My last official birthday!

I turned 39 today!  My last official birthday - after this, I get to lie about my age.  I posted some old pics of me thru the years over at my Life of Lisa blog - they're pretty funny.  I didn't post the really horrible ones, like my 10th grade school pic - that was one that I still wonder WHY DIDN'T I GET RE-TAKES???

I got some neat presents today.  A big bunch of carnations from Randy & Angel - and also a little stone to finally put out over my Skeeter & Maggie's graves in the yard.  I forget the saying right now, but it made me cry.  Dammit.

We stopped at the Salvation Army after dinner tonight to walk off some of the amazing BBQ we had.  I got this nice obelisk that has some nice heft to it.  I think it's needs a small base, but that's easy enough to make. 

And I couldn't resist this little skeleton with the light up eyes.  He's about 3 feet tall.  I believe he glows in the dark.

So other than the hubby getting sick with whatever crap I had 2 weeks ago, it was a nice birthday!

One year + one day

I totally missed my one year Blog-iversary yesterday!!

I knew when it was, but we were recovering after a busy weekend and I just didn't feel up to using the brain power required to post.   Saturday afternoon / night we were at my cousin's 30 year vow renewal ceremony (a re-wedding?) and happily danced like a crazy person for 4+ hours and then got up to go to the Renaissance Festival Sunday.  There were 3 extremely tired peeps in the Love Shaque and we all slept in today!!  Did I mention we're on vacation this week?  Yup!  Too bad we're not going on anywhere - having a cat who requires medication 3x a day put the kabosh on any plans of that sort.

I should have gotten more pics of people, or their costumes rather. I didn't even have my camera with me - these are all off my phone. 

 Oh no!  The mark of the TP beast!

Jousting

The green knight was the guy we had to cheer for - and he won!

 He's the weeee-ner!

 The roving tree monster.

 Someone's dog freaked out at the living bush!  

They had to pick up their full grown husky and carry her up to it.

 Randy and his little friend sitting on his shoulder. 

 Angel had to get her face painted. 

The Ded Bob Sho!

I think I'm going to break down and get a sewing machine and actually learn how to use it so I can make Randy a kilt and me a dress to match. I have a dress that is somewhat Renaissance-y but my feet hurt so bad from dancing barefoot on the tile American Legion floor that I had to wear my cooshy walking shoes.  They wouldn't have looked right.  So I stuck with shorts & t-shirt. :/

Someone mentioned going to a store called Kirkland's on the HF, so I checked their website and there is a store not far from my work, so I stopped in Friday evening.  Most of their H'ween stuff was nice, but pricey.  However, I did grab up this devil sock monkey - love him!!

So that's all that's going on around here.  Today I went and got pics of 5 little cemeteries north of here, but I'm saving them to post during the Countdown to Halloween!  That gives me time to do some research, too.  There was a stone here & there that really piqued my interest & curiosity.

Later!

Another dilemma!!!!

I just checked out Craigslist for the first time.....I found a vendor at an antique mall that has over 100 blowmolds (for all holidays) and from what I can see - the prices are super reasonable! 

Goodies!

I was going to post a couple more pics, but they were tiny thumbnails.   I know for a fact - that JOL on the right is at least knee-high and for $8?  ~swoon~

However....there are a couple minor issues regarding this wonderous find.....

1.  This particular antique mall is over an hour away - and requires going thru Detroit. 
2.  I drive a very small car.
3.  Storage, once I do get any home,
4.  What is the hubby going to say?

Gosh - what to do, what to do?  I posted this question on a FB group and got responses like "U-Haul - $35 or less"  and "strap them both on the roof" (I assume blowmolds & Randy, LOL!)   I think if I manage to ditch both the hubby & child, I'd have plenty of room.  But going to someplace like that alone is no fun! I guess if I control myself to just H'ween molds.....I could manage to allow one or the other to go with me. Then go back later for Christmas & Easter, etc. 

Of course I may get there and not really see anything I want!  Hmmm.  There are a couple other big flea markets / trade centers that are closer, too. 

Do you see my issues????

Checking In.....

I swear I haven't dropped off the face of the earth or anything!  I managed to go all of last winter without getting sick and it finally caught up to me last weekend.  We'd been sleeping with the windows open, so Sunday morning I commented that my throat hurt some, but then promptly forgot about it.  That night, while watching the Olympic Closing Ceremonies, I was, to put it quaintly, "sweating like a pig" while Miss Angela was across the room, wrapped in a blanket.  By bedtime, I was a walking NyQuil commercial.  I have to confess it's been a long time since I took a legit sick day from work, but I needed it! 


Anyway, I'm back to about 95% health.  I was able to get out mow some of the lawn, before I got smart and sent the able-bodied teenager out to finish it. 

Not much prop building has been going on.  I still need to make the fence - and the weather is currently perfect for it - it got up to 73 today after dropping to 53 last night - we had to close the windows!!  Tomorrow is going to be another nice day, but I can't turn down a day of horseback riding, so that's what we're going to be off doing.  Woohoo!

I've also been tossing around the idea of re-doing my zombie dolls into ghostly ones.  They still need work done on their hair anyway.  It's rather bright & luxurious for being zombies!  I have a couple new ones, too.  I think the one with blood on her face (Victoria Victim) will stay, but her dress needs to be dirtied & spattered up some. 

 I found this at the Salvation Army recently.  It's handmade ceramic, at least I assume by the initials and date on the bottom, like I used to do myself while doing ceramics. I love the shape of it.  But I'm not particularly in love with the orange, but that is what drew my attention to it.  And the gold pearl shell / feather / fan thing?  Ew.  So it sits on the shelf....and waits. 

The hubby was off working at the Berkley Parade of Cars last night (the start of the Woodward Dream Cruise) so I went to browse a few stores.  I went to Home Goods looking for the headless horseman that I'd seen so many people on HF post - but neither of the ones around here had them.  :(  The first one had very few Halloween items out, and I grabbed this adorable skeleton couple.  The second had more to offer, but I didn't buy anything.  

Then I wanted to stop in the Christmas Tree Shoppe to look for some stuff for my Secret Reaper Victim and couldn't resist this JOL pirate nutcracker.  I am such a sucker for unusual nutcrackers!  They also had a vampire, witch & skeleton. 

I was pretty successful on the SR gift search - Got a good start! 

I wonder how Miss Maddie is going to like the fun of decorating?  Right now she's still spending a lot of time in the bedroom, but has managed to find her way out to the food / litter box without mishap (aka Chester bothering her).  btw - I had her back at the vet this week - she'd been getting over an eye infection when we adopted her, and she always seemed "winky".  Her eye never seemed to be open all the way and earlier this week, it was practically glued shut with goo.  So I took her in.  She has a deep scratch across her cornea!  The poor little thing! So she gets more medicine in her eye and I have to take her to an ophthalmologist next week. I wonder what happened?  Chester is declawed in front, so if he attacked, it had to be a tooth or his back foot that got her.  Jack wouldn't do anything more harmful than sniff or maybe lick her.  Bad aim while scratching?  I don't know. 

 Her loves the window!

So anyway....time for bed!  At least we don't have to get up terribly early to be at my sister's! 

Grout & Ridge Cemeteries

Some of the sights we took in last weekend.  This is the one that kept popping up when I Google-searched the area.  For some reason it wanted me to look. Or maybe it was the neighboring cows.  I don't recall anything spectacular once I got there and there's nothing in the pictures.

 The detail is incredible!

 It's hard to believe this is all stone.

I love you so much that I will make you a cross out of scrap 2x4s and 

paint it silver before putting it next to your stone!

 That's a awfully nice looking outhouse!

 

 I wasn't about to walk on this - it looks like an underground crypt, maybe?  

But the cement slab with all the funky moss 

had a couple holes already in it.....

The tarnished green plaque with a name on it looked like 

someone just tossed it there. 

Marvil Secord

This stone was placed on the Sesquicentennial Celebration - 

until then, he'd never had a marker. 

"the Shack"

We went "up north" this past weekend - a common occurrence with us Michiganders. My sister has a place on a lake in practically the center of Michigan.  Lots of corn fields and Amish people up there. Anyway, we always make a point to go do something when we go for a weekend.  Last year we did some Geocaches to kill some time (cough, cough away from my family, cough cough), this year I found some cemeteries to visit and did some exploring. 

But first, since we were kids we always joked about who was going to live in this house....it had burned out eons ago and it was just there, on a hill overlooking the river.  I recall my Dad telling us that back in the day (100 or so years ago) a man had built this house for his bride & she died young, so he killed himself & burned the house.  I don't know how true this is, since I noticed some of the details seemed pretty modern.  But it's a neat story.   And the only other time I went near it, I was on horseback and my horse would not get within 100 yards of it (cue Twilight Zone music....)

You can almost see it from the road!  

Obviously the trees and such have grown a LOT.

It used to show over the top of the trees.

 That bunch of dead leaves oddly resembles flames.....

 Looking in from the back.  If you went thru both those doors, you'd basically fall down the hill into the river.

 The trim at the top of the door looks a lot like what is in my house now.

Looking up. I thought it was odd that all those nails stuck out of the siding like there had been another layer of something that is gone now. 

Several deer carcasses had been dumped nearby.  No skulls, tho. Or ribs. Odd.  Only short leg bones, a couple vertebra & 2 sets of jawbones.

 Looking in the side.

 It looks like a large room across the back, a small one off to the left and 

another off to the right with a way thru to the front porch area. 

Porch

And to subject you to some cheesiness....I wrote a poem about this place when I was like 13.  

Shack                         

Standing on a hill,

Overlooking the river:

Far below.

The sun shines

With all its might

Through your door, your windows,

The hole in your roof.

All the summer days,

Sad and abandoned.

Snows fall, melt and

Freeze again.

Torturing your burnt wood

As much as the fire.

Buried in snow,

Pretty as a picture.

But you know different,

Because you’re the one

In pain.

Forgotten

At the edge of a field.

No one cares

About this poor little

Shack.

Someone did – long ago,

But now they’re gone and

The shack is alone.

By Lisa Marie Owens

May 1988