Happy Halloween!

Long gone are the days when kids could run thru the streets, going house to house, taking candy from friends, family and strangers alike. There was always the one house with the lights out, but a large bowl right outside the door. Perhaps an older person not wanting to get up from the comfy chair every time the doorbell rang. One house gave out apples. These were promptly tossed into the woods on the way to the next house. We came up with our own costumes for the most part, with a little help from the adults, that I can remember. No store bought costumes for us! I can't even begin to guess the years of these photos, but judging by the furniture, it was long enough ago.

In the photo above I am Dracula, and my older sister was the Statue Of Liberty. The other 2 were our best friends growing up.

In the photo at left, I am Sherlock Holmes, I think. My sister is the Old lady on the floor. The other 2 kids in this photo were family friends that I only vaguely remember. That was the good thing about trick or treating in New England, just pile on more clothes under the costume and you'll be plenty warm! The more flannel the better.. The photo below is several years ago at work. I clearly remember the looks I got from other drivers as I was driving in and back home as well.

We moved to a small town when I got a little older, and out there they would close off the center of town to traffic and kids again were free to run in the street. The residents would donate bags of candy to the houses that did the distributing. In the Town Hall they had cider, cocoa and cookies to enjoy while warming up and resting. Obviously by then I was too old to go door to door, but my niece wasn't, and I would join them to hang out, and to see the kids costumes. My mom will probably demand that this get removed, but oh well! :) Again, no idea on the year. Late 80's, perhaps?

                                                        

Happy Halloween!!

Now watching: Nightmare Before Christmas. best Halloween movie ever!

messing about..

Today was such a long day at work. We got in some long awaited product that needed to be packaged and stocked. We had extra help from another department, plus my normal crew. A few of us stayed til almost 8pm tonight, and I need to go back and finish it tomorrow morning. Glad to get it all done finally. I got them McDonald's for dinner for staying so late, too. Gotta love the dollar menu! :)

A couple of weeks ago I picked up an old Kodak Duaflex IV camera on Ebay to use for "Through the Viewfinder" Photography (AKA TtV). If you're not familiar with TtV, basically it's taking a photo through the viewfinder of an old camera, with another camera. Usually digital, but I'm sure any other camera would work. I've always loved the idea of a small display of old cameras anyway, so I'm gonna build towards that as well. There's a whole Flickr group devoted to this type of photography here, and if you're a photoshop user (which I'm not) there are also "actions" you can use to get the same effect. Not nearly as fun, though. I took a few photos looking out from the balcony and of the cat when I first got it,  which came out really badly. Last Sunday I took it to the beach.

Speaking of Sunday, it was Jeanne & my 7th "Scrap Your Day", adapted from Shimelle's project of the same name. The theme this month was reflections. Once we can get together and do our layouts, we'll have a post to share on that, as well. so my teaser shot is this one.

Oh, Scout asked if I could post his picture anyway.

As always click on the photos to see them in more detail.
Looking forward to a quiet scrappy weekend at home. After last weekends adventures, I think I shall stay right here. :)

Scrap Your Day #6

September 25th was Jeanne & my 6th month of Shimelle's Scrap Your Day, and we even got to hang out for a bit! We had dinner at the Bluebonnet Diner with the ladies from the bookstore we all worked at before it closed in 2005. I'm so glad we all kept in touch! I talked about the fabulous Scrod dinner I enjoyed in this post. After dinner Jeanne & I headed over to Barnes & Noble to sit & relax while reading a big stack of mags, and enjoying an after dinner coffee.

For the early part of the day I went to Easthampton, MA to see the bears of bearfest 2009. The display was only up for another couple of weeks, and I didn't quite see all of them, but I definitely enjoyed the ones I did see.

I tried to share as many Bears on the layout as I could!

As always click on the photos to see them larger.

More photos to be shared soon!

today's photos..

It was a chilly start to the day, but once the sun came out it was very nice. I headed to St Augustine for the morning, and had a lot of photo oportunities. I heard at least 3 or 4 foreign languages as well: Italian, Spanish and French..and those were just the ones I recognized!

As the sun was coming up over the very heavy cloud on the horizon, the fog/mist started to lift on the river. This ship just screamed Pirates to me, dunno why. Maybe it was the way the sails hung, or the fog, or both! :)

I had lunch in this small Spanish Bakery: an Empanada, a roll, a cookie, and a can of lemonade for $5.50! It was delicious, too. After I was done there I picked up a birthday present for a dear friend. *hehe*
While walking down the street I heard some accordian music, and got a quick photo of the one man band! We tried to get someone to take our pic for me, but the gentleman we asked refused, so I just took it myself.

On the way home I stopped at the beach quick, and it was very windy and cold. I almost got killed by a kite crashing down near me. And for some ungodly reason, there was a surfing contest going on! BRRRR!

I thought about walking on the pier, but not with the way that wind was blowing. My ears were near frozen.

Back home I went to do some laundry and feed the Master and myself some dinner.

(Last) Sunday Drive

Saint Mary's to be exact. I wasn't planning on going anywhere last Sunday, but the roads beckoned. And I always listen. Since I usually go either West to the Lake City area  to see family, or South to St Augustine, this time I went North. I'm always on the hunt for a good nature preserve or state park. I love walking along raised wooden walkways, or sandy paths to see what kind of wildlife there is out there. I never fail to see at least a hundred lizards, or egrets wading. I was on my way to check out the Crooked River State Park when I passed the Tabby Sugar Ruins. I stopped there to wander about the old grounds and take lots of photos. There were a few people that arrived just before me, and they left after only a few minutes. I never did make it to the State park, but I'm sure I will soon enough. I think the Submarine Museum would be a neat place to see as well.

This weekend I want to try and go see "where the wild things are". Even though I don't ever remember reading it or having it read to me, it looks like a fun, cute, sad movie. Saw this display in the window at Barnes & Noble last night.

The weekend plans are still a mystery....

Something Like Normalcy..

Hooray! I actually managed to visit the Riverside Arts Market yesterday. Parking was a challenge due to Toyota and their awesome Farm to Table promotion. They paired local farms with local restaurants and in addition to offering (delicious) foodie samples, and promoting the Hybrid models in their automotive line, you could also take a test drive. They handed out passports at the entrance to the market and as you got samples, they stamped it. Once you got at least 3 stamps (I had 7) you could get a free herb. I waited until I was ready to leave so I didn't have to carry it, and chose a nice basil.

Due to the heavy traffic and hard time I had parking, I stopped at one of the little parks nearby to see what was hanging out in the "pond", and kill some time. I saw a roseate spoonbill, among other water fowl types. There was also a "Pet Blessing" going on, seen in the photo in the lower left. Lots of furry pets about.

Out in the St John's River the fish were really jumping. Several boats stopped to watch, and there was a few people at the rails watching as well, probably wishing they were out fishing. :)

After all those healthy samples, I had what I'd been craving for a couple weeks, a beignet and an iced coffee. Yum!

At left is my dessert, the plant wagon and the stamped passport. The dish is pickled beets with goat cheese. And like all the other samples before it, it was delicious.

Vacation, Days 10 & 11

Well, Saturday the 26th was my last full day of vacation. I started the day with my mom at Bruegger's Bagels in Downtown Northampton. After I enjoyed my asiago cheese bagel with veggie cream cheese and a large hot coffee, we headed to the farmers market across the road. It was a chilly but sunny morning. Lots of mums, winter root veggies, pumpkins, gourds and even a few indoor plants for sale. This frog is around the corner from the market.

After the farmer's market we went to the Holyoke mall. I picked up a few fall shirts at JC Penney. We had lunch at 99's (she loves that place!!), I'll eat wherever. I had a yummy shrimp and pasta dish. On the way home we stopped at a small farm stand/gift shop. The llama wasn't too happy, but I took his picture anyway. The Tasty Top was along the ride home from the mall. It has been there for as long as I can remember.

Sunday, I finished my packing, and packed a small box to be mailed back home to FL. There is still stuff in the attic there to go thru, and I always think I'll get more done, but only manage to spread it all out, look thru it, then box it back up. I did separate the tag sale items from keep items in the spare room, so when they have a tag sale, they won't have to worry about selling anything that might have been something I wanted: *cough*huge stack of Duran Duran memorabilia*cough*

Thankfully, the majority of the rain had finally left the Atlanta area for the flight home. What a drenching they had. We did circle atlanta for a bit, for one reason or another and when I looked out my window I saw this sight.

Anyhoo, That ends the vacation blogging for now. I will eventually share more Boston photos, as well as any scrappy pages made.

So for now I think I'll relax in this comfy Adirondack chair, and hope the llama can't spit this far!

Vacation, Days 8 & 9

On to Thursday & Friday of my vacation week. Work has been busy this week, and I haven't done anything more than coming home and just crashing. Hopefully next week I will be more used to getting up early. I definitely plan on going to the Riverside Arts Market on Saturday. The St John's Town Center was calling my name tonight, but I worked a way longer day than I usually do on Friday, so maybe I'll just go tomorrow after the market. Save a little gas that way, too!

Anyhoo.. On (vacation) Thursday, the 24th I didn't do much more than rest and veg around the house. I played with the dogs some in the backyard, and fooled around on the computer, burning cd's of the pics from Boston to give Jeanne on Friday. We share our vacation shots for scrapping, and so that we have pics of ourselves out and about. I took all of 10 pics on Thursday. I went out to lunch with my mom, we went to Webster's Fish Hook, and I had a scrod sandwich with tomato and melty cheese on it. It was very good! On my way downtown, I grabbed a couple quick photos of the bits of foliage that I was able to catch. There are a few areas around my parent's house that change much earlier than usual.

Friday, the 25th was our "Scrap Your Day" day. She reminded me when we met at The Bluebonnet Restaurant to have supper with a few of our former co-workers from a local bookstore we all worked at several years ago, before it closed. I'm so glad we've all kept in touch! Dinner was delicious, Jeanne & I both chose stuffed scrod, with a yummy butternut squash and roasted red potatoes. I believe I ate more seafood on this vacation than I normally eat in a year! Photos from SYD will appear in a later post when we have a chance to collaborate our efforts. But I think I can post this little tease. I can't wait to show the rest!! I'm glad I took these photos, or I would have have a very sad scrap your day!!