Gothic 2

Today, our part 2 of Gothic decor comes to you courtesy of the fantastic blog I can't believe I just discovered, Hooked on Houses. Here are two phenomenal homes she has featured on her blog.

A modern-built Gothic Revival House that looks convincingly like an older house that has been renovated. Oh, and did I mention they intentionally built the kitchen to mimic the famous Practical Magic house?




Or perhaps you'd rather spring for a modern-built castle? With a 3,800 square foot guest house? In Arkansas?

Wendy Froud's Sculptures

Wendy Froud is well known for her gorgeous faerie dolls and statues. I could write her whole biography here, but if you read Domythic Bliss regularly and haven't heard of her before, I'd be shocked. Just watch Labyrinth and Dark Crystal and you'll be viewing the creative genius of her and her husband Brian Froud.

I really enjoy Wendy Froud's faerie dolls. But I really really love her faerie sculptures, perfect for adding mystery to a mythic garden.

First I want to share Terri Windling's sculpture, "The Lady."

Photo taken by Wendy, in her yard, right after the piece was made:


The statue was placed on a plinth just over a little waterfall into a goldfish pond made out of old stabs of granite, all of it rather buried in greenery as the years went on.


Terri says: I should note that the sculpture originally had horns (and was originally titled "The Horned Lady"), but I had a cat named Nora years ago who used to launch herself off the statue's head and up over the wall -- and horns crumbled off after a couple of years of such brutal treatment. Wendy decided she liked the statue without them, so we simply renamed her "The Lady." First she was "The Lady of Weaver's Cottage," now she's "The Lady of Bumblehill."


(above photographs by Alan Lee)

The below example was from the excellent book, The Art of Wendy Froud. Imagine what a showstopper this would also be, hidden in a garden.


A mischievous Green Person tucked among greenery on a garden wall:


I just love the way the statues look worn and aged by nature. So beautiful.



Most of these images were courtesy Terri Windling, from an excellent post on Wendy's garden sculptures, here.

Midsummer's Eve Statue

I recently posted about my love of classical garden statuary. I had to put this piece in its own entry. May I present, my favorite garden statue I've ever seen.


It's a limited edition (sold out) statue from the company Enchanted, who you might know from their lovely bronze-look resin faerie statues with transparent wings. I love their small garden statues, but this one takes the cake.

Not only is the statue of the faerie goddess beautiful, but a closer look shows that she is surrounded by smaller faeries as well, with every detail gorgeously done:


My favorite is the faerie holding up a strand of her hair:

Mary Ann Harris and Charles de Lint's Country Cottage-Bus

Over at the Facebook group for Domythic Bliss, there was a recent discussion about the fact that all the locations I've featured so far have been brick and mortar homes. I assured them, and assure you, I do have plans to do posts on the incredible romance of moving homes such as Vardos, housetrucks, buses, and boats.

I received a message from Mary Ann Harris, the lovely wife, "first editor, business manager, and creative consort" of Mythic Fiction author Charles de Lint. She is also a wonderfully talented musician and artist. See more of her work here!

She thought, and I definitely agree, that we would enjoy seeing the beautifully quirky and cozy romantic cabin they used as a country cottage. The location is phenomenal, truly. But the house itself is charming too, created as it was from a cabin and a bus melded together into one space!

I'll let Mary Ann describe the place herself...

For 17 years, Charles and I had this funny 1950s bus/shack as our country "cottage" in the wilds of Quebec. Sadly, it deteriorated over time, but we loved it for all that time.

It was already a bus + cabin when we bought it. It was horrendous ... The family who put it there had somehow cut off the front of the bus, and left the under-carriage, which provided a partial support (footing) for the pressboard shack. The bus was yellow and it still had the bus seats as furniture and the pressboard ktichen was painted brown and it was just nasty. But we painted the exterior green, put pine tongue & groove on the kitchen walls and I sewed little cottagey curtains with floral fabrics and vintage drapes.

We could have done far more, but it was just a funny little place we used during the summer months and we didn't have extra money to spend on it. All furnishings were garage sale items. Anyway, it certainly had its charms and I cried like a baby when we had it hauled away (just two years ago).

We now have a real building there. We kept our old Moffatt stove as a decoration in the new place.


I'm a sucker for a good fence with cottage flowers spilling out around:


The view from the front porch:


Bus and shack meet, fall in love, and never part again:


What a front yard!


What a view!


The bus portion of the cottage. The "furniture" used to all be made from bus seats:


Looking toward the bus portion:

Cozy kitchen space:



The snug bedroom with a door that says "porte d'urgence"


The cottage was located near the white dot on the far end of the lake in this picture:


Kitchen window view: