Gloomy Day Decorating

Well, the weather outside is frightful, but inside it's so delightful . . . okay, so I'm not really a singer, but I try! Anyway, the weather here really is frightful, it's gloomy and raining and I'm trying to find ways to keep myself from giving in to the melancholy that's sitting just below the surface of my being. I'm doing pretty well by keeping my thoughts positive and of course, when all else fails, there's always a bit of decorating that can be done!

I'm always amazed at how an altar or in this case, garden window theme, comes together considering I always start out thinking I haven't got a thing to wear . . . or, ummm . . . a thing to decorate with. I started out by removing all the items and giving the window a good cleaning. Then I placed back the owls and green glass candy dishes. I added my favorite teacup, a tealight lamp that's been sitting in my basement for ages, a bit of greenery, some crystals and the glass dome that I didn't have a thing to stick under. Then inspiration struck! Why not fill it with pinecones?! And so I did. Voila! A beautiful new decorative scene for me to enjoy whilst I get dishpan hands doing dishes.

I hope you enjoyed this little break from the stroll and hope you'll be back again tomorrow for Day 9 of Stroll the Shops for Christmas!

Camping

This past weekend I went camping with some friends to Tower Hill State Park. I was anticipating getting away, relaxing in nature, having fun with friends, and coming back home again rejuvenated and ready to go on with the real world.

Carl after putting up his tent.

Okay, so it was a little too in nature for me, not being acclimated to the world of camping in a tent for the last 20 years or so. Not to mention the outhouse with three stalls and a spongy floor and no hot showers to wash it all off with at the end of the day. That resort down the road was starting to look pretty appealing.

Here's my journal entry penciled in at 5:30 in the morning after not sleeping ALL night . . .

"All is finally quiet at six o'clock in the morning. I have only the birds and squirrels to keep me company.

The night was spent trying to sleep amongst partiers two campsights over who insisted on talking loudly over each other with guitar riffing music as a backdrop. The air mattress that Kelly inflated for me was as flat as a pancake when I finally laid my weary head down after midnight.

I am distracted to my left as I hear a very large branch from a tree crack and then fall to the ground through the trees. A metaphor for my experience thus far?

Squirrels are jumping from limb to limb in the trees above me and I marvel at their seeming indifference to the heights they are playing at.

On the way to the outhouse this morning bats were flying about not aware of how close they came to landing in my hair - bats really freak me out! Mosquitos are buzzing around my ears - and finally rest on a tasty tidbit of skin - are enough to drive even the most ardent of campers to hide their body, head to toe, under the covers despite the heat and humidity.

The sun is slowly making its way up in the sky bringing with it the light of a new day . . ."

All that after only one night of camping! The next morning our friend, Patricia, woke up ill and had to be taken to the hospital. We all felt so bad for her and decided that we wouldn't attend the show we had planned for that evening, deciding instead to go later in August when she could attend with us as well.

We had all planned to go tubing and piled into the car anticipating a day floating luxuriously down the Wisconsin River. However, we hadn't made reservations (who knew?) and so tubing was out. Instead we went back to the campsite, filled up the car with snacks and drinks and headed to the beach at the river. We enjoyed the day in the water and had a great time.

From left to right - Eli, Kelly, Carl and me.

Come Saturday night I was sure I would fall asleep once my head hit the pillow, however, a possum outside my tent had other plans. He was really freaking me out! I thought for sure he was going to make it into the tent and proceed to nibble off my toes! Okay, so I have a vivid imagination. And then an owl started whooing, which I didn't mind so much, but I had to laugh at the symphony going on outside my tent and I wondered if I'd ever fall asleep. Two nights without sleep was more than I could bear!

And it didn't help that the partiers down the road were up to their antics again, but to make it even more fun they started throwing firecrackers on their campfire. Then I had to go the bathroom - I was in a quandry - do I go out and face that possum or hold on until morning. No contest - I had to go! So I put on my big girl panties and headed out into the night. Other than meeting a policeman on the road (who had come because of a complaint of firecrackers) my trip to the outhouse was uneventful.

So let's see mosquitos, flies, bats, racoons, a possum, and an owl - I'm sure there's a story in there somewhere . . .

Suffice to say that I did fall asleep at some point and awoke the next morning thankful that I would be heading home soon. All in all I had a really good time and enjoyed being with my friends. We're planning another outing in August so that we can take in that show we missed, but remember that resort I mentioned earlier? Oh ya, I'll be staying there!

Owls and a Yellow Moon

While visiting my favorite bookstore, Barnes & Noble, a few weeks ago, I happened to pick up Martha Stewart's Halloween 2010 magazine. Wow! It's filled with awesome ides! However, I didn't feel like laying out $10 for it and so went home empty-handed, but not empty-headed! The ideas were floating around like bats in the bellfrie.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I finally got busy putting what I'd seen in the magazine into real life on my front porch. I took some creative liberties (actually, my husband refused to drill holes into our new door casings) so instead of putting the branches vertically between the sidelights on our door, we put them horizontally - the branch on the left sits in a pot and the branch on the right is stuffed into the hay bale.

I found an owl template on the internet, printed it out and my husband (the dear that he is) cut out the owls from plywood. I spray-painted them black along with the tree branches and abra-ca-dabra!

The moon is something I had in my project stash and with a quick trip to Ace for some bright yellow paint, it's transformed into an autumn moon.

Whoooooooo . . . whoooooo . . .

So there you have it . . . eat your heart out Martha Stewart!