The Decorating Continues

I add to my Halloween decor every year. This year I decided that what I really needed was a murder of crows. (Yes, that is the actual collective term.)

I also like to arrange my old stuff in a different way, just to keep things fresh. This time I'm clumping all my "witch" items on the fireplace mantel. I had no idea I had this many witches.

Rob got me some chocolate monsters I had seen at World Market, and I needed a way to display them. So I took some old cardboard castle blocks and Halloweenified them with black paint. I think they came out pretty good.

Then I had to replace a non-Halloween picture in the dining room. I repainted a picture box black and made this with a scrapbook page and some chenille pipe-cleaners:

I had to figure out where to put Clyde. This year he's sitting on top of the DVD shelves. That's a lady's shawl he's wearing, but I think he pulls it off quite well. I tried out a purple boa on his head, but he looked like he was in drag.

Happy 52nd Birthday to Me!

Exactly what I wanted: A personal best and a 1st place win in my age division at the Harvest Fair Run. My goal was to break a 10 minute pace, and I did: 5K in 29:01. (That's a 9:20 pace.)

My favorite part of the whole event: Doggedly passing up all the young whipper-snappers who zipped by me at the beginning of the race.

It's Beginning to Look Like Halloween

I wanted to try out a popcorn-ball maker I got at a thrift store, but I realized I needed some clear treat-bags to put them in, which meant I had an excuse to go out and look at Halloween stuff again. I just discovered the Dollar Tree store, and it was filled with all sorts of goodies for a mere buck apiece. I just couldn't pass up this cookie jack-o-lantern on a stick:

The little ghosts light up and change colors. I did not get those at The Dollar Tree.

Here are a couple of marshmallow pops and hard candy skeleton heads on non-edible bodies:

I actually did get around to making popcorn balls, and the shaper worked great.

The monster-hand treat bags were my favorite, but the opening wasn't big enough:

Is It Time to Decorate Yet?

Today I went to a juried art show called Halloween & Vine:

http://www.halloweenandvine.com/

Wow. Definitely a cut above the stuff you see at Target. Unfortunately, the prices were considerably higher, so all I could do was drool all over everything and covet my neighbor's goods.

Oh, well. I do have some pretty cool stuff of my own. I haven't started decorating yet (I'll hold off for one more week) but here's a pic from Halloween past:

That's looking from the living room (to the right of the blue fireplace) into the dining room.

It's Been A While, Huh?

I'm jumping the gun a little bit on Halloween. What the heck, Summer is over, and that's close enough for me.

Those are my four volunteer pumpkins that sprang up in the middle of my squash plants. I had no idea they were pumpkins until they started to turn orange. Pretty cool, huh? The mornings have been damp and drizzly, so I thought I'd better pick them before they started to rot.

Whattaya Mean it's Longer?

I detest running, really I do. I'd rather do a hundred pull-up burpees. I'd rather push a heavy cart around for an hour. I'd rather clean toilets. 

But last year I went to the Harvest Fair Run to cheer on some friends who were running the 3k and the 10k, and I got caught up in the excitement and said that I'd be running it this year, so I am. I even talked a couple other non-running gym buddies into doing it with me. 

So I wasn't too thrilled when Joanne (one of those non-running buddies) called to inform me that the 3k run no longer exists; they decided to turn it into a 5k event. In mile-speak, that's an increase from 1.8 miles to 3.1 miles. Argh! I think she was hoping I'd back out of the whole deal when she told me, (also letting her off the hook in the process) but no dice! I'm going for it. It just happens to be on my birthday this year, and I think it would be pretty cool to come home with a ribbon for my birthday.

So for the next 6 weeks, I'm running 3 times a week. A 3.3 mile loop twice a week, and a 1 mile fast-as-I-can run once a week. At the moment, my 5k time is about 33-1/2 minutes. Ummm...I've got a bit of work to do if I want a ribbon.

Slacking off already!

Sheesh, I got off to such a whiz-bang start on my blog, and then I let a whole week go by! Oh, well, I never promised it would be a daily thing.
Life gets in the way. I'm dehydrating as fast as I can (I have 8 trays now) and trying to eat the rest. If you are what you eat, then I'm turning into a squash.

Foot present for size-comparison purposes.

I also did a major clean/declutter of the dining room:

You'd be much, much more impressed if you could see the "before". Alas, it didn't occur to me at the time.

Also went to book-club on Friday night for discussion of "The Outliers". We all gave the book a thumbs-up.