#the picsees

[ijustkindalikebooks]

“What is a bookshelf other than a treasure chest for a curious mind?” ― The Picsees.

[krapotk-blog]

Thanks to Hybridarium

[miss-messy]

[thepicsees]

Tomorrow is Halloween and as you probably know that's one of our favourite days of the year! It's the one time when faeryfolk, human beans and monsters all get along. No one runs away screaming, No angry mobs...just some tricks and some treats ~:)

If you go out tomorrow after the sun's gone down you are sure to see every creature and critter imaginable roaming the streets, looking for sweets and having a good old time! Well...actually not every creature and critter...you probably won't see the wee vampires (not to be confused with big vampires like Dracula). They can't come cause they are babysitting bat pups.  You see, this is the time of year that most bats fly off to go find a place to hibernate for the winter. The legend says if a bat is seen flying around after the break of dawn on the day after Halloween they will turn into birds, and if there's one thing a bat does not want to be it's a bird! Now, while most of the wee baby bat pups can fly off with their parents to their winter homes, there's always one or two little late bloomers that can't even flap their wings yet. This would be a very problematic time for these wee pups since all the other bats has to leave...but lucky for them there's the Vampires. For as long as anyone can remember the Vampires has been looking after these wee bat pups during the winter months until their family wakes up around march the next year. This is why Vampires and bats are such good friends. Many of them were raised by the Vampires so they are actually more like family.

But raising a bat pup is not an easy job. Luckily, the legend that turns bats into birds only last until the new year, but until then none of the wee pups can be taught to fly* and if you know bats you will know they are useless at walking. This means that they have to be carried everywhere they want to go, and they want to go all the time! So the poor vampires doesn't get much sleep (Most people think wee vampires are nocturnal, but they actually love to sleep at night...it's the pups that keeps them up all night.)

This means if you do happen to see one they're most likely to be very tired and quite grumpy...so it's best to avoid them! Even though they are little they do bite! But don't worry though...it's  not as bad as when a big vampire bites you. It's usually a bit itchy like a mosquito bite. Also you might get a mild case of the wakeys (or sleeplessness) and you probably won't be able to eat garlic for a week but after that you'll be ok. but still....best to avoid them ~:)

*from the very first day of the new year bats can fly again without the fear of becoming a bird so from then they will all go to Lady Rosafae's flying school for her special "midnight flight with batnav" classes (you can read about her school in the post below) so that they can be expert flyers by the time the other bats return.

[thepicsees]

LADY ROSAFAE'S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG FLYERS.

We recently helped Lady Rosafae to make some posters for her school where she teaches the wee faeries and flutterbugs of the forest to fly. We also promised her that we'll put one of these posters up on our facebook page with the all details of her upcoming flying lessons in case anyone here wants to go, and here it is!

There is a beginners course starting this Satyrday. These lessons are tailor made for faerie babies, wee butterflies and little ladybugs (but all little flyers are welcome). There will also be a special night class for baby moths (this will include a half-hour introduction course on avoiding candles and other bright lights). There is no need to pre-book for these courses, just be at the tall oak tree at dawn (or at dusk for the night class).

There's also an intermediate class for little birds next week but we forgot what day that is so we'll do a twitter tweet with the details for that a bit later.

And then last, but most certainly not least...good news for all the non-flyers! We know that quite a few of our friends on here aren't  faeryfolk and some of you might not even have wings...but don't worry! Lady Rosafae is working on a very special class for all of you too! This will be a series of evening classes taking place just after bed time in dreamland, because as you probably know - in dreams everyone can fly ~:D These classes will be open to anyone including human beans!

We'll let you know when and where you can enrol for these very soon. If you want to start practicing in the meantime Lady Rosafae recommends reading some bedtime book that has flyers in them...we think "Peter Pan" should be a perfect start ~:)

[thepicsees]

Happy Halloween everyone! Wow...we can't believe today is finally here...it's Halloween and it’s Friday! Tricky Treats and the weekend all in one! yHay! If you saw our other post earlier this week you will know all about our plans to dress up as scary old movie poster for this year’s Halloween! We found some very scary posters but we think this one might be the scariest one of them all...it’s of a movie called Dracula! We've not actually seen any of the movies cause we are wee ones and wee ones aren't allowed to watch scary movies...but lucky for us my brother’s one friend’s friend said he once saw this movie so we knew exactly what it was about. It’s all about someone called Dracula and he was never allowed to play outside in the sunshine with all the other boys and girls. Its cause he got sunburnt very quickly...it didn't even help if he used a whole bottle of suntan lotion.  This meant he had to stay indoors every day. Unfortunately there were no toys or storybooks in their house so he learned about maths and numbers...he got so good with numbers they called him Mister Count! Of course everyone thought he would become a mathematician when he grew up but he had different ideas...his dream was to become a mosquito...and that is more or less what the movie is about ~:D We needed a bit of help to make this costume. The wee village gnomes helped us to make a very snazzy suite cause like most good monsters mister count is a very snappy dresser. My brother’s friend Brambles the hobgoblin got to dress up as Mister Count cause he is already a bit scary looking (don’t tell him we said so) Of course we also needed a mosquito so we went to see out friend Toggles the troll. He’s got a wee mosquito farm by the big puddle under the bridge. He liked our idea and said his best mosquito called Bella should be perfect for the job...and she was...until disaster struck! While we were making the poster Bella bit mister Brambles! We know that if a zombie bites you will also become a zombie so that means mister Brambles the hobgoblin will probably be turning into a mosquito just like the real mister Count! We hope you like the picture we made...and we’ll let you know if mister Brambles become a mosquito but until then you must all have a happy Halloween and a most wonderful weekend Oh...it you didn't see our previous post you can see it just below this post on our page...it’s about mister Frankenstein!

[thepicsees]

We are so excited cause it's almost Halloween again and that means it's almost time for tricky treats and scary costumes! yHay! This year we decide we're going dress up as scary old movie posters...we've not seen most of the movies cause we're only little and little ones aren't really allowed to watch scary movies...but that's not a big problem cause we can just guess what the movies are about...like this one. It's a movie called Frankenstein and from the poster picture we could see it's obviously about a wee creature that sneaks up and give you static electric shocks on your ear when you are not looking. We know this cause the wee garden goblins that lives with us (we found them in the garden and they followed us home so now they are technically house goblins) does that all the time. When they put on their stripy socks and shuffle their feets very fast on the fluffy carpets then they get full of electrics and then when they touch you it goes Bazzzooot and there's sparks everywhere and you have very sore ears! my brother says it's actually a story about a scienctist who makes a creature but he never teaches it to be a good creature....but while my brother was telling us this strange story one of the wee goblins called Merry gave him a big shock on his ear and now he agrees that the story is about a very naughty little electric monster. We decided cause of this Merry the goblin should be the one to dress up as the Frankenstein poster....and here he is! we hope you like it ~:)

[thepicsees]

Keecu The Gatekeeper. You might have heard about faerydoors before and even though we ask you to keep it a secret we can confirm it’s true, they do exist. Actually...you might have opened quite a few yourselves and let a whole bunch of us faeryfolk in! All of us, the Picsees, the faeries, the Elves and Gnomes...even goblins and trolls...we all came here from the faeryworlds through one of these doors. It works like this: There are many different worlds. In every world there is something magic that connects it with the faeryworld, and in every world that something is different. Every world also has a different name for it, but if you ask any wee faery they will tell you it’s called a faerydoor (my brother says the official scientific name is: Alternate Realm Thoroughfares). The interesting thing is that these faerydoors can only be opened from the outside...so basically it’s up to the beings of each world to find this special magic, unlock the doors, and let us wee folk in.  In this world, it’s a magic that’s been used for thousands and thousands of years. It’s a very special kind of magic called imagination and the doors opened with it are everywhere! You’ll find them all around! Chances are that there will be quite a few around you right now! Books are faerydoors and so are art pictures. Music instruments are very good ones and some of the biggest doors found in this world are known as theaters. But every door needs a key...and even though once unlocked, a faerydoor will remain open forever, it does need a key to unlock it that first time...but luckily they are also found all over! There are pencils and paintbrushes, guitar strings and drum skins, there are typewriter ribbons (although they can be quite messy) and keyboards, knitting needles and chisels, dancing shoes and clay...more than we could ever mention and new ones found every day...but you are probably wondering where does the wee gatekeepers fit into all this incredible and very informative (top-secret) information.  Well...people can only use a key for a while and then they need a new one. A pencil might become too short to hold or a guitar string might snap. They can no longer be used to create magical doorways to other worlds, but they still have some left-over magic in them...and this is very useful to the gatekeepers. They collect all these old keys and weave them together to form a new special key...one that can unlock a door from the faery side! However, these doors are very small...too small for even a teeny tiny faery to fit through...but luckily that’s not what they are for.  These wee doors are for people.  Of course people won’t fit through them either because people tend to be quite a bit bigger than most wee faeryfolk...but these doors are big enough to let a wee ray of light form the faeryside shine through, and that’s all that’s needed.  You see...sometimes people can struggle to unlock a new door...it’s not because they can’t do it...it’s just because they can’t find the keyhole. Most people call this creative block or fuzzybrains and it can be a very frustrating situation to be trapped in, but with a wee bit of help you can find your way out in flash... and that’s exactly what the gatekeepers do. They let a little bit of light from the faeryworld shine through these wee doors or keyholes so that people can find and unlock the world of imagination and create the most wonderful faerydoors (or A.R.T - Alternate Realm Thoroughfares) and let the magic (and of course us wee folk) in. We call them the gatekeepers but when people talk about them...they usually call them inspirations ~:D We hope you like the picture we made. It’s of a wee gatekeeper called Keecu. He’s our good friend and he comes to visit us all the time and we save up all our old pencils and scrap paper for him to make his keys ~:D Oh...Ps. Please think twice before you throw away any magic in the making... for instance: if you draw a picture and halfway though decide to rip it up and throw it in the bin it can still open doors...but it will open a broken door in the bottom of the rubbish bin...and this will let the imps and goblins in!