Home Sweet Studio Home

Dear Friends of Bluebird Fairies,

Hello and welcome to all those who've signed up during Burlington's Art Hop to receive monthly notices about fairy postings from me.  It's been a bit since I've written which is mainly due to the amazing transformation that took place in Bluebird Fairies’ new studio home.  

I was delighted to pick this fairy from my deck recently. 

I drew 'The Fairy of Home Sweet Home' when I lived in a house that felt like a really good friend.  She was off in the country, down a dirt road and next to a soft, easy (most of the time) creek. Whenever I would come home and walk in the door I would feel her greet me with 'Hello' and I'd feel a big 'ah' in me. 

This new home of Bluebird Fairies feels that way to me. It's in a great space up on the 3rd floor of an old bristle factory now full of artists.

What a blast it was to initiate the space with so many people passing through it during Art Hop. Stopping at the fairy booth to have a card reading, look at my old demons on the wall and have a conversation to hear what becoming of “These earnest little drawings to help us do big things”.

Now sitting down a few days after the event I feel what a comfortable refuge it is for meaningful creative expression. 

 I welcome all the good that will come here and how this space will connect with you.

Have fun!

 Emily and the Bluebird Fairies

Ta Da! Monthly Fairy and Demon Drawing Workshops are starting up in the Bluebird Fairies Studio, 4 Howard St., Burlington, VT

The first one is Saturday, October 15th, 1-3.

We’re starting off at the very nominal cost of $5 ($10 if you'd like a fairy card reading too.) All supplies included. Email me to RSVP.

Fairy of Good Morning, Good Night, and In Between Hugs

This fairy’s from a time when I was living in a house out in the country by myself.  Even though the thought of living there alone had been almost too overwhelmingly scary I had moved forward and into the house.  Steadily and carefully I grew the ability to overcome the nightly fears.  I knew that for my new unfolding life it was necessary.

This fairy honors all of the times people came to visit me and allowed me the opportunity to revel in the experience of having regular doses of people in my daily life.

Now, in our home by the high bank of the Winooski River I am thankful to have this every day.

So, whether you have this in your own home or you find it out in the world please rejoice in the wonder of us humans truly regarding one another again and again.  Right now.  Here.  In this Moment.

Fondly,

Emily and the Bluebird Fairies

The new Bluebird Fairies Studio Home on the 3rd Floor of the Howard and Pine building in Burlington is coming along.  We‘re gearing up for Art Hop and after that workshops that will unfold in the unfolding space.  We hope you’ll come visit or just keeping tuning in from afar.

Wearing Another's Shoes

I was happy I pulled this fairy from my Bluebird Fairy Deck on July 8th because I’ve been wanting to make an announcement about it.   

Yes, ‘The Fairy of Wearing Another’s Shoes’ and I have been at such big odds with each other I wanted to change her name! 

Luckily, the day after it was selected to be the star of this blog post I had an incredible, terrible day at work.  You know the kind.  Great growth happens during them but, oh, doesn’t it hurt all the while its happening?

It happens that my supervisor, the director of the Way2Work Program which houses the Bridging Program I coordinate here at Champlain Community Services has a Bluebird Fairy Deck that lives on her desk.   Every day she picks a “fairy of the day”. 

Towards the end of my “incredible, terrible day” she picked ‘The Fairy of Wearing Another’s Shoes”.  I said “Oh, Michelle, I want to change her.  I think people who come to the Fairy Booth are already super compassionate and they need to stop thinking about other people and start wearing their own shoes.”  Michelle looked me squarely in the eyes and said “You created this deck for a reason, don’t change it!” 

And, then it hit me.  Just that morning she had sat and listened to a problem that’s been brewing in my life for a while. It felt so incredibly good to feel her stretching her mind to understand what I was feeling and how my life experience had brought me to the predicament I was currently in.

I’ve been mulling all of this over for a few weeks.  A few days ago I was happy to find in Mark Nepo’s fabulous “The Book of Awakening”-

“It seems the ancient Medicine Men understood that listening to another’s story somehow gives us the strength of example to carry on, as well as showing us aspects of ourselves we can’t easily see.  For listening to the stories of others- not to their precautions or personal commandments- is a drop of water that breaks the fever of our isolation.  If we listen closely enough, we are soothed into remembering our common name.”

I think of this “sharing of shoes” as a dance we, hopefully, do all day.  Checking in with ourselves and then moving out and checking in with the others we come in contact with daily, infrequently or just for this one time in our life.  Back and forth.  Weaving our days and lives with this in and out, back and forth as we grow in the forest of life together. 

On we go!

Have fun!

Fondly,

Emily and the Bluebird Fairies

On Tuesday July 19th I had the exciting pleasure of offering two short presentations for Enrichment Night at the Women’s Correctional Facility in S. Burlington.  This is something Vermont Works for Women coordinates monthly

The night was a success!  I got to fully share the story of how the creation my demons and fairies developed Bluebird Fairies while allowing me to shift the energy of my life into a positive place.   The women then got a chance to do that too.

I’ll be offering a version of this presentation during the Saturday and Sundays of Art Hop 2016.  Stay Tuned!!!

On We Go, Trusting the Way

I had to laugh when I drew ‘The Fairy of Trusting the Way’ because I just wrote about it two postings ago! 

 But, really, I’m not surprised.  As many of you who also use the Bluebird Fairy Deck daily know, you get the cards you need.  And, sometimes you need to hear the same message over and over for a while.

This fairy is beloved to many.  During my Fairy Card Readings at the traveling Fairy Booth people take home the card that resonates with them the most.  “Trusting the Way” goes home with lots of people.

That resonates nicely with me because I created the fairies to help me trust I would find my way when I was in the middle of making big changes in my life. And they’ve been lighting my way ever since.

We can’t, however, depend on the fairies alone.  ‘The Fairy of Trusting the Way’ requires assistance from us.  The Reverend Al Sharpton exclaimed several years ago at a Martin Luther King Day event: 

“IF YOU DON’T HAVE A GOAL IN MIND TO HEAD TOWARDS HOW ARE YOU GOING TO KNOW WHEN YOU’VE ARRIVED?”  

When we allow ourselves the opportunity to think about what we want, light, however dim, starts growing in the dark distance of our minds.

What do you want?  A change? A new skill to grow? A new place to live? A new opportunity to experience? Something new????

Once the wish is made, however vague and unhinged from your current reality, relax and see how it unfolds.

Here’s a nice example.  This picture of me as a mermaid delights me and the people who see it which allows me to know it has resonance and it’s not even clear why. And now I know.

I’ve been very excited about a Paddleboard Yoga Class I signed up for this summer.  It just started yesterday.  As I lay on my tummy and paddled out into the sun-lit evening on the bay I realized I was living the reality the picture had allowed to grow.  

And, now, folk, off we go.  Sit and Manifest

Move and Dream and Let the Magic Happen.

Onward and upward!

Fondly,

Emily and the Bluebird Fairies

Bluebird Fairies has a home! It’s on 4 Howard Street, 3rd Floor in Burlington, Vermont.  We’re having an opening on Friday August 5th.  

Weekly Food from the Farm

Ah, here she is. 

And this is what she meant to me when I drew her.

A few years ago I took two years off from full-time employment.  I had some income coming in and a savings account that held a VERY, VERY thin cushion of comfort for me.

I’d moved to a house out in the country and, it turned out, I knew the farmers around the corner who had a big organic farm and a weekly CSA.  (Community supported agriculture program)

For three summers (and two winters) I bought shares from Full Moon Farm. Every time I gathered together the hundreds of dollars to pay them up front it hurt a little.  Afterwards, though, I felt a great and comforting relief that I had food coming soon and that it would keep coming every week for a bunch of months.

What does this fairy mean now? Well, a friend got this fairy one day and said “I don’t get food from a farm but I totally get her.  She reminds me to accept my ‘lot in life’.” 

It’s true, with a CSA you don’t know what you’re going to get. One week there might be lots of carrots. And, yes, you might have to get inventive with all the rutabagas you start to accumulate.

That’s the challenge of this fairy. 

How can you move forward embracing all that you have?  The good, wonderful stuff and the big, monthly car payment.  Or the difficult family situation. Or personal ailment.

 You play an instrument.  Draw a little picture.  Take a walk in nature. 

And allow yourself time to become unworried and unhurried and released from doing into being.

Go on, enjoy being you!

Have Fun!

Emily and the Bluebird Fairies

Join us on July 1 from 5:30-7:30 for an “Opening Toast” for the Made in BTV Shop at 4 Howard Street (At corner near pine. Enter through the door near the loading dock). Artists from the building have wonderful things in this store owned by Vermont Singing Drum. Free Fairy Card readings for all!