Turkey, Giblets and other Thankful things!

Thanksgiving will be here very soon...TOO Soon if you ask me...I am NOT Ready!!! I am once again having friends and family over for this special day (so of course I start to worry about everything!!) ...will be approx. 10-13 people ...this is the part I love the very most...the gathering!! I could have P,B and J's and still be thrilled..to me it is all about the people. Last year it was a go until...2 days prior and both Richard and I caught a friends bad cold...UGH!! Had to cancel and send friends and family into a turkeyless night...felt HORRIBLE...so now of course I live in fear this will happen again... I plan NOT to go into public at all a week prior ...which means I better get my ass in gear and START SHOPPIN!!

But it never stops with the shopping...I also Love to decorate the place...Richard wants to get the Christmas lights up prior (he better get his ass in gear...as we have dolls to finish)!!

I think we are going to try 2 turkeys...1 traditional and one smoked on the BBQ ...fun!

Good Food, Good Wine, Good Friends and Games afterwards.. it does not get much better than this...

So what is everyone out there in Bloglandia doing for Thanksgiving?

Hugs and Happy Bird Day to All...

Halloween Thriller!!

Hope everyone had a particularly Spooky Halloween, got and gave lots of treats and had a good fill of old horror films on TV... I sure did.

I also went down to the Halloween Michael Jackson 'Thriller' Dance on our Main Street Halloween Night...as we get approx. 1 and 1/2 children any more ...decided it was time to haunt other things. They did this dance routine last year (as did the rest of the country) and they decided to do it yet again this year... we have about 6 friends in this group of 40+ 'Zombie'fied' folks ...Our good friend Sheila Carlson is the above mentioned Zelda Zombie (her first year to dance with the group) and she did fantastic...was rather scary too, hey...she scared me!!! Trust me...she is lovely without the makeup!!

Who knows as Halloween Trick 'O' Treaters are thinning out to dribs and drabs...I may just join the group next year to dance my little heart out (possibly literally!!) as a ghoulish globby grotesque Zombie....hmmm already thinking of my outfit...LOL!

Hugs,

Jodi

BOO!!!!

My Halloween Card this Year ... I know, a tad scary but it was the mood I was in at the time....if I made it today probably would be orange and black with plump little witches and cute kitties... did I ever mention I was a Pisces!! A little nutty and swimming in all directions!!!
Anyway a few months ago I kinda threw out a challenge to some facebook friends to create
a Halloween Card...well time being what it is...it ran short and I basically forgot!! A few stepped up to the challenge and I put this one together quickly...
I LOVE skulls and skellymen and of course Black and White...with a 'hint' of color!!lol

So off to plan my Hollygobbleween...
Happy Friday..may your weekend be filled with spooky delights , haints in the morning Goblins by night!

Hugs,
Jodi

Halloween and 'Stuff'

OK...so I have been missing in action once again... lost in the hinterlands of life... no excuse really other than ...there is so much of 'it' (life) going on...really hard to get all my ducks in a row...those little suckers like to wander off!! I do short little blips here and there on Facebook...that is because Facebook is designed to be in that format..short posts of this and that...like texting with pictures! But as I have said about a billion times Blogs are like a Great Big Hefty Chunk of what you really want to say... my problem...I never allow myself the time to actually sit down and say em!! But this morning I had a long talk with myself about my blog absence ...giving myself a piece of my mind (and now we are not speaking...looooong story) anyway...here I am... Popping on to say Howdy do just a few short days before All Hallows Eve.....BOO!

So ...what have I been up to you may ask... and I would answer.... a little of this, and a whole lot of that! Working on a few commissions at the moment ...with a couple more to start shortly.. then we just finished an auction on EBAY that was super fun... 3 little 'Monster Kids' Trick 'O' Treating ...and by monster I actually mean the real thing...not costumed kids... The Mummy's Kid, Wendy The Witch's daughter, and Frankenstein (aka the 'Monster) little boy...you might say a chip off his old man's block! This is the only time of the year they can blend into public without people freaking out...and besides...Lil Monsters like candy too! So that auction finished Tuesday...

I have been in the process of re-vamping my studio for weeks now...basically that's a really nice way of saying 'Cleaning' it up!! Out of control...and if it is driving me nuts you can imagine what it is doing to my neat-nik hubby!! I think I have gained control (for the time being!!) ...

Now that our weather is nice and not boiling hot any longer we are outside working on projects that desperately need to get done ... first up fixing the ground and fire ring where our new tipi cover will sit.... Yes! we ordered our new tipi cover and it should be here within the next 2 weeks...YIPPPEEE!!! We needed to do some repairs to the ground (leveling) and we are mortaring in our fire pit rocks . When it gets here we will paint the top and then put it up and paint the bottom...we can't wait...planning a bit tipi sitting party when all is ready...

We are also building a small patio area cover (shade) next to the pool...for BBQ and just sitting and relaxing. Also fixing our patio outside our back door that houses our pool table and kayaks...it is our little Wicked Waheni Lounge with rustic decking, grass roofed tropical feel meets English Pub Billiard room...I know I know bizarro combo...but it works, believe me!! But we are now needing to fix permanent sun and cold barrier walls in the form of cool painted (looks like real brink) covers ...we want to back them swivel in and out for air and light... Richard has it all jotted down on paper how it will work... should be very cool! The floor in that room is concrete that we have painted a solid warm green ages ago...we had grass mats all over the floor...but..they are falling apart with wear and people are beginning to trip on them...SooOooOoo I am going to actually attempt to 'paint' faux realistic looking grass mats on the concrete...I think it should look pretty cool ...maybe a few crabs, shells and a billiard ball for good measure! We already have a neat wooden deck stage that we painted a few years back for a party we had...with a band... So...this is my plan...and I hope to get started this week... I LOVE to faux paint..must be in my blood from my Grandpa.

We have been repotting lots of plants around the yard .. and trimming and pruning many already planted...and you have not lived until you prune 'Cactus' ...stickers, glochids , spikey thingies...and lots of other things that REALLY hurt...we spent one evening just picking things out of our hands and arms...ouch!

And we are also planning to clean out the garage by have a huge garage sale... and or giving to the local Pet rescue shelter.

On top of that all Richard is teaching me some guitar, I am trying to juggle again, I am sewing a bit and am about to paint the living room. Oh Oh...just got a wine chiller yesterday... something we have wanted for a few years now , they finally came down to a price we could afford...and we LOVE it...well...actually we got '2' ...because the area we wanted to put it in was to small , so we have this lovely older oak stand that would believe it our not hold not one big one but 2 smaller ones...so that's the route we went... so they sit side by side...and I keep my white in one and Richard keeps his red in the other...hey, works for me... ended up actually spending less!!

So this brings me to Halloween ...for some weird reason my heart is not in it this year...I mean, I have a 'few' things up...very few and certainly nothing like what I normally do...we get no kids...grrrrr...they all go 'Trunk or Treating'... BS if you ask me!! anyway...I decided to combine holidays...Yes...I am going to combine 'Halloween, Thanksgiving in the middle and Christmas'...I understand from another artist that there are a few out there doing this very thing ..like a club...I think they call it 'Hallowthanksmas' ..I think I will call mine 'Hollygobbleween' ....I will attempt to join my Halloween decorations...with my fall colors and Christmas Spirit and lights...should be interesting to say the least... I have always wanted to do a Jack Skellyton and Sally and Zero so I will be cutting them out of thin plywood, painting them and putting up all my gravestones with faux (there is that word again!!) snow... lots of stuff like that.... I promise to take pictures....

OK I have bent your ears (or strained your eyeballs) long enough...for those that stuck with this loooooong posting...I thank you and will pay up to 10% of your therapy bill!

I wait long times between but make up for it with non stop jibber jabber...

Great seeing all my Friends again.. and to those New Friends...Welcome!

Happy Halloween or as I like to say 'Happy Hollygobbleween'

Hugs,

Jodi

Already October 2nd and the Halloween Buzz has got me!!

I ADORE this time of the year...if it were up to me to arrange and set up holidays for everyone...I am pretty sure that I would make Halloween last approx. 8 months...and have it mandatory for everyone to wear costumes all that time...eat lots of candy and say "BOO" a lot... wow...how cool would that be... bet war would be a thing of the past!!!ahhhh...but I digress!!

It is October 2nd and my Halloween Itch is working over time... and I always seem to have about a gazillion irons in the fire...I have to do things these days in 'spurts' so I am

s l o w l y getting stuff (decorations I mean...) out of boxes and placing here and there...which I am finding thrilling for a change...normally I do it all in one fell swoop... really liking this new method... allows me to enjoy it more and longer! This morning Richard and I decorated the mail box...classic webbing and giant spider...I personally wanted to place a rubber rat inside our box but Richard pointed out that we like our mail lady to much for that ...so web and spider it is...fun! Then my classic Halloween sign post that Richard made for me YEARS ago ...that is a tradition and goes up in the first wave of decorating... I like tradition and using the same stuff over and over...it becomes like an old friend you enjoy visiting with after a year away.... but I do add new stuff from time to time ...in my area hard to find anything really cool (although I did get that great Skull Glass bottle this year.... they did have actually mouth moving talking spooky busts at Sam's Club that I almost got... but I found them boring and the man and woman fought like the Bikersons so thought...not cool! But the month is still young so I may find something neat yet...in the meantime I enjoy my old familiars... and...and...I can start wearing my witches hat out and about in town.... OooOoo I do miss that!! The remarks I get are priceless...

So on this Saturday...I will slowly go through more boxes... and greet each 'old friend' with love and respect saying.."come out come out...let's play!!"

Have a Great Saturday Everyone...and tell us...what wonderful goodies did you get this year and has decorating begun in your house!!

Hugs

Posthumous Posey's

OK...guess I was in a 'Mood' this weekend... sorting through 'stuff' finding lost things and I happened onto an old book with waxed paper sticking out one side ??? so I opened it up and found some flowers (old corsage) 'pressed' between the pages and wax paper that Richard gave me over 30 years ago.... they were pretty dried but holding together well, I thought back to when the flowers were fresh ,full and fragrant...alive, but how I felt they still had 'life' of the past in them...sooooo...I made 4 little 'dried corsages' with total Halloween Spirit...called them 'Posthumous Posey's...here is one...popping them on ETSY...just fun art that pops into ones head when it's least expected.

Now thinking about the next doll...wanna do another mini...but what to do...what to do. Thinking about a really sexy Vampire...hubba hubba...but then a tiny witch doing something 'witchly' or a really odd ball thing I have been thinking about lately...probably totally un-saleable!!! Why is it that those are the things we are drawn to the most... odd!

Have a wonderful Monday All..

Hugs,
Jodi

Our First Halloween Witch for the Season

Happy 'Mid' September to one and all.... again the time keeps on slippin slippin slippin into the future!! can it be only a couple weeks till October??!!! The Bewitching'est and Most magical month of the year!!!
I am getting very inspired with all these thoughts of haints, spookies, witches and anything else that Bumps in the night... I am sure that I do not need to explains these energetic and electric feelings to most of you who already know all too well the

Excitement that is Halloween Season!!! Oh to live in Halloween town 365 days a year...ahhhhhh!

Anyway, started to get out a few decorations and even have bought a few new things for the New Halloween Year and that all got me excited about doing a doll. So we started work on this little lady above...'Madda Gnatwick Gribblegob' ...and of course her familiar 'Sir Scribe' . I remember well from my childhood when teachers (or visiting grandmas) would come in and read to the class...either in school or the library... that was a great time of my life... I myself was not a big reader...to fidgety, but when someone read to me...I was very still and alll ears!! I have heard that today this is a more rare occurrence...and though they do have library reading hours in a few libraries here and there...they are still few and far between...so sad. I know the school system of today is bogged down with many children and reading hour is more difficult... So I thought...A Retired Witch...who loves to read and write , she has nothing but time on her hands what with all the spells etc being put aside in retirement... how about she joins the volunteer force that grows daily and starts reading stories to the kids... bingo!!

I like this lady...she represents everything positive in life... time spent worthwhile ... a positive force , a guiding figure that teaches the mind to grow and use imagination....

So up popped Madda!!! I am very pleased with this doll...she is one of those dolls that came out exactly how I envisioned her and did not stray one bit from my mental and heart design on who she should be... I can even smell the candy corn and candy apples...lol.

So I figure this is a great way to get the Halloween Season off to a good start for myself...

Hope you enjoy this little lady.... I have put her on EBAY

there you can read more of her story and see more pictures... Thanks for taking a peek

Happy Pre-Haunting Everyone...

Hugs,

Jodi