Selina Fenech

And they're done!
Rainbow Wings was the youngest of the three sisters, and the main character in the stories I wrote when I was a kid. She was the most kind and pure, which is why the fairies gave her the present of the golden horseshoes that grant wishes. 
^_^ I has enjoyed reliving my childhood with these!

I'm feeling super productive at the moment, if still a tiny bit nauseous. But this cycle I seem to have mostly skipped the aches stage and the crampy belly stage... awesome! 
Now these are all done.... I've no more excuses to not start work on my accounts :(

Two down, one to go. This is Sunset, she's the oldest of the three sisters, and the most brave and adventurous. Her gift from the fairies was a necklace that could transport her to anywhere that the sun shines!

I really should have been doing my accounts today... Oh well.
Here's the first of my winged unicorn sisters, Moonshine. She's the romantic dreamer of the three, the middle sister. 
When I was seven, I always drew her with Flouro yellow hair and tail.... I decided against that colour scheme this time :)

I was going to paint something else, but when I went to get my paper I found this artwork which had been sitting half done for ages. So I decided to finish it off first since it was a fun quick one. Three colour acrylic  "sketch" on canvas, something a bit different and fun...


What I was going to work on, before getting side tracked by this one, and am sketching up now is a set of winged unicorn ponies. I'm reliving my childhood you see... back when I was about seven, I think I was a little bit obsessed with My Little Pony. Anywho, I had these little pony characters I had created and wrota a bunch of stories about (I think I created them anyway, but they aren't exactly original, don't blame 7 year old me if I copied them from somewhere!). They were sisters, called Rainbow Wings, Sunset and Moonshine. They were given presents from the fairies that they used on their adventures. Sunset had a necklace that could take her (and her sisters!) anywhere the sun shone. Moonshine had a tiara that could answer any question, and Rainbow wings, the youngest, had golden horseshoes that could grant wishes. 
The point is.... I'm painting them ^_^
These paintings are going to be nigh-disgustingly sickly sweet. I'm even painting a rainbow in one of them!! But it's what I'm in the mood for at the moment :) They are all sketched up and ready to go except a couple of flowers for Rainbow Wings. They are going to be SO DAMN CUTE!!!!

Copied from the Updates List Newsletter for recent updates and news from www.selinafenech.com July 2008 I've been finding my chemo cycles recently too draining (and achey!) for painting lately, but I have a couple of other big exciting announcments for you! The website has a brand new look! I thought it was about time for a redesign, so the site's had a big make over to a beautiful new enchanting layout, with improved navigation and information sections. I hope you like this new, more magical feeling site. Feel free to let me know what you think! The BIG news is that Journals are finally in stock! It feels great to finally have my hands on these, and literally too, they feel so wonderful. The journals are solidly made, hard covered with a patterned faux suede fabric, are 8x10" in size and have 100 unlined pages of beige parchment for you to use for just about anything. The Fairy Queens artworks I created a month ago are now available on a Coffee Mug and in Stationery Sets and Cameos, see them in the New Releases section along with the new Moonlit Magic coffee mug and more. I've also just got the stock in of the new Cameo Pendants setting I have designed. These new settings are a step up in quality from the previous cameos (which were hardly lacking, if I may say so!). They are made from lead and nickel free pewter, plated with antique silver. I hope you like the new design!

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Phew, all done! Yes, couldn't resist the re-design, once you get that itch....
I'm now off to go and eat three kinds of fat on crackers and relax for a while ^_^

Hehe, I was just setting up and saving print files for all the journals and when saving "Pirate's Life for Me" I accidently wrote it out as "Pirates Live For Me". And then I thought damn, that would have been a more awesome title! ^_^

I've been up since four in the morning... I was lying there fresh and wide awake twiddling my thumbs, so I figured I might as well get up and do something right? I might try polyphasing while my body seems to want to anyway ^_^
SO I've been working on some big updates! And have some little teasers for you! My new cameo settings have arrived and are sooooo lovely. The jewelry factory I work with has really stepped up a notch in quality since my first design. These new settings feel so much stronger, and are also completely lead and nickel free pewter now (with "antique silver" style plating). I designed the setting myself, again, so they are unique to my range! They are solidly constructed with a fully enclosed back.


And also, after what feels like (and was close to!) 6 months of planning, manufacturing and shipping, my pretties have arrived!
And are they pretty! Beautiful, pattern printed, faux suede, hard covered journals with a HUGE 100 pages of unlined luxurious parchment paper, in a perfect 8x10" size. They come with a tassel bookmark that adds a bit of enchantment to them, it has this cute little adjustable bobble to slid it into place and keep your page, for you words, dreams, spells, memories or sketches!

Now I just have to set up all my print files, enter the new products into my database, take photos, and upload EVERYTHING!
This may take me most of the weekend... but these will be available soon, OH and plus a new coffee mug design with all four Fairy Queens on it! With all this new stuff, I've developed this terrible itch to revamp my entire website design... uh oh.... no, must resist... THAT is a MUCH bigger job than I had planned!

I feel like I've found a bit more strength to get through the rest of my chemo... It was something my mum said that made me think this... I was telling her about yet another one of my new strategies to combat negative thoughts and nausea (currently by trying to recite the words to Modern Major General, but that's another story). She said something about how with repetitive treatments like this it's important to keep trying new things, different tactics each time to deal with it. It made me realise that it's not just about trying to be strong and get through one big tough time, it's like repetitive torture and it builds up, and you can't face it the same way twice.... you have to find a new way to deal with it every single time. As soon as you use one tactic to deal with it, it's used up and useless and you can't use it again, because it does more harm than good because it's become assosciated with the hardship. I'll probably never want to hear Modern Major General again, or do crosswords, or any of the things I've done so far when I've needed something to focus on when my mind just keeps reliving the nausea and dwelling on the chemo drugs running up my veins. It is sort of harder, and easier, realising this. Not only do you have to stay positive, and strong, you've got to keep coming up with new and innovative ways to do it!! But I also FEEL stronger now for having realised I've been doing ok so far. I haven't given in, I do keep looking for new ways to keep a step ahead, even if it's with Gilbert and Sutherland...

So... Does anyone have any ideas they can share for me for new ways to keep my brain occupied? Basically it's like the "purple elephant" thing... you know, when someone says "don't think about the purple elephant" and that's ALL you can think about. Every little twinge of nauseua, or the cold (the IV drips are COLD), or the muscle aches, or smells, remind me of my worst days or the actual treatments, and THEN to top that off I start picturing the treatment in detail because I'm trying NOT to. I need diversionary tactics. Trying to recite poems or songs does seem to work ok so far, so that sort of thing, which if I feel my mind going for the puke pics I can instantly start singing or going over in my head to counter act. Even short meditation exercises maybe? Anything that needs a little bit of focus!

Just got back from my weeks hiatus after my chemo, and it feels like there's a million things going on, much of which equals stuff to-do for me. 
I'm actually waiting right now for a HUUUUGE delivery to come in, any minute (or hour....) this morning, it's exciting and scary. I've also gotten home to piles of boxes of new coffee mug designs, new jewelry settings and greeting cards on their way, and important emails from a million people that need replying to, not to mention the backlog of orders. 

I also wanted to make a quick mini announcement that ellenmillionhas as usual stepped up and saved my hiney after reading I wouldn't be able to self publish my own 2009 calendar with everything else going on at the moment, and is going to publish for me! She's amazing! In fact, she's already got it up for pre-order now, so go and check out the preview teases and book your copy now here- http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/fantasyart/searchprod.php?prod=20
This is also good news for people in the US who will get a shipping discount not having to get them sent all the way from me here down in oz!

Edit: Oh, and for those IN Australia here with me, I will also make sure I get some from Ellen in stock so you can get them direct from myself as well!

Once we tie up the final design and get it set I'll post some pictures and more details myself... until then, much to do... Thankfully the "zombie" phase of the chemo cycle has passed neatly just in time into "frustratingly uncomfortable" now, which at least lets me get stuff done :)

I've got my next chemo tomorrow, and now that David's doing full time work, and won't be around to look after me during my zombie days, I'm heading off up the coast to my parents for 4-5 days of recovery time! I'm hoping it's going to make me feel a load better than last cycle too, just being in different surroundings, fresher air, wood fire.... mmm. Not to mention, a nastiness of chemo is your sense of smell becomes SUPER POWERED (NOT a good super power to have by the way). And for the last three cycles I've been smelling my home, and not enjoying it. The smells of our household have become linked into the nausea... so not smelling those smells will also hopefully make me feel better as well!
I remembered my blood test today, and my veins are still coping well, yay! I'm trying to regain a positive outlook on it all, but it's hard to stay positive with nausea, it's like it feeds on my mental power and turns happy thoughts into wanna-throw-up-now thoughts.

The first few days after chemo are hard. It's like you simply don't have any physical or mental ability to do ANYTHING. Even watching TV is hard... Even reading. And at the same time, napping all day, which is the easiest way to get through the tough days as quick as possible, is also hard, and makes me not sleep well at night because I don't really NEED the sleep, it's just I can't do anything else but sleep... So frustrating. Hopefully being somewhere different will also help break up the tedium.

I'm only filling orders once a week at the moment anyway, with my happy little helper monkey, which makes things fly past very easily! So hopefully I'll be back in time next week to get orders out and journals in!  

Have I mentioned I'm also re-designing my cameo pendant setting? My last cameo setting, as with this one, are custom made by a jewelry factory for me based on my designs. The last one though I stuffed up a little and the sizing isn't quite right, so being a perfectionist I'm getting a new lot made, and taking the opportunity to create a brand new design as well. They should also be in very soon! Also, for any artists or crafters in Australia that might be interested in any of my remaining older style settings (still shown on my website www.selinafenech.com), I will be selling off the remaining settings (anywhere between 100-200, I'm not counting them!) when the new stock comes in. Anyone interested?

I'm bummed cos this is my third week of my chemo cycle when I'm supposed to be feeling my best, and I've been feeling crap, and I think it's pretty much all from in my head but I can't shake it anyway. I just can't stop thinking about my next chemo, this friday, and even thinking about it brings back all the nausea and grossness before I've even done it again. I'm back on meds again tomorrow, even before chemo starts I'm on three different meds. I've got meds FOR my meds FOR my meds. Pills to stop the side affects of the chemo and more pills to stop the side affects of those pills and more pills to ease the side affects of those, it's insane. 
Over all, the Dr's say I'm holding up really well. No vomitting so far, blood cell counts have been perfectly on track, weight gain has been normal(mostly fluid retention apparently, phew! I'm putting on a kilo per cycle at the moment!), nose bleeds only slight, everything is running smooth and by the books physically, but emotionally I'm struggling a little. I know there's not much more to go, but the nausea particularly, and all the jabs, they just do weird horrible things to your brain. And of course the more you try to stop thinking of it the more you do think about it. 
And I'm also bummed that my journal shipment was slow, and while I was hoping they'd be here with me by now while I'm in a good week, they probably won't be delivered until next week when I'm not going to be in much of a state to be hauling them (all 40 cartons worth) into my storage area. Sigh... oh well, after friday it's only two more cycles, one more after that and it's only one to go, then I'll be finished, then radiotherapy, then by hrm... mid october? By then I should be all done and hopefully go without visiting the hospital for more than 2 weeks. 
My whole life lately has been dictated by chemo cycles and hospital visits.

Can this year be over already?

I realised it's been quite a while since I've been through and put all my new artworks onto new product designs for my ranges... so, before my next website update (likely to be mid July), I'm going to be doing some designing, and adding new designs to the following products-

• Dangle Charms
• Mouse Pads
• Tote Bags
• Mirror Compacts

So I thought I'd see if anyone had any requests for an artwork they would like available on any of those products that aren't yet? I'll do my best to include it with the new designs. I'm also going to be putting the Fairy Queens on stationery and coffee mugs as well!

Starting to recover from my last chemo treatment again, feeling a bit better and useful again.
Still scatterbrained, so here's a nice random post about many things...

1. I just realised it is almost July. Half way through the year. I honestly, truly thought it was february on tuesday, I think my mind got frozen back at my diagnosis and it's just been a rollercoater of blurry jabs since then. The main reason I point out my shock at it being July, is that this may be the first year for a number of years where I will not be publishing my own 2009 calendar, and so, in fact, have NO 2009 calendar, except for the Faeryland one I had a few pictures scattered within. That's a bit sad... but I normally give myself a deadline of August to have these conceived, designed, and back from the printers, and I haven't even saved up the overhead for them this year, leave alone have any inspiration as to what kind of calendar to do...  We'll see how things go... I might do a very limited edition, retail only calendar closer to the very end of the year to make up for it, since I know some people like to collect my calendars.

2. I have a helper monkey! Well that's what we like to call her anyway. A friend is coming in and helping out once a week, and this week her and David filled about 20 orders almost entirely on their own, with a few weak directions from me from the couch. This is very cool, but also, absolutely terrifying! I'm such a control freak... and the thought of 20 orders shipped off without me having seen and checked their contents and personally made sure it's all AOK is a scary thing. *bites nails*

3. I have a medieval fayre in a week and a half, omigod! I really should start getting ready, or at least post a notice that I'll be there on my website, (or here, or I guess this counts??).  I'll post more details when I'm more focused.

4. Half way through chemo, yay! 

ETA number 5. Journals are a little delayed, but got word they should arrive in the country on the 1st and then it may be an interesting process to see what happens next   o_O Still kinda exciting!

Ah man. The doctors decided they wanted me to start taking my seriuous anti nausea meds the day BEFORE my chemo treatments now as well, and a douvble dose at that... So now I have proof that it IS the meds that make me feel nauseus and brain foggy as well even without the chmeo!! I'm, trying not to focus on it though... I'm building up a serious mental aversion to taking my tablets... I'm trying to pretend that they are mints, lol. Pretending I'm sticking some mints in my mouth while taking them kinda helps. I'm going to buy some actual mints tomorrow as well to suck on just after taking each lot of meds too to add to the brain tricks! And with the fuzziness of my brain at the moment I'm hoping it will be easy to trick. The doctors have also expressed concern about the way that nausea can really get into your mind and become more of a mental thing than physical thing, it's just the nature of it I guess. I totally believe it too... I can't watch ANYTHING medical on tv anymore (even Scrubs!!) cos seeing people on drips or getting blood tests makes me feel sick, even during my good weeks. 
Bugger, and I just reminded myself that I forgot to get my blood test done today. bugger bugger bugger. I blame the meds! Oh well I can get it done tomorrow morning before chemo... yay two jabs in one day.

This newsletter features recent updates and news from www.selinafenech.com June 2008 A couple of limited items for sale this month, including some Dragonfae Card Decks and Faeryland 2009 signed calendars in the Specials & Sales gallery and a very few figurines of Impossible Love and Guardian for sale in the Figurines section. Lots of Greeting Cards are currently on sale as dicsontinued designs- once they are all sold they won't be reprinted! I've managed to dig up just one copy each of the sold out 2008 calendars, available now at Books & Calendars Don't forget Fairy Day is coming up on the 24th! The best time of year to celebrate fairies! Click here for ideas on what you can do. Four new artworks available as prints, a set of Fairy Queens! My chemotherapy is certainly draining, and hard, but I'm almost half way through now! Each treatment is a three week cycle before going in again for more, and I find only the first week after each treatment is fairly rough, the other two weeks I'm feeling back to normal, and actually getting some painting done now, yay! Special News!! All four of the Fairy Queen artwork original paintings are currently being auctioned on Ebay right now, with a starting price of only $1.00! It is rare I auction anything these days, so all four of these going at once for such a low price is a real opportunity! Click Here for the Ebay Auctions! Art Tip For newsletter subscribers Only!   Special Offers and Vouchers For newsletter subscribers Only!   Congratulations to... Congratulations to Ruth D. of Scotland for winning this months subscriber free print draw! I will email you personally to arrange your free miniprint prize! Subscribe here http://groups.yahoo.com/group/selinafenechupdates/ for your chance to win. All content shown here is from the Selina Fenech monthly email newsletter from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/selinafenechupdates/ Love and magic, Selina Fenech

Latest Products and Artworks Click Image for Details Art Print - Queen Caelia Click Image for Details Art Print - Queen Gloriana Click Image for Details Art Print - Queen Mab Click Image for Details Art Print - Queen Titania

Phew, last one! Here's Titania. I'm just about to finish updating my website with these four up for sale as prints, and then later tonight I'm going to list all four of the originals of these up on ebay! I haven't auctioned anything for so long, I thought these would be fun to do an auction of. I'll be sending out notices from my mailing list about the auctions when they are on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/selinafenechupdates/

Only have Titania to go now. Very much enjoying painting these at the moment! I decided Mab should have a semi-romantic flair considering her appearance in Romeo and Juliet (well, description in, anyway). 



Next week marks back to the doctors again (mid cycle check ups, blood tests, then chemo again at the end of the week). I'm going to have to make sure I finish Titania before then or she may never get done. I'm a little at a loss as to how to portray Titania, being the more recognised fairy queen (to me anyway!). I'm also expecting my journals shipment sometime next week, which is exciting, but also a little scary (I'm worried the truck will be too big for access or the crate to big for my store room or something!!). I think I will wait until both Titania and the Journals are in before I do my website update, which is already long long overdue, oops.

These are fun :)
Here's Gloriana-
Note to self- when doing uniform patterns, I should probably not just do them freehand... or they aren't really uniform... hrrm...

I've got this really big painting I've been picking at the sketch for on and off for a while now... it's intimidating me and I'm not sure what to do with the background... So I finally gave up and decided to do some quick and easy artworks instead until I feel up to it. 
After wedding dress shopping and also the drooling over beautiful dresses in Prince Caspian on the weekend, I decided I wanted to do some pretty fairies in fancy dresses. Nice and simple like. I don't normally like dressing my fairies in ball gowns/formal dresses, so I decided they had better be fairy royalty... so I'm going to do a little series, with all the Fairy Queens I can think of. So I did Caelia today, she was fun, only took me half the day too which was nice. Then it will be Mab, Gloriana and Titania.

Does anyone have any copies still for sale of EMG's Visions of Atlantis? http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/fantasyart/emggroup.php?id=7
I just realised the other day, that I actually sold all of my copies, not even keeping one for myself, because of an order mix up, and never fixed that situation. I really like keeping a collection of anything I've got work in, so would love to get a copy somehow. Anyone? 

ETA: Got one coming, yay! Thanks :)