A fairy tale

There once was a great and magical forest, and all the animals and mankind lived together in peace beneath its boughs for centuries.  Then, one dark day, a dragon came and made her home in the center of the forest, and the peace was shattered as she laid claim to everything green for as far as she could fly in a day.  Many a champion tried to drive the dragon from the forest, and met their doom beneath her claws and teeth, so finally a great wizard came to the woods.  He knew what it would take for him to conquer the mighty lizard, but paid the price without complaint.  There was no battle, just the casting of a single spell, and now the forest stands safe for as long as the wizard too stands. 

Our Dragon Banner

I realized looking at the pictures from my previous post that I'd never talked about this year's big embroidery project here.  We ended up not camping out for faire this year, as it was right after we got back from New Orleans and we'd had our fill of being overly warm for the summer, so we day-tripped it instead, and so I didn't get to use the banner I'd made for our campsite.  Next year.  But here it is - I based it on a drawing my daughter did in art class, a serpentine dragon.  Oops!  Just realized I need a picture of the drawing!  But anyways, I traced it onto some cloth and then spent somewhere between 20-30 hours filling it in.

In progress shots:







I then finished the edges with some ribbon:



And then backed it on blue satin:



Husband has promised me a fancy painted stick on which it will hang, which will hopefully happen before next year's faire, because we will camp out next year so I can show this off, dagnammit!


...

A Year in the Making, day 250

I just popped a chicken in the oven, stuffed silly with garlic cloves, then massaged lovingly with a lemon-garlic-pepper rub. In about 20-30 minutes, the house will begin to smell heavenly. Garlic is practically an aphrodisiac in our household. The timing will be a bit hit-or-miss, as there wasn't a weight tag on the bird, so I am guessing it to be about 6 pounds.

We have all the doors and windows open again, even though it's still a bit cool, because the fresh air is just heavenly. I'm not an outdoor kind of girl, but I'm a fresh air junkie. A bit of a contradiction there, but I'm a complicated girl.

Today I've got a remake of an earlier piece - I'd done a grape cluster necklace in brass some time ago, and today decided I needed a silver version of it. I've been on a grape kick, snackwise, lately, so it's only appropriate. And there are some lovely muscat grapes in the stores right now. I don't have any stones that match their green and red blushing beauty, so amethysts it is instead.

Purple Grapes Cluster Necklace with Leaf Toggle Clasp and Amethysts



And another from the vault, one of those pieces I made at night and then took daylight pictures of a few days later, but never got around to listing:

Bronze Dragon & Green Freshwater Pearl Necklace on Vintage Brass Chain



I lied, by the way. In the time it's taken me to write this post, the house has already begun to smell heavenly. Less than 10 minutes. Mmmmmmmmm.