The Crow took my Keys!!!

so the top of my car key was broken, and I figured I would fix it with some polymer clay, guess I went a little overboard, but I have to say it is kind of fun to turn a big crow head to open the doors or start the car....off to the Crow Mobile!

King Richard's Faire

Well, when I last left you faithful reader, we were waiting outside the gates of King Richards for my friend's to arrive and the festivities to begin... So upon the arrival of Sadie, Andy and Dan, we entered "The Realm" and began our day to the tantalizing aromas of cinnamon baking at the bakery right by the gate, and headed over to Seams Like a Dream where my lovely friend Lisa was, so I could introduce her to those she didn't know yet (she had met Sadie and Andy last year). Now mind you, everyone was all dressed in garb except for Michael (aka Reuladair) and Noah (can't remember his gaelic name off the top of my head...) so Lisa generously offered to outfit them, her treat! Noah did not take her up on the offer, but Michael did, so off he went to transform in the dressing room. And after some catching up with Lisa, we headed out to enjoy the faire. first I wanted some of whatever was making that delicious cinnamon smell, but upon arriving at the bakery we found them cinnamon-less! :-( But I tarried on, sans cinnamon roll, like the brave soul that I am... So for a short time we were all meandering around to the vendors together, but I quickly got Sadie to ditch the boys ;-) so we could do some girlie shopping and they could throw knives and whatnot. I actually want to learn to throw knives, we have contests every year at Lughnasadh, but I was more interested in seeing all the vendors and the animals and the forge. We went in search of a garland for Sadie, and there was a beautiful one with purple flowers and black feathers, and I could tell from how her eyes lit up that she wanted it, but they wanted $42 for it! So alas, I may have to make one for my fair friend Sadie, because she walked away (and good for her!) It can be very hard to talk away when we find some bauble or bit of glamor that we have tried on, I struggle with it myself.... So we continued on shopping, and off we went to where there was some lovely jewelery to behold. Last year when I went to the fair my boyfriend at the time bought me a lovely necklace and earrings to match from this same vendor. Now last year, this vendor had me in the palm of his hand with his lovely Irish accent, I have always said I will be in trouble when i finally get to Ireland, as I am a sucker for an Irish accent ;-) Now mind you, the necklace from last year was absolutely beautiful, yet the first day I wore it it fell right off of my neck when I was out and about somewhere, I retraced all of my steps that day, and yet never could find it. So now, this year, here is the same vendor, same lovely jewelery, and yet here he was with an English accent. Well it just wasn't the same for me. So I tell this vendor, as he is trying to ply me with his wares, and saying all of his "m'ladies" and whatnot, that I had a bone to pick with him... I recounted my tale of woe about my necklace falling off, but also how last year he was Irish, which I much preferred, and now this year he was English, and he says he would let me in on a little secret, he is actually from Texas! Well, he did offer me a discount on the beautiful tree of life necklace I was eying, so I did procure that for my collection of sparklies, so I leftoff the chain mail necklace that I had originally bought at Faerieworlds in Oregon that I had been wearing and promplty donned the Tree. He took the chain mail necklace and asks for a minute, and he places the necklace on my head, well with his help, and Sadie's and one lovely celtic hair barrette that I had purchased at Icons from Joseph Keane of Celtic Revival I now had myself quite the fancy hairpiece. Well after some more shopping our tummies were a-grumbling, so after fetching Lisa from her shop we went off to the racket that is the food at King Richards. For those who have never been to King Richards, beware, all of the food must be purchase with food tickets, and you have to buy at least $5 worth, and the whole ticket system makes you one stepped removed from the amount of money you are paying for food, so you may spend more than you bargained for because you are just spending "tickets" kind of like rides at a carnival... but that is neither here nor there, just a little pet peeve of mine, and many other faire goers I know. So this year, I didn't do the gnawing on a turkey leg, just opted for some fries. And the bakery at the food court area also was out of mostly everything but cookies, so I never did get my cinnamon fix. So I was having a wonderful time, and enjoying the flirty attention that is abound at the faire. Lisa introduced me to her friend "Lord Seamus" who is "protector of the realm" and other such stuff I can't remember. He did have quite a penetrating gaze... with a blue-grey eyes with a ring of orangy-brown around the pupil, just like mine, and he had no moons on his fingertips... Around this time the boys contacted us and said they wanted to eat,and they found us where we were. After eating the boys went off to the joust while Sadie and I did a little more shopping, I bought some fabulous ear cuffs to use with my faerie ears at Faeriecon. Sadie and I got our pictures with the Berzerkers, and we finally did get Sadie a hair garland from Kevin... Sadly, the faire closes at 6, so after Sadie and I met up with the boys at the joust, and a little more eying of leather goods and whatnot we were off for the evening, where we all traveled to East Bridgewater for our meeting of Tuatha na bPréacháin Naomh

Well I figured before the forward momentum of this new weekend took over, that I would post about last weekend, so as to try and keep current. Between Facebook and Myspace and Tribe and Deviant Art and blogging, I feel like I own too much online real estate and need a management company to keep up with it all while I am out having fun ;-) Actually I hadn't been on Myspace before, or had only really lurked, and now that I am on there I have been sucked into that vortex.... but I digress, last weekends tales are waiting patiently to be told... Well Kaileigh and I spent a quiet evening home on the Friday night, as we both were going to have to get up fairly early in the morning. Originally, the plan was that Kaileigh would come with me to work, and go out with her dad later, but it turns out that his car was in the shop so we needed to coordinate with her grandmother instead (called Memere), and earlier on Saturday was easier for her to pick her up, so Kaileigh escaped from having to go to work with me. Though on this particular Saturday, it probably would have been a fun event, I work as an activities coordinator at an assisted living facility, and also work in the marketing department, and for our outing on this particular weekend I was taking my residents to a Native American Pow Wow that is held every year in Bedford on the grounds of the Bedford VA hospital. The only glitch, this happen to be the one day that my friend Lisa, who co-owns Seams Like a Dream at King Richard's Faire would have comp tickets for me, so while I was happy to take the residents to the pow wow, I was kind of distracted while there as I was anxious to get on the road to Carver for the Faire and meet up with my friends there. But the pow wow was wonderful, some of the residents even went into the circle during a time to honor veterans, one of the women was "Rosie the Riveter", another woman was one of the WAVES, and a third resident was also a veteran, but not sure what branch of service he was in. There was some wonderful dancing in the circle, and some amazing vendors, including one named Patsy whom I would love to try and locate.. I was going to go back early on Sunday morning to pick up some hair braid lacings from her, as I didn't have cash on me and she didn't accept cards, but by Sunday morning I was running late to get to Andover for the Eastern MA Pagan Pride Project, so I never did make it back, if anyone happens to know how to get in touch with Patsy, please contact me at katie@lennonstudio.com :-) So it really was a nice time, and in ordinary circumstances I would have been happy to stay longer, but the residents had a wonderful time, and had the chance to enjoy the circle, eat some food and check out the vendors... Next was King Richard's Faire, I drove straight from work to there, and it took about an hour, my friend Michael (Reuladair) and his son Noah were there when I arrived, and shortly afterward we were joined by Sadie, Andy and Dan.... but more will be revealed a little later on...

The Saga continued....

Well, I figured I better finish up writing about that weekend, as I have another whole week and a half to catch up on since then! So where did I leave you, faithful reader? Well Joseph and I were set dancing to the whimsical tunes of Lunasa.. after which Joseph decided to go back to his booth to relieve Athonwy, whom I promptly kidnapped to come with me to see Solas, after getting some free coffee, as I was starting to need some caffeine boostage... Well Solas was incredible, new singer and all, and I danced my heart out the entire time... what an enchanting evening it was dancing in the light of the full moon with kindred spirits.. amazing! Well eventually Nancy and Joseph both made their way over and we were all dancing and having a lovely time until the very last strains of the last Solas song. After which we all journeyed back to the hotel where all the musicians and such were staying, and there were sessions in the lounge and the lobby and the hallway... and just about everywhere. I had the opportunity to do a bit more dancing, though it turns out I must have danced a little bit too much, as one of the soles of my boots developed a crack across the entire sole, and this is rubber that was about an inch and a half thick! If anyone knows of a good cobbler, let me know, as I am loath to let these boots go, I originally purchased them to keep my feet toasty for Samhain a few years ago, and I have worn them faithfully ever since. So the evening wore on into the morning, and I knew I should be heading home, I had to sell my art at the South Eastern MA Pagan Pride Day the following morning in Lakeville, and I was supposed to get there for 8am, and here is was 2 am and I was no where near home and my car wasn't even packed yet! But my feeling was I would rather be up having wonderful experiences and pay for it the next day than to miss out and be home sleeping. And what experiences there were to be had, I had the great fortune to meet Aoife Clancy, and Luka Bloom, and even Brian O'Donovan himself, from a Celtic Sojourn noticed and commented on my dancing. But eventually I really couldn't fight off the sleep any longer, and I made my way home around 3:30 AM, and had to awaken the later that same morning in only a few scant hours to shower and pack up my car and head off to Lakeville for the South Eastern MA Pagan Pride Day So there I am driving to Lakeville, and it is down-pouring, and I am thinking that I am really tired and that if it is pouring like this when I get there I am calling it quits, as I would be setting up my tent for the first time ever, and it would be pouring rain, and all my artwork would get totally soaked and destroyed. So I was on the phone back and forth with my friend Debi who was vending as well, and my tribe-mate Reuladair, to see what their status was, and they were on the road a little bit ahead of me, so I kept checking in to see what weather was doing. It was a little bit lighter rain when I got there, but not by much. So I went over to the check in booth and was pleasantly surprised to find that the vendor coordinator had decided to put me and another artist inside so we wouldn't get our artwork ruined. So I drove around and started to load in all my stuff inside. Also setting up inside were Kevin and Heather from Pentacle Press, who also put together the event Celebrate Samhain in New Hampshire, this was my first time meeting them, and they were lovely to share the space with, and had a great booth. Next to them was the author Trish Telesco so I was fortunate to get to see some of her workshops. Two of the musical acts came inside to avoid the weather The Harper and the Minstrel that was very soothing, and then of course I loved dancing to the lovely sound of the Gypsy Nomads while being the Pied Piper for little girls, though I wasn't piping, just dancing, so I guess I would be the Pied Dancer, but it doesn't sound quite right ;-) The other artist arrived and his name was Golden True, and it was interesting talking art with him, he is learning to use his art for clairvoyance... I think I will have to hear more about that...

Last weekends saga, the story begins...

So, last weekend was absolutely amazing and incredible, it took me a while to take it all in enough to be able to process all of what happened! Saturday had a wonderful start as I had the great pleasure to meet my friend Barbara's littlest new wonder named Madeline, who has the best disposition and a wonderful warm smile and sparkly spirit... such a joy, and her little Tommy was such a charmer. Next up on the festivities, after a wonderful visit with my sister, whom I had not caught up with in far too long, and then off to the ICONs Irish fest where I met up with another Madeleine, a woman that I work with. I was enjoying some Irish Step dance demos and loving these amazing Irish Wolf Hounds when she called to say she had arrived at the festival. I asked her what she liked to do, and she said shop, so off we went to explore the vendors. We passed by many booths, and the first one I said I want to go in and check out, wouldn't you know that my good friend Athonwy, whom I met it Eugene, Oregon at Faerieworlds, was helping out the vendor there. What a treat to get to see this amazing soul again, and wonderful to meet his booth mates, Joseph Keane of Celtic Revival and Nancy who was also there helping out. Well a pleasure it was to meet this merry band, and what times we had later on that evening... But, the shopping continued, and I ended up spending all of my cash on books about Irish Folklore and Mythology, which I was very excited to find, except for the fact that now I had these books to lug around (though they did let me keep them at the booth for a time) and now all my cash was gone, and if I had one complaint, it would be those f*#$ing ATM machines at the site were awful and never could read my card, I ended up leaving the festival later just to get some cash! Well Madeleine and I went and had an amazing time listening to the Clancy Legacy, with Robbie O'Connell. Madeleine was particularly pleased as she had gone on a tour of Ireland with Robbie, and he played one of the songs she had been hoping to hear. A wonderful set indeed. After that, I bid Madeleine goodbye, as she was done for the evening, and heading home. I took my leave to be able to put the books in my car and head out to get some food and some cash... So I quickly returned to the Festival and met up with Athonwy, and Joseph Keane took me to see his amazing Ancient Landscapes exhibit while he looked through to see what "tree" I was, because much like the every birthday has an astrological sign, every one has a tree it is associated with in the Irish tradition. Turns out my tree was the reed, and it seemed very fitting, what it said, but I will have to do more research on that as it is something I know nothing about just yet, I do know that right now we are in the time of the Vine, and I have vines trained to climb up my spiral stairs out my door... but that is neither here nor there. So Joseph and I wandered off in the moonlight sampling bits of music here and there, and what a wonderful and intoxicating time it was. I did set dancing for the very first time, and we danced our hearts out in the field by the Compass Point Stage while Lunasa played their set. I must say, I thought I was in fairly decent shape, but man, that set dancing is fast and I found myself getting very winded, I will need to practice more... well the evenings festivities will continue in my next installment, I am still recovering from the late nights this past week and right now I am exhausted!!!

Original art Ebay Auction

well this one is going to be short and sweet as I am totally exhausted and need to get some sleep! so I listed some artist trading cards on ebay, they are the size of baseball cards and are both original, one of a kind pieces, one is Halloween Pumpkins done in ink and colored pencils and the other is called Dew Drop Faery Bath and is an original oil painting and if you just want to check on what I am selling from time to time you can follow this link http://myworld.ebay.com/katiekat74/ I hope to get more up and running soon, but of course there are only so many hours in the day!

The Faeries

The Faeries The faeries, they won't let me sleep They rouse me from my world of dreams To dance and frolic, dart and leap In worlds where nothing is as it seems In the wee hours of the night While all the world is sleeping They share with me their heart's delight To guard it for safekeeping It is in honor that they share With me things best kept hidden and dance through nights without a care and do what I have bidden But there is a price for what they do Long gone my nights of slumber The visit me the long night through In glazes of burnt umber Sometimes they bid me paint their faces Sometimes to scribe their tales Capturing their subtle graces and their lamenting wails I do cherish our convocation Grateful for muses spark and the subsequent conflagration Illuminating the dark -Katie Lennon September 17, 2008 3:37 am

A time of loss.....

So of course it is September 11th, and everyone if focused on the topic of loss today, and it hits home (loss that is) for other reasons, so I thought I would delve into the subject a little. So first off, the subject of where people were on 9/11/2001 came up on a group I am in, and it yielded many interesting, powerful, painful, and revealing moments. I want to thank everyone who shared there (you know who you are) everyone was touched by that tragedy in different ways, and it honors the memories to recall them. I was about 4 months pregnant at the time, and it was very sobering to think of the awesome responsibility of raising a child in this dysfunctional world we live in, and what it means to bring another soul onto this planet....

Some of you may know, some may not, that in addition to doing all the art and dance and such, I am also an activities coordinator at an independent and assisted living facility. So certainly the art and dance and other interests tie into the job, but what I find the most rewarding is directly making a difference in people's lives and quality of life. However, inherent in the job is loss, as with an aging population people do come to the end of their journeys here, and it can be very difficult. I do have to say I feel blessed to have the chance to know these vibrant souls, who have lived entire liftetimes, and through decades of history that I can only read about. And there are always those certain individuals who find a special place in your heart, and when one of those kindred spirits passes on, it is a bittersweet time. There are two individuals who continued their journeys into other realms, but who definitely made a lasting impact on me, and they will be missed. The first was Norman, what a sweet and kind and gentle soul he was. A very intelligent man, originally an opthamologist by career, I knew and loved him for his love of art. He invited me to his apartment to show me his collection of clay work he had done, and showed off his wife's hand-knotted oriental rug she had made. He had such enthusiasm for making art, and his love for it was contagious. In teaching art to seniors, oftentimes I run into people with the attitude of "I can't.." and in their lifetimes these people lived through 2 world wars and the depression... there wasn't a lot of "let's just make art for arts sake" happening in their formative years, and that type of creative expression wasn't fostered or nurtured. So their attitude that they can't and fear of trying is understandable, but it is also a shame, and something I work hard to combat against, as their is great healing power in art. This attitude was entirely missing in Norman, he was enthusiastic and invigorated by working on his art, and he encouraged everyone in the classes, he made art with a passion. It was with great shock and sadness that I learned of his passing, he had not outwardly appeared ill at all, and his death was sudden, a surprise to the wife and family he left behind. It has been a few months now since Norman passed, but I cannot go in our crafts room without thinking of him, and his wonderful spirit.

And then there was Abbey, full of piss and vinegar, one of the strongest women I could ever hope to meet, Abbey died yesterday, at age 102. She was amazing! Abbey was also an artist, she made amazing collages and sculptures, and in her younger years studied working in clay in Mexico. She was a woman after my own heart, she decorated everything! She would fabric cover her shoeboxes, and collage on things and even her tape dispensers were decorated with pretty paper. She also was a poet, and did poetry readings when her eyes were still good enough to see. I had the occasion to go to her apartment and read through some of her poetry, and see her collages. As a poet and artist myself, I felt a kindred connection to Abbey, but that isn't where it ends, she was also a dancer! I was enchanted to hear her stories and read her playbills and newspaper articles from when she was a dancer with Isadora Duncan! I feel blessed to have had that chance to know her, if only briefly during her long stay on this planet. It is my belief that she and Norman have just continued on in their journeys to other realms and I wish them wonderful times ahead, but I will miss you dearly

Countdown to the Bad Faeries Ball....

This is Halloween, this is Halloween.....

Halloween is coming closer! I can feel the chill in the air, and see the halloween stores popping up everywhere. I am very excited to make my Halloween Tree this year, and have some wonderful ideas for ornaments, in fact I will probably have some with my at the upcoming events! This is my very favorite holiday, with a close second being my birthday, which is just after it (November 3), so you may be hearing about Halloween from me for quite some time now...

So I just had eye surgery today, nothing major but it is uncomfortable right now, and very blurry out of that eye because of the ointment, so no painting for me tonight! Actually I am rather exhausted and probably need to rest, so that is probably a good thing, when I get into painting time has no meaning, I can look up from my work and hours may have passed....

In just a short time, I will be donning my dangerous metal wings and suiting up for the Bad Faeries Ball, my absolute favorite part of Faeriecon, http://www.faeriecon.com/, which is only a month away. I am definitely looking forward to vending it, so if you are in the area stop on by and visit me at booth 1921. Another highlight of the event for me will be seeing the Frouds and Alan Lee and Jen Delyth, and Woodland, and Omnia and Qntal, and Mark Lewis and Billy Scudder, and I could go on and on. I am very excited for this event. I do have to say though that I am very disappointed that according to a voicemail I got my partner in crime Hawk will not be able to join us after all :-( Which totally stinks! He will definitely be missed, haven't been able to talk in person so I don't know the full scoop.

Halloween aka Samhain will be upon us before we know it, and I have to say I am very pleased with my daughter Kaileigh's choice for what to be, which is rather important since I am making her costume, it would be really tedious to make a costume of something that didn't spark that creative flow. However, that is not the case here, I am totally excited to make her a costume to be Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas! I love Tim Burton movies and this one is by far my favorite, and Kaileigh's too, she has been watching it since she was a little sprite and would say "Can we watch Sally and Jack, Mama?" I must have seen it over 100 times. Frogsbreath? Nothing is more suspicious than Frogsbreath....

I was talking on the phone last night with a newly found friend, who is one of those people that I felt an instant connection with, and i feel we are kindred spirits.. I am very much looking forward to learning from this amazing woman, she is very talented in many areas, including being a fantastic diviner. She did a reading for me that blew my mind. In the course of our conversation last night however the subject of my website came up, and she sparked some ideas for some wonderful things to come, so stay tuned to www.lennonstudio.com for lots of exciting updates, changes, new features and sections, etc... if only there were more hours in the day! I would get it all done so much quicker.

where will you find me?

Well I am up bright and chipper this morning, the second day of school for my little nipperkin, and all in all, life is grand. I am glad it is fall, but the time seems to be filling up way too quickly and I feel like all my weekends are getting jam-packed before I know it. Actually before I know it at least one will be jelly-packed, as every year my daughter and I harvest the concord grapes from the arbor in our yard and make jelly, Yum! but time isn't going too quick yet, as the grapes look far off from being harvestable. So what is coming up very soon? Where can you find me? Well hopefully this weekend I will be happily hunting for antiques at the last Brimfield of the year, if you don't know, Brimfield 3 times a year turns into mecca for antiques, and I have been going since I was a young girl with my dad. Last year I got a fabulous vintage floor length black velvet coat! I love the thrill of the hunt, you never know what you might find... The following weekend I will be attending the ICONs Irish Festival in Canton, MA where I am looking forward to seeing Lunasa and Solas, two tradtional Irish bands whom I have seen before at the Sommerville Theater, and they are fabulous. Solas has a new lead female vocalist, so that should be interesting. Also looking forward to seeing Kieran Jordan step dancing...On the 14th you can find me with Lennon Studio vending at the South Eastern Massachusetts Pagan Pride day. The website is http://www.semappd.com/ and the event is in Lakeville from 10am-6pm. On the following Sunday you can find me vending again with http://www.lennonstudio.com/ at the Eastern Massachusetts Pagan Pride Project http://www.easternmasspaganpride.org/, and that event is also from 10am-6pm, and it is in Andover, MA. Well that is about it out of me for now, have to get dressed now or we will miss the school bus!