flax-golden tales: tattered & tied

tattered and tied

tattered & tied

Someone tied a ribbon on a tree and then someone else tied another. And another and another after that, more people and more ribbons and an ever-growing tangle of color.

At some point they added bits of rope to tie them like a web from tree to tree, with the ribbons falling like a willow made of rainbows in between.

There are tassels and stars and other objects hidden amongst the ribbons and rope. Some of the ribbons aren’t even ribbons, just bright strips of fabric that look like ribbon from afar.

The stories about what they’re meant to symbolize get tangled up and frayed as much as the ribbons themselves. Memories of old wars tied to long-finished prayers. Well-worn wishes wound through forgotten dreams.

They can’t be separated from one another anymore. Knots and time bind them too tightly together.

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

shiny objects

I had these fabulous intentions of doing an Etsy-o-rama post, with lots of pictures and links to some of my favorite shops, for ease of finding wonderful holiday giftage from wonderful sellers. It was going to be epic!

And then I kept forgetting. And when I remembered again my list kept getting too long and the amount of images and html got daunting and then I’d forget about it again. And it’s December 10th already, you say? Fancy that.

So what you get instead is an Ode to two of my very favorite Etsy shops that both happen to sell shiny objects. And we all know how I love me some shiny objects.

First there is The Copper Camel, which I have mentioned here before. I internet-know (that sounds dirty) the lovely proprietress through the more writing-centric wilds of the web. Beyond making beautiful copper jewelery she is an extremely talented writer as well, and I aspire to someday have a wit as sharp as hers. There should be wit sharpeners that work like pencil sharpeners. Or knife sharpeners.

This week she made me do the dance of shiny object joy with these:

doors

They’re DOORS. Incredibly detailed, hand painted with teensy tiny brushes etched copper DOORS. Look at the Moroccan one up close. I mean, seriously.

I want all of them, of course. But I decided to be good and I just got the castle doors for starters. I cannot wait to see them in person and I can tell already that they will be something I wear all the time and layer with other things.

Each door in the above photos is available individually in her Etsy shop. Do yourself a favor and read her brilliant descriptions for all of them, too. Go forth and buy shiny copper wonderments.

Go. Shoo. Because I almost don’t want to share the other shiny object maker. But it will probably be good for my shopping karma, so I will.

I started buying gorgeous recycled vintage jewelry creations from SavageSalvage just over a year ago, when I found and had to have this bracelet. I have since amassed something of a collection. My most recent acquisition is this piece:

il_fullxfull.102235077

Yes it is even more gorgeous in person. I wore it the last time we went to Sleep No More and the witches really liked it. It got pawed a lot. Not that I’m complaining, those are some sexy witches over there.

I kind of stalk Steph’s Etsy store like a stalky thing, because so many of her designs are one of a kind. Really, I’m still not sure why I’m telling you about them and increasing my consumer competition. Maybe because Steph is a sweetheart who I’ve actually been lucky enough to get to know a bit and I want more people to wear her stuff and receive her gorgeous gift wrapping. (Giftwrapping I have repurposed into paintings myself. It’s like the Etsy circle of life of Art. Or something.)

Currently I’m coveting this piece and this piece and this piece. Because I have a problem and I need some sort of shiny object program with steps.

You have plenty of time to get some gorgeous holiday giftage from either of these wonderful, talented ladies for the lovers of unique, creative shiny things in your life. I’m just sayin’.

miscellany & tessa in a bag

So far this week is all storybirds and sketching the tarot kings. I think I have strong sketches for all four kings now. I ended up starting them over and making them all a bit more modern and sort of formal yet casual and I think it works. I’m going to let them sit overnight and if I still like them in the morning I will start painting them tomorrow.

And then this long crazy tarot journey will be a happy squirrel and some detailing away from complete. Which is kind of baffling.

I am mentally dipping my toes back into revisionland again, though the holidays and the snow and something vaguely resembling a head cold are making it a bit difficult. I have Ideas. I am attempting to string them together into something cohesive. I feel like I’m deconstructing the old draft the way they deconstruct food on Top Chef and I’m worried that it won’t taste good but I can’t taste it properly until all the ingredients are on the plate. Someday I will be able to explain my writing process without metaphors but today is not that day.

Also, I got tickets to see Sleep No More a third and final time after the holidays. Sleep No More & revisionland are currently tied up in my head in this moody masquerade of darkness and tuxedos that smells like evergreen. There’s something in it that is precisely what the novel needs. If I can find a way to translate wordless immersive theatre into text.

But I’m trying not to worry about that too much yet. Here, have a photo of Tessa in a bag.

tessa in a bag

Kittens love the holidays. ‘Tis the season of bags and cardboard boxes.

flax-golden tales: the metal horses

metal horses

the metal horses

Please do not feed the metal horses. No apples or grass. No nuts or bolts or bits of string.

They grow overly fond of people who feed them.

They will follow you home and it can be somewhat… difficult to get them to leave.

They are fiercely loyal, but that can be something of an inconvenience.

They will insist on sleeping at the foot of your bed.

They will nibble on your lawn or your electrical wiring or the hubcaps of your car.

And of course, they will rust if they get left out in the rain, though they do so love the rain.

It is best to entrust their care to the professionals, no matter how sweetly they beg.

About flax-golden tales. Photo by Carey Farrell. Text by Erin Morgenstern.

life after nano

Things accomplished since the end of NaNo, an unnumbered list:

  • Read Tanith Lee’s The Silver Metal Lover in its entirety. Have been meaning to read this book for years. Lovely and heartbreaking. Totally made me cry.
  • Saw Sleep No More again. Definitely more magical the first time around but still amazing and wonderful and I found so many things that I missed the first time around. Also, witches gave me presents.
  • Started the epic rewatching of all 5 seasons of LOST. Season 1 seems like such a long time ago.
  • Brought out my notes for circus revisions and started poking at them, no actual writing yet. In my defense, my horoscope claimed today’s full moon was going to render me inarticulate or some such. I did, however, figure out how to possibly resurrect a very old section that I’d loved but had no use for in a different context, so that should be fun.

I am still somewhat in denial that it is December already.