This was the first sketch.

Then I created a back gound and masked the drawing with masking fluied. I did the drawing on hot pressed water color paper.

I painted the background wet in wet, and sprinkeled salt on the painting.

At last I painted the flowers, leaves and Ebbe. I used water color, color pencils and acrylic paint.

 New closeup photo of the dress

When I woke up this morning I discovered that I had forgotten to take of the fairy communicator when I went to bed last night. I have to tell you, that wearing the communicator is kind of strange, because your hearing sense and smelling sense is improved dramatically. I can even understand what our pets are saying, and most of the time it's quit annoying to listen to our guinea pig Nico. He is a big male, and he doesn't have a wife or girl friend, which makes him very depressed.  He is begging for food all the time, and he has gained too much weight, so I told him he had to go on a diet. He wouldn't listen to me when I told him that his health was at stake.  I gave him a mirror so that he could see for himself that something had to be done, that of cause didn't help on his depression, so I promised him that if he lost 100g I would try to find him a girlfriend. So Nico started on his diet, but much to my surprise he didn't lose any weight.  

Someone had to be feeding Nico beside me, so I confronted the rest of the family with the fact that Nico has to lose weight, and if I ever caught them feeding him nuts or other kind of guinea pig candy, I would come down on them hard. No one would confess to feeding him, so I just had to wait to catch the mischief.

It hadn't occurred to me until this morning that it wasn't my husband or any of the kids who had been feeding Nico, no it was Selene. I lay there in my bed enjoying the morning sun shining though the top of the apple trees; I could smell fresh made coffee from the kitchen, where I could hear my husband making breakfast, when I heard Nico's voice loud and clearly. He was talking to Selene. Nico told Selene to hurry with the nuts, and he asked her to scratch his back, where he couldn't reach because he is to heavy.  I heard him promise Selene to collect treasures in the house when he was on his daily walk around the house.

I was a bit shame full that I had blamed my family for  feeding Nico, and I went out of bed to have a serious talk with Selene, because obviously she didn't know she wasn't helping Nico by giving him the extra nuts.

Selene is growing much faster than Ebbe at this point; she is like a 5 year old while Ebbe still looks like a baby. He is sleeping most of the time he only wakes up in the middle of the day when the sun stands high on the winter sky.  Remember how I feared that Selene was ill when I first got the twines, well now she  is fare ahead in every way. She is walking and talking, she likes the dark winter sky, and she seems to like all kind of bright color full junk.  I wasn't surprised that she would exchange color full junk for nuts with Nico, so I explained to her how Nico would get ill if she didn't stop feeding him.  Selene looked at me with her big dark eyes, and she nodded her head eagerly to show that she understood how important it is that we all help Nico with his diet. I told Selene that she didn't have to hide her treasures, and that she just has to ask, to get the things she would like to have .

Selene was very excited, but all of a sudden she looked down into the floor, I could see her purple ears get more and more purple. I asked her what's the matter and she looked at me with tears in her eyes. I smiled at her and asked her to tell me what was bothering her so much? She said, can I please ask you a question? I said of cause! Well as I understand it, you are not allowed to steal from other people, she said still looking down. That's right I said. But isn't that what I have been doing collecting my treasures, she asked.  I felt sorry for her, and took her tiny hand. Well perhaps in a way, but you didn't steal any ting out of the house, you just played with them, and that is not stealing, I said. Oh mum she said (for the first time), I gave some of my treasures away. I winkled my eyebrows, in concern. Who did you give the things to? I gave them to the tradeing lady. Who is the tradeing lady, and where did you meet her, I asked. She is the lady that visits me when I go to sleep; she comes in a wagon pulled by a bat.  Is she paying you for the treasures I asked? Yes she pays me with nuts and tree juice, from the apple trees. So that is why she is growing so fast I thought to myself. As you know I have worried about what kind of food I should give the twins. I smiled at Selene, and told her that she could get whatever she needed if she could trade her treasures for tree juice.  I know she needs to get tree juice, but I had no idea how to get it. I had even called a company that sells juice from birch trees, to get food for Selene, but she didn't like it, and her skin turned all green when she had the birch juice, so I went back to feeding her with normal apple juice.

I was quit relieved that we had this talk, and told Selene to run off and play before breakfast.  I went down stairs to collect our mail in the mail box, and much to my surprise I found a new kind of fairy dress hanging on the trunk of the tree right outside my front door. This dress was clearly created from my old junk, I could recognize part of a yellow plastic bag from our local grocer, a net from my oranges, and some wrapping paper from the flower I had from my husband yester day.  

I took the dress with me inside as I could see that it would blow away if it was left there on the tree trunk. I also had a feeling that I was going to need the dress if I let it stay there to blow of in the wind.

The dress was clearly not created by the fairies living in the apple tree; it had to be one of the black nosed fairies who live beneath the earth.

I have been studying the stone map I found, but I still haven't, figured out what to do with it or what it means. I have planned to keep an eye on Selene to try to get in touch with the tradeing fairy; perhaps she can tell me more about the black nosed fairies. I have also decided that Selene should start her flying lessons soon, and I think she will need a bat to teach her how to fly, as her wings looks like the wings of a bat.

 This is a close up of the tiny hat that goes with the dress.  

There even was a small wand. I think it's cool that the black nosed fairies use Recycling for their dresses :)

Some of you might have heard that I had a scan of my brain, so I thought I better tell you all what is going on. I have been suffering from some trembling, and shaking in the left side of my body for 6 months, and I have been going to the hospital to have all sorts of tests done. They found a small change on the right side of my brain, but they can't tell what it is jet. They told me that it didn't look like a tumour or a stroke, but they are sudden that it is the change in my brain that course the shaking. They did rule out Parkinson decease. I have to take some medicine, and it does make me feel a bit tiered, but I am fine, and not in any kind of paine. I will go fo more scans and tests, so I will up date you when there is any news to tell.

The fairest of all the Gods is Idunn, she is the goddess of Springtime and Youth, and dearly loved by all the other Gods. They love her for her beauty and her magic apples. In the eddic poem Hrafnagaldur Óðins, Idunn is identified as an "elf"  and the "youngest of the elder children of Ivaldi (Ivaldi is belived to be the father of the trib Vanir)

In the dales dwells
the prescient Dis,
from Yggdrasil's
ash sunk down,
of alfen race,
Idun by name,
the youngest of Ivaldi's
elder children.

Idunn keeps her apples in a golden basket were her apples, ripe and sweet and rosy. And each day, at dawn, Idunn goes to the table where the gods sit and feast together, and give those who wished a taste of the fruit.

Everyone who eat the magic fruit grow fresh and young again, however old and weary he had been before. For even the gods of AAsgard will grow old and weary sometimes; and then nothing will make them young again but the Apples of Youth. So Idunn treasur the fruit with the greatest care, and never let it out of her sight for a moment. And however many she takes out of her basket wherewith to feed the gods, there always remained just the same number as before.

It is only to be expected, of course, that the fame of this magic fruit should spread, and as nobody like to grow old, many of the giants, as well as the little dwarf people, gather out side  the gates of AAsgard and beg that Idunn will give them a taste of the apples. In return they  offer her the richest gifts they can think of.

One day it so fell out that Odinn grew weary of watching his heroes feast and fight in Valhalla and was determined to go forth and seek an adventure elsewhere. So he called for his brother Hoenir, the clear-eyed Asa who first gave hope to the heart of man, and Loki, the mischievous fellow who yet by reason of his fun was no bad traveling companion, and asked them accompany him on a journey.

They went over the Rainbow Bridge called Bifrost, and came down to the world below and presently found themselves in a desolate region of mountain and moorland, through which they wandered for a long, long time, without coming across any kind of human habitation.
At last they felt very hungry, they began to look about for food, and presently saw to their great joy a herd of oxen feeding upon the mountainside. It didn''t take them  long to kill a fine bull, and to kindle an immense fire; after which the Asas hung up the animal to roast and, sat down to wait till it was done. But though the fire flamed bravely over the logs, it made no difference whatever to the meat, which remained raw and cold. Heaping on fresh fuel, the three Asas put the carcass still nearer the flame and waited hungrily. All in vain; but the meat remained uneatable.

Looking at each other in dismay, the Gods exclaimed: "There is some magic spell at work here." And at that very moment they heard the loud croak of a bird in the tree above them.

Hastily searching the branches, the Gods soon found an immense eagle perched there and looking down upon them with an evil expression. "Ho!" cried Odinn, "is it you who has bewitched our food?" The eagle nodded and croaked maliciously again. "Then come at once and remove the spell," cried the famished Hoenir.

"If I do so, will you give me as much as I want to eat?" asked the eagle. At this Odinn hesitated, for he feared a trick, but Loki's mouth was watering and he called out: "Yes, yes, anything you like if you will only let the meat be cooked." Then the great bird swooped down and began to fan the flame with his huge wings, and behold! in a very few minutes the gravy began to run, a delicious smell of roast beef filled the air, and there was the meat done to a turn.

Just as the three gods were putting out hungry hands to seize their portions, however, the eagle, which had been hovering overhead, swooped down and seized more than three-quarters of the animal, leaving barely enough for one of the famished gods. This was too much for Loki. With a great roar of rage like that of an angry lion, he seized a great stake that stood near and struck with all his might at the greedy bird.

The eagle shook himself after the blow, but instead of dropping his body he rose slowly into the air. And then, to Loki's dismay, he found that one end of the pole had stuck fast to the body of the bird, the other to his own hands, he could not let go, and so found himself being dragged along over stones and bushes, while his arms were almost torn out of their sockets. In vain he begged and implored the eagle to let him go; it took no notice of him whatever, but flew on and on just a little way above the earth, Loki, felt he couldn't endure no longer, so he promised the bird anything he asked if he would only release him.

Then the eagle spoke, telling him that he would set him free on one condition only, and that was that he should manage by some trick to tempt Idunn out of AAsgard, in order that he could obtain possession of her and of the magic fruit. He told Loki, moreover, that he was the Storm Giant Thiassi in disguise, and told him to beware of the consequences if he broke his solemn promise to one of giant race. By this time Loki was ready to promise anything to save his life, and so at length he found himself free.

Bruised and torn he made his way back to Odinn and Hoenir, by whom he was closely questioned concerning his adventures. But Loki never hesitated to depart from the truth, and, knowing that it would not do to tell what he had promised, he answered glibly that the eagle had captured him by mistake for someone else, and that when he found out it was Red Loki himself, he had set him free, with many expressions of sorrow for his error.

So the three Asas returned to AAgard, and from that moment Loki did not cease to plot and plan the means by which he could entice Idunn outside the gates. And indeed this was no easy matter, for the Apples of Youth were so precious to the gods that Idunn was well guarded by night and day. Sometimes, however, even the Gods were off their guard, and that was the opportunity for Loki to abduct her, but he didn't do it on his own. Loki had plotted this abduction with Thjaz in order to wrest the Golden Apples of Youth from Idun.

During Idunn's absence from the Godd's table , the Gods began to age without the magic of her apples, prompting them to press Loki into the task of rescuing her back from the Giant Thiassi. The God Freya had a magic falcon skin that could disguises him as an falcon, so Loki brorrowed the falcon skin to be able to retrieved Iðunn back from the Giant, by transforming her into a nut for the flight back.

My Friend Sussi asked me why I found the fairy twins in an apple, and I have also thought about that my self.

In the Old Norse Mythology one of the goddes Iðunn provided apples to the gods to give them eternal youthfullness, and as you all know fairies and elves are belived to have that.

There was a tribe of gods called Vanir, who is related to the elves in the Old Norse Mythology, they where minor gods of fetility. The best known God from this tribe was Freyr. He ruled over the elves in a place called Alfheim. This place was later called Elfhame and Elphame, and in more modren times Elfland or Elfenland.

It is most likely that some fairies are born inside apples if they are related to this old tribe. I think the fairies in my garden are, because I heard them sing a song about the God Freyr. It goes like this;

Ydalir call they .... the place where  Ull
A hall for himself hath set;
And Alfheim the gods...to Freyr once gave
As a tooth-gift in ancient times.

This pome is the fist in the world to tell about the tooth fairy. The pome is from the Old Edda.

The Old edda also tells that there was two kind of fairies in Alfhime; the Light Elves who loved the sun, and the Dark Elves who dwelled down under the earth.

The story about the Fairy king and queen who abandoned their son is not told in the Old Edda, but perhaps this story was lost or never told to any humans.

I think Selene is a dark fairy and the boy fairy, now named Ebbe is a light fairy.