All Hallow's Eve

Tell me,

what is a girl to do

when she is told she is "too old" for trick-or-treating?

What about when she no longer has little kids to dress up?

 

She must find an alternative,
that's what.

 

 

And a little wolfhound is as good an alternative as any.

 

Unfortunately the woodcutter didn't make it home in time for all the fun.

Road construction...

so he says.

But now Halloween is over;

our bellies full of too many Sweet Tarts and Gooberlicious Bil-Jac treats.

So now what?

 

Wait a minute...

Today is

Day of the Dead.

 

 

Anyone know how to get face paint out of fur?

 

*********

Today we are remembering

Lucy and Daisy
and all of our loved and lost humans.

Have a beautiful weekend.



Pumpkin Carving

Sunday night we had our annual Pumpkin Carving Contest.

This year we changed things up a bit.

Instead of just the kids and us carving it up, we had family over to play too.

We divided up into couples...

the Graduate & That Girl

the BIL & SIL

the Niece & her "Friend"

and

the Farmboy and I

We, the Farmboy and I, were pretty sure we had this one.

We were congratulating and patting each other on the backs before we were even finished.

Behold, our creation...

The Wolfman

Pure brilliance.

Chocolate Twizzlers sliced and cut up for fur.  Chocolate chips glued on for stubble.  Garlic for teeth.  And an avocado... the skin for ears and the pit for the nose.

It turns out however,

pure brilliance is nothing when up against

Ironman.

Who knew.

*********

PS.  It also turns out, that it's not really worth the time to poke a gazillion little holes into a pumpkin and then carefully stuff strings of Twizzlers into each one of them.

Pumpkin juice and chocolate Twizzlers equates to something very much like

laser hair removal.

And the Goodie Bag Goes To.....

So sorry I'm late!

I'm finally getting a chance to cool my wings and smooth my feathers back into place.

The Farmboy had an all day photo shoot yesterday and needed his sidekick assistant with him.

(that's me)



We have picked a winner for the little, witchy goodie bag I've put together.

But first a big ol'

THANK YOU

to everyone who stopped by and left such lovely and much appreciated words for me.

And those of you who had parties yourselves...

FANTABULOUS!!!

Also big thank you again to our dear hostess Vanessa.

Now on to the winner.....

******

Bertie

******

Congratulations!

Her Book of Spells

As she set the full and weighty tome down upon the table, she remembered.



She opened it.

Ran her hand across the faded image of the woman and remembered.

Remembered her soft yet direct voice.  The lessons.  The wanting, so badly, to be just like her when older.

Her long, thick hair.  Her dark, knowing eyes.

She remembered.

As she turned the page she took in the list of names.



Names of those she loved as family.  Names of those who loved her.  The names of those who made the circle complete.

She remembered.

Remembered the light trill of their laughter and the lull of the rhythm when they crooned their chants.

The crackle of more pages turning.  The mixture of nature and magic beneath her finger tips.  The dried pools of ink and the indentions from the sharp quill.



She remembered.

The smell.  Mustiness from the old paper.  Sweet, bitter, earthy.

She remembered the smells that came from the bottles.  The rows and rows of bottles.  Some she could touch, others she was forbidden to until much older.

She remembered.

Light from the full moon shone through the window.  A bell chimed from the grove outside. 

It was time.

She closed the book.

Her time for remembering had come to an end.

A second chime from beyond the open window.

Time for her to complete her own circle now.

Her own circle of sisters.

************

A big thank you to

Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist

for hosting.

For more ghostly frolicking you can find the list of party participants here.

************

And also a special thank you

to each of you who have stopped by to visit my little circle of sisterhood.

Leave a comment with your email or link

and I will be drawing a name next Saturday

to win a handmade journal, perfect for penning spells of your own.

We Need Your Vote

Happy Halloween!

We don't have kids who trick or treat anymore.

But we do still carve pumpkins.

In fact, every year we have a pumpkin carving contest.

This year we drew names to see who would team up with who.

But now, we need your help in judging!

So tell me, which do you like better...
Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas on the left
or
The Count from Sesame Street on the right.

Please leave you're vote in the comments.
(time to come out of the woodworks, my lurker friends)
We will be counting votes until midnight Halloween night.
Thank you SO much!!!

All Hallows' Eve

The tag group had another swap.
This one was hosted by Wanda
and the theme was
Halloween.

Lots of layers here.
All sorts of papers, cheese cloth and lace
with a generous amount of bee's wax and a touch of Glimmer Mist.

Oh, and an owl of course.
Because that seems to be what I'm all about this season.

Hoot!

October ATCs

Hi! Sorry, it's been awhile, hasn't it?

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

I'm in full swing preparations for Silver Bella right now... still have a gazillion things to finish up! But, I wanted to pop in and show you what I created for my October ATCs. I only have photos of what I made right now, but if I get a chance I'll try to get some of the ones I received... they are so darling!

So, the theme this time was black, cream and orange. Here are my cards.

When Ranjini shared this image on her blog, I knew it was the one I wanted to use for these cards. I altered the color just a bit in Photoshop... changed the original red to orange. I used some french journal pages, a bit of lace from Wanda and some of the crepe I ruffled and dyed.

And now for the "peice de resistance"... my packaging.

When I saw this tutorial, I knew exactly how I wanted to package these. I couldn't be more pleased with how they turned out. Now I wish I had made one for myself! I used some of the gorgeous antique ledger paper that I got from Art-e-ology, of which I'm almost out of... ughhh! And I searched and searched for some black tinsel pipe cleaners, but couldn't find any anywhere. So my solution was to take gold tinsel ones and pat them with a black Staz-on ink pad. Worked like a charm and I think I like the two-toned color more than if they had been solid black.

I still have so much to share... some journal pages, what I have received so far in the Art Exchange, some goodies I've made for some friends and my last two Silver Bella swaps, which are one on one. Hopefully I will have time to pop back in before I leave next week. I don't know... things are about to get super crazy around here. I have a pre-op appointment next week and the day after I fly to Omaha and then three days after I get back I have surgery!

Yep, "a master planner"... that's me! LOL

Kings and Crows

My Farmboy took the day off yesterday and surprised me with a special trip down to the Dallas Museum of Art. The reason for the little excursion? King Tut!


A little known fact about Alisa... fascinated with anything ancient Egyptian. I have been for a loooong time. I don't know why, just am. I have all kinds of books on the subject. I even completely get into Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series. This is fun, light reading, but I always get so into the story that I don't sleep at night... just read until the book is over. Love that Amelia!


(postcard purchased at the exhibit)

So back to the King. I thought the exhibit was, over all, really great. I was a little disappointed that Tut's death mask was not part of the exhibit, but we did get to see his possible grandmother's, as well as, her sarcophagus. That was pretty cool! And we got to see some of the jewelry items that were wrapped in his linens with him... jeweled collar and his gold crown. Plus quite a few of the items from his tomb. There were also artifacts from other tombs of the Golden Age. Oh, for me one of the coolest things, were the head statues of Nefertiti. Amazing!

This is another postcard image. We actually got to see this piece. It's a jar depicting Tut as a lion trampling his Nubian foes.

Now on to crows. I finished another Bellaween project. Seriously, I'm loving these so much, I think there is a chance I may continue Halloween crafting even after Halloween has passed!

My Farmboy has named this crow Russell. Ha! We are such a comedic family. He also pointed out how very Egyptian it looks. Which I thought was amusing considering the above.

I hope everyone is having a beautiful week so far and thanks for stopping by!

More Decor

The last couple of days have been great! I've spent them puttering around the house and creating just for me. I can't tell you how wonderful that feels... creating stuff just for me! I haven't done that in SO long. Although, I really should be working on Silver Bella swaps, but...

So one of the things I've been doing is more Halloween decorating. The pictures I shared before were of the sideboard in my dining room. This week I've spooked up my fireplace mantle. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how it has turned out. I feel like I'm starting to get kinda good at this whole styling thing! I should probably thank Heather Bullard at this point. She is such an amazing inspiration when it comes to styling and decorating!

Okay, let me show you. Please keep in mind that I think these photos could really be better. The lighting is odd in this room and my Farmboy took the tripod with him when he went out of town this week. I was going to retake them this morning, but Mother Nature has decided today is not a good day for it... it's overcast and rainy. Oh well.






I think I really like how this photo turned out. First of all it's a photo of my great grandmother and her siblings. I printed it on transparency and then layered it over a piece of sheet music that I had lightly dry brushed antique white paint on. I attached that to an artist canvas that I painted black. I rubbed silver pearl powder stuff (sorry I can't remember what it's called and am too lazy to get up and go see) around the edges then wrapped black velvet ribbon with an old rhinestone buckle around it. In person, it has this really nice eerie glow to it.


Let me introduce you to Edgar Allen Crow. HA! I crack me up!



The banner is a tutorial from the Sweet and Sinister Blog. I think it was the first one... I'm always behind... they are on like the 527th tutorial now, I'm just finishing the first. Anyway, this is my version of it. Love the simplicity and of course the polka dots!


Our fireplace is kinda strange. It's a corner fireplace, so it opens at the front, as well as on one side and the mantle wraps around the corner. So here is the side.

Well, that's just one of the things I've been up to. Thanks for taking a peek!

Have a beautiful day. :)

Halloween....

it's sneaking up on me way too fast!

I've been so absorbed with the craft fair that I haven't had much of a chance to do any Halloween decorating, other than the Bellaween candles I did two weeks ago. But at 9:30 last night all that changed, well, a little bit anyway.

I pulled the Halloween box in from the garage and started rooting through it. Moved some stuff from room to room. Dug through a button box and some trims... hemmed and hawed some more. And this is what I managed to accomplish.

A few close-ups...

Snuck some of my favorite possessions into the mix... the clock face and family dictionary.


This is my favorite picture.... with Teresa's creepy little girls.




Got another favorite in there.... my lemon extract bottle.


That's one area of the house all Halloweened out. Hopefully I'll get to another one before Halloween actually arrives. And of course, I still have at least 6 more candles I want to decorate. In all due time I suppose.

Have a beautiful Monday!

Bellaween Candles

So, you know how I have this Craft Show coming up? (My first one... thank you, everyone, for all of the great advice! Good news, I was thinking along the same lines as all of ya'll, so I think I'll be able to pull this off.) Well, I've been working so hard on items just for this show, that I short circuited my brain last Thursday afternoon. Yep... my creative well, as Rebecca Sower puts it, dried up. So my solution was to...
-go to a scrapbook crop Friday evening and work on my Halloween book.
-do absolutely nothing creative Saturday and Sunday.
-and on Monday, dip into the Bellaween projects.
I did just that and now my well is slowly filling back up.

The first Bellaween project was "The Shining", aka candles. So yesterday, between laundry and house cleaning and an ongoing email conversation, I decorated candles.

This was seriously what I needed and so much fun! I really didn't want to stop, but then Farmboys and teenagers needed to be fed. But I'm definitely not done!

Sorry for the not so great photos. Someone took the good camera to Austin with him this morning.

Hoping to fill my well up a little more today. Have a beautiful day!