TIE DYED JACK-O-LANTERN SHIRT

I missed getting cool pictures of putting the rubber bands onto the white t-shirt and then putting it in the dye bucket in the yard. That was really a fun part, and I'd love to do some more in different colors.
This is after it went through the washer and dryer.
Then Mathieu took out the rubber bands.
It looked pretty good just like this.
But then we used fabric paint and drew faces in the circles to make lots of jack-o-lanterns. He couldn't wait to wear it.

SCARECROW

The county 4-H clubs each had a garden area on Washington Street in Beeville to decorate for Fall and Western Week this year. Reagan and Amy came up with the roping scarecrow idea for the Rockin' H Club to use in their space. So this afternoon all the clubs were out decorating the downtown area. I had them take a photo of Zach and Mathieu when they were done. Their club took second place in the competition.
I usually put up a scarecrow display in our yard for Halloween, but I think I am going to skip it this year. Where we lived before got lots of traffic, but out here there are few cars going by. Plus it is kind of a lot of work to put them together and take them down and then do their laundry after being rained on or having their hats blown off for a whole month. But... I don't know... I may relent and go get the old rusty bike from Andrew's house and at least put a scarecrow on that one...

HURRAY FOR OCTOBER!!!!

And doesn't Coconut look so cute in her new Halloween costume?!

AUTUMN!

I love Autumn! It's my favorite time of year. There is a quickening in the air...something magical that you can feel... as if you were to turn the corner quick enough among the trees, bushes, grasses and seed pods, that you might just catch something amazingly unexpected, like this troop of autumn gnomes marching out from their den.

Mathieu and I made these last night. Today the weather turned decidedly autumnal. Coincidence? Or not? ;)

HALLOWEEN

Halloween was kind of quiet this year. The highlight of the night was when Garrett came driving up in his convertible looking like THAT! LOL! He acted it up to the silly hilt in his werewolf costume. Shabree is at that age where she doesn't really want to dress up TOO much, so she wore a Tinkerbell shirt, a longish tiered black skirt, and a pink gauzey boa. The long pink wig was too hot. Then she carried a pink jack-o-lantern. Zachary was in the 'too old' state of mind too, so he just dressed all in camo. Mathieu was Indiana Jones. I dressed Coconut up in the pink 'BOO!' shirt with the flickering lighted ghost on the back. It matched her pink jeweled collar. I had her sit with us out front to greet trick-or-treaters, but she was not too enthused with it.

Sadly, we only had 95 trick-or-treaters this year- WAY down from what it usually is. And only 3 hay-trailers with kids/parents on them, and two of the trailers were the small kind. There was a big in-town football game, so that might have been a factor, but still I am disappointed in the (lack of) turnout. But one surprise was that one family brought their dog with them trick-or-treating. She was a chihuahua in a Snow White costume. That was really fun to see. Coconut was surprised at that, but not enough to get out of my lap and go investigate closer.

GETTING READY FOR HALLOWEEN

Miss Violette Spice-Blythe is entertaining her friend, Falba, this week. They are taking a break telling spooky doll stories, after a day of canning pumpkin, making pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin empanadas, pumpkin candy and pumpkin stew.

AMADEA?

I got quite a bit of really great mail this morning. Included in it, was this cute Halloween postcard from 'Amadea', postmarked from San Diego, CA. There was a nice long note on the back, that shows that she read something (long and blathery, probably) that I wrote about Halloween. But there is no clue as to where she found me or where I know Amadea from... I have spent the last hour searching on Swap-Bot and Flickr and half a dozen other places without success. So if you are reading this, Amadea, thank you so much! It is so cute, and just the Halloween style that I especially like. And thanks for the movie recommendation. :)

CEMETERY POSTCARD

This postcard was mailed today. It's another Swap-Bot swap: Handmade Art Postcard - Theme Cemetery. The photo I used for it is one I took at St. Joseph Cemetery in Beeville several years ago. I did a little bit of designing on the back, too, but didn't photograph both sides.
Isn't that a beautiful pumpkin blossom with the postcard?

...AND MORE

Untitled. This is for a 'Color Red Handmade Postcard' swap.
This is a 'Halloween Lucky Parcel' for a swap by the same name. This is the first one I've ever made, so I hope it is okay. It looks more like a 'lucky gift basket' to me.

And here it is after it is wrapped and tied up in a gray gauze piece.
This is a whimsey jar for the Magical Forest Whimsey Jar swap. The jar didn't photograph very well, but it is really, really stuffed full of all kinds of things. I leaned it in a pot of foxtail fern wrapped around with baby tears for the photo.

CROOKED LITTLE HAUNTED HOUSE

This is for the Crooked Little Haunted House swap in the Charming Row Houses group on Swap-Bot. I was invited to join earlier in the week and am really enjoying it.
The back has the Emily Dickenson poem on it. I love that poem and it fits well with the theme. Coming soon: Autumn House and Treehouse.
If anyone out there likes arts and crafts or even swapping little non-handmade gifts, I highly recommend Swap-Bot. There are so many swaps available to choose from all the time, and the whole thing has a system that keeps things straight and relatively sure.

HAVING FUN

This was sent to Colleen for a Swap-Bot Forum Tag swap. The other side had a different mixed-media picture on it, but I only photographed one side. (Lazy!)
This is for Kelly and is also a Swap-Bot forum tag swap. The tag was for something "Halloween" and in her profile she wrote that she really liked Edgar Allen Poe, so I came up with this.
Another Swap-Bot forum tag swap for Colleen. One of her requests was a green birthday card for her birthday at the end of September. So I tagged her for that.
And lastly, this is a postcard for Tristan, also as a Swap-Bot forum tag swap. It's a photocopy on cardstock of a painting I did in 2004. The Edgar Allen Poe envelope behind it, is the one I used to send Kelly's swap.

That is about all that has been going on around here lately. Just art and swaps, mostly. But don't the basil plants and coral vine look pretty in the art photos?

I have become active again in a doll photo and story group that I belong to, and have joined 2 more, besides. So before too long (I hope!) there will be doll doings on this blog again.

HALLOWEEN WHIMSEY JAR

This is the first time I have ever made a whimsey jar. The card is one I made years and years ago. I found it when I was digging through all my art shelves, drawers, bins and boxes today looking for images.

SLINKING IN...

It's been a month since I was here last! It's not that 1) Things are dull and I have nothing to blog about nor is it that 2) There is so much going on that I have no time to blog.
I just don't know what it is. I let blogging opportunities and photo opportunities pass. I get side-tracked and then the farther behind in blogging I get, the stronger the tendency is to just keep on letting it go. I still blame it on getting my new camera. By the way, my old one that broke irrepairably? Mathieu was running around in his yard yesterday with it taking photos. He now has a new memory card for it. I should have let him - young child that he is - work on it for me, before I gave up and gave it to him as a 'toy'.

Anyway - the photos above... The first one is one of several shots of the sky I took on my way down the highway last month. I noticed the rainbow colored wavy clouds lines showing from behind a huge, larger cloud. Strange. They were much brighter and more obvious in real life than in my photo.

Then there is Mathieu - the proud new owner of the camera formerly known as mine. It was Grandparent's Day at school last Monday morning, so we went and saw his classroom, playground, and other spots around campus.

The third photo is of a handmade stuffed felt owl I made for a Halloween ornament swap on Swap-Bot. I hope to mail it out today.

My other plans for today are to order more materials for two of the religious education classrooms at church, haul some garbage to the dump (fasinating, I know), deliver some things that need delivering, and start on some more artsy things - some handpainted postcards, a Halloween whimsey jar - all for swaps and then maybe soon, some for myself. I have an idea for the 'captured fairy' type jars that I want to try. Photos (eventually) if successful!

ALL SAINTS DAY...AND A HALLOWEEN REPORT

Whew! Halloween came and went in a flash this year. I felt like I had enough time to prepare for it all, until the day before, about noon, when Andrew called and reminded me that it was just a little over 24 hrs. away. YIKES! So I rushed around trying to get the rest of the Halloween preparations done, as well as finish and send off 5 down-to-the-deadline swaps, and get other regular and semi-regular stuff done. Halloween went well, but was a little on the skimpy side this year as to my yard decorations and all that. I handed out Halloween pencils to 149 trick-or-treaters this year. Down from last year, but not too bad. The first ones arrived at 6pm and the last ones at 8:45 or so. There were three flat-bed trailer 'floats'. One with all the kids seated on orange lawn chairs, one really big one with hay bales, and my cousin's with orange rope lights strung up and plastic jack-o-lanterns hanging from it. But no 'Gator Caravan' this year. Oh, and about the pencils - only one group seemed disappointed in not getting candy, and almost half the kids were visibly and vocally excited with getting them. LOL - go figure!
So many of the parents that came by with their kids commented that there were so many fewer houses participating this year. From my vantage point sitting on my front driveway, on the corner of the block, I could only see one other house lighted and hosting trick-or-treaters. It's really kind of a sad indication of the change in the times and culture.
There was a plethora of pirates this year, and lots of princesses, witches and ninjas. We had two little kangaroos, a king, a cowboy, a couple of super-heros, lots of ghouls and ...accident(?) victims. The best costumes I saw were a big brother who was an Orkin man, and a little sister who was a really cute cockroach. LOL! The parents I noticed in costume were a pair who were a doctor and inmate, Minnie Mouse (shout out to Laura!) and some white-faced, black clothed ghouls (or whatever they were supposed to be). I wore my black capris with a oversized jack-o-lantern shirt, with my black crocks with the doo-dads on them, and had my hair in two lopsided pig-tails with a black and an orange scrunchie. It was too hot for the Halloween socks, and I never got my Halloween crown made. Darn! Hopefully next year. Now for photos:

Mathieu, as a bee-keeper, won first prize at the 4-H Halloween carnival in Beeville. Zachary, who is in that in-between age, went as Rambo...sort of. He borrowed my Desert Storm combat boots for the occassion. He's not mad in the photo, just doing his 'TOUGH' face. The beanie bunny rabbit in the photo is my doing. I have been hosting Floppity, from Sweden for a week and was obligated to take photos of her doing various things in South Texas, before sending her on to the next spot in her world tour.

This photo is from last Sunday's religious education class. Actually it is after classes. Most of the class time involved me giving a lesson to the whole assembled group - all age catagories. I used a pumpkin carving object lesson, including a pumpkin parable and lots of analogies and Bible teachings that go with it. Then at the end, we had each student put their name in for a drawing so that someone will get to take home the jack-o-lantern. Enrique won it, and so he and his younger brother came to pick it up when it was time to go home. Aren't they cute?

As extra busy as I have been lately, I've been forgetting to take photos of my crafty doings and swaps received. This is one of the two sets I made for the Dollhouse Miniature Swap on Swap-bot. I like them - for myself - but am really, really not pleased with how they look, to send to my swap partners. *Le Sigh* The things I received were so much better in design and quality than mine. But this was to the best of my ability, so I had to send them.

This very poor quality (sorry!) photo is of the three Dotee Dolls I made for the Swap-Bot swap of the same name. Mine are the dark green ones. The brightly colored one at the bottom left is the one I have received so far. Because of the leaves and shadows, you can't see her dangly string of beads below her that features a really cool parrot bead.

I guess that is all I have for today. Tonight is the All Saints Day Mass. By then, I hope to have my house a little less messy than it is now, and the garbage hauled to the dump. If I have time and am not too tired, I may work on some art swaps that are coming up, so I don't get caught in another time crunch like I did this week.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY: What was your Halloween like? How many trick-or-treaters did you have?

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE...

HALLOWEEN!
Zachary, Mathieu and I managed to get three scarecrows up today. They are going to need some additional work, but for now, it's okay. It's already the 14th, so they are two weeks late from when I really wanted them to be up. Would you believe, we started on it right after we got home from Mass and class, about noon, and didn't finish until around 6pm?! Of course, we weren't at it the whole time, and part of the work was done in the house, but goodness it was HOT outside. I feel roasted.

Here is a gorgeous decoration I got from RaspberryRoses in a Swap-Bot Tussie Mussie swap. I love it. It was absolutely stuffed to overflowing with really great things. I only photographed it with what would easily fit inside.

Then here is the pinata and a LOT of extra gifts I got from SheCooks in the Swap-Bot Pinata Madness swap. I love the black cat pinata. It's hanging in my kitchen.

And last but certainly not least is my new Petite Blythe doll (Thank goodness for eBay!) showing off her new things from the Handmade Dollhouse Miniatures swap...also via Swap-Bot. I named my doll Violette Spice Blythe. I am totally crazy about the items enakitty sent her - a Harvey movie poster, an abstract painting, two throw pillows, a sketch book, a package of stickers, a brush, two skeins of yarn, a pet dog, and a blue teddy bear - all in tiny 1:12 scale!
That's it for now, I guess.

HALLOWEEN ALTERED BOX

I finished this project last night. It's for a swap on Swap-bot - the Halloween Altered Box Swap. My partner likes German Shepherds, Dobermans, Zetti style, sparkley, vintage, and things with her name on them. This was so much fun to make. I am loving Swap-Bot!
The first photo is the box lid and the inside bottom.
The second photo is the inside top and the box bottom.
next up will be the beginner's stuffed animal swap. I cut out my totally made up free-hand pattern earlier this morning. Photos to follow in a day or two.
I still have the second pinata on my mind. My first plan of construction didn't work, so I am moving on to Plan B...but I have to get the right size box before I can begin. More on that to follow, also.