farewell sweet october

Breathe in......and out.......that's better.

Did you have a marvelous Halloween weekend? I hope you had time to play with family and friends. Maybe enjoyed a warm fire if it's cold enough where you are and had your fill of sweets, treats and all the tastes that make October grand. Farewell sweet October. You will be missed.

Luna and I were up early yesterday. My son already carved his pumpkins the night before. As my carving arm is still out of commission I decorated my little boo pumpkin like this instead.

I always try to make a big pot of soup for Halloween. Something about throwing in herbs and stirring in spices in a large bubbling pot just feels satisfying and comforting today. I made a butternut squash risotto soup and we had it with grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches for lunch (in mini cauldron cups).

By 9:30 the last of the trick-or-treaters had come and gone. Considering it was a school night we still had a good turn out. My next door neighbor and I are the only ones that decorate on our street so my house is a magnet for the van loads of people that come in from the other neighborhoods. It gets pretty crazy for a while.

Once all was quite I finally had a few minutes to enjoy a cup of tea, nibble on a few sweets and do a little bit of magical reading. My poor Luna was so tired (the doorbell kept making her run to the bedroom to hide) she actually curled up in my bed and fell asleep without me.

So I'm hanging up my stripy socks for a while. I think I really squeezed every bit of Halloween out of October this year. My pumpkin carving arm unfortunately is also my photo editing and digi collaging arm and I have somehow ended up with tendonitis in my shoulder and can hardly use it. I need to rest it I'm told. This is why I had to stop doing the collage challenges the last month. I've learned to type and use Photoshop with my left hand but it's very sloooow.

I have other pictures to share later. Some wonderful ones from Saturday when my son and I visited our local historic cemetery. He took the picture of little old me you see in the previous post. The weather was absolutely perfect. Cloudy with just a dusting of showers. Not too cold. I couldn't conjure up a more perfect day even if I tried. Halloween day was sunny and got too warm by afternoon but it was nice for all the trick-or-treaters.

I have my tea party winner to announce today also. More amazing people to thank for awards and wonderful gifts I received. Oh and yes we have a plumbing issue we're still dealing with that's no fun.

If you celebrate Dia de los Muertos tomorrow have a beautiful one with all your loved ones both here and gone. In my family my mom always celebrates the Feast of All Saints today and All Souls Day tomorrow. Last night I set out a small plate of food for my ancestors and my dad on my little altar. And I also left a lollipop for my beloved kitty Kushka who was still with me last Halloween. She loved playing with them and it still hurts so much when I think of her (I should stop here as I can feel the tears catching in my throat and stinging my eyes now.)

Have a beautiful first of November day today. I have much more to share with you about running away with the gypsies and playing with carpet bags. I'll be back later to announce my tea party giveaway winner and a few more pictures from this weekend.

I'd love to hear about your Halloween!