Welcome December and the Winter to Come!

A Happy Thanksgiving to All

Wishing one and all a day of peace, gratitude, health, love and

Thanksgiving shared with friends and family.

This was the center piece I made for our Thanksgiving table.

It was 75 degrees and we enjoyed our meal outside in the garden. Beautiful!

These scarlet leaves are from oak acorns that I planted myself. They

now share their beauty as a 23yr old tree. No sign of acorns yet...

perhaps one more Autumn will do it?

For now, enjoy the colors!

Kreative Blogger Award!

It's been a few weeks since receiving this delightful award and I wanted

to say Thank You SO much to Jodi Creager of http://www.creagerstudios.blogspot.com/  for

bestowing me the honour of this Kreative Blogger Award!

What a surprise, and especially coming from an artist of such skill and notoriety.

I'm overjoyed and humbled. Thank you ever so much! It's very much appreciated!

                    To address William Bezek's concerns about the award looking too Gingham, and
             hopefully to save him from further icky irksome regurgitation (as he puts it)...
          I've taken it upon myself to alter the design of the award a bit, for the Halloween set. I somewhat
            kept the bones of the original, trused the parson's nose, tweaked it here and there with
                           plenty of butter, moonlit sage, and a soupson of orange and black for flavor.

             In returning to the original legacy as proposed by the award originator, Hulda Husfruas
               of Norway, I would like to pass this award on to a most creative blogger who's writings
            and photography are always a joy and brighten the reviewers day. It is Gypsy Mare Studios
                                                 very own, Jennifer Macneill-Traylor!
                                                       http://www.gypsymare.blogspot.com/
                                                                 Also,
                    To the artists of Ehag! Who's amazing Halloween creations and blogs continue to inspire!
                                                      http://www.ehagartists.blogspot.com/
No rules, no expectations, simply please accept this award with the enthusiastic spirit in which it was given!
                                         Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

     

Idyllwild Carving

I've been watching the progress of this mammoth carving for the last couple of months,

up in Idyllwild, California,

by artist David Roy.

These native birds are behind the bear.

I suspect the leg in the Cougar's mouth is residual from Halloween.

This shot doesn't really give you the full impression as to the scale of this carving, but

I would guess it to be approximately 14 to 16ft or so high. The massive tree/carving is mounted on a wooden sled that I summize will make it easier to transport to it's final destination once completed. This project was commissioned as an

 Idyllwild Town Monument for the New Chamber of Commerce.

Tricks and Treats and Spookyness Galore...

Another Halloween has past... oh my gosh, where did the time go?!

We partook of wonderful homemade food and goodies, visited with friends and family

 and all in all had a swell time!

"Count Karlo's Pandemonium Side Show of the Mysterious" was a huge success, and the

Trick or Treaters were wide eyed with  amazement as they strolled through the old fashioned Victorian style

attractions set before them. One of the most popular was the Siamese Twin devil babies which occasionally let out sinister little laughing sounds, and the

Gypsy Goblin Fortune Teller'sCart amazed all with it's exotic allure and hypnotic ways.

Magical potions and mysterious ingredients from far off lands, sat about in bottles and jars

of every shape and size. Rare specemins of assorted creatures were on display, such as a mummified mermaid, and a genuine Unicorn skull that had been found deep in the forest by one of Count Karlo's horseman whilst exercising the Circus horses among the ferns and bracken.

The Great Houdini made an appearance, as did an abundance of spiders,

clattering bones, glowing and grinning pumpkins and a bearded goat named Flloyd.

Here is a portrait of the Count Karlo troop that greeted the Trick-or-Treating guests.

The old wizard in front is our neighbor Brandon Bain, his Mom, Marilou Bain is the witch

on the left, my Mom, Madge Decker is the grinning witch on the right, and that's me, Deb as

the Gypsy Goblin, Count Karlo.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped make the Side Show a success, especially my step-dad, Larry Decker (who, like most stage hands, prefered to stay behind the scenes) for the special effects (a very cool and boogery changing portrait), sound effects (he revived the circus music that almost wasn't because Poltergeists had suddenly taken over my computer and refused open the E-Drive DVD tray!), and stage crew construction (a little more to the right... no higher.. now a bit to the left! Ha Cha!).

Thank You everyone and we'll see you next year!