Now What Is She Up To ...........?

[willows]

Well I'm feeling a bit more like me now whatever me is

As Halloween is coming fast here in the UK and in the USA I thought I might give you some ideas for decorating your house/garden .

I have in my long and lunatic past decorated many a shop window ( in my long gone youth) and have a knack at crafting ..............at this time my lounge/dining room/conservatory and spare bed room looks like a cross between Santa's Grotto ..... Halloween 2...... and The Arts and Craft USA programme

I've been asked to once again do a 'Witches & Wizards Emporium ' for my charity , which is a children hospice . Many years ago just before I was taken 'rather ill' ( cough, cough ) I did a huge one in a gazebo in our front decking , and it was such a hit people still remember it each year.

So having packed all the stuff away into 5 huge suitcases for another time, now is that time.

I'm going on the stage .............. I'm going to join another one of the groups and we are going to put on a spectacular ( well we'll see ) show with fire eaters, jugglers and such plus a buffet tea.

This has been aimed at 5-10 year olds , so my stuff is just right for this.

So out has come the suitcases and all the stuff I made in the past which is being cleaned , sorted and touched up , if and what is needed.

One of the things I'm working on is 'spooky tree's ' ...........you can make these with your children as its quite easy .

You will need;

A piece of tree about 4 feet tall with no leaves on it and as dry as you can get it .

A plant pot or small black bucket.

Box plaster of Paris. Florist or fuse wire.

12 -24 small 6 inch plastic skeletons.

Set red Christmas lights ( if using outside check for this use)

Packet of angel hair. Red plastic based paint ( optional)

Method;

mix plaster of Paris as directed and set this in the bucket with the tree in the middle of it , let this set solid.

I paint my tree red with some plastic based emulsion paint ( optional ) when dry wind the christmas lights around the tree and the branches and attach with either florist wire tor fuse wire to hold it in place.

Attach the skeletons to the end of the branches using the fuse wire again if needed.

Carefully cover the tree with a light amount of the angel hair , making sure its near the lights for reflection ...............then step back and plug in the lights ...........in a dark room or on the front doorstep it looks great ...........and the bigger the better !!!!

More ideas another day , like how to make assorted jars with eyeballs in them

Willows ................ feeling more 'herself '

[labas_2u@shaw.ca]

Wow Willow!

Loved it!! I just might try the tree!!

Thanks for sharing!

Maggs

[willows]

Right now for something completely different

First clever clogs here almost knocked herself out today doing these I was in the kitchen , opened the cupboard door to get the tea out , left it open . Having stuck my tea into the cups I went to put it back into the cupboard .............unfortunately the door was right in line with my nose and I walked straight into it ................BIG red line right down my right eye & eye brow. ' ouch, ouch, ouch ' it was such a bang I saw 'stars' and staggered about going straight into one of my sweats , hubby heard it and came hop-skip-running to my rescue ...........looked down and I'd stuck myself to one of the cups

So here for you to have a go at is ' Divination cups'

In Harry Potter ( which I'll now refer to as HP ) there is a class called 'Divination ' here's how to make your own cups and astound the kids ............I make 3 or 4 of them .

You will need;

3-4 cups and saucers with flat bases to the cups bottoms .

Black thin lined arts & crafts paint ( comes in a squeezy tube)

Dried tea.

Method;

Clean cups and dry well, mark in the bottom of each cup with the black paint the shape you want , I did the Griff ( a big dogs head & ears) a smiley face and , bunny and a star.

Then fill these in really with the same black paint ,remember that you have to leave the eyes clear so that the tea doesn't stick to them. If you mess it up just wipe it of with a cotton bud.

When you are happy with your shape , tip some fine dried tea over the wet paint , then shake the rest off and have a look at the inside, is it clearly defined ?? if not use a cotton bud or a cocktail stick to move things whilst its still wet............when happy , leave to dry well.

Right now you can do your clever trick for the kids..............

Add enough dried tea on top of your shape to cover it all over ..............

Then offer this cup to someone saying.......

' Turn the cup twice to see what life holds for you '

They must give it back to you . Then put the saucer on top of the cup and invert ( turn it over ) lift the cup off the saucer and show the inside to the unsuspecting person

wow..............the Griff!!!! I tell them it means your going to be licked to death my a big black dog , all wet and slobbery ( better than saying its death )

A star...........speaks for its self. A smiley face ..........you will have a happy life. A bunny ..........your life will be a very bouncy one .You can let the imagination run riot .........like I do !!!!

What ever you do dont let them have the cup back OR stick there fingers into it .........thats a give away !

Well more later . Willows.

[willows]

Today the ' Happy Halloween band' .............that's hubby , son and I made a 6 foot black gowned skeleton man , I've called him 'Daisey ' he's pointing with his right finger towards what will be the stage .

Mark made a 6 foot pole with a cross bar about 1 1/2 foot from the top he then drilled a hole in each end to have an 'arm' fitted.

The arms were made of black plastic tube which fitted into the holes ( very tightly) , I bent the elbows and held them into place with some carpet tape.

On the right arm end I stuck a rubber hand which I bought from a shop ( a bit gory but good) holding down three fingers with invisible thread , so he points. On the other arm I stuffed a back glove , I attached both of these with florists wire to make sure they stayed form.

I sat and made a huge full-length coat out of skirt/suit lining , just hemmed up both sides and lea slit for the arms and cut a small hole for the neck to go through. Skirt lining this is really cheap here at about ?2 a meter, so I then made his hood with another piece of the lining.

His head , which is a huge skull was donated by my son ( its his money box) and I've attached it to the top of the pole like this ;

Hubby made a small flat base and screwed it to the top of the post, then I stuck adhesive Velcro to the wooden top and to the base of the skull.................put the whole lot together and what do you get , DAISEY .

I will post a picture of her tomorrow at UK time 10.00 am with a lead in from this post so you can see her ,

[willows]

Right , for all you who want to have a look at what I've been doing here's the link ; http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i318/ban.../miscellaneous/

We've decided to call him Mr .Fluffy as thats even more silly for the little ones

The outfit is a Wizards costume I've been working on , it came as just a black velvet cloak with a hood top ( 2 pieces of custom) very plain and dull. So I got hold of my trusty glitter glues and went to town on it !

It's now got bright green and turquoise art work on it and a brown multi glitter on it .............you cant really see just how it looks unless the light shines on it .

When I do the event I'll get photos and post them on here so you can see the extent of the work I've done , mind you a lot of this work was done years ago and I've just cleaned, re-touched the colours and tidied it up a bit .

I bought a copper kettle , a blue glass bottle and a green bottle yesterday to add to the emporium , so things are looking better .

Did I tell you I had all of my costumes taken ? well I'm still trying to replace them and some of the more important stuff , wit the bits I got yesterday I'm well on my way.

Today I'm working on a skeleton chandelier, if successful I'll stick another photo on tomorrow , depending how my wrists, head and tiredness goes.

Willows.

[jenwclark]

looks like fun! It's good to see you up and around enough to do some crafting. Do you make all these things up?

spike

[willows]

Hi spike................speaking to soon again .

I'm getting tireder and tireder now , last night I had so much pain in my hips/legs/knees and feet I had to get up out of bed because the pain was so bad and slide down the stairs at 2 am.

I say slide as I dare not risk trying to walk , I'm so stiff again now I dont know what to do with myself . every morning now I'm taking more and more time to get out of bed again, OMG I hate this , its so sole destroying when you have something that means so much to you and you really want to do it , and I know I'm good at this type of thing , because the children's faces when I become 'THE WIZARD' OMG they are in awe of me ...............and I LOVE IT

Yes, everything I do comes out of my head , as you know I have an 'interesting imagination ' and it would be pretty poor show if I couldnt design a few Halloween things.

I went to the village today to sort out some sponsors on the understanding;

'if I'm going to dress up and make a fool of myself for charity , then the least you can do is support me ' think I have at least 6 coming up with cash as well as 2 others have given me loads of sweets for the kids at the event.

When I did the emporium in 2002 I raised ?700 in three hours I've just discovered as I looked up the old photo's and things. This year I'd like to clear ?1,000+ so fingers crossed everyone for us all on Sunday, even if it means I'm there with morphine patches stuck on my B** and a silly smile on my face ........oh fairies anyone

I am adamant I will do this event 'even if it kills me I will'..............when I think of those children and what they go through , and what there end will be , then I feel I have no reason to complain, I'm still going to live my life , whoever bad I feel each and very day ..............I will live.

So as Long as I can raise money for this charity , even if I have to crawl on my knees around the stage ............I WILL

Right I'm off to build ( with hubby & son ) a 6 foot ghost called ' Lilliput' ..................and for my next item ( as she pulls a rabbit out of her PJ's droppings and all ) I'm making some flying bats.!

Willows.................this body is NOT going to let me down this Sunday , so there!!!!!

[jenwclark]

I'm a crafter, too; I take after my great-grandmother that way. She made clothes for her whole family, and when the last child left home, she announced that she was NEVER sewing again, and she started making all sorts of cool stuff. Embroidered pillow cases, place mats with autumn leaves between layers of contact paper, crocheted baby toys, and Christmas pixies. The pixies have pipe cleaner & felt bodies and styrofoam balls for heads, so they're posable, and you can set them up sitting comfortably on a tree branch with crossed legs, or have them hanging by hands or knees, or one year my bro-in-law set up a string of them hand in hand like a little pixie chorus line.

Once I had mastered the basic pixies, I started making personalized ones for various friends. First came the PX520-B Pixie Beaurocrat, which featured a felt suit and tie, a cardboard briefcase, and a half-page of specifications explaining what he would and would not do, and which forms needed to be filled out in triplicate before he would do what. Next came the Pixie Lawyer and Pixie Mathematician, each with its own model number and page of specifications.

I also made a pixie with a friend's chorus uniform, and another dressed like a friend's D&D character. (That was also the year I crocheted a fire lizard, but that's another story.) My favorites, though, were a set of characters I made from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Especially the one of Giles, the librarian, which sported a little brown vest with french knot buttons over a white shirt with the cuffs rolled back and a pair of glasses made from a scrap of old telephone wire (which had been sitting in a drawer for about 15 years on the off chance I ever found a use for it).

Anyhoo...

I'm sorry things are going downhill again. Maybe while you're making all these life-sized figures you could make a decoy Ami to put in your bed and distract the POTS witch long enough for you to get out of the house?

spike

[willows]

WOW ...........Girl welcome to the arts & Crafts section of POTS

Its nice to know someone is a mad as me when it comes to things like this , I sometimes think ....................mmmmmmm is this really the sort of thing I should be doing at my age ?????

YEP..............the more the merrier in my book.!

I love the pixie idea , I used to make peg dolls for people , but that got out of hand and took up so much time , so I had to stop in the end.

I was up again last night with hip/leg etc , etc so I sat upright downstairs and sewed Lilliput's costume for her watching a slushy film om TV .................didn't think , came to bed leaving her ( all 6 feet high) standing in the middle of the dinning room floor , fully dressed ...................down came Hubby at 7 am ( still slightly dark then here) and nearly rugby tackled Lilli...............he was convinced someone was standing there !!!!

Boy did it put the wind up of him

All I heard from above was ' What the heck '..........bang..... ( slight sounds of crashing ) ........silence...........'Dam woman leaving her creatures about, poor man could have a heart attack'

I shouldn't laugh , I came down the other night and forgot Daisey was in the dining room..........boy did he scare me ! poor old heart nearly stopped dead............I had to stand nattering to myself for a few minutes to calm myself down , fool that I am

Well I've rallied my sponsors and hope to pick up a few ? before the day, spoken to the other group leader ( whom I'm working with now as I'm old and rickety ) and we are going to set up this Saturday so that ( poor old me ) has time to rest before the big day .

I tested out my costume yesterday , went around the villages with it on the locals didn't bat on eyelid...........but the 'grockles' ( tourists) mouth's open , camera's clicking , staring ............so whats new ??? with two heads a green face , 6 eye's and 3 legs I'm used it to it after all these years.

Willows...............control yourself woman

[willows]

Hello guys from a very tired Willows ..............

Never mind its nearly time for me to do 'my show ' for the kids.

Yesterday I was very lucky and was given the use of a HUGE dragons head for my show from a costume hire shop ( I pick him up tomorrow ) he's almost 2 1/2 feet from nose to neck and looks very real I have a smoke machine which I will set up so that it comes through the holes in hos nose..............and this is what I'm going to do with him.

Drago , as we have called him will lay under the table on a big blanket with the rest of the blanket wrapped around him like he is asleep. The table is covered with a huge black cloth so you cannot see who or what is underneath it .

When I give the signal ( there taps on the floor with my stick ) either Mike or Jame ( his best friend who also helping ) who are hiding under the table with the drago ........will set of a shot of smoke.

Next signal and his nose will come out , next signal and his head up to his ears will come out .

I have a wonderful piece of music to play to call him out ....all mystic like , its from the album by Trinity track number 6 ....brig??? Kiss , something and its so cool.......... .....so I'll start the music to call him out ( its sounds like spell ) then tap .....smoke from the boys, nose , more smoke............head then back into his den !!!!!! cool or what .

We are going to try the script out ( yes, I have written a script to work to ) with Drago and the boys tomorrow in front of all the set up crew .

A photographer is coming to take a load of shots of the event so I will be able to post some on my site on Monday or Tuesday and tell you just how much we have raised in cash for the children's hospice.

I am so looking forward to this event, it has been such a long time since I did something worth while and thought about the suffering of others over my own problems, and although very tired , my hands have had to go into metal wrist supports and horrendous stiffness and pain in my hips and legs ..............seeing the children's faces when I do my show for them and raising this money .............well for me the pain is insignificant to all this .

Willows.....................so excited about being on stage and doing her mystic act for the kids again.

[willows]

Hi guys I'm back from the Halloween event .................looking like I've been 10 rounds with mike Tyson !!!!!

I did to much again...............yes ,I know I keep being told not to , but hey its for kids so I pushed and pushed myself ...........now suffering the consequences

I was feeling tired on Saturday having set the place up with Mike , Mark and Jake , but waking up Sunday morning Pots has hit my eye's of all places and OMG you should see me , my left eye is a bit sore and red ............but my right eye .............is FULL OF BLOOD and it hurts something chronic , but on I went , stiff, sore, blood eyed and all , dont know how much we have raised yet ..

I'm off to bed now and tomorrow off to the hospital as I'm getting blurred vision as well.

Tomorrow I will post some photo's of the Emporium on this post for you all to see and a photo of my lovely eye !

Willows..........looking very much like the 'wicked witch of the west'

[willows]

Just come back from local doctors, had such pain in the night in my left kidney and sweats ..................

I'm bleeding from the kidney and so on antibiotics and am now being sent back to the eye hospital because my eye is so inflamed at the back my doctor is quite concerned , he gave me a good talking to not that I'll listen ( well sort of) this is only a once a year event for me and I just love doing it ..........

Well here is some photos' that hubby took ,eye included ( yuck )

http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i318/ban.../miscellaneous/

I've some professional ones to put on in a few days so check back again soon , off to have a jolly good sweat now, head banging , eye blurring and in need of TLC according to the Doc..............mmmmmmmm sky TV feet up laying on the bed and a strategically placed hot water bottle ( hot , sweat, hot sweat, hot , sweat) on the old kidney for a while .......ah heaven.

Willows ............a silly twit who should know better at her age.........never learn will I

[willows]

Its been a week now and I'm still trying to recover from the event.

Still no word from the other group I worked with on how much we have raised or the much promised photo's what were 'in the post' so its a game of wait and see for me here.

As soon as I know or get some more ( what are supposed to be great photo's) I'll put some on the site .

Willows............falling asleep still in the most strangest of places.

[dmaejean]

Hey Willows,

What do you mean 'at my age'. I'm right there with you girl. I am also crafty. I made my grandbaby a wicked witch of the west costume this year which turned out too pretty to be a witch.

Anyway I am 57 and I make and collect raggedy ann dolls and make quilts. I am trying to get a little bit of a business going, but so far don't have enough energy to.

I think loving all of the kid stuff keeps us going. Your pics are great! and God bless you for doing so much work for the little ones!!

Donna

[willows]

Thanks Jean , I do try to do something for a good cause , it makes me feel that my life hasn't been wasted now I dont work in the big world as such.

But the trouble is I can do to much and end up having to speny time in bed again , for all my good reasons, but I love doing it anyhow.

I still haven't had the photo's come through or the total amount of how much we all raised , so today I will give the Hoe group a ring and find out .

I will post the other photo's as soon as I get them .

Just started on Christmas ..........................what fun , how I love this time of year