Here I Am

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted on my blog. Since school started in August, I have worked at least four days almost every week. In addition, I've been sewing and doing alterations like crazy. I actually had to start a list on my big chalkboard so I can keep up with what belongs to who and the order I need to get them done in.

I sewed almost 14 hours straight yesterday trying to get caught up. I still have four items to sew, but they'll have to wait a couple of weeks. We leave on vacation tomorrow. First, we'll travel to San Antonio which means we'll be there for Halloween with Our Little Princesses. On Friday morning we leave for a week in Oregon.

We'll be staying in a condo in Welches, Oregon, out near Mount Hood. Our trip will include a couple of days in Portland, a day at Crater Lake, a day on the Oregon coast, and a day in the Columbia River Gorge. I've also left a day open so we can just look around and decide on anything else we want to do or see.

I'm planning to blog along the way, hopefully every evening. It helps me keep my memories organized and makes it easier for me to put together my photo album after the trip.

I hope you check back during the next week and follow along on our trip. I'd also love to hear from you if you're familiar with Oregon and have any recommendations for things we should see and do.

Watch out for the ghoulies and ghosties tomorrow and have a scary Halloween.

The Rocky Horror Show

On Halloween night, Grams and Grandad were looking for an escape from our neighborhood block party and trick-or-treaters. We don't want to buy candy, because if we buy it, we eat it ... and neither of us need candy in our diets.

Grams had seen on 40 Things To Do in Corpus Christi's Facebook Page that Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show was playing live at the Aurora Arts Theater. We've been big fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show for many years. I didn't even realize that it was a play, I thought it was just a movie.  Silly me!

Turns out they had been doing three performances every weekend since the end of September. Halloween weekend they had two performances each night at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. We were able to get tickets for the 7 o'clock performance on Halloween. There are no reserved seats in the small theater. It's first come, first seated in this 100 seat theater.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the Aurora Arts Theater believes in a "complete" live performance. No canned music at the Aurora; live music is an important part of the production. Admission was only $14 each and "prop bags" were $5 each.

This was a great way to spend Halloween night. It was so much fun. The actors were well cast and "the chorus" added a lot of fun to the experience.  The small size of the theater makes this an intimate theater experience. The entire playhouse becomes part of the staging. It's truly an interactive theater experience, especially during The Rocky Horror Show. For example, every time someone says "Brad" the audience shouts "Asshole" and every time some says "Janet" the crowd shouts "Slut." There are many other opportunities for crowd interaction and a few words that I won't put into print here. I was surprised to see a number of audience members who seemed significantly older than Grams and Grandad. We're in our mid-fifties. I was a little bit concerned that the gentleman seated next to me was somewhat older and I thought he might be offended, but it didn't seem to bother him in the least.

It's a lot of fun to soak the cast with water from a water pistol during the "rain" scenes. And I loved waving my light to the tune of "Over At The Frankenstein Place." For me the highlight of the night was when the cast invited the entire audience to dance the "Time Warp" at the end of the performance. It was so much fun, even if Grandad and the old guy next to me just stood there instead of dancing.

Photos are not allowed inside the theater, but the cast graciously posed in the lobby for quite some time after the show. And, as is tradition, many of the audience members were also in costume. I regret that I did not get a photo of either Raymond Guttierrez who played Frank-N-Furter or Aaron Cooper who was the narrator. They were both delightful in the play, but somehow I just missed them when I was taking pictures.

It's clear that everyone involved at the Aurora Arts Theater is there for the love of theater and performance. We will definitely be attending more productions at this intimate little theater.

Next up on their schedule is Grace and Glorie by Tom Zeigler. They've just recently announced their 2011 season. I can't wait!

The Cutest Little Brown Bear Ever

Grams volunteered to make a Halloween costume for Our Little Princess this year. Her Mom decided she should be a little brown bear. If you ask her what a bear says, she curls her fingers like claws and says "rowr!" I made it out of micro-fleece so it will double as a pair of winter pajamas.

I think she's the cutest little brown bear ever! And look at those beautiful big brown eyes.

 

Since they live in San Antonio, we weren't there to see her trick-or-treating for the first time. Her Mom reports that she was kind of mystified by the whole process. When a front door opened she would very softly say "trick or treat." And, anytime she saw kids in scary costumes, she would make about a 10-foot arc around them and grab firmly onto her Daddy's knees. I wish we had been there.

Instead, we went to a local production of the Rocky Horror Show. It was great fun. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. I hope you had a great Halloween, too.

Today is the third and final day of the SITS Girls Halloween link-up. Participants in this link up have a chance to win a fabulous state-of-the-art Canon Rebel DSLR camera, so I'm participating. Today's assignment was to post about what we or our kids dressed up for this Halloween. As you can see, I wrote about our grand-daughter. This SITS girls is a "group of more than 7,000 women bloggers dedicated to supporting one another by leaving comments. Lots and lots of comments." 

Halloween Creative Crafts

The SITS Girls are hosting a Halloween link-up. Participants in this link up have a chance to win a fabulous state-of-the-art Canon Rebel DSLR camera, so I'm participating. Today's assignment is to post about something we made for Halloween. This SITS girls is a "group of more than 7,000 women bloggers dedicated to supporting one another by leaving comments. Lots and lots of comments." 

Grams and Grandad dropped out of the neighborhood Halloween festivities a few years ago. But I still like to stay in the spirit.

This year I made three things in keeping with the Halloween spirit. I've already posted directions for two of them, so I'm just going to re-post photos and link back in case you want to see how they were made.

First, I made a witch's hat into a wind sock for my front yard. If you want to see how it's done, click here. 

Then I made this edible centerpiece for the Valenta Family Reunion. This was very simple to make, anyone could do it. Click here for a list of supplies and directions.

The third thing I made was a Halloween costume for Our Little Princess, but you'll have to come back tomorrow for a picture of the cutest little brown bear ever! Happy haunting!

Ghosts of Halloweens Past

Grams was distressed this week to hear on the news that some cities are limiting trick-or-treating to children under 12 years old. In our neighborhood, children have always trick-or-treated well into their teens and I like it that way. Kids and teens are in such a hurry to grow up that I love to see them acting like kids for a few hours on Halloween night.

When our kids were growing up, Halloween was much anticipated and details were planned for weeks if not months. Kids and adults looked forward to it. Our neighborhood has always excelled at Halloween, often throwing huge block parties. Yards were decorated, candy was purchased, costumes were planned, games were set up in driveways.

Our neighborhood costume contest circa 1986. Katy is the punk rocker in blue and Nick is the cowboy. Nick won best costume that year.

As the kids got older costumes progressed from ballerinas and cowboys to punk rockers and zombies, but that didn't bother me in the least. It's a normal progression and part of growing up. These block parties provided my favorite memories of Halloween. Our neighborhood was alive with kids and teens running around and having good clean fun.

Usually by 9 o'clock the kids would be off the streets back safely in their homes. About that time, the adults would gather at the corner house with bottles of wine or margaritas and spend an hour or two sharing a few drinks and a laugh or two. Then we'd all head inside to tuck the kids in.

We continued to participate for a few years after our kids left home, but it made me sad because I missed the fun times we had with our kids. So, although the neighborhood still has a big block party, we usually choose not to participate. We usually go out to dinner and a movie for Halloween. This year, we're planning an early dinner at P.F. Changs and then we're going to a live performance of The Rocky Horror Show. We've seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show dozens of times on television, but this will be our first live production. I can't wait for Dammit Janet, The Time Warp, and Sweet Transvestite.

Happy haunting to all of you!

This post about a Halloween of the past is linked to www.thesitsgirls.com. By the way, I also want to tell you the “Tiffany is Pretty” although I'm not sure exactly how that ties in to this post. ;)

Grams Made an Edible Halloween Centerpiece

One of the highlights of the fall season for Grams and Grandad is always a trip to the Valenta Family Gathering held the 4th Saturday of every October at Moravian Hall in Corn Hill, Texas. This is one of two Valenta Family reunions held in Corn Hill each year. The Valenta Family Reunion is the second Saturday of June each year and is for the entire Valenta Clan. This Fall Family Gathering is only for the descendants of Adolph and Louise Valenta, who were my husband's grandparents.

This is what real kolaches look like.

The rental for the Moravian Hall is paid from the proceeds of a silent auction. Every family is asked to bring an item for the auction. This year there were 47 items. Bidding is a good-natured competition among cousins. There are always one or two items that go for ridiculously high prices. Home-made pickles are a perennial favorite sometimes bringing as much as $35 for one jar. Yesterday home-baked pastries and home-canned goodies were the high dollar items. My brother-in-law paid something like $48 for a bukta, which is a large pastry similar to a coffee cake or danish. My other brother-in-law paid around $50 for this plate of cream cheese kolaches.

I always have trouble deciding what to take as my donation. On Friday I was still trying to choose something when I was reading one of my favorite blogs A Little Sussy. Nicole Hill Gerulat is a professional photographer who shares her photo shoots. She recently posted photos from a Halloween party that had this beautiful centerpiece. I decided to try to copy it for my donation to the silent auction. I think it came out pretty good. Here's my copy.

In case you want to make one yourself, here's what I did.

You'll need:

• a one gallon container with straight sides (I used a gallon canister with a lid)
• 1 bag of mini-marshmallows
• 1 package black licorice whips
• 4 packages of Jack-O-Lantern Peeps (I could only find one, so I improvised)
• 1 bag candy pumpkins (they're similar to candy corn)
• 1 carton malted milk balls
• 4 packages of ghost Peeps
• 2 bags candy corn
• 3-5 decorative lollipops or other tall Halloween candy
• about one yard of ribbon in a coordinating color.

Step-by-step directions

1. Fill the bottom of the container about one inch deep with mini-marshmallows. 
2. Make the licorice layer by curling the licorice around the container starting at the outside and working your way in. 
3. Next line the container with Jack-O-Lantern Peeps then fill behind them with candy pumpkins. 
4. The next layer is malted milk balls. I used the entire carton.
5. Next line the container with ghost Peeps and fill behind them with candy corn all the way to the top of the canister. 
6. Arrange the tall candies to stick out of the top.
7. Tie the ribbon around the rim of the canister and you're done.

If I make another one I would probably replace the mini-marshmallows and with yellow and orange sour balls. Although I do like the white color of the marshmallows, I don't really like marshmallows. You can really replace any of the candies with any others, but I recommend that you stick with the orange, black, brown, yellow colors for Halloween.

I think I'm going to make a red and green one for Christmas.

Halloween Frenzy Continues

Every day when I drive through the neighborhood there are more and more decorations. And, I just have to tell you that yet another household has joined the Halloween decorating frenzy in our neighborhood.

Imagine my amusement on Saturday when I turned the corner about three blocks from my house and found this. I actually did a U-turn and went back to look at it again. Then I drove around the block, fished my camera out of my purse, and snapped a couple of photos.

I've seen similar Halloween displays on the internet, but I never expected to see one in real life ... especially not right here in our very conservative "bible belt" neighborhood.

All I can say is ... at least they have a sense of humor.

Grams Made A Witch Hat Windsock

Grams loves to decorate for holidays. When my kids were at home I often took it to extremes. In fact, some of my neighbors used to call me the holiday lady. In recent years, I have cut back. I just don't have the energy to get it all out and put it all away for every holiday. With the exception of Christmas, now I only put out a few indoor decorations. But I always keep a seasonal windsock in the tree in the front yard and a wreath or other seasonal decoration on the front porch.

The windsock helps minimize the number of birds that roost right over my swing in the front yard. It cuts down on the bird poop on my swing. I've had quite a collection of windsocks over the years, but last year I noticed that many of them were looking worn and haggard, so I tossed those out when I took them down.

When I went shopping for a new Halloween windsock this year,

Saved

I couldn't find one that I liked. I decided to make my own. I went shopping for an inexpensive witch hat that would stand up to the weather. There is a strong prevailing south wind that blows right into my front yard, so it needed a rigid brim. I had a very hard time finding one that wasn't made of velvet or Pellon. I knew neither of those would take the wind and sun. I also had a hard time buying just a hat. Wal-Mart and HEB only had the entire costumes. I finally found a suitable hat at Family Dollar and it only cost $3. BONUS!

The hat is made out of a rip-stop parachute fabric and has a sheer overlay with a silver spiderweb print which also hangs off the brim and makes a ruffle about 4 inches long. The purple hat band also came on the hat.

All I did was add four lengths of black tulle spaced evenly around the brim. The tulle is 6-inches wide and I cut each length to about 48 inches.  Then I added four lengths of black ribbon, also about 48 inches long. I sewed them to the brim of the hat on my sewing machine. Then I knotted the tulle every 12 inches or so to give it weight. I used hot glue to attach small craft mirrors back-to-back every 6-8 inches down the ribbon. The mirrors were left over from another project so I was happy to use them up and get them out of my craft closet.

Finally I attached 8 inches of black ribbon in a loop, which I stitched across the tip-top of the hat. Since the wind is very strong, I added a swivel hook to the top which is used to attach it to a hook in the tree. The swivel hook came from the fishing tackle department at Wal-Mart.

I'm really pleased with the finished product. The mirrors really look good in the sunlight. They create a moving array of little spots of light all across the yard and the front of the house. I took several pictures, but it was difficult to photograph. This is the best picture I got.

Halloween Doesn't Scare Me, But This Does ...

Grams' neighbors have started their annual Halloween decorating frenzy. There are ghosts and ghouls hanging from trees. Gravestones are popping up in front yards. Front doors are guarded by scarecrows and witches. Walkways have been lined with spiderwebs and jack-o-lanterns. This neighborhood is big on Halloween. I blogged about the Haunt-aholics in my neighborhood last year.

But ghosts and ghouls don't scare me. Here's what's really scary. Christmas is less than twelve weeks away. (Cue Psycho music.) AmberLee over at Giver's Log called this to my attention with a couple of recent posts.  She has also put together a very helpful Holiday Organizer to help us get organized and make this the year that we "get holiday things done in time to enjoy the holidays." Click on over to this post and you can download the organizer in two different forms.

Haunt-a-holics

In most neighborhoods, it seems that the Christmas holiday season creates something of a frenzy of competition to have the best holiday decorations. Our neighborhood is a little different. Yes, we definitely decorate for Christmas, but Halloween seems to inspire more creativity and competition. A few of my neighbors take Halloween seriously. And it seems that no matter who moves in and out of the neighborhood, there are always at least two neighbors in competition for the best Halloween decor.

Usually, around the first of October, jack-o-lanterns start appearing followed by spider webs, ghoulish windsocks, scarecrows, ghosts hanging from trees, mummies sitting in lawn chairs and the obligatory grave headstones.

Then it turns into a competition. It seems like every year, somewhere in the neighborhood, there are a pair of houses that get carried away. They're usually right next door to each other and every few days something new is added to one or the other. It's fascinating to watch as a few innocent pumpkins turn into a full blown graveyard with every variety of ghouls and ghosts.

This year is no exception. Right around the corner from where we live, there are a couple of houses whose owners seem to be a little carried away. Over the past few weeks it's been interesting to check every few days to see what's been added. Here are a few photos but it's hard to do justice in a snapshot. Just as a point of reference, the black "wraith" hanging from the tree must be more than 20 feet tall. Both yards have full-blown graveyards and giant ghosts hanging from the trees. There are skeletons clawing their way out of some of the graves. They have everything from mummies and Frankenstein to giant spiders.

Hey neighbors! I think the neighborhood kids may be starting to cross the street instead of walk in front of your houses. Maybe you've gone too far. Is there a twelve-step program for "haunt-a-holics?"

We're Really Good at Halloween

My neighborhood is really good at Halloween. No, I mean it. We're really, really good at it! And we've been good at it for a long, long time.

The Halloween frenzy started innocently enough. Years ago, when the neighborhood was new, there were not many children. In fact for a long time it seemed like ours were the only ones ... not literally, but it did feel that way for a while. As more people moved in and the younger couples started having babies, the Halloween festivities grew.

On Halloween night we would block off the street and there would be carnival games in every driveway. Kids could bob for apples, go through a spook house, toss bean bags, etc. There was even a costume contest. Some years, after the kids were put to bed, parents would meet at the corner and have wine and cheese to wind down.

These photos are from Halloween around 1987 or so. The kids in these photos are in their late twenties and early thirties now. Some of them come back and bring their own kids now. The old carnival has evolved to a huge party at my next-door neighbor's house. Everyone brings a covered dish. We usually have hamburgers and hot dogs and we eat dinner before the trick-or-treating begins. In addition to all the Halloween candy, there are homemade popcorn balls and decorated cookies.

Neighbors bring lawn chairs, ice chests and our own bag or basket of candy. Kids trick-or-treat by walking from person-to-person around the driveway. Then they head out, accompanied by a few adults, to knock on doors around the area.

In our neighborhood, trick-or-treating often continues well into teenage years. We love that and we embrace it. Teenagers, with fangs and fake blood run through the neighborhood, toss water balloons and spray silly string at each other. And ... some of them still trick-or-treat. It's good clean fun and I love the fact that they're not too grown up to participate in the festivities. Most of the adults and parents are sitting outside and everybody is keeping an eye on everybody's kids. My kids embraced Halloween well into their high school years.

Several years ago when our baby left for college (that's him bobbing for apples), we felt that it was important to keep doing the activities we had always done. For the first few years, Grams made a covered dish and around sundown on Halloween we would head next door to participate in the neighborhood festivities. But, Grams soon discovered that it's just not the same and I didn't really enjoy Halloween any more. I missed my kids and I would get a bad case of the blues when Halloween came around. Grams soon concluded that this was one of the areas of my life where adjustments were called for. So for the past several years, Grams and Grandad have opted out of the neighborhood festivities and gone to the movies. That way I don't have to resist eating any Halloween candy and I don't get the blues. With just this small adjustment ... Grams made it!