Cath, etc.

Grateful Day

_{Photo from Martha Stewart Living}

I am grateful for many things today: my husband, my daughters, my family and friends. My home, my health, and my 13-year-old dog.

I am also grateful for you, blogfriends. Since starting this blog in April, I have discovered so many wonderful new people, and become closer to even more old pals. Thank you for gracing my blog--and my life--with your presence.

But today, for some reason, I'm feeling more than usually grateful for my job. In this tenuous economy, I am not just grateful that I have a job, but I feel incredibly lucky that it is a job that I enjoy so much.

It was the perfect convergence of luck and timing that gave me the opportunity to be a creative editor for Paper Crafts magazine at all. For the full story, click here.

In the meantime, I wish you and your family the blessings of the season and hope that the turkey is moist, the side dishes time out right, and that there are lots of volunteers for clean-up.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! What are you particularly grateful for this year?

A Happy Halloween

Thank You, Sock Fairies

I've been happily visited twice by the Sock Fairy this season. Make that two Sock Fairies.

One of the Sock Fairies is named Beth. She brought me the swanky purple witchy numbers as part of our office tradition of "booing" one another.  

But the cute ghosts bearing a jack-o-lantern on a background of orange with black pinstripes...the Sock Fairy who left those on my office chair after hours for me to discover the next morning remains a solid mystery.

No one on my team will fess up to it. It wasn't Susan, I know, because she wouldn't be able to contain herself until she knew I knew it was her. And it just wasn't written on Jennifer, Brandy, or Brenda's faces when I asked them.  And Stace, well Stace got a pair, too.

So, my bet is that it was either Kelly, who surprised me with a cute pair of patriotic socks this past July, or, it was quite possibly Stacy Croninger, as a quick little hello to friends not so far away as near.

Or, for all I know, it could have been the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  

Whomever it was, both know of my affection for holiday socks. In fact, I wear Christmas socks year-round because they help to remind me that every day is a gift. Which isn't even a joke. But that's another story, which I promise to tell you later.

For now, the focus is on these cheerful Halloween socks that will brighten up my world, making me oh-so-happy to don them. For when you pull on a pair of happy holiday socks every morning, it's bound to be a better day than if you hadn't.

Blessed are the Sock Fairies, for they shall brighten all the ordinary days.

Thank you, Sock Fairies, for brightening mine.

The Eyes Have It

If you've been reading my blog the last few days, you know that we pretty much go bonkers over Halloween at our house. Not only do we decorate the inside bay window, and go all out on the costumes when we have occasion to do so, but we also provide the neighbors we face on the street with a tricky treat on the outside of our house.

For 13 years now, Mark has been putting up "the eyes."

 

They're up the entire month of October. Passers-by have left anonymous treats in our mailbox thanking us for putting them up every year.

 

One of Nicole's friends from high school stopped by the other day saying,  "Hey, you're still putting up the eyes! I remember driving by them all the time! I love that you still do that!"

 

When the girls were younger, and would explain where they lived to their friends, they'd say, "You know the house with 'the eyes' at Halloween? That's my house."

 

And usually, they knew exactly where that was.

 

Which makes me wonder, maybe "the eyes" know more about us all than we'd really like to think.

Monster Mash at the Opel Mansion

We had us some serious fun last night at the at the Opel Mansion.

The place was amazingly decked out, as though it was ready for a photo shoot for a magazine spread:

They served every treat you can imagine:

Mark and I were very happy hippies:

...because we were drinking the best spiced wine we have ever had, Witch's Brew, brought all the way from Michigan by Beth and Susan's parents, Ed and Corinne, I mean Indiana and Minnie Pearl:

There were all kinds of peeps from CK Media,  including Brandy & Dave who are upset about the falling dollar and rising inflation:

Kelly the flapper girl:

Stace, the vampire:

Elphaba, I mean Jennafer:

And wild Marge Simpson AKA Megan:

We had fun dancing to Susan's best Halloween mix evah:

 and I won a prize for looking the least like myself:

It was a total and complete riot! Thanks to two of the best hosti I know for one hauntingly hallowed howl of an evening, Little Beth Riding Hood:

And Hester Susan:

Ladies, we'll be talking about this party for ages!

(And thanks also to Susan for letting me borrow so many of her festive photos!)

You Will Not Last 'Til Dawn

At Halloween, the time is keen to turn shadow into light:

The graveyard speaks, the attic creaks, as twilight leans on night:

The twisted fence wards off suspense as though it could contain:

The threats within, above the din, beneath the quaint refrain:

 The gravestones gray hide such decay that demons flee in fright:

As witches cry beyond the sky, their work to hasten blight:

Beware the trees they yearn to seize your breath until it's gone: 

For in this space, this dangerous place you will not last 'til dawn:

Post Script: I first created this Halloween scene in my kitchen window after I'd quit teaching, 9 years ago. Mark was out-of-town and I apparently needed a serious bulletin board fix. Armed with an Xacto knife, some black poster board, construction paper, tissue paper, and a glue stick, I worked into the wee hours of many mornings to create a tradition that has become one of our favorite ways to celebrate Halloween, year after year. There is more, however. Stay tuned for a local favorite.

A Pumpkin Pageant

 

 

 

   

 

...brought to you by Country Living magazine.