#WeeklyVenture Challenge: Finding Fairy Doors & Stashing my first #FAFATL!

So, dollhouses and miniatures are my vice, nay, my obsession! They’ve basically been one of my favorite things since I was tiny myself, and this has not abated as I’ve grown up.

The Atlanta Miniature Society had a show & sale event going on this weekend, and I never remember to plan for it til its too late 🙁 So I decided to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day this year with my favorite first mate, going on a quest for local burritos and fairy doors.

The burritos were the best food outing idea we’d had in at least a month. The weather was fantastic, and the jerk chicken in our burritos, the pineapple salsa, and other tropical flavors of the Caribbean were ideal for a couple of wander-lusting, pirate souls. We even watched a bee sip the sugary remains of a drink from a discarded straw. I possibly had an insect nerd freak-out moment when I saw its little abdomen moving back and forth as it drank.

Essentially, as a culmination of an almost supernaturally drastic but subtle life perspective switch, and a calm week in the face of busy-ness, as well as it being one of my favorite geek holidays, today was exquisitely beautiful: physically, emotionally and spiritually. It was like getting a box of stained glass pieces and finding out they complimented each other perfectly enough to make a soothing, colorful window design without cutting them.

Where was I going with this post? Oh yeah, fairy doors.

You see, a lot of these itty bitty artsy doors have been popping up recently around Decatur and other parts of Atlanta, and I’ve been meaning to go on an adventure to find all of them! Just, now that there are so many, I’m going to need to make multiple trips.

The first ones I knew about were by the local art movement called Tiny Doors ATL. I’m so obsessed with them, I bought two of their bumper stickers, and we’re getting a brick with our names on it installed at their Brick Campaign location! They’ve added new doors since I first heard about them, but there is only one official Tiny Door in Decatur. So we set out to find that one specifically! It’s inside my favorite indie bookstore, Little Shop of Stories, and even though I somehow, but I’m in denial never noticed it before, it was easy to find!

I even did my first Fine Art Friday Atlanta drop (#fafatl) there! Basically it’s a movement where artists leave free art for people to claim with clues on social media to where it’s hidden, and it’s first come, first serve!

I left a first print Swashbookler button at the tiniest door in Decatur with the tiniest book shelf. Hope someone out there will give it a good home! #fafatl @tinydoorsatl A photo posted by Call me Christina (@puelladocta) on Sep 19, 2015 at 8:08pm PDT

I’ve been wanting to take part in this ever since I heard it was a thing, and I’m beyond excited that I’ve finally found the perfect day, perfect original art item and perfect location to stash it!

(If you don’t get what the button is referencing, check out a rather old and rather silly little movie I made when I still lived in Franklin. Btw, this button is the last of an original run I printed when I uploaded the movie, mostly to give to my friends who played my crew mates.)

But that door was only the first of many to be found!

The most recent fairy door movement I heard about popped up on my Instagram feed a few days ago, and when they didn’t seem to be associated with Tiny Doors, I did some googling. I found out they were called Secret Doors Decatur: a project sponsored by the Decatur Arts Alliance, where 32 doors were made by local Atlanta area artists and installed all around the Decatur area. We didn’t do any hardcore searching (I’m getting a team together for this quest, hopefully), but we spotted 3 on our wanderings around the square.

All these teensy doors popping up around the city has inspired me to make one for the outside of our house!

Someday.

First I have a to finish crocheting birthday and Christmas presents, and a million other art projects!

Like I was gushing and waxing verbosely about before, I can say without reservations that I feel so contented and amazing right now; I want to really enjoy the time I have, with my only recurring jobs being organizing the house, working on my art and writing, and being with people I love. I can wander through any door I want, and I can explore what’s beyond without feeling too rushed.

See what I did there? 😉

And with that wonderfully sappy paragraph, I, Christina, don my Cap’n Tess Marlowe hat, and bid you a fair wind and a kind sea as you sail through Talk Like a Pirate Day, and into the Pumpkin Spice whirlpool and the pre-Halloween squalls.

(I’ll be posting further door-finding excursions on my Instagram!)

  Went on a #SecretDoorsDecatur quest today! Found doors 1, 9 & 22, and looking forward to my next excursion! #WeeklyVenture   A photo posted by Call me Christina (@puelladocta) on Sep 19, 2015 at 7:59pm PDT