ULLABENULLA

Clara the Mouse dressed for Easter!

Clara loves eggs! Boiled, fried, or scrambled, not a day goes by without a bite of her favorite protein. But when she heard that on Easter Sunday almost all eggs served are chocolate, she nearly lost her whiskers in excitement! If there is one thing Clara loves more than eggs, it is chocolate eggs!
"Clara" by Ulla Milbrath and vintage easter boxes available at Castle in the Air.

Little Christmas Eve At The BEAR HOUSE!

In Denmark December 23rd is known as 'Lil Jule Aften' or 'Little Christmas Eve'.  It is the day when last minute preperations take place and then everyone goes and wishes Merry Christmas to their neighbors and friends.  Bear House is enjoying these traditions as well!  Here Ms. Bear Cook is busily getting all the trimmings together for the Bears Christmas Eve feast!  One of the resident Baby Bears can be seen in the corner begging for sweets...

Papa Bear is writing his letter to Santa, while nibbling on cookies.  Do you think he is wishing for fish and honey???

GrandMother Bear is admiring the tree, and Grandfather Bear is enjoying playing with yet another resident Baby Bear.  He made this Baby Bears stroller years ago!

Upstairs, Mama Bear is taking a well deserved rest in her bedroom, reading a favorite novel, while little sister plays with her dolls.

Oh my!  Just listen to the  rukus coming from next door!  Little sister runs to investigate...

Seems the rest of the Baby bears, have abandoned bath time and taken to jumping on the bed!  Lil Jule Aften is always full of activity and adventure!

But look, Brother Bear hears something outside - what could it be???  

To be continued...

Enchanted Christmas in Yountville!

Today I had the special treat of seeing my friend Dolph Gotelli's 'An Enchanted Christmas' exhibit now being shown at the Napa Valley Museum in Yountville.  If you are anywhere near Napa this is a not to miss exhibit of amazing wonder and delight! (It runs through January 23rd, so there is still plenty of time!) Dolph has created 30 vignettes of his favorite christmas collectables.  Everything from 'Santa on a Midnight walk' above, to Grizelda's Christmas Tree - first image below.

My Mother and I spent nearly two hours looking at all the scenes, each one magical and nostalgic.  I especially fell in love with 'Dinner At Willow Hollow' seen first below - depicting a christmas feast attended by a variety of woodland animals.  Dolphs attention to details is supreme and his ability to make our hearts go back in time flawless.  A couple more of my favorites are also seen below.  More information on Dolph can be found HERE.  And photos of all the scenes are HERE!

ENJOY!

 

Marionette Magic At The Castle!

Eight wonderfully talented women joined me this weekend at the Castle to create Marionettes!  As a teacher I am always thrilled when my students exceed all my expectations - and this class was no exception!  Truly whimsical and delightful little puppets emerged over these two days, now they only require their own personal fairytale to complete the story.  

Here I present to you:  A Jolly little Tree-Frog; A Nouveau inspired Ballerina; The Mad Hatter Himself; A Wild Haired and Chilly Jack Frost here via Poland; A Jack Rabbit- abit down on his luck; A Delightful little Long Nosed Elf; A Lovely Gypsy Maiden; And a Humble Chinese Peasant.

Enjoy!

 

 

The Old Pretenders Have A BLOG!

Many of you know about my love for David and Paul and 'The Old Pretenders'. Well I am thrilled to announce that they have started a blog!  Filled with stunning photos of many of their newest creations, it serves as a beautiful showcase for their reproduction English Wooden Dolls.  Please go HERE and say hello to these 2 amazingly talented gentlemen!

 

Spiritual Herbalist...

This is a delightful representation of Hildegard of Bingen by Mark Clarke for his exhibition 'Cabinets of Cures'.

"Mark Clarke has devised five ‘cabinets of cures’ for Wellcome Collection. Created from his personal hoard of reclaimed fabrics and found objects, each cabinet tells of a personality or story from the history of our struggle against sickness and disease."

Dreaming of Sugarplums...

Imagine knocking twice on an old wooden door, and quietly it opens...  Outside is grey and very very cold, but within - dreams stir and tiny lights twinkle!  Step inside, into a warm embrace and your eyes dance with visions of the sweetest of treats...  This is how my visit with Nicol began. (Yes!  a couple of you knew right away!)  Step quietly to the right and melt into wonderland... 

Is your heart beating quickly?   Nicol's dearest of husbands, who knows her so well, recently surprised her by setting up her daughters childhood bed ("because she loves things like this" he said) in the middle of her living room!  Swathed in antique lace, with dear little dollies sitting center front, and lit with 'Christmas stars', this is truly any romantics christmas dream come true! Everywhere you look Nicol has created delightful Magical vignettes filled with treasures and special finds set 'just so'.  Glass domes and boxes reveal fairytale splendors in a palette that one can only call NICOL!  

Sometimes 'sugarplums' take months to prepare, and Nicol's newest dreamland has been 'cooking' for quite a while!  New renovations has granted her a dearest wish - to have a studio that sparks creativity the moment you enter and makes one feel the need, urge and desire to make wonderful 'dollies' and treasures while letting time stand still...

A vintage chandelier hovers over an old oak table.  The light is perfect - pale sunshine and vintage shadows!  A slightly peaked roof highlights the victorian window that peeks into the garden beyond.  Along the walls old tables hold cabinets, baskets, and bins filled with antique bits and pieces ready for Nicol to create!

Over a delicious Black Forest inspired lunch a mysterious butcher-paper wrapped package arrived from 'the old country'.  Within were not 1 but 62 tiny little frozen charlottes, recently dug up from an old factory in Germany - a recent EBAY splurge.  

Such sweet little things, 'like angels with broken wings' - and there was the inspiration we needed!  An old photo hanging on a bulletin board, of a sweet cotton batting wrapped snow-baby set our creative juices whirling.  Nicol pulled out boxes filled with ribbons, tinsel, antique christmas glass beads and batting the color of old creamy butter.  With Chopin playing in the background, quietly we dreamed up our own versions of snow-babies with old paper wings dancing to sugarplum dreams...

Here you see our little angels, Nicol's on the right, wrapped in walnut colored bullion and topped with a golden star; mine to the left, wearing ribbons of vintage chenille the color of faded roses, and a tiny cream colored star from an old forgotten desk.. Surely we were helped by the many little eyes who kept watch over us as we created, and the sweet 4 legged benevolent souls who kept us company as the sun faded and dreams came true! 

THANK YOU NICOL FOR SHARING YOUR DANCE WITH ME!

   

Fibers and Fairytales!

I am still stumbling over using different computers. Now I'm on Husbands laptop... No access to my photos yet, but at least I am not crashing everywhere I visit! Here are a couple of truly amazing handbags by Ema from Japan! I LOVE her sense of whimsy and eye for details! (link via We're All Mad Here!