“And above all,
watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you,
because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.
Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
― Roald Dahl





Friday, December 12, 2014

My December


 
 How's your December been?
I've been away from here too long...
This post may make sense or not...nothing really seems to lately.

 My birthday was a couple days ago..
I had a nice time..
I even splurged and had chocolate mousse cake.



  I don't know about you, 
but I always mark the year by my birthday.
It is your very own New Year after all.

This year for me has been one of many losses.
Situations that I thought I would not survive if they came to pass,  started to happen.
 It began last December 29th, when my father passed away.
His illness began in 2011, so wrapping my mind around
his eventual demise was extremely difficult.
I was so focused on his dying that I neglected many of the living. 
 It was fast as far as this particular illness goes.
I'm grateful his suffering is over.




 We lost many beloved pets
this year too...
We went from having eight cats
 to two in a matter of days really.
Compared to my dad's passing you'd think it
wouldn't hurt so much
but it really did. 



As you know, my daughter moved away
for school... 
she left and and my niece went with her.
They aren't very far away
but their absence is palpable in this house.
 I'm proud of them.
But...
There's no arguing,
 no piano,
 no arpeggios flying though the rooms.
Just a lot of quiet.




I also lost an old friend
we shared many experiences,
And all the emotions that go along with any relationship.
Happiness, sadness, joy, fear, relief, anger, love
All of that is gone. 
If this person even existed at all,
I'm half convinced it was an illusion.




 This house always felt so small
not enough room for everyone and everything.
And I liked it that way..
Did I want a space of my own to do with as I pleased...?
yes of course!
But the bustle and mess were priceless,
for all my complaints about having to clean up
I was pretty OK with it all.
I knew it wouldn't remain that way always.
 

 
I have my little one
and she is my northern star
my lighthouse.
As I am hers.
Our happy adventures are just starting.
This new year is going to be much better than last.






I say a year of loss, but it's more a year of change I guess.
Beginnings not endings.
There will be joy again...
for all that this year has been to me
I will continue to be who I am.




 I'd like to thank everyone
 that has been there for us and offered their
 love, support &  friendship
I'm so very grateful to you.

And if life is feeling off and
pushing you down,
hang on,
magic will find find it's way back to you soon.






 See you really soon :-)

 
 
 
 

 
 



Monday, November 3, 2014

Great Pumpkin weekend

Hi everyone!
How was your weekend?
Mine was awesome.
It started with dinner out on Wednesday,
then we stopped at a pumpkin patch afterwards
 and bought a few over priced pumpkins..
Helena got a chance to visit the mini petting zoo,
So it was worth it.

Then on Thursday
We drove up to Tempe to see my daughter and my niece
to celebrate
 Great Pumpkin Night
and guess what??

The Great Pumpkin
brought me gifts too!

an incredible Frankenstein bag filled with a bunch of goodies!
A stack of spell books cookie jar,
some warm fuzzy socks


 A crystal ball necklace....


 Ouija board planchette earrings...


A gorgeous fleece throw blanket from 
'The book of life' movie...



And this delicious smelling shower gel/lotion gift set,
cause the Great Pumpkin knows I love smelling yummy:)
There was also a bag
 of sugar free chocolate covered peanuts
 that rapidly disappeared  before it could be photographed.



We drove home Saturday and I created this canvas
as a tribute to my parents for Dia de los muertos...



Most of Sunday I spent lying in bed watching 
a marathon of the Gilmore Girls on netflix.
It's been great.
The weather is really cooling down and it puts me in a good mood.

I'll be back here in a few days...
I'm off to buy a cup of caramel coffee!

Have a great week.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Haunted Humpday X

Happy Haunted Humpday!!!



How did it get to this?
The last days of October?
Why is the time flying by so quickly?
All these questions...
the most important being...
do you have enough chocolate for the trick or treaters??
wow, did I used to eat loads of it every October...
just doesn't seem very festive without the candy.


 So what are your plans for Halloween?
I am going to visit my daughter and niece in Tempe
for Great Pumpkin Night!
Great Pumpkin night started 21years ago
when my little one was two.
I don't care for walking around the neighborhood. it's never been safe and most
people just don't participate..So I thought it would be
nice if the tricks and treats came to us.
So on October 31st at midnight
the Great Pumpkin drops off large bags of the best candy and fun toys
to good little girls and boys
(that live in this house)
I really look forward to this tradition,
there's good food, scary stories and spooky music.
Plus I make one very special Halloween gift for each child.
I'm very excited to spend time with my two favorite girls!

(here's a couple of very early photos of them..
they were two and three here)

(three and four here)






I'm really hoping to get back to normal soon...
I love November...
Dia De Los Muertos is in November and that's my second favorite holiday....
And December is my birthday month  so I have to be better by then right??

Thank you for coming by to visit and share.
I really appreciate it.

Have a great week

Happy Halloween!


Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Haunted Humpday IX

How's eveyone this week?
It's our ninth 


I'm sorry I've been so out of it...
I think I have been over doing a lot lately.

Tonight has been nice...as I sit and type this, I can hear
eerie music coming from the living room...
my niece is visiting and she's carving a pumpkin with Helena.
After it's done we are going to turn off the lights and watch the candle
flame dance inside the creepy jack-o-lantern for a while.
They chose a scary movie and we're having popcorn and cocoa too:)

We did have some good news today
.
Our kitty, Logan was very very ill.
He has asthma and his meds were not working anymore.
We thought his days were coming to a close..
but it turns out he's going to be fine
and we couldn't be more excited.
I still feel weak and I don't really have the appetite I used to...
But I do feel better, thank you all for your well wishes.
How is it only ten days left?
Saturday we are indeed going to the Howl-O-Ween 
event at the zoo.
(cross your fingers)
Helena has decided on being Bloody Mary.
I will be a zombie with a slashed throat
I'll try to remember to take pictures:)
So I'm wondering...did you enjoy the video last week?
This is another one that's pretty good too!


Here's our pumpkin...
they did a great job!



Oh I watched this amazing movie this weekend!!!
It was so good.
If you get a chance, watch it!



Alright!
I'm off to have a cocoa now.
Hope your week is fun.


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Humpday VIII



Happy Haunted Humpday!!

Instead of trying to throw together a halfhearted post,
I decided to just let everyone know that 
I'm not really feeling up to it this week:(
There is, however a really good video that I'm hoping you will watch.

Now dim the lights and press play:)





Have a great week.


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Humpday VII



Hi everyone!
It's our seventh Haunted Humpday
of the season.


What are your plans for Halloween?
We are probably going to stop by our local zoo..
It's called Howl-O-Ween night
and it's filled with
spooky lighting, decorations, and best of all,
we get to see some of the animals that are nocturnal
while waiting in line for treats:)




I found this recipe on Facebook
& we're making it tomorrow night!!





So how much stock to you put into urban legends?
I know some people that truly and honestly 
believe them.
I think they're pretty fun, most of the time.
One of my favorites is the Bloody Mary story.
Most of you know the tale,
she goes by different names at times,
she was believed to be a witch,or a psychopath, 
or the victim of a terrible car accident.
Either way the ritual is the same..
A darkened room lit only by a few candles, a mirror
a few people with the need to see what shouldn't be seen..   
Everyone says her name three, thirteen or thirty times.
And she is supposed to appear behind you in the mirror.
When I was in school
A few of my friends convinced me to ditch.
We all went over to one of the girl's houses
 where the parents were at work.
I didn't know that the main objective to this
'field trip' was to play this particular game.
We all went into the bathroom
lit a small votive candle in a red glass container.
Then we began the chant.
Bloody Mary 
Bloody Mary
Bloody Mary
I do not remember who began to scream
But the door flew open and they all ran out
leaving me in the damn bathroom alone!
They were all huddled by the sofa
when I walked out.
They all swore that MY eyes had begun to turn red!
I tried telling them that it was most likely the candle container
reflection, but to no avail.
These dummies were convinced that I was turning into 
Bloody Mary!!







There was a local legend around school
that the tunnels underneath a certain part of town
were haunted by a monster of some sort....
Allegedly these tunnels were only reached by going down a steep wash
and the opening to this tunnel was supposed to be 9 feet in diameter.
People would whisper about how they had traveled down
into these tunnels with a friend once ( a friend no one had ever met) and that friend had disappeared,
never to be found again.

Well of course my band of friends wanted to go explore.
Did I go??
ugh, yup, I did.
It was a bit exciting 
we kept retelling different versions of the tale we had heard.
One was about a kid's head that had been
cut clean off by the scythe of a creature that was in a large chamber miles into the tunnel.
Another was about how there were water falls and large chasms that a person could
drop into and drown surrounded by the skeletons of all the kids
 that had ventured forth into the darkness.
After a long walk down a super steep
dirt covered path
and almost getting eaten by a group of feral cats and maniac ponies, haha
 We got to the opening...
 it was indeed very large at least six feet high
there was a small trickle of water dribbling out...
perfect, we decided who was going to go first, which was important..
and who was going to go last, which was even more important, and scarier.
There were four of us..
First
Isabel
then
 Alex
then
me
then 
Christina.
It was fine...at first.
Then we realized that a flashlight
would have been smart
not a book of matches...
heck, even a lighter would have been better.
Then, the water began to increase.
we had been walking for about half an hour..
the tunnel had been getting smaller and smaller
we were walking single file
and at first we just had our heads down 
but by this time we were 
hunched over.
and we only had six matches left.
As we were talking about how stupid we were
and how it was now past time to turn around we heard a noise
from up ahead.
Lots of water splashing and running...
and a voice
someone calling out in pain!!
sounded like a child to us...
we hurried onward
suddenly realizing that the complete darkness wasn't so dark anymore.
We entered a large room at least 12x12.
it looked like there were grates on the ceiling because there was a very dim
light coming through...
there actually was a waterfall coming from what looked like another tunnel on the far wall..
the floor of the room was just churning and roiling water.
We turned around and began running through the pitch dark tunnel...
no one spoke a word.
All I recall is being hunched over and running through a dark, splashy nightmare of a hallway for what seemed like hours.
We could eventually see a faint  glow coming from around a bend...
the exit!!! At last!!
The outside world was blinding.
It had become overcast while we were in there but it still hurt our eyes.
I'd never been so happy to be standing upright outside!
As we began our journey back through feral cat/maniac pony country,
we started to talk about why we became so frightened.
The cries of whoever we heard in the room had begun to sound like the cries
of an infant...
that's what scared Isabel and Chris..
Alex didn't hear a baby
She thought she saw something else.
she described a very tall figure in the darkest corner of the room..
at least 8 feet tall,
with extra long arms,
 ribs that were exposed,
 it had wild looking hair on a large skeletal head.
We laughed a bit at this and convinced her that it was a trick of the light, 
we'd been in the dark for so long that our nerves were jangled and our eyes
and ears were playing tricks on us.

I was terrified...
It was the exact same thing I had seen.




What absolutely ridiculous escapades did you go on as a kid??
I was 15 when this happened...my mother never found out...
thank all that is holy!!
She would have killed me.



ok
This is it for today...
I'm not 100% better yet:(
Those of you waiting on a giveaway..
rest assured it's on it's way!!!

Have a witchy week!








Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Haunted Humpday VI, Welcome October!

Welcome to our first 
Haunted Humpday 
of 
October!!!


Such an exciting time of year!
It's cooling off a bit in the evenings now,
we had a low of 59 degrees last night!
You have to remember that our high's hit 112 in July, 
so it was chilly:)
 This Haunted Humpday is a bit abbreviated
due to the fact that I am now recovering from
food poisoning!!
I'm still a little weak
but the Halloween spirit is strong!
How many of you have heard of the Devil's Tree?
It's located in New Jersey.
According to the legend
A farmer killed his entire family then hanged himself
from the tree.
Many suicides and murders have occurred there.
Towns people swear it's a portal to Hell
since for some reason the tree is warm to the touch
and snow will not gather around it.
Allegedly, to touch it, is to invite bad luck into your life.
Several stories talk about how the trunk of the tree 
is scarred from axes and chainsaws..attempts to cut it down
that failed, since death awaits any that may succeed.
One of the defining features of the tree is one low hanging branch
that is parallel to the ground..
this branch, was supposedly used to hang many 
unfortunate people..
 Is there anything like that near 
where you live?


One of my favorite stories from childhood is
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow..
When the cartoon would come out
I knew Halloween was close!




This summer I went to N.J.
& I was able to visit
Sleepy Hollow!
(I had to take a photo of the school.)



It's gorgeous there.
It's so green!
very unlike here, let me tell you.
With many areas just covered in trees, night time there is
very dark and scary...it's very easy to imagine
a  headless ghost riding a giant horse through the woods.
I took loads of photos but my computer is acting up and I can't
seem to find any of them. 
I'd like to show you a few creepy postcards....








And this super cute figurine...there's a teeny pumpkin inside the box.


I guess this story is my favorite because it's one of the very first ones
I remember reading on my own.


look at how adorable and icky these cookies are!!
this first one is created simply by dragging a toothpick
through a still warm from the oven cookie.


This one uses melted chocolate piped on in spider shapes.






When my sisters were little, about six and seven
they shared the back bedroom.
They both had strange things happen to them in there.
One time for example
the younger sister started screaming in the middle of the night
when my parents questioned her she claimed a tall man without a face
Had come out of their wardrobe
and was trying to take her older sister.
 He disappeared when my parents arrived.
One time both girls heard a loud noise coming from the room
when they entered they watched as a small wooden chair moved across the floor on it's own.
As the little sister grew older (and the older sister moved into her own room) she continued to see and hear different things.
She was 13 when she saw the man inside the closet again, this time his entire head was missing.
On different occasions she would come out of that room terrified,
 The light would turn on and off
a dusty, forgotten on a top shelf music box would suddenly start chiming 
Her dog would jump up and growl and bark ferociously at an empty corner of the room
Sometimes she felt as though someone was sitting on the bed and the blankets
would pull off. 



I am now the owner of that same back bedroom
nothing has ever happened to me..(knock on wood)
Oh, I get creeped out occasionally,
 probably due to one of my constant bedfellows  
Stephen King:)
As for the man without a face/head
He resides in another closet most likely...
maybe yours.



Happy October everyone!

(everyone that has a prize coming from me, I've not forgotten you!)