practical magic changes and something new

A few weeks ago I started to see Fall and Halloween stuff popping up in stores. It always takes me by surprise even if I can't wait to see them every year. It's a little jarring to see skeletons and pumpkins when it's 102 outside. But I love it of course.

Early this month I posted about feeling a little anxious about Fall this year. I had some very heavy personal drama last year and the worst of it was in September as I was putting the Practical Magic blog party together to be exact.

 

It took a lot to find the will to get through the blog party when all I wanted to do was not deal with the world. I was numb for a while and felt like I sleep walked my way through Halloween.

 

Maybe my heartache was a little obvious as I look back at some of the things I made then. So this year I wanted something different. The good news is that my relationship, although still fragile at times, is in a much better place now. I'm hoping that avoiding unpleasant reminders will keep it moving forward. Unfortunately I couldn't keep from associating the blog party with the chaos that was going on around it.

 

 

I've had people asking about this year's PM party since around April and honestly I wasn't sure what I wanted to do until recently. I still love Practical Magic. The house, the Aunts and of course Sally and Gillian. The movie has become somewhat of a Halloween classic which is obvious because of the witches. But the only touch of autumn is the final Halloween scene when the ladies jump off the roof. Otherwise the rest of the film is set in Spring. Sally runs off to confess to Gary on March 8 (which happens to be Aidan Quinn's birthday and yes it's my birthday too!).

So I started to entertain the idea of having a PM blog party next Spring. The creamy ivory and apple green shades are perfect for welcoming spring. Remember the trees with white cherry blossoms and the vases of ivory blooms in Sally's shop and on the kitchen table? The Aunts even return from an obviously non winter solstice celebration. It was a deliberate decision by the director and production designer to set the story in spring to go against the stereotypical dark and gloomy witches house.

For me it would be a refreshing change but I wanted to get some thoughts on this and run it by you guys. Would you be interested in a spring PM party or would you rather save it for next Fall? I know in another year I'd be more than ready to have one in fall again. I'd love to know what you think.

 

OK, then what do I have planned for this Fall you ask? Well in that same post I mentioned discovering the book The Night Circus and hinted that it inspired me to create something based on the story. I started planning and collecting black and white circus goodies. Marfi and I plotted and we got very excited about possibly doing a night circus blog party.

Then we found ourselves going down a different road. Something else clicked better and the more we brain stormed the more it felt right. So we decided to do this other thing and now it's all wrapped up and ready to go. I'll share it with you very, very soon!

 

 

Wendy at Bliss Angels is also hosting the Moonlight Party Under the Big Top in September so I'll get to have a bit of circus fun too. Yay!

Now back to Summer again. I watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics last night. It's always my favorite part. I thought it was very cool that JK Rowling was a part of it and the bit with James Bond and the Queen was unexpectedy brilliant in that cheeky English way. I also loved the way they lit the torch. I'm a sucker for production and I'm always the first one to tear up at events like that. Silly me.

I hope you're enjoying the weekend and these last few days of July.

I'll be back soon with something a little wicked.