Holiday Shopping

Shopping for Halloween decorations is certainly a lot more fun now than it was just a few years ago!

It seems like the selection is even better than ever this year.

Burt and Ivy always look forward to their shopping trips.

Spooky things are also showing up a lot sooner than before, too. Our garden center put out these pumpkin chiminea in July! Can't say I was exactly in the mood to light a fire when it was 100°F. 

Even this Christmas shop has dedicated a corner to Halloween.

His Madness always finds a hat!

I was extremely tempted to pick up one of these wolfman skeletons from Target (mostly just for the fun of driving home with it in the passenger seat, ha!) Then I realized that our house is pretty overcrowded with skeletons already.

So what was in Burt and Ivy's haul? A new hat for Kibbitz and  . . .

 silly socks to keep their feet warm!

As for Spenser, he decided to avoid the crowds and do his shopping online.

Plague Doctors and a Shiny Scarf

Today we have to start putting up the decorations, it's getting late!

It's always hard to decide where to begin so we'll go with the new stuff first.

Last month I ordered this mantle scarf online. It was on sale, shipping was free and it got great reviews, so what could go wrong? Much to my surprise, the fabric is a lot brighter than in the photos and it was huge! Now my mantle is pretty average size but this scarf is so big the longest sections reach half-way to the floor. 

Plus some of the fabric is printed with gold foil that is so super shiny it shows up in the dark! I've got nothing against things being bright and shiny but for Halloween, it needs to be spooky. Since it's a hassle to return things, it made sense to try to make it work.   

Folding the scarf in half took care of the length issue but the shiny stuff needed a serious distraction. Luckily, all the stores are carrying fake black flowers this year.

In the other corner of the living room, this print of Plaque Doctors was patiently waiting to add a creepy element to that overly bright mantle scarf.

 Almost twenty years ago to the day, HM and I saw this print for sale outside a tiny store in Venice, Italy. It took a lot of pleading to convince the owner to stay open long enough to sell it to us. He was getting ready to close for his two hour lunch and we had to leave before he would reopen. I nearly fainted when I brought it to the frame store in town and they suggested putting it in this ornate frame. 

I bought Ivy's Cat Mask in Venice at the same time as the print but Burt's outrageous Plague Doctor get-up came from Target! You can hardly tell the difference.  

The Plaque Doctors worked their magic and I'm even starting to like their ornate frame. The mantle scarf still needs more work but for now that's one area that's all spruced up for Halloween. Even Spencer, the primary occupant of the living room, seems to approve. 

It's time to move on to the next project. Have you started your decorating yet?

Thanks for stopping by!

Ivy's Irritating Day

Some days just don't go very well.

Yesterday, while Ivy was watering some plants in the garden, there was a very loud SNAP! Then I noticed she had slumped into an odd position and upon further inspection, discovered she had BROKEN IN HALF! OH, NO!

The news spread fast because Kibitz can't keep anything to himself.

Four years ago, the very same thing happened to Burt but without the spectacular sound effect. His lower half just fell off into some shrubs halfway between the crabapple tree and the patio.

Doctor Madness is a specialist at skeletal repairs so he was called in to deal with the dire situation. 

As with Burt's injury, the remedy of choice included two chopsticks and white duct tape with a little wire woven in for good measure. Ivy's break is in a different place from Burt's so it may require some extra reinforcement. However, the first step was to prepare the anesthesia, though it wasn't clear whether it was for the doctor or the patient.

It was a straight forward procedure, no bones about that!

Success! At least until the next mishap, I hope one of them doesn't put an eye out next!

So things are back to normal and by late afternoon Ivy was strolling through the garden on the muddy path, enjoying the overcast sky.

Take care and thanks for stopping by!

Calamitousness of the Botanical Variety

I've often questioned my own sanity for starting a gardening blog when I clearly am pretty terrible at it. My primary goal was to to entertain my mom but somewhere amidst the planting and weeding, I realized it was actually kind of fun to experiment and make bad choices. I enjoy being an utter failure - as long as all the mistakes are made in the backyard!  

This summer, thanks to some nasty storms, my happy place of errors became exposed! Not only was there a giant hole in our impenetrable hedge, there were no privet plants available to fill in the gap!   

Luckily, I found these Winterberry shrubs at the garden center. They will never get eight feet tall but hopefully, in a decade or so, they will fill in the space. The red berries are colorful, too!

   

Elsewhere, a hoard of Japanese Beetles devoured my yellow roses and then had an orgy.

Who knows what turned all the hollyhocks into shreds. It's technically referred to as skeletonized leaf damage. Oddly, that seems appropriate.

Then there are all of those tomatoes being partially eaten by god knows what and now rotting on the vine. So yummy!

Not everything was a total failure and things are starting to look quite autumnal. There will probably be a hard freeze in a couple of weeks and Mother Nature will erase all of this year's mistakes! 

Now its time to make it spooky!

Thanks for visiting!

The Crescent Moon

When I saw this little countdown calendar at Kirklands last Friday I had no plans to buy it, let alone use it to get myself to do a blog post every day all month long! Maybe I was just overwhelmed by the smell from all those scented candles. Anyway, Spenser obligingly posed with it, so here we are at day two of the countdown to Halloween.

Around seven o'clock last night, I just happened to notice the moon was setting and took this blurry photo, through the patio screens, with my phone. Coincidentally, it matched the crescent moons on Spenser's pillow! That made me wonder if it was typically associated with autumn and Halloween and just how much spooky crescent moon stuff did I have?   

So I started to look around at my half-unpacked, Halloween decorations to see what I could find. Burt drew my attention to this one first. Crescent moons seem to be pretty commonly woven into designs with other Halloween motifs like witches, bats and screaming black cats but I was on the hunt for them all by themselves.

Actually, I found a few I use year round, guess they're not just for Halloween anymore . . .

. . . but, most of them are, ha!

This might have passed for a Christmas ornament, if it wasn't for the black glitter star.

Speaking of Christmas ornaments, I was very surprised to find these on clearance at Home Goods.

(I have no idea how I'm going to use them!)

This Moon Man has been sitting on my piano for around a decade. He came with a black cat and a Santa Claus to switch out with the book.  Burt thought it was time he had a stocking cap, too.

Finally there is this really cheap, black and white pumpkin from the dollar bins at Target.

Burt and Kibitz like to practice their balancing act. 

Well, as occupational hazards go, this was definitely worth it. It can still go on display with the hole facing the wall. I should probably google crescent moon and get to work on tomorrows post.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Countdown Is On!

This year, the bumpy road of life has left me with little time and even less motivation for blogging and I have missed it, a lot! So, now that I've dealt with my problems and have a renewed hope in humanity after reading the full, unclassified whistleblower complaint; it's time to take a break from freaking out and enjoy this fabulous time of the year! I hope I can keep up!

One of the many issues that has kept me occupied elsewhere was our garden. Some very bad weather and crazy neighbors brought down a couple of huge trees and left a lot of daylight in parts of our yard where it had previously been too dark for even the grass to grow. 

My first idea was, "let's put up a greenhouse!" Eventually, HM convinced me that wasn't something to rush into and kindly built a couple of raised beds. (Which was what I really wanted all along.)

They worked out great . . .  in that be careful what you wish for sort of way.

Thanks to copious amounts of heat and rain, they produced way more veggies than I had anticipated.  I never planted pumpkins, they just came up on their own, like magic! 

Some of the produce was made use of in a very straight forward manner on a daily basis. Stewart was very happy about all his catnip and the extra made a perfect pillow.

Meanwhile, Burt and Ivy have been dealing with the overabundance of really ugly tomatoes.

Honestly, are they supposed to look like that? At least they taste good.

It takes a village to make lots . . .

. . . and lots of tomato sauce.

It's great to grow a garden full of veggies but too much of a good thing can make your eyes bug out! 

Are you happy it's finally autumn?

Thanks for stopping by!