Halloween

Another couple of Halloween parties are behind us.  Whew, time is flying by!   How crazy is it that it's mid-November already.  Maybe it's because in addition to my small home business, I started another job.  It's only part-time, but feels like FULL time.  lol  I'm working for a food service company at a school and didn't really know all that it would entail when I initially applied.  Actually, I was hired for one job, then not barely a week later was offered another job at another school, and then maybe a month later started training for new duties.  It's all been in the kitchen/cafeteria section of the school.  What I can say for now is that there are parts of it I like, some things I don't, and am sticking with it for as long as possible. Most days it's physically exhausting and I'd rather be sitting in my studio being creative, but the extra money is nice because with my craft business sales weren't coming every week.   A steadier pay check has it's advantages.  :)  Also, being on the school schedule is good because nights, weekends, holidays, off! Oh, and summers!  So there are things to look forward to.  It's weird some days with Ron semi-retired though... he'll be waving at the door like I used to when he'd leave for work.  His schedule varies a lot though right now so we're just going with the flow of it all.  

As for Halloween, we attended two parties this year.  The first was at a friends house.  Because I had a craft fair all day that Saturday, there was going to be no time for a costume that involved makeup.  

I made yarn pompom meatballs ahead of time and one night while watching t.v. we cut and pinned all the yarn spaghetti onto Ron's shirt.  I wear all black for work, so that part was easy to just be a server. My little name tag says 'Spaghetti Palace' so the crown and silver serving dishes blinged me up a bit. Queen Waitress on duty and ready to sprinkle some pepper flakes and garlic onto the spaghetti.  haha 

For our daughter's party the following weekend, I had time in the afternoon to do makeup.

You probably remember how much I love giraffes.  So, of course, I had to make that my costume theme!   Getting my hair undone at the end of the night was fun.  haha

Ron was a safari guy.  He had fact sheets about giraffes on his clipboard, and safari tickets, etc. Guess he found a giraffe he liked wandering somewhere along the plains of the Serengeti and asked her out for a drink at the local watering hole.  haha

Hope you're all doing well.  I'll be around to catch up real soon.

Another blogiversary!

Happy *belated* Blogiversary to me!

It's been TEN years.  

I'm older and crankier.  It's a little harder to hide it these days, but am still trying.  

My blog is a nice sanctuary from Facebook... although that's probably just because I'm trying to not post too much regarding current events here.  There, I link a post regarding the removal of flags/statues that's been in the news and someone has to know why the Zionists didn't insist all Nazi concentration camps be destroyed.  Total waste of time to try to even discuss that with my commenter friend because I've known her for many years and we don't agree on much anything.  There was a time wayyyy back that we both did some reading on 'conspiratorial' things.  Hey, have to say that for a while when Bush was in office I needed the distraction.   Good thing I let all that go or with the current state of politics .... I'd have to walk right off the flat earth.  Of course,  then I'd only fall thru a black hole where everyone the Clintons have had killed are now zombies who terrorize Elvis and James Dean.  I'm still really not sure though trump isn't a reptilian working for the Illuminati to kill off surplus population.  And if that isn't is... well, there is something.  That guy...grrr!     

So back to zombies.....

we are binge watching The Walking Dead.  OMG, crazy stuff!   It's not usual for us to get into a show like that... come on... zombies??!!??   Neither of us are comic book fans either, so nothing about the series initially caught our attention... until... our son raved about it.  We decided to give it a try. Ron's practically chewing his nails to the quick and half my bangs will be gone if I keep twisting my hair while watching this series.  

Oh, and speaking of my son.....

He plays guitar in his spare time.  Every so often he's asked to perform a gig with friends.  We try to go when we can and this last time was at a fundraiser for pets.  It was held at a nice venue, World Cafe Live, in Philadelphia.   He felt like a rock star up on stage!  Good sound system, cool lighting, and a bar full of people who were grooving to the music... it was a fun time.

Here are a few photos, none of which I took, but they were really good so I had to share.  ;)

If it uploaded right...this short video is mine.  You can tell because it's jumping all over the place.  I have a little old pocket camera and was probably swaying to the music so the quality isn't there, but you get the idea.  Proud mama moment. 

Hope you're all enjoying a nice weekend.

Mermaid and Seashells

I've seen mermaids on some blogs since being back and they reminded me of my costume last year. You know I like to make as many things as possible for our Halloween dress up so I didn't wear a traditional skin tight mermaid costume.  I wore a green shirt with a white octopus print, white pants and attached a bunch of accessories for the rest.  You can't see my shoes, but they were an old pair of canvas sandals that I painted and attached shells and moss.  The net attached to my shirt has little things hanging on it... a mini mermaid doll, snakes, starfish, etc.  The tail part was made with pieces of elastic with tulle and ribbons tied to it.  I pulled knee highs over my hands/arms for webbed fingers and used glow sticks for jewelry.  I even used theatrical glue to attach shells to my face and got the look of scales on my face and arms by dabbing makeup on a net for the pattern.  

Ron was cloudy with a chance of rain.  Haha!  Even had a squirt bottle for those he wanted to rain on.  ;)  His costume was easier to put together...lots of pillow fluff glued onto a blue t-shirt and hat and some white powder on his face and beard.   I did make some of the clouds in the shape of things, can't remember them now though.  

I went all out with my trident....  the base is cardboard that I cut, wrapped with tin foil, painted and decorated.  

And my crown... that was a a good bit of work!  Started with a kid's crown from a dollar store and then added some combs and lots of extra things.  It was so heavy that it fell back on my head a bit so was hard to see in the pictures.  

My nephew won best costume for Beetlejuice and I came in second.  We all had fun.

In keeping with the ocean theme....

here are some new jewelry pieces I've been creating.  Starting with a seashell, then either just wrapping with wire and keeping them natural or coloring them with alcohol inks.  The inked ones are glazed.  Some are decorated with beads.  Ron bought me a drill, so sometimes I make a hole for the bail, other ones are wire wrapped.  I'm getting good feedback on them and sales have started.  Yay!  

How NOT to wear lipstick.

Okay, so it wasn't really THIS bad ... but it felt like it.  Ladies who wear makeup might relate.

Wandering around in Wegmans for a Sunday afternoon of foodshopping and it's like social time in there.  Many departments were offering samples, so I was chatting with bread/cheese people and a deli associate offered slices of delicious salami.  A father of a girl who makes handcrafted nut butters was sharing samples and discussing her products.  Cashiers always pleasantly interact with customers while ringing purchases.  And then there was the woman who came over to me in the parking lot because she was admiring the tattoo on my leg... she called it artwork... so you know I had to chat for a minute or two with her.
Then I get in the car and take a quick peek in the rearview mirror and OHHH MYYY there it is... lipstick smeared all the way down under my bottom lip.   I'm thinking of all the people who must have seen it.  Now, these days, you never can tell what the style of anything actually is.  Are you wearing 'floods' or just pants cut at the ankle.  Is that a mini dress or did that girl just not feel like putting on pants with her long shirt.  Recently home from hunting, or a military deployment, or just love camouflage?  What's up with wearing fatigues and flip flops, that's in too I guess.  NEVER though is lipstick anywhere but just on the lips good.   I have seen chicks with a big outline of dark liner around a much lighter shade... they should just say no to that!  Any of those things are way better than what I was sportin' round the grocery store this time though.  Sheesh!

 

Months fly by like days ....

HELLO!

I will stop here a minute and just let the shock subside ....
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Are you back in your chairs now?  Okay, onward....

HEY, old friends!  How are you doing?
You just don't know how many times I've thought of you all and cursed myself repeatedly for not being active here.

I'm still on effing EFFBOOK.  And wading through molasses with Verizon's internet connection some days.  So, you know, not much quality of life in those realms.  FB is nice for photo sharing with friends/family.  I have too many albums there to even count.  It's also great for messages, at least for me, because my old flip phone makes texting even more loathing than it already is.  But get into any other area there... like politics, or opinions on other things, or try to sell something ... and you're banished to the corner.
So, I NEEDED to get back here and feel a little more LOVE.  ;)

What's new and exciting???
Well, I could tell you that Ron retired.  Yippee, hooray, congrats!  Except he's as busy, maybe more so, than he used to be.  Since folks have found out he's available through the week instead of just weekends, the phone hasn't stopped.  And that is good.  We like to eat.  And his retirement package did not come with benefits so on the assumption that we'll both need some extra meds and joint replacements in older age... he's still lugging buckets of paint around.  We've yet to plan anything to commemorate the milestone... a trip is hopefully in the near future... but until I actually take a giant red sharpie and X off a stretch of time on his calendar... we're just grabbing days here and there, as we used to do.  One of the last things we did was a Giraffe Encounter at a zoo here in NJ.  We got to hang out with them for awhile one afternoon and both enjoyed it very much!

I'm going to stop here so this won't be the biggest catch up post in all of Blogland and just try to come back every few days with a little something.  

Hope you're all doing great!  I'll be stopping by to visit real soon.

Peace,  M  xo