One of those quiet dandies......

Charles Baudelaire was one of those quiet dandies who have their clothes rubbed with emery paper in order to take off the Sunday and brand-new gloss so dear to Philistines and so unbearable to well-bred men.

—Théophile Gautier

La Beauté by Charles Baudelaire

La Beauté

Je suis belle, ô mortels! comme un rêve de pierre,
Et mon sein, où chacun s'est meurtri tour à tour,
Est fait pour inspirer au poète un amour
Eternel et muet ainsi que la matière.

Je trône dans l'azur comme un sphinx incompris;
J'unis un coeur de neige à la blancheur des cygnes;
Je hais le mouvement qui déplace les lignes,
Et jamais je ne pleure et jamais je ne ris.

Les poètes, devant mes grandes attitudes,
Que j'ai l'air d'emprunter aux plus fiers monuments,
Consumeront leurs jours en d'austères études;

Car j'ai, pour fasciner ces dociles amants,
De purs miroirs qui font toutes choses plus belles:
Mes yeux, mes larges yeux aux clartés éternelles!

— Charles Baudelaire

Beauty

I am fair, O mortals! like a dream carved in stone,
And my breast where each one in turn has bruised himself
Is made to inspire in the poet a love
As eternal and silent as matter.

On a throne in the sky, a mysterious sphinx,
I join a heart of snow to the whiteness of swans;
I hate movement for it displaces lines,
And never do I weep and never do I laugh.

Poets, before my grandiose poses,
Which I seem to assume from the proudest statues,
Will consume their lives in austere study;

For I have, to enchant those submissive lovers,
Pure mirrors that make all things more beautiful:
My eyes, my large, wide eyes of eternal brightness!

— William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)

Is it really so strange.......

That I have a Pinterest board named 

 "Things I'd Sell My Mother For"?

The Blue Bird by Frank Cadogan Cowper (1877-1958)

Oooh to be this calm, without anxiety or stress would be. . . . hmm. Not sure what it's like to be that way anymore.

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I'm shocked!

Wow! I haven't posted a thing since the end of May.  Not to blame the little darlins but those Oompa Loompas of mine have kept me REALLY busy since they've gotten out of school! I suppose I could also blame the most Eeehhhvahhll Queen for keeping me busy as well but then I may have to face her wrath and she'd give me even more work. Just to you know. Be evil!

Posts will be periodic until they're all back in school :D

Remember the Fallen

As well as those who are still serving, and those who 

have come home that still struggle. 

Naughty Children - Finely Ground

Tsk, tsk. It seems that one of the Residents of Mockingbird Manor has taken to grinding up naughty children.  I do hope that it's not our cook, although now that I think about it she has been making some devilishly good seasoned soups lately.

We are not exactly sure WHO it is that is doing such a dastardly thing - but believe me. Once we find out who it is you will be the first to know!

A Busy Little Girl's Art Apron

 This cute little apron has a long panel sewn behind the vintage hankie pocket sewn into compartments for crayons, pencils, and other stash items that your budding artist may have lifted from your art supplies! (Believe me, I speak from experience on this....lol)  I'm still finding hidden things that the kidlets have 'borrowed' from me what has to be 3 or 4 years ago!

The vintage hankie is a big open pocket to put things that won't fit inside the smaller pockets.

Apron is made out of red ticking.  Sorry for the bad pics - the apron was hard to take a pic of and this was the best I could come up with, but you get the idea ;)

The Fairy Specimen

This little fairy must have been very important to someone, who took the time to create a shrine for her tucked away in the Mockingbird Manor Forest.

Mockingbird Manor is chock full of fairies so I'm really not surprised that I have come upon this.  What sort of fairies, you ask? We have naughty fairies who like to play trixies on everyone, nice fairies who leave surprises for the kidlets in the most interesting places, and old-bat-Southern-grouchy-lady fairies who love to try to make everyone just as irritable as they are. Let me tell you......when the naughty fairies hang out with the Ghosts from the Old Cemetery who enjoy partying at the Manor and those crazy old-bat-Southern-grouchy-lady fairies start drinking  - watch out because that's when things disappear from my studio and horrendous messes are made from one end of the house to the other!  Those ghosts are a *bad* influence.

So what do you think? Would this have been a naughty, nice or grouchy fairy? I'm inclined to think she was a nice fairy - perhaps with a penchant for mischief!

An awful lot of care was taken to make this fairy doll shrine out of a teeny, tiny little coffin. Just look how the stitched leaf ribbon has grown around it, her sparkly glitter wings and just a glimmer of fire polished Czech beads at her feet.  I do believe that much of this came from my studio! There is that gorgeous tulip bead cap and mini lily that I was missing - and those clever fairies used my seaweed fiber set for the grass!

Ah well.  I can't complain too much about the lifting of my supplies. At least it was all used to make something unique and left for me to find!

Everything except for the vintage lace and brass finding at the top of the shrine can be found at Alpha Stamps. (Yes, even the doll!) :D