It's time to decorate for Halloween!

I've spent the last couple of evenings dragging out boxes and boxes of Halloween decorations!! I love decorating this time of year! My normally neutral color palette becomes a tad more bold with the infusion of orange and a lot more black. Over the years I've refined my Halloween to include mostly antique or artist made goodies.
One of my favorite antique things to collect are the Halloween noisemakers. They're still one of the least expensive of the antique bits you can buy. Oh, and they look fabulous filling apothecary jars!
I do buy artist reproduction pieces too, like those by Cody Foster pictured above. Though I prefer the real deal, let's face it, artist Halloween pieces are hard to get their hands on and the prices for the originals are usually beyond my pea size budget. Last year I did splurge a little on a couple pieces from Danita. I'll feature those a little later in the week!
One of the best things about decorating shabby-chippy-neutral is the ability to incorporate my everyday collections into holiday themes. For example, Christine Crocker dolls, with the addition of a color appropriate accessory, meld seamlessly into the rest of my Halloween decor.
One of the most surprising discoveries I've made this year has been the amount of black cats I've collected over time. I had no idea! I grouped three together on a shelf and then kept finding more and more in the boxes. I had to move them all to a larger cabinet! Who knew?!! Here are just a couple of my favorites. These two are made by Eliza Burlison, Burlison Bears. You can find her work on Ebay. Just type Burlison in the search box. :o)

This is just the tip of the Halloween iceberg! I'll post more pictures this week as I get everything in order.

Warmest Sunday bear hugs, Aleta

Not according to plan.

(sigh) CWAP! I had everything set. Pictures downloaded and uploaded. Descriptions ready. All I had to do was unveil the bears. Easy peasie. NOT!!

(sigh) I think my website hates me. (sniff)

It's all sorted out now but now I feel sick to my stomach that, once again, my website has gotten the best of me and turned me into a raving lunatic. I think I may have to go back to my old format of listing one bear at a time. It's either that or going back to Ebay. Neither of these ideas tickles my fancy because it's a lose/lose for my collectors. On Ebay, with all the associated fees, I would have to raise the price of my bears. Listing one bear at a time creates it's own problems with multiple purchases of the same bear because everyone makes a mad dash for that ONE bear which then creates a negative listing and still shows the bear as available. Confused? Me too.

Don't mind me. I'm just typing out loud and feeling frustrated. I think I shall put this silliness behind me for the day and take a wander over to Monticello. I need to take a few things over and spruce up my booth a bit anyway. Tomorrow morning starts the three day sale and the month long Autumn/Harvest show in the Atrium. I think all the dealers in the mall participate in the sale. Everything in my booth will be 10% off!! Hey now, that's something to smile about!!!

Warmest bear hugs, Aleta

Pink Wednesday before and after!

The difference between my non-airbrushed bears.....
and bears airbrushed and dressed....ready for listing!! What a difference, huh? Airbrushing creates such depth in the features and really adds character I think.

Before you get too excited about the listings though....the panda is already spoken for. I have a waiting list for my girlie pandas. The other two bears will be listed tomorrow on my website....I hope!! Cross your fingers for no computer gremlins for me, won't you?

Bless you bunches for peeking in on my Pink Wednesday! Warmest bear hugs, Aleta

Coburg Antique Faire

We got up at 5:30am yesterday morning to attend the Coburg Antique Faire. Ridiculous, I know! Especially on a Sunday morning! Well, it takes two hours to get there, so in order to get the goods you have to go early. Sad thing is though, I didn't find much. Not that there wasn't a lot of stuff. It was packed! I just couldn't find what I was looking for. Most of what I REALLY liked was priced beyond my budget for resale. And, the pieces that I did find always seemed to have a SOLD tag. I hate that.

One of those particular pieces was the tall cabinet with the old window. Someone had taken an old window, mouldings and wood trim and fashioned a new cabinet. Excellent! But, sadly for me, it was already SOLD. Arrgh!

However, we did manage to find some of the same wide mouldings that were on both sides of the window at another dealers space so now Bill can whip up a couple of those cabinets himself! Whip one up.....someday. Ha! Add it to the list.

I have to say though, when we got home last night, Bill did draw up the plans for another mirror (only a bit smaller) like the one I showed you a couple of posts ago. I'm hoping he'll have it done by the end of the month. We'll see.

Anyway, though I didn't find much at Coburg (just two things and the mouldings) it was a great time because it was time spent with family. My girl, Brittany went along for the ride too. Bless her heart!!

Today, I'm trying to get back into some sort of working groove. Lack of concentration seems to be a problem with me of late. I have so many projects going and sweet things on my mind. :o)

Focus. Focus is my word for the day. Focus on one thing and get it done. Then move on to another one thing. I'll let you know how that works for me. Ha!!

Warmest Monday bear hugs, Aleta

One of those weeks!

I'm having one of those weeks that is soooo incredibly weird. Just one example: The other morning we awoke at quarter to seven by a beep from our fire alarm. Fifteen minutes later another beep. Okay, so the fire alarm has gone a little haywire. No smoke. No fire. Bill gets in the shower. I kid you not....the fire alarm went off full tilt two minutes into his shower. It was the most ear piercing shreiking sound from three alarms going off all at once. So here we are running around like chickens (Bill in a towel dripping wet from the shower!)trying to figure out how to turn the darned thing off. Again, no smoke. No fire. Bill in his haste (panic) to get the thing to quit blaring, starts punching numbers on the security system key pad. BAD IDEA. Now the security system is blaring through the house AND the neighborhood. Cripes!! The noise is absolutely deafening. The cats are swinging from the chandeliers and I feel like my head is going to explode. As a last resort, Bill goes to the breaker box and starts shutting everything down. The fire alarm goes off but not the security system....it's still going full bore. Think, think, think. Bill pulls the battery out of the security system. Finally, everything is quiet. Whew.

Now Bill is in a rare mood, and not a good one at that. I have a splitting headache and the cats have jumped from the chandeliers into the closet and won't come out. And so the day goes.

It's not until later in the evening when all the systems are fixed, for some odd reason, I ask Bill what day it is. It turns out that it's the anniversary of his dad's passing. We should have known! Charles always sends along a little note to remind us that he's Do'in Okay. I'm sure he was just laughing his self silly watching us run around like chickens trying to get the alarms to quit sounding off. Good one, Charles. You got us again! You would think we would know by now......something like this happens every year on the same date. ha!

Warmest bear hugs, Aleta

P.S. We had the alarm system guy come out to test the system. It's all good. Just a glitch in the system. Yeah, a glitch named Charles! ;o)

A sparkly Pink Wednesday!

I thought I would send you a little sparkle and bling (virtually anyway!) to brighten up your day! Thank you for peeking in on my Pink Wednesday! I'd also like to say thank you for all the lovely posts everyone has been leaving in these past weeks. I want you to know that each note makes me smile. It's a most precious gift and I appreciate each and every one.

Warmest Pink Wednesday bear hugs, Aleta

So many projects!

I feel like I spent the weekend running around in circles and didn't get near what I wanted to get accomplished. Oh well. I started a new list this morning!! It's a short week because of the holiday and I have company coming on Friday so I'm really going to have to be disciplined in order to stay on task. It's a good thing my car is in the shop! I won't be tempted to gallivant around like I have been.

I think Bill accomplished more in one day than I did all weekend. Hey, wait a minute. That's why I didn't get my things done!! The King of Distraction was home for four days!! He can derail my day in a blink of an eye. All it takes is, "Babe, can you come out to the garage and tell me if this is what you had in mind?" Off I go and I end up in the garage for a half an hour picking out just the right glass door knobs for a knob rack that needs to go to Monticello. Oiy!

It's all good though. I may not have gotten a thing done but Bill did!! He finished my mirror by putting the antique trim on it. Isn't it fabulous?!!! And hey, there's even enough left over for him to make another mirror!! So, Monticello may see one afterall....at some point....down the road a piece....someday. ;o) He also got quite a few pieces painted for me for my Halloween display. Aren't those black candle pillars cool? I'll tell you what....I'm really having a dickens of a time parting with some of these things. I love decorating for Halloween and those candle pillars are just the right size........hmmmm. Ha!

By the end of the weekend, Walker had the right idea. Take a snooze. Walker is one cat who really knows how to relax.

Have a supercalifragilistic kind of Monday!! Warmest bear hugs, Aleta

P.S. I'm saving the expialidoscious for tomorrow!!