Sunday, October 26, 2008

Park your broomsticks - welcome to the party!

My sincerest apologies for the slight....unpleasantness....with the punch. The pixies have been sorted out, and it's time to come in! Welcome, welcome...please park your brooms by the rusty gate and help yourself to a velvet robe, a cauldron of the newly magical punch, and a wafer of moonbeams. I'm very glad to see you here!

Don't forget - if you'd like to see any of the pictures more closely, just click on the picture and it'll magically get larger!

Now that you're here, why don't meet some of our guests? Please come right this way. We'll be going through the magical gardens to reach the party. Be careful of the fountain, he doesn't bite of course, but sometimes he's been known to climb down and splash rather a lot of magic water onto our friends. You know why it's magic water, don't you? Because it disappears whenever you sit down in a puddle of it!

Aren't the gardens lovely at this time of year? If you look closely, you'll see the rare Peacock Bats rising next to the bench - they like to come over and nestle on your shoulders, so I hope you don't mind them. They're very gentle and I assure you they don't bite.

No time to smell the moonbeams and lavender - walk over the blue bridge where the urns are now, the rest of the party is dying to meet you! I have it on very reliable account that a contingent of Steampunks has made an appearance. Their locomotive is hovering somewhere near the horse-drawn hearses, so I sincerely hope their steam doesn't make everyone dewy.

Oh yes, there they are, over on the left. They're behaving themselves, guess they're not feeling quite punkish. In fact, ah, I see they're watching our Gypsy Dancer! Madame Zaza has appeared, clearly the Gypsy King doesn't know what he's missing out on....I see some Victorian Explorers are searching for the source of the Nile - no no, I assure you it's not in the fountain. Looook out! Ah, splash......I knew it. Never mind, they seem quite envigorated from their magic water dousing. Where is our Enchantress when we need her? Oh, really? She's off to sort out the Pixies again...yes, there she is walking out of the picture on the right.

I must say, things are going swimmingly at the First Annual Soul Journalers Halloween Bash!

Now what are you costumed as? I like the Faerie wings - they are fairie wings aren't they? No, they're part of your Renaissance attire. I must say, I didn't think that Queen Elizabeth generally wore wings, but right you are ma'am - and a lovely interpretation it is! Do enjoy mingling with our other guests now....I have to see about the broomsticks.

A busy hostess is never done - just as I thought, the Steampunkers Locomotive seems to have gone off on a ramble over the nearby fields, so I must fly myself. Please do enjoy the refreshments, and I'll see you all very soon in the Land of Blog Comments. After I catch that runaway locomotive, I think I'll stop by the other blog parties going on tonight - I hear there are some beautiful and festive parties to attend! Thank you Kathryn Antyr and the Soul Journalers group for sponsoring this fabulous event!

Thank you so much for joining me! I'll see you at your house!

One moment please :-) We're almost ready!

Slight delay in the party plans - yes, party will definitely be here in a very few minutes, but there is a slight....incident with the punch.....a couple of pixies spiked it! So if you can just circle around the block on your broomstick a couple more times, then come back to my door, we'll be ready to greet you. Can't wait to see your costumes!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Are you a pirate - swept along by the tides of fortune from the blazing cannons of the Spanish Main to the secret blue grottoes filled with treasure on uncharted Caribbean islands? Does the moon ride the dark seas as a galleon with you at the helm?

Or perhaps you're an enchantress, mixing herbs and magical potions kept in your Book of Secrets - lavender, moondust, mist from an enchanted pond caught in the light of the stars?

An explorer? Seeking the lost tribes of the Amazonian basin, rafting up crocodile infested waters in search of the source of the Nile somewhere in the Mountains of the Moon?

A gypsy Queen, silk veils dance before your dark eyes in the fires of the camp. You feel the earth's pulse through your bare feet as you perform the ancient dance to capture the heart of the King of the Gypsies?

Well, whoever you are (not your mundane self, your true self, the gypsy, the mystic, the dancer) come one, come all to the Soul Journal Blog Party - one of your stops is here! On October 26, by the light of the waning moon, visit my blog and see what my art journal has unearthed.

As you can see, I've decorated spookily, uh, I mean, specially for the event.

Remember, my blog, Oct. 26 - we're dying to meet you.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Soul Journaling - Doodles

I should have spent more time today working on art, but I'm exhausted from working in the garden all weekend, and have got "weekend warrior" syndrome (strained lower back from planting about 20 plants including some large palm trees, bug bites, and a lovely bruise where I took on the edge of the barbecue grille one too many times) Add to my excuse list that a friend sent me one of those "why don't you join Facebook" notes, and although I've always maintained that social networking websites are for kids...well, I have spent far too much time today messing around with it.

Anyway, Kathryn's prompt for the Soul Journaling group was to create doodles and put in your journaling somewhere in your doodled lines. I kind of took it to the next level.....see above. I have to admit, I LOVE this page! It's all about my fantasies of exotic foreign travel, including India. Unfortunately my husband has beyond no interest in visiting there (although he's a great and patient travel companion in all other respects) so this may have to continue to live in the realms of my fertile imagination. Perhaps for the best, I'm sure it doesn't really have spice-laden breezes wafting in from the swaying palms of the Indian ocean....

Monday, October 6, 2008

I've been tagged!

So my friend Kathryn Antyr tagged me - I've never been tagged before but feel as though I've landed in the land of the popular kids - wow, if only they'd had this when I was in Junior High school and was officially the second least popular kid in the seventh grade!

Anyway, here is Kathryn's website, so stop by and visit her (she's a really wonderful person) :-) http://www.collagediva.com/Site/Kathryns_Blog

So, six random facts about me:

#1 - I collect ghost stories. No, I'm not a Halloween junkie, I just like going on ghost tours, and consider books of regional ghost stories to be a great vacation souvenir. I do believe in ghosts. I also collect books on outhouses and bathrooms. I believe in those too.

#2 - I held a lion cub when I was 9 years old. There's a picture and everything. He was fuzzy with a little pink belly - I was living in South Africa at the time, and we were visiting a safari park. I am not likely to pick up random lions.

#3 - I have rarely failed in getting knots and snarls pulled out of necklace chains. It's a zen thing.

#4 - I'm afraid to the point of phobia of the following things: parrots, helium balloons, hard taco shells, heights, confined spaces, and lightning. If you wanted to get rid of me, make me hold a parrot while eating a hard taco in a room where a balloon is being inflated, or just handled. Really.

#5 - There's few things better than velvet. Particularly the silk kind that practically glows and costs $75+ per yard. Now if I could only sew.

#6 - I've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark at least 100 times. I think I know every sound effect, line of dialogue and frame of film by heart. I haven't seen Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at all. Perfection is best left to stand alone.

Here's the tagging rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Write six random things about yourself.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post.

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

Now, I'm tagging.....

Cindy - http://cskawins.blogspot.com/
Shelly - http://shellystick.blogspot.com/
Sarah - http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com/
EB - http://elizabethbunsen.typepad.com/be_dream_play/
Karen - http://karensaltereddreamz.blogspot.com/
Pattie - http://www.writingaffirmations.blogspot.com/

Go forth and tag, my friends!
Soul hugs,
Jane

Sunday, October 5, 2008

29 Gifts

My Soul Journaling friend Kathryn sent a link to the Soul Journaling group about a website called 29 Gifts.org - the idea is to give away something - an item, your time, a smile - for the next 29 days, and observe how your life changes inwardly as you give away items outwardly. It's a rather Buddhist concept, which I love, and I've signed up to participate. Here's a video all about it - perhaps you'll be interested too:


Find more videos like this on 29-Day Giving Challenge