Happy Halloween!

Aren't these lovely vintage Halloween postcards? I just love the feel of these antique cards. I found these on about.com.

I can feel the neighborhood Halloween buzz building. Today we are going over to our local Halloween Mega-store, not to buy, really - but to get in the spirit of things. Lucas is very excited about Halloween night, and is plotting his trick-or-treating strategy with a neighbor.

All the houses have at least a pumpkin on the front porch. By Saturday night, some will have a lot more than that. Driving home yesterday, I saw several stuffed ghoulish figures reclining in front yards.

So a Happy Halloween to everyone. Even if you don't celebrate Halloween, or All Saints/All Souls Day, or Day of the Dead - it's a great time to marvel at the changing season. It's a mysterious time of year. Go outside and look up at the moon. Maybe howl for a little bit. Then go inside and have some chocolate. It's all good. :)

And now for something really scary...

BOO!!!!

It's me! With about 40 pounds of white make-up from Walmart on my face. I've already embarrassed myself on flickr, so why not here as well? This is really all junkerjane's fault - she's running a "Dress Up for Halloween or Die" program. Well, so I HAD to, right? Dang peer pressure! haha!

But there are some really good things about dressing up for Halloween and taking pictures. I thought I should list a few:

1. Your wrinkles become assets! Finally!

2. Nothing is more entertaining than upsetting your teenagers by daring to have fun as a parent. It completely unnerves them.

3. You remember how much you looked forward to dressing up on Halloween. It wasn't just about the candy (although, let's be honest, that was a BIG part of it), but it was about becoming someone or something else. I remembered going to school, and weeks before Halloween, talking with my friends about what they were going to "be" for Halloween.

4. There is no such thing as too much make-up. Layer it on, baby! You could never have gotten away with this in high school!

5. Your dog doesn't recognize you. This is a good thing to know. Especially when one of your dogs is a German Shepherd mix. Nice doggie...

6. If I looked like this and wore my crummy sweats to the grocery store, I could run into all sorts of people and not care. I'd be completely incognito. Until the nice men in the white coats showed up.

7. You realize how much you love low lighting. I am considering changing the wattage in the entire house to candlelight levels. Everything just looks better. Even scary dead ladies.

8. I can paste these pics on the back pages of my kids' baby books. Now that will be a surprise for them in a few years!

9. It's fun to get out of your skin and into someone else's, even if it is just for a couple of hours.

Happy Halloween!!! Eat lots of candy, please. It helps me to feel less guilty while I am doing it.

Giveaway winners and some Halloween decorations...

BOO!!! and Hello!!!

My able assistant has pulled the names from the cauldron! No, it wasn't Lucas, he was busy gaming and couldn't be bothered helping his mom pull names from the cauldron, but it was Caity - home from college for the weekend.


She was trying to do her math homework, but I shoved the cauldron at her several times, and she picked the following winners:


First prize (dear BOO!) goes to Renee!

Second prize (good old Marty) goes to Sally!

Third prize (the wizened Captain!) goes to Lulu at the Pink Turtle!

And fourth prize (the charming Constance Pettigrew) goes to Georgina!

Thank you all so much for entering. If you didn't win, blame Caity! No, don't, she was very fair, she didn't even look at the cauldron while she was picking.

Be not discouraged! I will have another giveaway closer to Thanksgiving (and not stuffed turkeys, I promise, maybe dolls, or monsters - or you can tell me what you'd like me to give away!).

Happy Halloween!

Skelly Giveaway!

It's the last day for entering the giveaway! I wanted to let you know I'm taking the last post at 6pm (EST! :). Then after dinner sometime, I will get my able-bodied assistant (aka Lucas) to pull some names from the cauldron.

I had a little time the other day, so I made a 4th prize! I can't help it! I love Halloween!

So this is Constance Pettigrew, 4th prize:


Thanks for playing!

********************************************************************************
Well, the weather outside is frightful, but inside it's so skelly-lightful! Hey, I tried, okay? It's time for my Halloween giveaway and BOO! would love to come live with one of you. There are two other giveaway prizes which I will post here later in the morning - after the kids leave for school, and I have my second cup of Joe. What I'm trying to say is I am really not awake yet. Somehow I manage to make lunches and drive to the bus stop twice before I really wake up. Kinda scary, isn't it?

All you have to do to be entered is post a comment here. If you're shy, just post "BOO!".


Here's Marty - he's the second prize. For a gremlin, he's pretty harmless.


And here (finally!) is third prize: Captain Crimson! Arrrrrgh, he was an awful pirate in his time, but now he is just a skull ornament that you can hang on your Halloween tree!



I'll take all your names and put them in a cauldron. This Friday night I'll pick a winner. I want whoever wins to get BOO!, Marty or Captain Crimson in time for Halloween!

AND!!!! Run on over to El Milagro Studio for a FABULOUS giveaway (dontcha love giveaways?)! Anne is giving away some amazing art supplies - enough to make your own masterpiece! And check out her beautiful artwork while you are there.

HOLY COW!! When you get back from El Milagro, skip on over to Mariann Johansen Ellis' blog and leave a comment to win one of her gorgeous hand-colored Christmas cards. I love her work! It's just giveaway heaven this week, isn't it? :)

A Lovely Award...and a giveaway is coming!

I want to thank my dear friend, Anne, for this lovely award. You get to meet such amazing people here in Blog World (BW for short). It has broadened my world of friends, and helped me to crawl out of my little shell. Yes, I do too have a shell, it's a very nice one (it is pink, and filled with art supplies), but I need to crawl out every now and then and interact with humanity.

Where would we be without our friends? In a very lowly place indeed. My friends, both in BW and the RW (Real World), are treasures. And it is so true, what this award says, that it's not the length of time that you've known someone, but those that stay by your side that define true friendship.

So it is with great warmth & fuzziness that I accept the Deborah Award. I am very thankful for the new friends I have made since I began blogging. There are those days that the only reason I climb out of my shell at all is to go visit them and receive a much needed infusion of humor, strength, and camaraderie :) Thank you so much Anne!



I am passing on this award to:

Sally Annie Magundy
Susan at 29 Black Street
Georgina at La Llorona Arts
Nicole at sloeginfizz
Brandi at She's Off Her Rocker
Sarah at Cottage Garden Studios
Gypsy at Gypsylulu Delights
Sonia at Dark Raven's Nest
Becca at Magikal Seasons
Lori at Run, Lori, Run
Marsha at Tumblefish Studios
Chris at Designs by CK
Chickory
Blackcatboo


If you've gotten this award already - well, you just got it AGAIN! See how loved you are? :) I would link to everyone, but I want to post this before Christmas. LOL! And if you aren't on this list, it's because you have gotten this award a billion times, or I know for certain you've gotten it, or you STARTED the award. Doesn't mean I don't love you.

Now come back and visit me on Tuesday, because I will be giving away Skelly Goodness! I'll make it a short turnaround on the blog contest, so I can mail the prizes out and get them to the winners in time for HALLOWEEN! Woooooeeeeeeeaaaaa! Boo! (Yes, I am very immature, thank you for noticing).

A Train Ride and free Halloween Shipping

It was family bonding time, and so we decided to ride an historic steam locomotive from Cumberland to Frostburg, Maryland. It's gorgeous, mountainous country, dotted with farms and quaint little towns.

The history of the area is all about coal mining. Every time I think about being a cola miner, I am thankful for sunshine and hot showers. My kids loved visiting the dining car (and buying candy), and watching the locomotive change direction on the turntable. It was a very Harry Potter moment.





We had pizza in a local Frostburg joint, where we met Caity's boyfriend, Levi, who attends University there. Mine were fascinated by the old Star Wars pinball machine. Good to know history is not wasted on the young.

And to celebrate Halloween, I'm offering free shipping on any Halloween item in my Etsy shop over the weekend (Friday through Sunday). Free is good, people!! I'll mark all spooky things with free shipping, so you'll know for sure. :) And next post (after the weekend), I will have a skelly blog giveaway - because Halloween is coming!

Spooky Time Jingles and a lovely blog award...

For some strange reason (which I will try not to question) our internet is humming along at lightning speed this morning. The cynic in me wonders why this is happening the day before Verizon comes to dig up our front lawn and install FIOS. Hmmmm....

But one musn't be cynical, so instead, here are some pieces headed to Spooky Time Jingles today. And now a big overdue thank you to Becca and Lynn who both gave me the Kreative Blogger award. I apologize for being so late to post this. I'll have Verizon write me an excuse. :)

As part of the award I am supposed to list 7 things about me that no one would know.

Seven things about me? Truly, I think I am one of the most boring people on the planet, but here goes nothing:

1. I used to play piano, oboe and saxophone. I play none of them now.

2. When I was little, I used to try and bribe stray animals into coming home to live with me. I’d leave a trail of treats. This is mostly due to the fact that my mom did NOT like pets. I guess I was hoping to acquire them in a new and different way.

3. My first memory is of our screen door in Alamogordo, New Mexico. For some weird reason, it had two people dancing together on it. I loved it.

4. I worked as a programmer at an aerospace company. I look at this as my ‘corpie’ phase.

5. I have a new children’s book coming out next summer (haha – thought I’d sneak in some publicity!)

6. I have a recurring nightmare about tidal waves.

7. I’m a late bloomer. In every way you can be one. Maybe the word I am looking for is immature. That might be it. I am very immature. But I kind of like that about me.

My creative bloggers are:

Dani of Ambitions Design

Brandi at She's Off Her Rocker

Sarah at Cottage Garden Studio

Pat at the Whyte Paper

Georgina at lloronaarts

Sally Annie Magundy

oldblackcatboo

Thanks again to Becca and Lynn! And I will be so happy if our internet woes are behind us. I have missed posting and visiting everyone. This morning blogger has decided that I can only add three pictures - so I guess my post is done for today. :) Maybe blogger is in kahoots with the internet! I sense a conspiracy!

The computer gods have smiled and some new work....

How does the song go 'you don't know what you have 'til it's gone'? Not having the ability to blog, or posts pictures on flickr, or even email on some days has been harder than I thought. I am very connected to my friends in the virtual world, and I really have missed being 'active'. Sniff. But I think the Verizon Wizards have waved their magic wand (somewhere overseas), because today I am humming along. Of course,just saying that will most likely jinx everything.

So before that happens, here are some new pieces, and a picture of me with my new 'man'. This is someone Caity built on her way out the door (stuffed with plastic grocery bags). She is a clever girl, that one. I think we have just about finished putting up all Halloween decorations.
I love making these dolls. I think they are my new obsession (like I needed a new one).

My youngest is off to 'Outdoor Education', where he will learn about all things outdoors (up in the mountains by Camp David). They have a night hike, and get to do some really cool 'hands on' science tests. They have someone bringing in animals from a local zoo. They get to sleep in cabins in bunk beds. All very groovy stuff. Makes me wish I was 12. Except for that awkward pre-teen thing. And the acne. And the awful social stuff. Never mind. I'll continue as is. :)