Mid October Inspiration

This little kitty's name is Akashia. Her heart is warm. Actually, all of her innards are warm. She has a cloth bag full of rice as stuffing in her trunk. This adds stability. It also makes her warm and cozy when you stick her in the microwave. When she comes out, I wrap her around my neck and she feels great. I got the idea from "Auntie Stress Annie" at http://dollmakersjourney.com/newsletter/auntie.html
I made the first doll exactly as shown (OK the pattern on the fabric was different, but you get what I mean). A couple of cat loving friends liked it so I came up with the kitty pattern. After a few winters of hard work, poor "Annie" split a seam, the fabric just gave way. Sad, but all good things..... Anyway, I did not plan on making mine a cat till I saw this cute fabric. What do you think? (Hint, if you are going to make one, use plain white rice. The more flavorful varieties will smell every time you warm them up).
While I was working on it, as you can guess, there were plenty of little stringy bits floating around and
the youngest member of the household got very interested. As I had plenty of fabric, I made her a toy too. It is stuffed with catnip, has a long tail to chase and has whiskers. Since it is head shaped instead of round, it wobbles when it rolls. She likes it (she is currently purring and keeping my lap warm).
Fall temperatures and colors inspire me. I want to make things! I am not the only one. Laura of "Gypsea Tree" http://lauragrace7.wordpress.com/ has been busy and my Sweet Hubby has been turning out all sorts of delights (as I showed you on the preview, this is a Guacamole Omelet). I have several ideas and supplies for more jewelry as well as cards I want to work on. Lots of my creative energy last week went

into a project for school, we had to make an instructive slide show. Isn't it nice when you can make homework into something interesting?

Fall is still tip toeing in slowly around here. The dogwood this week shows more red, but not much. These vines with berries are growing next to the Old Summer Kitchen. I don't know what they are but they are lovely. It is hard to stay in the house and work right now. The temperature keeps dipping into cold then back to mild. Our projected high today is 76 Fahrenheit, that is about 24 Celsius. There is a light breeze so some leaves are falling.

When we were kids, falling leaves meant fun. We would gladly help rake up the front lawn if we could jump and play in the pile. Our neighbor had a "Horse Chestnut Tree". It was big and provided shade for both houses. It also provided a supply of Horse Chestnuts each fall. Horse chestnuts look pretty much just like the lovely confections we used to buy in newspaper from the man on the corner in London or at the Big Christmas Market in Lincoln (chestnuts, mulled wine, music, mmmm!) then carry around to warm our hands and finally, when they were cool enough, eat. However, Horse Chestnuts are not edible. As a kid, I had no idea how good real chestnuts
are so I did not miss them. Horse Chestnuts come off the tree in green spiky balls. This stage is fun to throw. The spikes are just sharp enough to encourage caution, but not really sharp enough to do much damage. Crafty children could carefully peal off the outer spiky layer to reveal the nut in side. With the help of an old nail, you could easily put a hole through the middle to string for necklaces. We spent hours at it.
The "Horse Chestnut Tree" also supplied a lot of big soft leaves. Once the spiky green balls were collected, we used to pile the leaves near the porch and jump off the side into the pile (how did we survive

our childhoods?).
Back here in the South, Fall isn't just about the leaves. Summer is ending here too. This little Cicada exoskeleton looks as if he has curled up to for a winter's nap and the tiny little red bug looks as if he is wearing a tie for the Pumpkin Ball. Mushrooms are popping up all over and my camera stays busy.
I promised to share more photos of our Halloween decorations and here they are. As usual at my house, a mixture of old and new. The spiders came from children's parties from years ago, now they grace the pulls for the light each year. The kitty with the pumpkin glows with a soft orange light when you plug it in. It is vintage 1960's.
The treat bucket in the same photo is from the early 1990's (when will that count as vintage) and the irresistibly cute kitty pillow was 75% off on an after Halloween sale a few years back.

A vintage metal treat bucket from the 1950's shares the mantle with a glowing pair of Italian ceramic Jack O Lanterns.

I would like to leave you with a bit more inspiration.

You can watch Bugs Bunny and Witch Hazel in "A Witches Tangled Hare" at

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8459036700047862929#

Bugs Bunny and an Interesting Monster in "Primus"
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOWgZW3di7w

Walt Disney's "Lonesome Ghosts" at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVF5QK2uPMk&feature=related

and a Donald Duck cartoon from 1954 titled "Trick or Treat" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skdVouumMk4
These cartoons were big excitement for this little kid. If you are not familiar with them, enjoy and be sure to let me know what you think.

Kat