Flutterby Patch

The little wall girl

What follows is a heart-warming little story (a true one) that I thought I'd share with you.

When she was four years old my daughter had a passion for drawing countless little girls in pretty dresses. Here is one wearing purple and she has hair to match.....wonderful!

One day a new little girl put in an appearance. She had been carefully drawn on the newly painted wall in the hall and the style was so distinctive the artist was immediately identifiable.

My daughter knew it was wrong to draw on house walls (especially newly painted ones) and so my initial reaction was to fetch some soapy water and remove the little lady. But I didn't and somehow she survived and continued to smile up at us every time we passed. She became known as 'the little wall girl'.

Two years later came the day when the family moved house. My daughter, of course, was most distraught at having to leave the little wall girl behind at the old house but short of removing a chunk of plaster with the little lady attached to it I could see no way for her to join us in our new home.

At last the day came when all our belongings were packed and were being stacked in the big removal van. Books were heaped in the hall waiting to go and the little wall girl was just able to peep over the top of the heaps.

Heavy boxes full of household essentials were next to go and the little wall girl watched as they were carried away whilst she stayed behind.

Finally she watched as the dolls and teddy bears left for their new home.

At long last the house was completely empty and the children were sitting in the car ready to go. I did a few last minute checks and hurriedly opened each drawer in the kitchen to check that nothing had been left behind. As I removed a small scrap of greaseproof paper from one of the drawers an idea suddenly came to me.

With a quickly found pencil I carefully traced the little wall girl onto the greaseproof paper.

And now it was at last time to leave. I closed the front door of our old house and joined the rest of the family in the car and we set off for our new home.

You can imagine my daughter's joy when I handed her the scrap of paper and she saw the smiling face of her much loved little wall girl.

And where is this little lady today you might wonder. I telephoned my daughter yesterday to ask if she remembered the little drawing. I needn't have asked. Not only does she remember it but she still has the original greaseproof paper image tucked away in her scrapbook of childhood memories. Needless to say daughter was happy to email me a pic of the original image and I've used it to tell this little tale...... I do love happy endings don't you?

Until next time,
Eli

More than Flower Fairies

Can there be a nicer way to spend Sunday afternoons than curled up with a good book? This is what I've been doing today.

Don't you just love this picture? It was painted by Cicely Mary Barker.

Most people are very familiar with the paintings of Cicely Mary Barker but maybe not the name and so, as she is one of my favourite artists, I'll tell you a little bit about the lady and her work.

Cicely's Flower Fairies are world famous and can be found everywhere on anything from wallpaper to duvet covers as well as in the traditional little books. The first book, 'Flower Fairies of the Spring', was published in 1923. Above are examples of the early book covers whilst below are the modern and more colourful paperback versions which children of today will find more appealing. (I prefer the older ones!)

Cicely's family lived in Croydon south London and her sister ran a kindergarten there. It was here that Cicely sketched many of the pupils that were to inspire her Flower Fairy images and much of her life's other work.

There are countless different Flower Fairies but the Apple Blossom Fairy is one of the best loved and the image has been used time and again for over 80 years.

If you'd like to find out more about Cicely Mary Barker, her life and work I know you'll enjoy this book by Jane Laing (first published 1995). It is full of wonderful coloured illustrations and information about the sweet lady that painted them.

Cicely had a great imagination and a talent for creating fantasy worlds and wrote a number of short stories. The book above contains four of them.

The stories are typical of their time and perhaps a little too sentimental for today's children but I love them. Just look at poor little Susan sitting on the bed patching her shabby old clothes.

Most pictures in the stories are happy ones like this which shows little girls making necklaces from forget-me-not flowers.

Cicely Mary Barker was born in 1895 and as a child suffered much ill-health. She was educated at home and during those years taught herself to draw.

Throughout her life she had a strong Christian faith and her painting of the young Christ (below) is an image English Sunday School pupils (past and present) are familiar with.

During her life Cicely painted countless other religious pictures.

This one showing street children looking in wonder at the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus was painted as a Christmas card in 1934.

Cicely Mary Barker died in 1973 after a quiet life spent as a dedicated artist. She was much loved by all who knew her and her timeless images remain as popular today as ever.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have the talent to create images like this.

If you'd like to have a go at crafting flower fairies rather than painting them you might want to pop over to Knitting Tree where you'll find some cute little flower fairies made from artificial flowers and there's a useful tutorial showing how to make them. I reckon all little girls would love to try their hand at making a few of these fairy folk

Until next time
Eli

Necessary maintenance work

I'm not sure what is happening at Typepad but I've been trying all week to write a post with no success. I'm presuming the site is undergoing substantial maintenance as my words and pics are mysteriously erased ...grrrr! I am able to add a few pics without words so this is what I shall do just to let you know I am still alive! 

I've made a number of car trips recently and have been seriously delayed by road maintenance workers. There is currently a rash of them in our county. So friends I leave you with a few pics which sum up my frustrations with just one of the little irritations of modern life that you can do nothing about.