Foxfire Daily: Who are you supporting over the Holidays?

For me it's an easy choice... but mostly because of my budget. I'm supporting my family and kids. And I'd like to ask you to do the same. Support your own family and kids first, and then your friends, and then locals you don't know. Or, y'know, my family and kids... *grins and winks*

Don't support the big names. Don't support the corporations.

Christmas Dragon by lyntonlevengood on deviantART

Do support the little guy. Do support your local (or not-so-local) small businesses and artisan crafters. Your purchases have much more immediate and important impact on these people. Your purchase affects an individual, a husband and wife (or varied permutations thereof), their (possible) kids, et cetera. Your purchase directly impacts how good their kids' Christmas will be. Your purchase will directly affect that business's tax season coming up in a few months, their rent this month, whether they can give their employees Christmas bonuses... you get the idea.

Make a difference. Buy local/small business/artisan craft. For example... yeah, maybe a necklace from me will cost you a bit more than that $5 shiny from Claire's... but your purchase of my handmade necklace might just buy a Christmas tree for my family, or a couple tanks of gas to get Dragon to work and back so he can buy presents for the kids, or it can go towards a couple of tables and displays so we can start doing local craft shows, or... 

Christmas Dragon by dashase on deviantART

To this end, our friend Mr. Marsten has put together a holiday catalog of links to artisan crafters, including us, for your perusal.  So go peruse The Narrator's Study Holiday Catalog for great gift ideas that support individuals and families directly. Or, if you happen to be an artisan crafter who hasn't been in touch with Mr. Marsten, send him the link to your wares so he can add it to his catalog.


Love, Light, and Blessings to you and yours this holiday season!
Merry Christmas, Blessed Yule, Happy Hogmany...
-your Artful White Fox

Cosfest Christmas by sandara on deviantART

Foxfire Daily: Fox and Dragon

A conversation with a friend on Facebook sparked (pun definitely intended) a thought process in your Artful White Fox's mind (while I was trying to do the first wirework I've been able to do in almost two weeks because of the sickly in the house).  It's part of our tagline - "Foxfire and Dragonfire come together and a new era of creativity is born" - but what does it mean?

The common element is Fire. But what is Fire?

Fire burns.
Fire melts metal.
Fire creates ash, from which green things grow.
Fire creates power.
Fire warms the cold nights.
Fire is passion.
Fire lives, breathes, grows, and procreates.
Fire is creation and destruction in the same heartbeat.

And both are required for life and growth.

Now... Fox and Dragon... where in the world does that come from?

I, the White Fox, and my partner, the Black Dragon, recognize the fire burning in each other, and it burns brighter, hotter, and stronger together than it could apart. It runs like liquid stars in our veins and pours from our hearts straight into our hands and mouths, where we can share it with the rest of the world.

Fire is the forge and hearth of our life together.

Dragons are fierce, proud, loyal when you've earned it, and deadly when you've not. Dragons hoard what is precious to them, and that is not always gold and jewels. Sometimes a dragon's hoard is a little less tangible... like knowledge or wisdom... or a little less cold, like friends and family.  They can be greedy, but if one is greedy for the right things... well, let's just say there are some things I don't think you can have too much of. And if one turns that greed to thoughtful purpose, instead of mindless acquisition, then it becomes passion. And God help you if you mess with what is precious to them, because they will eat you.

Foxes are wild, shy, gentle, and clever. They are great parents, and good at making safe, warm, cozy dens. They can be loyal companions when they learn to trust. They are often mischievous and love to play. They can and will vanish if threatened. They are strong-hearted and adaptable, surviving where others might not. They're ethereal, hard to grasp, like the wind... but if one comes to stay, treasure it and treat it with respect, and it'll stay with you, and work hard to make your world as bright as it knows how.

I am his White Fox, his kitsune - his bright, wild, magical, overly outspoken and often troublesome creature that comes to his call and stays by his side by choice.  He is my Black Dragon - fierce, proud, loyal, protective, and passionate, who spreads his wing so I may shelter in its shadow.

Winter-struck

Sometimes it gets to us all. The White Fox and Black Dragon have been down with this season's fever/sore throat/sinus crap but we're on the tail end of it (thank you, Nano Silver!) and hopefully can get back to (what passes for) normal in the next day or so.

Sorry about missing this last Artist's Sunday; that will resume this coming Sunday, with something geeky for Easter weekend, and maybe a sprinkle of St. Paddy's thrown in. We'll just have to wait and see what comes out.

On another note, we've (re)acquired a roommate from a previous dwelling-place. This is not a bad thing (sister-in-law, and she's a sweetheart), but it's starting to get crowded and worrisome for purely survival reasons (food, mostly), but we're figuring we can make it work. Still trying to come up with some way to get ahead when we live in a county where the number of jobs is SO much less than the number unemployed... unfortunately almost all the opportunities available are too far away or cost too much to take advantage of. What are a jewelry artist and a blacksmith/jack-of-all-trades to do with so little to work with?

Dig up the bones, dust them off, and see what can be recrafted from what's left. As always, we're open to suggestions.  There's got to be a few avenues we haven't yet explored.

Live, Love, and Make Art
-your Artful (sickly) White Fox.

Foxfire Daily: Documented Life Project, Chapter 2

Week 4: Write a secret message and paint over all but one word.

Ok, so I cheated slightly and painted (colored-penciled) over all but 4 words. But Artistic License is what it's all about, right? And I do love me some artistic license... I look at this and see amateurish work - too many angles combined with the organic look of other parts, crappy color combnations, and let's not even go into the "doodles" on the left-hand side of the page - but then I remind myself that I'm out of practice. And I don't have a lot of materials to work with. The only part of this I'm really pleased with is the message I chose, and the Celtic knotwork at the top of the page. 

 Now, next up, for your perusal... remember those leaves from my last post? With no glue, no fancy-pants gouache or any other such thing, I found some gift-wrap tape at the bottom of a box and went to town. You can barely tell where the edges of the tape are. (I hope.) I'm just glad my Bic markers actually stayed on the tape.

Thirdly, my initial (official) attempt at the Week 5 Doodled Border, which mutated into something with no border as of yet, but... well, see for yourself:

Week 6: Open Your Pinterest Board and be Inspired. The lotus has been blooming in my mind lately, as you can see in this in-progress pic. My inspiration was not any one board or artist, but antique Chinese jade carvings. I actually went a little hog-wild for a couple of days straight, obsessively collecting pictures of various and sundry jade sculptures, urns, jewelry, etc and pinning them to my board. You can see the WIP results:

This last one... the flame and the lotus roots... was in part brought into being due to my uncle's touching tribute to his father, who went on to the Summerlands very recently. He was a sweet, darling man who inspired his sons and was greatly loved. His passing came just after a trip with several family members to Panama, where he had done psychoanalytical work with dreams with a tribal chieftan. The chief actually came from several islands away to visit with this man during the vacation. The photos from the trip were a beautiful tribute to my uncle's father, and such a blessing that he got to have that adventure with his family before taking a path they couldn't follow. May we all be so lucky when it's our time.

Live, Love, and Make Art
Ever Yours,
-the Artful White Fox.

Happy Birthday

So it's Fox's oldest girl's 10th birthday today. Double digits... hell's bells, has it really been that long? She's beautiful, and strong, and maturing at a frightening rate (mentally, I mean). So grown up so fast, and yet she still loves being a kid. I'm proud of my Caroline. Happy Birthday, Caraboo.

Studio News: The life and times, chapter 2

First off, the happy things...

The dragonette is crawling, working on walking, clapping her hands, improving her little baby vocabulary, and has "mama" and "dada" down pat. And she hates sleep, both naps and nighttime. She still thinks books are for chewing on instead of reading from. Music and dancing are her favorite things, followed closely by things she can chew on (read: everything else). She's starting to share our meals, when there's something mushy enough for her to masticate.... 

Dragon's had a job offer... well, two, technically... and they're jobs he can work at the same time. The catch: they're in Greensboro and we're currently staying in Albemarle. That's an hour and a half (or so) drive away, for those of you unfamiliar with the area. Oh, the irony.

So the door closes, the window opens... and it's out of reach with no ladder in sight.  Nothing works out. Anybody know a way we can live in Greensboro long enough for this job opportunity to go through?  Or, if someone here in the area (I think we'd even take something within a state or so's distance... hint hint nudge nudge to my family in VA) have any leads on a place to live and/or a job possibility...

It's an interesting place to be in, when (literally) the only thing one has is one's partner. All Dragon and I have is each other, and our little wyrmling. Well, ok, we have a car, and clothes and stuff. But, with no job and no place to live that isn't granted us by someone else's grace... well, that's not my idea of a way to live. We've got very few allies. My mom is the only one who really seems to care anymore. Everyone else is either unable or unwilling to help... or has outright turned their backs on us.

We wanted a better life for ourselves, each other, and the little ones... and we ended up with nothing and no way to change that.

We're open to ideas, at this point. (Hint: this is where you chime in...)

Studio News: The Life and Times...

First off, Happy New Year!

Secondly, we still need some prayers and good wishes. Things have not yet settled down to any semblance of "good" or "right." I still don't have any workspace. My materials and tools are all in storage still. And Dragon's dad is still driving us nuts. We need lots and lots of good vibes sent our way.

On a happier note, I got to spend Christmas with my two elder daughters (both of them bright and beautiful just like their baby sister) Who also got to meet their baby sister for the first time - long story. It was a good Christmas despite my mom's side of the family. And a couple other things. Anyways... the Wyrmling is sitting up on her own now, as of just a few days ago. And working on standing. She's not even 5 months old yet.

We are so in trouble.

<3 Fox

Studio News: Gypsy Life

So in the past 6 months, Dragon and I have lived 3 different places, two of which have been in NC. For those of you unaware, we moved in with Dragon's dad several weeks ago, because our previous living arrangements were less than ideal.  The hope was that this would be better.

Well, it is and it isn't. Dragon and I get to share a room here, which we couldn't in Kernersville (funny story - ask me about it later).  We have our own personal, private space.  And we aren't getting preached at every time the father-in-law is home.

And while these are huge perks, there are downsides.  I have no place to work, which means no new pretties from your favorite internet Fox.  We're about am hour farther away from my family than we were, whilst still being smack dab in the midst of Dragon's family drama. Never a dull moment.  Funny part is, we just found out from the employment security commission that there's a job back in Kernersville that would probably be just about perfect for my Dragon. Gofigure, huh?

On a better and brighter note - the mini-dragon is rolling over, starting to sit up, trying to crawl, and howling furiously in frustration when she can't make it work right.  She headbutts her daddy and laughs about it.  Her favorite chew toys are daddy's knuckles. (total daddy's girl, if you couldn't guess)  At almost four months old, she is hitting milestones that shouldn't occur until 6 months.  She still sleeps on me, and wakes up at least twice during the night wanting a snack.... voracious little dragonspawn that she is.

Dragon and I are spending a lot of time in various nerdy pursuits in between his family's outbursts and his job hunting - namely coming up with creative ways for two people to play D&D. In the meantime, I'm missing my WoW something awful, especially with the new expansion coming out soon.

Anyways, more coming soon - with nothing at hand but to twiddle my thumbs and take care of the dragonspawn, I'll have to start teaching myself how to really be a blogger. Or something. Maybe I'll start writing again; I've got a couple dozen stories sitting around on my hard drive that I never finished, and I know at least one person that's dying for the final chapters of a couple of them....

=^-_-^=

Studio News: The Journey as of Today...

This is Moira, our 1-month-old baby girl. She's a total daddy's girl already - way ahead of the curve and snarky to boot. Yes, a 1-mo old infant can be snarky. She's holding her head up all by herself, working on sitting up by herself and rolling over (yes, already!).  I am in so much trouble (again).

Our home life is interesting, and definitely not what we'd like it to be.  We were recently forced to move from FL to NC, in with Dragon's folks (who are now separated, with his mom having moved out - we are stuck in the house with his stepdad, which is a curious ordeal in and of itself).  The car decided to die after we got here, first needing a new battery, then overheating if it's driven for more than 5 minutes, which we still haven't managed to resolve, thanks to discovering (after we'd replaced the radiator) that any repair we do is probably going to be ridiculously expensive.  (the car's a 2000 Cadillac Catera and not worth much) There's a lot to do, lot needing done that we can't do because of the car. Dragon's looking for a job but it's pretty much academic without a way to get anywhere.

In spite of all that (and the fact that Dragon's stepdad is less than easy to get along with), we're still in a pretty good way. I'm amazed at how I can look at my life now and know that if I never have more than what's "enough" I'll be content, because I love my Dragon and I love my girls, and as long as our needs are met, then that's good enough for me.  There are things I'd like to have, ideals I'd like my life to live up to, but if they never do, I'll have no regrets so long as my family is taken care of.

That's not something a lot of people can say.

Studio News: Announcement

Some of you know, but a major portion of you don't...

Fox and Dragon had our first baby Aug 7, 3:53 AM.  She was 7lb, 13oz, 20 & 3/4 in. long, and her name is Moira Jeannette. She is strong, healthy, has a voracious appetite, and is incredibly alert for a newborn. Dragon is positively beside himself being a new daddy.  I don't think I've ever seen him smile this much, or heard so many giggles out of his mouth... especially when the little dragonspawn latched onto daddy's nose and started suckling.

Many blessings, much love, and all the Light-

Fox, Dragon, and the brand-new Wyrmling.