I think Mavis is glorious. And in paint and pencil, even more so! I really hope that one day, on your art series, you will invite us all to an exhibition of your work - paint, pencil, even glass. This side of Rebecca the writer really turns you into a Renaissance woman. Next, you will be writing music and then singing the lyrics or playing the melody on an instrument. I fully believe you have a musical trump card up your sleeve... Yes?
A lovely coddywomple through your Christmas memories and thank you for including me. Happy NY!
D'you know, I did used to play the piano, but I never developed a 'feel' for it. And I can't sing for toffee! 🤣 I do enjoy music - but I'm a much better listener than performer. We were lucky enough last month to see both Don Giovanni and Handel's Messiah - both were absolutely wonderful!
I love to see you calling Rebecca a Renaissance woman, because it's true, and because upon learning that her parents grew Christmas trees, I was going to say the same about them! Apples/trees (or is it nuts)? If you don't know the expression to which I refer you'll think me nuts!
Dear Kenneth Williams had SUCH a distinctive voice. So lovely to hear him again. What a cute little show!
And what lovely memories you’ve shared. I have no idea how your parents had such patience, to leave the tree until the afternoon of Christmas Eve! Our neighbours had their decorations up in November this year, trying to cheer us all up in these trying times. I’m glad your tree makes an appearance the week before Christmas. That gives you a little more time to enjoy it.
As always, I adore your art. Such a talented soul.
Thanks so much dear Rebecca. Wishing you all the best for the year ahead. 🤗🤗😘😘🥰🥰
He was wonderful, wasn't he, Beth? I used to love listening to him on the radio when I was a child - for years when I was growing up he was one of the four regular panellists on BBC Radio 4's 'Just a Minute' - he was an absolute hoot, using his extraordinary voice to gain any advantage he could.
I wonder if the Christmas Eve thing was pure tradition (I gather that it's the 'first day of Christmas', after all!) or simply a really, really good plan for our parents to keep us out of the way on what was of course a very busy day!
Thank you, Beth, for reading and commenting on my posts - it's always lovely to see you here. Happy, happy 2024! 😘
Kenneth Williams! That nasal drawl and the way he looked down that nose!. Hilarious in every thing he did. And when I was sequestered in my dusty office in a medical library after graduating, Just A Minute was my daily companion. I used to have to shut the door because of my amused snorting.
Wow! I love that your family also grew Christmas trees! Yours really was a properly diverse smallholding. And such patience indeed to wait so long to put up your home Christmas trees! I loved all your artwork this week: such emotion-filled images! Mostly I love your Mavis-she is a sweetie and not ever likely to turn anyone into a frog. (Enjoyed the cartoon too!). Happy 2024 to you and looking forward to many more of your images and words!
It wasn't very many, Sabrina - maybe just a couple of dozen?! I must ask my parents.
Mavis is cute, isn't she? June was (past tense, sadly) such a creative person - she made the most beautiful things, and had a real eye for art and craft.
Happy new year to you! I've really enjoyed reading your words on 'Geography of Home', and I'm always thrilled to see you here in the comments. Thank you!
Thank you, Alison - you too! It was a very small plantation - just a few lines and rows of little trees, a tiny patch, really. As a small child it felt really cool to know that these were actually going to be Christmas trees for people to buy and take home and decorate! 🎄
I really enjoyed this year end post and your artwork is amazing. I especially love how all your Christmas memories center on family rather than the more material aspects of the season.
Thank you so much, Jim - I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I really appreciate your kind words! I've always been really close to my family, and I had such a wonderful childhood. It's lovely to have the opportunity to share some experiences like these ones.
Rebecca, Your artwork is brilliant and I love Mavis! Thank you for this wonderful story. I wish you and yours a Happy New Year. I look forward to 2024 and our write/paint along Fridays. :) Thank you so much for helping me spread the word.
Awwww Julie, thank you so much! It felt just right yesterday afternoon to dial in to the Write Along and get on with the painting instead of writing - there's a lot to be said for creativity in company, and I'm so grateful to you for supplying the opportunity on such a generous and regular basis! Thank you so much for having me - and happy, happy 2024! 😊
I'm so happy you came and found the space helpful. :) It's my pleasure. Maybe I could even call it Creative Fridays. Thanks again Rebecca. You are a joy. Keep shining your light!
Glad to spend the run up to Christmas with your historical family. Your recall is uncanny! But pls elucidate: why sand in the cut-tree bucket? Is this some British tree-preservation tip I need to translate to the US?
I’m intrigued! I’m Australian and we used sand. What else would you put in the bucket to support the tree? Oh. Soil? Potting mix? I’ve never considered those. It only needs to last the twelve days of Christmas. Isn’t it funny how we don’t think to consider anything other than family traditions passed on. All the best for the New Year Peter. 🤗🤗
Yes, I think that was exactly it - it was to hold the tree up and to be heavy enough for it not to topple over.
Our tree here at home this year (and for several previous years) is artificial (shhhhhh!), but my parents have a cut one (bought, not home grown) which is in one of those proper Christmas tree stands with a water reservoir. No dropped needles for them, that's for sure!
Oh wow!! Very fancy. I’ve obviously never looked at the new options for trees. A water reservoir??! Wow.
And Yes, I have an artificial tree too but unfortunately it stayed in its box this year as I was dog and housesitting elsewhere until the 23rd. Ah well. Hugs 🤗🤗
Dec 30, 2023·edited Dec 31, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden
Hey Beth! The ritual here in the US is to saw a “new cut” at the base of the tree, then put it in a tree stand with water in it, like an enormous cut flower. We even put floral preservative in the water to keep the tree fresh as a daisy. Welcome to the world of my weird traditions. And a HNY to you as well.
I think Dad used sand simply so that the tree would be heavy enough not to topple over. It wasn't actually a bucket, in fact, but the bottom half of a galvanised poultry drinker that wasn't being used for its proper purpose at the time. The tree may or may not have been watered during the couple of weeks it was in there - I suspect not - but I think it did okay for its short shelf life!
Awww,Rebecca, you did it again. Another lovely thing that made these old tired eyes shed a few tears. I didn't know I even had cockles in my heart anymore, but you have warmed them back to life. Seems to me, that with all the art you have created for this project, and all the accompanying stories, you have a highly desirable book to reproduce and publish. You could sell this in a minute. It is true! PS I loved the video, The frog's voice is so adorable! PPS Your kind mention really got to me. Just when I was feeling especially vulnerable and less than confident, I read that and wept. Thank you so much.
Sharron, these words of yours mean such a lot to me - thank you ever so much! But what's that you say? You'd felt your heart was cockleless? NO!!! Your own writing is proof of the existence of your cockles - you write from the heart all the time, and it really, really shows!
Thank you for such kind words about my 'Art & Treasures 🖼️' project! When I dreamed it up in January last year I thought it would be a year-long thing, with a post like this once a month - well, I'm going to carry on! My regret for this year - although it's not a regret really, because I'm still very glad I chose them to feature - is that May and September's pictures were ones I'd done a little while ago, and not specifically for this project. It's a shame they're not in the book itself!
Still, perhaps I could print a little mini-zine of all the art - including the two pieces that aren't in the book - one day? You've got me thinking!
I didn't mean to make you weep, you lovely lady - but I so wanted to mention your own fabulous newsletter, because it's a real highlight of my Substack reading life. I really enjoy what you write, and you've even inspired me to start thinking about some flash fiction of my own one day!
I can't imagine waiting that long to put up the Christmas tree. We usually put ours up on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. You need time to get in the spirit of the holidays.
Gosh, the Saturday after Thanksgiving? That's still November, right? Gosh, that feels really early to me!
I have a November birthday, and the rule at home was always that we wouldn't even mention Christmas until after that. I think the first time we'd really be aware of Christmas coming was when we opened the first door on our advent calendars (in the days before chocolate advent calendars had been invented!). Our tree would stay up until Twelfth Night - January 5 - and then we'd carefully take everything off it to pack away ready for the next Christmas Eve.
The rule at my best friend's house was for everything to be de-Christmased the day after Boxing Day: on the 27th their tree would be GONE! Mind you, by then it would have been up for weeks and weeks and weeks already, so definitely past its peak! 🤣
I'd never even heard of gesso before I'd started dabbling in mixed media, but have found it really useful since picking it up for the first time. It's an acrylic medium used mostly for priming pages - so for my altered-book art journal which has printed text and pictures, white gesso, although it's not wholly opaque, is really great firstly to cover up the printing, and secondly for making the paper more robust and less absorbent. I tend to be quite rough with my art - when I'm layering up acrylic paint and ink and and watercolour crayons and such like it's really useful to be able to wipe things away without destroying the paper underneath, and that's what the gesso does. It also provides a 'tooth' for the paint to stick to, and renders the page pretty much bomb-proof as well.
Disadvantages of using watercolour on top of gesso is that it tends to run straight off if the paint is very dilute, and that the pigment will collect in the textured brush marks which are an inevitable part of acrylic media, so there's no hope for a smooth look to, say, a wet-in-wet watercolour painting. However, because I was using this old book I figured I did need that layer of gesso to start with - and as you saw, it was really handy that it rendered the watercoloured page wipe-clean-able (well, partially, anyway!) with a clean damp brush and rag in order to create a space to pop Mavis onto!
I love this post, Rebecca; the stories, as well as the artwork, are simply beautiful. Your family's tradition of putting the tree up on Christmas Eve and listening to nine lessons and carols sounded enchanting. While we decorate, I typically put on one of my favorite movies, White Christmas or It's a Wonderful Life. I always appreciate the sentiment and the music. I wish you happy holidays and look forward to more Substack fun in 2024. 💜
Oh Sue, that's very kind - thank you so much! I love your idea of putting a Christmas movie on to watch while you're decorating - and gosh, I hate to say this but in my 49 years I have seen neither film you've mentioned. I need to do something about that before too much longer, don't I?
This was just a gem of a post! I loved it. It made me think of all the trees in my life, starting with the one that was the most spectacular- a silver tree with a rotating light that changed the tree into many different colors. As a child I could see it from my bedroom and I spent many nights just watching it. I have a tree now that was a reject from a friend, the lights on it no longer worked, so I removed them all, then put ordinarily stands of tiny white lights. It is up on my music holder so the cat won’t get at it in my dining room in a corner with aluminum foil around the base again because of the cat. I leave it up all year as it is too heavy for me to move.
My son and his partner have a disreputable cloth gnome with wings on the top of their tree. It seems to work!
Thank you, Julie - and gosh, it's so lovely to hear about your own Christmas tree history! The silver tree with colour-changing rotating light sounds as if it was state of the art - how absolutely wonderful!
I think tiny white lights are absolutely gorgeous on a Christmas tree, especially when they go all the way to the branch tips.
I am IN LOVE with the idea of a 'disreputable cloth gnome with wings' - now, there must be a story in that somewhere, mustn't there?! What a brilliant job title: 'So, what do you do?' 'Well, I'm a disreputable cloth gnome. And look, I have WINGS'! 🙌 Does the gnome have a gname? What do your son and his partner call it?
I found out that it was originally a funky bottle topper to use when you don’t finish a bottle of wine. Repurposed to be the tree topper. She does not have a name, so I suggested Gnora.
Found out the previous topper was some dried chicken feet. I guess spray painted gold. So Gnora is a step up so to speak
Awwww, thanks, Carissa! I smile every time I look at her on the tree - she's a keeper! 😁
(Mum, if you're reading this, I know she belongs at your house, and she will be moving back in with you again very soon, I promise.)
I wish I'd been there when June was making her - where did she start? Was she made from a pattern, or did June design her herself? Why the outsized button? Why - and how? - the knotted feet and hands? How come she hasn't brushed her hair? Where's her wand?
Mavis doesn't have the kind of look of the fairy of a little girl's imagination - y'know, Disney princess dress and all that - instead, she had reminded us very much of Mavis Cruet, the rather homely young fairy in Willo the Wisp, so we named her after her! Have a look - she's a cutey!
I think Mavis is glorious. And in paint and pencil, even more so! I really hope that one day, on your art series, you will invite us all to an exhibition of your work - paint, pencil, even glass. This side of Rebecca the writer really turns you into a Renaissance woman. Next, you will be writing music and then singing the lyrics or playing the melody on an instrument. I fully believe you have a musical trump card up your sleeve... Yes?
A lovely coddywomple through your Christmas memories and thank you for including me. Happy NY!
Oh, thank you, Prue! 😊😊😊
D'you know, I did used to play the piano, but I never developed a 'feel' for it. And I can't sing for toffee! 🤣 I do enjoy music - but I'm a much better listener than performer. We were lucky enough last month to see both Don Giovanni and Handel's Messiah - both were absolutely wonderful!
Well I still think you're a Renaissance woman!
And what beautiful performances DG and H's M must have been.
Oh, they were fabulous! We're lucky enough to have a brilliant music place right on our doorstep, and we had been given the tickets as a gift.
I love to see you calling Rebecca a Renaissance woman, because it's true, and because upon learning that her parents grew Christmas trees, I was going to say the same about them! Apples/trees (or is it nuts)? If you don't know the expression to which I refer you'll think me nuts!
Apples don't fall far from the tree?
Or nuts. 🤪
😂
They sure don't! 🤣
Thanks, Elizabeth!
(Nuts is about right!!!!!)
Dear Kenneth Williams had SUCH a distinctive voice. So lovely to hear him again. What a cute little show!
And what lovely memories you’ve shared. I have no idea how your parents had such patience, to leave the tree until the afternoon of Christmas Eve! Our neighbours had their decorations up in November this year, trying to cheer us all up in these trying times. I’m glad your tree makes an appearance the week before Christmas. That gives you a little more time to enjoy it.
As always, I adore your art. Such a talented soul.
Thanks so much dear Rebecca. Wishing you all the best for the year ahead. 🤗🤗😘😘🥰🥰
He was wonderful, wasn't he, Beth? I used to love listening to him on the radio when I was a child - for years when I was growing up he was one of the four regular panellists on BBC Radio 4's 'Just a Minute' - he was an absolute hoot, using his extraordinary voice to gain any advantage he could.
I wonder if the Christmas Eve thing was pure tradition (I gather that it's the 'first day of Christmas', after all!) or simply a really, really good plan for our parents to keep us out of the way on what was of course a very busy day!
Thank you, Beth, for reading and commenting on my posts - it's always lovely to see you here. Happy, happy 2024! 😘
Kenneth Williams! That nasal drawl and the way he looked down that nose!. Hilarious in every thing he did. And when I was sequestered in my dusty office in a medical library after graduating, Just A Minute was my daily companion. I used to have to shut the door because of my amused snorting.
I love to think of you listening in your office snorting with laughter behind the closed door, Prue! That's brilliant! 🤣
What a great post to close a great year of being lost, Rebecca. I always enjoy the art book posts!
Oh thank you, Mark - that's ever so kind of you! 😊
Wow! I love that your family also grew Christmas trees! Yours really was a properly diverse smallholding. And such patience indeed to wait so long to put up your home Christmas trees! I loved all your artwork this week: such emotion-filled images! Mostly I love your Mavis-she is a sweetie and not ever likely to turn anyone into a frog. (Enjoyed the cartoon too!). Happy 2024 to you and looking forward to many more of your images and words!
It wasn't very many, Sabrina - maybe just a couple of dozen?! I must ask my parents.
Mavis is cute, isn't she? June was (past tense, sadly) such a creative person - she made the most beautiful things, and had a real eye for art and craft.
Happy new year to you! I've really enjoyed reading your words on 'Geography of Home', and I'm always thrilled to see you here in the comments. Thank you!
Lovely storytelling and artwork. You are an inspiration to me. 💞🎄🙏
And to us all!
Awwwwwwww........! x
Oh, what a lovely thing to say - thank you, Patricia! 😘
Happy New Year, Rebecca! I always wanted to live on a tree farm - I’m rather envious of this!
Thank you, Alison - you too! It was a very small plantation - just a few lines and rows of little trees, a tiny patch, really. As a small child it felt really cool to know that these were actually going to be Christmas trees for people to buy and take home and decorate! 🎄
I really enjoyed this year end post and your artwork is amazing. I especially love how all your Christmas memories center on family rather than the more material aspects of the season.
Thank you so much, Jim - I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I really appreciate your kind words! I've always been really close to my family, and I had such a wonderful childhood. It's lovely to have the opportunity to share some experiences like these ones.
Rebecca, Your artwork is brilliant and I love Mavis! Thank you for this wonderful story. I wish you and yours a Happy New Year. I look forward to 2024 and our write/paint along Fridays. :) Thank you so much for helping me spread the word.
Awwww Julie, thank you so much! It felt just right yesterday afternoon to dial in to the Write Along and get on with the painting instead of writing - there's a lot to be said for creativity in company, and I'm so grateful to you for supplying the opportunity on such a generous and regular basis! Thank you so much for having me - and happy, happy 2024! 😊
I'm so happy you came and found the space helpful. :) It's my pleasure. Maybe I could even call it Creative Fridays. Thanks again Rebecca. You are a joy. Keep shining your light!
Glad to spend the run up to Christmas with your historical family. Your recall is uncanny! But pls elucidate: why sand in the cut-tree bucket? Is this some British tree-preservation tip I need to translate to the US?
I’m intrigued! I’m Australian and we used sand. What else would you put in the bucket to support the tree? Oh. Soil? Potting mix? I’ve never considered those. It only needs to last the twelve days of Christmas. Isn’t it funny how we don’t think to consider anything other than family traditions passed on. All the best for the New Year Peter. 🤗🤗
Yes, I think that was exactly it - it was to hold the tree up and to be heavy enough for it not to topple over.
Our tree here at home this year (and for several previous years) is artificial (shhhhhh!), but my parents have a cut one (bought, not home grown) which is in one of those proper Christmas tree stands with a water reservoir. No dropped needles for them, that's for sure!
Oh wow!! Very fancy. I’ve obviously never looked at the new options for trees. A water reservoir??! Wow.
And Yes, I have an artificial tree too but unfortunately it stayed in its box this year as I was dog and housesitting elsewhere until the 23rd. Ah well. Hugs 🤗🤗
Well, when I say 'water reservoir' I suppose it's kind of a built-in saucer! It's something a bit like this: https://www.coopersofstortford.co.uk/real-christmas-tree-stand-holder-with-water-tank-up-to-2-1m-trees/
I'm hopeless with houseplants so I'd say my tree ought to be grateful that it's artificial and doesn't need to rely on me to stay alive....! 🤣
Hey Beth! The ritual here in the US is to saw a “new cut” at the base of the tree, then put it in a tree stand with water in it, like an enormous cut flower. We even put floral preservative in the water to keep the tree fresh as a daisy. Welcome to the world of my weird traditions. And a HNY to you as well.
Thanks, Peter - I'm so glad you enjoyed the read!
I think Dad used sand simply so that the tree would be heavy enough not to topple over. It wasn't actually a bucket, in fact, but the bottom half of a galvanised poultry drinker that wasn't being used for its proper purpose at the time. The tree may or may not have been watered during the couple of weeks it was in there - I suspect not - but I think it did okay for its short shelf life!
Awww,Rebecca, you did it again. Another lovely thing that made these old tired eyes shed a few tears. I didn't know I even had cockles in my heart anymore, but you have warmed them back to life. Seems to me, that with all the art you have created for this project, and all the accompanying stories, you have a highly desirable book to reproduce and publish. You could sell this in a minute. It is true! PS I loved the video, The frog's voice is so adorable! PPS Your kind mention really got to me. Just when I was feeling especially vulnerable and less than confident, I read that and wept. Thank you so much.
Sharron, these words of yours mean such a lot to me - thank you ever so much! But what's that you say? You'd felt your heart was cockleless? NO!!! Your own writing is proof of the existence of your cockles - you write from the heart all the time, and it really, really shows!
Thank you for such kind words about my 'Art & Treasures 🖼️' project! When I dreamed it up in January last year I thought it would be a year-long thing, with a post like this once a month - well, I'm going to carry on! My regret for this year - although it's not a regret really, because I'm still very glad I chose them to feature - is that May and September's pictures were ones I'd done a little while ago, and not specifically for this project. It's a shame they're not in the book itself!
Still, perhaps I could print a little mini-zine of all the art - including the two pieces that aren't in the book - one day? You've got me thinking!
I didn't mean to make you weep, you lovely lady - but I so wanted to mention your own fabulous newsletter, because it's a real highlight of my Substack reading life. I really enjoy what you write, and you've even inspired me to start thinking about some flash fiction of my own one day!
I can't imagine waiting that long to put up the Christmas tree. We usually put ours up on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. You need time to get in the spirit of the holidays.
Your drawings and artwork are fabulous Rebecca!
Thanks, Matt!
Gosh, the Saturday after Thanksgiving? That's still November, right? Gosh, that feels really early to me!
I have a November birthday, and the rule at home was always that we wouldn't even mention Christmas until after that. I think the first time we'd really be aware of Christmas coming was when we opened the first door on our advent calendars (in the days before chocolate advent calendars had been invented!). Our tree would stay up until Twelfth Night - January 5 - and then we'd carefully take everything off it to pack away ready for the next Christmas Eve.
The rule at my best friend's house was for everything to be de-Christmased the day after Boxing Day: on the 27th their tree would be GONE! Mind you, by then it would have been up for weeks and weeks and weeks already, so definitely past its peak! 🤣
Lovely on so many levels and the paintings, simply marvelous.
As a newish watercolorist, I am wondering how gesso allows you to remove watercolor? -- should you have the time to explain. ~ Mary
Oh, thank you, Mary - that's so kind of you! 😘
I'd never even heard of gesso before I'd started dabbling in mixed media, but have found it really useful since picking it up for the first time. It's an acrylic medium used mostly for priming pages - so for my altered-book art journal which has printed text and pictures, white gesso, although it's not wholly opaque, is really great firstly to cover up the printing, and secondly for making the paper more robust and less absorbent. I tend to be quite rough with my art - when I'm layering up acrylic paint and ink and and watercolour crayons and such like it's really useful to be able to wipe things away without destroying the paper underneath, and that's what the gesso does. It also provides a 'tooth' for the paint to stick to, and renders the page pretty much bomb-proof as well.
Disadvantages of using watercolour on top of gesso is that it tends to run straight off if the paint is very dilute, and that the pigment will collect in the textured brush marks which are an inevitable part of acrylic media, so there's no hope for a smooth look to, say, a wet-in-wet watercolour painting. However, because I was using this old book I figured I did need that layer of gesso to start with - and as you saw, it was really handy that it rendered the watercoloured page wipe-clean-able (well, partially, anyway!) with a clean damp brush and rag in order to create a space to pop Mavis onto!
So helpful. Thank you much, Rebecca!
I love this post, Rebecca; the stories, as well as the artwork, are simply beautiful. Your family's tradition of putting the tree up on Christmas Eve and listening to nine lessons and carols sounded enchanting. While we decorate, I typically put on one of my favorite movies, White Christmas or It's a Wonderful Life. I always appreciate the sentiment and the music. I wish you happy holidays and look forward to more Substack fun in 2024. 💜
Oh Sue, that's very kind - thank you so much! I love your idea of putting a Christmas movie on to watch while you're decorating - and gosh, I hate to say this but in my 49 years I have seen neither film you've mentioned. I need to do something about that before too much longer, don't I?
Happy, happy new year to you! 😊
Yes, for sure! They are old movies that have stood the test of time! 🎄
This was just a gem of a post! I loved it. It made me think of all the trees in my life, starting with the one that was the most spectacular- a silver tree with a rotating light that changed the tree into many different colors. As a child I could see it from my bedroom and I spent many nights just watching it. I have a tree now that was a reject from a friend, the lights on it no longer worked, so I removed them all, then put ordinarily stands of tiny white lights. It is up on my music holder so the cat won’t get at it in my dining room in a corner with aluminum foil around the base again because of the cat. I leave it up all year as it is too heavy for me to move.
My son and his partner have a disreputable cloth gnome with wings on the top of their tree. It seems to work!
Thank you, Julie - and gosh, it's so lovely to hear about your own Christmas tree history! The silver tree with colour-changing rotating light sounds as if it was state of the art - how absolutely wonderful!
I think tiny white lights are absolutely gorgeous on a Christmas tree, especially when they go all the way to the branch tips.
I am IN LOVE with the idea of a 'disreputable cloth gnome with wings' - now, there must be a story in that somewhere, mustn't there?! What a brilliant job title: 'So, what do you do?' 'Well, I'm a disreputable cloth gnome. And look, I have WINGS'! 🙌 Does the gnome have a gname? What do your son and his partner call it?
I found out that it was originally a funky bottle topper to use when you don’t finish a bottle of wine. Repurposed to be the tree topper. She does not have a name, so I suggested Gnora.
Found out the previous topper was some dried chicken feet. I guess spray painted gold. So Gnora is a step up so to speak
CHICKEN FEET? Goodness me, Julie!
Gnora is the perfect name for a worthy replacement! 🎄
I know. I did not ask for an explanation of that! Real feet? Fake feet? No idea lol
The answer to that question almost certainly belongs in the 'things I wish I hadn't ever asked' category, Julie! 🤣
I love Mavis! She needs to be a childrens story accompanied with your art work. Or a short story. Something. She has so much personality.
Awwww, thanks, Carissa! I smile every time I look at her on the tree - she's a keeper! 😁
(Mum, if you're reading this, I know she belongs at your house, and she will be moving back in with you again very soon, I promise.)
I wish I'd been there when June was making her - where did she start? Was she made from a pattern, or did June design her herself? Why the outsized button? Why - and how? - the knotted feet and hands? How come she hasn't brushed her hair? Where's her wand?
Right, that's it: I'm ON it! *grabs notebook*
And how did she get her name?
Mavis doesn't have the kind of look of the fairy of a little girl's imagination - y'know, Disney princess dress and all that - instead, she had reminded us very much of Mavis Cruet, the rather homely young fairy in Willo the Wisp, so we named her after her! Have a look - she's a cutey!
https://youtu.be/9eCt55rZnZg
What a charming cartoon. Did you grow up watching Will the Wisp?
YES! I absolutely loved it! 😊
All of What Prue said! 🤗❤️
😘