Arte Y Pico blog award!

Wow - I have won a blog award! I am really excited that people actually read my stuff and are kind enough to comment, but I'm especially thrilled to actually receive an award, so sincerest thanks to Mary at http://maryshunt.blogspot.com/ for passing along the love.

A little info about this for you: "Arte y Pico" is phrase that roughly translates in English to: "The Maximum. Wow! The best art. Over the top."

Although the words "over the top" have been applied to me before, I'm not sure it is entirely always intended with the kindness that Mary has given...;-)

Anyway, the "rules" for the Arte y Pico award are:
1. If you are an award winner, show the award, the name of the person who gave it to you, and link back to his or her blog.
2. Pick 5 blogs you think deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and for contributing to the blogging community.
3. List the author's name and link to his or her blog.
4. Leave a message on the blogs of those you've selected.
5. Link back to the original Arte y Pico blog, so all will know the origin of the award.

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!

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.