Spookies and gobblins

HAPPY HALLOWEEN to those of my fellow bloggers that celebrate the spookiness of All Hallows Eve.

I have a arsenal of sweet treats for the goblins and ghosts should they tap on my door and try to scare me. I like to think I'm one of the "cool" neighbors; buying lots of the full sized treats to hand out. I'm lucky because we live in a pretty rural area so I can get away with doing that.

Wanted to share a couple of pictures from the Halloween Gala that I attended last weekend. The event was a success for our Arts Alliance, there was fun had by all and there were so many creative costumes! Yes, that's me....the dead beekeeper! ;)

We also had a tricky tray and I was asked to do a "painting", I did a vampire Mona Lisa. I forgot to take a picture of it individually but you can see it in the "gallery" we had set up.

THANK YOU again to everyone for continuing to drop by and say hi. I really am having serious withdrawals from posting. I managed to sneak on a couple of times yesterday to pop in and say hi to a few. I am missing so much! When I visit your threads there is so much to catch up on! I am hoping to be able to visit with everyone as soon as possible.

I hope everyone has a safe Halloween and don't eat too much candy.

Trying to find that groove.....

Looks like I have still NOT found that "groove" yet with my work schedule, now that I work ten hour days, it seems tougher to get to the computer, so my posts have been so sporadic.

Has anyone else been hearing the news on the staph and MRSA scares? It really hit home for me this week. Back in September I mentioned how I had got bit by a spider and posted some pictures, well a couple weeks ago I got another one on my side and before that one had completely healed a few days I got another one! I realized they were probably not spider bites. I was feverish and had flu-like symptoms with them, they eventually break and the pus drains. I found out that I have (had) a staph infection, this recent one sent me to the emergency room in the middle of the night. Thankfully my Doctor I saw today diagnosed me properly and I am getting treated. I heard that many people are mistaking the staph for spider bites, so all I can say is be careful! If you are not sure, go to the Doctor asap.

Some exciting news for me; after getting some excellent advice from Jen R. at Sanctuary Arts at Home (go visit her site, she is SO talented) and from lovely Karla at Karla's Cottage I decided to pound the pavement offering my faux services to businesses in my area, on my first try I got a bite!! I have a job lined up in the next couple of weeks with a salon that is turning their downstairs into a spa, one big area and three small ones to showcase my work in. I love how blogging not only connects you with friends and family, but connects you in a business sense too, allowing you to "pick the brains" of some of the most talented people around the World. I have been able to get more help from my blogging friends than I ever have from anyone I have asked advice from in "real life". Thank you so much ladies.

Tomorrow I am attending a Halloween Gala that our Arts Alliance is putting on. I finally decided, with the help of my hubby, to go as a bee keeper! No brainer huh? But not just any bee keeper, a bee keeper that died from anaphylactic shock! I'm going to make bee stings and welts all over my face. I will try to remember pictures, ah.... no, wait! that's like asking a firefighter to remember their gear, this girl never goes anywhere without her camera! :)

Now I must get around to see everyone, I have missed everyone all week! Thank you all for coming by here and dropping me a note, it lifts my spirits so much.

A gorgeous Sunday in NE PA

WOW it's been almost an entire week since I posted! My goodness, I didn't plan on that. I had tried to make the rounds to everyone and haven't succeeded at that yet and my posting has suffered as well.

Today was such a beautiful day that I decided to take some pictures around my area, I even took a picture of the digital clock at a local business that has the temperature as well. Don't know if you can read that but it says 79 degrees! On Oct. 21 it got up to about 80, in Northeast PA. That's just crazy!

I went for a little ride to take some pictures of the foliage but I think that the rain we had the other day pretty much knocked the rest of the leaves off and we are done for the season. It's still pretty beautiful though, not as nice as my Vermont but close. ;)

When I got home I took some pictures around the property, the leaves still seem to be glowing on the trees. The sunlight was coming through and this shot was just perfect.

The leaves that are all over the ground in the front garden, I almost don't want to pick them up because they make the ground glow with a golden light.

The front porch is starting to look a little spooky, gotta dress it up a bit more, just haven't had the time.

I took Marley out on the back property, she loves to play in the stream.

Winston was waiting for us when we came back.

Olivia doing yoga on the porch....downward dog position

I was also able to get into my art room and work on some pieces, they're small 1x1's I have to solder them but I'm waiting for a few more supplies to come before I get to that, so I decided to just churn those out and then solder them all later. I manged to even get a Christmas one done.

I want to thank everyone for all the helpful hints and great advice on my living room. I have had that furniture in every possible corner and angle in that small little room. I usually move it to this position in the Fall/Winter because of the heating vents, so I'm not blocking all of them. I also change the curtains from Rachael Ashwell's Shabby Chic ruffled Voile paired with British Rose panels. I also slipcover the sofa in the British Rose pattern. In the Fall I like the reds and the velvets. I got some great advice and I am going to put it to work. :) Now if I could just get that sofa.......

New Job & Living Room Critique.....

Today was my first day on my new job, well actually it's the same job just working for a different agency and county. Quite beautiful because I am doing the same thing, I didn't have to learn a new job with new rules and regulations. My co-workers in the office seem really nice and they are all dog lovers, so I am in heaven.

My only complaint is that I cannot visit all my favorite blogs throughout the day. I have to learn the ropes and figure out what I can and cannot do, so please forgive me if I haven't commented in awhile, I haven't forgotten about anyone I just have to visit a few each evening. I also work 10 hour days now because I have Fridays off. My play time has been cut down.

I did manage to take some pictures of my living room this weekend, you can see just how TINY it is, it's the original part of the house (107 yrs) you see how big my furniture is. What I want is a smaller couch with English arms, like this one from LEE FURNITURE I know it will open the area up so much, I love my over sized couch and chair now but I need a much bigger house for it.

I haven't gotten around painting anything in the room yet, I am planning on painting all the molding and trim the Swiss Coffee like I did in the kitchen. We are also going to be opening up the ceiling to expose the beams and give us a few more inches as of right now both my husband and I can place our palms on the ceiling! *I'm 5'10" and he's 6' * Very low ceilings.

I'd love to hear any comments or suggestions on what YOU would do to the space, there are so many talented decorator bloggers out there, I'd love to hear from you. All comments are welcome :)

Oh and WHAT'S UP with VICTORIA magazine??? I see people are getting it in the mail! HUH?? I missed the memo on getting a subscription. I've been looking for it on stands and can't find it. Can you help a sister out???

Smile and the whole world smiles with you...

Lovely Penny over at Lavender Hill Studio honored me with the wonderful "You Make Me Smile" award. There are so many yummy blogs out there that make me smile, it seems that I find a new one to add to my blog desserts each day! My messy house and unfinished projects are a testament to that fact. I love how these blogs get me excited to see what kind of eye candy that I get to fill up on each time I visit. I can only hope that people get that little bit of spark when they visit here.

There are so many people that make me smile each day and I have seen that the award has gone around the past few days and many of the same people that are on my list are also on yours, so we are all in good company.

I guess the rules are to pass the award to ten people. The lovely ladies (why are there hardly any men bloggers around here?) I have chosen:

~Julie over at Nunnies Attic she has especially made me smile lately with her talk of Christmas and her Christmas music playing.

~Esther over at Esther Sunday she cracks me *and everyone else* up with her hilarious stories and the picture of her reminding herself to open the garage door before she backs out, is great!

~Rhonda at Farmhouse Style she is making me smile with her cleaning tips because I am living vicariously through her. My house is so NOT clean right now! *le sigh*

~Shelly over at the Pink Barn her polka dotted pumpkin she gave away *Dena at Swaddle Cottage won* is enough to make anyone smile.

~Shelley at Artsy Etc. she is a wonderful artist and her art makes me smile.

~Melissa at The Inspired Room, just look at those beautiful decorating pictures and most recently those swings.

~Michelle at Back Through Time her vintage style and charm makes me smile.

~Sophie at Sophie's Honeysuckle, omgosh when you see pictures of her home you will smile and when you read the stories about her cat spider in a frying pan you will laugh your butt off!

~Nin over at Peachyhollow what a unbelievable photographer she is! Plus she makes a really good pink polka dotted parchment filled cake! ;)

~Rebecca the Cre8Tiva Diva she makes me smile and believe that I can follow my passion and be successful.

Thank you ladies for bringing a smile to my face and inspiration to my heart every day I visit you. There are so many more out there that do the same, I thank all of you and consider yourself given the "You Make Me Smile" award.

12 OF 12 OCTOBER

Even though this has been a rough week I couldn't miss my 12 of 12 the project that is the brain child of Chad Darnell. It's simple take 12 picture in the day of your life on the 12th day of every month. It's getting close to my one year anniversary that I have been doing this project and I look forward to each month.

I'm really glad I did this month's, it allowed me to focus on some fun stuff.

First up a great house decorated for the fall, look at the flowers still in bloom

A great antique/junk/architectural salvage shop look at all those treasures

More at the junk shop....

LOOK what came for me in the mail today, well actually a few days ago, but I was gone so I got to open it today! It's from Andrea Singarella over at One Hundred Wishes she also has a blog; Seeking Everyday Beauty & Velvet Strawberries Opening the package was like a special event, it was so great. I had ordered German glass glitter and glue sticks that smell like almonds! Mmmmm I almost reverted back to Kindergarten and ATE IT! Look how everything is wrapped and look Andrea put a special bubble gum lollipop in there for me. THANKS Andrea!

Two chicken friends, we're hoping to have chickens again in the spring. We started working on the coop today.

Some of my decorations out front

Last month's 12 I showed the Rouge vegetable plant that got mixed in with my perennials somehow with plants someone gave me. Well THIS is what that plant produced, they are winter squash, right?

OK, we did a "practice run" for Halloween outfits tonight. Marley is going to be the princess this year

Olivia is usually the princess but this year I think she will be the devil

Winston is going to be the wizard but he isn't to thrilled about it

One of my Halloween pieces: "Boo"

EDIT: I thought I put in my 12! THIS is number 12; 2 pugs I saw in a car this afternoon, aren't they adorable?

Alright, I SWEAR this is the last edit! I didn't realize there was a bonus this month. The bonus is ORANGE that is my FAVORITE color so I had to come back and put a picture in. This is the mantle of my friend Mary Anne

Thanks for stopping by to see my 12's this month, tomorrow I have an award to pick up thank you Penny so much for that.

THANK YOU

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers for my family and myself. It is so comforting to know I have so many friends here in blog land and in cyberspace. I value my friendships with each and every person, you have all touched my heart.

There is an investigation being conducted and my family has retained a medical malpractice lawyer. My Grandmother went into the hospital to be treated for pneumonia and six days later died from severed head trauma. The hospital is not giving the family straight answers and there are major holes in their stories, it's very shocking and heartbreaking. Hopefully we will eventually get some closure. My Grandmother did not deserve to die on a hospital room floor bleeding, unchecked for five hours because someone was not doing their job.

Thank you all again

Going home.....

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers. This morning the Doctors took my Grandmother off the respirator and she quietly left this earth. I knew this morning before anyone called because I woke up at 4:30 and I couldn't go back to sleep

I will probably be gone for a few days, I will be heading home to my lovely Vermont to say goodbye to my Gram.

Thank you all again for taking time out of your day for the thoughts, prayers and your kind words.

Asking for prayers, good thoughts and healing energy

I was hoping I could ask for some prayers, thoughts and good energy tonight. I found out my Grandma is in a coma right now and it doesn't look good. Details are sketchy and are possibly criminal, she has bleeding on her brain and as of right now they are considering her "brain dead".

This is a total shock for all of us because she was ready to move into a Senior citizen's apartment. Within the span of a few hours she supposedly fell and bumped her head. She had been in the hospital for a chest cold/infection, now they will be removing her respirator tomorrow morning if there are no signs of improvement.

My Grandma's name is Rena and I would really appreciate any thoughts or prayers sent her way.

HONEY HARVEST 2007

WOW! It certainly was a long day today, the entire day spent extracting and bottling honey. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day though it was really warm so the honey "flow" was great, ran really quick and smooth.

Because I don't have all the equipment I need to extract two of my fellow beekeepers brought their equipment over and helped me with the entire process. I took pictures and I will put a little glossary of terms at the bottom, in case you have questions about terminology. ;)

Last night I had to remove the *frames I would be *extracting honey from today, letting them sit in the house overnight would give them a chance to get warm so that the honey would be thinner and flow better. THIS was the difficult part the bees had worked so hard that they made *comb on the *comb foundations between 2 *supers so they were just like being cemented together. It took alot of pulling pushing and wiggling to get the *frames out of there. Once I got all of them out I put them into a storage bin with a cover to sit for the night. Getting the bin into the house without all the bees following me was tricky too plus it must have weighed about sixty pounds!

This morning when my fellow beekeepers got here we set up shop for the day, of course the *honey extractor was the most important but the first thing we needed to do was uncap the honey to do this you use a *uncapping knife that heats up as you run it down the *comb it takes the "cap" or the top layers of wax of so the honey will come out.

Next we put 4 frames in the extractor at once. Because I am just a hobbyist we only needed a small hand cranked extractor so we took turns cranking it. As the extractor spins the centrifugal force pulls the honey out of the comb where it all collects in the bottom of the extractor

Once all the comb forms are spun we can pour that honey into a separator or a colander, in here the honey will separate from the wax

Even though it was quite warm, the honey is still thick and it takes quite awhile to run through the strainers. Much of the time was spent sitting and waiting for the honey to run it's course but once it did I was rewarded with beautiful, yummy honey. I think I tasted more than I should have because I have been in a sugar coma for most of the evening! My yield for 10 frames was about 3 gallons, it was about 50 lbs! I realized as I was putting the honey into jars that I didn't have enough so I had to run to the store to pick up some more canning jars, a 1 gallon container and 2 half gallon containers. As you can see my yield was pretty nice.

Now I have just the wax left to take care of, right now it is on my stove in a strainer over VERY LOW heat, slowly melting. That honey is not as pure as the honey I bottled so it will be used for things like baking. I am hoping I will be able to use the *beeswax for some of my art.

Well, like I said it was quite a day. I am so thankful I got as much honey as I did. Not bad for my first harvest. Now I am off to bed since I can barley hold my eyes open to type this.

Have a great night!

*muah*

GLOSSARY

*Frame - four pieces of wood designed to hold honey comb, consisting of a top bar, a bottom bar, and two end bars.

*Extracted honey - honey removed from the comb by centrifugal force.

*Comb - a mass of six-sided cells made by honey bees in which brood is reared and honey and pollen are stored; composed of two layers united at their bases.

*Comb foundation - a commercially made struc ture consisting of thin sheets of beeswax with the cell bases of worker cells embossed on both sides in the same manner as they are produced naturally by honey bees.

*Super - any hive body used for the storage of surplus honey. Normally it is placed over or above the brood chamber.

*Honey extractor - a machine which removes honey from the cells of comb by centrifugal force.

*Uncapping knife - a knife used to shave or re move the cappings from combs of sealed honey prior to extraction; usually heated by steam or electricity.

*Beeswax - a complex mixture of organic compounds secreted by special glands on the last four visible segments on the ventral side of the worker bee's abdomen and used for building comb. Its melting point is from 143.6 to 147.2 degrees F.

So much, so little time.....

My apologies to those of you trying to send me a email and it keeps getting kicked back. I think I've rectified the problem so don't be afraid to email me again.

Lots of exciting stuff in the last couple of days; I had a job interview for the same position I was working only for a different agency and I was pretty much handed the job! :) I got the salary I was asking for and a extra week of vacation before I start. I'm very excited about that so thank you to all of you that gave me a extra good thought or some positive energy!

Wednesday I was elected to the Board of Directors for our local Arts Alliance I'm pretty excited about that, I don't know a lot of people especially artists in the area so I am hoping to start making friends and connections

I've started decorating outside for Fall and Halloween, today I got these great spooky "Victorian" pictures I'm going to hang them on the porch for when the kids come to the door for candy. I've got the hay bales out, pumpkins, mums, etc but haven't got my cornstalks yet. I didn't take pictures yet, maybe tomorrow.

I just came in from removing frames from my hive, I will be extracting honey from them tomorrow, it's quite a process and I am wringing wet with sweat. The frames are sitting in a storage container in a spare room and tomorrow I have some fellow beekeepers coming over to help me extract the honey. Right now I have about 50 lbs worth, quite a haul from the hive to the house. I will get some pictures tomorrow of the process of extraction.

I hope everyone enjoys their evening, we are having a heat wave here in the North East.

*muah*