Yep, it was finally here, the week of my witch party. I spent Monday cleaning, decorating, and doing tasks related to preparation for the party. I finished up the Witches Loot bags that would be hidden in the grave yard for witches at the party to find during their 'grave robbing' activity.
That night we went over to the largest of the care centers that Dad used to serve at as part of the nursing home branch presidency he served in. We did a presentation about our mission. Dad had put together a slide show, which made it easy to tell stories from our mission and share the culture of Finland with them.
We finished up with the story about Sister Airto drinking fruit juice when she met Khrushchev. I just googled him to get the spelling of his name, and found out he was only 5 foot 3 inches tall. Hmmm.
I spent the morning on Tuesday decorating the garden house, as the craft for the Witch party was to be held there, overseen by Eva.
Then I headed to Salt Lake to go to the Draper Temple with Arlene, as always we went to Zupas afterwards.
I worked on Wednesday, and got to see the fun new Halloween display there.
I also saw this specimen box complete with a fairy. Another dealer's interpretation of the fairies I saw on Pinterest. It struck my weird sense of humor.
That night my Art Group got together for a travel theme dinner, hosted by Joanne. From me, going clockwise, we have Margo, Shirley, Joanne, Ann, Jann, Kim and Trina.
The place markers where filled with sun glasses, goodies, a post card and our first initial in galvanized metal. The bottom of the stack is a metal state tray acting as a charger, then the dinner plate, salad plate and bread and butter plate are more various state plates, all of significance to the person sitting there. (I had Alaska and Texas, because I had an favorite Aunt (La Ree) who lived in Alaska, and Emily in Texas. The napkins were even placed inside a state hanky, in a rubber tire napkin ring. (Yes she bought toy trucks at DI, each came with four napkin rings .... hahaha)
I just loved this picture of Jann and Kim.
Here am I, with Trina to my left, who's birthday we also celebrated.
I brought some yummies home to Dad.
Happy Birthday Trina, as you see I am not the only camera happy person in my group.
Joanne is not a Halloween person, so when she got this cute crow as a hostess gift, she insisted it was not a Halloween item. OK Joanne, if you say so. What a lovely hostess.
When I got home I saw that Dad had painted the window grouping on the west side of the house, that he stripped off on Tuesday. He also made a dump run that day to get rid of the accumulating pile of aluminum windows for free, as it was free dump week.
At work on Thursday, I put together my witch ... her body is a pillow and the mask and hat sit on a grocery bag stuffed with paper. I've made her before, and had the stuff together, but decided I needed a hostess for the witches' ball to be held out back at the party, where they would dance around a cauldron of dry ice steaming water, to songs on a CD called The Monster Mash. When Keith decided to give her a kiss, I decided I need a picture of that.
I also put together my own fairy specimen case for the haunted library where Scott would be reading Poe's Raven, and administering a Halloween quiz.
I got off a couple of hours early so I could meet up with Wendy to go to an estate sale preview. The estate had been in storage since 1985, when the couple died, leaving their estate to their alcoholic only son, on the terms that he could not sell the house or contents until he was 60. Guess who had a birthday? Yep, I was in hog heaven. I told Dad that opportunities like this are rare.
I bought this set of Wedgwood China that serves 10, with 9 pieces in each place setting for $75 ... whoa... I will enjoy it for a while and then will likely get tired of it and sell it.
I hurried back to work to meet up with Dad so we could meet with purple people in a purple restaurant to eat sushi for Hannah's birthday!! Its a good thing there was not a purple people eater there. (Davin and Bri's entire family were wearing some purple.)
This is vegetarian sushi, and it belongs to Ian. He told me I am not a vegetarian, but a Pescetarian. because I also eat fish. I remember that Kim is a Vegan like her Aunt Brittany.
I got to sit by Adi, we had a paper unfolding contest. I think she's been practicing, because she definitely won.
This is the blue clothing side of the table, but note the purple stripe in Davin's shirt. Peace out Ian.
(Bri's necklace is purple)
Here are most of my boys.
Back at Davin and Bri's Hannah blows out her candles. Happy Birthday beautiful daughter!!
We were a day late with Hannah's birthday celebration, so we hope that her birthday was wonderful. We all love you Hannah, and we're so glad you're a member of our family.
On Friday we were up early getting ready for the Witch Party that night. I did a little tweaking to Dad's portrait. That night one of the guest asked if I had done the portrait of Edgar Alan Poe just for the party or if it hung there all the time. I loved that.
Now you can see where I placed the specimen box.
That night Eva and Eleanor complained that I glued the Boo pumpkins on the swing Aunt Emily made.
Dad had hung the ghosts earlier in the week.
We floated pumpkins in the fountain and later added the dry ice.
I worked on food from 3:00 on, but it was not enough. My friend Wendy came early and made the deviled eggs, and Becca came early and put together the veggie tray, which isn't even out yet, as this picture was taken. Dad made the RIP chocolate dirt pudding cups. Yeah Dad and Wendy and Becca.
I was super excited that Robin could come .... I adore her spooky dress. She had to take off a bit early to scold the nurses who are taking care of her Dad, and who keep forgetting to give him his meds. She said she felt the outfit was just right for the task.
Later she ran into a grocery store to pick up a few things, and kept her hat on because it had scrunched her hair. A lady came up to her in the store and said something like ..."Oh my gosh, you're like a real witch, just doing normal chores ... I wish my kids were here to see this, its so cool." I love that story, thanks for sharing it Robin.
I also have to thank Scott (my library story teller) Eva, (My craft master) and my friend Ginny Taylor (my Wednesday walking partner) for being my fortune teller. They all did a fabulous job.
The work crew and the birthday girl arrive.
One of Eleanor's friends from when they lived in the house came with one of the ward members, that was fun, especially since her siblings were working.
Here's our Harry Potter. I asked Scott to have people pull down the Poe Anthology, which was right next to my trick book stack. As they reached for the book the spooky sounds were activated and one of the books of the five trick books moved in and out, mysteriously. Every one said he asked them to get the book so nonchalantly, that even when they were suspicious, they were still surprised.
When Becca got done with the veggie tray, she worked the front hall passing out the activity checklist and hiding goody bags in the graveyard.
Here is Scott with one of his library patrons, Ardis, who's is in my service group, and won second place in the costume event ... I love the purple octopus she wore.
Here is Ginny telling her upbeat fortunes.
Here are a few witches dancing around the cauldron.
As the hosting Witch looks on...
Here's a group of ladies from the ward. They were all super fun, and there were also at least three others who came. I think Nell had fun visiting with her old neighbors. She's next to the Young Women's president that I serve with, Cheryl, who is a ton of fun.
Here's a picture of witches making poison bottle under Eva's tutelage.
Here are four of the six Art Group friends who came out to support me, fresh from making poison bottles with Eva, the Craft Master.
Here I am with the Good Witch Wendy who flew in early to save the day!!
Here are my other two prize winning witches, Andrea works with me in Young Women and got First Place, Kimmy is dressed as a student witch ... don't you love it?
The party is over, it time to head home ... We used the front porch decor as a photo booth, and this is the last photo of the day.
We were up bright and early on Saturday to load up the van with antiques to take to a neighbor who was having a yard sale to raise money for her husband's extremely expensive chemo. He's terminal but has decided to live as long as he can to spend as much time as possible with his family. I hauled some creative memories scrapbooks and refill pages over there too.
Then I was off to meet Lavern for the quilt breakfast and tour at a great house in Spring Lake, as part of Payson Quilt Guild Week.
There were quilts placed casually around this large modern house, this is my favorite. Its got it all, the red work, the Sun Bonnet Sue, the piecing, the polka dots, and its all in red and white ....
This one's lovely, I always love pieced quilts with applique borders.
This is a family heirloom of the home owner, its a crazy quilt, another favorite type of quilt. You may wonder why I don't quilt, it just that I am too cheap to buy over priced fabrics, then cut them up and sew them back together, before paying someone a ton of money to machine quilt ... so your have a very lovely, but 5 or 6 hundred dollar blanket. I am also not really a perfectionist, which is what it takes to be a really good quilter, and anyway, I can go to shows and enjoy them for free.
I thought this piece was drool worthy.
Then Lavern and I did some garaging before heading back to the fund raiser sale in the ward. We are shown here with Christie Peterson who is a former flea.o.logy dealer and one of the founders of the former big deal craft market in Orem, Through the Grapevine. She has worked with Lavern on and off at Olson's Garden Shoppe, (See her sweatshirt), and she's also a member of my ward. She was there helping with the sale.
Then we were off to Peeteetneet to the fabric and notions sale they were doing as a fundraiser for the quilt guild. I reminded myself I am not a quilt and came in under 10 bucks.
Then Lavern's husband picked her up for a fun day, and I headed over to the quilt exhibit in the main part of the building. I'll be doing a full blog on Pollyanna, if your interested in seeing more quilts.
This is made with ties from a young man's mission.
This one took my breath away. Its a near classic applique quilt, like those they made these in the late 1700s, but this one is on black, how dramatic is that?
Here's another combo quilt, this one has classic grandmother's flower garden flowers that are appliqued to look like hollyhocks. I love it.
After Dad had gone off to the BYU game I brought up the antique scottie dog, polka dot pillow that I had bought at the chemo yard sale, it had belonged to Mark, the chemo patient, as a child. Mark is one of my favorite Sunday School teachers, and I love this sweet 60 year old pillow. (Its an antique, because fabric and paper are legally antique at 50 years.)
That night the three Great Scott's got to cheer BYU on to a victory over Hawaii.
Happy Day.
Last of all was Sunday. It was our fast and testimony meeting, since conference was the first weekend of October. Dad was last to bear his testimony and mentioned that it had been two months since Ben's death, and that it had been early on a Sunday morning that our doorbell rang and we received the so so sad news. He bore his testimony to the principle of mourning with those that mourn. Though it feels like its been five times that long ago to me, I have to also contend that we have felt the love and prayers of our friends, family and neighbors as we continue to get used to life after Ben. Terry Kew was sitting next to me and dug out a kleenex for me, since my new purse is too small for extras like that. Then she hugged me as I cried a little. We do so miss him. Dad said he's not joyful about our loss, but that he has felt joy in the ministrations of these, and other, good people.
I loved this Marjorie Hinckley quote during Young Women's, its a good thing to remember.
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