Well, hello! It's nice to meet you! I see you've wandered into the part of this site about myself.

     Ok, you'd like to know a bit about me then, right. Let's see...

Photo by Mick Rock

     In case you hadn't figured it out by now, my name is Andréa. (Say it with me now: An-DRAY-uh). Online I generally go by some reincarnate of Dearlady (2001, 2002, or Fae), though I am also known as the Dragon Mistress by a select few (and mostly scaled) friends.

     I was born in Cadillac, Michigan, and grew up there and in Northern Indiana. I've recently moved to Virginia with my fiance.

     I draw, paint, sculpt, sew, make hand-sawn little copper necklaces and stuffed dragons, and I'm decent at ceramics type things. In the past, I've also created a box of clay Godiva chocolates that are so convincing I've had some people try to eat them, and saw two highschool students at an art show picking them up and arguing over whether or not they were real. Can you tell the difference? Here are my chocolates and here are the Godiva chocolates.

     My necklaces and stuffed dragons (two designs, one from my own pattern!) will be for sale online in the near future if anyone is interested. At some point, reproductions of my artwork will also be offered, as well as custom-made costumes for sale. The site is still under heavy construction, but here it is anyways: TheCopperDragon.com.

     If you've visited the Fanfiction page, you already know I write Labyrinth stories.. I have two finished ones so far (Layers of Illusion, and Time to Choose), one in the works (the sequel to TTC; The Red Book), and I have a bunch of other ideas I'll get around to writing eventually.

     Let's see.. what else...

     I love anything mideval. Renaissance Faires are a must for me, I try to get to at least a couple a year, as well as the few Celtic-Highland festivals in our area. If you have never been to either event, you must find one near you and go! Post haste!

     If you go to any Faires in the Virginia area, keep an eye out for me- I tend to stand out in either of my costumes. The first one (that you're more likely to see me in) is a floor-length embroidered green dress of a somewhat Celtic design. I wear it with the sides of my hair pulled back, and carry a small, cat-sized stuffed green dragon. A smaller gold dragon may be seen perched on my shoulder, her favorite roost, as a lookout. (She may also be seen sitting on my falconers' glove if I managed to coax her down off my shoulder.) You may pet either dragon, they seem to enjoy attention and flattery, but I take no responsibility if either is in a grumpy mood that day and bites. Generally they are very well behaved, but they are quick to defend themselves if you pull a tail or beard...

     While you can easily spot me in the green dress, I blend in a bit more in my second costume- plain black pants, knee-high black boots, and a brown leather vest over a white, lace up shirt- your typical swordswoman outfit. For the few faires that allow you to bring weapons, I may have my rapier on my hip. Either dragon may or may not be seen in tow when I'm in this garb, however you'll still know it's me by my copper dragon necklace I always wear.

     Hmm... want to more, do you? Ok...

     Musically, I love a wide range of styles... David Bowie is my alltime favorite artist (went to see him last summer in D.C., he blew a kiss right at my fiance and myself! *insert girly scream*), but I also enjoy Evanescence, the Moulin Rouge soundtracks, and even Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" and "Tainted Love" have been stuck in my head. Kiss, Aerosmith, and Rammstein (German group! I can understand them, yea me!) are also constantly in rotation. We'll hopefully get to go see the first two this summer- Kiss especially puts on a good show.

     My surroundings...

     Around my apartment, I have Labyrinth posters, horse statues, a small owl collection, and a few gargoyles; both store-bought and ones I've made myself. My favorite of the scaly guys is the second one I'd made: a green gargoyle standing in front of a crumbling grey stone wall. While not named, the gargoyle has alligator-style glass eyes and real sharks' teeth set in as his own, and when you pair that up with the photo I used for a facial reference- one of Freddy Krueger- it makes for a truly awesome sculpture, even more so when you realize the fact that I was in 8th grade when I made him.

My girlies- Bast (aka "the Nose") on the left, and Sekhmet (aka the "Holy Terror") on the right.

Eddie Lizzard, the newest addition to the house, was a hitchhiker on a plant at work that I brought home. The yellow thing in his cage is the lid to the waterbottle we brought him home in. He's about 1.5" long nose to tail!

     I have a hermit crab in the livingroom, a guppy in the bathroom, and two kitties who are free to roam the house; a mama and her kitten. Bast is the mama- she's half Siamese so she has that really odd meow particular to the breed. Her kitten is also a girl, and her name is Sekhmet. We gave them Egyptian names because when we first found them (we "adopted" them off the street), Bast looked like the cats you would see in pictures of tombs, and Sekhmet reminded us of a little lion cub. We looked through a book we had and found the names- "Bast" was a goddess with a black cat's head, very Siamese looking, and "Sekhmet" was Ra's lion-headed assassin goddess who "rained arrows of death and fire" upon the enemies. Literally, her name means "holy terror." *Laughs* Their names fit.

     Eddie, the lizard, was a hitchhiker on a plant at work one day. I'd been unwrapping small pinetrees and watering them, and saw him sitting on the countertop, looking around at everything, just chillin'. We named him Eddie Lizzard 'cause we're Eddie *Izzard* fans, and thought the poor little dude was thinking "Jeezy Creezy!" when we had to tap the bottle he was in (only thing we had at work) to get him into the cage once we got home.

     I love animals, if you couldn't tell already. I was recently shown a park in the area and fell in love with a flock of about 10 Canadian geese that reside there. I try and visit them once a week and am always sure to bring a loaf of bread to feed them (especially over the winter, since I think we're far enough south that this group won't will fly south). I've read the book about how to get wild birds to come to you and with a lot of patience, hours spent sitting and waiting, and frozen behinds from sitting on the cold ground, I've gotten them to trust me enough to take food from me. I have not given any of them names yet, though a few show distinctive personalities. They'll let me know their names soon enough, I think. There is one female in particular I really like- she's a bit shy and the others tend to pick on her somewhat, but she's brave enough to come take food out of my hands. Another one, a male, hisses at me constantly, as though I'm going to bite him, but still takes food from me. Hippocrite. Anyways, here are my foundling babes:

"Goose.. goose.. duck?"

My flock of geese- the little female is in the center of the group on the right- she's facing away from the camera but looking towards me. The hisser is behind me, by himself. He wants some food, but doesn't like to get too close if he can help it.

     Well, I suppose that's enough to satisfy your curiosity for now. I'd better get going.. need to find my spray can and go tend to the gardens before You-Know-Who notices... Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to keep looking around the site!

     Andréa