The Halloween Tarot

The Halloween Tarot is one of my newer Tarot decks, which I purchased fairly recently on our trip to Berry. I really like this deck, firstly because I love Halloween! The other reasons I think I'm drawn to the is deck is because of the colours - nothing's been toned down here! This deck celebrates Halloween and it is colours galore, not a pastel in sight! This deck is Rider-Waite inspired with a novelty, cartoon style going on. I also love that there's a black kitty cat on each card!

I've only given myself one reading with this deck, and I was very happy! So today I've decided to go for a simple one card draw. I didn't have a specific question in mind.

The card I drew was the Knight Of Imps, the first thing I notice is that it's that I've pulled another card with a horse on it. . . In my last blog post, I pulled the King Of Autumn card which featured the Gypsy Vanner Horse. Without referring to the guidebook, I immediately think of travel. So what does the guidebook say?

The first paragraph says "The Knight Of Imps gallops hastily on his way to something new, wherever it may be". I should also mention that in this Halloween Tarot, the Imp cards are a replacement of the suit of Wands, the Wands are connected to the element fire which is connected to creativity, artistic ability etc. 

This card makes perfect sense to me, I'm travelling towards something creative. It also ties in with my last blog post perfectly! I've also circled that cheeky black kitty cat in the bottom right corner! 

Seems like I'm still on the right path! See you next time!

Kiama Mini-Break

I know it may have seemed that I abandoned my blog once again, however, I didn't. I just needed a bit of a break after losing Lily. We had her cremated and I had a photo of her printed. The days following her passing, there were a couple of weird events - we think she may have popped in to torment the dogs, something she loved to do! Today's blog post isn't meant to be a sad one. I just wanted to add the photo below to my blog.

Roughly a month ago, we went to Kiama for a 5-day mini-break, I mentioned that we were going back in February. As usual, breaks are never quite long enough! We were lucky as it was sunny for most of the time we were there, it only rained the last two days which really wasn't that big of a deal as we had done most of the outside stuff.

The first day that we arrived, there were markets on. We love markets! I did wear a hat, however, I was a bit slack in the sunscreen department and got quite sunburnt! Lesson learnt? Maybe lol 

While we were there, we stayed at Kiama Shores Motel. Now, just for some background info lol. When we travel, we're not the kind of travellers that seek five-star accommodation. For us, accommodation is just somewhere to sleep and to have breakfast and/or dinner. 

According to Google, this motel was 4.1/5 stars and was also well priced. As you can see from the photo, the motel was clean. So what was my issue? Weeell, there wasn't a kitchenette. We had a fridge and a kettle, but no kitchenette. There was also two BBQ's for patrons to use, but given the lack of kitchen amenities, we didn't have utensils or even plates to be able to use the BBQ's. 

The lack of kitchen facilities also meant that the kettle had to be filled from the bathroom sink, the same place that the two mugs had to be washed. This was an issue for me, I don't have OCD, but I do like my kitchen stuff separated from my bathroom stuff.

There was a cafe downstairs called Speak N Easy and we had breakfast there every morning as not only was it convenient, but they had a decent menu, it was well priced and the staff were friendly.

Ok back to my kitchenette issue! Aside from the kettle refilling problem, towards the end of our stay when it was raining and we were getting tired, we couldn't grab some take away earlier in the day to have later on for dinner as we didn't have any cutlery, plates, or even a small microwave. This meant that we went out for dinner every night. Admittedly, the restaurants we went to were great. However, in this day and age, is a kitchenette too much to ask for?

One restaurant we went to was called Ritzy Gritz Mexican Stonegrill and the food was pretty amazing! They didn't scrimp on anything and the surroundings were very Tex Mex!

We had two-day trips to Berry which is the most gorgeous little township about twenty minutes from Kiama. If you ever go to Berry, you simply have to go to The Dairy Bar! OMG! We were only planning on going there once for a look, but after spending one day looking around, we had to go back for another!

On the second trip to Berry, I purchased a new tarot deck for myself. I had actually checked out some reviews on this deck a few years back on Amazon. I can't remember why I didn't get it, perhaps it was out of stock? Anyway, I saw this deck on the shelf and the book was right beside it. I'd already picked up a few other decks but put them back on the shelf as I didn't click with them, so when I saw this deck and guidebook, I knew it was coming home with me. 

I purchased The Halloween Tarot from Shambalaa, they have two storefronts - so should you go looking for a new age shop and find a clothing store - keep looking!  

Ok, well I think the length of this blog post has made up for my absence!  

A Bit Halloweenie

Well I wish I could say that the shop has found a buyer, but sadly this is not the case. I have had a couple of queries, one which was very promising - however she didn't have all the funds..... I would have bet my house that if she did, she would have bought the shop there and then. Oh well, never mind. It will sell when it's meant to sell. I have always believed things happen for a reason, even when it doesn't make sense. So I will bide my time knowing that when the time is right, the right person will come along. There's one thing I have learnt in life, and that is that you can't stress over something that you have no control over. So stop wasting precious time and energy stressing and worrying and get on with what you can control and that's living! 

So speaking of living, what have I been up to? Well I finally built Tango's new day cage yesterday, sorry it's not a great pic. He eyed it off all afternoon lol and he had his first outside bath in it this morning..... I don't think he's all that impressed lol I should add that it does have toys in it, I just hadn't put them in when I took this photo. So he's outside drying off with the dogs who also had fun in the pool. Last week it was 10 degrees and we had the heater on and today it's 37 degrees and stinking hot!!! I'm sure I've said before a million times, I hate the heat! Give me winter any day!

Onto another topic (as I do lol) Halloween is my favourite time of the year, followed closely by Christmas! However since we have had the shop we haven't had a Halloween party because there's a three day event that we attend for the shop and it falls right on Halloween and we don't have time to do both. However that doesn't stop me from loving Halloween! Just the other day my wife and I went to the shopping centre.... I had no intention of buying anything Halloween related due to us not having a party and decorating the house. 

But.... As we walked past an art and craft shop, something caught my eye! LOL!
First I saw little cardboard coffins, then I saw these cute little Jack O'Lantern wooden boxes lol So I decided to get two of each lol Then when I went to the checkout I saw this Halloween Showbag that they had on offer. The showbag is mostly aimed at kids (ok it's purely aimed at kids lol) but it had all these cool little Halloween projects inside. So yes I bought it also lol I have no idea what I'm going to do with these bits and pieces..... A few ideas went through my mind, but I'm yet to make a final decision :) 

One of the projects is this cute little vampire bat lol I figured that the contents are good for those days when you don't feel like taking on a large project, well that's what I tell myself lol To be honest I just love anything Halloween related!
Which is why I also purchased a couple more latch hook kits lol I received an email from Herrschners and they were having a latch hook sale! Given that the Australian dollar is crap at the moment, I figured now would be a good time to buy something, even though I just received a large Halloween latch hook kit from them.

So I purchased these two Halloween kits:- Little Vampire and Little Witch. I had been watching the progress of someone in one of the Facebook groups I'm in, and she has been doing both. They looked quite good :) I also purchased a Christmas Tree surround called Life's Best Gifts.  

Okay well I had better go and check on the green chicken, he's awfully quiet today! Have a great weekend!

Some Latch Hooking

Nothing terribly exciting has been happening here at the moment. There hasn't been much action in terms of selling my shop, I've had a lot of people comment that they wish they were in a position to buy it - but no genuine queries. So for the time being, it's business as usual. Regardless of where you live in the world you'll hear me cheering when someone hands over a cheque! You have no idea how over it I am.

On a more pleasant note I finished a latch hook kit that I started last year. I stopped for two reasons, the 1st reason was that I reached the nose section and there were two orange colours and I couldn't figure out which orange was which! It was sooo frustrating! Even my wife, who examined the colours couldn't figure them out. They were listed as light and bright orange, but telling the two apart was near impossible! The 2nd reason I stopped was because it was summer when I was doing it, and it felt like I had a rug across my knees and it was just too hot lol So when I pulled it out last month I just decided that if I stuffed the orange colours up, tough luck! I wanted it done! As it turned out, I got them right lol

So now I just have to cut the excess canvas off and buy a rod or some rug hanging clips as I'll hang it at Christmas, rather than put it on the floor because my dogs will probably play tug of war with it.

Now I know some (Okay a lot lol) of latch hook kits can look quite tacky and are really suited to kids craft, but I found doing this in front of the TV much easier than cross stitching - especially since I started my first linen project (Eeeekkk!)

So you know I love Halloween! So a couple of weeks ago when I started back on my Christmas kit, I started looking for a Halloween themed latch hook and to be honest, most of them were so basic! I couldn't find anything that I liked. Some of them only had 3-4 colours or looked like something a 5 year old designed. The I found the one pictured above from Herrschners, it was perfect! It was Halloweeny and had enough definition to keep me interested :)

The evening I finished my Christmas one, I was wondering how long until my new one would arrive as I couldn't wait to get started on it lol Guess what? It arrived the next day! Woo Hoo!!

Holey Moley! It's big! On the rug description the size says 69 x 102 cm. That's the finished size, the actual canvas is massive! I started it yesterday and trying to sit on the lounge with it in my lap was an art-form lol  

This kit really is one for the latch hooking adults, I was so impressed with this kit when I opened it up. It came in a clear zip up carry bag, all of the yarn is already separated and in their own little baggies and labeled by colour and yarn dye number! This was one thing I was dreading when I ordered it! I just thought "Oh..... Going through all those colours and separating them is going to take me all day!" The other thing is that the yarn is sooo soft!! Both kits use acrylic yarn, however the Christmas latch hook kit yarn was very cheap feeling. The yarn in this kit, almost feels like real wool. I think due to the size of this kit and the awkwardness of sitting on the lounge with it, it's going to take me a little while to finish lol

I finally picked up the missing wheels for Tango's second cage, so I will put that together at some point - maybe next week if I get a chance. I can't wait to see his reaction as to why he has two cages lol I'll have to post a photo of him checking out his new digs lol 

Anyway, I'll be off! Wish me luck in selling this business!       

We Always Want What We Can't Have

About a month ago we went out with some friends for a day of kayaking and laser tag. While we were waiting for our guide/instructor I noticed a small room and so of course I had to poke my head in lol The room only had a coke machine and fireplace. . . . I've lived in houses with fireplaces and the size of them generally reflects the size of the room that needs to be heated. Well this fireplace was waaaay toooo big for such a small room!

It was so big I had to take a photo lol, then it got me thinking.... When I was a kid I preferred the American TV shows to the Australian ones. I loved everything about them, I loved that they celebrated Halloween and we didn't, I loved their houses so much! I loved that they had attics and basements and we didn't. I loved their fireplaces, they seemed so ornate and were built as a feature, not just something to serve a purpose. In the houses I've lived in that had fireplaces, they were so dull and boring - seriously! No thought had ever gone into the actual presentation of how it looked. It was almost like the house plans had 'fireplace marked on the plans' so the builders just whacked one up.

If you google American fireplaces, OMG. Some of them are pure works of art. Some are so fancy you wouldn't want to burn anything in them. This is one I found that kind of looked like the ones I saw in TV shows as a kid, nothing too fancy - but they were so much nicer than the ones built here.

Then just the other week my sister and I were talking about American homes, and she commented that we should be making better use of our land i.e basements and attics, I agreed. A few years back I did some research online trying to find out why Australian homes didn't have basements. Now I'm not a geologist lol but the information that I found basically stated that the ground water level in Australia is too high for us to have basements. That no amount of waterproofing would prevent water constantly seeping into the area. This made sense.... Case closed. 

So why don't we have attics? Have you ever been in the roof of an Australian house? I have lol This pic above is the roof framework, now there is no squeezing an attic in there. We have rather low roofs here, I don't know why, we just do. I have crawled around in the roof of a number of homes and you literally have to wriggle around like a worm to get between the beams, wiring, insulation etc.

There's a suburb about 50 mins from where we live and one day when my wife was driving I got to have a good look around and I saw that a number of homes in this area had attics! None of these homes were new or clustered together, which may suggest the same developer built them all. So straight away I was like "I want to move here! These houses have attics!" lol. 

So like the title says:- We always want what we can't have lol

Anyway, here's another pic of my progress on my Tribal Cat cross stitch. Can you see the sugar skull magnetic needle holder in the corner? My sister sent my wife and I one each in the mail the other day :) We had no idea that she had done this, so it was a huge surprise and we both love the choices she made :)    

Clean Garages and Disco Inferno

Okay, I'm confessing that I haven't completed the painting that I said I would in my last post. I've patched and sanded, so that's one thing right...? In all fairness, my wife and I have been busy doing other things, which I will leave for another blog post and it has kept us busy. So I am banking on finishing the painting next week, fingers crossed, because believe me when I say, that I do want it done!!!!!

Photo bombed by Bob the dog!

I am happy about one thing! My garage is now clean and tidy!! We put a load of junk out for council collection and I can now move around in the garage without becoming lost or dying under an avalanche of junk. My work table is under the window, and a friend of mine who also likes ceramics as a hobby, comes around and she uses the table in the middle of the garage. Given that it's a trestle table, I used to fold it up and un-fold it when I knew she was coming around, but now I just leave it there. It's a good large space to unpack new stock when I get it.

You wouldn't believe it, after I put the junk out for collection.... I found some more stuff that could also go. So we're going to book another collection for next week. Those items on the table are just a couple of the bits that I found when I was cleaning. Just when you think you've gotten to the bottom of the clutter, you find some more hiding lol

Anyway onto another topic lol Last night I was watching a show and whenever they cut to a commercial they play some random song.... So last night they played The Trammps - Disco Inferno (Burn Baby Burn). It gave me a great idea! I didn't know who sung this song, so of course I Googled it lol You see every year that I have a Halloween party, it's themed.... The last one I had was a murder mystery party where everyone had a role to play and the theme was Zombie Town. It was a hoot!! 

So even though I didn't have a party this year, I still had no idea what kind of theme I would have for next year... Then I heard this song and I thought "Disco Inferno - Burn Baby Burn - Wow! A perfect theme!!" A Halloween party for disco zombies and ghouls!! I watched the above youtube clip and I had images of zombies with afros, bell bottoms and platform shoes! lol I can't wait for Halloween next year!! I've already planned what I'm going to wear lol Yes, I know... What can I say? I'm a sad case :o)

No Halloween For Me This Year :o(

This is just a bit of a mish mash of a blog post. As not much has been happening around here of late for two reasons, the first being that I'm on cloud nine from my pain killers, and the second because my wife is working night shift, so she's asleep during the day.

Yesterday my sister got a really cool Halloween cup from Woolworths (An Australian supermarket chain) so I thought I'd duck up to our local Woolworths this morning before my pills kicked in, which would make driving a little dangerous.... Of course they didn't have any of those cups.... What a bummer! They had hardly any Halloween stock at all, it was mostly Christmas stock. I did however pick up this cute little Jack-o-lantern full of gummy body parts lol. :o)

Today's purchase

Every year I have a Halloween party, except I'm not having one this year :o( I have too many dental appointments in October and they will probably stretch into November, and I just know that I wont be in the mood to have a bunch of people over. So I'll just have to have a killer Halloween party next year to make up for it lol Halloween is my favourite time of year, I love it more than Christmas, so for me to decide to cancel Halloween is a big deal.

A photo from our last party

It takes me about two weeks to decorate our house for Halloween lol I don't just decorate the house, but I also build a graveyard - complete with a smoke machine in the garage lol I also buy new props and decorations every year, which I shouldn't - because half of my garage is already full of tubs and boxes of Halloween decorations.

Some graves and a coffin in the garage

I just can't help myself! I see something new or impressive and I just have to add it to my collection lol. It's always funny when we have a tradesman come around or pest control guy, and they see this great big coffin standing upright in the garage lol

Hanging screamer

The little guy above was one of my best buys for our last party!! I hung him just inside the bathroom.... He's motion activated, so when someone opened the bathroom door he would start screaming, his eyes flashed red and he would start thrashing about. It was hilarious! I couldn't wait for people to go the bathroom lol

Anyway, I guess the upside to not having a Halloween party this year is that, I'll have a bit more room in my garage for another year lol If you are having a Halloween party I'd love to hear about it!

10 Day You Challenge - Day Eight - Three Films

Day Eight - Three Films

Okay, I'm going to cheat once again lol Hey! it's my blog and I'll cheat if I want too! lol :o) I have way too many favourite movies, so I'm going with favourite film genres.

1. Horror - I'm a Halloween freak and I love nothing more than scaring the crap out of myself. Having said this, I don't know that if now that I'm older I don't scare as easily, or if the horror movies of today are just more gore, rather than plain old fashioned horror. To me so many movies today just insert so much unnecessary blood and guts.... Blood and guts doesn't equal horror.... It's just blood and guts, if I want to see this I can watch a medical drama. One movie in particular that gave me chills, was The Stranger. It's based on a true story surrounding a series of events that happen to a young couple..... The last couple of lines in the movie explain the entire story, and that's when you'll be sitting there in complete shock!!! 

2. Comedy - I love comedy... Except Australian comedy. Australian comedy is embarrassing, and portrays us as a bunch of backward, beer drinking, old Holden driving, hicks who have murdered the English language.... Don't get me started! I would have to say that Irish and English comedy, is my favourite. I re-watched The Snapper only last week, and it makes me laugh every time! There are so many brilliant quotes in the movie! :o)

3. Documentary/True stories - I really like documentaries/true stories. I tend to watch the ones produced by the BBC, as they have created some brilliant, high quality titles. I have watched a lot of them over the years, and I have also learnt a lot from watching them. They're great if you're in one of those moods, where you just don't feel like getting all that involved in the lives of characters. I think the last one I watched was on the History channel, and it was called Life After People. It was quite amazing to look at what would happen to our pets, our homes and our general surroundings, should we disappear.