The Mad Hatter Is On His Way!

See the October 17th post if you are looking for the Fanciful Twist Party here at EyeCandy. (pssst! I am still flying around to visit... And boy, are my arms tired!)

Hello Everybody!

It's true. I’ve only gotten around to maybe – key word here, maybe -- a quarter to half of the folks on the Fanciful Twist Halloween Celebration plus My Own Peeps. Fun? Yes! Exhausting? A bigger yes goes here. But it has been and is fun.

A tempest in a teapot kept me from getting out a lot of what I originally planned. As Rab the Rhymer said, “The best laid plans of mice and men…”

Still, despite everything -- including myself -- I covered a lot of air. Or was it ground? Oh dear, my poor little broom has gone on strike!

To top it all, The Second Annual Mad Hatter Tea Party is This Saturday on this here blog. Thank goodness I don’t have to rely on that broom for transportation since the Party is being held right here in my Spooky Old House.

No, I am NOT wearing this, I assure you. My Mad Hatters would never let me live it down.

Oh. You’re New Here?! Well, jump right in and check out this post! And get ready to pop up a hat of some kind, any kind, in any medium you choose on your own blog this Saturday.

Let Me know you are in for the count by Friday Midnight EST (if you haven't already) and I will blog-roll you that very day.

Speaking of tea parties, check out this fabu silver service I picked up at a yard sale. For an obscenely low price, to boot. I could not believe my good fortune! It will look really lovely once the Faeries (read: T and I) shine it up!

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Candace in Athens

A Classic City Fanciful Twist Celebration

And JUST Before The Witching Hour Itself...

Hurry up, hurry! We're going to be late!

Oh and as always, What do we wear? The black or the gray?

Does it matter? They're both boo-tiful!

Where will this here party be?

Everywhere and nowhere...

Here we go, down in a hole

And up to the house.

Always creep, be quiet as a mouse ... !

Did that sign we pass say DEAD END?

Remember your tokens to get in.

She may look friendly, but she's a scream,

And did her jar say Vanishing Cream...
Oh yes indeed, and away you'll go
if one of the skulls you do not show!

Turn Back, it says, is it too late?
Hurry up, girl, it's half past eight!

Don't we know them? Oh, don't we --?

WE never tell who WE may see!

And here is a --- eek!

It's only a bride whose groom did not show.

What happened to him,

We'll never know.

Hang on to your broom,

Another place, another room?

You might think twice about going up there

You can't really mean that, there is really no scare..........................

I hope you have enjoyed this and yours as much as I have. Thank you Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist for this invite and chance to party!

I almost got waylaid today and this is up just before midnight of the party, seriously.

Lots of shenanigans -- of the regular kind going on...

I hope to see you here next week at the Mad Hatters 2nd Annual Tea Party.

Take care.

Candace in Athens.

Almost Time For A Fanciful Twist!

Hello! And it's well past time for a Self Portrait but here we are, anyway. As you can see, I am wearing my hair super short these days -- just in time for the cold snap promised here in the Classic City.

"My, what big teeth, ears, nose, earrings you have!" Less hair means you need to butch up about your looks is all I can tell you, Kids. No mane attractions to hide behind once you've taken this type step!

Isn't it funny, Halloween or no, Magic happens. When you least expect it, something fantastic occurs. Supernatural after all means natural, only MORE SO!

To wit: "Take Me To The River" is what I call the work below. although its actual title is "Pasture On The Water." Thinking WAY beyond pink, eh? That blazing yellow is incredible, isn't it? Yellow symbolizes freedom in Bulgaria, evidently. Sculpture by Pavel Koichev, one of my favourite installation artists. (Man, I bet he has a party going on ALL the time -- in his head, anyway.)

But say, speaking of thinking pink... enjoy these lovely bits that will springboard us into other parts of the spectrum that are very popular these days... like GREEN. Everyone and everything is green now. Green is the new black. Green is in, trendy, fashionable, commoditized.

Well, yes and not really. Green is necessary. Green was here first, and we need to ensure it remains this way. It really isn't easy being green now, in many many ways. Sorry, soapbox time. But not too much... I am trying to get in the Party Mood for A Fanciful Twist's Halloween Celebration, where THAT colour spectrum will no doubt be simple black and orange. And is "sparkle" a colour?

This Green Clock in England tells us it's almost time for A Fanciful Twist's Halloween Celebration there, too!

And this pink dragonfly reminds me of Jeanne... another partygoer! Again, like the pink grasshopper from an earlier post -- this is not an objet d'art. This is a living, breathing dragonfly, its hue quite authentic.

Oh and Katy DID! And doesn't she look grand?

I am excited about A Fanciful Twist's Halloween Celebration. I'm excited I have Peeps that will be participating as well as being able to meet and make new pals, take inspiration and courage from those who not only have blazed their own art/life trails but are totally into you doing the very same.

And I am very excited I will have Paper Ladies All Over The Place on Saturday Evening... some on brooms and some not -- but certainly all of them "up in the air" with the joy of just being. I hope you will be, too.

Take care!

Candace in Athens.

THINK PINK!

And now for something completely different --
October is, of course, a favourite month for many of us because of You Know What. But it’s also a time for something not so fun…and again, You Know What To Do if you haven’t already, don’t you?

So, in the spirit of THINK PINK, even as the leaves turn yellow and orange in many places, allow me to present those that Think Pink!

Pink beans. Who would'a thunk it?

This is not a brooch. It is a very real grasshopper and the colour is really truly pink. Rule Brittannia! That's the place where this one was found -- by a school boy on a field trip.

Pink. I've seen her in concert. Believe me... she really rocks and not only as a musician.

Say, who's THIS li'l darlin? You will see her again before you know it!

Take care!
Candace in Athens.

Wyrd Sisters

The title of today's post is also the title of one of my favourite books by author Terry Pratchett, and yes, the witches in it -- as in all stories -- number 3. And it's a hilarious read. Weird Sisters is also what Shakespeare's unfortunate MacBeth called the 3 Witches he visited, among other things. Here they are, haranguing him. (Well, he got what he deserved. They tried to warn him... but noooo.... )


'Wyrd' is an old Norse term. Without boring you to tears, the contemporary and favoured definition is that Wyrd is Fate personified; one of the three Weird Sisters. Ever notice how Fate is always a woman? Rather like Luck.

That's my bedtime story and I am sticking to it.

And so you see them here, in progress for now -- by the light of the Moon, as they happily make their way to this Celebration at A Fanciful Twist next Saturday.

Please note. My girls are less hag-ridden and more paper and frou frou-ridden than MacBeth's!
Of course, a glass of Bibbity Bobbity Boo never hurts.

Sorry it's so fuzzy. But then -- it's that danged Witches' Brew. Gets me every time!

Take care!

Candace in Athens.

You Make My Heart Sing!

Hello!

You know I am going to be first – or close to it – in line for Where The Wild Things Are. I read this now-classic in college with a passel of others who were totally hipped to Sesame Street as well. Another fun show that was as much for big kids as littles.


We took that song by The Troggs, “Wild Thing”, and made it our honorary anthem, all the while collecting and reading more stories by Maurice Sendak. What a guy!

Say, what’s going on over here? Dresses being laid out oh so carefully for an upcoming Halloween Ball, courtesy of A Fanciful Twist! You may very well see similar frocks again for this here blog’s 2nd Annual Mad Hatters Tea Party one measly week later.

Wow, and the background is the same colour as -- the background!

I am also hard at work (well, for ME, anyway!) on My House’s Transformation for this time of year… photos to be debuted the day of You Know What. Snake Cake, anyone?

Take Scare!
Candace in Athens.

OCTOBER'S BRIGHT BLUE WEATHER

Hello Everyone!

When I was a kid, everyone had to learn this poem by Helen Hunt Jackson. We started the first day of October and by Halloween, everyone (except Melvin), had it down pat. It was much longer than what I show here, btw. But everyone (even Melvin) could conquer this little snippet.

O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather –




Ain't that the truth? Don’t get me wrong. I love winter, spring, summer (sort of), and fall, but I love October best of all. It should be its own season, if you ask me!

And today, the very first day of the month, wowee. If only that photo could transcend this lowly medium and you too could be in the moment when this shot was taken. Spectacular.

The weather is what this poem is all about. Cool and crisp, the sun lowered in the sky as Apollo's mighty steeds pull his chariot from East to West,





and with the breeze blowing just so and leaves turning colours and falling in their annual harvest dance, I do think those torrential rains we suffered through tired us all out and we are ready for a real change this year. And Good Old Mom, as in Nature, is supplying it for us.

Spread the word about The 2nd Annual Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.

No rules! How could there be? Just post a hat, artwise, photography-wise, whathaveyou-wise (okay, now I am just making words UP here!) on your blog, Saturday, October 24th.

Let Me know asap that you are doing it so I can put a link to your blog up and we can all have “tea” together. And I do hope next year to actually have a Live Action Tea. Wouldn’t that be the cat’s whiskers?

Say, speaking of the cat's whiskers, my dearest and oldest friend in the whole wide world is coming to visit for the next couple of days. Leon and I grew up together, literally… he’s been in my life longer than many relatives and in-laws. We stood together, a unified front of two, when others wouldn’t, couldn’t, didn’t – and T and I are taking him ‘round and about, playing “catchup”, treating him like the prince among men he truly is.

Back soon!
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Your Correspondent in Athens