Whiteley Creek Homestead

If you haven't yet shopped Etsy, you are missing out on a huge artsy world "out there". It is a marketplace for creative people to sell their handmade products. I purchased these two woodland inhabitants from Vermont Fairies. Their hair is absolutely perfect… a little windblown from their woodland adventures. Enlarge the photo and notice the skirt fashioned after a leaf's shape and, if you look closely, you will see a a rick rack pattern embedded into the bodice that looks like a necklace hanging down in a gentle swoop. They are the creation of a sweet talented entrepreneurial teenager who is increasing her college savings. Her fairies are "made using wool felt that she makes herself from her family's sheep then embellishes them with angora, llama, mohair, silk, and sparkles". I immediately fell in love with their style of dress and hairstyles because it reminds me of Franco Zeffirelli's movie adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet starring Olivia Hussey that I saw as a kid in 1968. You can imagine the impact the story's plot had on a fifteen year-old but, in addition, the huge screen with its vibrant colors was especially impressive since I grew up with a black and white television and it was only the second movie I had ever viewed at a theater. The first theater movie I saw was a year earlier titled "The Gnome Mobile", a 1967 Disney movie starring Walter Brennan about "an eccentric millionaire and his grandchildren embroiled in the plights of some forest gnomes who are searching for the rest of their tribe. While helping them, the millionaire is suspected of being crazy because he's seeing gnomes. He's committed, and the niece and nephew and the gnomes have to find him and free him." This childhood movie explains my woodland fascination. 

After purchasing my felted wool duo, the next step was a woodland home for them. I showed Dick an idea and we went on a scavenger hunt to gather twigs, bark, pinecones, and moss. When Emily, the Vermont Fairy Etsy Shop owner, learned that I was planning to build a home for her creations, she sent me a precious little bag of acorns, a seed pod, feathers, and a tiny felted wool butterfly along with a handmade linoleum block print card with a sweet note inside. This is an example of the small hometown feel that you get from interacting with Etsy shop owners… yes, even though it's out in cyberspace. Look at the photo and you will see the feather "smoke" gently rising from the pinecone chimney and the green butterfly fluttering overhead.