Come Inside

For our yearly Halloween
store display.

Yes friends come visit via my blog.

This year our theme is a funeral home

for the dearly departed.

Family members seated near

the coffin of our dear friend
OTTA B ALIVE
RIP

Notice our friend the vulture.

EMMA GONER and her son BARRY D ALIVE

Calcaterra Memorial Chapel

(this is a real funeral home in Michigan)

Bob bought these plates.

Harris funeral home was in Detroit Michigan.

Bob picked up this old cardboard sign.

Visitors sitting outside the chapel,

with their dog

FANGS

They even brought their pet goldfish

FISH BONES

Plus their pet bird in the cage.

CACKLES

is his name.

This fella wanted a better view

so he is looking down at everyone.

We don't know his name,

so if you do please let us know. 

Day 2 of our decorating we decided

we needed some cobwebs all over.

This was the refreshment table.

The mice are now invading the area.

Don't you just love our hanging funeral light

and our touchier behind the coffin.

Bob added the purple lights.

BARRY D HATCHET was hanging around.

While 

YUL B Next 

was sitting nearby.

OTTA B ALIVE

looks pretty darn good for his age.

His pet 

FRAY D KATT

stays by his side.

We added a wig to

EMMA GONER

STELLA LIVE

is sitting at the desk writing in the guest book.

YUL B NEXT is chatting across the room

with EMMA GONER. 

Night time view of the coffin.

We found these red velvet curtains 

up in our our store attic.

They worked perfectly behind the coffin.

Then Bob added purple lights.

{what we could find}

Wish more stores around here would sell

Halloween lights.

We went to every Halloween store in our county

and every Dollar store looking for these lights.

We purchased all that we could find.

The other lamp lit next to

EMMA GONER.

Hope you enjoyed the tour

of our Halloween display.

We had fun putting this together 

and even sold some of the props...

after all we are a store.

Tomorrow night we pass out candy

with our skeleton friends.

Hope the rain passes us by though.

Come Inside Blessings To All!

Janice

What's This

Hello Friends, Folk and Enchantresses

Hope your weekend finds you doing

all that is magical.

Tonight Bob and I will be going to 
a Halloween party given by a friend of ours.
She will have spooky food and drinks
served by a zombie bartender.
(which is what her invitation said)
Should be fun!

It rained most of the day yesterday,
which is causing more flooding again
for folks who live along the canals 
of our big river.

I decided to make chicken noodle soup last night.
For dessert I made apple caramel burritos.
It warmed us up! 

Do you know what this is?

This Summer as I was looking for goodes

on our yearly antique trail here in Michigan,

I came across this old beauty.

Made from linen and hand painted.

From the 1930's and only cost me $2.00.

A real steal.

For this early Halloween witch mask.

In great condition.

It even fits my big head. LOL

With my gray hair, 

all I need is a black witch hat and dress,

and voila I could become a witch of the 30's

I'll get you my pretty!

Do you collect vintage or early Halloween?

What is your favorite soup that warms you?

Early Witch Blessings To All!

Janice

Lil Autumn Delight

Now that my secret is out...

with me decorating for Christmas already,

you all know I did not do to many

Autumn vignettes.

However I did mange to do this one lil one.

Just gathered up a few things.

My script crock.

Grain measure.

A few white pumpkins and some grass.

A simple display.

As this is all I could do this time.

Notice in the background my new

hooking project.

A sneak peek of my new house.
It is completed now.
Just needs to be steamed and finished.
Working on one more design.

Were you able to put out some Autumn displays?

Lil Autumn Delight Blessings To All!

Janice

October CupboardScape

Witchcraft

Potions

Black Magic

Oh My!

Incantations

Enchantment

Hexes

Oh My!

Spell Books

Brews

Alchemy

Oh My!

Concoctions

Herbs

Boots

Oh My!

Acid

Glycerin

Tonics

Oh My!

Witch House

Tallowberries

Witch Hazel

Oh My!

Drieds

Hocus Pocus

Halloween

Oh My!

Bear Claws

Spectacles

Salem

Oh My!

After watching my all time

Halloween movie

Hocus Pocus

I wanted to create a CupboardScape

all that is witchy with a few fun things added in.

Like my bear claw quilt piece.

The colors are great for Halloween!

Am so looking forward 

to passing out candy soon.

Love seeing all of the kiddos dressed up.

We pass out candy at our store as we

do not have any kiddos in our neighborhood.

Do you pass out candy where you live?

Witchy October Blessings To All!

Janice

Old World Quail

Hello to All!
Autumn sure has approached 
us here in the North.
The trees are in full bloom.
The wild Turkeys are foraging for food more. 
 Squirrels are gathering black walnuts and acorns.
The Deer are getting their dark brown winter coats. 
 Crows and Bluejays are squawking.
The Blackbirds are coming together
for their migration South,
along with the Canadian Geese.
Like our birds that migrate South for warmth,
we humans up here are nesting inside more.
Furnace is on and all is well. 

Back in early Spring I decided that my
Christmas theme this year would be a
"Colonial Christmas"


This Summer the ladies of the historical society
 had asked us to be on this year's holiday tour.
  I don't want to jinx myself,
because the final houses have not yet been revealed.
The route for the house tour is determined by
the houses that are willing to do this.
Keep your fingers crossed for us.  

Since we might be on the tour,
I started back in September to decorate
for Christmas starting with our bedroom,
so not as much Autumn decor was put out.

Let me begin by saying that even though
 I wanted to do a Colonial Christmas,
 this is just my version.
The Colonists did not celebrate
 Christmas as we do today;
 even though Colonial Williamsburg
would like you to believe they did.
My upcoming  Colonial Christmas version
 will not be from the 1700's either.
Just my own interpretation of it.

Today I would like to talk about my colonial
partridge in the pear tree.

Now mind you the first Christmas tree did not
appear until the 1850's.
Again this Christmas theme I have chosen
will be my interpretation
of a colonial one.

However the song the 12 Days of Christmas
was written in 1790.
A verse from that song was
"my true love sent to me, a partridge in a pear tree"

This gave me the idea for my first colonial christmas tree.  

I printed a page of colonial writing on brown 

cardstock {first pic} and with a quail pattern

that I drew out,

cut out 6 quails for my tree.

Old World Quails back in the 1700's

were called partridges. They were brought over

from England and are smaller than our present

New World Partridges which are found out West.

These partridges are now called

 the Common Quail, 

and are found throughout the East.

They nest on the ground and their diet

consists of seeds and small insects. 

The Old World Quails are smaller and plumper

than their cousins the New World ones.

Originally there were 6 species of these quails

across the world, however two are now extinct.

The New Zealand and Canary Island quails.

My last picture gave you a sneak peak

of my Partridge in a Pear tree.

Hope you stay tuned as I show you more

in the upcoming months

of my version of a 

"Colonial Christmas"

and the research I uncovered.

Old World Quail Blessings To All!

Janice

Ring Tail Pheasant

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend.

We had a chill in the air all weekend...

thus the furnace did get turned on.

Plus last night we had our first freeze.

Last week driving home I was privy

to a sight I have not seen in a long while.

There were two female pheasants

 on the side of the road.

It has been over 10 years since I had

a glimpse of a male pheasant...

and over 30 years since seeing a female one.

As a teen and young adult,

my dad enjoyed pheasant hunting

and always brought many home to eat.

Without a bird dog.

That was a time where they were very plentiful.

So much land has been cleared for subdivisions 

that the poor animals including the pheasants

have disappeared.

What a shame it is.

Even as a kid I loved hearing 

both the pheasant call and that of the bobwhite.

Needless to say I have heard neither since a teen.

There are a few farms that breed pheasants

here in Michigan and release them

to be hunted for those willing to pay the price.

I so enjoyed creating this display

as pheasants do like a ripe apple in their diet.

I added this feather boa just for fun!

Bob created this Primitive sign for me eons ago.

Do you have pheasants or even bobwhites

in your neck of the woods?

Pheasant Blessings To All!

Janice