I took this photo last weekend up at Grey Lodge. My friends dog, William, running through the shot I was taking of the front door of the cottage on the property. They're lucky we didn't dognap him he's so adorable.
Archives for October 2011
Craft Tip – Cutting Foam Rubber
Posted by on October 20, 2011 1 Comment
With Halloween fast approaching, lots of people that don’t normally craft are busy trying to make their kids Halloween costumes. I’m helping India make a jellyfish costume.
I don’t think I ever read this anywhere, but figured it out by watching foam being cut at a foam factory. If you ever need to cut foam rubber, the easiest way to do it is with your electric knife. The fast-moving serrated blades cut through it like butter, giving you nice, clean edges.
If you don’t have an electric knife, maybe your neighbor does? Everyone should own an electric knife though. You don’t know how useful they are until you have one. They’re terrific for getting nice, thin slices of flank steak, and nothing beats one for your Thanksgiving turkey carving.
Halloween Costumes Through the Years Part 2
Posted by on October 20, 2011 3 Comments
Continuing my walk down Halloween’s memory lane, we now come into the period of time when just being the mom of 3 small kids and a teenager was pretty overwhelming, so the costumes got pretty uninspired, or completely store-bought, depending on the year.
Below India is wearing the grapes that I referred to in yesterday’s post. That was Amanda’s costume when she was probably 2-1/2, but I couldn’t find a photo of her in it.
Maia the witch, Evan the chef, and India the bunch of grapes
Somewhere along the way Jim and I were bags of jellybeans, which proved a bad idea later in the evening when people were getting drunk and popping our balloons.
A truly uninspiring year. Maia the goth girl, India as Pocohantas and Evan as Luke Skywalker.
Maia the geisha girl, India the punk rocker, and Evan as Mr. Incredible. Ugh.
For some reason we recycled Maia's Geisha girl, but with more effort this year. Evan was a greaser, and India was a pirate.
I actually got this real kid's leather jacket at a consignment shop for $5, which is what drove the whole costume for Evan.
Maia made a pretty good Geisha.
India the pirate, complete with fake parrot.
Now we get into the photos of some more creative effort on my part again. This photo of India was the first year we attended my friend Justine’s annual Halloween party. It’s late in the afternoon on Halloween and she has a local hot dog truck come. It’s a great way to get the whole neighborhood together, get a quick dinner, do some socializing, and everyone takes off right from there for their trick or treating.
India was a momma pup with her box of puppies for sale. I do not have any idea what the other two were this year as I don't seem to have any photos of them???
I got into it this year. Evan was Frankenstein, Maia was a mermaid, India was a hot air balloon, Jim was the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and I was a witch.
The makeup was wearing off a bit in this shot, but this was my first year's witch costume.
This was a great costume. I took a store-bought mermaid's costume, but made a really fancy mermaid's tail with this awesome fabric I found. I made a veil out of fishing net that I glued seashells and sea glass onto and glued the net to a headband.
Frankenstein from the back. The head was made out of a plastic gallon milk carton. I bought a blazer from the thrift store.
These costumes are, no doubt, the cause of my complete Halloween burnout this year. I made every single costume from scratch except my own witch costume. My makeup alone took long enough.
I even offered to fly Amanda home for the weekend from College, as she would have been a perfect Glinda the Good Witch. She chose a weekend of college Halloween parties instead. Go figure.
Jim was the Cowardly Lion. It was absolutely freezing out last Halloween, and Jim was the only one that was comfortable.
Maia was a great scarecrow.
India as Dorothy complete with Toto.
Evan was the Tin Man.
And I was The Wicked Witch of the West. A role that Jim said suited me well. My friend Susan took this photo and I love the profile.
And just to show you how really old I am, here’s a photo of me and a friend when I was 20 years old at a Halloween party. I was a hooker and he was my pimp. I still laugh out loud every time I look at this photo. Look at my hair! And I still remember going to the thrift store to find his clothes and what a score it was to find those pants (they’re corduroy!) and that satin paisley shirt. Remember this was almost 30 years ago…you couldn’t wear this costume today with about being beaten up by an angry mob. I do not mean to offend anybody, it was all done in the name of fun.
Fall in the Catskills
Posted by on October 19, 2011 Leave a Comment
While the recent hurricane had stripped the trees of their leaves prematurely this year, the fall colors on the ground were still breathtaking.
Didn’t I Tell You?
Posted by on October 19, 2011 Leave a Comment
Did I not predict that Gracie would be the one goat to get paint on herself during the painting of the coop and barn? Here she is just with the red paint on her. By the end of the day she’d added some nice touches of grey as well. And it was oil-based stain. I had to scrub her with a paint thinner-soaked rag and then give her a bath. She just has a hint of red left to her now.
Halloween Costumes Through the Years – Part 1
Posted by on October 19, 2011 3 Comments
As a child I have vivid memories of some of the Halloween costumes that my mom made for my sister and me. One year we were a pair of dice, one year we were giant frogs with pink balls cut in half for our big googly eyes.
Amanda amongst our carved pumpkins.
The past two years my friend and I co-chaired the haunted house part of the annual fall fundraising fair for our elementary school. We were a great creative team and had lots of fun coming up with new, creepy ideas to scare people. I have to say I was pretty happy this year to be done with that commitment though.
My friend Cyrena loved playing the Mad Scientist at our school's annual haunted house.
I’ve tried to carry on the tradition of making Halloween costumes for my kids through the years. Some years were successful and some not so much. Last year I knew what we were going to be 9 months before Halloween and was sewing months before the date. This year, for the first time, I have absolutely no interest in making a costume, trick-or-treating, or doing any of the normal Halloween festivities. I think I’m suffering from Halloween burnout. I’ve got a simple idea for Evan, Maia is going to recycle an old classic costume she wore a number of years ago, and India is making a costume from supplies I’d bought for it last year.
Amanda as an ear of corn at 1-1/2 years old.
She was a beautiful bunch of purple velvet grapes the next year, but I don’t seem to have a photo of it that I could find.
Amanda as a flower at I think probably 3-1/2 years old with her best friend Connor.
Amanda as a giant cupcake. The base was corrugated cardboard I painted white. The top was batting I spray painted and the sprinkles were spray painted pasta. The candle was a paper towel roll I painted.
We all have vivid memories of Amanda in this costume because she was walking along, fell into a pothole, and would have fallen flat on her face and probably knocked some teeth out but the costume saved her and practically bounced her back to standing!
Have you noticed the food theme going on here yet?
This piece of cake was by far the worst costume I've ever made. It was cute and all, but was so damned big that a friend had to carry the front around for her in the Halloween parade at school. I did not save this one.
Amanda as a beauty pageant contestant.
And what girl's life wouldn't be complete without the requisite 50's poodle skirt.
And then along came India, Evan & Maia and things got more complicated. Their first costumes were, by far, my favorite costumes ever. They were all, appropriately, chickens. Well, Evan was a rooster.
Evan the rooster.
Maia was a really late walker, so she had to be hauled around in a wagon in her chicken costume.I did make her a nest to sit in though.
This has remained one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken.
That’s enough Halloween for one day. I’ll finish this up tomorrow with the rest of the years gone by.
What I Did While ‘Unplugged’
Posted by on October 18, 2011 Leave a Comment
While being away in the Catskills this weekend with no phone or internet was great and I enjoyed being unplugged, it doesn’t change the fact that I have ADD. I am almost incapable of doing “nothing”. So, while everyone else sat around chatting, or while Lorraine was finishing the dinner preparations, (yes, I did offer to help), or while we sat around the fire that night, I sat there and worked on linoleum prints. I can still participate in conversations, but I can be productive at the same time. I love that.
I came home with a bunch of linoleums ready to be cut, but managed to get 3 finished before coming home.
4 Horses printed card.
Farmhouse printed card.
Rocky printed card.
Rocky printed and hand colored.
Frost Valley YMCA Farm
Posted by on October 17, 2011 1 Comment
Just down the road from Grey Lodge was the Frost Valley YMCA Farm. They have a farm camp there and lovely yurts to stay in. They didn’t have a lot of animals, but they were all very friendly and they had a really nice assortment.
This alpaca was on the shy side, but his darker friend was very friendly. Jim was trying to convince Evan to hop on his back to ride him. Thankfully the alpaca was not cooperating.
There were some floppy-eared bunnies hopping around you could pick up.
They had a nice variety of goats there. Of course this is a lousy picture. Somehow I didn't get a picture of the naturally ear-less LaMancha goats. they had two and they are so interesting and were so friendly
This was an adolescent Pygmy buck that they'd just gotten a few days ago. He was probably the cutest goat I'd ever seen. He was friendly and had the most wonderful colors. Plus he was still young so he wasn't too stinky yet!
They had a lovely variety of chickens. A flock of about 20 that were free-ranging all over the farm.
As sometimes is the case with a rooster present, a few of the hens had bottoms that were completely plucked raw. Ouch!
The Light Brahma rooster was lovely, but I couldn't help but feel bad for those ladies with the plucked bottoms!
The tom turkey was putting on a show for us and his ladies.
This is Batman the llama and the sheep he's in charge of guarding.
And their guinea hens were running around making the strangest noises.
I don't know what kind of sheep this one was, but he was the most wonderful color. His face and legs were a chocolate brown and his coat was almost silver.
A happy barn.
It was a really nice place to visit. All the animals were happy and clean with plenty of room to roam. The barns and coops were clean. It’s really nice to go see a farm and come away with a good, warm feeling about how the animals are being cared for there.
Utensils by the Window
Posted by on October 17, 2011 Leave a Comment
Up at Grey Lodge this weekend in the pantry was this great display of utensils hanging by the window. Lorraine was told those various handled pans with the circles on them were egg poachers.