The stocking were hung by the chimney with care...

A fire place sits snug on a snowy tea cup fairy garden between a couple sprigs of rosemary. Holly and berries align the top of the mantle and a fire (glow in the dark) offers some warmth from the cold.

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse...

Well, perhaps a couple mice were stirring. But, after Santa eats that tasty plate of cookies, there might be a crumb or two left. Unless the Grinch stops by. Then the one speck of food that will be left in the fairy garden, will just be a crumb not even big enough for this wee mouse.

The second mouse scurries among the three wrapped presents that sit beneath the rosemary and mint foliage. What do you think the fairies are getting for Christmas?

Twas the Night Before Christmas Fairy Garden will be available at my next upcoming events. Stop by Tamiza's Treats on December 1st and December 13th!

They say any pet is beneficial when battling depression and anxiety, but the Cinnamon Cat-erfly is particularly helpful. They aid in diminishing lethargy, petulance, pain and regular headaches. They also aid in mental capabilities, such as focus, memory, attention span, etc . Mosquitoes stay clear of the wee cinnamon Cat-erfly. Unlike their house cat counterparts, along with repelling bugs, they also freshen the air.

It is believed that the cinnamon Cat-erfly originated from Sri Lanka and India, but can now be found all over.

Pelargonium Felines, better known as Cat-erflies, were first discovered hiding in scented geraniums. They camouflage using both scent, as well as color. Despite their name, they can also be found hiding in their corresponding herbs and flowers. This can make them extremely difficult to spot, along with their tiny size. Masters of hiding, if you catch a random whiff of a familiar smell, a Cat-erfly might have crossed your path!

Cat-erflies are made from wool and other fibers (and a little bit of magic). They also contain fragrance oils. They can lose their scent after some time, but can always be rescented. They are handcrafted with love in the USA!

Find more information regarding cinnamon here:
* https://www.herbs2000.com/aromatherapy/a_cinnamon.htm
*lwww.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/essential-oils/health-benefits-of-cinnamon-oil.html

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! 😉

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.

Originally posted on Acorn Tops Tumblr: On Fairy Wings and Acorn Hats

Recently, I finished a custom order for a three year old. Using purple fabric, including soft flannel, I made my first Snuggle Huggle Fairy Doll. It is similar to it’s Raggle Taggle counterpart, but without the glass bottle/small wand and wire-wings so children younger than five can enjoy it. It has been mailed with it’s matching fairy house. It’s funny to picture this three year old playing with this handmade rag doll when you also think that generations and generations ago, before possibly her own grandmother and great grandmother can remember, some forgotten ancestor in the far off past could’ve been playing with a rag doll, too, when they were three.

Dolls are one of the first toys we know of. It is a toy that can be found all over the world, across time and cultures, from the corn husk dolls of the early Americas to the fragment found of the Babylon period alabaster doll with movable arms. Dolls from Egypt dated all the way back to 2000 BC were discovered in grave, a sign that they were as cherished then as they are now. They were also discovered in Greek and Roman graves, as well as dedicated to goddess once outgrown, according to A History of Dolls. Early on the material used for dolls included bone, wood, wax, ivory, clay, and rags.

As A History of Dolls puts it, “Although not as sophisticated as dolls made from other materials, rag dolls were well-loved, often as a child’s first toy.” It is also “the most popular and well known of all American Folk Dolls,” according to Historical Folk Toys. Though most rag dolls have not survived due to disintegration, the oldest surviving rag doll in North America is Bangwell Putt.

Around the 1780s, toys were used and encouraged to prepare for gender-oriented socially acceptable roles, such as mother and wife for girls. Before this, in England, dolls such as Bartholomew’s babies were used as ways to display fashions and styles. It would have been the 1750’s version of a fashion or dress-pattern catalog. Before even this, as early as 1630, rag dolls were popular toys.

A little history is shared on the Wagon Train Dolls website. The wagon train dolls are what inspired my Raggle Taggle Fairy Dolls. During a vacation in Kern County, I came across the dolls in the local museum and felt inspired to make my own, with a fairy twist.

It is a universal toy and dolls like Bangwell Putt, and the box of my mothers dolls from her childhood, and my great great grandmother’s doll, Edna, are a connection to our history. They are personal. And because they are personal, they provide a magic to transport us to a time long forgotten. To think one day, my great great granddaughter can look at my Molly Doll from the Comfy Couch with the same awe I feel when I look at Edna. To think one day, it could be that custom Snuggle Huggle Fairy Doll that survives hundreds of years.

• A History of Dolls
• Historical Folk Toys
• Child Life: Discovery of Life
• Babies, Balls, and Bull Roarers
• Wagon Train Dolls

Originally posted on Acorn Tops Tumblr: On Fairy Wings and Acorn Hats

There is a magic to reusing and re-purposing and using a child-like wonder of the world to re-imagine the way we use certain items. An earring without it’s pair turns into a door knocker. Broken tea cups turn into a garden.

On this day, we stop and think about this earth we are living on. We consider the damage done to it in the past and seek new ways to remedy the damage done to it presently for a future that is more green. On this day, we plant trees, we talk about saving the bees, and recycling, reusing, and reducing. On this day, we celebrate the earth and strive to be more conscious of the impact we have on it. However, for some handmade businesses, Earth Day does not just occur April 22nd. It occurs everyday.

Businesses like Seeds of Inspiration craft and create with ecological consciousness everyday of the year. Their impact on the environment is considered in many of their products. Their pet toys, for one, are made using recycled denim. They have bags of denim jeans friends and friends of friends outgrew and would’ve thrown away otherwise.

Their dash saches and scented specialty pillows are organic. Some of these ingredients, such as some lavender for instance, come directly from their garden. Tanza Botanicalscreates organic herbals salves.

Then of course, there is the round robins of fabric between Seeds of Inspiration, Acorn Tops, and Jessie’s Custom Greetings. Scraps of fabric from Seeds of Inspiration’s products go to either Acorn Tops for our Raggle Taggle fairy dolls or to Jessie’s Custom Greetings to use on their cards. The scraps of those scraps are then returned to Seeds of Inspiration to create handmade buttons for a new product!

Nature is a great source of inspiration for many businesses. In learning the plight of the honey bees, Lainie’s Lathers created honey soap!

According to Handmade in South Bay’s Interview with Samantha Haymes, her handmade business, The Crowned Heart, “is chocked full of things I love which includes beautiful things gifted to us by Mother Earth.” This is evident is her beautiful crystal and gem jewelry, for example and the way her art “utilizes and harnesses nature’s energies” (The Crowned Heart’s Shop Announcement).

Earth Day does not just exist one day a year. Earth Day should be and for many handmade small businesses is everyday.

Originally posted on: On Fairy Wings and Acorn Hats

The first magic any of us really experience is in a book. There is nothing more magical than joining Jack and Annie when the tree house spins faster and faster until everything is still, absolutely still. They transport us to Neverland and Wonderland. They teach us things. That loving something can make it real because we’ve all had our Velveteen Rabbits. To sit and smell the flowers like Ferdinand. Or all you need is a purple crayon to make a whole new world. Sometimes the magic was in understanding a character so completely, because we’ve all had terrible, horrible, no good very bad days. Sometimes the magic was in the simple joy Amelia Bedelia’s blunders brought us or Dr. Seuss’s nonsensical rhymes. And sometimes the magic was simply just in saying goodnight to the moon.

For me, my favorite books growing up are filled with memories. Not so much my mom tucking me in at night, though it is that too. The memories and magic for me are a connection. In each of my grandmother’s Lucy Maud Montgomery books, my grandmother wrote her name. For me to pick up that book that she loved so much, means the world. It is a type of magic that words fail to describe. To hold the books she held, to read the words she read, it is like her being there and reading them with me. My all time favorite children’s book, though, would be My Mama Had A Dancing Heart. I cannot write a blog about children’s books without mentioning that one book in particular. The mention of it alone makes me smile, because it is something my mom and I share to this day.

John Green called reading a collaboration between the reader and the author. I would go a step further and say it is also a collaboration between reader and reader. There is something special, something exciting when someone reads or has read the same book. There is a personal and intimate connection, whether it’s between family, friends, classmates, or that random customer who walks into your booth.

Constantly, I return to this first magic. A lot of times for me, personally, it’s like visiting old friends. Once more, I explore The Hundred Acre Woods. Once again, Max and I start a wild rumpus. Years later, since my library has grown, so has that magic and my inspiration. Now I find it in J.R.R. Tolkien’s poetry: “Not all who wander are lost.” Or in some contemporary young adult literature.

Through fairy doors and fairy houses and ornaments, I’m able to take this magic and continue that connection and collaboration. It has always been the first real magic, and now, for me, it is where I turn to first for inspiration.