Decor Disaster

October is flying by.

Last week I saw a round mirror decorated with bats at a chain store and thought it was a great idea. Since we have plenty of left over bats (and they do keep well) it was a totally free, no-brainer diy. Then I remembered there was a purple, faux neon bat tucked away somewhere and suddenly we had a color scheme, too. Then the Skeleton Crew volunteered to bring my vision to life. 

Rummaging around in the basement turned up all sorts of long forgotten purple stuff. Many, many strings of lights, as well as a tangled mess of twiggy branches and lots of spooky artificial flowers.

Ivy started by putting together one big dark arrangement . . .

. . . and then a creepy little one. So far it was working out.

Spenser kept a skeptical eye on the progress without interfering, too much.

In no time, after borrowing the haunted houses from the mantle to go with all the black jack-o-lanterns, the decorating was done.

Then all they had to do was wait for the sun to go down for the final reveal.

Well . . . it doesn't look that bad but it's definitely not staying like this!

But Debbie . . . pastels?

It was a good effort. Maybe we'll try this again for Spring-o-ween, or maybe not.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow!

A Mad Decor Hunt

 

Last year I briefly considered picking up a gothic-looking perpetual calendar at Michael's but decided it was weird - and not in a good way. Then this summer it reappeared - on clearance, so I bought it just for the numbers. Of course making a big deal over what day it is really isn't necessary, but on the other hand, doesn't every spooky day in October deserve special notice?

Last week His Madness and I started off on a serious decor hunt with some fortification at the Waverly Beach Bar. With a cool breeze off the lake and industrial strength screens protecting us from the wasps, we could have easily spent the whole afternoon there. However, in a nearby strip mall, there were aisles of decorations just waiting to be picked over. 

The Home Goods shelves were packed with gnomes and a few nearly life size witches.

At Home had lots of these giant Jack Skellington heads. They were a welcome change from the typical orange jack-'o-lanterns but another pass. 

There were great selections of spooky decor everywhere but nothing I couldn't live without. Then, at the very last store, in the corner of the basement in a CHRISTMAS SHOP!!!, we found something we didn't know we needed! 

A Mad Magical Hat

Which didn't come home with us but it did arouse a salesperson's concern about what His Madness was up to and consequently, she pointed us in the direction of some good stuff.  

With the shopping done we ended our day with dinner by the river, leaving the lake to the wasps.

After a full afternoon of shopping we ended up with a fairly modest haul. A wreath, some kitchen towels, a Witch Nutcracker for Creepmas but best of all, the Addams Family mansion! Apparently, it's been around for years! How did I miss that? More importantly, where can I find the rest of the family?

Ivy got everything set up in a corner of the dining room. Looks like Morticia and Gomez are not at all impressed by the Headless Horseman. He is a little flashy.

Is it time for an Addams Family movie night?

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow.

It's Spooktober (according to Alexa)

For the past three years I've had a lot of fun doing blog posts that counted down to Halloween but now it's time for something different. I'm still planning to babble on about the same old stuff but the numbers will go up instead of down. Big change, huh? Actually, I've been trying all year to come up with something new but apparently I'm just not THAT creative, ha!

Earlier this week, His Madness and I drove a couple miles out of town for a look at the new footbridge on Asylum Point. It takes it's name from the Northern Asylum for the Insane that opened in the 1870's and is still overlooking the lake. It's called the Winnebago Mental Health Institute now but the bay and the island still carry part of the original name. At least the word asylum by itself has a positive meaning, thankfully it didn't end up being called Insanity Bay.    

 

It's always been a popular spot for fishing and picnicking but the bridge was destroyed by ice shoves awhile ago and it's taken several years to get it replaced. You can tell a lot about how interesting a city is by how excited people get about a new footbridge to a tiny manmade island. 

Along the shoreline the leaves are beginning show a little color but they're still mostly green. The county was nice enough to dock one of their boats in a picturesque spot. Oddly enough, its name either means "peace pipe" or "low body of deep, still water". Don't you just love it when the internet contradicts itself?

The lighthouse was built in 1937 as part of a WPA project. There are differing accounts on the internet whether or not it was ever lit up for navigation. Apart from the nearby cemetery containing the unmarked graves of former patients, there aren't any stories connected to it and no one seems to think it's haunted. 

Back at home, the Crew was prepping for another sort of haunting, Hocus Pocus 2!

Looks like they decided to bring in a few of the outside decorations for the big event.

 

Last year we ended All Hallow's Eve by watching the original Hocus Pocus, so to begin this years festivities we repeated the same snacks and beverages. 

Right before Halloween last year I found these shot glasses at Home Goods. So far, Baileys and RumChata are the only liquors that allow the decorations to show up. Who knew filling up glasses could be so complicated?  

I thought the movie was good. It can't compete with the original but I'll probably watch it again this month. However, at the end of the movie, near the last of the credits (or somewhere close), there's a brief scene of Cobweb jumping from shelf to shelf in the magic shop and then landing next to this box. So, when can we expect Hocus Pocus 3?

Thanks for stopping by!

Did you watch the Hocus Pocus 2? What did you think of it?    

 

Raspberries and Dahlias

It's that time of year again, you only need to spend a few minutes at the farmers market and you've got what seems like enough produce for an army. Then magically, by the end of the week, it's all gone and you need to go out and get more! Currently, it's dahlia season here in east central Wisconsin and the Skeleton Crew and I couldn't be happier.

It's always a good feeling to know you're supporting local farmers, especially when they are so much better at growing stuff then we are! 

This is the only dahlia that has bloomed so far out of all the tubers I planted last spring. There might be two or three more but I'm not counting on it. Maybe next year my luck will change? 

It doesn't really matter where they come from but someday I will figure out how to give them the perfect growing conditions. Then it will just be a matter of wandering into the garden and picking a fresh bouquet every morning. Of course I'll still keep buying them too.

Fall raspberries are in season, too. These were a little on the tart side for eating fresh. Since we got carried away and bought two pints and they couldn't be spread around the house in vases like the dahlias, turning them into jam seemed like the only solution.

Ivy sustained a spinal injury while arranging the flowers. Since the glue holding her together takes 24 hours to dry, Burt and Kibitz were left on their own to make the jam. 

Fortunately, there is an easy method that doesn't involve complicated canning procedures and takes less than an hour. It has only four ingredients and they didn't even have to watch a YouTube video to figure it out because the directions were in the box of pectin.

The hardest part was doing the math to get the proportions right . . .  and maybe also trying to keep Kibitz from melting while the pectin was boiling.

Viola! Three and a half jars of jam from around a pint and a half of raspberries.

It even passed the test to see if it was completely set!

Finally, it's ready for the official tasters.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you are enjoying these last few days of summer.

Did you catch sight of the Harvest Moon last weekend? It made an appearance here on Friday night but then we had three solid days of rain. It's a good thing we don't have anything to harvest!

Light in the Dark

There isn't a whole lot to do in our town during the summer, unless you own a boat or an airplane. So when The Paine, our local "cultural" center, announced they were getting all lit up and fancy - both house and garden - we had to check it out!  

The installation is a collaboration of geometric sculptures by HYBYCOZO, the Hyperspace Bypass Construction Zone and Lightswitch, an experimental lighting and visual design studio. They have done projects around the world from the Smithsonian to Burning Man and Disney, so it was definitely not the normal summer arts event in our neck of the woods.

Who knew it was possible to cast such intricate shadows?

It reminded me a little of the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit from a few years ago. I didn't get around to seeing that but I really like the idea of expanding one work of art to cover an entire room. 

In the library next door, the plaster work of the ceiling was traced with different colors and filled in with varying patterns. Very psychedelic. The additional shadow patterns are coming from a sculpture sitting on the desk in the back corner.

Across the hall in the dining room things were looking a little spooky.

Maybe it's the blue light bulbs but I'm getting some Haunted Mansion vibes.

What light show would be complete without a fountain full of disco balls?

No space was left unshadowed!

This small sculpture replaced the light in the powder room.

Outside, the sculptures got a little bigger and the moon rose to the occasion.

Would you call these sculptures life-size?

The exhibit opened the day before our son Andy and his wife Kristin arrived for a visit and they were very good sports about posing for photos.

The view from the inside.

Quite a few of the outdoor sculptures were suspended for maximum impact.

 You could spin them and make yourself really dizzy watching the patterns move under your feet.

Then, if you fell down, all you had to do was look up at the sky where a dozen searchlights were sweeping the clouds. Really, they thought of everything. 

On the trees, statues and fountains there was a constantly changing rainbow of lights, not exactly the Bellagio but pretty all the same. Wish they sold a fountain like this at Lowes.

Finally, even the beer came in color changing plastic cups.

Now that's attention to detail!

If you're in the area, The Nature of Light: An Exploration After Dark runs through October 30, 2022. Why they're not keeping it open on Halloween is a good question, it's probably a staffing issue and they're also normally closed on Mondays. We will probably go again next month, it would be great if they made it a permanent summer event!

I hope you are all doing well. His Madness and I have recovered from covid and want to thank you all so much for your concern and well wishes. If the ginormous spiders everywhere are any indication, spooky season is here and the Skeleton Crew can't wait to be back as the stars of the show! 

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!