My new book Fairy Gardening 101

Here is a link to my newest book: Fairy Gardening 101 published at Sky Horse Publishing, NY. It was so much fun to do.

 

Selkies, websites and writing.

Hello everyone!
Fiona has been hard at work on a LOT of things! As mentioned in our last post, we finally have our website up and running! www.grannyfi.com and it's beautiful!
We're working on more toys, stories and a way to sell knitting patterns so that they can be downloaded instead of posted...watch the website for details!
While the website has been building, Fiona has finished the illustrations for her first picture book, written by the magnificent Kate Forsyth of Bitter Greens fame. Two Selkie Stories from Scotland will be published in May by Christmas Press Picture Books (you knew that Fiona started her own publishing company with some friends, didn't you?).  This is the beautiful cover she's done! I'm so proud of her!

The launch will be at our shop on the 10th of May at 4:30 if anyone feels like dropping in for tea and scones!
She's also been working madly on a proposal for a book on the history of Voodoo... she has a wide variety of interests! Plus working on picture books and her fiction works.
In her down time (ha!) Fiona has been knitting up some 'woodland folk' to be a new range of toys and patterns. She has been forced to watch 'The Labyrinth' (if you haven't seen it, you should!), 'The Dark Crystal' and 'The Princess Bride' for inspiration. What a hard life!

All the while we're BOTH working on the Booked In! Children's Literature festival that will be held at the shop for the second year in a row and she's working her boring 9-5 job out at the Uni.
We meet for lunch almost everyday and watch our favourite episodes of Escape to the Country and dream of where we'll live once we're rich and famous!
You can follow her (and me) on pinterest if you want to see more of the things we dream up or about! http://www.pinterest.com/beattiealvarez/ and http://www.pinterest.com/123fionadolls/

Love,
Beattie xoxo

We have a website!

Hello everybody!
It's been a few months since our last post - it's been busy, busy, busy here in hot, hot, hot Armidale!
But we've got big news, as you may have guessed from the title of this.
We have a website where you can go and buy all of Fiona's beautiful toys and artworks! You can find us at http://www.grannyfi.com .
It's a beautiful website filled with dragons, Doiley Birds, Lady Jackals and much more. Never fear though, this blog will still be manned by the two of us.
I hope everyone has had an exciting start to the New Year the way we have - although it's March already and hardly new!
In other news, the book Fiona has been illustrating for Kate Forsyth will be on its way to the printers very shortly, Fairy Gardens 101 has been edited and I am working on a super-secret Mother's Day surprise toy for Fiona (let's see if you actually pay attention to your blog Mum!)!

Okay, off to work on the website with a cup of tea and too many chocolate biscuits now!
Lots of love,

Beattie

Christmas is coming!

Christmas is well on it's way and everything is go go go in our world!
Fiona just got an order for 6 knitted fairies - to be delivered by the 19th of December, to hop on a plane to the UK in time for Christmas! Which is why I'm the one updating this blog because she's not allowed to put down her knitting needles!
She also got a Father Christmas special order to finish by this weekend and I've got 8 dragons to make! Phew!

All the while she's coming up with new book ideas, illustrating a book of Selkie Stories by the marvelous Kate Forsyth and baby sitting my kidlets while I run the shop for her.
She's musing over a new knitting book - any ideas?

Love,
Beattie xoxo

Happy Birthday!

Did you know that today is Fiona's birthday? She's made it through half a century and managed to keep her youthful looks!

Fiona, aka Granny Fi, is holding her birthday presents from me. Two little tea cup dragons based on her larger dragon spawn, but I altered the pattern to make them teeny-weeny and very cute! She was very excited when she opened the tin, that looked like it had biscuits, to find them!

Now, one of the reasons that you may not know it's Fiona's birthday, or any other fun facts about her, is that she doesn't have a Wikipedia page. I've tried and tried to make one, but it keeps getting declined. Firstly, for not having enough references, next for having a tone that was 'unbefitting an encyclopaedia' and lastly for having too many references that came from interviews.
If there is anyone out there that wants to help me with this, please email me at beattiealvarez@gmail.com! I feel that she deserves a Wikipedia page for her contributions to changing the way we think about dolls and art and knitting.
So Happy Birthday Mum! We'll make you famous before your next birthday!
Love,
Beattie xoxo

Our Toy Shop

So as you may know, Fiona is a busy woman. So busy in fact that she's had to outsource her blog to me. I'm not just a random person, I mean, I am fairly random, but I'm also her daughter, web manager and shop manager!
We're getting bigger and better all the time! Our shop Granny Fi's Toy Cupboard in Uralla is speeding along at an incredible rate!
Just look at the special order of a bride and groom jackal she did last week!
Because we're so busy, I've also taken over dragon production and window displays. 

We're working on a website, although my technical skills are being sorely tested, hopefully by early next year we'll have a fully functioning website for you to buy from!
Fiona, aka Granny Fi, is working away on two books at the moment 'Fairy Gardens 101' and illustrating 'Two Selkie Stories from Scotland' by Kate Forsyth, to be released next year.
Busy, busy, busy!
Lots of love,
Beattie-the-daughter xoxo

Too long away

Hi everybody. Apologies for so long between postings. One thing that put me off was the unresponsiveness of blogspot. It was just not working.

Also my apologies to the lovely person who left a comment asking a question which I have neglected to answer, I will do so today.

Can I claim to have been too busy to post? Well, I have been busy but I should have been posting too.

We finally got Granny Fi's Toy Cupboard open and have a lovely shop front in Uralla, just south of Armidale in New South Wales, Australia. Here is the facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/GrannyFisToyCupboard?ref=hl
 We sold out of dragons in the first week and I am still trying to fill orders.

The dragons have been so popular that we have decided to host a dragon extravaganza in early April, complete with dragon cave, hopefully.



Then, I have also been finishing my latest book, a history of graffiti for SkyHorse publishing in New York.

http://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/book/?GCOI=60239103718920 And this is the link to the website.

Lots more to tell but if I don't post this now it won't get done.