The Great Separation Project!!

Well, after about 2 months of separating they are all done!

Once the decision was made to start the new line of Northern Faeries I started ordering flowers specifically for them. I think my first order went in the final week of November and I stopped ordering December 31, 2013. The last batch of flowers arrived on Tuesday, January 21, 2014 and they have now been taken apart as well.

A massive thank you goes out to Hubby, Ryan and Amanda (Noon) for all of their help.

In the end, there was 1545 flower heads in total that needed to be taken apart. Now being that I like things really taken apart, each flower is broken down by size and colour and placed into individual baggies. Yes...that is a LOT of baggies.

So keep in mind that all of these flowers are dedicated to the Northern Faerie Line. There are currently 6 that are available for sale and another 6 that are either completed or are in the process of designing.

I took pictures from all around the table and then from above!

That's a whole lot of flower petals!!

Care Package From Afar

A new care package arrived today in the mail from my bestest on-line friend Sharon.

 It seems that when I make my petal faeries my favourite flower petals to use are the sheer iridescent ones. These petals just add that extra 'magical' look to each faerie. Now, don't get the wrong impression of me or anything but I have hung these pretty little flower petals off on another rack away from the rest of my flowers as they are special to me. The last few times I have had visitors over to the nursery though, they have ALL managed to find my hidden little stash and proceeded to use them when making their own faeries!! Now, there is really nothing wrong with this and I am glad that they feel the same way about them as I do. So.....I thought I had best check back in with Sharon to replenish my supply and sure enough she had posted more of them. I ordered 7 more sets of 6 flowers (there are 8 layers to each flower) so that will give me 336 more sparkly flower petals (to share??) plus Sharon threw in a few extra as well.

But as always, my box from Sharon didn't just have my order of flowers (did I say, I LOVE her care packages yet? If I didn't....I sure do LOVE her care packages).

I now have a whole family of wee little critters that surround my little tree that I have on my desk here. So every time I glance over to the right of my computer screen, they are all looking up at me with their eyes full of curiosity and smiles galore.

Also in the box came loose flowers, beads, pins for my hubby's collection, little note pads, white head beads, a book, fimo flowers, molds and a whole lot more. How lucky am I??

The loose flowers....I am keeping out to make a very special faerie. As soon as I was taking them apart I knew immediately what her name was going to be....Cotton Candy :)

On a side note though.....Faerie Sharon (named on behalf of Sharon) has been a bit of bother lately! It seems with all of theses holiday decorations that I have laying around while getting ready for my upcoming Christmas fairs has put her into a VERY mischievous state! As I have always kept her close by on the table (she tells me stories and whispers in my ear while I work) she has been busy knocking things over and then hiding little baubles and jingle bells in the strangest places. At first, I was blaming Lady Isabella my cat, but nope.....I had gone upstairs to get a refill of my warmed apple juice and there on the floor were two jingle bells and a little present wrapped in the shiny gold foil. Now what on earth she was going to do with them, I have no idea but because of this behaviour she has now been moved over to my faerie bookshelf to keep her out of trouble!! Not sure how long it will take her to figure out how to get down...but at least I will be able to work without finding little treasures missing from the table!

Presentation Time

I would like you all to meet Heather :)

Her name was the petal drawn from the basket (by my hubby) to win Faerie Nutmeg.

It is sad to see her leave the nursery but I am happy that she has found a new and happy forever home :)


Congratulations again Heather.

What is that...a new title tab on the blog??

I am asking anyone that has either visited the Nursery or maybe purchased or had a Faerie given to them, to just jot down a word or two (or even more if you wish) about your experience.

This can be pretty well anything....from if the slippers didn't fit, not enough selection of flower petals, if your packaging wasn't up to snuff in regards to handling through Canada Post....to maybe even something a little more on the positive side :)

Please know that I will read every entry and hopefully learn along the way on what type of Faerie product you would like to have made here at the Nursery.

I will say 'thank you' now and hope to see each and every one of you back again soon.

Emmanuelle

Visitors :)

I had visitors to the nursery this week and what fun was that (and they even wore the slippers I had bought for visitors...that was almost just as exciting).

So while here, they got to make their own petal faeries.

Long story....are you sitting comfortably....got a nice soft chair??

So we will start out with Thum. Thum started pulling down bags of flowers....she seemed to be quite partial to the peach and the turquoise ones...I thought....ooooohhhh I like where she is going with this. Then the next time I took a peek over to the other side of the table...all of a sudden the dark dark red flower bag was spread out across the table! Like what happened to the soft gentle faerie?? Next, she pulled down the black bag of petals!! Now wait a minute....how can one go from delicate to goth within minutes?? I was politely corrected...not dark or goth...Christmasy (okay, thinking that isn't even a word..but you all know what I meant so that's all that matters). Next came out the feathers, no not the wee little ones I use to make faerie wings but the great big like pterodactyl ones (okay, so I'm exaggerating...just trying to get my point across). Next came the hair-do. So lets just get the picture (before you get to actually see one). Petals were red, black, shimmer and I think she added in a couple of white ones. Large feathers, 4 to be exact, 2 big fluffy ones and 2 peacock kind of like. What would you think she thought of for hair?? Any guesses?? She ended up with BLUE. Did you happen to read that correctly? Did you read BLUE. Sparkly BLUE!! Go figure!!

Next we have Alyssa. Shy little Alyssa, I thought for sure I had this one nailed! While Thum had the turquoise flowers out, I seen Alyssa start to pull one or two out for her own faerie. Then she was reaching for the oranges and peaches. Nice, nice combination. Subdued...quiet like her. Then...no hold on....and I'm not repeating Thum's story here for you to read. All of a sudden Alyssa found a bag of the all the really weird flower petals...like the zebra striped ones and stuff. Ones that I had got in sets of flowers that I really really liked and didn't have a choice but to buy as well since they all came together. Well to say her eyes went bigger and bigger like saucers was an UNDERSTATEMENT.....all I heard was ooooohhhhh and ahhhhhhh! There we go again.....off on another completely different road than I thought she would take. So I just took in a deep breath and reminded myself...this is her faerie (did I secretly say to myself....boy, I sure am glad that this faerie will be going home with her... as can you imagine the ruckus she would cause in the nursery???). Next time I glanced over...Alyssa had not one set of petals on the go, but two sets. She decided one faerie for each of her moods. The quiet side and the not so quiet side of Alyssa.

And now to the pictures, faerie names and the stories they though of for each one :)

Thum's little faerie Miriam

Miriam is a feisty little late autumn faerie. One day when out on one of her adventures 

she had an encounter with a nasty garden gnome who nipped her wing off for his 

prized feather collection. Now you will be lucky to even catch a glimpse

of Miriam as she easily shies away when someone nears the garden. 

Alyssa's more wild side Roxy

Roxy is the life of the party at the nursery. With her loud stripes and bright colours, 

she likes to brighten every one's day. Her past time is sneaking out with her 

quiet sister Misha to paint the lilies with her wild stripes.

And of course, Alyssa's more quiet side Misha

Misha is the quiet and shy sister to Roxy. She loves to serenade the other faeries 

of the nursery with her violin but sometimes goes off to play a faint tune somewhere in the garden. 

She always seems to go along with Roxy's adventures but secretly she loves the excitement.

Parcels :)

More flower petals have arrived and are being put away this evening. Lots of large gerber daisies, some hot pink pom poms, tiny little roses in peaches and yellows and a garland of purple flowers with lots of green leaves. 

We were also blessed to have another 'care' package arrive all the way from San Francisco -- thank you so much Sharin :)  There is always a great big hype when one of her parcels arrive. We all gather around the table (and those that can't make it are right with us thank you to Skype) as we gently open the box up. This parcel contained more of our wonderful iridescent flower petals...but these ones are tiny so they will be placed on top to glitter and shine for all to see. More of the most vibrant and brilliant coloured magenta flowers. A whole box (yes, a whole box) of the prettiest and the sparkliest pipe cleaners I have ever seen! (and might I add, the faeries in the nursery sure have noted them too as we all know how much they love shiny things).  Fabric swatches galore, more inspiration to start experimenting. Yards and yards of fantastic blue ribbon. Wonderful white tatted lace that will make beautiful skirts (thank goodness there is enough to go around as I am sure I will have to keep these tucked away so they don't go 'accidentally' missing and I end up finding them hidden throughout the nursery). The strangest metallic blue 'stuff'. I really don't know what it is...it reminds me of an SOS pad but it's blue and soft and gorgeous. I'm thinking it will look great in the new hairdo's the faeries have been sporting of late. Also tucked in the bottom were lots of Fimo flowers and goodies (too many to list). Again, a massive thank you and a big hug from all of us here at the faerie nursery to Sharin. We all wish she lived a might bit closer so she could come and play in the nursery as well. 

Protector or Trouble Maker?

This is Lady Isabella...and she was caught sleeping the in the basket where I keep the little bags of petals that have been separated to become new faeries.

I am trying to figure out if she is being protective of them or if she is keeping them from getting out and causing mischief??

Meet Sharin - Mascot for Enchanted Pathways

This wee little faerie was given to me from a lady in San Francisco. She sent me a note that went something like this....

"is the little gal settled in with you? she lived with me for about 20 years.....when you connected with me the second time - she said she wanted to go to the Fort Smith Fairy Clan - and off she went!"


To have a stranger share such a precious gift shows me that people do believe. They believe not only in faeries but also in generosity, love and compassion. In return I have made a Petal Faerie for Sharin out of the flower petals I had purchased from her. I hope that my little faerie will bring her as much happiness as her faerie has brought me.

Flower Petal Faeries

Well there are many components to this project!

Firstly, the wire. As this is a speciality cloth wrapped wire I must say I have had a lot of difficulty in finding what I want. The wire that I was able to get is of the correct gauge but I wished that I could have found it in other colours.

Perler Beads, not as easy to come by as one would think. These are used underneath the bottom layer of petals to make them balloon out. 

Feathers....I thought that some of the Faeries should have real feathered wings not sure how they will work but I look forward to experimenting with them.

I recruited my Mom and my husband to spend an hour or two taking apart flower heads. Thank you sooooo much :) Now, I should have all of the flower petals that I will ever need to complete a whole bouquet of Flower Petal Faeries.

As well, I purchased more of the wooden boxes that I need to hold all of the Faeries precious goodies. These need to be stained to match the doors.

Flower Power

Petals from Heaven :)

The little Petal Faeries that I am making require lots of different sizes of petals. At first I didn't know whether I should just buy silk flowers and take them apart or if I should just buy packages of petals. In the end I did a little of both (thank you to my Mom for buying flowers and taking the time to take them all apart to mail up to me).

This package of goodies came from Blissful Moments (ebay). What a wonderful selection of colour I have now :)

This row has green/yellow daisies and red daisies....

This row has purple/white daisies and cream daisies......

This row has bright yellow prima and my all time favourite the orange/yellow prima petals (this style seem to come in a variety of sizes too!)

Shiny Petals

They are so dainty and pretty, I almost hate to take them all apart.

BUT....I also can't wait to make some of the Faeries have sparkly little dresses!

These little flowers are of the softest purple hue I have ever seen.

These next ones are pretty-in-pink

And the last stem has sparkly sheer petals.

I LOVE PARCELS!!

And I think they love me too!!

Lots of goodies came in the mail today.

Where to start and how not to miss anything.

Okay, I spoke before of the scrapbooking paper that I had ordered from mch1069 (ebay)....well that second package arrived today. Each package contains 50 sheets, so that now gives me 200 sheets of 12"x12" paper.

Next.....the new sample of felt for the bags. These came from a company in the states called Felt-o-rama. Again, this felt is environmentally friendly as it is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. As I was hoping that this sample would be more of what I was looking for, it isn't quite. It is thicker and more sturdy than the previous sample but I think I will try for one more sample.
This same company has a few choices and of course huge price jumps for better quality felt. I am going to order the wool blend felt and see if it has the quality I am after. Okay....after reading their website, the wool blend felt is actually made in Canada. Guess I have more research to do for if I can shop locally I will.

The next package contains items geared towards the Petal Faeries project. I ordered the these from missdaisey2005 (ebay). I wasn't sure the thickness of the paper wrapped wire and I think that these will be too thick for the Faeries but I am sure I will find a use for them :)  The other item in the package was the curly hair for the Faeries. They are going to be soooo cute.

I also received 3 more Pez Disney Fairie dispensers from annlong (ebay). These ones came on a cardboard backing and they sit on a blue coloured flower as they are imported from Europe. As she only had 3, these will go to the kids :)

The final package I received was a care package from my Mom :)  There is never anything better than a package mailed from home.  She has been busy shopping away for me and I am so happy with all that she was able to find.

Most of the goodies are for the Petal Faeries; pipe cleaners (plain and sparkly) and silk flower petals. She also mailed me some pearl beads for the Sugarplum Faerie pendant. We are hoping that they are the right size for the heads :)