halloween party 3 mourning tea

Sunday morning, we had reservations for the Halloween mourning tea. Mind you I booked this event 6 months ago because the year before I tried making reservations two months in advance and it was sold out!
It was at the famous Hawthorne hotel. Everyone was dressed in Victorian mourning clothes. High tea was served (coffee, tea, scones, pastries, sandwiches, cakes and other yummies) We started off crafting memorials for our departed. I brought a photo of my Aunt for the memorial and put funny stickers with drawings on it in her honor. For those who wanted to we then stood up and talked about our departed. It was a bit emotional, sad but in a cathartic kind of way. I stood up and talked about my Aunt. I know she would've loved being the center of attention. This was just one way to keep her spirit alive. I asked her to send healing energy to my cousin(her daughter). I told her that "we are having way too much fun. I need her to stay around".
You just never know ;-)
.Maybe some people would think it was "depressing" or "creepy" but being the saint that I am and having the custodial privilege of  keeping souls alive I felt honored to be a part of this gathering.
At the end, we had a lesson on tea reading. I had an "M" in my cup (my Aunt's name is Marie) and two ladies dancing (I'm guessing that is her and her best friend Kay dancing) plus little sparrows (meaning bits of happiness in life's journey)
I loved the fact that my husband joined me as well. Many guys would make snide remarks or be discouraging but he was very supportive. :-)
All in all, this entire Halloween weekend was insanely fantastic.
I just love this holiday!

Halloween part 2 Salem

We met up with Alex and Robo in Salem via train.
 I warned them "be prepared to be embarrassed!" Ha!
I was planning on just having a blast..and I did!
My husband dressed as the pop singer "Sia" and I, as the late great "Prince". We brought a disco ball speaker along with our music. And yes, I danced. A lot.
Alex and Robo went as "American gothic". It was freakin' hilarious. People would yell, "hey Prince" and I would respond with his famous "AAAOWWW!" with a pose or high kick. The little kids had no clue of who I was but knew who "Sia' was. Sia is really popular with young girls. Some millennials  said that my Prince music was,"'soooo ooh retro music.."
WHAT!?!?!?!
Robo and Alex were hilarious and didn't seem to mind my antics. As we were walking up the main plaza were people congregated a "tree' started to talk to me."Hey Prince..I like purple rain.."
I shit you not.
And of course, I performed my dance and called him "Groot" after the tree creature from the movie "Guardians of the Galaxy". I really didn't want the night to end but we had to catch our train.
I had a freakin' blast!

Halloween 2016 part 1

I gotta say, this year was the best Halloween ever! I have to break it up in three parts because the entire weekend we did different things and wore different costumes!
Friday night, we went to Hammond castle's spooky tour with "my friend John" and his lovely wife Kathleen. My husband, Kathleen and I dressed up for the occasion. And of course, "joined in" as a part of the Halloween merry making tour.We were singing the theme for "ghost busters" on the bus.ha! We wore our day of the dead costumes to this event.
 I've never been inside the Hammond castle so this was a first for me. As a part of the tour, you have to park at stage fort park and a bus picks you up.
It was ungodly windy that night. I mean gale force winds. The wind blew my hat off and it whipped down the street. I tried to catch it but is was so fast and furious .I swore a ghost carried it off. It eventually blew off into the sea.
We enter the castle and a "spirit guide" greeted us and lead us through the castle. There were assorted "ghost' prisoners in there and scary freaks that jumped out at you. A black and white scary clown scared the shit out of me!
This was certainly a fun "warm up" to the weekend's festive events!

St.Francis-blessing of pets

Last weekend at the town church ,the  East Parish Methodist church, had an outdoor blessing of animals service. As we all know I am a St. Francis fan so I had to attend the service-with my pigeon!
Pastor Vin gave the service and went around blessing all the pets in attendance.
One lady brought her horse! It was kind of cool to see a horse at the service.A few people brought their dogs. One couple brought their boogery nose pugs.  One of the dogs sneezed and snots flew everywhere. It was gross but I couldn't help but laugh. My pigeon has been known to do that as well. Some people brought photos of their pets instead of bringing them. The people at the service were very nice and welcoming. Matter-of-fact I received these photos from one of the church volunteers.
Both myself and Craow Dum felt very welcomed. Pigeon and all!

rubbish to runway 2016

On Oct 8th I not only designed my outfit  I also modeled it at the blue Ocean ball room stage in Salisbury. I've got to say, I worked with some seriously talented ladies.
There were a total of  about 30 outfits modeled. Six were picked to be displayed in a local art gallery. Mine wasn't picked but I didn't feel bad about it because most of the dresses were jaw dropping amazing. They deserved to be displayed. I just felt honored to be selected to be a part of this show.
And what a show.
My dress and jacket were made of shedded feathers from all of my birds. This was two years worth of molted feathers from cockatiels, pigeons, doves, princess of wales and a caique. I found a 80's style cocktail dress and totally reconstructed it. The boots I paid $1.00 in Goodwill and completely redid the boots over by painting them, cushioned the inside and reheeled them. The criteria to be in the show was that all the outfits had to be made from discarded/recycled/trash materials.
The proceeds of the show went to "a long way home"-a organization that builds schools in underdeveloped countries out of recycled materials.
My runway song was "when doves cry' by Prince. My dress was mostly made of dove feathers and as you can see my boots are purple with the Prince glyph so the song was a perfect fit.It was pretty exciting to walk out on the runway stage with the purple lights and Prince music. Nerve wracking but exciting.People were cheering. One girl came up to me later and said "Prince would've been proud". That comment really made my day.
It was great fun. Maybe again next year?

Hydroxed

definition -HYDROXED: when you ask for oreos and you get faux oreos such as hydrox or cream-os instead.

I remember my mother tried to pawn that one off on me. She would screech: "it's the saaaame thing!". Ah no, hydrox taste like shit and the store brand knock offs taste even shittier.

That is how I feel about the new troll movie coming out.
Dreamworks got the licensing rights to make the troll movie and about two years ago had some promotional items that featured the troll dolls that I am accustom to (above" the Don trump troll photo)
I had the movie marked on my calendar set for the November 6th release and found out that the whole troll business had been revamped. They look more like colorful smurfs. (see first photo)
I have no idea what happened to why the change in characters.
I felt like I've been hydroxed...
siiiigh....

accidental saints

When I found out my cousin was diagnosed with cancer I painted this icon for her.
"Saint Kim, patron saint of dogs".
Yup, that's her with her two dogs.
I was so happy she liked it.
Painting is what I do to help me focus and deal with things. I am grateful to my Russian icon teacher, Marina, because I feel like I found my spot in the art world.
I will shift the subject slightly now on to a topic that is somewhat connected.
Last week I saw an ad in the local paper about a book discussion group at a local church.
The book in discussion was titled "Accidental Saints-finding God in all the wrong people".
I'm not much for book clubs or really any type of social gathering but this peaked my interest.
Author Nadia Bolz-Weber describes herself as a Pastrix (her version of a female pastor)and 'invites readers with what she calls "a religious but not-so-spiritual life' ".'Tattooed, angry, and profane, this former stand up comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the God she feels called to serve'.
Hmmm..I found this introduction quite intriguing so I bought the book and went to the discussion.
I found it quite funny (of course I would) sitting with a pastor and group of little old ladies reading out loud passages from this book in a church that had sentences such as this :"I was confronted by my own bullshit"...and "oh fuck".
Funny, yet, as I am reading I am finding so many things that I can relate to.
I told the pastor that I paint icons> Some traditional and some, not so traditional. With that being said, one of the member of the parish took me around in the church to show me icons that were painted by one of their parishioners that they have on display.
They were so beautiful and perfect.
It was so exciting to see them-especially knowing that they were done by a local artist.
The next discussion  group meeting is tomorrow. I am a pretty slow reader but I read half the book already. There is the potential of each and everyone of us becoming a saint, flaws, farts and all.
Who would've thought that somebody else thinks on this wave length.
hmmm...