Halloween.... again???

Are you sick of Halloween pictures yet??? I know!!!

Just a few more pictures to tie you over til next year. This was me getting ready for a little get together. Same costume as last year but this time without the mask I had painted last year. Boy was it hard to eat or drink with that mask!!!!

but I think there was no risk of me starving:)

I went as a puppet and hubby was supposed to be the puppet master. He never dressed up this year....what a party pooper! Just as well I'm the one who has to fix his make-up every year. The man can not put eyeshadow on!!! :) Well ...maybe that's a good thing! This was the mask I wore last year so I tried copying it. I bought some liquid eyeliner to do the thinner lines. I assumed it would be easy to find liquid eye liner......but I learned the hard way it isn't. Took 3 stores to find some.

The night was perfect for trick or treaters. Warm and the rain held off til midnight. By the time we got there they had run out of candy and had to turn out the lights. Too bad.... my favorite
 part is seeing the kids in their costumes.

Last year we sat on the stoop passing out the treats and I think we even went to a few houses trick or treating.....

I never want to grow up!!!!!

Just a few views of Ginny's new kitchen that was completed last year. It looks so much bigger now with no extra sq. footage added except the ceilings been raised and a new huge palladium window installed. It was great before with it's charming unfitted cabinets. Every time you'd go to visit it would look different. Joe, her husband would sell it at his auction and then replace with something different. Wouldn't you just love that???
You can't do that with fixed cabinets but they got tired of the old drawers that were hard to open....you know how that goes!

Their house is dated 1785 or around there built by a sea captain. It's dimly lit but they like it that way....more like the way they would have lived in the 18th c.


There house is furnished in primitive and classic Early American style and lends itself well to decorations for Halloween and the Fall season.

A few scary monsters around the house that night!

Some of her collection of Christine Crocker dolls
She keeps these out most of the year except at Christmas time.

In December 08 issue of Somerset Magazine Christine was featured with some of her dolls. A wonderful story about her growing up on a farm and learning to sew and make things for herself with what ever they had around the house.

You may remember seeing this cloche in the article about Christine in Romantic Home in the same month. A old paper candy container. The soldered pendant is made by her friend Cathy Penton. Another one of my favorite blogs to visit and I know many of yours. Wouldn't it be the perfect gift presented that way?

Well I guess that's about all the scary things you'll see til next year ( threw in the last couple just for balance).

I still haven't put all my Halloween decorations away.
Maybe orange,black and white will be my new Christmas colors this year...
haha!!!

Las Vegas no More!

It's White Wednesday again and WOW did the week fly! Maybe it was having Halloween on Saturday that made it go so fast. I did have some pictures from it but it'll have to wait. I did want to show you my face made up. Very scary....and I know how much you all love scary things...ha-ha! Never did get a picture of me in my whole costume. It's always hard for people to figure out my camera. Slr's I guess intimidate people :)

The last few days I've finally gotten into the rhythm of getting the shop decorated for Christmas. Normally we open on the day after Thanksgiving and every year I say I am going to be open earlier but it never happens. Not sure why I think it will be different this year.

Anyways the other day I decided I was sick of looking at this glitzy iridescent tree that I've had for years. Love that it is very narrow and can hold tons of ornaments for a little tree and is pre-lit but it looked so "Las Vegas" I bought it the year when I was desperate for a silver tree and I think I got it on clearance. Pretty but didn't have the vintage tinsel look that my other trees had. Would be perfect in a modern decor.

See....very iridescent almost blinding it's so shiny.......turn away if you must!

But then come back and scroll down!!!!!

The easy way to have painted this was to spray paint but I didn't have any white, but I did have cans of paint....boy do I have cans of paint. Being impatient like I am I was dying to see how it would look so I set out to brush the paint on. I know.... what am I crazy?

some would say I am! Of course every light had to be taped off. ....but I was determined to change this tree.

Once I got it completed with the white I pictured it with a more cafe au lait color which I thought I could accomplish with a little rust-oleum spray primer. My friend Paula swears by the stuff and has done miracles with it.... Never works for me and it didn't this time either. The globs of rust color were covered back up with white leaving tinges of brown softly throughout.

It still has some of the silver coming through slightly just giving it "some" sparkle and I think this showgirl has put her diamond studded blinking headpiece away for good.

What stays in Vegas should always stay in Vegas!!!

You know what I mean!

Have a Happy White Wednesday and I hope you all go visit the other gals and [guys] at Kathleens of Faded Charm

Mosiac Monday #1

This is the time of year that we might think our gardens are not at it's best. The Summer flowers have long gone by and we can barely remember what our first blooms of Spring looked like. Some flowers refuse to give up and put on a better show then ever before. We have had the best "dirt" allysum that I've ever seen. I've been calling them that because they are just growing in the gravel where they reseeded from the flats on the benches above. No watering, no fertilizer, no real soil...just process stone and hard packed subsoil. If I had babied them I'm sure they would not have looked as nice.

The image in the middle is my beloved snowberry!

A collection of turban gourds and pumpkin on a granite bench.

A lantern hanging amongst the Virginia Creeper that wants to take over the world. It grows at the front of the greenhouse but it makes it's way every year about 50 ft along the edge and winds it's way thru the benches. I love just letting it go....and by then the houses are mostly empty so it doesn't really matter where it grows.

Setcreasea (the purple foliage) mixed with simple impatiens and begonias.

And of course my beloved Snowberry!

Can ya tell I like this plant?

One of my favorite plants is the big yellow plant in the middle. Long time ago I knew what this was called..... Heliopsis or Helianthus I'm sure, but not the variety. My husband likes letting it get out of control by not staking it. He just likes the way it looks spilling out around the base of the spruce tree. I'm usually begging him to stake it up but now as I'm seeing it I think I'm beginning to come around to his way.


Wild Abandoned Spirit!

Speaking of Wild Spirits....

my friend Kathleen on the right......always enthusiastic and ready to try anything.

Always fun to be around and you have got to love her Philie accent!!!

Seems appropriate that she should be included in this menagerie of bright color!!!

*****

Don't forget to visit Mary at

The Little Red House

for more Mosiac Monday.

My new favorite thing to do....Mosiacs!!!

xo

Carole