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

A LITTLE WITCH WILL LEAD THEM

A blogger friend of mine did a post the other day showing a tray that she had painted for Halloween. It is so cute I told her she had inspired me to paint a tray of my own. The following is what I came up with.

I've titled the painting, "A Little Witch Will Lead Them",

now I just need to decide where I want to put it. How about on the table in front of the sofa?

Maybe I'll set it on the buffet where everything else tends to end up.

While I was down loading the photos I'd taken into the computer I could hear voices in the hall outside of my studio so I went out there to investigate and this is what I found.

"We really need to do something with this silly tree. All of these hearts are creeping me out. Glenda, give it a tap with that marvelous wand you're so proud of and see if you can make the darn thing less disgusting."

"I'm with Belladonna on this. These hearts are just plain creepy. Go ahead, zap it with your wand."

"Alright. Stand back and I'll see if I can make it look a bit more like a Halloween tree."

*S*P*A*R*K*##S*P*U*T*T*E*R*##S*P*A*T!!!**

*PUFFFFFF*

"Well would you look at that?! The stupid wand actually works."

"But...uhh, Glenda...?? Where did all of these pumpkins come from?"

That's exactly how it happened. I didn't get a photo of the puff of smoke that appeared just before everything on the table top changed because it all happened too fast.

The enchanted tree does seem to be happier now that he has his little buddy the crow back. The tree and the crow are my sister Maggie's designs and if you would like to make an enchanted tree of your own visit her blog  Off My Rocker  where you can order the pattern.

It really feels like fall now that the temperatures have dropped and the rains have started. The leaves on my trees are still green but that will change before too much longer.  As much as I enjoy summer I'm ready to embrace some cooler weather. With the cooler weather comes other things to enjoy like baking and then there are the holidays and I do love those holidays! 

I hope you're having a good week and once again, thanks for stopping by.

ADDING SOME ORANGE & BLACK

One of the things I like about decorating for Halloween is the color scheme. I really love the look of orange and black together. It's as pleasing to me as the red and green combination that is so popular for Christmas. When I decorate for Halloween I always manage to include at least a piece or two with orange and black somewhere on it.

Take for example the arrangement on one of my end tables in the living room.

In this grouping my three little friends are stirring up something that is really very orange. It looks like they're having a good laugh about something. I wonder what's so funny.

Wednesday and Pugsley are guarding the Boo! candy box that is filled with pumpkin candies of course. I finished painting the box yesterday and filled it with Halloween candy.

My addition to the bears' tree was nothing grand, just some strands of raffia. The two ghouls and my little wizard seem to approve which make the little ones very happy.

I have a few more decorations I'm working on and will post them when they're finished. I've been looking for ears of Indian corn to make a wreath for the front door but have had no luck finding any.

Halloween is one of our favorite times of year. My daughter and I still get a kick out of the fake eye balls and the bats, the striped stockings and the black pointed hats. The spider webs with the plastic spiders may be a thing of the past and although we don't buy the vampire fangs any more doesn't mean we don't want to. The ghost stories and the scary movies and the costumes, we love it all.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the little touches of orange and black and that you're having a wonderful weekend. 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.