Halloween Treats!!!

It is almost Halloween! Frost is on the pumpkin here in my area! Just the perfect time to share this bit of yumminess with you. It is also nice to share with your loved ones! I plan on making this up to bring to the Salon tomorrow.

Ye Olde All Hallows Eve Brew
1 C. Blood Drops
1 C. Owl Eyes
1 C. Cats Eyes
1 C. Chicken Toenails
1 C. Colored Flies
1 C. Butterfly Wings
1 C. Earthworms
1 C. Cat Claws
1 C. Ants
1 C. Snake Eyes
1 C. Monkey Brains
1 C. Lizard Gizzards
1 C. Bat Bones
Measure all magically mysterious items carefully into your cauldron. Once all is filled in, quickly, like a butterfly's wings, mix thoroughly. Let it sit and putrify for a few hours. Then, serve your victims (they shall think they are guests) and watch them transform themselves from dour mortals into delighted children.


shhhh - here are the real secret ingredients!
Brew Recipe:
1 C. Blood Drops - Red Hots
1 C. Owl Eyes - round candy (the ones that are out at halloween (white with orange & black)
1 C. Cats Eyes - peanut M & M's
1 C. Chicken Toenails - orange cone-shaped candy
1 C. Colored Flies - M & M's
1 C. Butterfly Wings - dried banana chips
1 C. Earthworms - gummy worms
1 C. Cat Claws - sunflower seeds
1 C. Ants - raisins
1 C. Snake Eyes - chocolate chips
1 C. Monkey Brains - popcorn
1 C. Lizard Gizzards - thin red licorice strings
1 C. Bat Bones - pretzels sticks




Now here's a FUN thing to do: Let's see how many participate and PAY IT FORWARD!

I love this idea that I found it on Sleepy Hollow Craft Company!
Here's how it works......I have agreed to make a little handmade item for three people who agree to do the same thing on their blog to "Pay it Forward". The first three comments to this post who agree to do this will continue the chain of giving....
1. You comment on this post
2. You receive a handmade gift from me!
3. You post this message on your blog and offer a handmade gift to the first three who comment.
4. Thus, the cycle continues and everyone has fun and beautiful crafts to display in their home!

Just think; a gift and it ain't even Christmas! This is NO Trick! Happy Halloween!

Today is my anniversary! Larry and I have been married for 12 years. Why is it that it seems like forever and yet just like
yesterday? I picked out some neat love songs ~ There are several in a row. I put the Randy Travis I'm gonna Love You Forever song first. I remember when it first came out years ago, I cried because I thought that kind of love had passed me by. Then I met the big man.

I had been a single mother for what seemed like an eternity when I met Larry.

I told him "I don't need a man, I need a donkey."

He replied "Where in the back forty do you want me to kick up my heels ~ I'll hee haw for you."
Wow, the beginning of true love! I was as serious as that groundhog eating my vegetables this past summer and so was he! One day while we were "courting", this song came on the radio. Larry grabbed my hand and said, "I'm gonna love you forever and ever, Amen" Who can resist a good man and good music? Hubba, hubba, hubba



Larry is the mushy one in the marriage; I am not. He buys the best cards and gifts and flowers. He even does it on un events! He never forgets dates like birthdays, anniversaries. The only reason I remember my anniversary is because I have one of those lists on the computer to remind me. That doesn't make me a bad wife does it? I am good at other things. I have a great sense of humor, I am loyal, faithful, and Larry thinks I am easy on the eyes. I have also learned how to turn around three times before I sit down. I would make a wonderful lap dog.

So, Happy Anniversary, Luscious. I'm gonna love you forever and ever, forever and ever, AMEN.

What a Glorious Feeling!

There is a buzz all over the Piedmont Triad - it's raining! It is 6 am and I am soaking wet. I got up to the sound of the pitter patter of the wet stuff. I ran to the front door and just couldn't help myself. I opened the door and stood under the maple tree right off my porch and got slapping WET! I danced around in the red mud from where the water line was repaired last weekend. I slipped and fell but who cares? It is RAINING and I let that glorious stuff wash me off. As I sit here, I am shivering a little bit - the window is open and a sweet, almost muggy breeze is wafting through - I am giddy, senseless, delirious.

In an hour I will be at work fixing hair on my weekly Friday customers. Little ladies like Betty, and Betty and Marie and Susan and Betty and who cares how popular that name was way back in the day? Today they are all beautiful to me and they will have to get their bonnets out, umbrellas and I will spray an extra dose of spray for good measure. How about an extra dose of Freeze n Shine, Maude?



Haven't listened to the weather programs. They lie. For weeks we have heard, rain is possible this week. And it has rained everywhere but the Hill! All of that is behind me and fine with me this moment. We are getting pelted with RAIN! Great big heavy drops!

I am really running late and will update later one. I just had to share my little bit of personal joy with you this morning!

I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain; what a glorious feeling, I'm happy again!

Jack, Jill , That Hill, The Bull; and Why Water is Necessary

When I was a little girl I spent many a wonderful summer day with my cousin Butch.

My brother and I, along with my cousin Butch would play Cowboys and Indians, climb trees, and spend our mornings damming
up Uncle Andy's creek so we could swim and catch crawfish. Uncle Andy was our Granny's uncle. He had been married four times, each time to a lady who had the name Mary.

That is another story in itself since Andy lived to be 99.

Our granny lived up the dirt road from Uncle Andy. She and Poppa Coy had a log cabin, lots of fruit trees, chickens, some hogs (I loved the little piglets) and of course, a big garden patch. There was no electricity in the cabin, no running water nor was there indoor plumbing. She had a big two seater johnny out back. Perhaps that was where I learned my fear of spiders.

But that is another story.



We always were mindful of the bull at Uncle Andy's. He always stood under a tree on the big hill way far up on the property. To get to the creek, we had to pass through the pasture, watching our step for cow patties with one eye and the other eye always on the bull. One summer day, after a particularly satisfying time sliding from the big mossy rock in the middle of the creek into the cool water, we began our journey back home. Coming out of the thicket, into the pasture we surveyed our position and that of the bull. Certain that he was oblivious to us, we started trudging along, our soggy, slick clothes sticking to us - I remember how good that cold
felt on such a hot day. The boys were always ahead of me, always trying to lose me, a tagalong interloper that was a stinking GIRL.

The bull noticed us this time. Probably because the boys were jumping up and down, hooting and hollering all at the top of their lungs. Perhaps he was merely curious about us - in retrospect, I choose to think that.

However, when the boys saw him coming down the hill at a fairly good clip, they screamed RUN! Looking for the bull under the tree, it registered in my brain that he was heading our way. I began running down the hill as fast as my fat little legs could carry me. I declare I could feel his breath snorting down my neck! I slipped in a particularly fresh pile and lost my footing. I rolled down the rest of the hill, much like Jack and Jill. After I scrambled back to my feet, I saw the boys with Uncle Andy leaning against the gate post. They were laughing. Winded, wet from the creek, stained from head to toe with grass and fresh manure, I surely must have been a sight. I didn't stop running until I was under the fence and standing behind Uncle Andy.
The bull was standing back under the tree. It appears that he lost interest in us fairly quickly and trudged back up the hill to his shady spot to watch this blonde headed gal in pig tails roll through the muck all the way down that hill.



That story is still legend on the Hill. I have put enough years behind me to find it mildly amusing these days. Butch still finds it rather hilarious. He took relish in sharing that particular story of my youth with Larry this past weekend. We had need of Butch - he has a backhoe and we had a fierce break in our water line. All weekend he and Larry dug a new trench and laid the line, finally connecting the new pipe and restoring my sanity. Butch regaled my big man with every story that I had almost forgotten from those lazy summer days. How nice it would be to return to those halcyon days, hiding away from the world in the dreaming tree, watching the rain walk up the road, sitting out back snapping beans with my granny once more, and never wondering how I am going to pay a $1200.00 water bill.



my cousin Butch

Too much of a good thing can be FUN

I am a happy person. My house can be a mess (that's a given), my cooking skills lacking the pizazz I utliized when I was a newlywed, but heckfire, shoot! I like having fun. My days off from work are generally spent running - you know, the errands that are always time stealers, chores that are just plain blah, blah, to which I occasionally say BAH HUMBUG! Did I say occasionally? Well, perhaps a bit more than occasionally . . . anyhoo, I am working on several projects at the moment and thought I would give you a sneak preview.





I finally found the battery charger for my camera, Angie!

Okay, back to play and paint and thread and yarn and putting on a second pot of coffee.

of love, broken dishes and what matters most

We eat off mis-matched china dishes.

I am not saying it is Larry's fault.

When I was just starting out on my own, living in an efficiency apartment in S.C., I used to frequent junk stores. I purchased my furniture, pots, dishes there. Nothing matched. I would laugh and call my decorating style 'Early Poverty". Today those stores are called Antique Stores and I still look for old fashioned junk stores.

I am not saying that this is Larry's fault.

I like mis- matched cups and saucers, luncheon plates and soup bowls. I enjoy serving sloppy casserole meals on old trenchers discarded by greasy spoon diners.
I have Grandma's fine china way up high in a cupboard. A lovely old set of Haviland. Now and then I find a matching piece. I used to serve special people, on a special occasions special meals on these treasures. But then I had children and I stopped that. Melamine was good enough for those little ankle biters. I didn't have to worry about dings, chips, cracks or little bare feet getting sliced open by an errant sliver of china or glass.


I am not saying that this is Larry's fault.

Occasionally I find an exceptionally lovely plate or saucer and I bring it home. I like to think about the sumptuous feasts served upon them, what polite dinner conversation would have been parlayed. Please note that this is important to me because for far too many years as a single mother I would hear "Josh is letting spaghetti noodles hang from his nose again, Mom".
Where am I going with this, you ask? You should know by now that I ramble. My mind is always doing that!

I am not saying that this is Larry's fault either.

I didn't mean to get attached to a crazed plate which cost a mere 49 cents at the local thrift. It wasn't worth more than that, truly. It was old enough to have the gilt almost nearly rubbed off. There was a hairline crack, so faint only a collector's eye would have discarded it. I would eat delicious chicken salad sandwiches, with chips and a dill slice on the side from it. Even a humble P B & J sammich tasted better when served on this dish. It was my favorite 49 cent plate.
Larry used to work as a short order cook years ago. He has an appreciation for the thick diner discards I serve him suppers on. His face absolutely glows with fond recollections of slinging hash. He does the dishes now that the kids are grown and gone. We don't have an automatic dishwasher. Who needed one when I had children? They knew Mom would inspect their handiwork - but Luscious? well, who would need to supervise him? He of the slick diner floors and heavy hammy hands?



I have a "dish garden" out back, a graveyard of bone china so to speak. People think I am clever. But Larry knows better. He KNOWS better.

Yesterday evening after he washed, I went in the kitchen to dry and put away. My beloved plate was in the drainer. I was as oblivious as Larry until I found the offending chard in my palm.

Now that was Larry's fault.

He buried it out back amongst the hen and chicks,morning glories and late blooming cosmos. And that is why Grandma's Haviland is hidden.

But don't tell Larry.

Nothing Fancy Wreath

Thought I would share with you a plain and simple wreath that takes nothing more than what you may have in your garden.

First you need to gather some elements: grapevine wreath, sweet herbs, string, anything else you like - I had wrapped some virginia creeper, honeysuckle vine and wisteria vines into wreaths a while back and hung them on the fence to dry and wait for me to get back with them.




I used some sweet annie and artemesia





and I also added some dried okra


I fashioned the sweet annie and the artemesia in opposite sides of the wreath and tied in place. Then I clipped a piece off of a sanservia plant, tucked that in with the okra and oh yes, I also grabbed some more grapevine ivy and tied it all up together.
This is functional; great for outdoors and I will put some ribbon around it another time. Ta Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Smells good and is prim n pretty!