~One World One Heart Giveaway is Seeking Cinderella~

High upon a hill is a castle, where something wonderful is kept. Once you've made your way, way, way up and in, you then must go down, deep down again, right into the darkest and coldest and oldest part of the tower.

Over in the corner, behind the kindling and cobwebs is a small wooden box, delicately lifting the lid you see several sparkling shards of....What, broken glass?!

How can this be, you said it was something special?! Look closely my dears, see the scrap of paper nestled beneath the tiny broken bits, slide it out, careful now so as not to get cut.

Read it aloud, what does it say? To whom it may concern; The precious pieces that rest within came from the glass slipper once worn by none other than Cinderella herself,

such was their fate....reunited with their mate and happily ever after they lived.
Till one did get broken, no words were spoken, just delicately tucked within!

Have you noticed our lovely visitor, a quiet little thing she is, she just floated in on the breeze and decided to stay for a bit!

And when she was finished she fluttered by and right out the window she went!

With out even saying goodbye! Oh, well, such is life!

And so on to the business at hand, I think it is so important to do what we can for each other, to uphold and support each other in gracious and positive ways, and this One World One Heart event is just the perfect venue in which to do so.

Because of the thoughtfulness of Lisa "Oceandreamer" Swiftka at A Whimsical Bohemian our wonderful host for this event we are able to share, if even a small part in each others lives, and I'm happy to be a part of it!


A gift is giving a tiny bit of your heart away, usually when you give some thing away, you have less, stands to reason doesn't it?

But in the case of a gift, you have more, always, always, more.

More friendship, more kindness, more sharing and most of all more love!

I like to give away things that mean a lot to me. Something I throughly enjoyed creating,

and every time I see the piece I am reminded of the particular place in time I was,

and the thoughts that ran through my mind. Each creation is a personal little "time capsule" forever related and attached to

the artist that created it. The two are linked for eternity. It amazes me the places my mind explores while I busily work away.

A moment in 4th grade, a shiver runs down my spine as I recall standing up at the front of the class, reading out loud

the essay I had written on "Our Friend the Platypus", yes I said platypus, well, we got to choose what we wanted to report on and that's what I chose!

Or a trip to the ocean at 10, where I spent hours playing in the surf and talking with all the tiny, curious crabs that gathered

around me as I ate my peanut butter sandwich and wiggled my toes each time the foamy bubbles tickled them.

Oh, but my mind does wonder, and I'm sure glad that it has such a good sense of direction, otherwise it might get lost!

And as all those memories come flooding in they are carried right into the very soul of a project, woven deep within and

there they will always remain!
Fantastically romantic wouldn't you say?!

So there you have it,

a little piece of me,

and a little piece of you,

sharing our gifts with the world!

May I ask you a personal question? What size shoe do you wear? Will these fit you?

I am seeking Cinderella, just leave a comment and you will be entered to win this pair of ~One of a Kind~Paper Slippers! Created by little ol' me, and best of all, there is a funny secret stuck on the bottom of one shoe, and nope, it's not gum, but only the winner will get to find out what it is!

So kick off your shoes and slip into these babies they are guaranteed to satisfy every girls shoe fetish!

And this time, no blisters, I promise! Make sure you leave your contact information, cut off time to enter is Wed Feb 11th at 10pm CST and the winner will be announced February 12th!

Lucky Two Shoes

Let's start the new year off on the right foot shall we......and she knew that from the moment she spotted those perfectly emerald green shoes in the department store window that her young life would never be the same again. You see, these were no ordinary shoes, they were lucky shoes, charmed shoes, if you will.

Yes, charmed shoes for sure. Whenever she wore them, which was almost every day, by the way, there was a spring in her step and a bounce in her walk and all things good were destined to happen.

And they did, let me just say! You see she spent so much time looking down at her beautiful new shoes, admiring their lovely emerald greenness, that she found every copper penny and silver nickel and shiny quarter and dime anyone had ever dropped!

Hers was a charmed life indeed, fashion and fortune at the tips of her toes! Don't you just know that the life lived in those two green shoes was wonderfully adventurous and as you can plainly see she wore them until they practically fell off her feet!

Heck, who wouldn't have, just look at them! And when that fateful day eventually arrived, when it was painfully evident that it was time to hang up her cherished emerald green shoes, she didn't say a word, just slowly slipped them off her feet,

dusted them with her mothers most expensive and best smelling powder and carefully, thoughtfully stuffed each one with crisp white tissue paper. Then she sat them high upon a shelf in her room, the shelf she could see directly from her bed.

She placed them right next to the jar filled to the brim with her "lucky two shoes" coins. Preserved, put to rest, and now only to be admired, never worn or played in again! How sad....sad for me, she thought.

And once in a while, when she was feeling particularly melancholy, she would take them down, put them on her hands and make believe they were out once again for a walk in the park on a warm sunny day! Oh what fun we did have, didn't we?!

Well, I guess those enchanted shoes weren't quite ready to retire just yet, no not just yet! Can you guess what those emerald green shoes did after dark, when everyone in the whole house was sleeping? Can you guess?! Why they got right up, not even

bothering to remove their noisy tissue stuffing and danced all through the night! Yes, until the wee hours of the morning, you know that magical time, between daylight and darkness when the moon bids the sun Adieu!

And time moved along, as time always does, she grew and passed from childhood into adulthood, she became a young lady, with young lady thoughts and young lady cares, all the while she consistently kept those emerald green shoes near by. Oh, she

had since had a few other pair of mighty fine shoes, she even had a glittering pair of ruby red slippers, yes some very fine ones indeed! But none could compare and as she traveled from place to place and year to year went by, those pretty little shoes went right along with her, funny, they even seemed to age themselves, showing fine little

wrinkles and shrinking ever so slightly. And as she grew old and her days grew darker and quieter and sleepier, she asked her favorite granddaughter, who was named after her and looked just like her when she was young, to please bring the shoes to her.

In doing as requested, she pushed a chair up to the shelf where they were kept and picked up the green shoes ever so gently with two fingers, noticing that they must not have been moved for ages, as there were two clear footprints standing alone in the dust where the shoes had been.

Please, sit them here beside me on the bed, she whispered, as she patted with her hand the spot she meant. A slow sweet smile gently curled up and spread across her face. Then she began to speak in a soft, strained voice and the very last words she spoke here upon this great earth were,

"Damn things, always gave me blisters!"

Final note: Hee, hee, forgive me, but I couldn't help myself!

Dear Santa,

Dear Santa, I hope you've been watching because

I've been extra nice this year.

I would like only three gifts, please.

A new sketch book,

a Sugar Plum Fairy Chandelier,

and when I grow up,

I want to be Creative!

Thanks a'much!

Hee! Hee! Hee! I mean, Ho! Ho! Ho!

Happy Holidays everyone! In a sweet colorful world, what do candy canes, whirly pops, peppermints, gum drops, a bit of wire,
a few yards of ribbon and lace have in common? Well, not really too much, unless you make it so! When I was a kid, I used to

concoct the most wild, hare-brained stories about well, just about everything...where up is down and down is up! A place where the local farmers crops are lollipops, grown in perfect, tidy little rows and smooth, shiny licorice vines grow up into the clouds.

And curly, curved sugar ribbon roads lined with candy cane fences stretch on for dozens of miles! And every Spring, the meadows are laden with thousands of multicolored jelly bean buds, which would go on to vibrantly bloom into the biggest,

pouffiest, fluffiest, yummiest cotton candy Dandelion's you have ever seen! And all of which I then went on to share with my ever patient Grandfather as he sat down to the table to eat his dinner. I know at first Grandpapa thought it odd as I proceeded to

gleefully yak, yak, yak his ear off, telling him the most absurd tales, that I ever so easily mixed in with the real events of my day. Especially because my dear Grandpapa was really a quite solemn man, a stern man, if you will, even a little on the gruff side.

But...someone forgot to tell me, as a matter of fact, I hardly ever saw that side of him and when I did, it was always through someone else's eyes...like one of the other grandchildren, who ran screaming from the room when ever he entered it! But as I

remember she was just scared of people with white hair, and boy, did she ever go completely ballistic when it came time to sit on Santa's knee and tell him how good we'd been all year! No, I never saw that side of Grandpapa. I saw the man with the so

serious face, listening diligently, thumbs quietly twirling, trying desperately to hold back a smile, but his eyes couldn't hide it. Oh, no they couldn't, his big brown eyes simply twinkled! The man I knew planted purple iris bulbs and gently tended them till

they bloomed into ravishing ruffled ladies, he put nectar out for the Humming birds and didn't even bother sticking around for the pay off of watching them devour it. Yes, that's the man I knew. I knew the man that fed every stray cat that came around!

Those kitties loved him, they knew, animals always do. And I loved him, and he knew. Certainly season's bring particular memories to the forefront for me, trigger neatly packed away moments, treasured, crystalized bits of time held tightly together

like a snowflake. They are bound to my mind forever and always make me feel happy to remember them. I liken it all to the first time I recall seeing snow...it seems like such a simple thing but I was shaken to the core, I thought I would never recover!

I remember thinking, now this is true magic! I mean up to that point in my young life I had only experienced rain! As if that wasn't wondrous enough! This is it, what could possibly be better?! Watching it fall, as though in slow motion, each feathery flake,

silently floating to the ground, building and piling up, up, up till it nearly reached the window sill. I would sit for hours, staring out, completely engrossed, as the sun sat and the wind grew colder and the street lights came on, the white flakes

turned from downey to crystalline, sharp edged, refracting light glints in every color of the rainbow.

It was absolutely miraculous, so magnificent it made me cry, silly I know, but true.

Ok, now, lets get on to the subject at hand and what might that be, you ask? Well, have you ever felt inexplicably drawn to do

something? I have had the burning desire to create, an absolute, unbounded, self indulgent urge to create! Oh, what, oh what, shall I

make? Let's see, something excessive, governed by no adult conventions, something deliriously mad, dangerously theatrical,

but with the slightest air of tradition. Now, being that I have made a vow to never, ever take seriousness seriously! I wanted to

allow my so serious 19th century Meissen porcelains the opportunity to cast aside their built in pomp and circumstance and

titter in the face of convention!

So here it is, a Sugar Plum Fairy Chandelier...

I think Hansel and Gretel would have approved!

When we were young,

we thought like children,

the holiday's were always a twinkling delight.

The sweet scent of pine and peppermint and baked cinnamon apples

permeated the entire house,

and if I close my eyes,

I can see it all through the eyes of a child again,

all I have to do is knock on the tiny red wreathed door,

the one labeled Christmas 1972,

and whoop, there it is!

First, I hear the sounds,

faint giggles and laughter,

mixed in with pling! Pluck! Pling!

Music of sounds and sounds of music,

shimmering tones so high it must be

what ice sounds like forming and

cicles sound like growing long towards the ground!

And over in the corner

a glittering, tall silver tree,

made completely out of crimped aluminum!

Beside it on the floor,

hidden amongst the many carefully wrapped boxes,

a multicolored, rotating light,

ever so cautiously, I sneak up, making sure no one is watching,

so's to steal a candy cane off the tree!

As I try to act casual, tip toeing out, I hear Grandpapa sweetly say, "While visions of Sugar Plums danced in their heads!"

Season's Greetings and Happy Holiday's! I'll see you all in the New Year!
Visuals details: Assorted candy, wire and ribbon, 19th century Meissen porcelain figures, Swarovski crystals, and one 12" tall hand painted porcelain Sugar Plum Fairy ballerina dressed in antique remnants and wearing a blonde mohair wig crowned with half of a circa 1910 enameled metal belt buckle, just to top it off a few tiny swallow's feathers from last years visitors. And in case you were wondering, Yep, we're going to eat it all up when the holiday's are over!