Homeless Santa feeding a puppy

Even under those circumstances, Santa is a pretty good guy.

Regretsy

I'd heard people mention Regretsy, but I didn't check it out until this morning. Regretsy takes all the "I can't believe they made that" finds from Etsy and features them, with snarky commentary. It is just my sort of humor.

I now have a new goal! I'm not sure how one gets to be featured on Regretsy, aside from them stumbling on something of yours... but I think I'm headed in the right direction. See, yesterday I was thinking of a Santa-King Tut doll....

the Good News

It may be summer, but I've been working on one of a kind holiday items for a Christmas in July promotion. So Christmas has been on my mind, you might say. I woke up from dreams involving cell phones and tornadoes, and quite a different scene assembled in my mind. A cell phone nativity, where the phones were painted up like matryoshka, Russian nesting dolls. The idea was weird but fascinating. And the phones made a sort of pun on the Good News (the message of Christ). So I really couldn't pass it up.

I'll be asking around for old cell phones. Once I've collected a dozen or twenty to select from, I'll get started. Will keep you posted.

What strange things have YOUR dreams inspired you to create?

My name is Alissa.
I paint and sculpt. I write. I garden. I cook.
I do something every day to remind me of the me-ness of myself.
The mass-produced nature of the modern world is hard on my sanity. I believe things that are unique can have a soul of their own, like the velveteen rabbit. So I concentrate on making as many of them as possible. I'm starting this blog to share the creative joy with you.

But let me back up, and explain the meaning of Minimum Wage Faeries.

The idea began at my sister's wedding in 2006. A faery-loving friend from high school was there. I was trying to explain why I dislike(ok, hate) faeries; after all, they are slender, beautiful, elegantly dressed, wealthy and magical besides. What's not to love about that?

But I said that made them no more real than the models in magazines, that they lacked substance, and that they were too perfect. I said they need a flaw other than overwhelming vanity. (Jealousy may have played a large part in this conversation.)

So what kind of faery would I empathize with, she wondered. Ones like the people I know, I said. Creative enough, but somehow always a day late and a dollar short. And quirky. Very quirky. So I coined the term "minimum wage faeries." I started writing a (still unfinished) story about down&out faeries, and the name stuck.