I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!



Hi! The snow storm raged...but then it was gone, now the beach is just expecting early frost on the pumpkins. Brrr! instead of Boo!



Some fun stuff from around my little beach cottage...
Hearts of course!



A spooky greeting...


and more beach weeds...



My best cheddar quilt!


Bowls of pumpkins...



large.....




small.....



And stripey!
This one's from a favorite vendor at my farmers market. I just loved the yellow and orange  stripes, the wartiness, the red and green "freckles"...I try to find a unique pumpkin every year.


He's gonna stay for Thanksgiving, not be a jack o'lantern...


This is a new folkart piece I've been working on for---years! He's a bobble doll, a nodder. The spring and base are beachcombed finds...

 .

...and here's an old favorite, made when my kids were very small. (their papier mache ''jacks'' ---uh---didn't survive!)...




Happy Halloween!




love

             lizzy

              gone to the beach!




Friday, October 28, 2011

The Great Candy Corn Debate?





Trick or treat!
We're gonna have snow? Is this a trick? 
(more on Halloween snow in a moment) but first...



Candy corn! This post was inspired by a blog on etsy. The esty blogger wrote about how much she hated candy candy corn as a child.


Who knew? I adore candy corn...though I've never offered it as treat for my ghosties and goblins who come to my door. (I tend to go with Reese's and Hershey bars, I just leave them in a basket tied to my doorknob: "Have some goodies" ---I've never quite figured out local T & T customs, the children may come any day, any time!)


But I always buy candy corn. It's so cute, so Halloween perfect.


I love to fill a few old mason jars with its festive happy glow...


It never occurred to me to choose sides, lol. When I was a child my mom was very much into healthy eating. No candy ever in our house,and cake only at birthdays (and my dad was capable of serving only half a cake! and freezing the rest for another birthday, later in the year.).


So I was beyond ecstatic to get that pillowcase full of candy each October. I pretty much liked any candy, as long as it wasn't licorice...


Candy corn was a definite fav, right there with the Reese's Cups and Necco wafers.


I also always loved the candy apples, caramel apples, popcorn balls and Rice Krispy Treats that some moms made for the neighborhood kids.I thought making the treats was sooo cool. (It was considered okay to take such treats from moms we knew.) My own mom was like: You gotta be kidding me! No way!
Oddly my children don't like candy at all...must be genetic, via my mom?


Now back to the Halloween snow! How is that possible? I had to go out tonight and bring in my palm trees off my deck. Okay, I thought : "frost"...never imagining.

I remember one snowy Halloween when I was about five. This was back in the Midwest, where it gets colder earlier, but still.
I was Tinkerbell!
 I was adorable.
My mom made me a tiny green leafy dress about the size of a swimsuit. I had glitter green little shoes with pompoms and bells...and a hilarious (I realise now) mask with the face of Disney's Tinkerbell, including a brown rubber topknot, like Tink's hair! Oh and---I'm sure I remember correctly---palest green gossamer wings! And yes! A wand! Fairy dust! I believe!

Well it snowed...a lot! Heavy slushy frigid deep October Midwestern snow. I had to wear snow pants under my mini dress, a puffer parka and snow boots. The wings, mask and litle green slippers stayed home.

I'll never forget the disappointment.

The candy corn helped...maybe a little...


So tell me: What was your favorite Halloween treat? Most hated?  And best costume?
(And psst! Did you do tricks? Like, uh, soaped car windows, rang doorbells, or what?)




love

     lizzy

gone to the beach....



Here's the link to the etsy blog: The Candy Corn Debate


And for the doggy lovers out there, especially lovers of pugs, you must look at this etsy shop here...you'll laugh, I promise. Pugs rule! Perfect litle goblins!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Fall Flea Market

What a gorgeous perfect day!
Sunday was just what a person pictures in a fantasy of flea market fun---sunny, crisp, brisk breeze. Abig cheerful crowd.
And well, yes, somewhat surly dealers packing up early despite the happy throngs offering money and smiles.


You'll look at my treasures and think, Same old, same old...I guess I like what I like.
A fun rusty tin primitive scoop for my autumn bowl of woodland-y pods and berries.




I'd prefer  rosehips, but I haven't had time to order from my Cape Cod vendor of lavender and other dried botanicals...


The inspiration gathering had a grungy flicker candle too and maybe something else. I can never quite achieve what my favorite eBay seller, Michelle at Oldefarmhousesimples does in her Maine home...here


Then, I got some crystals...


One of these rainy days I'll sit down with my silver wire and my rusty hooks and make a big batch of Christmas icicles for my etsy shop...

These were unusual...love the round drops, they're for my old bottles on my window sill. They'll cast tiny rainbows for me all winter. (They can't cause a fire, can they? You know, like "earth science 101 in Middle school", start a fire with a magnifier thing? Are they safe? Anyone know?)...And the unusal smooth oval lozenges will have collages of old photographs perhaps.


And this star! Beautiful...all are heavy old lead crystal from dismantled chandeliers.



I must take a second to point out the linen backdrop in my photos. This is a homespun towel gifted to me by one of my etsy customers! So generous. She thought for my lavender hearts...but maybe it's too nice to chop up? It shold be a throw pillow? Look at the careful, wonderful old buttons/ buttonholes.


And what's a flea market day without a box of buttons!?



I love the old green box, looked like a bandbox type of paper, though it certainly has a prominent mid-2oth century Made in China label. I'm seeing it filled with greens at Christmas or as a stand for a Santa figure...


The buttons have great potential, though I didn't sort or wash them yet...


Lovely old carved mother of pearls (which I keep for  myself!)...And an interesting finely crocheted covered button, a fancy floral too...


Neat art deco..




fun "Peggy" pastels, maybe 1940s?


And the real reason I bought the box: it had all these lovely little spools of 100% cotton thread.


Has anyone noticed how truly ghastly the sewing thread we buy is nowadays? So thin and icky and polyester, yuck. So I was hoping. I think though they are too deteriortaed, the old cotton has "crashed"/ rotted.


Last, I bought an exceptional linen tablecloth....I'll post it separately.  I'm still researching it.

so...more soon!

love

   lizzy

             gone to the beach..............

Saturday, October 22, 2011

October Sunsets



Autumn sunsets...

                


I think if, like Snow White, someone woke up on the beach after months of sleeping, they'd immediately know it is October.


The sun sets far south, beyond New Jersey...



.... off towards the big tanker ships.


But it's the light that tells me it's autumn.



The oranges, the purple, the black streaks on a turquoise sky.


No longer the soft pink glow of spring and summer or the cold yellow of winter...


These are Halloween banners, trailing gleefully across my sky.


I love to walk on the beach at sunset...earlier each day...but still perfect.


self portrait7: shorts, October

 love

           lizzy


gone to the beach