Halloween 2008 Store Window Decorations in Fort Bragg, CA

Had a nice walk looking at the Halloween Store Decorations today. Tomorrow is the big day. I stocked up on extra candy as we do get lots of trick or treaters where I live. :-)

Day of The Dead 2008 - Remembering Little Brother

Almost 30 years ago, my brother was killed in a gang fight at age 18. He wasn't even a gang member. Just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I read about the Day of the Dead at (http://www.inspiremethursday.com/2008/10/29/dia-de-los-muertos/) that honors those who passed on, so I made this in my little brothers honor. I was only 3 years older than him and we got along very well. We had lots of happy times together and got through lots of difficult times together. My whole family and our friends really lost out when we lost our brother to murder. It has affected all of us so deeply. I pray that wherever my departed brother is he is doing better than ever. And I daily commit myself to a non-violent lifestyle more than ever as a way to honor him, too. I try to watch my thoughts, feelings and actions and think before I act. I ask myself whether what I am about to do is loving or not. If it isn't loving, then I just don't do it. I am not perfect, but I at least strive to keep doing the right things in my life.

Nature's Halloween Decoration

This bush was full of different spider webs. The spiders certainly are busy little creatures here. :-)

Cooler Weather Post

Now it feels a bit more like October. I did break down and turn on the heater today to warm it up in here. Now it is much better. Today was the kind of day you just want to go back to bed. I had to fight off that feeling all day today. Looks like it is time to engage in something like a puzzle, a good book or some other kind of interesting indoor activity. Will ponder what I can do to occupy myself with the rainy weather that will be with us here in no time. I do like following the "Inspire Me Thursday" prompts for creative ideas. Will have to check out other creative prompt sites, too. Well, that is it from here for today. I mean I have more to write like as far as politics and other news stories, but I am sure you follow them enough yourself.

Having A Bit Of Time On My Hands - Happy Halloween

The middle orange says to the other oranges, "Get out of here and roll while you still can!"


This weeks prompt at the Inspire Me Thursday site (http://www.inspiremethursday.com/2008/10/23/carve/) was the word "Carve". I don't have experience in that sort of thing so after breakfast this creation happened after seeing all kinds of fancy fruit carvings yesterday on the internet. People really can get creative with fruit from what I saw. I saw fancy watermelons made to look like a bed of roses among many other neat designs. Amazing the things you run across on the internet.

Today's Drawing - Tiger

My son had a tiger calendar last year, so I cut out some of the photos and tacked them up. I thought how nice it would be to attempt to draw a tiger. Here is my first drawing of a tiger at age 51. :-)

Not Knowing What To Say Post

Here is my not knowing what to say post. I just realized I haven't posted in a while, so thought I would post this. Things are okay here, no major dramas, just calm, so all is well. And that is my not knowing what to say post for the day.

Mylene Farmer and Seal - Les mots

More beautiful voices here.

Happy Woman Drawing

Spent the evening drawing this happy woman. I used a photo of a movie star woman as the basis of this drawing and some other ideas from drawing books to draw this.

Halloween Drawing - "Nervous"

This I drew for the prompt of "nervous" that was given out at Inspire Me Thursdays website at: http://www.inspiremethursday.com/2008/10/16/nervous/

I had fun doing this one. :-)

Tiziano Ferro - Imbranato

I could listen to Tiziano sing for hours it seems.

Tiziano Ferro - Sere Nere

Now here is a great singer!

My Halloween Poem - A Black Cat Crossed My Path

A black cat crossed my path
On a night of a full moon
He was carrying a pack on his back
And dancing around like a loon.

I thought it was a funny sight
I couldn’t believe my eyes
Then I saw a ghostly cat
In a transparent disguise.

His eyes glowed like fire
In the darkened night
My hands grew cold
I was filled with fright.

Just then the ghostly cat
Found the black cat by a tree
They both did a jig
And started singing merrily.

I was no longer scared
As they danced ‘round and ‘round
It was an unusual scene
And an unusual sound.

They sang Halloween songs
About pumpkins and goblins and bats
And as they sang
Along came about fifty other cats.

They all joined in
The sound grew so loud
But it was a happy sound
From a jolly crowd.

All of the cats were dancing
And having a good time
Then the ghostly cat invited me
To have a bite of a lime.

I told him it would be sour
He said “Well, come dance instead”
So I joined the singing cats
And danced with a cat named Fred.

He moved around quite fast
Hopping left and right
We both danced and danced
Deep into the night.

At last I had enough
I couldn’t dance anymore
So I said good-bye to all the cats
And Fred walked me to my door.

He asked if he could come in
I said “my two cats would probably mind”
So he said “I’ll see you around”
I said “I had a nice time.”

One year went by
Halloween was here again
A black cat crossed my path
I knew the party was about to begin.

Happy Halloween.

Getting Colder

It is now October 16, 2008 and I am starting to feel a nip of chill in the air. And last night was no exception. It was very cold out last night and early this morning. Our cold weather has arrived. But the weather here can be tricky. It could be cold one day and nice and warm the next.

Last night I had a cold feet problem. I was nice and warm except for my feet. I am going to look into finding my wool socks. That will put a stop to the cold. I don't really like wool on my skin, but the socks don't seem to bother me at all. So I will be searching for where I left those wool socks at. Or it may be time to just buy a new pair or two.

It still is nice to go on walks. Today on my walk I saw a little snake and a very strange looking little bird. I saw some pretty trees with nice fall colors on their leaves. I will have to get out with the camera again to get some photos. Well, that is all from here for now.

Tonight's Moon

Just stopping by my blog to post that today was nice and sunny and warm. A very nice day in Fort Bragg. And tonight's moon looks great, too.

Another Apple Pie

We still had some leftover apples, so I made another apple pie. I used Pillsbury Pie Crusts this time. It is still cooling off. I like how it turned out and hopefully it will taste good. And this is the recipe I used called Grandma's Apple Pie: http://www.the-goodapple.com/classic_apple_pie_recipes.htm

Just checking back in to say the pie did taste real good with the above recipe. :-)

Rumi Prompt - Creation

Following the "Rumi" prompt from Inspire Me Thursday (http://www.inspiremethursday.com/2008/10/09/a-poem-by-rumi/) here is what I created today.

Fort Bragg, California Glass Beach Area

I went to Glass Beach today. It was very windy, but so clear. I liked being out by the cliffs in the fresh ocean air. Very nice, especially if you can brave the wind. And when we have wind, we do have wind! LOL

A Cartoon Cat Drawing

Just trying to draw a cartoon cat using one of my own cat photos as a model. :-)

Mistakes Lately and Good Stuff

Being that I am 51 years old, I guess it is okay that I have made the following mistakes recently:
I put the pizza in the oven with the cardboard bottom on it. Thank goodness it didn't burn!
I brushed my teeth and was getting ready to put away the toothbrush when I put more toothpaste on the toothbrush.
Sometimes I am not sure if I just put on deodorant or not, so I put it on again.
With my vitamin taking, I forget whether I took them or not, so I just have to skip until the next day.
I make a nice cup of tea in my handy dandy stainless steel cup to take with me on an outing and out the door I go without it. But sometimes I remember to go back in and get it.
Sometimes there is a store item I need and I think for sure that I will remember it, but I don't unless I do write it down.

Now the good stuff:
I don't forget to buy food for the teenagers - ever!
I never forget to feed the cats either. Well, of course cats and teenagers will let you know about that stuff now wouldn't they?
I actually make my bed every morning. Years went by until I got the hang of that!
I do remember to water my indoor plants. The outdoor plants are luckily ones that do well in this climate so they don't need me to deal with them.
I do remember to get dressed and not go out in my bathrobe to check the mail, but I do admit one early morning I ran out there to check the mail in my bathrobe because I didn't check the mail the day before.
I try to eat healthy and exercise.
I try not to hang out with aggravating people for any longer than is necessary. And I try not to be an aggravating person myself.

So all is not lost here in my middle age.

Cereal Box Art - Made Two Little "Notes" Books

This one above is stitched together.

This one just has a rubberband and yarn ribbon in center to hold it together.



You need two index cards. Then cut out a piece of cereal box cardboard the same size as the index cards. Glue a blank index card on the front and back of the cereal box piece and fold in half. Now take some blank paper and cut it a little smaller than the index card cover. Fold in half and these will be your notes to write on. Decorate the front cover anyway you like. Then sew in the paper to the cover with a very sharp needle that will go through the cardboard. Start in the middle of the paper. Or for an easy way, just take a rubber band and put that around the middle. Then when you run out of paper, you can always refill it easy. This was a fun project to do and you could make plenty of these little notes books with just index cards, a cereal box, plain paper and whatever you want to decorate it with.

This project was inspired by: http://www.inspiremethursday.com/2008/10/02/cereal-box-art/

My Silly Monster Like Looking Homemade Apple Pie

Sometimes I just go about cooking up stuff and don't even give it much thought. I just pick some random internet recipe and then even just make up stuff as I go along. This is my downfall in cooking. I need to find more reliable recipes and then follow them exactly as they are.

Well, the main thing about an apple pie is to have a good pie crust. My pie crust didn't turn out so good, but the apples inside it tasted really good. So next time I am going to just buy the already made crusts. That will go better for me. This pie had a whole wheat crust. The bottom crust was fine, but the top was way too tough - like cardboard actually.

I made a few mistakes. I substituted light margarine for the butter. And then I think I poked too many holes in the top. I was to just make about 3 slits in the top like I have always done when I made pies. I used a fork and pin pricked it in many places and I have no idea why I did that. I think I did it because I poked holes in the bottom crust and then because it was such a late hour in making this pie, I was probably half asleep doing it. Something told me not to poke holes in the top, but I did anyhow. That was the downfall of the top crust being tough, from what I can tell.

Regardless, it still felt good to make an apple pie even if I was a bit tired when I made it. I will rely on already made pie crusts next time unless someone has a good pie crust recipe they would like to pass on? Or a suggestion for a good cook book with easy to follow recipes and directions. I used to have a great Better Homes and Gardens one and my mom had The Joy of Cooking. I will look into seeing if I can get those again.

Apples, Apples, Apples

You know I thought it would be nice to have some apples from our tree, but it just wasn't doing so well. Then a friend of mine had an overabundance of apples and has been giving me plenty of them. I have made applesauce and my next project is an apple pie. When I was around 12 years old I remember baking all kinds of things. There were seven of us in my family so it was fun to bake lots of things for everyone like cookies, pies, cakes, etc. We don't always have that many sweets around here. But I think a homemade apple pie would be well as American as --- Apple Pie. So I will search out a homemade pie crust recipe and if I am not up to that, perhaps I will resort to a store bought crust. Well, I know I could make a pie crust, just have to have the ambition to do so. I don't have a rolling pin around, but I am sure a large sturdy glass will do the trick.

Anyway, I posted a photo of an apple tree growing around the downtown Fort Bragg area that I saw the other day. Lots of apples on this one. Yes, it is October.