BOO!

Spooky Poetry

I like to tune into Garrison Keilor's Halloween show on NPR every year when he usually recites "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe. With his dramatic rustling voice in bravado timing, Mr Keilor won me over to the darkness of Poe's work which is so eloquently dismal for fall, as the earth is slowly dying and melting into the graven ground beneath us.

So, I thought I'd offer another of Poe's works for your haunting pleasures. I recommend turning the lights down, the candles up and then in the silence of a ticking clock that strikes the midnight hour, do a little reading of your own.

Spirits of the Dead

by Edgar Allen Poe

Thy soul shall find itself alone

'Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone–

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude

Which is not loneliness, for then

The spirits of the dead who stood

In life before thee are again

In death around thee, and their will

Shall overshadow thee; be still.

The night, tho', clear, shall frown,

And the stars shall not look down

From their high thrones in the Heaven

With light like Hope to mortals given;

But their red orbs, without beam,

To they weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee forever.

Now are thoughts though shall not banish—

Now are visions ne'er to vanish;

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more—like dew drops from the grass.

The breeze—the breath of God—is still,

And the mist upon the hill

Shadowy—shadowy—yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token, —

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!

A Beautiful Fall Day in Oklahoma!

I've been waving my magic wand over the front porch and look what I did!

I turned petunias into pumpkins...

and geraniums into pheasants.

I've brought out my black cats.
And my tin pumpkin head.
And have chosen a few specimens for my carving experiments to come.
I've captured a few jack-o-lanterns and put them under glass so they won't escape...
along with some tootsie rolls and shrunken heads and hairy acorns, too!

So how is the spooking going at your house?

A few recent projects

A knitted scarf for ME! from some yarn I bought on vacation.
Look at this fun scarf. The beads were strung on one ply of the yarn. I paired it with yet another yarn in an orchid mohair. Looks like peppermint candy to me!
I'm usually not drawn to blues, but my cousin requested it. It just happens to be one of my favorite scarves so far.
And a special request from my friend Sulli. Sometimes a girl just needs something warm and snuggly around her neck. I couldn't send Daisy, so I'm sending this instead!

The warm glow of sunlight

I don't know about where you live, but we've had gray skies and rainy weather for weeks and weeks now! But this morning the sun peaked in and lit up my breakfast table. Just thought I'd share it with you, today.

Streusel muffins and coffee, a nice way to start an October morning. Now listen, you don't have to make homemade. These are Betty Crocker Cinnamon Streusel and oh my they were delish!
I changed the plates in my plate rack weeks ago to celebrate the oncoming season, but Steve just noticed them this morning. That's what a sunny day will do for you! ;)

Get out and enjoy the beauty of fall!

Love, Dana and Daisy

Tips for Decorating your Hallowed Halls

If you're like me, you love all the trinkets that evoke the fun and childhood memories of Halloween and trick or treating. But have you ever noticed that most of these items are small and and don't make much of a statement when decorating for the goblins who'll be coming your way?
I've collected a lot of Halloween items over the years and here are some tips I've set out to follow to make my Halloween decorating both fun and easy and make a statement that ghouls are welcome on my doorstep.
Group similar shapes and colors, but introduce variety to keep things from looking static.

Use round shapes in different sizes together but break them up with vertical shapes or rectangles. Several small items grouped together can have the weight of one large item. This is helpful when you've collected small trinkets. Group them together to make one large statement.
Use your favorites, but don't think you have to use it all. I often put back a couple of things if they just "don't work" and save them for some future decorating scheme.
Use things you already have. I've used iron candlesticks that are seasonally neutral. My giant wall clock takes on an eerie appearance when coupled with spooky items. And even my moss covered garden stones fit in with the decor and lend a little green to the color palette.

And finally, keep it easy to put up and take down. Keep your Halloween stuff stored together in plastic bins in a closet or attic. Pick a few focal points where you want to scare it up a little, but don't overwhelm your decor to the point you dread putting your Halloween decor out. Because remember, Christmas is coming and you'll need to save your strength! ha ha!

Places I am decorating for Halloween:

1. The mantle, shown above
2. The buffet in the foyer
3. A simple centerpiece on the table
4. And of course, the porch.

I usually put a few pumpkins and mums out early but wait until the day of or before to spook out the porch in it's full decor.

Oh the fun you can have with a pipecleaner!

ARACHNOPHOBES BEWARE!

For just a couple of dollars and a rainy afternoon, you can have a lot of creepy fun!

Supplies:

1. various pipe cleaners in browns, blacks, greens.
2. large and small fuzzy pompons
3. adhesive gemstones
4. white glue or hot glue

Twist four pieces of pipe cleaner in the center. Fold and shape legs and feet.
Glue a smaller pompon onto a larger pompon for the body and then glue to center of twisted pipe cleaners.
Attach self-sticking gemstones for eyes and spider spots as desired.
And then run for your life! There are spiders everywhere! Ah they're after me, they're after me!

Mwooooohhhaaaaaahhaaaaaaa!

Holy Ground, so they say.

In Colorado Springs, there's a place called Garden of the Gods. In the shadows of Pikes Peak, rising up out of the earth, sandstone monuments to the ever changing face of our planet.
They say that these grounds have long been considered sacred by the Indians who would travel through here. Different tribes would meet here to trade their goods. And then in pioneer days, the white man came along and marveled at the strange formations.

You might see them and think they are ancient mountains that have eroded away, fragile to the touch, it is easy to understand how they change with every drop of rain or snow that falls.

And yet, rugged, like the people who traveled through here, westward bound.
It might surprise you to know, they are plates of the earth that have been pushed upwards when the earths layers underwent enormous stress as the waters, once covering the globe, receded and land masses separated.

It kind of makes you realize just how small you really are. And if we can really halt the progression of something as big as global warming. What if we are not the cause? I mean there are forces bigger than us at work here!

Not that I have been spying or anything, but...

I come and check on you guys every now and then, and you know what is happening?

Yes, I am seeing some of you out there on my other friends' blogs, leaving comments, saying hello, introducing yourselves! Yep, I see you!

But not to worry, I'm not jealous. In fact it makes me kind of well up with tears of pride actually! It tells me that I have some of the best people in the world as my friends in blogland.

Now something else happened this week. DAISY got like a whole smattering of friends on Facebook from the blog this week! She is braggin' about it all over the place too. She has kind of developed a little attitude on Facebook. She thinks she's so hot cause she has her own page. But you know what it really tells me? That people are missing me or her or both of us. And maybe I should stop being so selfish and blog once and a while again!

Well, it could happen! Stranger things have you know! Now go on and talk amongst yourselves some more while I mull it over.

Love,

Dana and Daisy

The photo is my good friend, Cee Cee Dupps. She's gonna kill me, she really is! But it could have been worse Cee Cee, I could have shown them that photo of you with the big hair, standing right next to Donny Osmond when he was like 20.