Miss hearing from all of you.......

Hello dear friends......

Haven't heard from anyone in a little while. It always is so wonderful to receive comments from people about my blog and about your feelings about art, nature, beauty, etc. Hope to hear from you soon!! It always lifts my spirits to read your wonderful thoughts!!

Have a beautiful day!

Debbie

More beautiful art!

Wonder and daydreaming

What happens to our tears when they fall?
Do birds gather them up and take them to God?

When the wind blows through your hair, is that the language of heaven?

When a flower grows, does it talk to the soil and the rain?

When we sleep, do the children from the memories of our childhood come and talk with us?

How is it that children are able to look at people for so long and not be embarassed?

What happens to adults to make them forget how to be a child?

Between sleeping and waking, what is that place we find ourselves in, that makes us feel like our dreams are so real?

Cats and children......they can look right through you, but aren't they really looking at you......
who you really are?

Why is it that clouds make us feel so happy and comforted?

What is more important.......to see the ocean or see someone smile?

If you were asleep in a beautiful garden, what kind of flowers would you want to be near?

Walking in the woods on a quiet, beautiful day, what would be the song that you would create of your very own?



I hope we will listen to the children around us and really hear the beauty and wisdom that they speak with. And I hope we will listen to the child within us and let that child be alive and happy in us as well. How wonderful to be a child.

So happy to share my art!

I have so enjoyed looking at the many wonderful blogs on the internet and am amazed at the incredible creativity that people have. To have a blog of my own has been so wonderful for me......just to share what I do with others. But the best part of that is to hear from people and to know how much they appreciate my work. Thank you so much to all of you for your wonderful, sweet and inspiring comments!!

Spheric Garden and a Fairy Throne

Friends, Memories, Paris and Souls

(the picture above)

"the night's eyes talk to me as if it were
dreaming from it's soul".

This card speaks to me of gallentry and beauty,

of dreaming, wondering, traveling in one's
imagination to other beautiful places. "Hidden
in the garden, in the deep and breathtaking
woods, the enchanted princess found her
secret place to dream and left her winter land of
waiting, to find the garden she had remembered
from her beautiful childhood".

(the picture ....top right)

This is a beautiful little chair that I made called "Isabella Loved Paris". I love this little chair so much. It is very delicate and pretty, made with so many wonderful details......thin, curled wire and tiny wild clematic tendrils, very old lace and fabric, handwritten words, tiny petals from larkspur flowers......when I see this sweet little princess throne, I think of traveling to Paris and living in a little cottage on a wonderful bohemian, artistic street where there are old shops filled with interesting books and amazing creations, restaurants where people would rather stay and talk and eat wonderful food, than go home. When I see this little chair, I think of when I was a little girl, running along the ocean's waves and sleeping on the sand. Even then, I think I was dreaming of going to Paris. I know there is something about this enchanted, historical place that will someday fill my heart with incredible wonder and joy!! This little chair took me to Paris and I loved it.....in my dreams and my imagination.

(the picture.....top left)

"Friends and Memories".....this painted photo collage is very special to me. I loved working on it. It was definitely a wonderful process to go through to create this picture. A small antique rabbit and a discarded lion toy became adventures for me into my wonderful childhood memories. I had a blissful, happy childhood.....we lived by the sea and dwelled in a tiny, funny cottage that had rooms that waundered this way and that. The ceilings were odd as well as the stairway. I remember falling asleep on the couch while my mother and father would play jazz and classical music with their other musician and artist friends long into the night. I would be half-sleeping, half listening to their happy laughter and talking, reminiscing and singing.

In this picture are little momentos of my childhood......the little black ice skate was from a tiny German doll that I had as a little girl. My mother had bought me three little German musician dolls, but one day our dog chewed one of them and the little black skate remained by itself. Velvet flowers, a tiny glass bottle with a jeweled top, pretty coiled wire, a green patinad metal leaf crown......all precious objects that I cherish and hold on to.....to keep my heart gentle and child-like. Painting this picture and adding oil pastels made me think of every colour, every kind of artistry and music......colour blends all creativity in it, all gestures of beauty and expression.
This picture reflects the beauty I see in this life, this world......in the souls of people around me and of those who I do not know but see and observe with great admiration and appreciation.
Art can help us admire others and feel gratitude for their being alive and present in our lives.

Elegant, enchanted cards

Wend the Wind

This is one of my cards. It is one of my very favorites. I love old photography.....of the time period that speaks of quiet thoughts, gentleness and reverie. Looking at this picture makes me feel a kinship to the times of old when people's lives were so much less complicated and so beautiful. I think we have lost some of the charm and beauty that our lives used to have because of the all the modern ways we have in life. They have their advantages and good sides, but somehow we need to get back to that humble and beautiful life as it once was.

The poem here says......"Wend the wind beyond your weeping".
To me this means......find the wind beyond your tears, your weeping for solace. Let the wind help you hear the joy again, beyond the tears.

I know there is a gentle kindness within each of us. Like little children, so sweet and wise.

Poems

In God's land, the flying sunrays touch the trees hands and feet with winter rain. God walks along Russian rivers, singing to the nightengales and the little children who play on the river sand. God hides tiny presents for the Chinese swallows. He hides them in the magnolia blossoms in the wintertime. Summer he waits. When the comet from the tidal waves.....streaks into view in our summer skies, God lights his candles in the church of the forest. God sings in his church. God dances in his church. God lives in his church, called the Universe. His children are every living thing you and I see. The stars watch God every night and sing lullabyes to him as he smiles upon the world.

God is ever kind. He is always mindful of us and his raccoons. He loves his deer. He loves those who love his deer. Each day God's prayers are held within glass memories, as he watches us and waits for us to send him a letter.

l l l l l l l l l l l l l l

I wonder if God ever dreams . . . .
I wonder if God dances sometimes.
I wonder if God comes to us at night
when we are sleeping
and sits by us as we dream . . . .
does he travel to other planets . . . .
other galaxies?
can he talk to the birds?
can he heal a deer who has fallen?

I know God loves horses . . . . he runs wildly
with them when a storm begins.
God lays on the grass and watches the clouds
move furiously about, creating a new picture for him.
he walks sometimes . . . . quietly thinking of all the
river stones and the leaves that flutter and fall
before winter.

God's eyes are filled with the universe.
In his eyes are all the creations he has made.
His hands have within them all the mornings he created,
all the black nights
he flung across the sky.

Beauty

It is so special it is that God gives us such beauty in life. I am so grateful for this and wanted to share with you my appreciation for all things beautiful. Like this lovely light that gives softness and brightness on a summer evening, beauty can bring back joy and the true meaning of life to our hearts.

Hope you find something beautiful today to bring light into your life!!

Live in a Fairytale World

These are pictures of the other little Fairy Castle that my husband Mike and I made.
It is somewhat smaller than our other Fairy Castle, but has some wonderful and very different details in it.....a little mailbox with letters, beautiful stone towers that have art studios and an art library, a little laundry room with an ironing board and iron......all made from natural materials.
This is a unique and magical creation and we hope you will enjoy seeing these pictures. I will be adding many more pictures, soon. I would love to hear from you to hear what you think of our little Castle.

Have a wonderful weekend and remember to do something nice for someone so that they can be happy, too!!

Life is curious and beautiful

I am having so much fun working on my blog and have been so excited and happy to hear from so many people this last week after Ulla put a post about me and my fairy art on her blog Ullabenulla. Thank you so much for writing to me! I hope to hear from more of you and will definitely write you back.

My husband and I are very excited that so many of you are so interested in our new book coming out soon...."The Toymakers Dream of Fairycastle Corner". We are working on it very hard to get it finished as soon as we can. Anyone new, let us know if you would like to have your name put on the list for people interested in the book!

I wanted to start sharing some wonderful books and shops and other information that I have found over the years that I thought you would all be interested in. It will definitely be an ongoing list as I am always looking for wonderful places and books to read. I hope you will be sure to check my links list as I just added a ton of them the other day and will be adding more all the time.

Here's a few of my favorite shops:

Burnt Sugar in Seattle, Washington
Nest in San Francisco, California
Anthropologie (everywhere!)
Between Friends in Astoria, Oregon
Tail of the Yak in Berkeley, California
Souvenir in Seattle, Washington
Lucca Great Finds in Seattle, Washington
Shabby Chic in many cities!
Bell'ochhio in San Francisco
Rogers Gardens in Newport Beach, California

I am so grateful for people who have such beautiful and enchanting places to go to so that we can all have so much beauty in our lives!! Someday, Mike and I want to have our own wonderful little shop......Fairycastle Corner. That's what our story is about! It's a wonderful, magical story!!

Keep smiling and find some flowers to take a nap by!!

Beautiful Little Fairy Furniture

These are some of the newer pieces of fairy furniture that I have made. I love working with beautiful fabrics and papers, wire, funny little objects and found things. If you look on my website.......

www.artmajeur.com/debbieschramer

.......you can see many of the pieces that I have made that are made with more natural materials. I love working with both kinds of materials.

I have wonderful photographic prints of everyone of my creations.....the fairy furniture, the Fairy Castles, my photography and my collages.....so if a particular piece shown on my website is listed as being "not available" or "sold", you can order a wonderful print of those if you are interested. I also have pretty photo cards of all of my work as well. Please contact me for the prices and other information.

As Mike and I are putting together a wonderful book about our Fairy Castle....called "The Toymakers Dream of Fairy Castle Corner"......we will have it for sale very shortly. If you would like to have your name put on our waiting list to purchase the book when it is available, please let us know. It is going to be an absolutely charming, delightful book!!!

Also, we have a DVD available about us and our unusual Nature Art.....it is called: "Married to Art". We are so excited because it was done by our younger son who is a filmmaker and the music was done by our other son who is a composer. So it was a real family project......our first one and we hope there will be many more. So if you are interested in purchasing "Married to Art", please let us know as well.

I hope your day is beautiful, peaceful, happy and filled with many inspiring thoughts and experiences.

Keep Smiling!

Dreams of a Beautiful Life

Here is one of my beautiful collages. You can see more of my artwork on my website at:

www.artmajeur.com/debbieschramer

I absolutely love doing collages.....they are somehow very healing for me. I also love painting and enjoy trying out different styles and themes.

I am working on putting together a book of my artwork, different paintings and some of my photography and also am working on a book of my collages put together with my poetry. I began writing poetry when I was eleven years old.
My husband, Mike and I are also working on doing a book about our little Fairy Castle. Actually, yesterday, he spent nearly the entire day writing the most wonderful children's story about the Fairy Castle!!! We are so excited about it. It's so wonderful. We are hoping to publish it through LuLu and have it available very soon!! LuLu is incredible.....have you heard of it?

Childhood Inspirations

As a child, I grew up by the ocean. I remember the small white beach house that my parents bought that we lived in for many years of childhood. It was in California, which I thought was the only place on earth of such glorious sunshine and youth. I still can remember running from our little house to the sand right across the street (in Surfside) and we would make sand angels and run through the water. I don't think my mother even knew where we were sometimes; things were different then. Children could play more freely and they were safer. Later, we moved to Oregon, to a wonderful wooded area outside of Klamath Falls. I thought we had moved to the end of the earth, then, because we were so far from people and cars and stores. Our house was an old hunter's cabin without running water; it had a wonderful old black cook stove that my mother would make wonderful breakfasts on. I couldn't believe we actually lived in the woods. I think that is truely where I began to appreciate nature. Living by the sea, I felt the expansiveness of the earth and I would fall asleep at night hearing the ocean's waves quietly speaking. It was very comforting and peaceful. A dreamy kind of childhood. But in the forests of Oregon, I had now found adventure and mystery!! Nearly every day, I would walk in the woods, exploring and discovering so many amazing trees and paths, little abandoned cabins and boats....I thought that they seemed very abandoned but I knew it was just because they were summer homes and the owners rarely came to fill their presence into the little houses. There were so few children living near us, there. I spent a great deal of time by myself, just walking in the woods, running down our path, down to the creek and the boat where I would watch for fish and listen to the birds in the marsh. Here, I think is where I really began to see the beauty in nature and to feel such empathy and love for the creativity of God. I spent so many hours just observing and talking with nature, listening to it's beautiful, sweet voices and songs.

I am sharing all of this because now, years later, when I find myself creating art from nature, I am sent back to my childhood, where I can still feel the forest animals quietly watching me and hear the birds calling to one another. Nature is so beautiful and inspiring. I truely believe that if more people could spend more time in the natural world, they would have more peace and happiness and there would not be so many problems in the world as well. Nature is very healing to our souls.

My nature art and the other art that I create as well is an extension of my childhood, of the wonderful, sweet memories that I have of my walks in the woods, my conversations with the birds and the forest animals as an innocent, happy child. I am so grateful that now, so many years later, I am inspired to draw from those important and delicate experiences of my childhood and that I can create something beautiful to express my love for the wonder and amazement of the world of nature.

The Fairy Castle

The first picture here is of a little chair and table in the library/music room. There is a little mandolin to the left......made from bark and pods and little books made from handmade paper on the shelf to the right. To see the rest of the library/music room, just go to my website.....(link below). There are little sculptures, a tiny trumpet and many other books.

The next picture is of the kitchen in our wonderful Fairyhouse. (We also call it our Fairy Castle or our Nature Treehouse, too). There is a full view picture of the Fairyhouse in one of my posts below.

Our Fairyhouse is so beautiful and is filled with so many amazing details.....it is completely made from nature......here you can see the interesting driftwood pieces, the intricate stone floor, the shell sink filled with little dishes made from different kinds of pods.....and my favorite part of the kitchen......the little stove, on the left......made from bark, branches, moss and little flat stones for the stove burners. You can click on this picture to enlarge it, but can also see many more pictures of the Fairyhouse on my website
(www.artmajeur.com/debbieschramer). I also paint, do collages and photography as well and there are many beautiful works of art in these mediums on my site.

Fairytale world of dreams

pretty dreams of castles

clouds and swirling winds that capture memories
of the garden

little children running through the flowers

deep in the meadow, the cottage waits for the
gatherers, their songs fill the forest with
laughter and beauty

their small feet touch the moss and buttercups
so delicately and gently as if the world of nature
were speaking to them in a beautiful
ancient language

wait.....there is the path,
we are here,

we have found the gate to the garden

the garden
of our dreams . . . . .




i create to fill the earth with beauty and softness,
to heal the tattered souls,
to softly touch the smile that has been forgotten

those who have saved my spirit, I have
kept them in the precious memory in my dreams.