Pow Wow!

Evening All!
Had a wonderful day at the McIntosh Festival in Whitesburg, GA! Connie tagged along and Sally had to work. Barry and Amy were there too! Got there at 10 (when they opened).

Started the day out in a semi-rush....Slept until 7:15 which is late for me. Got the dogs out, made a cup of coffee and some oatmeal, was about to jump in the shower when I realized that I hadn't gotten directions yet. Ran downstairs to the PC and typed in McIntosh Festival....wouldn't ya know it...not one of the first 5 sites had an address or directions. Finally found one with directions and of course the site wasn't working. Off to another one....finally got directions. YAY!
Grabbed my camera and on the way back up the stairs realized that the batteries were almost dead....one more stop to make. Got in the shower, dressed and ran out the door......
Picked up Connie and off to Wally World we went. Back to the camera department....you're out of my batteries? Of course you are..what else should I have expected. Now what? Off to one of the little kiasks...Yay, they have one. Yippee!!! Up to the front to pay and out the door (gave Sally a kiss on the way by).
Drive, drive, drive, left turn, drive, drive, damn, missed my turn. Turn around. Right turn, drive, drive.....round about (whoever came up with this idea should be smacked)....drive some more.....I see a sign. Followed the signs way down this teeny, tiny road into the reserve all the way in the back. Paid the parking and then realized that I had been here once before. Way back when my daughter was younger. One of her friends had a 'camping birthday party' here.
As we stepped out of the truck....Connie and I both looked at each other and said 'wow, I thought it would have been bigger than this'. Don't believe all the adverising promotions you hear. Lesson learned. Despite it being smaller than either of us had antisipated we had a good time. We walked up one side and down the other looking at the vendors.....10 minutes later we were done. Now what? Wait...they're making an announcement...."The entrance ceremony will begin at noon". So we continued to wander aimlessly.....
Then we hear ".....award winning flutist at 11:15". So off we went to the circle to see what we could see. Connie found us a seat on a haybale. It smelled like.....hay. Wow was it strong. Then J.J. (the flutist) began playing. He was very good and the music was very soothing ~ this would be good to play on a hectic, stressful day. He played for about 40 minutes and we really enjoyed the show.

J.J. the flutist

When J.J. was done they started gearing up for the entrance ceremony....I was excited! I haven't seen a 'Pow-wow' since we moved from Michigan (17 years ago). They started bringing the dancers in...some of the costumes were really simply and some were really elaborate. There was an older man there, had to be at least 70 maybe 80 dressed to the hilt. All I could think was 'wow, that's got to be hot'. He had two younger boys (8 years old or so) with him.....grandchildren I would think. It was quite a site with all the colors and tassles and bells. They had three drum groups. All of which were really good.

After the entrance ceremony they had a special memorial....one of the co-founders of the festival / pow wow had recently died in a horrible car accident. They brought in the family members and all of the dancers ~ men, women, children did a specail dance in his honor. And then 3 of the male dancers did a 'grass dance' to aid in the healing of the family. It was very moving.

From there they broke into the group dances.....first the men's traditional. Then they women's traditional with a bit of history.....the Indian Nation is the only one that honors the 'bringers of life'. As the MC pointed out if you are an Indian they never ask "who's your daddy?" it's always "who's your momma?". It's always the woman's side that dictates your ancestory. And it's the women's council that has the final say on important matters. Hhhhhmmmmmm, imagine that. Maybe we need to rethink politics......I am sure that a group of women could do a much better job of running things.

And then they danced! Here are some photos.....

this guy was really good ~ one of the 'grass dancers'

this young man had three kids, all of whom were dressed

they were all adorable

They danced for a while and then took a lunch break. Connie and I split a burger and fries...MISTAKE! The sodium kicked in about 30 minutes later and left me with a pounding headache, of course I had no aspirin. It was good while it lasted. LOL!
After lunch we wandered around some more and went down to the other end to see The Georgia Possums play. They seemed so out of place. They were good though. They seemed a little 'sleepy' (hungover maybe?). Shortly after this we left, I couldn't deal with the headache any more.
All in all, had a great time at the festival. I am glad we went. Looking forward to next year! Here's a few more photos....

the teepees ~ didn't get to see inside, they were closed before we got to them  :(

some of the period dress ~ can you imagine these clothes in 80 degree temps ~ Whew!

two of the young boys getting ready for their dance

In other news.....

I managed to get a photo of the full moon just over a week ago (I know, I'm such a geek). It was late and it was a perfect shot....too bad I couldn't have gotten a better shot of it. Just thought I'd share.

beautiful September Full Moon

And Friday was Kai's last day at work. He is on his way back home to Switzerland. He is one of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. It came as a shock, I had no idea that he was going back so soon. He had to go back to report for military duty. They have bootcamp and then 4 weeks a year until they are 36 - mandatory. I want to wish him all the best! He says he may come back to work or go to school. I hope he does.

me and Kai. Yes, I'm short (5'8) but Kai is quite tall

I guess that's all to report for now....Hope you all have a great weekend.

TTFN

p.s. Only 36 days!!

Unexpected (sortof) Guests.....

Good Evening All My Pretties!
Yesterday was a glorious day. I was so suprised to arrive home and discover not one but two large brown boxes sitting in the corner of my porch. A smile slowly crept across my face as my brain processed what could possibly be in these packages.....
I eagerly opened the door, threw down all that was in my arms (good thing it wasn't anything breakable) and quickly returned to the porch to retrieve my delivered treasure.
I took them both upstairs and gently set them on the dinning room floor.
Knife or scissors? knife or scissors? knife or sissors? KNIFE!! I cut into the box and pulled back the freshly opened wound.....Damn, another box.
Again, I sliced through the tape and peeled back the edges.....Damn, bubble wrap, lots of it.
I lifted out the air infused package, all 18 pounds of it. Gently setting it on the table I began to undo the tape holding the wrap in place.....Yeah, right. Whoever wrapped these damn things took a perverse pleasure in making sure no one would easily get to carmel center.
The hell with this....where's that knife???? I know it was just here.....there you are (sinister grin pulling at the corner of my mouth). If someone would have seen me at this moment they would have had me committed.
Now I know how Jack (the ripper) felt. The shinny, silver blade glistening in the light. The still air. The breathless antisipation (an...tis...i...pa....................tion). The knife glidding through the bubble wrap like warm butter on a hot georgia night....Yeah, Ok. The knife hung up every inch or so, which caused the package to rotate in every consivable direction but the ONE that I wanted.
After finally tearing and clawing my way into this artfully packaged contraption....I promptly dropped everything on the floor. BANG! Scared the crap out of the dogs, who were on the other side of the room after witnessing the manacle look in my eyes when I entered the house with these boxes in tow.
I cautiously picked everything up. Tightened the loose screws and attached the unattached legs......
IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE I TELL YOU!!
Bart's here. :) 
Well, Bart and his other brother Bart (feeling very Bob Newhart).

Here's Bart.

Bart and his other brother Bart (he let his hair grow out).

Counting the days now....4!!! We will putting up decorations this coming Sunday. YAY!! I can hardly wait. New Coffin and a body to go in it. ;) Bart with the long orange hair will hopefully be perched up high riding a broom. HA!

Can you believe that someone down the road (about a mile or so) from me actually put up their Halloween decorations before me?

Geez! The Nerve Of Some People. Oh well, when I get done they will understand what it means to decorate for the greatest holiday of the year!!

That's all the news that fits....talk to ya later.

TTFN

Coffin...part 2

Hey All!
Hope your weekend was great!

Just an update on my coffin....
I have gotten it put together, burnished and stained. :)
It looks good, even if I say so myself. LOL
It took longer than I thought it would....It was still only about 8 hours or so. My helper wasn't there to help me, so it was an all alone 8 hours. I'm thinking about putting some markings on the top (double headed eagle or a vampire insignia) and I still have to add handles. Not sure if I'm going to use metal handles or rope handles. I guess that's going to depend on what I do with the inside. I haven't decided whether I want to burnish it or if I'm going to put material inside. What do you think? Share your opinions with me, please.  :)
Here's the link to the 'coffin directions' that I used. That being said, I had to make some minor adjustments as things did not fit together the way the directions indicated. But I am still thrilled with the outcome.

This is the top & bottom construction.

Believe it or not...this was NOT done on purpose.

it was getting dark and I tried to get a photo and it gave me 4 for some unknown reason.

construction completed.

This is how the burnishing turned out on the side. Not too shabby...

it was done with a small butane torch. It aged it nicely.

And here it is with the varnish. I used polyurethane and tinted it with some of the

'Oxblood' leather dye I had. I think it looks great. Can't wait to see it with the blue flood lights on

it. It should look 'dark' (red and blue = purple). Got my fingers crossed.

Looks like next weekend (Sunday??) is when we will begin setting up everything. My daughter is going to help me. Unfortunately she will be flying back to California on October 1st  :(

So we have to decorate a week earlier. My neighbors already think I'm crazy...this will just add to it  :)  I had my gutter guy put hooks across the roof line the last time he was up there...now I just have to figure out how to get lights up there. Think if I stand on the ground and fling them they will just fall into place? LOL! Me neither...but hey, it can't hurt to try. :)  That will definately get photos...hopefully with nothing broken (limbs and decorations).

I've decided that after the season is over that I'm going to set up the coffin in the backyard to 'weather' until next year. That ought to push my neighbors over the edge. ;)

My wife has been telling everyone that I'm building a coffin to bury her in the backyard....hhhmmmm. And my daughter has been telling her friends that I'm building one for the 'naughty' little boys she knows. One of which replied with "that's not funny". I have no doubt what so ever that my daughter laughed (loudly and sinisterly). And then they wonder why people think I'm psychotic.?.? Who? me? never!

I guess that's all for now.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend....I'm going out to enjoy the bonfire my wife and daughter are making ~ smores!! yay!! even though I'm not supposed to have them. One won't hurt too much, right??

TTFN

Better be nice to me....

....I'm making a coffin. :)
and I have lots of wooded area in my backyard! LOL
Well, in case you hadn't guessed...we started making a coffin this afternoon (evening, technically, but who's counting?). Got all the pieces cut and numbered. Tomorrow, my daughter and I will assemble it. YAY! I need a torch. Anybody got one? I really don't want to have to buy one...I will probably never use it for anything else. ANYBODY?? I don't have the website for the coffin instructions right on hand. When I post more pics (tomorrow?) I will list the website....ya know, just in case you want to make one too. Here's a peek so far......

top and bottom laid out for inspection

And my 'insider' sent me some photos of things they had finally started stocking at Wally World. It took forever for them to start filling the shelves....I was there a couple of times and it was just empty space. It should be done now. I hope.

WalMart has blow ups again this year. They really had a crappy selection of things

last year and the year before. I heard that their customers were complaining....

imagine that.

There's supposed to be one more photo....it's a hanging skeleton / reaper. But for some unknown

reason my pc keeps deleting it. It wouldn't let me turn it upright and then it wouldn't save it and

then it just deleted the pic all together. I'll post it if I can figure out why it's not working. hhhmmmmm.

Anywho, that's all for now.....

I'm hoping to stop by and see Travis and Preston at Psycho Haunted House. Maybe on Friday on the way home. Maybe they'll let me take some sneek peek pictures to share.???.....

til then

TTFN

Saturday nights all right...

Hey Eveyone!
Hope you all are enjoying your weekend.

Saturday was a busy day. Had a blast too!
Got up and went to the Villa Rica Parade. We've been going for a while now...this years parade was 75% churchs. It's not a big deal for the most part...but theres this one group that is just annoying and down right ridiculous. They preach and scream at you (megaphones) from the top of their church bus. Yes, they stand on the top of the bus and preach. Even the hard core church goers roll their eyes. And what is with the puppets? Quite a few of the churchs were using puppets. I guess to lure the kids. It was just kinda creepy. You can tell the economy has really hit hard....usually they throw candy out by the hand fulls...this year it was a piece or two at a time. Just goes to show things are tough all over. Anyway, here's some pics from the parade....

The Shriners started the parade (always do)

the clown that scared our friend's grand daughter

it was hilarious. the look on her face was priceless.

the local high school band

the red hat society

sons of the confederates

big pink tractor (fuzzy stering wheel and all)

this was the end of the parade ~ literally. they stopped

right in front of us and dropped a load. WOW. it

smelled so bad.

After the parade we came home (after rescueing our friend. she ran out of gas) and started getting things ready for our 'picnic'. We got together with our neighbors, Barry and Amy. They have a smoker and we did a turkey. OMG! It was delicious. There was turkey, mashed potatos, sweet potatos, corn, greenbean casorole, stuffing (smoked in the bird and oven baked), cucumber salad (Shirley and Dennis always do a great job with this) and of course, cranberrie sauce. I ate entirely too much. And for desert Connie made carmel pie. It was good...not really into carmel but this was delicious. Far too sweet for me, I only had a few bites and couldn't eat any more. We were so stuffed afterwards...everyone sat around and moanded (ya know its good if no one can move afterwards).

Smoked Turkey ~ YUMMY!

When everything was cleaned up and put away we got ready to go to the 'Battle of the Bands' in downtown Villa Rica. Lots and lots of people. I forgot they were having the street faire too. Oh well, there's always next year. There were three bands performing....the first one was Come Down Denver. It was a 'younger' group. They were pretty good...except for that god awful screaming that they think is music. The second band was Drew Miller and Spirit Road. I really liked the music these guys played (even got a CD). But they were really weird to watch. The lead (Drew) looked like he was having a drug induced fit. They were good though, really tight, sounded great. Then there was The Josh Adams Band. These guys were good too. Really polished. They've obviously had some practice (bars and such, I would assume). The 'winners' of the Battle of the Bands was Come Down Denver. However, this was from blantant cheating. It was $1 a vote. They ran around after their performance selling CD's and then stuffing the money into the jug. I'm really surprised that the people putting on the show allowed it, since they were all aware of what was going on. I'm sure it had to due with the fact that half the money went to the venue. Oh well, guess that's what you get when you bring teenagers into it.

Come Down Denver

Drew Miller & Spirit Road

The Josh Adams Band (bad pic, I know)

After every thing was done and we got home....Amy asked if we wanted to come and eat some more. My stomach was like 'NO WAY!!'

Well, that was my Saturday. Hope yours was as enjoyable as mine!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Talk to ya soon.

TTFN

p.s. Only 49 Days!!

It's in the Air! I can smell it!

Hi All!
Hope you are having a good week!

Can you smell it?
It's crisp and clean and cool and so...so...so....ORANGE!
HALLOWEEN IS COMING. It's tingling in my toes and fingers. Ooooooo....I can hardly wait. Just over 3 weeks and I can decorate. YAY!! And once again the cosmonaughts will be able to see my house from space. :)
I was looking online today and came across some new ideas. Makes me want to run out and start building things right now. New creepy, slithering things that go bump in the night. My Scare~me~crows are watching over my shoulder while I'm writing this. My skeleton scarecrow has a great big grin....I think he's getting excited too!
I want to build a toe-pincher coffin for this year (looks like my graveyard fence isn't gonna get done). Hopefully I can find some wood at a reasonable price (free?) in the next week or so. Anybody know anyone that is tearing down an old barn? Or has wood stacked up that they aren't using??? Tell me, Please!!! :)
I have to do a witch's broom too. Before Bart (and his other brother Bart) show up. I have a decorator friend seeing if he can find me some broomcorn (also known as sorghum) at a good price. I'm gonna be busy in the next couple of weeks. Wish me luck! OH, I'm soooooooo ready!
In my searches I came across a site called HauntTactics. They make some really cool costumes. I want one so bad. They're pretty much zombies...but the 'bodies' could be used for so many things. They have fused the 'bones' onto the costume itself. They are so cool. Go and check them out. I promise, you won't be disappointed.  :)

In a previous post I said I would put up some recipes as I came across them. Well, here's one that's really yummy. I made some chilli the other night (it's been quite cool here the last few days - after the rain) and chilli sounded really good. This is my recipe, not one I got from a book or the internet. Due to the 'low sodium' diet thingy...

The Ingredients:

Red Beans (Kidney beans) dried - small bag

Pinto Beans  dried - small bag

Lean Hamburger - 2 lbs

tomatos - 2 or 3

onion

sweet peppers - 6-8 small ones

tomato soup

chilli seasoning

Recipe:

The beans I used called for the following; Boil for 2 minutes. Cover and remove from heat. Let sit for 1 hour. Drain bean water and rinse beans thouroughly (check for 'extra' pieces). Add fresh water and bring to boil. Simmer for 2 - 2 1/2 hours or until beans are as soft as you would like them. Mine cooked for almost 3 hours.

After I boiled and rinsed the beans, while I was waiting for the 'first' hour I put the hamburger, tomatos, onions, sweet peppers and chilli seasoning in the crock pot on high. I stirred the mixture regularly (every 20 minutes or so). It took about an hour and a half for the hamburger to be completely cooked. I added the tomato soup at this point.

I continued to follow the bean directions and dumped the bean water, rinsed and got them boiling in fresh water. I cooked the beans for the specified time and continued to stir the 'chilli mix' in the crock pot.

When the beans were ready, I drained them and added the 'chilli mix' directly to the beans in my big pot.

Stir thouroughly and serve.

This makes A LOT of chilli.

Speaking of food ~

Sally made Bannana Bread from scratch today. I was just brought a piece while I was writing this......still warm from the oven. YUMMY!!

I also came across this while I was looking up Halloweenie stuff.....I so want some. And it is soooooo not on my 'can have' list. :(

Our Walmart has emptied 3 isles to start setting up for Halloween. I have spies.....watching, so they can give me a heads up on new stuff. Sneaky, Sneaky. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do to make sure you get first picks at Wally World. :)  I'll post some pics as soon as I get them.

Anyways, I guess that's all for now....

til next time ~ Be good & Be safe.

TTFN

p.s. Only 53 Days Left  ;p

I'm late, I'm late.....

Hey Everyone!
Hope you all are doing great!
I can't believe I've fallen behind on posting (again).

Let's see if I can catch up....
Two weeks ago....

Friday night. We got together with our neighbors and had a driveway party! HA! Actually it was a 'learn how to line dance' party. It was me, Sally, Karen, Connie, Amy, Barry, Shirely, Dennis and Isabel. We had a blast! I can now say I know how to line dance! Karen was a great teacher. Sally kept giving up, saying she couldn't do it. Guess who was the first one to get it down pat? Sally!

Now I just have to go out dancing so I can practice! Anyone want to go?? I have to work on my steps...apparently I take 'large' steps. Karen says I will step on somebody if I don't cut them down some. :)

Next weekend we are getting together for a cookout....Smoked Turkey!! Can't wait. I'll have to be really good with my sodium this week so I can have some!

Speaking of.....I have managed to lose 7 of the 30 pounds my doctor wants me to lose. YAY! I haven't gotten back to P90 yet because my blood pressure has been whacked out. But it seems to be leveled out now. Now I just have to get it into my head again to get back to exercising. Wish me luck!!

I have been working on my ATC's (ACEO's) as well. I have 5 completed now. I will be joining a couple of sites this next week to show them off. I think I'm going to set up an Etsy account to sell them through. Has anyone used Etsy? Any tips?? I'm really excited about this project. Here's a preview of the ones I've completed so far.....

Acrylic on various 'card stock'

I've watched two movies in the last couple weeks. Which is really a lot for me. The first one was "SuckerPunch". The effects and 'style' of this movie were really good. The plot was so-so. At the end of the movie all I could think was that it was made by a group of horny 13 year olds. That's what I came away with...'this was just an excuse for chics to run around in their underwear' (not as bad as that one with Christina Ricci and Samuel Jackson - that was a waste of film).

The second one was "Priest". It was pretty good. Not quite up to all the hype it got but not too bad either. The storyline was good (image the Church as the bad guys - who would have thought). It did take a long time to build up to the climax. Which was over very quickly. And they left it wide open for a sequel. All in all a fairly good movie.

Can you believe it's September already? Wow! We must be on that down hill slope...cause it's going fast. BUT! that means it's almost time to set up my Halloween decorations!! I CAN'T WAIT! I have a nice big porch now, lots of room to decorate. I get to use my fog machine this year too! It's brand new, still in the box. I have some new stuff to put out as well. And best of all - my daughter will be here to help me set up. She likes Halloween almost as much as I do. She's got a good eye for decorating as well. We always have a good time setting up. The last time she helped me we spent almost 5 hours putting up decorations. :) I'm excited to see how this years will turn out.

A friend of ours runs a haunted house too! They are getting ready for the 2011 season. I'm sure it will be great! The people involved are wonderful and really friendly. I can hardly wait to see the new location. I know that Travis and Preston (and all the others) have been working their arse's off! You can visit Psycho Haunted House here. Be ready, they'll scare the yell out of ya! :) Here's a couple of older photos.....

This ones from the Douglasville parade. It's Jenifer, Stephanie and Bill. I was there too but I can't find the photos. I was just carrying the sign, no make up. Had a good time though!

And here's Jenifer in action! She was in the front room. Did a really good job. This picture was taken by one of the customers. I had to look more than once to realize this was my baby girl! :)

GO SEE THEM AT PSYCHO HAUNTED HOUSE THIS YEAR! TELL THEM RON SENT YOU.

I guess that's about all for now. Have a great night and enjoy the holiday weekend. Stay out of trouble.

TTFN

p.s. What did you think of my new header and background?