Happy Halloween

More shadow shots at Hey Harriet

~~~~~

When people resemble their pets.....

Halloween

'Tis now the very witching time of night,

When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out

Contagion to this world."

~William Shakespeare

Halloween 1971

Cherelle, Chantele, Cherise & Charmaine

Done!

I'm turning in my elf hat...

We finished decorating Santa Land....whew! 

 

The antique Russian sleigh is for sale, by the way.  

Contact Scott Brown for more information.  

(thanks for the loan Scott!)

Martha: exhaustion has set in!

The other hat

One of the hats I wear is Co-President of our local Garden Club. Every year, our club donates a decorated Christmas tree to raise money for Hospice. I was asked to design the tree this year. I said I would do it, if I could design it using recycled, upcycled ornaments....to prove that one doesn't have to buy new. 

With a theme of Garden Memories in mind, I've been on the hunt for vintage costume jewelry insect pins.  We attached them to recycled coiled copper wire to look as if the bugs are flying off the branches.

We had a work party at my house with us all bringing loose beads and wire that we had on hand to create these dragonflies...

and scraps of fabric to make fabric flowers...

A few more ideas are in the works....

I think this will be a beautiful tree!

Brom Bones

"A pleasing land of drowsy head it was,

Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye;

And of gay castles in the clouds that pass,

Forever flushing round a summer sky."

~ Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Mannequin & horse from Obsolete

I'm decorating Santa Land, but thinking All Hallow's Eve...

Elf update

Santa Land is slowly coming together. We've got a fabulous antique Russian sleigh on loan...now we're working on turning the inside of this bare commercial space into a winter wonderland worthy of such a piece.

Too bad the walls aren't finished...nothing like exposed insulation...

For those of you worried Christmas was coming too early, Santa won't be arriving until after Thanksgiving....this was the time available to decorate.

The Elf

Elf duty

I've got elf duty this week...

Photo: Martha Murray Design

I'm helping another designer turn an empty commercial space in Bend's Old Mill District into Santa Land...wish me luck!

Shadows in The City

Tree shadow

Looking back to Fisherman's Wharf

San Francisco, California

Hey Harriet's Shadow Shots

Grazie

I'm in San Francisco visiting my friends Teresa and Sue. I haven't seen either of them since our trip to Italy in May.

Sue, Teresa, Mary Ellen (and Coco) and Amee

Florence, Italy, May 2009

click image to enlarge

As a reminder of our trip, I had Debra Graham make a Lifescape, or word journey. Copies were made for my traveling companions and hostess. Now that the copies have been delivered, I'm sharing the Lifescape.

I adore it!

Thank you Debra....what a special momento.

Halloween decorating

Got your Halloween decorations up yet?

Charmaine, Cherelle, & Cherise

probably 1972

When I was little, my sisters and I would tape up Halloween prints on the inside of the front porch window.  Year after year....the same decorations. 

(If I were to decorate today, I would use a collection of these ornaments from A Dose of Alchemy....ghoulishly brilliant!)

Photo: A Dose of Alchemy

We would then sit on a newspaper lined kitchen floor and carve our pumpkins. Today, the smell of the inside of a pumpkin and its seeds is an instant sensory memory to those distant pre-Halloween preparations.

"The sense of smell can be extraordinarily evocative, bringing back pictures as sharp as photographs of scenes that had left the conscious mind."

~ Thalassa Cruso, To Everything There is a Season

Caramel apples

Autumn, to me, has always seemed the perfect time for a caramel apple.  (Here I am, oggling my sister Cherelle's....probably 1971.) Crisp apples picked fresh off the tree, the smell of caramel as it heats up, the sweet-tart first bite....

The soon-to-be defunct Gourmet magazine has a scrumptious red wine caramel apple recipe listed here.  Mmmm...

ArtPrize

Can art rejuvenate a town?

Yes.

A competition for $449,000 in prize money received over 1200 submissions and re-energized a region in one of the most depressed states in the union, Michigan.

Photo Lori Niedenfuer Cool for The Grand Rapids Press

After 330,000+ votes were cast, "Open Water, no. 24" was named the grand prize winner and $250,000.00 was awarded to the artist, Ran Ortner.

Click here to see other winning entries and read the article

"A generation raised without the awareness of the arts, without the opportunity to experience the arts themselves by making music, making drawings, making poems, is a disenfranchised one. Art is the essence of who we are and our society is strengthened whenever young people are given the opportunity to directly share this legacy."

~ Micheal Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony Music Director

Random

Came across this Polaroid yesterday. 

My bachelorette party at Darcelle's, April 1991.  

What a hoot!

Gallery piece

Mark finished his piece for an upcoming  

group show featuring Northwest blacksmiths.

Nifty, eh?

Twilight Artist Collective

4306 SW Alaska Street

Seattle, Washington

November 12th through December 4, 2009

New fave

I'm in serious lust with this wall color...

image from Flutter

Yolo's Dream .06

Makes an impact, doesn't it?

Photo: Douglas Adesko for NYT

Details

The Fun Theory

What if....

a flight of stairs was turned into piano keys?

The Fun Theory

click here to watch this short, brilliant video

Making things fun can change our behavior!

Thanks for the link Martha!

Social

I hosted a Chamber of Commerce social tonight at our house. 

I always forget how long it actually takes to prepare food and clean house. Where's the maid and caterer when you need them?

Hot apple cider and autumnal decor...

Basket of fall goodies for one lucky attendee...

Full house!

I need to entertain more!

What's your dream job?

I'd take this one: Keith Johnson, buyer for Anthropologie, 

travels the globe in search of treasures for this hip store.

Photo credit: William Waldron for Elle Decor

Recent trips include 

the Netherlands, France, Turkey and South Africa.  

Sign me up!

“Find a calling you love and you will never work a day in your life.” 

~ Confucius

Click here for images of Johnson's New York apartment

Leonardo

A forensic expert has recently identified a finger print on the canvas of "La Bella Principessa" as belonging to none other than Leonardo da Vinci.

Which makes this painting, purchased in 1997 for $19,000 now worth an estimated $150 million.

 

How's that for art investment?

Delight

The first snow of the season.

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world & wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?" 

~ J. B. Priestley

Repurposed Linen Closet

In order to use this small space to its best advantage,  a custom linen closet was added to the narrow hallway. Vintage drawers and a cabinet door were found at Aurora Mills Architectural Salvage. The wood and stain matched perfectly; all that needed to be done was trim the sides of the door to fit the width of the drawers, then build it into the wall and line the cabinet with tongue and groove cedar. 

Mark's shop

Last winter, the blacksmith shop was a little too cold to work in, even with the forge running constantly. Mark decided to build a wood stove for supplemental heat. Most people buy, Mark builds.

In progress...

with decorative details.

He's currently working on a wall sculpture 

for a gallery show in Washington...

details are vague, but I see textured lattice being formed

and leaves

and flowers being forged...

this is going to be cool!

Random shots from the shop