Some Snowy Pics and More Flea Market Fun (part 1)!

With so much time passing between posts, I have lots of pictures to share of our snowfall, the blog winners' blue birds, and a recent weekend getaway with the family. I'll let the photos do the talking (well, for the most part.... ) :-)

Snowy Ole' Route 66...

The good thing about Arizona, is that it will snow for a day or so... and then the sun will come out brilliantly.
Icicles on our roof

The Old Grand Canyon Hotel...
Our town's annual Christmas tree...
A wooden replica of the community....
I took these shots of Sedona in the distance as I was commuting down to Phoenix for a work trip. You can see a slight frosting of snow in the red mountains...
This year's house shot. My husband went even more crazy with the lights this year!!!

And now that we were finally blessed with that much needed snow... it was time to take a little road trip...

No trip to California is complete with out a tummy refueling stop at Bob's Big Boy. Isn't he cute... this swell diner chain serves up some fantastic pies. If you are ever on the west coast you need to stop in for a bite!

Most of our weekend days were spent with the kids in Disneyland, but Sunday morning we snuck in some (but not nearly enough) time at the fabulously awesome Long Beach Collectible and Antique Market!!!

Gorgeous vintage frocks.... Charming little Santas...
Too many good things to mention....now that I see these pics, I am regretting not spending more time hovering over the detail in those carved wood chairs!!!
Ooooohhhhh! Jadeite!!!!!
My husband was just peeking over my shoulder as I typed this and exclaimed " We should have bought that hamburger press!!!"
This was fantastic show!!! The weather was gorgeous (sunny and warm),the dealers were friendly and ready to bargain ,and we even found some great vintage pieces at reasonable prices. My only complaint is that we didn't have enough time to see everything!

For the last bit of this post I'd love to share pics of the finished bluebirds that were sent out the blog giveaway winners.
Both blue birds decided that they needed to be gussied up a bit for the winter season, so in addition to the customary paper collars and hats, these sweet little babies were outfitted with a little extra sparkle and millinery flowers.
They left the nest here on Tuesday, so I hope they reach their destination by Christmas! And I hope you like them ladies :-)
I'll be back next week with some flea market find pics!:-)

Sunday evening musings, this month's PFATT offerings and it's SNOWING!!!

Wooo-hooo! Outside of my window right now, lovely snowy flakes are falling from the sky and frosting the whole town with fluffy cold goodness! Having grown up in the desert, snow is like a gift to my husband and me. We love it! Thanks for all those positive snow vibes you sent our way :-)!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday night. Tonight I am fixing Paula Deen's mac and cheese and we will warm up with mugs of peppermint hot cocoa for dessert.

Do you cling to every minute of a Sunday night, savoring home joys and weekend freedom, distancing yourself from the work week ahead, or rather, the accompanying stress?

For those of you in blogland that have been able to pursue your creative passions full time , I'd love to hear your story. Full time pixie making is a goal I have set for myself in the future, and while I do have many books on the subject, there's nothing more inspiring than to hear directly from the from people who are living their dreams.

And speaking of dreams.... there will be visions of sugar plum pixies, a sugary winter pixie and a believing flying Santa, all available beginning Dec 10 on my PFATT page

"The Sugar Plum Pixie"

"The Winter Dreams Pixie"

"Flying Santa Baby"

This month I am doing a 15% off for blog readers and/or email subscribers, so please be sure to let me know that the discount applies to you when you order .

I'll be back in a few days with some pictures of my hometown all covered in snow!!! :-)

Bluebird Winners!!!!

I love a giveaway!!! Whenever I do one, I copy the names of all who left comments on the giveaway post, paste them into a word document, print the list out, and cut each name into even strips . This time, we literally put the names in a hat, and had my daughter shuffle them all.

I am really in the Christmas mood today and I love making these blue birds so I decided to have my daughter pull 2 names from the hat today instead of one... and the first winner is Sandra Everston !!!!

Next came more shuffling.....

And the 2nd winner is.....

Mary Isabella!!!

Congratulations and thanks again to everyone who participated in the drawing. For the winners, email me with info as to what color hat and collar you'd like your custom bluebird to have. I will have them ready for you in two weeks time. :-)

Happy Monday everybody and thanks again!!!

Bluebird update....

We had a doozie of a winter storm this weekend, and wound up having guests stay over until road travel became safer, so I wasn't able to pull names as planned on Friday. Despite all our positive thinking, it was all just rain, ice and hail....no snow yet. But we are looking for more moisture soon!!!

Names for the bluebird giveaway will be pulled tonight once my daughter gets home from school. Check back at around 6pm (pacific time) to find out who the winner is! :-)

5 Random Things

The amazingly talented Christy of CC's Whimsies tagged me to post 5 random things about me... so here goes :-)

1. I was quite the actress when I was a kid. When I was about 4 or 5 years old, I had convinced myself that I was Darla from the Little Rascals and made my parents call me Darla half of the time. If there was a stage anywhere I would embarrass my two older sisters by jumping upon it for an impromptu performance. Despite not knowing how to tap dance, I would wear tap shoes picked up from a garage sale and bounce around the house thinking that I was the next Shirley Temple. I think it drove my poor family crazy. As a teen, I did tons of community theater, tried starting a theater ministry at my church, won best actress awards for plays I did in high school and at some point was in a low budget commercial! Ha! That was my 15 minutes of fame I think :-). I dreamt of pursuing acting as a career for a long time, but when I hit college and realized that my skin wasn't quite thick enough for rejection that goes with a job like that. So I changed my major to English, and decided to become a writer. So funny that my "real life" job has absolutely nothing to do with either of those creative pursuits. I now work in the non profit health care sector. Never dreamt of that! I am so thankful that I get to exercise my creative energy through pixie making :-)!!!!


2. I love love love books on tape. I listen to them when I am driving, cooking dinner, scrubbing floors, you name it. I especially like Maeve Binchy audio books. There's nothing like having a story read to you in a lovely Irish accent.


3. I also love love love love music. I would hate to be without it. I can distinctly remember buying my first album (U2's The Unforgettable Fire... still one of my favorites!) when I was 11 years old. When I am not listening to the books on tape you'll find me strapped to my Mp3 player. I have pretty varied musical tastes and LOVE the oldies that swing like the Mills Brothers and Fats Waller , but am really really loving indie Canadian bands like The Arcade Fire right now. I have a soft spot for English rock bands too, especially Radiohead, and I am loving their new downloadable In Rainbows album (and you can pay whatever price you want for it... Really!!!!). They the most incredibly innovative artists !


4. I don't have many vices, but I have a hard time leaving the grocery store without buying a magazine. They get me every time. I keep promising myself that one day I will do a little magazine purging since I must have amassed at least 1,000 of them over the years.


5. My wonderful husband and I got married very young (he was 21 and I was 19), and started our family right away, so we will be in our early 40's by the time they are in college. What we dream of doing after the kids are through school is to become gypsy like and live in the following places for one year only!: 1. San Francisco, in the North Beach nieghborhood so that I can walk to an Italian bakery and eat cannoli everyday! 2. Galway, Ireland 3. Ferndale, California 4. Brighton, England 5. Orange, California (so that we can go to Disneyland everyday!!!!). After that we can move back home and be ready to be grandparents. :-) Maybe then I can try the acting thing again too! Hee heee ;-)

Okay my turn to tag!!!! (sorry if you have already been tagged!)

You're it......

Elaine Thomas (Artful Spirit)

Lori (Fairie Window)

Marie (Marie's Muses)

Phyllis (Shabby in the City)

Sadie (Craftily Ever After)

And one last plug for the bluebird giveaway. I'll pull names when I get back from my business trip tomorrow night!

Think Snow!!!!

Just a quick post today to say hello and remind you to go down a couple of posts to participate in my Bluebird giveaway! :-)

Above is a picture of our house all dressed up for Christmas last year, thickly iced with that wonderfully cold and fluffy stuff. So far this year we haven't even had a trace. The entire state I think is desperate for any kind of precipitation so please THINK SNOW!!!! :-)

It's a Christmas Craft Fair!!!!!

Merry Christmas! And welcome to my lil' Christmas Craft Fair!!!

Thanks to Phyllis of Shabby in the City for coming up with this brilliant idea! Below are the items I have on offer. Shipping is 5.50 for Priority Mail in the US. If you purchase more than one item, I will combine eveything and ship the next item for .50 cents more.

If you live outside of the US, please email me for shipping rates. I will happily accept Pay Pal, a personal check and now thanks to the fabulously easy ProPay, I am proud to say that I can accept Visa, Mastercard Discover and American Express!!! Items paid for by the end of the day today will be shipped on Monday( sorry, my post office is closed tommorrow). Anything not sold by midnight will be stored away until next season. Please email me at thepolkadotpixie@yahoo.com if you have questions about anything you see here :-).

Okay here goes!!!

Snowman in Black in White.

Snowy fella sculpted in papier mache over a recycled glass pop bottle. Painted in acrylics and dusted with sugary glass glitter. Sold! Thank you :-)

Shabby Pink Santa
Sweet Shabby Santa sculpted in papier mache over a recycled glass pop bottle. Painted in acrylics and dusted with sugary glass glitter. Originally priced at 19.99. Sold! Thank you :-)

Big Party Snowman.

This guy is big at over 19 inches tall! He was sculpted in paper mache and he stands upon a hand painted box for storing bigger sweets! Sold! Thank you :-)!!!!

Santa goes Green!

Elfish Santa sculpted in Paper Mache and Paper clay. Sold! Thank you :-)

Red Polka Dot Santa.

This little guy was originally priced at 34.99. No longer available :-)

Snowman in Red and White Polka Dots.
Snowy fella sculpted in papier mache over a recycled glass pop bottle. Painted in acrylics and dusted with sugary glass glitter. Sold! Thank you!!!
Thanks for shopping handmade!!!

A Happy Thanksgiving Giveaway! And Going to the Ball!!!

The Policeman's ball that is! My sweet husband has invited me, his wife of almost 15 years, to the annual Policeman's Ball in December. This is the 1st time we have been able to go, so I have been stalking eBay to find the perfect vintage dress (that will fit me, arrgh!!!!). I feel like a girl going to the prom, I am so excited!!! I love the look of these awesome vintage inspired frocks from "Stop Staring" ...
Aren't they sweet??...but the bare shoulders thing makes me feel too exposed, and a sweater wouldn't work for dancing.

Then this morning, I came upon these lovely 1950's vintage beauties on eBay, and lo and behold, both my bids won!!! Now.... I'll have to decide which to put away for next year and which to wear this year. They are both so pretty. Help me decide!!!

In other news, I am almost sold out of everything in my Etsy shop. Thank you thank you thank you so much for buying from me!!! I am terrified of stuff getting broken in the mail, so if you have ordered from me, please do let me know when everything gets there safely.

I'd also really like to express a huge thank you to everyone who has purchased from me and to everyone who has kept me going this year with your sweet comments and encouragement. I have been so bad at reciprocating with the comments lately. Now that my holiday shows are over, I promise to be much better about posting and leaving comments.

In order to express my gratitude, I'd like to offer up a custom made sweetie blue bird (like the one below) as a Thanksgiving giveaway. Leave a comment and I will draw names on November 30th.

Check back in on Friday for Shabby in the City's craft fair!!! I have a couple of cuties that I held back on especially for this event. Hope you can join us then!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and may God bless you.

Now Appearing in the Polka Dot Pixie's Etsy shop

Santa Making Mode...

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween. We had a steady stream of superheros, pirates, ghoulish goblins, and fairy princesses demanding candy on the front porch of our eerie abode this year. Below are a few pics of the inside of our 1895 Victorian home in her spooky holiday best...

Even some of my vintage books got "spookified"...

And speaking of vintage books, I received a few more pics that I will be uploading later today to the original sideshow below. Thanks again to all who participated and sent them in!

Like so many other bloggers I seem to be absent lots lately. Some of this is due to a heavy workload at my regular job, but mostly it's due to that little studio I posted pics of recently. Meaning, I am in it all the time! Recently the studio has been covered in fabric scraps, and Cotswold fluff with bits of polymer clay ground into the floor as little Santa's emerge at 3am... here's a peek at a custom Santa I created for my neighbor a couple of years back....

The jolly guy above stood about 30 inches tall.

This year I am making my Santa's on a smaller scale (along with fat snowpixies and cheerful winter blue birds) and will have them available for sale at the Mountain Campus Holiday Fair on the beautiful campus of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. If you are in the neighborhood please some say hello!

Also... On November 18th I will be reopening my ETSY shop and will have fantastic prices on everything! Please stay tuned for more details!

California Dreamin'

I think I have mentioned here before that we are Disneyland fanatics,and the 6.5 hour drive from where we live in Northern Arizona isn't a long a enough trip to prevent us from getting annual passes to the park every other year.

Amongst the things I love about Disneyland are the stories "she" tells... the rides, of course, the music, the landscaping, even the windows of the shops that line Main Street evoke that "fairy tale" feeling.....

On our last visit to Southern California in August, we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Pasadena to attend the Rose Bowl Flea Market. Here are some pictures....

And of course no trip to the area would be complete without an antique shopping spree in Orange.

I love this original old diner... good food too!

I thought of all my blogging friend when I saw this too cute display in one antique shop. Ah... this makes me want to get out my paper mache and star working away.

Now, how could one possible be in a bad mood after seeing the picture of this vintage grumpy chicken candy container?! I think I'll try to make my own version of this little guy in the spring.
Just imagine the delight these spooky goblins inspired in children of Halloween past....

Gotta love this rebellious bunny, complete with top hat and what looks like a cigarette!!!!

Be back with more soon :-)