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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

It's upon us.
Hope your Trick or Treating is wonderful tonight.

I thought when I wrote today I would have that above pillow finished.
It's not.
I'm still embellishing.

Nothing like making Halloween crafts on Halloween. 

But then I've made Christmas decorations on Christmas Day before.
I was snowed in one Christmas and couldn't get to the house where I'd be celebrating.

I was depressed for a moment and then decided to make stuff!

So my life never goes as planned...even when it seems fool proof.

I had yesterday all to myself...all day....no interruptions so I could finish painting the 
living room and make this pillow.

Wrong.

My sister showed up in the am needing me to create business cards for her.
She has a craft show she is doing this weekend and wanted new cards.

Did that...had to go buy ink for the printer and help cut them and glue on 
gems to each one. Her concept. 

I wanted to scream that if she'd only planned ahead, I could have sent the art
off to be printed online and we'd have had none of the hassle.

Oh..well...as my Mom would say...
That is just your sister!

I think they never say this about me as they always want me to conform to their plans.

I seem to always need to change my plans and no one says....
"Oh..that is just your sister!"

So I didn't start painting till 3pm!

3pm!!!!

I ran out of paint at 8:30pm.

So....here I am another day without that finished.

I thought I was working today but nope...they didn't need me.
Can you imagine?

I have plans of course for tonight with it being Halloween and all..

So I decided to make a pillow. 

But that didn't happen till after noon because my friend came to pick up her dog.

Now I have to quit to get ready for tonight so 
the pillow didn't get finished.

I get so frustrated...I feel like I am behind on everything all the time.

Doesn't it seem like all other bloggers are so organized and on top of things 
and early, even?

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.

Most are on to Christmas decor and I'm still fussing with Halloween.

I'll be doing some Thanksgiving crafts....but of course I need to paint 
the dining room first.

See, always behind, always.

Sometimes blogging just makes me feel inadequate. 


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Halloween Party Food

Still Time to Make These
Such a simple little snack for Halloween! 
These too. I really think I'm going to make these for sure.
Striped straws and a little construction paper make these cupcakes special.
I actually saw cupcakes very similar to this at a local grocery store.
Why make them when you can buy them?
Totally want this. I'm all about a good cheese ball.
Here is a super easy one. I still have time to do this for the Trick or Treaters!
Ok, so this one is more complicated but isn't it scary cute?
And bake a stuffed pepper with a jack-o-lantern face.
I could do this!

Are you making any special foods for Halloween?


Good news!
They switched the schedule around at work this week and I now have today off!
I will be finishing up the living room today!!!!

I'm very excited...I thought I'd have to wait a few more days to get time to paint.

I'm currently blogging with the teeniest chihuahua in the world in my lap.
She is black and looks a lot like a bat.

Which is what I think my dogs think she is.

Actually, Franklin is all about her. 
He's been super sweet with her. 

All the others are being good with her now too.
It was touch and go there for awhile. 

I'll be back with photos of my living room...very very soon.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Halloween Wreaths

I love Halloween decor!
These are some of my favorite Halloween wreaths I pinned recently.
See my huge Halloween decor folder on Pinterest here.

My plan for this year was to craft lots of Halloween decorations.
But it's not happening because of my painting the living room project.
I just finished the first of two coats of cutting in on the tray/pullman ceiling.
This involves being on a ladder very high up and moving it every three feet around the room.
Up and down, up and down...move it around.

That takes like four hours to go around the room.
One more time around and then I can get out the roller and roll the walls and I'll be done.

I had hoped it would be done by now...so I could decorate my mantel for Halloween.
It might still....we'll see. 

I'm also dog sitting.

A teeny tiny chihuahua for a girl at work.

This was a mistake.
She is so small...one wrong move and she is toast.

That one wrong move being a chomp from Sally, I fear.

So I am dog juggling this week.

The little one is spending lots of time in the hall bath.

Which she doesn't like.

Violet is fine with her. She could care less.

Franklin is sweet with her.

Harvey was surprisingly aggressive but has since given up on being mean.
I guess it was too much effort because he's been nice all day.

Sally, doesn't seem to know what she is.

Granted, she doesn't look much like a dog or act like one. 

Sally hasn't been aggressive at all...but I am not taking any chances.
Because Sally is a maniac.

So...I'll be dog juggling the rest of the week. 

The reason I took her was the owner was going somewhere where there was 
a huge mean cat that might eat her.

I volunteered to babysit without thinking this through.

She is so small...I think my dogs think she is a gerbil. 

Like she is four pounds soaking wet.

I might have a photo of her later in the week...if she survives.

I am kidding but I'm thinking she was better off with one cat than four dachshunds 
that think she is a rodent.

Back to my painting. 
I am getting so excited to be on the last bit of the final coat of cutting in.

I'm loving the color with my fireplace. I'm loving the color...with everything.

Color is Shoji White by Sherwin Williams.

I'm going to finish it up and pull the living room back together and then I'll paint the dining room.

I don't expect the dining room to be any where near as time consuming.

I painted the living room 8 years ago shortly after I moved in and I remember it was a chore
but Mom helped me too so it didn't take this long. 

Oh...well I'm almost there....

Here are the Halloween Wreaths I haven't had time to make.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Mod Mix Monday #125

Haunted Forest
The above is a party set up in a clearing n the woods.
Perfect spot for a Halloween tea party.
I can't believe it's almost Halloween and I haven't gotten much of anything accomplished 
for the holiday.
I can blame it on my painting project though. 
I've just about got all the cutting in done and then I'll just roll on the paint.
That's the quickest part!
I didn't paint on Sunday because Mom and I went to the Gatewood Home Tour.
Gatewood is a historic neighborhood in OKC with houses similar to those in Edgemere Park.
They really get their Halloween on in that neighborhood because there are several OKC ghost stories
originating from those streets. I think the stories are all made up.
But it sure is fun.
This was  my favorite home on the tour.
It doesn't look like much on the outside. I'm sure more is planned for it but inside!
Inside, is amazing! I wish I had taken my camera and asked if I could take photos. 
You walk in to a cathedral ceiling all the way to the rafters in the living room.
To the left is a curving iron staircase leading to the upstairs juliet balcony.
Underneath the stairs, the most quaint inglenook. I've never seen anything like it.
Usually, when I tour these homes...I like them...love them even...but then say...I prefer my own. 
But this one? This one just might tempt me to move...although...it did not have the thing I do love
and that is being able to look out to the backyard.
This house also has a spooky legend. 

Supposedly, a young man built this house for his new wife back in the 20's.
But came home one day to find her in a compromising position with another man.
He spied her through the front window and shot at them.

The home has a bullet hole in the front window to this day from this shooting.

The legend goes...

The glass pane has been replaced numerous time but the hole and break in the glass keep reappearing. 
The current owners have left it and just placed a piece of plexiglass over it.

Mom and I saw it!

It's the bottom left hand pane in that window directly above.

Spooky!

Good fall stuff in this past week's Mod Mix Monday....
Here's my favorites...
Andrea of Opulent Cottage added fall color to her mantel with a a few simple touches.
The star of the mantel is the painting done long ago by her Grandmother.
Suzanne of Simply Suzanne's shared her Fall decor which includes lots of 
fairytale pumpkins and bittersweet. I never see bittersweet here in Oklahoma.
I just love it and am jealous of those of you who can find it in your state.
Isn't that a pretty vignette?
Angela of Number Fifty-Three is making progress on her kitchen reno.
It's really fun and inexpensive. Angela has great style and now her kitchen does too!
Helen of Picked and Painted created a wonderful boho/gypsy inspired stenciled table. 
You'll see the pretty stencil on the top if you click through. 
But I love the way she photographed it in the woods. It feels like leaves are falling everywhere around.
It's just magical!
Danielle of Silver Pennies was inspired by the wood plank pattern in the top of this piece.
That pattern became the Union Jack!
I love that she painted this table turquoise too.
Isn't it cheerio!


Share your new mixes below.
Remember anything old made over to be new...anything new changed up to look old.
New and old together...
Please include the Mod Mix Monday logo and back link to me.
Use a permalink to your individual post not to your entire blog.

If you link up...I'd appreciate it, if you'd follow me.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Havisham's Halloween Tea

I'm joining in the Halloween Tea Party fun at 
This is a reposting of my last year's Halloween decor in the dining room.
I was inspired by Great Expectations.
This is Ms. Havisham's Halloween.
A spooky couple reside a top the wedding cake,
awaiting guests who will never come.
a wedding cake of tissue paper flowers will do
the only guests, mice, bats and crows
spiders too
a spooky spectacle
a reminder of a day not so happy for the bride to be
of happiness that will not be
a spooky candelabra lights the table
frozen smiles
uninviteds feast on the celebratory meal
bats swirl about the banquet
bats swirl about
the celebration that never comes
I missed "Great Expectations" last year with Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes.
I must find it on dvd and watch this year.
Here's the trailer for it...
HBC looks very good in it but then she always is.

 - Havisham -

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then
I haven't wished him dead. Prayed for it
so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes,
ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.
Spinster. 

I stink and remember. Whole days
in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this
to me? 

Puce curses that are sounds not words.
Some nights better, the lost body over me,
my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear
then down till suddenly bite awake. 

Love's hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding cake.
Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Don't think it's only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.
Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

Isn't this the perfect Halloween poem?

Heartbreaking, it is.


If you are visiting from Vanessa's party...be sure to check out my previous posts this month. 
There is more Halloween decor and crafts too!

sharing at