A Haunted Halloween

I'm late for a date with the imaginative Vanessa, who weaves tales of magic and wonder over at A Fanciful Twist. But, shall I call it late or simply extending the party weekend even closer to our beloved Hallowe'en?

I'll go with party extension. ;) Thank you for visiting my haunted soiree!

Enter through the corridor,
of orange and black,
past those who've gone to Nevermore,
and never shall come back.



In to the place where skeletons play,
where Witches gather,
to put you under their spell,
where lovers endlessly dance and sway.





Follow the Trick or Treater,
down the Pumpkin Lit Path,
Past skull and raven alike,
Careful to mind the webs,
and avoid the spider's wrath!





There you'll find the vampires' home,
fret not for they won't bite you!
The table's set with treats galore,
lit up by a captured boo!





We hope that you've enjoyed your feast,
and your visit to our home,
Now set your feet on the path back out,
but turn 'round you must not,
For the dead are always looking for someone to join them in the gloam.

Puttering and Decorating

It's been a wee bit since I last posted any photos of stuff around the house, aside from the laundry renovation anyways. Since I've been puttering about, doing my Autumn cleaning (is anyone else more of an Autumn cleaner than a Spring cleaner?) and starting to set out some of my Autumn decorations I figured I'd snap some pictures to share.

Come in, come in! Just around the pumpkin flag and up the driveway. Since the beginning of Summer, I've had the urge to tuck decorations in to the garden, something I never thought I would do. But as it turns out, I am indeed my Mother's daughter and so there is now a flag, some solar lights, a gnome and a few other odds and ends sprinkled throughout the grounds.

In to the living room you'll go, just beyond the front door with it's grapevine wreath and evil eye charms. Don't mind the big white mess on the hallway wall, that's where I fling paint on my BIG paintings! My studio, alas, isn't a good place to hang the boards due to its' decorative chair rail, but it's all good as I can paint and spend time with my love as he plays banjo, watches TV or plays games from the comfort of our first brand new furniture purchase... the sectional!

Mind the bookcases as you come around, they're filled to capacity! We're in the process of planning and saving pennies for new, improved, huge ones; visions of glass doors and shabby chic distressing dance through my brain. *wistful sigh*

These two cheeky pocket Gods are busily fooling around with my ancient collection of leather bound classic pocketbooks. On another shelf, a hand painted potions book and the wand of Severus Snape sit amongst my first edition Harry Potter hardcovers. I own the whole series in trade paperback, but have been slowly acquiring the hardcovers from the local second hand shop as they come in. I'll try anything in paperback, but a book must be truly beloved for me to seek it out in hardcover.

Around the corner, atop the Curio cabinet that was passed down from my parents to me, you'll find the first gleanings of Hallowe'en fever! Most of these characters stay out all year long, though they are re-arranged and accompanied by other seasonal decor as the holidays and seasons change.

And at the front of the room, you'll find our wood burning fireplace and the mantel that holds my holiday displays! For Autumn, I've covered it in my pumpkin collection, I've bought a new one each year since Joe and I moved in together.

Ooops! We've interrupted Luna's beauty nap! Shh... quietly, in to the kitchen.

Not much has changed in the kitchen since my last tour of the house, but there are a few little changes and details I'm just dying to share! My best friend got a new dining room table and so we inherited his previous one, which is larger and sturdier than our old one was. I've bitten the bullet and done something else I never thought I would do and purchased seat cushions and placemats in complementary colors! Owning a home sure does bring out one's inner domestic, doesn't it??

In the center of the tables lives a collection of wee treasures: a pair of kitchen witches a friend was kind enough to swap for a print, a glass decanter set from the 1960's that I purchased at a steal at the flea market ($10! with all four glasses in perfect condition!), a small black enamel teapot that I can't use for tea as it's cracked (I keep trinkets in it), a vintage brown glass bottle with two metal roses (one copper, on stainless) that Joe gifted to me, a sweet robin and a raw amethyst. These will most likely change in and out periodically, but for right now I'm so in love with it!

And lastly, but certainly not least, I continued my quest to get rid of all the overbearing black dish ware, etc. in the kitchen and brighten it up to suit my current tastes. And so, a friend offered me some of her vintage mason jars and I jumped on them! Swapping out my large black canister set for the mason jars. It's funny, they take up more space on the counter, but it sure doesn't feel like it!

Little by little and bit by bit, our little cottage is becoming more and more homey. :)

Laundry Room Renovation

Now, when I say 'Laundry Room', I'm exaggerating slightly. You see, our space is really a laundry closet, but who calls it that? Regardless of what it's called and my dislike of doing the laundry aside, this space was pretty awful. Don't believe me? Let me show you!

See? Awful. Dingy white paint and one crummy wire shelf that was too narrow to store much on. As you can see, when storage space ran out, the washer and dryer tops became fair game. As someone who already isn't laundry's biggest fan, doing it in this space is just.. ugh. So I started saving pennies and planning how I'd like to re-do the space.

Knocking down walls to make it bigger wasn't an option, so I needed to work within the space I had. I decided on two sturdier, wider shelves, a bright color scheme and spacing the washer and dryer apart so I could fit a wastebasket for lint in there. It took 8 hours and cost me around $40 for the high quality shelving lumber, painter's tape, brackets and 4 sample sizes of paint for the walls. I could have gotten away with cheaper lumber, but decided that quality was important to me, so it won't bow as easily over the years.

Here are some process shots!

And for the big reveal! Behold, the fruit of our labor!

A stylish new space for me to do one of my least favorite chores! Joe is going to install an overhead light in there in the near future so it's brighter and easier to see things and maybe a small fold-down shelf on one of the side walls to fold laundry on. But for now, this space is the coolest space in my entire house.

Except maybe the bar. ;)

Work in Progress Wednesday - MMHQ

Mess Making Headquarters. Still in progress, but coming along nicely!

What have you got in the works this week?

Work in Progress Wednesday - The Spare Room

It's been a few hectic days around here. I've been itching to post something, but have either not had the time or have had the time but not the ideas or initiative. A testament to the fact that I'm not completely out of the funk I've been in yet. Soon! *fingers crossed*

Last night I was laid up with a random and vicious stomach problem, it came on out of nowhere as I was cooking dinner. There was a sharp pain and then I felt violently nauseous and remained that way throughout most of the night, falling asleep on the couch several times while Joe finished up dinner (which I was feeling far too wretched to eat) and worked a bit on our latest endeavor. This morning I woke up to a slightly squirrelly belly and a freshly painted craft room!

You see, my brother and his girlfriend (who have been staying with us while they looked for a place) found an apartment and moved out Friday afternoon leaving me with a large empty spare bedroom. Mind you, I've been coveting the space and biding my time since me moved in so it's no wonder that we moved them out Friday and were at the home improvement store the very next afternoon buying paint and lumber to rebuild the closet.

It's still in progress, but here are the before and after shots of the paint. It's now officially decked out in colours only a Danni could love:

Before:


After:

Soon I'll be moving my desk and all of my boxes of mess making supplies and art junk in there and really making it into my space. For the first time since we've lived on our own I'm being all weird about hanging things on the wall, I keep telling myself 'what if I hate it there? Then there will be a stupid hole in the wall that I'll want to fix, which means putty, sand, paint... repeat! Ugh!' I'm hoping since I'm usually incredibly liberal with my craft spaces and hang stuff all over the damn place that it will burst this weird bubble of decorating terror I've managed to get myself in to. *fingers crossed*

What have you guys been up to? I feel like it's been ages since I've been around, though it's only been a week or so!

One Month Later

We've been in the house for a few days over a month now and things are starting to calm down. Most of the packing is finished, I've got my desk and craft cabinet temporarily set up until my brother and his girlfriend move out in August and I can create my permanent craft space. The living room and kitchen have come together nicely and our bedroom is more or less settled, aside from the lone box of random junk that's residing there until I figure out where to put it.

The vegetable garden has been more of a tedious task then I had anticipated. You see, I'm one of those odd people that really doesn't mind weeding; to a point. I went to work on the raised beds two weeks ago, plucking the weeds out by the root and spent the entirety of a week doing so as there was nearly no visible soil beneath the weed cover. Over the weekend I went outside to turn the beds and lo, half of the weeds had resprouted!

I've begun the arduous task of plucking all of the little buggers out once more and intend to turn the beds to break up any lingering root systems. If anyone knows of any other chemical free ways to conquer them, let me know. I want to get my plants in the ground as soon as possible.

I've been thoroughly enjoying the yard, as has Joe when he isn't mowing it. He's cursed the grass for being so healthy several times and each time I tell him it's better to have grass that grows well then yellow and dying! I helped mow the lawn once but I left a few straggler pieces of long grass here and there, so now I'm off lawn duty. The man and his lawn induced pride. *sigh*

The search for a day job continues to frustrate me as a position I'd actually enjoy continues to elude me. I've interviewed a few times, but nothing has come of them. I'm trying not to let my spirits droop too low, but it's difficult. As much as I love being home, tending things and getting my art on, I'd prefer to have an income to help pay for the ridiculous cost of my car's transmission needing to be rebuilt and doctor's bills and to spend on things which are fun as well. I'll keep searching, applying and interviewing and keep my hopes up, but after 3 months of searching it's getting old.

In better news and for those curious, my eye appears to be doing better. The specialist I saw reassured me that no corneal transplant would be in my future unless my eye becomes scarred to the point where glasses can no longer correct my vision. She also answered a few of my questions regarding surgeries for my condition, no surgery including a transplant, is a guaranteed fix. She also informed me that despite my dislike of being medicated, I should get used to it at least until I'm old enough for my immune system to begin to slack off a bit. It turns out that when you have a strong immune system it over-compensates for the necessary healing after an outbreak, causing the scarring to be much worse. The medication lessens the chances of fresh outbreaks, which lessens the chances of permanent vision loss due to scarring. So for the time being, the pill taking will continue and my vision is nearly back to where it was previously. Hopefully I can avoid the doctor's office for another few months!

P.S. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend/Easter! We don't typically do anything to celebrate, aside from eat latkes which is a tradition Joe introduced me to, but the man did something silly yesterday morning and created an egg hunt for me in the yard. Here's my favorite find: