designer, Barbara Lieberman. Because, doing laundry should be magical!

But, let's back up a bit for some of the new fairy-lovers and fairy-followers out there. Just what are dryer balls and why bother with them? Some of the magic is not only in the fantastic creatures from which they draw their inspiration, but also in the benefits to your washer, your clothing, your wallet, and the environment!

Just toss these Woolez in your dryer and away you go- No more fabric softener and a faster drying time! The more you add to your dryer, the faster the drying time, softer the clothes, and more money saved. Wool does not harbor bacteria. The wool fibers absorb static cling and the friction softens clothing and shortens drying time, too! They can take years of abuse without cracking, unraveling, and falling apart like other dryer balls do.

Woolez last at least one year. Scented Woolez will lose their scent but can be rescented, if desired, with fragrance oil or essential oil. (Original description by the original Woolez maker, Barbara Lieberman)

Some of the magic is also in how they are made. Believe it or not, it all starts with some colored wool. Barbara Lieberman, who is not only a master needle felter (have you seen here Thumbles?), but she is learning to spin. Thanks to that, she now mixes the wool for me using her carders. This is how I get such amazing fiery hues for my Phoenix Balls, rainbow blends for my unicorn balls, and watery tones for my Mermaid Balls!

The more familiar and common scents, such as lavender, rose, cinnamon, and lemon can be found at Pipe & Thimble Bookstore in Lomita, CA. You can even order a couple of the scents online through them. These more fantastical scents can be found at Faerie Fest in Solvang and other upcoming events, such as Welcome to the Fairy Forest!

​It’s been a while since I posted a blog about my fairy business. It’s been a little bit since I’ve worked production on my business, and if everything goes according to plan, it will only be a little bit longer until I can fully start up work with the fairies once more. In the mean time, though, I’ve been dreaming. And there are bigger and better things coming to Acorn Tops.

​We rung in the New Year by sweeping all the dust from 2015 out the door. This means getting rid of the negativity and doubt that came from within and outside. And, allowing me to dream and get excited again. As well as looking into some bigger venues and creating plans to save up for these bigger venues, I’m rethinking my displays and booth.

​Since the start of 2014, my booth has been the equivalent of a store front. It allows you to see and examine the fairy doors and fairy houses easily. But, I don’t want you to merely  see, I want you to experience.

I want you to walk into my booth and feel transported into Fairyland, a garden paradise.

How will I accomplish such a feat? By having displays that compliment my product. Garlands and fairy lights, a potter’s bench and ladder, little wicker table and chair… sounds like a whole other world, doesn’t it? So, while my paints and clay and carving tools are all packed away, Pinterest and antique stores have become my best friend.
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I’m looking forward to this new year! Keep an eye out for more goals and photos, and possibly a drawing of my dream booth!

Why is believing in the fantastical so bad? Why, when we get older, must we lose the magic? Things like fairies or Santa aren’t lies. They are believing  in something bigger than yourself, concepts we should embody in the everyday. And, as children, when we are allowed to believe in the extraordinary, we come to find the extraordinary in the everyday as adults.

With the holidays just around the corner, when I think of the embodiment of Christmas it is no longer the large man with a white beard and red hat. It’s my mother in his place. It’s the incredible lengths she went to so my brother and I could believe. And, now, it’s also myself I see in that place, with my large sack of gifts (most of which are already wrapped).
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Was it a lie? For her to ask “what did Santa bring you?” To have us believe in magic and possibility and hope? There are those who would say it was, that there was a seed of dishonesty. But, it was never about what was wrapped under the tree. It’s what it meant. Like, what it meant if mom could still cook the turkey every Thanksgiving. We might not have had milk in our fridge. Mom might have been sick. But, we had Christmas.
When we later came to the realization on our own that Santa wasn’t real, the magic was still there, if not more so, to discover everything my mother did to make sure we could still believe. And, from the time my brother and I were old enough to know mom was Santa, we were also old enough to know we were, too. Everyone has a little bit of Santa in them.

There is magic in the world if we know where to look. Children know where to look. We just forget when we’re older. Buttercups telling us who loves butter and who doesn’t. Butterflies and fireflies are fairies in disguise. The sun setting and the moon rising. A wish on a dandelion. Leafs changing and snow falling. That such a big sunflower can come from such as tiny seed.
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Every day is a miracle. Fairies and Santa Clause are the embodiment of them. And just because I’m older doesn’t mean I don’t still believe and doesn’t mean the magic has disappeared. It’s only become stronger.

Acorn Tops will be away with the fairies for a little while. I will have little to no online presence and my Etsy store will be on vacation until further notice! I will be taking no custom orders during this time! I apologize for the inconvenience!

However, I will be still attending the local craft fairs/ boutiques/ events that can be found on my website's 'upcoming events' page! There are plenty of fairy doors, fairy houses, and other fairy products to enchant your world that can be found in stock at the Pagan Prides, A.C.E. and HMSB's Holiday Boutique!

I will keep you updated when I can! I wish you all the fairy best!

The box of my books finally arrived! (Can you hear the squealing from there?) And, let me tell you, it is like all the best Christmases all rolled up into one (I might have stolen that line from my mother)! For a profession that relies so heavily on words, it’s ironic that there are no words for moments like these. It is truly indescribable. I mean, I wrote that. This is my story, my baby.

It’s important to understand, though, I did not accomplish this alone. Yes, I wrote a story, but to get it into a form I can hold and open (and caress the cover and sniff) was the support and work and patience of many individuals. What makes these moments even more special is having these people I love stand beside me and support me on this incredible journey, like my boyfriend and the people I mention in the acknowledgements, such as my editor, my brother, one of my best friends.

Another person I mention is my other best friend and cover artist, Jessica Johnson. She deserves more recognition than I could possibly give. Her talent alone is award winning. But the reason why my books are so beautiful, part of the excitement when opening the box, is the masterpiece she made for my cover.

 I know I’ve been saying that a lot on social media, but there is no other word that could possibly fit. The details alone are outstanding, like that on the bricks or the wood (or the whole thing, really). But it’s also the attention to detail in the way it fits the story so perfectly - The shoes and wooden porch and the brick steps and the dandelion. And everything about the design came from her. She was one of my first readers and there could be no better book cover for my story.

This attention to detail is not unique in the beautiful book cover she illustrated for me. You can find it in all of her work, from her Cherry On Top or Pokémon Pinups to her newest goddess art print. Be sure to check out her work. Because trust me, whether you order her work online or buy it from her in person at one of her events, you will be as excited as I am!

Check out more of work:

• Website
  
• Etsy
  
• BigCartel
  
• Redbubble
  
• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Instagram

If you are anything like me, you have done many pretend author interviews in the bathroom mirror since you were about eight. Yes, indeed, I am a pro of this type of Q&A. We’ll see if that carries over to my interview with Dot Cannon from Noelophile blog at the Mystic Dragon Book Festival on August 15th.

Throughout all of those pretend interviews, as well as the millions (no, I’m pretty sure this is not an exaggeration) of author interviews I have watched online thanks to youtube, and that one time I saw Diana Gabaldon live, one of the most commonly asked question is when did you become a writer? When did you start writing?

When is a very different question then the why (which most, I have found, answer much like Descartes- “I write, therefore I am”). Writing is a state of being, how we got to that state, though, is as diverse as the people who write.

For me, personally, it is something I have always been doing. I don’t mean this as a simple answer or a cop-out. It is the truth and I owe it to the most powerful inspiration in my life, my mother.

I grew up to the sound of her fingers dancing across the keyboards, making new worlds to explore and new characters to meet and fall in love with. And those were some of my purely happy childhood memories. I still remember the first story she wrote. It was about a small acorn I found walking back from dropping my brother off at the bus stop.

We had a deal. She would let me stay up past my bedtime to get to listen to what more she wrote that day as long as I brushed her hair. And I learned a lot in those nights. I learned tricks for editing (reading aloud). I learned research and the lengths one could go and the different resources available. I learned spelling and grammar (and that even the best sometimes flub in that area). Most importantly, though, I learned the power of storytelling, the power of writing, the power of words. It ignited a spark.

I remember my countless sketchbooks filled with what most would call scribbles on the front, and on the back would be a corresponding very short story. My mom tells me on the way to ballet, I would tell stories from the moment the key in the ignition turned to the moment the car would park. I grew up writing and telling stories, and I owe much of that to my mother.

I was fortunate to not only grow up with a mom who was passionate about reading and who shared that passion with me, but to grow up at my mother’s keyboard as well as her bookshelves. And what is even more exciting, as I follow in her footsteps and publish my own stories, is getting to experience the stories and characters I grew up with being shared with the whole world, too. Mouse and Shadow; and Emma and John; and Ellie and Alex were my earliest and oldest friends and playmates. And to see them become a book I can hold and open and revisit any time, is indescribable.

So when did I become a writer? When did it all start? It started with the first word my mother typed.

Check out my mom’s blog/website: http://www.keyboardmusings.com/
Her Amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-Lieberman/e/B00NHI7PT6/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Her Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8442199.Barbara_Lieberman

When you are a child, you are handed down a lot of different things from your family. You have your name. Some idiosyncrasies you pick up along the way. You have the physical gifts and keepsakes. You also are given references, and by that I don’t necessarily mean what you would put on a job application. I mean, culture, whether it is the classics or more modern day pop culture. I mean, things they loved that they shared with you that you now have grown to love.

Growing up, if my family wasn’t randomly breaking out into song (because, yes, my life is and has always been a musical), we were tossing references back and forth. Close to every sentence has at least one reference, some so obscure those eavesdropping would have thought we were speaking a foreign language. This is probably why my newest book, Society’s Foundlings, is riddled with random references.

In the acknowledgements of my book I thank and tip my hat to a few of the people who have given me the building blocks of my reference palace, including by brother, Ben, my mother, Barb, and one of my best friends, Alyse. Someone who I failed to mention, though, was my Grandmother. And she is someone who deserves mentioning.

Anyone who knows about my Acorn Tops business knows well about my Grandmom’s influence and inspiration. One of the gifts she gave me, a picture, is now my logo and how I got the idea to carve fairy doors. She has also inspired products from my business, such as my collaboration with Seeds of Inspiration, the Seeds of Remembrance Rosemary Scented Fairy Pillows!

Though, she passed away when I was very young, she has given me a lot. She has added to my love of reading. I have her Anne of Green Gables books, the ones with her name written in them. I have her Anne of Green Gables doll. I order Eggs Benedict whenever I can for breakfast and orange cream ice cream at the boardwalk and the beach, just like she did. I share a name with her and am named after the same strong and incredible woman, she is named for. And, most relevant to this post, I share a love of Harvey, the movie about the 6ft 3.5in tall pooka. I even dressed up one year for Halloween as El Wood P. Dowd, with a hat that had slots cut in it for rabbit ears and business cards with one number crossed out (call me at this number, not at this number).

In Society’s Foundlings, the reference appears when three of the characters are gathered around the television. One, sitting upside down on the couch, offers non-stop commentary while they watch and another is showing off his knowledge of every movie ever made. It’s a very minuscule part, one that could easily be missed and would not even be worth mentioning, if not for the personal significance, and not necessarily my own.

A book, a movie, a song, a television show- they have memories tied to them. You see them, you hear them, and they make you pause for a moment with a small nostalgic smile. Because you remember that person it reminds you of, who first showed it to you, who watched it, read it, sang it with you. You remember that moment it’s associated with, like a photo album you don’t have to pull out of the top shelf of a closet. And you remember how it made you feel. The way it spoke to you.

John Green (yes I am referencing him once more), did a whole vlog about Harvey. As he says, “All I know is I woke up the morning after watching Harvey feeling a little bit better and in all the years since, I have never felt quite as hopeless as I did before I watched Harvey.”

If you haven’t watched Harvey, I suggest you do. It’s a life changer for sure. And maybe when you’re reading Society’s Foundlings and you come to the part where they are watching it, you will pause for a moment and smile.

As artists, we make a specific something with a specific purpose or reason in mind. We try to convey our own meanings.

Every time a customer walks into the booth, I give my well rehearsed spiel. "These are fairy doors. They are hand carved and hand painted. You stick them at the base of a tree or on a bookshelf, anywhere you want to invite the fairies." 

My main goal and purpose is to offer products that will draw the fairies into your world and enchant it. While accomplishing that goal, I have also sought out ways to appeal to a wide audience and remain unique.

Despite my intentions as the creator, the customers will find different ways to use my product and different meanings behind it. Take, for instance, Seeds of Inspiration's Ouch Pouch Line. This is an aromatherapy product that can be used in the freezer or microwave as an ice pack or heating pad. It's scented with lavender and chamomile and can be used for anything from bumps and bruises to ear aches and migraines. A friend and constant customer, Jess, used her personal ouch pouch on her bottle fed puppy. The poor little guy was the only one of his litter to survive and the ouch pouch neck wrap helped offer the comfort and warmth he normally would have found from his litter mates.

My customers tend to first have their interested piqued by recognizable, or even not so recognizable, designs. Then the door itself. Sometimes the purchase is for nostalgia, sharing the interest, or a different meaning behind the same message. A Dalmatian fairy door is now used to memorialize a beloved pet who has crossed the rainbow bridge. My TFIOS door becomes a reminder to a loved one that everything will always be okay. Or, most recently, a custom ordered 82nd Airborne fairy door will bring comfort to a little kid every time he gets scared at night.

Another example is my fairy bottles. They normally feature miniature scenes in tiny glass bottles. People have used them as ornaments to hang on their tree. They use it as attachments to key chains. Just a few months ago, at the steampunk convention it was used as part of a cosplay outfit.

John Green said books belong to their readers. The same goes for art. When that door leaves my booth, it opens to something more. It becomes more than I could ever dream.