12 Days: Féerie Perfume

This item isn't fairy tale specific but I have a feeling it will appeal to readers of Once Upon A Blog. It was, after all, inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream.

This luxury perfume, in an incredibly beautiful bottle with a tiny fairy perched on top, came out last year. The perfume is called "Féerie" (yes, that's two 'e's) and is by Van Cleef and Arpels with the bottle designed by Joël Desgrippes. No idea what the perfume smells like as I haven't seen it in person but the bottle alone is present-worthy.You can see more about the fancy launch HERE (which included that designer mini-trunk you can see in the image below) and read more about the actual perfume HERE (btw this site is a great place to browse if you love perfume - the scents, the bottles, the ads, anything related to perfumes!) but if you're interested in a bottle for purchase I suggest shopping around - this, like many good perfumes, isn't cheap.
NOTE: As usual, please note I am not affiliated with any of these stores or products. I do not receive any commission from any visit to the site or any purchase. These are just items I thought may interest people as fairy tale themed gifts for the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Yuletide/Holiday Season. :)

Don't forget the "Pursuit of Happiness" Giveaway!

Entries close IN LESS THAN A WEEK on December 20th, so be sure to email me before then.
(A preview of the prize is coming soon too.)

Details for the giveaway are HERE and the wonderful London Particulars (who are making this giveaway possible through their generosity) can be found HERE.

Lovely Graphic Design for 2 (Unused) Fairy Tale Covers

Here are a couple of fairy tale book covers I found recently by graphic designer Oleksandra Korobova (a.k.a. l-e-s-k-a on deviantArt).

I just love these!

They were to be part of a series but as far as I can find, have not ever been used. Such a shame! They would have had me picking up the books in an instant.

You can find more of her art and photography HERE.

'Steamy' Fairy Tale Costume Prep & Meet-up (for DragonCon '09)

And by 'steamy' I mean steampunk, of course (well, this time I do anyway! :D ).

There's a group encouraging people who do 'cosplay' (short for costume roleplay) to try a new theme - fairy tales.

If you're not familiar with cosplay this is no dress-up thrown together in a few minutes so you can accompany your kid on the annual Halloween candy hunt. It's actually a form of performance art and these people take their costuming seriously (having a lot of fun in the process). The participant entries tend to range from well put together costumes to incredibly detailed (and mechanically enhanced) outfits that would rival any professional costumer's work.

Here's one of the organizers of this event's costume plan for The Swan MaidenI'm including the post details below so anyone interested can get involved but even if you're not, take a look at some of the ideas that are being put forth for presenting fairy tale characters. It may make you think about your favorite fairy tales a different way and perhaps prompt some creativity of your own...(you listening artists and writers?)Here are some ideas put forward to get people going (I'm quoting from this post HERE with tiny edits for readability). People get to 'claim' the character or choose one of their own. Quite a few are already spoken for (you can find the claimed list HERE):

• The Big Bad Wolf - Dresses like a gentleman, but that's offset by pointed ears, fangs, and a wicked claw device on one hand. Also, wicked mutton chops.
• Swan Maiden - A white feather robe on one side, a clockwork wing on the other.
• Little Red Riding Hood - I need a companion for my Big Bad Wolf, but other than the red cloak/cape it's free reign. In my head, she seems like she could have more of an 'early aviator' style, with flight cap and goggles, and probably oil stains on her cloak. A hatchet or raygun would probably look pretty awesome too.
• Puss in Boots - Cat ears and tail. Very noticable boots. (Sword?) -Plenty of Swashbuckley potential. Steampunk-ing the boots would make them more noticeable, especially if you limit the amount of brass on the rest of the outfit.
• The Girl Without Hands - Free design. Clockwork/mechanical silver hands.
• Aladdin - Arabian inspired outfit. Carry a lamp. (Conversely, could do a steampunk rendition on a genie.)
• The Genie- Could be awesome as some kind of robot. He'll perform any 3 tasks you wish, but then you have to use the lamp to recharge him!
• Peter Pan- Green suit and a jetpack, probably a good candidate for flight goggles and an aviator cap. Dagger/small weapon at the belt maybe?
• The Firebird -Reds yellows and oranges. Clock work wings in the same color scheme.
• 12 Dancing Princesses - bustle the skirt to ensure the "dancing shoes" are visible and find a way to make the shoes look worn and steampunked up a bit. A princess crown and carrying a branch from a "gold", "silver" or "diamond" tree would finish the set out nicely.

You can find even more ideas HERE and HERE.

Steampunking fairy tale characters is becoming more and more popular and I've noticed a few photoshoots happening around the web just this year. Below is Red Riding Hood from a shoot in April in Brooklyn:And HERE is a blog entry about it with more fun pics.

Doesn't it look like fun?

Here are the details of what's happening for the DragonCon '09 Steampunked Fairy Tales Group and where (they'll be having a meet-up and photoshoot) from the cosplay.com post (which you can read all of HERE):

Okay folks, it's time to prepare for Dragon*Con 2009, and my friend Pyro_Ike has started organizing a fun idea for a costume group. The theme is Steampunk Fairy Tales. It just seems to fit together, because they're the kind of stories that would likely still be around in a Neo-Victorian society.

Meet-Up Time & Location
Date: Sunday, September 6th (tentative)
Time: 5:00pm (tentative)
Location: Marriott Atrium Lobby Level, carpeted space next to Atrium Ballroom - across from Pulse (sailboat) Bar (May move elsewhere after gathering to get good photos.)

I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

NOTE: You can see where each of the images are from by clicking on them - you'll be taken to the owner's websites where you can find lots more fun stuff. :)

Winning Red Riding Hood T

Like your fairy tales dark? You'll like these.

Artist 'shantyshawn' has just won his 2nd design award for this Red Riding Hood t-shirt. His artwork tends toward the gory (think zombies - not the cute kind) and he's showing an interest in getting into the nitty-gritty of the old tales and presenting them for all to wear. No gore here but there's plenty of creepy. That splash of red is just right and in case you can't see it, the zoomed view will show you the wolf, looking delightedly on. (See the website where it's being sold - click the image to go there)
Says shantyshawn:

I think I’m going to be doing a series based on fairy tales. This one’s tame, the rest will be much darker. No more Mr. Nice Shanty.

We hope you do!

It's available HERE through Design By Humans for $25 (though at this writing a special was shown on the website for $18).

Shantyshawn's other winner is shown below. It's titled "Blackbirds Attacking in the Dead of Night" but my instant thought was the four-and-twenty blackbirds got loose for some good old fashioned fairy tale revenge.

I like it.

Fairy Tale 'Sheets'

How cool is this? A bedtime story you can sleep under!

These blankets are from the Bedtime Stories Project by Tiago da Fonseca.Looks like this tale is Sleeping Beauty if the words 'spindle' and 'kingdom' are any clue. What a perfect bedtime story... (Check here for more pictures.)

Happy napping!