Hocus POcus

Howdy friends!

Or should I say Happy Hocus Pocus. LOL

Love that movie and Bob and I watched it the other day. 

For witch craft, I sold these Lavender sage smudges.

All sold.

Pie pumpkins I made to the left.

In the back on the shelf all of these black cat buckets

are spoken for.

The witch boots are gone.

This tapping witch on the window sold first day.

Sold 2 others afterwards.

Brooms almost sold.

Beistle is back in business,

so I just had to purchase these centerpieces.

So retro looking.

Back in the 1700's it was thought

that witches turned into crickets.

Folks believed crickets were good luck,

and they would leave them alone.

Thus the reason witches turned into them.

This is all just folklore, but fit with my witch theme.

This was an actual witch craft book.

It did not sell, but maybe because I forgot to put

a price tag on it. DUH

I just realized it this weekend.

I placed 3 different potpourri in these 

vintage candy dishes.

Each with witchcraft properties.

When the dish became empty, I would re-fill.

The black beads with the hexagon star,

I created. 

They are called witch ladders.

Used to cast spells.

40 beads are on the on the longer ones.

The shorter one I also made had a feather and key.

Now for a few more ghost stories.

These are recent ones that happened 

in our antique store.

It is said that between the months of

September thru October is when ghostly

activity is most prevalent.

Am told because the Earth's crust is at its

thinnest this time of year.

Well we do get more activity at this time.

I don't even like going into our store

by myself during this time.

I always feel like someone is watching me.

First ghost story.

This just happened a week ago.

Our worker is under 5ft tall.

Our radio is higher than she can reach.

Bob always turns it on for her in the morning,

and turns it off at closing.

The radio is on for us and customers.

We always set it to a Canadian rock station,

because their weather reports are most like ours.

Canada is across the river from us.

Any way, our worker goes in the back

and when she comes back up front,

the radio station was turned to a Christian station.

She called Bob right away to see if by

chance he might have changed the station.

Nope, he did not.

But he had to come back and re-change it back.

Ghostly weird.

Then a few days later,

same worker is back behind the counter.

Off flies a shelf and lands in the aisleway near her.

She calls Bob back and says to him,

"Looks like a ghost knocked down a shelf"

Bob comes over again.

If a shelf falls by itself, it would land directly 

down on the floor...not fly across.

Unfortunately our cameras are not pointed in either

of these places, so we could not look to see

whom or what did these things.

After 20 years in the business,

we have had many weird happenings.

BOOOOOOO

Hocus Pocus Blessings To All!

Janice

 

New Windows & Ghost Story

Hello friends!

Before I get to my true ghost story,

I wanted to show off my new windows.

Our living room before.

We had one big window in the middle,

with two smaller ones on each side.

After, we now have 4 identical windows

with grids on the top.

Inside looking out of our living room.

The other side of the front of our ranch home.

Our home may be prim on the inside, 

but just a ranch.

The window on the left is our spare bedroom.

Window in the middle is our bathroom.

After, with all grids.

Spare room before with three windows.

Spare room after with only grids

on the front of the house.

Plus now only two windows.

Bad thing about this is, now I need

a new curtain rod to fit the longer window. 

Our bedroom before.

Again after which I need another longer rod.

Kitchen window before.

Notice most of the windows 

had condensation on them.

Window after and now no condensation.

Especially since we now can open windows.

Did forget to take pics of the bathroom.

Not sure if I have told this ghost story before, however if not it is a true one.

Christmas of 1978 is where we begin.

My boyfriend and I got engaged, although we decided to wait until he graduated from college before even thinking about getting married. We were both 20. I was working and going to college at night. Mike was going to Ferris State to become a dentist and take over his uncles practice.

New Year's Eve we went to a party that his college roommate was having. At the end of my parents road, Mike turns down the radio and nonchalantly says to me- "I'm going to die soon" I was flabbergasted to say the least. All I said was "what are you saying?" He would not reply back and just turned the radio back on. We went on to the party. Nothing was said about him dying again.

Mike went back to school after New Years and was killed in a car accident on January 5th. 1979.

I was devastated to say the least. Why did the love of my life have to leave me, and how did he know? All questions I could not answer.

At Mike's funeral I was approached by a girl my age whom I did not know. She asked me if I was Mike's girlfriend. I said yes. The only thing she tells me is that Mike wants you to marry Bobby. His brother came up to us needing me, and that girl was NEVER seen again. Another odd moment.

After the funeral was over, I told Mike's best friend about the girl and was wondering  if he meant him because his name was Bobby. We went out a few times, but it was like dating my brother. It would not work...so I forgot about this girl and what she said. I married, had children and was divorced.

Fast forward now to January 5th 2007. Exactly 28 years later to the date Mike died. I was driving home with the man I was now dating. It was a cold rainy chilly evening. This girl pulls out in front of me. I had three options. Turn to the left and hit another car head on. Turn to the right and hit folks who were standing on that side of the road and my last option was to just t-bone the truck, which is what I did. I was going 50 mph at the time. Now after the airbags deflated, in between that truck and my car was my dead fiance Mike standing there in the suit he was buried in smiling at me. I swear to God it was him. I knew then what I needed to do. When we finally got back to my house with the help of my neighbors, I told Bob do you believe in ghosts. He said yes. I then told him the same story I am telling you all right now. You see Bob's family never calls him Bob. He is called Bobby. 

After I told him this story, he says lets get married. By this time we had been dating for a year and a half. Well you all know I am married to Bob (Bobby). 

I truly believe Mike wanted me to marry Bob and it took an accident for me to realize this. Thankfully no one was hurt in the accident. Bob and I just had some aches afterwards for a few days. 

I still love Mike. Bob knows he was my first love.

I still wish I knew why Mike had to die.

Still wonder who that girl was a the funeral.

However it seems Mike had a plan for me.

God had a plan for me, as I do believe things happen for a reason.

Well what do you think?

Ghostly Window Blessings to All!

Janice

 

The Witch Room

Happy Sunday my friends.

Hope your weekend is going good! 

I am burning candles at both ends now,

trying to get all of my Christmas items

ready for Nov. 1st.

Therefore I need to get back to creating

in between customers at the store today.

Here are pics of the main room.

All about witches and witchcraft.

Half the pics I should say.

More to come.

Hope you enjoy.

Before I leave, I want to wish

my Canadian friends a

Happy Thanksgiving!

Witch Room Blessings to All!

Janice

A Halloween Tree

 October is here.

The month of Halloween!

Hello my friends!

I started planning my store Halloween room back in May.

Once I decided on my theme of witches/ witchcraft,

the colors I chose were purple and green.

I knew then I wanted a purple Christmas tree.

I tucked in Spanish moss, black feathers

and gray wood beads for garland.

So for this purple tree,

I then added purple and green lights.

It is hard to see in this pic, but the wall here

I added a witches brew scene I found.

Also hung an adult witch hat from the ceiling.

I had these wire baskets and realized they would fit

perfectly from the dresser drawers.

I just used bakers twine to hang them

 from the  door pulls.

Fun witch hats

These fun tags I made from black cardstock

and metallic letters.

Another tag.

I also made some Cheshire cats,

but forgot to take a close up of those.

You can see them in my second pic.

In the baskets I added witches burrs.

AKA sweet gum pods.

I use these all of the time mixed in with other items.

Great bowl fillers!

Also dried palm artichokes.

 Another item I use in my bowls.

Things were selling so fast, I changed the one

basket to sage smudge.

The palm artichokes up close.

These witch sugar cookies I made.

Sprinkles are in black, orange,

purple and green.

Also these cats. Background is really 

gray and white, but the green lights show this color.

You probably wont believe this,

but I already have my theme for net year.

Halloween Tree Blessings To All!

Janice

Poison Apple Tutorial

 Woohoo its the weekend!!!

Happy weekend my friends!!!

                                I was thinking the other day,

boy Janice its been a long time since you

offered a tutorial.

So today I am going to tell you how to create

these poison apples.

Materials Needed

Faux apples (purchased mine at Hobby Lobby)

Black paint

Paint Brush

Glue gun and sticks (regular size, not minis)

Modge Podge

Wood dowel 1/8 inch thick

Gray Cardstock

Black embroidery floss

Needle

Step 1: Remove the stem from the apple.

Step 2: Cut dowel 6 inches long

Thank god for Bob as I HATE saws.

You might be able to just purchase some

candy apple sticks instead.

Step 3: Punch dowel into where the stem was.

Take out and add a bit of hot glue and stick back in.

Step 4: Glue entire apple with hot glue. 

Now it is best if you start from the top and

glue downward, then all around.

Make sure to leave some of the apple showing at the top.

It took me 2 1/2 glue sticks per apple.

Let glue dry 24 hours.

Step 5: Paint entire dried glue with black paint.

Let dry 24 hours.

Make sure the paint is well covered on the glue.

Step 6: Paint the black now with 

Modge Podge.

Let dry again 24 hours.

This will make your apple shiny.

Now if you want to add a tag,

so sorry I did not save the one I found on Pinterest.

I would do a Pinterest search for a

Poison Apple Label.

(thats where I found mine)

So sorry.

I fit it to size and once again I forgot to measure this.

Ensure it is the right size you like before

printing on cardstock.

Otherwise if you dont want a label it will look like

this without my label.

I attached my label using black floss.

{just add floss to your needle and punch hole through}

Tie and cut ends.

Looks like it is floating. WOW

Took this pic on the lid of the store toilet.

Now I created my poison apples using green apples,

because my witch theme was green and purple.

You may want to use a red faux apple.

Hope my instructions were satisfactory.

In other news,

I also created a poem to go with my apples.

I made up this poem and sized to fit

a 4 X 6 frame.

Printed on some fancy paper.

I had to make sure it was the correct size,

so I took the glass out of the frame,

placed on top of my printed poem using regular paper first.

Once I knew it fit, I then printed on the pretty paper.

Again put the glass on top of the printed poem,

drew a pencil line around and then cut to fit.

Feel free to make these if you like as well.

Poison Apple Blessings To All!

Janice