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Scarborough Faire Begins

Yes! There have been more Real Fairy Sightings!

(Like a shy firefly, this fairie flitted around the Doll Shoppe for about 15 minutes, then was gone.)

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More about Scarborough Faire later....

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But now, presenting the first of the

Stories of the Wee Peeple Dolls

Shandi and the Magical Art Horses

One day the Lady Kandra got a letter in the email from a woman named Shandi-

 it went something like this:

 Hi! I'm not sure if you remember me.

One of your dolls hit me like a brick many years ago, when I was 19 years old.

This is why...  I once had a best friend whom I loved like no other.

We were both abused children, but when we got together, she and I made up our own story where my name was Alamathena and she was Kareina.

 She loved Pegasus- I loved Unicorns.  In our dream story we lived and played, happily, safe from the real world.

This childhood friend and I shared a profound secret bond, but when we were 16 years old my friend disappeared, and she is lost to me- to this day. 

 I have never forgotten my dear childhood friend or the story we shared.

Then- I saw this doll and it looked so much like my old childhood friend-

 I couldn't beleive it.

I was so poor then and I just didn’t have the money for her.

I went home and cried over that doll, I could see her when I closed my eyes.

My husband took me back to the Renaissance Festival the next weekend hoping she was still there,

and you bartered with me and I traded some of my painted boxes and some money to bring her home.

I call the doll Kareina, the name my friend gave herself in our fantasy story.

Her eyes are closed. I think of my lost sister and how we shared our dreams.

I think that somewhere maybe she’s still alive and safe and happy, but I feel that doll is our link.

Someday she will find me and I her.

I just wanted you to know how you touched me and how your kindness has led me on to keep trying to make a living by selling my art.

I quit my job of 13 years to try and make a go of it.

I still paint the little boxes, but now my new passion is for horses.

 I take plastic toy horses and I heat and cut and sand and grind them,

and then I take epoxy sculpting material and I give them new manes, tails, new stances, and then they get a unicorn horn. 

 I love it! I can finally release all those Unicorns and Pegasus’ that run through my dreams . It’s opened a whole new world for me. 

Thanks for listening. Thank you for your wonderful dolls! 

Your Fan,

Shandi A.Howard

This is the link to my web page if you’d like to see the Unicorns I’ve made.

http://www.freewebs.com/thegreeneyedunicornstudio/

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There you have it, friends. Shandi and her magical ART HORSES.

Our first  

STORY OF THE WEE PEEPLE DOLLS!

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Shandi's experience reminds me of another magical Doll Story...

Have you ever heard the story of

Vasilisa the Brave...

It's a Russain Folktale...

Ok, the story is really about a young girl,

but she has a secret Doll in her pocket given to her by her true mother- a Doll who guides her and helps her...

There's also a real smart no-nonsense witch in the story-

the famous witch known as Baba Yaga-

(Images from the Internet)

                                You may have heard of the famous witch, Baba Yaga;

 she who darkens fairy-tale skies riding about in a mortar, using a pestle and/or broomstick for navigational purposes...

She who lives in a house made of bones located across the gloomy woods from Vasilisa and her Cinderella-style evil stepmother and stepsisters...

OH OKAY, I may as well tell the whole story, since I'm in it this far...

The young girl Vasilisa was stuck with the wretched stepmother and bratty stepdaughters for the usual reason- parents deceased.

But just before she died, Vasilisa's mother gave her a Doll.

In the story the Doll wears a simple scarf around her head and an apron- she is plain, but charged with the power of the mother's love.

Vasilisa keeps the doll safe and talks to the doll and the doll talks back to her and is her only friend.

And she is about to really need a magical friend, because the stepmother is hatching an evil plot as she watches the girls reach marriageable age,

 and the beautiful and sweet-tempered Vasilisa's very presence seems to make the other girls appear even more homely and dull-witted...

Some versions of this tale say that the stepmother herself was a witch,

and cast a spell  one night so that all the lights (that would be candles) go out and cannot be lit again.

Vasilisa is ordered to go at once to Baba Yaga's house at the other end of the forest and ask her for a light.

So, it's like midnight, and off she goes, bravely and forthrightly into the maw of certain death, shivering and clutching her magical Doll

 who speaks comforting words to her and guides her down the scary moonlit path to the dreaded witch's house.

She travels all night and all the next day, and just when it's getting dark again, she comes upon the witch's house.

I guess she pretty much knew it was the witch's house right off

by the welcoming pumpkin heads beaconing out an eerie glow around the place- pumpkin heads - each on a fence-post-

 a quaint picket fence made of victim's bones.

The kind of place where you get the feeling that everything you see and everything you don't see- is under enchantment.

The witch is not home but then Vasilisa hears the tell-tale rustling.

Baba Yaga swishes through the dark wood, gliding between the trees, riding high in her worn wooden mortar, using a broom for a rudder and the pestle for a mast,

she comes out of the forest vines like a sea-hag emerging from the depths of black waters.

Clutching her Doll, Vasilisa steps out into the  open, bowing respectfully and keeping her eyes focused on the ground.

She says, "It is I, Vasilisa. My stepmother has sent me to ask if we may borrow a light."

Baba Yaga replies, "Ah, is that so? I know of your stepmother- and your step-sisters too.

You might have wished for better relations, my dear. But never mind- you shall have your light and you may even live to use it-

we'll see- but first, you must live here and work for me."

Although the witch is skinny as a rail, she has a voracious appetite, so it's a good thing Vasilisa knows how to cook sumptuous meals fine enough for a tsar,

and it's a good thing the little Doll can complete the witch's tasks such as finding needles in the hayfield,

 separating wheat from chaff, and sweeping dust off of individual beans-

it turns out that, with the Doll's help, the witch is actually quite satisfied with Vasilisa's work -

I mean- it's notable that the respectful WAY Vasilisa interacts with the fearsome witch, seems to make a favorable impression,

so, on the third night when she comes home to find the tasks finished, and after the consumption of a third sumptuous meal,

Baba Yaga engages Vasilisa in conversation.

She asks Vasilisa, "How did you manage to complete all the many tasks I set for you?"

Unwilling to reveal the presence of the Doll, yet, not wanting to lie to a witch, 

Vasilisa answers, "By my mother's love."

I thought that was a great answer.

So Baba Yaga starts squirming, wanting nothing to do with love, and decides right then that it's time for the girl to go home.

She shooes Vasalisa out of the enchanted gate, handing her a lit pumpkin on a bone fencepost.

"Be sure to give this light to your stepmother and stepsisters- don't forget, now."

Once again, Vasilisa has to travel in the dark, but the pumpkin head lights the way, fading in daylight and beaming up again at nightfall.

She arrives home on the second night to find her old house still in darkness.

Apparently the stepmother wasn't a very handy witch, since she couldn't undo her own spell and couldn't get matches to light the whole time Vasilisa was gone.

So it looked like everybody was asleep, but the pumpkin told her they were awake in there

 and reminded her that she had promised the witch that she would give them the light.

Well, you probably figured out that Baba Yaga was up to something,

and upon the pumpkin's insistence, Vasilisa opened the door and there they were, the step-mother and two step-sisters, all huddled together in the dark and cold.

Some versions say that the pumpkin flew at each of them one by one and burned them up,

and some say that the pumpkin just blew the whole house up,

 but either way, the evil deed came back upon itself and the step-mother and her daughters  were destroyed.

The story doesn't end there, though.

Vasilisa, either way the story is told, flees from that house and goes to live with an elderly woman in town.

She learns to spin the finest cloth which she gives to the old woman,

who tries to sell it but the cloth is so fine that finally it ends up being given to the tzar and nobody will cut the cloth

because they don't feel worthy so they send for Vasilisa to cut the fabric

and the moment His Majesty the Tzar sets eyes on her, he falls in love with her and they marry,

 and so Vasilisa has a great life

and in the last illustration she and her little magical Doll are both wearing  lacy dresses,

and chatting by themselves, and she never puts the Doll away,

 but they still hang out together and sometimes wonder what's shakin with the terrible Baba Yaga on the other side of the wood.

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My favorite version of this story is told by Marianna Mayer,

and beautifully illustrated by K.Y. Kraft.    

I highly recommend reading her version.    

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The Doll, in the story, represents "a Mother's Love".

However, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, who wrote Women Who Run with the Wolves, sees Vasilisa's Doll as Vasilisa's own Intuition, so that is interesting too.

I also recommend Women Who Run with the Wolves for an intelligent commentary on this old folk-tale.

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Now, Back To Scarborough Faire... the Renaissance Festival.

...as I was saying... fairies, accustomed to having the place to themselves for most of the year, flit around the fair-grounds,

entertaining patrons with their flute music and drawing them off into their fairy realm,

where these hapless patrons believe they have only spent ten minutes,

but when they come out of the realm on the other side of the bridge, they find their car is not in the parking lot

and that's because seventy years went by, friends, and nobody believes them

 even though they have a long white beard and are still wearing the rented costume they got talked into wearing after having too many beers.

(pictured here: the cause of the trouble...

note the attempt of the fairy to seduce the photographer with flute music-

this particular fairy, Twig, is often successful in luring the hapless and half-drunk over the threshold into fairy-land...)

so innocent and irresistable..

and of course there's no stopping the children,

all believers and running straight towards her-

oh- and don't think that taking pictures is going to stop this fairy business-

it used to be that fairies ran from cameras- not anymore, folks!

Now they love them.

 Start taking your camera out and you'll have fairies zipping and zooming at you like hummingbirds-

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Meanwhile, have you seen the Wee Peeple Dolls lately...?

no? well, you can find them 

at Scarborough Faire, the Renaissance Festival...

WHERE YOU MIGHT COME ACROSS SOME

STRANGE NEW woo-woo DOLLS...

 Crystal Peeple Dolls

Folks, there are crystals on their heads! 

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Mysterious links to Atlantis?

 Are they Channeling Angels...?

Are they Crystal Children grown up?

These and many other questions,

such as, has the Dollmaker gone WACKO? might never be answered,

at least not directly, at least not by the Dollmaker...

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Whatever Mystical Magical Intentions these Dolls may have,

they are at

 Scarborough Faire

(remember, it's a dignified and real Renaissance Festival,

 sometimes known as the Renaissance Festival of the Bilble Belt, for heaven's sake (ok, pun intended),

just so that you don't think that it might be called something like Scarborough Faire, the Fantasy Festival,

 which would practically INVITE people to show up in all kinds of.....

well, Fantasy Outfits... 

(I feel a commentary coming on... but anyway...)

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Scarborough Faire...

...where the Owl Dolls

now come in Mini-Wee size!

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Oh those (ever-parading) Mini-Wee Dolls..!

Well, Dolls will be Dolls.

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What else is happening at the 

Wee Peeple Doll Shoppe (#158)

ok it started out innocently enough...Fair Maidens and a few Noble Princesses now and again coming in-

you know, shopping for just the perfect adorable accessory..

and finding the new YARNY THINGS...

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but then... it got wild.

Some girls... 

 couldn't stay away from the mirrors once they got started. You see, there's a new Boutique section of the shoppe....

oh yes, once they got started there was no stopping them.

This is Eve and Virginia folks. You have heard the expression:

"Girls just want to have fun."

well....

These two went on a marathon playing with the new Yarny Things.

By the time they were done they had discovered sixteen ways to wear the Yarny Things

(including as TAILS!)

They made up a rhyming song- detailing all the ways to wear Yarny Things!

(the song has three verses)

Then they choreographed the Yarny Thing Song into a cheer-leader style dance routine...

(yes, folks, I am not kidding you- they did this all on their own)

which then skyrocketed into the idea of doing their Yarny Thing Dance

 while marchiing in the parade 

showing off all the ways to wear the Yarny Things, which they did, 

 The flabbergasted Dollmaker gave them each the Yarny Thing of their choice.

(and invited them to come back next weekend)

WoW! What girls! Amazing, really.

 So, all you creative and very fine Girls and Ladies,

come and visit our WHOLE NEW SECTION of the Doll Shoppe

given over to the trying on of 

BeadHead Dolls and

 Yarny (not-just-for-hair-anymore) Things.

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yay for yarnies.

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and yay for the beautiful Scarborough Faire

which is only a little bit muddy and not very very very muddy this year. (so far...)

Til next time....

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Don't forget to send in your own stories about the Wee Peeple in your lives!

to bigkandra@aol.com

05/17 last edited