The Best Part of Halloween

I adore Trick or Treating.  It was the best thing about Halloween when I was a kid. It was the best part of Halloween when my children were young and I still love seeing kiddlets at my door.  Dressing up is just what you had to do to get the loot.  Halloween became less fun when I aged out of  Trick or Treating. Parties or other activities are a poor substitute for going door to door begging for sweets. It was so exciting to anticipate what you might get and going door to door in the dark gave Halloween a delicious bit of danger.



My favorite Halloween Candy

I would come home tired and spread out the loot on my bed. I was like a mythical dragon surrounded by gold.  The best thing to get was anything chocolate. Hershey Miniatures were the most desired and most often swiped by my Dad.  My Trick or Treating was in an gentler era. We knew everyone in the neighborhood and no one worried about tainted treats. Because of this, homemade treats would be received.  I liked getting iced sugar cookies, cup cakes and sometimes I got fudge. Unfortunately, I always had at least two popcorn balls.  Popcorn balls were very popular but I was never fond of them.  They were fun to make but after they hardened they were tasteless and stuck in your teeth.  I always got more bubble gum than I ever wanted.  I was never a big gum chewer but when you've consumed everything else, a sweet is a sweet.  My parents let me and my sibs keep all our candy and do with it what we would.  I would eat too much the day afterwards but then the "good stuff" was gone so my candy consumption slowed to a crawl until the next year. Does your neighborhood still Trick or Treat?

I've been participating in Arkansas Women Bloggers Blogtober Fest. Check out the fun.

I've Been Paralysed by Pansies

I don't usually do much seasonal decor, other than Christmas Decorations.  Our house is in a semi-rural area and I think that the great outdoors does a pretty good job of changing the decorations on the trees and I have nice windows, so I just watch.  One exception is the containers on my entry porch. I like to have flowers in a ever changing group of large pots by my front door and my Impatiens and Coleus will not survive the freeze that will come in a couple of weeks. So, I've been shopping for cold weather plants.  We're lucky that we live in Arkansas where plants can live through the winter. When my Momma was in Montana she arraigned  pine branches in her empty containers to look like shrubs.  The cold kept them fresh and green until spring when she could replant.

source

The choices for winter planting are limited compared to summer plants. Pansies (and their relatives) and Decorative Kale, Cabbage, or other cabbage relatives.  This year choosing the pansy varieties to plant is overwhelming me. Normally I'm a person who knows what I like and I love to make color combinations of plants. I think the problem is - I've got too many choices.  Maybe I've spent too much time reading decor magazines and on Pintrest and I'm overwhelmed with ideas.  I've been advised by the nursery expert on the morning TV show that pansies need to be planted early or they won't bloom very much, even come spring. One choice is bright warm fall colors such as orange and yellows.  I even saw a grouping of orange and dark, dark purple pansies that shouted Halloween. The nursery expert (again on morning TV) suggested you could put them in your containers now and after Halloween find another place for them in the ground.  I assume that you then need more pansies in different colors to fill the now empty containers.  I"m already feeling bad for the poor sad pansies that are shunted to some corner of the garden to live their lives hidden because they don't "match" the current holiday.

source

I think it is the holiday thing. Pansies will bloom until spring. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day and Easter will all pass with the same pansies at my front door.  I've just stated that I'm not concerned with seasonal decorating, but, I must be worried about clashing holidays.  Why I'm worried this year? You never know when you will just up and loose your mind.

Maybe an all white color scheme will be best.  It will go with my Christmas lights.  Only problem is that my summer color scheme has been all white with green. I'm tired of it.

source

In years past I've fallen in love with the variegated pastels. Maybe not fallish, or even Christmasy, but pretty.  In desperation,  I just decided to go and grab something.  My local big box orange store helped me out by having very a limited selection. I resisted the urge to run to every plant outlet I know and just took what was available.

My flowers waiting to get plopped in a pot

They had white and blue and purple violas. What a way to overcome Pansy Paralysis. Sometimes it's better to not over think things. 

They did have the cabbages and cabbages make me happy regardless of  the season. Christmas lights look great with anything. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by choices?

Shop Update - New Bunnies

I've done a couple of new bookends but they didn't make me happy. It's hard to make the idea in my head look good in real life. Finaly, success! Meet the newest bookend:

I love these bunnies.  They are similar in size and shape to the Piggy Bookends. 

The Bunnies aren't identical.  One is sitting up,

And one is crouched down.  But both are sweet. 

Halloween Aspirations

Halloween can be a bit of a competition.  We want to out-do our friends, neighbors and total strangers.  I'm a bit envious of these over the top bikes I found on Columbia Missouri Cycling Cooperative blog.  I bet no one else would have as great of a decorated bike. Does anyone actually decorate their bikes?

Nothing like decking your ride out to become a "Skelly Bike". Those handle bars might be a bit hard to use.  Want to add a bunch of glow in the dark accents. 

The fish bike is a bit silly, but impressive.  You need a Halloween parade or event to show these off.  Maybe fun to accompany the kiddlets while they trick-or-treat. Shame to use these just on Halloween.

On the Work Table

If you stopped by yesterday you could have had this view of the work table.

Lots of camels for Nativity Scenes in the background, some tiny bunnys for Noah's Arks and the black on the way right are skunks.  Sorry there isn't anything closer, my camera decided to run out of batteries and only took this pict. Oh, the piggy's! In Red! 

I had a request to do a set of Piggy Brothers in red for a little boy's room who's family is a huge fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks.  Easy Peasy.  Note, if I put the Arkansas logo (or any other licenced NCAA or NFL team logo) on the pigs I would be in trouble.  But you can't licence team colors.  Arkansas does have a licencing program for crafters where for a not too huge fee you can get permission to sell a limited amount of Razorback specific crafts.  Not all teams have that program. My emphasis is more fairy tale than sports so I don't think it's for me but  I love these brothers in red. 

Thrift Brag!

Confession, when I just want something to do to rest from working, I go find a thrift store.  I always check out the pictures, mostly for frames, but I can't buy any more frames.  I have a frame problem.  Don't look in my craft room closet.  I still look at the art, though.  Yesterday I scored.  I paid a whooping $2.99 for this lovely.

This 8 x 10 oil painting snagged my heart. It had to come home with me.  The frame was trashed.  It even had a tiny bit of termite damage.  I baked the frame in the oven at 225 for a bit just to make sure there wasn't any lingering wildlife then I scrubbed the frame down with rubbing alcohol.  A light coating  of Liquitex Burnt Umber acrylic paint and the wood grain still showed through and the frame looked new again. 

I loved the picture.  This so reminded me of growing up in the west on a ranch.  Most original paintings you find at the thrift are some one's hobby and pretty bad. This is a decent composition and full of my favorite blues and greens.  Is it worth anything?  I don't think so.

It is signed Dick Powell and then has those strange red marks below.  There was Dick Powell who a movie star from the first part of the 1900's.  When I search the Internet I can't find any other Dick Powells doing painting.   I think it's from one of those places where they have Chinese art students crank out thousands of oils and then they sell them in the US at traveling shows located in hotels.  There is a store in Hot Springs, AR near us that sells these, also.  They are original but pretty formulaic.  They're very affordable and they can be good for decoration if you find one you like.  They have bales of canvases in the back and you pick one and they staple it onto a stretcher and pop it into a frame in about a minute.  The canvas, stretchers and frame seem very modern and the red bits in the signage are, I think, the sure give away.  It's hanging in my entry right now.  Happiness.

Star Wars Love

The men I know who are in their 20's and 30's all love Star Wars. They grew up with the videos. My own BL Middlest Boy fell asleep for his nap every day for about 18 months watching rreturn of the Jedi.  He's tried to get his own boy kids to love it with mixed success.  Oldest BL Boy has tried similarly to interest his own offspring.  Maybe they didn't start early enough. They could have hung this Star Wars 6 Ships Baby Mobile over their crib.


Felted Custom Star Wars Mobile

You can request up to 6 Star Wars figures or ships. The contrast between felted wool and Sci-Fi is mind boggling.

via imgfave

 One of the BL Son-in-Laws has said that he would love to name a son Luke, because it would be so cool to say "Luke, I am your father".  That boat may have sailed because his brother already took the name for his own son.  Nobody names their kiddlet Yoda.  By the way, when I searched on Etsy, I found 233 versions of a Yoda hat similar to the one above.

Star Wars Print Set via Print Chicks on Etsy

A wonderful man and good friend of my daughter (married to the above BL SIL) does have twins. You guessed it, named Luke and Leah.  That may be going too far, but the prints above are so geeky graphic that I might gift someone with them.  The Print Chicks have quite a few graphic prints with Star Wars Themes.  Of coarse, for the truly geeky here's the ultimate baby shower gift.

Via Geekling Designs on Etsy

How far do you go to introduce your larva to your favorite childhood movies?