Welcome, all you Trick or Treaters!
We take Halloween to heart around here.
We have for a long time. Halloween 1988, I was the Monster Bride, Mike the Monster Groom, and Lina made the perfect Monster Wedding Cake!
Then, she grew into a beautiful Wicked Witch, er Princess…
with an adorable Little Logan Monster for a brother.
Perhaps the fact we eat nothing but sugar from sunrise to sunset on October 31st has something to do with why we’re so sweet on this holiday.
And why my Hallo-weenies are preternaturally perfect:
On the other hand, our table manners DO seem to suffer as a result.
Not that I really care. One more peanut butter cup and I’m going to start believing that pile of pumpkins and squash on my front porch might actually turn into a bird and fly away. Silly me!
I have kept a journal in one form or another for over 35 years, and I still have every one of them. For now, I keep them in the studio where I play with all things paper. The spiral bound ones are filled with my “Daily Pages.”
I started doing the Daily Pages or “Morning Pages,” as a lot of people call them, when I discovered and followed the ARTIST’S WAY in 1996. That is a seriously long time to have been starting my day in the same way. SIRIUS-LY. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist. For those of you who have not met this handsome guy — meet Sirius, my anything BUT serious Chiweenie. He keeps me company every morning while I write my Daily Pages, with my felted bunny pen.)
This morning when I was flailing about trying to figure out what to post I started reading through old journal entries, and as always happens every decade or so when I hit a wall and decide to go back and see if I can figure out just what it was I was thinking, I discover… I was thinking the same thing I’m thinking now. That list of unfinished home improvements? Same list. The pre-holiday To-Do list? Same list. The flatten my abs, get new jeans, why does my hairdresser never understand what I’m aiming for list? Oh yeah, exactly the same list.
But then if I keep digging, the moments of brilliant insanity come shining through. I have two gems to share with you. The first is from 11/3/99. I was desperate for separate studio space. So much so I even had planned dealing with potential “bad smells” arising from seasonally switching from trailer to trailer. I’m sorry to say I never did get to try out my plan and those trailers are gone now, replaced by new, fresh smelling condominiums.
And then there’s my favorite, this little wonder from 11/4/76…
By the way, “Mike” is my Mike. He may think I’m insane, but we’re still together 37 years later. And he still likes my tail.
The 1st of October I put Danny Elfman’s soundtracks for Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, and all the others on my iPod on repeat. I start sneaking Reese’s Cups, crave Pumpkin Spice lattes and watch endless marathons of Vampire Diaries, Lost Girl, and Walking Dead on Netflix. I plan escapist afternoons watching my Van Helsing, Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic, and Trick or Treat DVDs, to say nothing of all the Tim Burton films Danny Elfman’s soundtracks above accompany. I am a happy girl.
Of course the house gets a Fall spiffing and for inspiration I needn’t look any further than outside my front window…
Inside we get cosy. I put away the summer cottons and take down the screens from the windows. I bring out the Indian bedspreads, the faux fur throws, and the spicy potpourri to put around the candle.
The faux pumpkins join the party too. I’m actually a big fan of faux. When you are on a limited budget there’s nothing like buying a decent fake once and having it for years. We’ve had the same Christmas tree for over 20 years (you’ll meet her in a few weeks).
I think when you invest material things with meaning, especially if you alter them in some way as I do with second hand stuff, that makes them even better. Even if it’s just a pumpkin you glued some fake flowers on and bring out year after year. That’s a good thing. Not a freaking Martha “Good Thing.” It’s a Better Thing than that. I don’t make this stuff up. You have heard of the Velveteen Rabbit? Something about investing that faux thing with meaning makes it come alive. It’s weird I know, but I actually think those pumpkins can’t wait to join the party every October.
Me either! In the meantime though I think I’ll just take a moment to put my feet up and enjoy the view. Orange you glad it’s Fall!
This jewelry box started out as a second-hand find with the feel of a shop class project — just a touch heavy handed to be commercially produced, and perfect for my repurposing as a “Second Helping.”
Every surface is painted with acrylic paint in patterns from the Gee’s Bend Quilts.
You can read more about this project on my blog on my post on December 1, 2013 called Second Helpings: Gee’s Bend Jewelry Box.
At the other end of the skinny hall upstairs is my painting studio. It has an Eastern exposure and in the mornings when the sun shines through the Ikea stick blinds and throws rainbows off my foil stars it’s Joni Mitchell’s Chelsea Morning every time. Actually, I’m glad sunlight doesn’t really pour in like butterscotch and stick to all my senses because that would be pretty messy, and painting’s messy enough as it is.
My acrylic palette:
This space, unlike the other two I’ve already shown you will probably stay pretty much the same. I may need to get another small flat top table since I’ll be stealing this one to put into the studio where I work with all things paper but that’s easy enough. Maybe I’ll even find one which requires a little paint job of its own.
Meanwhile I’ll continue painting anything I can get my hands on, like these objects (which you can see more of over in my website in the Surface Pattern Design section):
In fact this lonely guy called out to me today at the Antique Mall, and a colorful coat of many colors is definitely in his future. Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you. Crimson crystal beads to beckon!
