Beggars' Night Give away

 

Ever heard of Beggar's Night?  Beggar's Night is the night before Halloween and I know many people don't "celebrate" it but I have a childhood memory from a Beggar's Night many years ago that I hadn't remembered until recently.  I don't know if you read my post labeled "Inspire Me Thursday - Yellow" but in that post I said "My mother was not quite this eccentric but she might have been had she thought she could get away with it."  Well, this one Beggar's night she thought she could get away with being eccentric. 

When I was about 6 years old, we spent Beggar's Night with my grandmother who lived in a little home behind my Aunt's home. My aunt had several teenaged children who looked up to my mother because she was a party girl. On this night, my mother was a little bored and she wanted to do something fun.  So she and one of my teenaged cousins got the bright idea to go out Trick or Treating on Beggar's night. 

We all dressed up with our spur of the moment costumes. (Back then we never purchased costumes, we made them.) I believe I was a hobo with a soot covered face and a stuffed bandana hanging on a stick, and fabric patches pined to my pants.  My mother hiked up her skirt, put large rollers in her hair, and smeared lipstick on her face. It was quite funny. I really don't remember the cousins costumes but I know everyone was happy with their creations. And off we went to knock on the neighbors doors.

Most of the neighbors didn't open the doors but a few gave us candy if we promised NOT to come back the next night. However, the house that I remember the best was the one who told us they didn't have any candy yet but that we were welcome to come in and have tamales with them.  "Of course we will," mom said. We kids had the delicious tamales and Mom had a beer with the neighbors. We had a good time and enjoyed our very generous neighbors.  Then we went home. 

As a thank you for reading all the way through my story, you get the chance to win one or more of these Christmas fabrics. (I was going to give away some Halloween fabrics but heck it's almost over.)  How many fabrics you get depends on how many people respond to my giveaway.  There are 5 pieces, if you are the only one that responds you'll get all five pieces.  If more respond I'll split them accordingly.  More than 5, it will be a random drawing for one piece for each.  I'll announce the winner on November 4th so you have till midnight November 3rd to leave your name.  These are the fabrics:

 

Thanks for visiting.  

ATC Winner announced

Francine Cronos  from Harps In The Willows is the winner of the drawing for the Creepy Halloween ATC shown in the Soul Journal Halloween Blog party post below.  Francine's name was randomly drawn from the pool of 19 who commented.

The visitors who didn't comment made a very yummy witches brew.  (I did warn you.) There were one or two who thought they could sneak away but they were caught by the blood hounds. :) No one can escape them.

Soul Journal Halloween Blog party

Welcome to my party all you wonderfully red blooded humans. My name is Dusana and I am your guide for this portion of the festivities. Here is what you can expect from tonight's party:

We have some lovely dancing music. You do know how to do the Monster Mash, don't you?  No? How about the Swim ... or Drown?

Look around, we have some sweet treats and sinfully delicious libations to choose from.  

Later I will introduce you to the party guests but, I do have to warn you, they may scare the living daylights out of you, Bwahaha!

Oh yes, please do be chatty because if you aren't, I have a few tricks up my sleeve to make you talk. 

So come in, enjoy yourselves and don't sacred my little darlings, we won't bite. . . very hard. Have a ghostly good time: If you don't, heads will roll.  Bwahaha!   

 

 

Step this way and have a few treats to sweeten your blood . . er . . I mean the treats are very sweet,  I am sure you will find them delightful.

Be sure to grab you glass so you can have some delectable beer.

Or some delicious wine:

Unfortunately, you'll have to pour your drinks yourself.  We used to have a bartender until she met poor tortured Louis,

Now all she does is hang around waiting for him to return.

  

Now my beauties, let me introduce you to some the female party guests.   From left to right they are Gladys, Edith, Prudence, Jayne, Irma, Henrietta, Roberta, Beatrice, Margarette, and on the far right is the lovely Edna. They arrived early . .  about a hundred years early and oh my devil, they . never . leave.

And they insist on having tasty party guests . . . er . . . I mean treats. They can be such a chore.  But never mind them, come along I have other guests you should meet.

Now these handsome fellows may need no introduction but it would be rude if I didn't.  Of course you know Black Bart the infamous pirate, Constable Brownstone, "Pinhead" Bobby (don't mind him, he's always grumpy because of the headaches), and Oh so Skinny Denny who can't hold his food.

I know I should let Black Bart tell you his favorite riddle but let's see if you can guess the answer. "Do zombies eat popcorn with their fingers?  No, they eat the fingers separately..." Bwahaha!  Shhh, don't tell him I told you because he'll lose his head if he finds out. 

When you have finished your treats and drinks, have a dance or two and then sign up sign up for the drawing. One lucky guest will have the chance to win a party favor. This Halloween ATC is the prize:

Oh yes, remember the tricks I told you about?  Those of you that don't sign up for the prize will be added to our witches brew. Bwahaha!  And don't think you can sneak away, Sign up or we will send the hounds after you.

 

Don't be fooled by their mild mannered demeanor, they are vicious candy hounds. . . I mean blood hounds. (PS, The dog photo was found in a email sent to me by my daughter. Sorry but the photographer is unknown.)

The drawing will be held on Tuesday morning, October 28th. Please leave your blog address or some way to contact you.

Thanks to Kathryn Antyr at Collage Diva for sponsoring the Soul Journal Halloween Blog party. Head over to Kathryn's blog for a complete listing of all the participants.

Thanks for visiting.  Oh yes, I almost forgot. Come back by on Beggers night (Oct 30th) for another giveaway. I'll be giving away some holiday fabric.

Halloween Blog Party Sneak Peak

Don't forget to stop by here on Sunday October 26th for the Halloween Blog party. I think you will enjoy the festivities, the treats, and the giveaway.  If nothing else, come to sign up for the prize. Here is a sneak peek at what you might see at the party.

Dusana, who you will meet on Sunday, is our guest host and she has a beautiful little pet that we'd like to introduce you to today. I'm sure he will accompany Dusana to the party. So stop by and say hello to Spidy.

 

 

"Will you walk into my parlour?" Said a spider to a fly; "'Tis the prettiest little parlour That ever you did spy."
Author: Mary Howitt

 

Blog party is hosted by Collage Diva, Kathyrn Antyr.

ATC: Seasonal Zentangles Plus

These I made just because they are fun to make.  If you'd like to trade, leave me a note.  I may not answer right away as I will be out of town when this message posts.  But I'll contact you as soon as I return.

Spring                                 Summer

Fall                                          Winter

 

“How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.”

.................John Burroughs

Zentangles - Made for an ATC swap

These were made for the Black and White Plus 1 color swap at ATCsForAll.com Who can pass up a Zentangle swap? Not me. I really like adding color to the doodles.

“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.”

Pedro Calderon de la Barca quotes

ATC's - Altered Magazine Faces

Here are my latest creations for Altered Magazine Faces Swap at ATCsForAll.com.  This was fun.  You take faces from magazines, glue them to card stock, paint them lightly with gesso and come up with an entirely new look. 

“The loveliest faces are to be seen by moonlight, when one sees half with the eye and half with the fancy.”

Persian Proverb quotes

Tagged again...

Jennifer from Trial and Error tagged me in my "I've been tagged" post.  Then before I finished this message I was tagged again by Sandy at My own Little World. 

 

The "Rules" for being tagged:

• link to the person who tagged you
• list 6 random things about yourself
• tag 6 new people
• let each tagged person know by posting a comment on their blog
• link to the 6 people you've tagged
• and let the person who tagged you know that you posted

 

Six new random things:

1. I love, love, love New Mexico red and green chile but it has to be HOT! Spicy hot.  You just can't get that hot stuff here in California.
2. Rather than get it over with, I procrastinate doing the things I hate to do. Then I stress over it.
3. I always thought it would be cool to own a bookstore and coffee shop near a university.  
4. I have a deep desire to visit Italy and photograph everything I see.  Not sure I'll ever make it.
5. The TV show Supernatural is my guilty pleasure.  I adore Jensen Ackles.
6. When I was I younger I had a premonition that I would be in a car and we would collide with a white car. The next day, as I was telling my friend about the vision, a white car rear ended us. 

 

Bloggers I've tagged:

Violette at Violette's Folk Art

Sherry at Sherry's Musings

My joy-full journey

Laurel Englehardt at Happiness is..

Dawn at Dblogala

Linda Woods at Journal Revolution

Soul Journal - Lexicon

This weeks Soul Journal challenge was Lexicons.  Kathryn says this about the challenge: "A lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. For our personal lexicons we will be collecting and chronicling our own visual and symbolic language."

In creating my collection of symbols I realized that there are so many that I really enjoy using that it would be too cluttered if I added them all in a layout.  So I created a layout with the symbols I use the most or mean the most to me and the rest as the page background. 

 

 

"When thoughts fails of words, they find imagination waiting at their elbow to teach a new language without words."
   --- Author Unknown

I've been Tagged

Christy from Average American Girl blog has tagged me. Thanks Christi. What 6 random LittleBit's should I tell you about myself? Hummm

1> I love computer programming:

When I was in college I took an elective class in computer programming and I loved it. I knew I should change my major from accounting to computer science but I was tired of being a poor student, all I wanted to do was graduate.

2> I used to be an accountant.

I spent 7 years as a CPA and another 6 as a controller for a wine marketing company. It was OK but it wasn't me. When the wine company moved from Napa to San Jose, I chose to quit instead of move. But instead of job hunting, I contacted a software company that produced quilting software (yes quilting software) to ask if I could review their program for the quilting message board on AOL. After the review, they hired me to handle their tech support. That was 13 years ago.

3> I make the best flour tortillas ever.

I have a secret ingredient. If you make flour tortillas and want to know how to make them better, leave me a comment.

4> I learned to tread water at 53.

I never felt comfortable swimming until we moved to our current home. Our new house has a pool and my husband taught me to tread water the first year were were here and by the end of the year I was diving in the deep end.

5.> I love quotations.

I love using quotations in my art work. Sometimes I get inspired by a quote and other times I look for a quote that fits my art.

6> I used to quilt.

Before I began directing my creative energy to collage and painting I used to quilt. This is the last quilt I made, it was my girl's wedding present. Each little square is 1".

Those were my 6 random LittleBits about me.

The rules are as follows:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post.

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Here are the six people I have tagged

1> John at Artyfax
2> Mariposa at Sirens Idyll
3> Maryellen at CattyCatsMusic
4> Marla at Twig Studio
5> Chatty Wacky Whims
6> Katilady

Happy Tagging!