A Fairy

A Barbarian

And a basket

A brilliant and dear friend decided to start, The Fairy Circle, and invited us to join. The Fairy Circle is a monthly social club for mothers and their young daughters. We meet in a circle, light a candle, sing songs or read stories, and then we all snuggle into some delightful mother/daughter project. The idea (other than avoiding Scouts of America because we can't support homophobic institutions and, anyway, that whole cookie thing is asinine no matter how you look at it) the idea is to create a small community where the girls feel very much a part of and enfolded into a bigger group of Bad Ass Mamas. BAM! We sit with them and we all chat and work together. So far, it is wonderful and fun. For instance, when I am contacting The Fairy Circle I always look for a fairy quote to include in the email. (Has anyone noticed how much I love to quote? Can you run a blog on quotiness alone?) I sent one fairy quote that was attributed to an Old Irish Proverb but I suspect it comes from Shakespeare: "Any man can loose his hat in a fairy wind." I don't know what it means and yet I love it. Other fun things are more obvious. My daughter and I get to hang out with BAMs. We get to make excellent crafts. To the list of fun my daughter would like to add, "the candle and the snacks".

So, I ran the last Fairy Circle and I chose the project. You can see it here: http://www.countryseat.com/freepatterncandy.htm Oh, it looks so easy! Yes my friends outside The Circle, go weave yourself a wee basket and get back to me. Can you hear the ominous music gently playing in your subconscious? If I titled my posts this one would be called: "Why Handmade Baskets Are So Expensive". They are expensive because they are a pass time of the devil. They will frustrate and hurt you. They will make BAMs feel as though they have been called to your home for punishment. They will alienate almost every small child in the room. And yet, if you are strong in the Fairy Magic, if the Fairy Queen smiles upon you, if you stop for a stiff drink now and then, you might wrestle forth something vaguely symmetrical and containerish.

You may ask, where are the men? They are not here. They are out having fun and plotting to create The Barbarian Circle.

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild With a faery hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

~William Butler Yeats, "The Stolen Child"