Happy Halloween!

Hallowe’en Greetings! Our carved pumpkins are all lit up and ready to greet the trick-or-treaters. We have a kitty theme this year – happy cat and scary cat. They decide who gets tricks and who gets treats!

carved Halloween pumpkins

And speaking of treats – I received the most wonderful surprise in the mail today from my bestest customer Sally!

Halloween candy and card

She sent me a beautifully handmade, amazingly detailed Halloween card, which I adore, and an assortment of Halloween chocolates, which I have been munching on all day! (I looooove chocolate!) There were actually a few more little jack-lantern chocolate balls in the bag to the left at first, but I couldn’t resist eating a bunch before I took the photo. 🙂 THANK YOU, Sally! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Chenille Cat Ornaments

A new set of Christmas kitties are available now from Old World Primitives!   I think they are my favorite set of cat ornaments that I have made yet.

chenille Christmas cat ornaments

I also realized that I never posted the new set of black cats (for Halloween – or any time of year!) here on this blog yet, so they are also pictured below. They have been available in my Etsy shop for a few weeks now.

chenille black cat ornaments

Both sets of ornaments are available at either my:

or my brand new:

Both online storefronts allow you to shop my entire inventory, with the main difference being that my ArtFire shop allows you to buy in larger quantities without requesting a custom listing.  ArtFire also does not require you to register for an account in order to make a purchase.

Quiet Valley Harvest Festival

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of attending the 36th Annual Quiet Valley Living Historical Farm Harvest Festival. This is an event I try never to miss. There are so many delicious goodies to eat and drink there – all grown and prepared right on the farm. The weather was beautiful and the setting looked pretty with the fall colors starting to turn.

Quiet Valley Harvest Festival

Quiet Valley Harvest Festival

They also sell the most wonderful-smelling bunches of sweet annie and arrangements of dried flowers. I bought two bunches this year. I also picked up some bottled bee pollen, as I have been reading lately that it is one of the most nutritious foods on earth. I am trying it sprinkled into my breakfast cereal in the morning. I couldn’t resist starting my Christmas shopping early either when I found a beautifully hand crafted item that I know my husband will love finding under the tree… but shhh, I’ve already said too much!

I learned so many interesting things from the demonstrators, too – which is the part I look forward to most each year. This year I learned about herbs, woodworking, different styles of lace making, life during the Civil War (I learn something new from the Civil War reenactors each year), cheese making, and natural yarn dyeing the old fashioned way – just to name a few!

Quiet Valley Harvest Festival

Quiet Valley Harvest Festival

Quiet Valley Harvest Festival

Quiet Valley Harvest Festival

The Witches Ball 2010 in Mount Holly, NJ

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending The Witches Ball in Mount Holly, NJ for the second year in a row with my husband Max.  This event is now one of our much-anticipated Halloween traditions!  The caliber of costumes that folks come out in rival what I have seen in Salem, MA or the NYC Halloween Parade.  This year we brought a couple of cameras and a tripod, and were able to capture some fun – and scary!, be forewarned – photos of the event.

Moan-a, the giant witch
Moan-a, the giant witch, welcoming us to the Ball.
The Witches Ball 2010 - Mount Holly, NJ
This sign was greeting us near the start of the Ball.
The Witches Ball judging booth
The judge's stand at the costume contest. (Click to enlarge.)
The Witches Ball - Spirit of Christmas shop in Mount Holly, NJ
View of the Witches Ball crowd. The building in the background is a delightful Christmas ornament shop called Spirit of Christmas. Max and I bought several ornaments there. The proprietress was very nice, and told us the building was built in 1775. It was so charming! (Click to enlarge.)
The Witches Ball - historical costume
A favorite historical costume. (Click to enlarge.)
The Witches Ball - Best Witch costume winner
Winner of Best Witch Costume - Linda Chamberlain of Mount Holly, NJ.
The Witches Ball - scary costume
This was my favorite costume of the night. He had two strings of skulls hanging down his back, too.
Creep Show Zombie
The Best Over All costume contest winner - Brett Walker of Gloucester City, NJ - Creep Show Zombie.
Creep Show Zombie and devil friend
Creep Show Zombie and devlish friend.
giant devil costume
Scary giant devil costume with Mona in the background.
The Witches Ball - devil costume
Spooky photo of the giant devil costume. (Click to enlarge.)
Terri Lindahl-Castro of T.L.C. Interiors
This is Terri Lindahl-Castro sitting outside her shop, T.L.C. Interiors. She had the coolest interior design shop I have ever been in. Her sense of style is amazing! She also designed many of the props at the Ball.
The Great Pumpkin
I'm The Great Pumpkin. Don't think I'm not!

Revisiting Home

Yesterday I spent the afternoon finding inspiration in the peace and quiet of The Great Swamp in Basking Ridge, NJ.  My husband took the two photos below during our visit.

Sunset at The Great Swamp

Sunset at The Great Swamp

On the way there, I finally got the courage to visit the town I grew up in again. I had not been there in 25 years, because I knew that what I remembered would be gone. I visited the spot I once called home, but my old 1771 saltbox home with its two barns, outhouse, and many gardens was no longer there. The modern world has replaced everything with modern things, and two new houses now stand on the property that I once spent my days playing on. It was a strange experience to not be able to see anything familiar at a site I once knew so well any more, save for a few trees, but it was nice to visit my old town again. I miss living there.

Prudence, a New Primitive Doll

Prudence is the newest primitive doll in the Old World Primitives Etsy shop this week.  She is a one-of-a-kind doll that I fully hand painted and dressed in a 19th century style dress that I made with tan calico fabric and antique lace trim. Her body is made of stuffed muslin, and her head is sculpted from Paperclay.

primitive doll

primitive folk art cloth and clay doll

I thought you might also enjoy a peek at what she looked like as a work in progress.

primitive doll work in progress

Celebrate 365 Magazine Halloween Issue

I just received my Fall 2010 issue of Celebrate 365 magazine in the mail and I am drooling over all of the wonderful talent on each and every page!  There are so many unique and creative Halloween goodies in this issue – I would love to have one of each in my collection.  This is the cover of the issue:

Celebrate 365 Magazine Fall 2010 cover

And here is a peek at pages 18-19, the spread that includes three of my sets of vintage style chenille Halloween ornaments – I am so honored to be featured here!

Celebrate 365 magazine Halloween 2010 issue

And a closeup:
Celebrate 365 Magazine Fall 2010 issue

Chenille and Spun Cotton Halloween Ornaments

I am busily assembling a cast of characters for Halloween this week… the last spooky spun cotton ornaments and chenille Halloween ornaments are below.  The spun cotton witch kitty will have a sister tomorrow.

spun cotton black cat Halloween ornament

spun cotton skeleton Halloween ornament

Halloween chenille ornaments

I have a few new dolls in progress too.   I am excited to use my new antique shop finds – grungy old buttons and antique lace – in some primitive creations.

antique buttons and lace

Time Flies When You’re Going Bonkers

I have been all over the place since my last post… oh gosh, where to start. I’ll start with the embarrassing part first – my husband and I attempted to move for the second time within three years, and our plan flopped once again. We have been trying to move from the suburbs to an older farmhouse in the country… something that I always thought was my dream… to live in a 1700s or 1800s farmhouse decorated like one of the homes I have so often drooled over in Early American Life magazine. But our attempts to move have taught me that this may not be my ultimate dream after all. The country escapes that we found ourselves pursuing were still just a little too “more of the same,” albeit in less developed areas. We don’t have the big bucks required to completely “get away from it all,” and we just couldn’t find anything that was quite enough away.

So now we have a new plan in mind… bear with me here, as this may sound crazy… to save up enough money to REALLY move into the country… or rather, a step closer to the wilderness. We are going to save up, purchase a motor home, sell our current home, and pursue the freedom of living full time on the road, camping at remote, wild and beautiful spots along the way. This is an idea I have been toying with for 6 years now, but I never thought I would be able to make it happen. I felt too entrenched in my current way of life despite how much I wanted to give this a try. But now, if we can save enough to make this plan feasible… there is a new goal in the horizon.

So. I’ve wasted a ton of time this summer house-hunting, packing… and then un-packing (ugh!), but I’ve still managed to get some new dolls and ornaments created, and to do a bunch of gardening and pickling too.

garden

Do you think my tomato plants are happy?? 😀

tomato plants

And now I invite you to meet an extreme primitive doll named Nadine, and a primitive witch make-do named Hexe:

extreme primitive doll

primitive folk art witch make-do

Plus my newest ornaments in spun cotton, spun glass, and chenille:

spun cotton ornament

spun glass ornament

chenille Halloween ornaments

All of the new creations above can be found in my Old World Primitives Etsy shop.