AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sweet Vintage Gods of Hogmanay!

Sweet vintage gods of Hogmanay!

Look what landed on my front steps this afternoon!

My very special friend and goat sister, Teresa from Eden Hills (and Millie, the goat, too!) sent a box full of lovely, lovely vintage items to me !

Since this is Hogmanay e'en and tomorrow will be the Sisterhood of the Goat's FIRST anniversary, this couldn't have arrived at a better time!

Here's what was inside:

A plush red hat-perfect for Valentine's Day!

This hat has a perfect angle for a Vic crown piece to go with my new Yule garb!

Just look at those pearls!

This red hat has some delicate lace net trim and a beautiful diamond accent!

Also, a lovely black vintage clutch with a diamond clasp!

I adore hats.....but vintage purses are a true find! 

And.......a most excellent vintage WEARABLE dress!

(That means I can wear it to work on days when they AREN'T expecting me to show up in garb!
Of course, I don't know how many days that really is.....they don't really notice any more.)  ;)

BUT WAIT......THERE'S MORE!

About a week ago, a very special little goat named Angel Baby and her Maa, Haggers,

gifted me with an ENORMOUS amount of vintage finds!

The box weighed in at 16 pounds!  I'm not kidding!  16 pounds!

AB and Haggers are new and special friends and it was gracious of them to remember my love

 of precious junque and to be so kind as to share!

The box has soooooo many things in it I haven't had a chance to properly sort through and do pics yet but, because AB was worried, I did rescue her Dead Mouse right away!

Can you find Angel Baby's Dead Mouse?

The box is chock full of fabric, jewelry, funny things, precious things...and love.

My humble thanks to these two wonderful friends.......

(and their goats!)

for not only gifting me with such beautiful things from the heart but also for

carrying me through this past year of joyously finding myself a Goat Sister!

Much love.......and a Happy New Year to you all!

xox

~Mimi

ps.  Bet you can't wait to go through that box with me, eh?

;)

GREETINGS from BEDLAM: The Many Faces of Fox

The Madwoman in the Attic and the Many Faces of Fox

~Why being crazy is better!

Have fun!  xox

http://collagepirate.blogspot.com/2011/12/madwoman-in-attic-faces-of-fox.html

TRIP-TRAP! TRIP-TRAP!

image:  1491 European woodcut

I'm terribly excited to be writing and directing the Spring play

at our new outdoor bridge!

But before I can put pen to paper I have to do my research.

I spend weeks (months!) learning about my subject.

I become rather obsessed! 

Since the Universe gifted me with both a goat AND and outdoor bridge...well.....

I really had no choice but to choose Three Billly Goats Gruff !

(If you're a bit confused, scroll down one blog below and all will be revealed!)

Of course, the 'true' story can't be done as a child's stage play......not in this era, at any rate.

(I'd like to argue that point but it's futile, so suffice it to say:  I can't.  Athough, I'm interested in what you have to say on the subject.)

So, it's up to me to take the essence of the story and present it in such a way that, hopefully, the lessons will be learned and the story told without any.....uh, goatie/troll violence.  ;)

(ie:  No trolls will be harmed in the making of this stage play!)

It has always fascinated me that no matter the culture, fairytales, fables and folklore remain basically the same.  I even found a version with a FOX!  (yay!)

I've come upon Loki in my reading, the Icelandic trickster, and since I do love the trickster character in folklore, Native American storytelling and commedia dell'Arte, I'm thinking I'm going to have some real fun with my Troll!  I think you're going to like him!

I post here the Norwegian version of our story, the one, I believe, most everyone is familiar with.

Stay tuned for what happens next....and to find out if Darla learns her lines in time!

THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF

Norway

Once upon a time there were three billy goats, named Gruff. They were on their way to eat on the hillside, but they had to cross a bridge. Under the bridge lived a troll, with eyes as big as saucers, and a nose as long as a poker.

The first goat over the bridge was the youngest Billy Goat Gruff. "Trip, trap, trip, trap!" he walked across the bridge.
"Who's that tripping over my bridge?" roared the troll.
"I am the smallest Billy Goat Gruff, and I'm going up to the hillside to make myself fat," said the billy goat, with a tiny voice.
"I'm coming to gobble you up," said the troll.
"Oh, no! please don't eat me. I'm too little!" said the billy goat. "Wait for the second Billy Goat Gruff. He's much bigger."
"Well, be off with you," said the troll.
A little while later, the second Billy Goat Gruff crossed the bridge. "Trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap" went the bridge.
"Who's that tripping over my bridge?" roared the troll.
"I am the second Billy Goat Gruff, and I'm going up to the hillside to make myself fat," said the billy goat, with a medium voice.
"I'm coming to gobble you up," said the troll.
"Oh, no! Don't eat me. Wait for the last Billy Goat Gruff. He's much bigger."
"Very well! Be off with you," said the troll.
Next, the big Billy Goat Gruff crossed the bridge. "Trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap!" went the bridge. This billy goat was heavy and the bridge creaked and groaned under him.
"Who's that tramping over my bridge?" roared the troll.
"I am the big Billy Goat Gruff ," said the billy goat, with a big ugly voice.
"I 'm coming to gobble you up," roared the troll.
"No, you're not!" said the biggest Billy Goat Gruff. "I am bigger than you and I could crush you into bits and bones."
"No, you're not!" said the biggest Billy Goat Gruff. "I am bigger than you and I could crush you into bits and bones."
And when the troll saw how big the billy goat was, the troll let him pass. After that, the three billy goats went to the hillside. They got so fat they could hardly walk home. And if the fat hasn't fallen off, they're still fat; and so,
Snip, snap, snout. This tale's told out.

image:  18th century Icelandic Loki (Trickster)

GOATURE for the Fashion Conscious

Shabby Caprine Hat with horn bow by Fox

(crochet)

~from Hatty's Tattered Finery

*Fox's Shabby items are simply items put together on a wing and a prayer from

scraps and a vision.  No two are ever alike.

~Tattered Finery~

Hatty Bunratty (Henrietta Bunrat)

is Fox's Victorian alter ego who

dresses up her goat, Darla, and sells, with her good cousin Eulalie Auralia,

tattered goods and lovely junque at the Gooseberry Fair.

Hatty and Eulalie profess to have fallen into 'genteel poverty' and

must sell off the family goods.

Each tattered item comes with a fantastical, if far fetched story.

Victorian Darla

 Eulalie Auralia with Darla

 Hatty Bunratty and Darla

 Papa made some ill advised business deals........

 The Good China

Please sir, not my dolly.......

Next GOOSEBERRY FAIR May 19, 2012

Clay, New York

*A lovely side note:  Darla will be appearing in the play

THREE GOATS GRUFF

at the outdoor bridge on the town hall lawn.

She will be playing the role of The Third Goat.

She is very, very excited but a little nervous about learning her lines.

**************************************

If you are in the area, tables are available

for your *own* sale items!

A mere $5

Items may be junque, thrift, crafts, artisan work or pretty much sky's the limit!

A fun day of reusing and repurposing!

Music~Food~Costumed Enetertainment

Our fun part in being GREEN!

**********

GARB-ITES ALWAYS WELCOME!

Feel free to show off your Tattered Finery or Disguise!

ARTIST MARC CHAGALL 1887-1985

But perhaps my art is the art of a lunatic, I thought, mere glittering quicksilver, a blue soul breaking in upon my pictures.
~Marc Chagall

I've been thinking about beautiful things today.

I adore beautiful things and, as a lot of you know, go out of my way to collect them.
I don't collect for monetary value, I collect what calls to me.
(And it can get quite noisy in the thrift shop with all those voices!  Trust me!)

Eight years ago, when I moved to my current townhouse, (the townhouse without room for a goat)

I created an office that I call The Chagall Room.

Fancy, eh?

Not really.  I merely found what Chagall prints I could and hung them on the walls.

And I began to love Chagall.

In addition to his paintings, he also produced etchings for Fables la Fontaine.
Most notably, I adore the Fox & Goat!

And then, a while back I noticed an interesting thing:

A great many of Chagall's paintings include.....goats!

Seriously!

I didn't like goats then.  And I never noticed the goats.  But, there they are just the same.

I first came upon the realization while I was searching Goat Quotes to begin this original blog and I stumbled across the quote from Notting Hill (a great movie, by the by!):

"Love isn't love until there's a violin playing goat."

Julia Roberts was speaking of her Chagall painting!
(Really!  It's an awesome movie!  Watch it!)

And that made me look at Chagall in a very different way.

And so now, my favorite artist, who existed in my world long before goats, was gifting me with the thing I had come to love best!

Coincidence?  Oh, probably not.  The tricksy Universe at work again!

Though, I hardly think he had me in mind while painting them.
Chagall, not the Universe. 

But......what did he have in mind?

Why all the goats?
And here's where you can Google your heart out.
And you should, if such a thing interests you, if only to see his plethora of lovely, lovely art work.
And, while you're at it, you can play:  Find the Goat!

But for all that anyone has ever said in regard to Chagall's goats, all the second guessing and interpretation,  there was one thing I came upon that is certainly the most true, here in the following quote:

If a symbol should be discovered in a painting of mine, it was not my intention. It is a result I did not seek. It is something that may be found afterwards, and which can be interpreted according to taste.
~Marc Chagall

And so maybe, just maybe, not everything has a hidden meaning.

Enjoy something beautiful today!
~Mimi 

  



HOGMANAY

Well, I've less than a week to wish for a tall dark stranger to be a welcome first foot, Hogmanay visitor after midnight, carrying a lump of coal and a slice of black bun?

I mean, what are the odds?

What say ye? 

(Also, do you suppose it would be too much to ask that he have a goat.....?)   ;)

Have a Happy Week Before Hogmanay!

*hugs*

~Mimi