The Jack O'Lantern King!

Drum roll please...

I am about to show you my newest design, which I am extremely proud of. But before I do I have to give you some of my usual background story ramblings.

Admit it, if I just said, “here is my new design, blah, blah, blah…” and posted the pictures you would all think (with good reason) that I was an impostor and the real me had been abducted by aliens. (Hopefully they’re treating me well… and not ‘probing’ me… what’s up with aliens and all the ‘probing’?)

Never fear, it is me and here is my rambling…

In the retail world Christmas begins in July and Halloween in …May? June? I’m not sure, but it’s long before Fall is in the air. Now that I am a full time retail type girl with my own little on line shop (this would be the perfect place to put a shop link, but I’m too lazy) I must now start thinking far ahead of the upcoming holidays and seasons and plan my designs accordingly.

But here’s the thing.

I don’t work like that.

I cannot find the inspiration within me to design a toy workshop necklace in July or a haunted mansion brooch in June.

In July I want to drink Arnold Palmer’s (50 percent lemonade, 50 percent ice tea, 100 percent delicious) and light sparklers and snakes. (Snakes: Greatest firework of all time. A little black tablet that smokes profusely and unfurls into a long snakey ash. Definition courtesy of Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.) (Yes, it is...look it up if you don’t believe me.)

(You didn’t look it up did you? You’re too lazy to look it up and challenge me so by default you will have to take me at my word.)

(Okay, I cannot lie… the guilt is too much. That is my own loose paraphrase of the snake firework definition in Webster’s.)

( I feel so much better! Confession really is good for the soul.)

Once again my ADD mind has taken us off course onto a long winding side street, but lucky for us all I have taken my medication today and can easily find my way back.

But before we do that let’s just go down this little alley… I used the term ‘50 percent’ in my Arnold Palmer definition instead of the word ‘half’, which I would normally say because if I used the word ‘half’ I couldn’t have used that hilarious line ‘one hundred percent delicious.’ Just didn’t want anyone to think I was a weirdo that uses creepy analytical type terms like ‘50 percent’ very much in the manner of a talking robot instead of normal words like ‘half’. (Because I’m sure if any of you had the mistaken idea that I am weird, that was what clued you in, didn’t it.)

Now back to the main highway.

So in order to get myself into a Halloween frame of mind so I could design some Halloween pieces before Oct.31 I looked at some old photos of my girl’s in Halloweens past. Join me on this little trip down memory lane… (Get it? Memory lane fits in with my whole driving/ highway analogy I have going on here.) ( Pretty clever.) Here we have Mother Nature and a Starbucks barista.

A close up of mother nature's hair.

Last year we were apparently all in a board game frame of mind:

Ms. Monopoly!

Yes, we made that up, but isn't she cute? Oh, by the way, she decided this costume,(which I completely hand painted), wasn't comfortable and changed into a store bought witch dress. After much arguing,begging, bribing, and tears (mine) she still wouldn't wear it. I gave up, but did inform her that should I decided to murder her and at my murder trial showed these photos, if there was even one single mom on the jury I would be acquitted on all counts. (She is sadly immune to my threats.)And although I did not commit murder that night apparently Miss Peacock did ...in the conservatory, with my very nice large silver candlestick, which I just realized at this very moment that I have not seen since that night. Aaaaghhh!

I may be a mom that occasionally forgets to pick my girls up from school and to date has never had them finish a complete course of antibiotics, (yes, I know this creates super bugs, I’m sorry!), but they have always had creative homemade Halloween costumes and witty baked treats to take to holiday parties. Let’s hope they remember that when it’s time to put mommy in a home…(the costumes and cupcakes that is, not the neglect and abandonment.)

And now we have arrived at our destination. (Unless you unbuckled your seat belt a while back and flung yourself out of my speeding car onto the side of the freeway thinking this a better option than continuing on as a virtual captive for my own little Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.) (Sorry, no refunds. –The Management)

If you did do that then too bad for you. The rest of us will now enjoy seeing my new design. (But I sincerely hope you didn’t get hurt flinging your body out of my car onto the shoulder of the road…with asphalt… and gravel…and prickly weeds…that really wasn’t the smartest decision.)

So here is my newest design, the Jack O’Lantern King Locket!

I have wanted to make something that had a door that could open for quite a while. I can dream up all sorts of designs, but if they will actually work is always a concern. Almost every design I have has had at least three prototypes before I work all the bugs out.( I will post photos of my ‘scrap heap’ sometime.)

It’s extremely important to me that my designs not only look good, but are functional and sturdy to stand up over time. I don’t want something adorable, but sort of rickety or unstable.( Yes, I am a self admitted slob and I can on occasion be lazy, but when it comes to my jewelry I am so passionate about my work that it seems to override these traits.)

I am really pleased with how this turned out. If you look at this item in my shop you can read the details, including where these great vintage images came from. It seems I’m in an extremely chatty mood and have written for quite a while. If I tried to add all those details here then I will have the longest post in the history of bloggerdom.

I’m in a benevolent mood, (along with my previously mentioned chatty mood), so I will not dethrone whoever currently holds that title.

Perhaps another day...

An Angel, a Saint, and a Priest…

No this is not the first line of a bar joke! But it is the theme for my post. Oh, and a Miracle too. The miracle is: I’m alive!

No posts for over a month! What’s up with that you ask? Well, that brings us to the first appearance by the Angel.

Our home was visited by the dark Angel of the FLU. Much crueler than his cousin, the Angel of Death, the Angel of FLU doesn’t actually kill you…but you wish it would. That would be a better fate than non stop throwing up. (or at least it seems like it at the time.)

And unlike the Angel of Death who strikes the firstborn, the Flu Angel pays no heed to birth order and even struck me, the lowly neglected middle child. Woo Hoo! Middle kids rule! And now for the Saint:

A moment of reverent silence for Jan Brady, patron saint of middle children across the globe. Amen.

My husband, the baby of his family, lived up to his birthright and was a complete baby when it was his turn. My oldest daughter got it first, which seems fitting. Those trailblazing firstborn!

So what to do when one’s home is ravaged for weeks with the flu? Why watch TV of course! With so much tv time I became hooked on the HBO series, Carnivale. I ordered it through Netflix and impatiently waited by the mailbox each day for the next disc.

Warning: This show is not for the faint of heart. It has a supernatural creepy element to it and one of the freakiest villains ever… Brother Justin!

Did you notice he’s a priest? See, I keep my word!

Carnivale is about a traveling carnival set in the depression era. It is visually stunning for those kindred spirits who like retro clothing and the carnival/circus theme.

And guess what? My niece Josie, who used to take circus classes, met the girls who play the acrobatic Siamese twins. (Look for them in their adorable vintage pink top and brown ruffled shorts in the opening credits.) And guess what else? They knew her name! Josie knows this because one day while at a circus festival in Montreal they walked by and said “Hi Josie”. (The preceding facts have been unverified, but are simply reported as told by Josie.) And in good conscience I cannot get you started on this series without letting you know up front that the show was canceled. It does not end wrapping things up and I about died! Apparently many others felt the same way because there are on line petitions and entire sites dedicated to bringing back Carnivale. It was canceled a while back however, so don’t hold your breath.

So now that my home is back to health, my girls are back in school, and my orders are almost caught up, I pledge to never again go a month without posting to my blog! I swear on Jan Brady. (Amen.)