I know, I know, it's not even Halloween yet! Believe me, I'm nowhere near finished with autumn, and as usual the season is flying by far too fast for me to capture all the ideas I'd planned to paint before the big day!
But I'm afraid all it took was one listen to my winter playlist yesterday, and I was off and running with the first Christmas piece of the season; a large lazy susan (shown here in progress), tentatively titled "Christmas Tea", or possibly "Peppermint Tea"...
Hmmmmm, thinking the teacup may need a peppermint stick, hehe. :)
I love the concept of cats and mice as friends, especially during the season of Peace, and am having great fun with this one. :)
But not to get
completely ahead of myself, there's still Halloween to celebrate!!
Some of you may have read my little facebook rant about changing the date of Halloween, which they do here in Lancaster County with regularity. The Powers that Be always seem to insist that "Trick or Treat Night" fall on a Friday or the occasional Saturday, but NEVER EVER, heaven forbid, on a Sunday. Don't even get me started again, lol...Halloween is October 31st for crying out loud!
*Ahem*, now that I have that out of my system, where was I? Oh yes, celebrating!
Friday and Saturday will find me spending time at one our beautiful Pennsylvania state parks with the "Cabin Ladies", a get together regular readers may remember from
this post. (I may run home to see the trick or treaters Friday night though!) ;)
Much as I'd love to send the entire four day weekend, Thursday is booked with household obligations, and there's what promises to be a fabulous Day of the Dead party
my friend Jen is throwing Saturday night (a MUST!), so I'll scoot back here for that. Sunday is up the air, and may find me back at the cabin, but I'm playing that by ear.
In the meantime, there's work to be done, including the lazy susan. It may list on eBay tomorrow evening, probably with a "buy it now" option, and I should mention I will not be taking orders on this one. Some pieces are just too labor intensive to repeat, and this is proving to be one of them. ;)
I'll be back very soon with photos, and probably another Halloween post as well. In the meantime, I wish you a happy and creative Wednesday!!
(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`• ~ Carolee
I always have so much fun with these little boxes, and think they make wonderful gifts. Some have little red button accents and the others have a touch of vintage glass glitter...
I think my favorite was Poe. Of course, Jack Nicholson was pretty amazing too. :)
Munchies galore...
And our hostess, dressed in her Day of the Dead finery...
I also spent part of the weekend with the Cabin Ladies, sort of a girls weekend we do several times a year at one of Pennsylvania's beautiful state parks. Very relaxing, and it gave me a chance to drive some of the backroads I hadn't seen in a while. Lancaster County has some great sights, one of the more unusual being these old graveyards set in the middle of farmland, many not even accessible by road...
A one room Amish schoolhouse...
The little town of Terre Hill, where John and I lived when we first moved to Pennsylvania...
And I snapped this one not so much to show the sheep, but the trees...
As you can see, summer is indeed over, and the glorious colors of autumn are fading from the trees. Frost will appear soon, and we'll catch the scent of woodsmoke as we pass these farms. The roadside markets (now selling only pumpkins, cabbage and winter root vegetables) will close for the season, and we'll wait for the snow to fly.
Last night was "Trick or Treat Night" here in Lancaster County (don't even get me started on changing the day Halloween is celebrated around here), and the kids were out in full force - we went through 14 bags of candy!! 
A dog...
A Frog...
Fairies, skeletons and ninjas (this guy is a ninja, right?)
I thought this Dad dressed as an Amish guy was pretty funny, hehe...
And is this a great costume or what? I'd bet Mom and Dad are Renn Faire people...
The two goth vampires and the Mad Hatter proudly told me they made their own costumes from bits of this and that they'd found at thrift stores or in Mom's closet - made me feel like some of that old fashioned Halloween spirit still lives...
Amazingly, we had NO older kids this year - not one! OK, there was one guy in costume, who looked about 16 or 17, walking by the house with a pillowcase, but he was SMOKING, and I guess he thought the better of saying "trick or treat" with a cigarette in mouth, so he just grinned and passed by. ;)
I love the little mice, hehe...
Next up: lots of commission work and several small, Christmasy trinket boxes (great gifts!)
Hmmmmm, thinking the teacup may need a peppermint stick, hehe. :) 
Portraits of characters from the original movie, keeping watch over the martini station. The flavors? Vodka infused with either root beer barrels, swedish fish, or jolly ranchers...
A poster from the Tim Burton re-make...
Lollipops and candy buttons...
The buffet, with truffles on the conveyor belt, and assorted goodies below. My favorite was the phyllo cups with micro greens, blueberries and a white chocolate balsamic drizzle - sooooooo good...
Guests getting ready for a game of guessing classic childhood junk food while blindfolded...
Lickable wallpaper...
And last but not least, our hosts, Augustus Gloop and Willy Wonka...
It was altogether great fun, and I'm told these two are already planning a pirate themed party next year...Yo Ho Ho, hehe!
