HALLOWEEN PARTY PHOTOS

We love Halloween!!! We love the way the house looks and smells. We love the stories about ghosts and witches and ghouls and goblins and all of the things that go bump in the night and we love the scary movies as long as our blankets are there to hide under. We love Halloween!!! It’s the very best way to start the holiday season. But of all of the things we love about Halloween we love our party the best.

We had our party last night and it was so much fun. We played, “PIN THE LEG ON THE SKELLY” and “TOSS THE BAT INTO THE BELFRY” and a game that Wednesday and Pugsley taught us, “WAKE THE DEAD”.

We bobbed for apples and played a game where we sat in a circle and told a ghost story with us each taking a turn making up a part to add to the story. Wednesday is really good at this game. We also had a CANDY BAR HUNT that was a lot like an Easter egg hunt except we hunted for candy bars.  Mom made sure we had plenty of treats.

She made us yummy popcorn balls……

and candy apples……..

And she let us help ourselves to the candies in the BOO! Box…

and the BOO! bucket.........

and she made us pumpkin bars but we forgot to take a picture before we ate them all.

And all of the while we are dressed up in really great costumes.   

It's really great that we can tell our mom what we want to dress up as and she makes us our costumes. She even makes costumes for some of our friends. This year we had an idea that is just short of genius if we do say so ourselves. The idea first came to us right after we came home from summer camp and were telling our friends about all of the good times we had. Dory said it was too bad she wasn’t a bear so she could go with us. We thought it was a shame too and then we talked about her disguising herself as a bear so she can go with us next year. That is what gave us the idea for our costumes. That and a movie we heard about but our mom wouldn’t let us see.  We went to the Halloween party as the

“BEAR WITCH PROJECT”.

What Mom doesn’t know is Dory is going to use her costume to go to Camp Good Bear with us next year.

Wednesday with the Bear Witch Project

Our cousin Agnes May with her new friend Wednesday

I can't be a witch.  Everybeary knows a princess can't be a witch.  I'm too pretty!

Our friends Pugsley the mummy and Wednesday

Our cousin Agnes May has come to live with us and was eager to become one of the Bear Witches. She was living with her gramma but she and our mom decided it would be better for her to live with us so she would be around others her own age. She and Wednesday seem to have become friends already.

"Sis, do you think you should be letting the little ones have all of those sweets? They'll be climbing the walls and bouncing off the ceiling before too much longer at this rate."

"Don't worry about them getting too many sweets. They're pretty good at knowing when they've had enough. Did you need something Oakley?" 

 "Mom, Wilbear wants to know if there are more marshmellows to go with the hot chocolate."

We thought you might like to see the zombie bunny that our aunt Maggie made. Isn't he the cutest thing??

We're still worn out from our party. Mom says we were on a sugar high and then we all crashed. Not sure what that means. Anyway, we're going to let Mom have a turn to say something and we're going to go snuggle under our blankies for a nap.

Hugs,
Bellamine, Clarissa & Wendy

I thought I'd better take a moment to give Maggie credit for her contribution on this post. The three little old lady dolls were made by her. She told me they were of her, Marlene and me. I really don't think we look like that but I might be wrong. I'm the one sitting on the sofa. The zombie bunny she made last year and I've wanted it since I first saw it and now he's mine.

I've got to carve some pumpkins to set out on the porch for tonight's trick-or-treaters so I'll just wish you all a

~~Happy Halloween~~

 and as always, thanks for stopping by

OUR TREE HAS A NEW LOOK

Do you remember when we decorated our little tree for Christmas last year and then when we decorated it for Valentine’s Day and then St. Patrick’s Day and then again for Easter? Remember that little tree? Well, we’ve decorated it again this time for Halloween and we think it turned out really scary. We had some help from our friends Wednesday and Pugsley. It was their idea to put the skulls on it and we all thought the ghosts were a great idea and easy and fun to make. Bellamine is the one who came up with the sparkly bats and we wanted to make more of them but ran out of black pipe cleaners. We made some pointy witch hats but decided they were too big for the tree and after standing back and taking a good look at what we had we decided it was enough.

Isn't it BEE-U-TEE-FULL?

We took the photos yesterday morning and since then Mom has made some additions  that she will show you in a few days. Now that the days are shorter and cooler she is finally in the mood to decorate for fall and the holiday that we'll be celebrating at the end of the month.

We have been thinking about what we want to be for Halloween. Do you get dressed up in a costume? Mom is making our costumes and she took us shopping to buy fabric for them. We aren't going to tell you what we're going to dress up as because it's supposed to be a surprize.

Once the witches saw how great our Halloween tree turned out they're considering giving the enchanted tree a new look.

"What do you think Belladonna? Maybe a few bats and a crow?"

If they do decorate the enchanted tree we'll take some photos to share with you. We'll also take photos once Mom finishes decorating. 

We're going to go get some hot chocolate and then we're going to see what our friends have been doing.

Have a wonderful day.

Hugs,

Bellamine & Wendy 

Fall Has Arrived

I know it’s been awhile since my last post. I’ve been keeping busy with trying to get the garden ready for winter and other mundane chores. Not too exciting. I’ve been waiting for the weather to cool down and to start feeling more like autumn so I’d feel more in the mood for decorating the house and start getting ready for the holidays coming our way. It’s only been this past week that the temperatures have started feeling like October and not August. I even baked a green tomato cake yesterday. If any of you want the recipe for this delicious snacking cake let me know and I’ll email it to you.

Okay, now for a bit of North Pole news.

Remember Dory and Donner O’Dell? They have a cousin that has come to live with them. Her name is Danni O’Dell and even though she is quiet and shy she’s a real sweet heart and seems to be opening up and becoming more outgoing with each day that passes. She’s about the same age as her cousin Dory although she is a bit smaller and prefers dresses over overalls and rompers.  One thing I’ve learned about Dory is she’s a bit of a tomboy which is the reason I think she and Bellamine get along so well. Speaking of Bellamine, she and Wendy have been spending a lot of time over at the O’Dell’s getting to know Danni and welcoming her to our little community.  

I thought I'd share some photos of Danni that I took this morning.

Danni, how about a smile?

That's better.

I wish my hair stayed this neat in back. I always have strays.

Danni, I can see your nickers. 

Danni's friend Willow who seems to like sitting in my rocking chair.

The O’Dell children also spend a lot of time at our house and Danni seems to have taken an interest in the heads on my work bench. She spends hours in here with me asking questions and showing an interest in learning what it is that I do.

As you can see from the photo I’m now down to five heads to make bodies for.

I went fabric shopping the other day and found that beautiful fabric in the photos that I plan on using to create a trio of free spirited ladies with next. I’m thinking about making the trio into shelf sitters and doing a few new things with them that I haven’t tried yet. My mind is still working on ideas and it may be awhile until I have settled on how to proceed. Then there’s the pattern making etc. so they may not get finished until next year.

I’m saving the two little old men, Sal and Moe until the very last. Right from the start I knew what I wanted to do with them but it’s going to be a lot more complicated than what I have done with the other heads. You’ll have to wait to see because I’m not giving any hints or spoilers.

Now that it’s starting to feel like fall I’m starting to feel more like decorating and the bears have been nagging me about making Halloween ornaments for their tree. They’ve already thought about the costumes they want me to make them for the Halloween party that we have every year so I’m seeing a busy schedule ahead for me.

Enjoy your weekend and as always, thanks for stopping by.

IT'S TIME TO PARTY

Welcome to our home. We're in the process of preparing for our Halloween party.

A few of our friends have already arrived and are busy putting together a little special something for the party.

Here are two who seem to be enjoying themselves. It would seem they've had too many sweets and the sugar has them doing some silly things and the party isn't set to start for several more hours.  

I ain't afraid of no ghosts!! Don't worry I've got things under control. Those ghost know better than act up now that I'm here.

Happy Halloween 

We want to wish everybeary a safe and happy Halloween.

Your beary good friends Bellamine & Wendy

ANOTHER SNOWMAN

As you can see from the title of this post I've finished another snowman. Sometimes I get a notion to do something that's not what is normally expected or accepted but I just have to do it anyway just to get it out of my system. The funny thing is my sister Maggie had the same idea so maybe our brains are connected. Anyway, I'm going to just go ahead and show you this new guy without saying too much about him until after you've seen his photos.

                                     
                                    
Yes, he's got a beard. I know most snowmen doesn't have beards but there really isn't any reason for them not to. He also has some sparkles and I see some sparkles are showing up like blue dots in his fur collar.

I really wish I could get the colors to show up more natural in the photos as they are much nicer looking. In the photos there doesn't seem to be much difference between the color of the hat and the coat but there is. I used terra cotta, chocolate brown, russet and sand stone to name just a few of the colors used in his clothing. He has a wreath hanging on his right arm and it is trimmed with a pine cone and red berries.

I'm not at all unhappy with the way this little snowman turned out. Oh, I nearly forgot, his name is Oscar.

I hope everyone is well and happy and being productive or not, depending on what your goal is at the moment. I know some of you are getting excited about Halloween being only a few days away. 

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Enchanted Tree

At the bottom of my last post I showed you a photo of an enchanted tree that Maggie had designed and is selling the pattern for it on her blog. I really love this little tree and had to have one of my own so I had Maggie send me the pattern.

While making this little guy I learned a couple of tricks from Maggie that I hadn't known before as I really haven't made any fabric art dolls this size. One thing I learned is it's not easy turning something this small right side out. I called Maggie and asked how in the heck did she manage it and that's when I learned about using a soda straw. Huh? I asked when she told me to use a straw. What does a straw have to do with turning something inside out? She told me that's how she turns fingers and such on her art dolls and then told me how to do it. You insert the straw inside what you want to turn and then poke the fabric with the smooth end of a crochet hook into the straw. It works like a charm. See, you can teach an old dog a new trick. Not that I'm old or anything.

Here's Maggie's Enchanted Tree:

Isn't he the cutest darn tree ever? I love the fabric she chose for the tree and how it goes with the fabric she used for her crow. When I shopped for the fabric for mine I kept that in mind and found a black and a brown that that had a matching pattern.

Here's my Enchanted Tree:

Maggie used doll eyes when she made hers but since I didn't have any I constructed mine with white felt and black beads. I also gave mine a pipe cleaner nose instead of wrapping a wire with fabric mainly because I had a brown pipe cleaner. 

Here's a closeup of her crow:

He looks so cute sitting on the branch. What's really fun with these guys, the tree and the crow, is they can be positioned in so many differented poses. The fingers and arm and branches if you want them to have wires inside. When Maggie posted this guy she had him assume different poses. I've been doing that with mine since I finished him yesterday. I'm going to wear him out at this rate.

Here's a closeup of my crow:

If you think the leaves on my tree look different than the one's on Maggie's it's because I made them differently. My sewing machine was acting up again and wouldn't let me stitch the edge of the leaves without messing them up so I decided to make them without sewing. I glued the fabric to both sides of some heavy paper and them traced the leaf pattern on the fabric and cut. I used paint to add the detail to the leaves.

I think one of the things I really like about this pattern is the flexibility you have when making it. There are three sections to the tree and when joining the sections you have the option of putting section "A" on the right side or the left side and by doing so have changed the appearence of the tree. As you can see by looking at Maggie's tree and mine each is unique. I'm thinking of making this tree in different fabrics for the different seasons and different rooms in the house. I'm also thinking about making one for my daughter and another for my granddaughter as gifts.

Well, I've got to run. Places to go, people to see and things to do. This month in moving along too fast for my liking and Halloween will be here before you know it. I still haven't finished my decorating and I don't have much time left. I do want time to enjoy it before I have to take it all down and start decorating for Christmas.

As always I want to thank you for stopping by.

Oil Pastels, Just Add Water

Just a quick update on my progress with the dreaded pastels. I pulled some water color paper from my stash and worked on another witch this morning. I think my goal is to do as many Halloween related painting and sketches as time permits until the end of October.

The paper I used for this witch is smaller, 9" x 12" where as  I used 11" x 14" for the others. I think I like the ability to blend the colors and smooth them with the water but since this is only the first piece I may be premature with my enthusiasm so I should  probably hold off before I make any more comments.

This is Zelda's glamour shot. She's even wearing a touch of lipstick and has combed her hair.

This is Bertha the witch I sketched yesterday on paper that I couldn't use water so the blending was done with a stomp. I think I like the way Zelda's hair turned out better. What do you think? Do you like the dry method or do you prefer the water blending?

Well that was short, wasn't it? I'll be posting more of the sketches and paintings as I complete them. I'm thinking of framing a few of them to decorate with for Halloween.

Remember, the winner of the pencil drawing of the Practical Magic house will be announced at noon my time on October first so check back for that and as always, thanks for stopping by.

Sneek Preview

I have been working on pieces for a blog party that I'm participating  in later this month and because projects don't get finished as fast as they once did I haven't gotten much else done. These little figures that I'm going to show you were supposed to be part of my offering for the blog party but I decided that instead of saving them I'd show them to you now. They're not as large or as detailed as most of my pmc figures because I'm trying to come up with something that doesn't require as much file work as my usual pieces. I've discovered that the easiest thing for me to do is paint so I'm relying on the painting to give them detail.

The first little figure is Fran and she's my favorite. I love the way her eyes turned out.

She was supposed to be holding something else but I wasn't happy with the thing she was holding so I cut it out and she ended up with this little sprig of flowers.

Next is her sister Bridget also called Jet.

I haven't found the right flowers for her yet so she's empty handed.

This is Sally and she's also waiting for me to find just the right flowers for her to hold. It's really a shame that I can't find what I'm looking for.

Last but not least we have Gillian, or Gilly. Lucky for me the white flowers show up nicely with her green gown or she would have been flowerless as well.

These are the Owens women, and they are witches. I realize they do not look anything like the ones you're used to seeing on Halloween but they are four of my favorite witches.

There is a type of doll of Japanese origin that is made of wood called a Kokeshi doll. On one of the blogs I follow the doll artist named Susie McMahon has come up with very attractive cloth and clay dolls she calls Sukeshi and if I can create a similar style using pmc that I like I might call them Makeshi dolls.  Sounds like a terrific name for a doll, I just don't know if I can come up with anything worthy of it. These are experiments along those lines but I don't think I'm going to be calling them Makeshi dolls, that name is reserved for the real deal.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

JACK-O-LANTERN MOON

Since my last post I have completed two paintings.  One painting is for an event in September and I can't show you it yet and then there's this silly little piece I'm going to show you now.

                                    8" x 10" acrylic on canvas board

I'm thinking of taking this image and printing it out on card stock to send out at Halloween.
I actually have a haunted house that very much resembles this one.

Now you've seen my first painting that I've posted. Some day I'll do something serious but for now I'm just going to be silly. The other painting went rather well until I went shopping for a frame for it. It seems that although it's a standard size canvas Michael's only carries one frame of that size in the store. Does that make sense to anyone? If it's a standard size, which the sales woman assured me it was, why carry only one frame in that size? She suggested I try the frame shop in the mall. I h-a-t-e shopping at the mall.

Hope you weren't too disappointed in this post. I'll try to do better next time, I promise.

As always, thanks for stopping by.