Hello Hyde...

My dear friend Helena has been brewing up some lovely perfumes for sensational olfactory delight! Her natural fragrances at Faunfare are my favorite and now she steps it up a notch with her luxury line, Hyde. Along with the sweetest little mandrake root ever (love him!) I was sent a lovely sample pack of the newest Hyde fragrances, all elegantly wrapped in black.

It was so hard deciding which one I loved the most. Jack the Ripper was scarily inviting and smooth like the silkiest powder. Sorcery has the pleasantness of citrus and bergamot, very enchanting indeed. Opium also has notes of citrus with bitter orange and Japanese yuzu. I'm especially in love because it has the intoxicating and haunting fragrance of tuberose among it's notes. de Sade is delightfully different with black pepper and tobacco blond. It seems at once more serious and yet still playful (Rick really enjoyed this one). Initiation is a bit warmer, a soft embrace of red mandarin and cardamom. All in all truly enticing fragrances, each one!

I'm also impressed with her Hyde business cards, mysterious and prestigious just like her fragrances.

Helena, I feel so extremely honored to be blessed with these tokens of your amazing workmanship but above that, with your friendship...

(You can find both Faunfare and Hyde at her Faunfare Etsy but please take a look at her Faunfare website as well. It is absolutely beautiful and she has a new Faunfare product, solid perfume in a most ornate antique silver cast locket. Gorgeous!! Hyde also has it's on site (currently being updated) at Hydonism.com.)

the mandrake is back & other things

My mandrake illustration on a postcard was a favorite item in the Littlebighead shop. Finally, I have restocked but now will be available at the Kindly Owl. Along with this postcard set is a new set featuring two folksy little owl friends surrounded by vines and watched over by a little mandrake head.

I have also brought down the prices on most of my original illustrations at Littlebighead too...

a kindly owl preview

As some of you may know, I am starting a new endeavor and within that, a wonderful and creative collaboration. Littlebighead will be expanding with the beginning of a new shoplet called The Kindly Owl (also known as Kindly Owl Herbs). Thanks to my friend Helena, I've been encouraged to no longer let the idea fester away inside my head but to finally bring it into realization. It will start off small but I am hoping that it will grow into something larger and fun. Actually, the whole idea of The Kindly Owl started about a year or so ago. I had purchased a few books on herbs and plants and was eagerly trying to gain as much knowledge as I could. Nattie, too, like the idea of herbs and flowers and of learning how to create herbal products that she too, could have a part in and 'sell' (she's has quite the entrepreneurial mind). I thought what a great idea, a project that both her and I could do together. Thus, the idea of The Kindly Owl began.

Natalie was very excited to make her own teas (which is one of the products we would like to offer). I was trying my hand at several variations with different herbs but it was her, not I, that struck gold. She wanted to make her own tea and all I did was put out a few herbs that she could use. She came up with a very yummy floral tea and named it Fairy Flower tea. I still need to find out if there are any rules and regulations about the selling of herbs/teas but I am sure that her tea will be the first to sell in the shop.



Another interest of ours is the Mandrake plant. I fell in love with this plant the very first time I was introduced to it by the wonderful world of Harry Potter. I had been wanting to try my hand at making some dolls and thankfully, again, with the help of  Helena, I've been encouraged to make some mandrake themed items to be a part of our collaboration known as Nocturne Flora. Both of our shops will be featuring a few mandrake items that have helped our creative sparks collectively. Helena makes wondrous natural perfume oils that just smell absolutely amazing. She also makes delightfully magical little felted creatures (which I am a proud owner of a couple of darling owls). She has a few things up her sleeve for Nocturne Flora including expanding the idea to other beautifully dangerous plants as well. For my part, I will begin with a little sleeping mandrake doll. The top leafy part of this doll is filled with a relaxing herbal blend by Mountain Rose Herbs so that you can take this doll to sleep with you (if you like, of course). So, here is a little sneak preview of the sleeping mandrake doll...



Eventually, I will make more mandrake dolls including one like you see above with Natalie. I am still working a bit on shape so that it won't look too much like a ginger root like our little 'Drake Manly' does.

Well, I wasn't expecting to 'reveal' so much of this until the shop opened but oh well! I love sharing! Which leads me to a question I very much need your help on. I will also be making little owls for the shop. I am still working on shapes and such but have so far come up with two variations. What I would like to know is, which one do you like more? The one with the smaller face or the one with the larger?





I am still not sure which one I prefer more since they both have endearing qualities to me. Please please let me know because I am a bit stumped as to which one I will decide to make more of.

Well, I'm off now to do some things domestic, recreational (hopefully) and creative alike. Hope to hear from you all very soon! :)

to hogwarts with love...

Valentine's day of last year, Natalie 'received' a letter from Hogwarts by 'owl'. She was so thrilled to get a little note and gift from her 'friends' in the wizarding world. Ever since then she has asked me to find the address from Hogwarts so she can write her friends back. Initially I stalled, saying that it was very difficult to get the address but that I would try. Since then, she has received a halloween card from 'Harry, Ron, Hermoine and Ginny' and I plan to send her more things from 'them'.



A few weeks ago she just couldn't wait anymore so she began writing (or drawing, actually) her letters to her magical friends. I finally worked it out with Rick's mom to have me send Nat's letters to Hogwarts to her address. I figured since she is still learning how to read and that I put the address after she is done, that I can get away with this for a little while (at least). I also told her that this is the American address that we can send it to until an owl picks it up to take it Hogwarts. I want to buy a very nice box that she can store those letters in until Nat is older and we can present to her a piece of her childhood imagination.



I offered to help her with her letters by getting out my wax and seal for them. She liked choosing different colors and different seals for each one of her friends.



I am constantly in love with the way her mind works and how everything is still so exciting and magical to her.



There are some things I have found on etsy that I've been wanting to get for her sent by her friends, of course. Here are some of the items:

• owl soap with gryffindor scarf by eternal sunshine
• another owl soap from eternal sunshine, in purple, one of Natalie's favorite colors
• a hedwig bookbag from atlantis804
• a daily prophet spiral journal and badge, both from celeste frittata (where I got Natalie's first post from Hogwarts)
• I admit, I have my eye on celeste frittata's hardback journals in astronomy and herbology. For Nat though, her herbology notebook and care of magical creatures if she offers it in notebook style as well.
• I also think aromatherapy lavender's healing mother and child owls are very cute
  
• this plush owl print from folksy would hang nicely somewhere in her room
• she would probably love this gryffindor charm bracelet by winemaker's sister

There are a ton of more things she would most likely jump up and down for. Etsy does have a nice selection of things that are geared to the Hogwarts fan indeed. I wanted to find some cool mandrake things for us to collect. I've been thinking about making her a felt doll from one of my illustrations (and perhaps make a few for the littlebighead shop too).

She also has been begging to go the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Actually it was an email 'owl' that I sent her from 'Harry' that got her so excited to write to her letters. At the Wizarding World they will actually have a post office where you can send letters from that will bear an authentic Hogsmeade postmark. I'm a grown up but I can't help but to be completely sucked into this wonderful, imaginative and very magical world. And for now, it would seem, my daughter is exactly the same way.

a doll and mandrake

yes, it's safe to say that i do heart mandrakes. a lot. so for my very first herbal pillow/doll i decided to make it a mandrake. i had so much fun fashioning this little guy and stitching the 'drawing' into the felt. the thread is a bit to small and light to actually see all the detail (and the photo is from my camera too) but when i make another (or more perhaps?) i will use thicker thread so the details can really stand out. also, this mandrake is filled with wonderful herbs like lavender, chamomile, lemon balm, rosemary with a few drops of essential oils. mmmmm...

i've wanted to make dolls for a long time and have made little creatures before in the past. today i finished my very first handmade doll and i am so happy! i wanted her to have a autumn feel and i choose colors that are very close to my heart at the moment. her scarf is braided yarn and i love how it contrasts with her dress and brings a bit more texture to her. i have still not named her, it has to be perfect! hopefully at some point today she will be named :)

a family of mandrakes

more mandrakes and meanderings..

i just listed this original drawing at the etsy shop. i have photos i need to upload and share. things have been still a bit hectic but i have been twittering like mad (if you want to keep up with little odds and ends here and there). i'm still letter writing. i have two letters ready to get sealed and stamped, a few more to write, and still i need to get some small packages to send some tea out to far away friends. busy! oh, and let's not forget cleaning up and cooking soon! which by the way, i must remember to tell you all of our little black radish heads, but later, later! happy friday the thirteenth!!

p.s. i started a folia account for when nat and i finally begin our little garden. if you would like, i would love to have some friends there. if you are interested, please visit this link.

sundays are for mandrakes, and other things...

a beginning of my ghost for a ghost for astulabee's flickr project. it is suppose to be anonymous but i think with some of the entries, you are going to figure out who did them based on their writing and/or drawings styles if you are familiar with them. so this one is my 'secret' but that's all i will show, at least for now :)

now, if you have been keeping up with the secret cabinet, i have had mandrakes on the mind a lot lately. today, i finally managed to draw one, and inspired by alicia carrier's blog, ten dollar drawings, i drew him on brown paper (which i think suits him best). i will most likely be making him a part of my new field-discover-wonder type journal, the diary of found things and such. natalie loves the mandrake and wants a mandrake doll. i have sewn anything in years and haven't used my sewing machine in so long, i have forgotten how to use it. maybe i will do something by hand. it will be crude most likely, but i think she will love it just the same, so we will see!

of course, a little photo of natalie, taken on friday at borders bookstore, wearing her dr. seuss horton the elephant ears she made at school. she totally looks like she is advertising this izze green apple soda, but then again, it is her favorite drink whenever we go to border's!

oh, and by the way, i invite youto start your own soup.io where i have the secret cabinet. i need to have some friends on there, some people i know. use it to to spill your secrets and share your imagination. it's sort of my online, visual, scrapbook diary of sorts. i have my twitter feed, my blip.fm and a few other feeds that go directly there. i want to friend people that i know (like you emily!) and i have started a group on there too called ephemera. so, if you are interested, it's quite simple and of course, i would love to have you there. okay, last time i am going to beg :)