we have a winner

Somewhere between cake and ice cream last Saturday I was able to do a drawing for my Practical Magic party giveaway.

The giveaway included a set of 3 Practical Magic inspired ATCs created by me and the mini glass bell jar reminiscent of the ones from the Aunts house and garden (sans the toad).

I had to enlist the help of  a kindly raven (aka the Random Number Generator) this time as there were 97 comments which is more paper than my magic name drawing treasure box can hold.

And the winner is Linda from Moments In An Eye

Congratulations Linda! I'm so happy the raven picked you. Thank you for being a part of our party and for your adding to all the magic and fun.

And now I will work on my Spooky Monday post and start putting out some of our Halloween decorations outside before it hits 90 like the weatherman said. Happy Monday!

practical magic

It's Autumn! My favorite season of all.

A bright yellow moon hangs in the night sky and a feeling of magic fills the air. Each fall I love to watch one of my all time favorite films, Practical Magic. Since I discovered blogging this year it was obvious that a  blog party was in order. More than 200 of you seem to feel the same way! I never tire of looking at that house and it's amazing interior. More than a decade after the movie it still never fails to enchant me.

Tonight I invite you to join me in celebrating the season with

a touch of Practical Magic...

Here in a little corner of the attic I have tucked

away a bewitching space. A place for dreams and enchantments

inspired by the movie's white Carpenter Gothic Victorian.

Where gypsy firelight illuminates ancient herbs and

potions waiting to be brewed.

And where sparkly ravens foretell omens and fortunes

for unsuspecting guests.

Like the Aunts' greenhouse and pantry I filled

my room with curious bottles, fragrant blooms...

and candles in shades of honey and amber.

In this place everything is magical by candle light.

Time stands still.

When I stand here I can imagine being

in the Aunts' conservatory, gathering ingredients for a potent charm.

Tonight these ingredients await a spell...

A spell for true love cast under an Autumn moon.

With words whispered in the darkness of night.

Sweet blooms and intoxicating lavender are mixed just so.

In my witches pantry you might find herbs such as those

mentioned in Alice Hoffman's novel and in the film as well.

Butterfly Weed, Pennyroyal, Mugwort

....and Belladonna.

And a book of spells whose pages must remain a secret.

Unless you dare to meet me under a midnight moon.

We can mix a wicked brew....

with herbs gathered from a witch's garden

Like Sally Owens we can cast a spell for true love...

.....Amas Veritas

In this magical place pumpkins dare to grow year round.

Spring flowers bloom in a witches garden even

as the leaves begin to fall.

The heavy scent of jasmine fills the air inviting us

to play in this corner a while longer. But now there

are other witchy things I would like to show you.

Other spaces and a pinch of art created by this whimsical witch.

Would you like to see?

I'll come back for my broom after we're through.

This corner of the attic is for crafting magic by witches light.

In honor of our favorite movie I created a set of

Practical Magic inspired ATCs (Artist Trading Cards).

A toad found in the Aunts garden watches over them.

I suspect he's been there since that day they banished

Jimmy Angelov's nasty spirit!

Each ATC bears part of a quote taken from the last lines

from the film (and from the book).

And a miniature spell book....

One to hold a small gathering of ingredients for an ancient curse.

...Or perhaps it's just the right size to hold my ATCs!

It's nearly midnight and before the spell is broken I have

still one more thing to share with you.

This sign was used to promote the fragrance Elixir of Love No.1 by Caswell-Massey. You can almost imagine it being sold at Verbena, Sally's botanical shop. Caswell-Massey provided some of the antique furniture used in the movie. I purchased the fragrance and lotion a few weeks after the movie opened. While I was in the shop I saw this sign and asked what they would do with it after the promotion was over and to my surprise the very nice cashier just gave it to me! It was like magic.

The card shows the original release date of October 9 (my son's birthday!)

but there was a delay and it eventually opened on the 16th.

Yes I was there on opening day for the first matinee and I won't even

tell you how many times I saw it in the theater. 

The beautiful Elixir of Love No.1 apothecary bottles are a deep cobalt blue. It's always been one of my favorite scents to wear in Fall. I still have the lovely boxes these came in but couldn't seem to find them. You can see the entire line at Caswell-Massey but don't forget to come back here....

Because I have a witchy little giveaway for you.

I will send the winner my set of 3 ATCs inspired by

Practical Magic along with your own mini glass cloche

or belljar which is seen throughout the Aunts house and garden

(sorry you will have to catch your own toad).

All you need to do is leave a comment and you're entered.

I'll leave the giveaway open for 2 weeks and announce

the winner on Saturday October 9!

Det. Gary Hallet offered to take the little spellbook to a new home in AZ (hee-hee).

And if you like the Autumn spellbook page I created at the top of my post I also made one that anyone can download and use for your personal (non commercial) book or journal, virtual or real. It's a high resolution (300dpi) 8 x 10 page which you can print out or resize as you wish.

Click for a larger image to save to your computer.

Well I would say it's definitely time for Midnight Margaritas! It's been an amazing soiree with so many of you nice enough to come and play. I think I'll need a little break after this but I'm also looking forward to playing at the lovely Miss Vanessa's  Halloween Party at A Fanciful Twist on October 16.

(She is my inspiration after all.....isn't she everyone's?)

And if you're like me and you still can't get enough of Halloween

come back and join me on the night of the next full moon,

October 23 for my Tea Party Under A Halloween Moon.

Thank you so much for coming to our party and for

visiting me here in the witch's attic.

OH MY GOODNESS!! With all this deliciously magical chaos I forgot to thank my dear co-hostess Justina at La Boheme Magique! It was our mutual obsession for this movie that brought us together which led to this blog party coming to life. She's an amazingly talented artist (the girl can really sing I tell you) and through all her crazy and hectic schedule she was able to put an amazing post together so don't miss it! Thank you for all your inspiration and magic Justina!

My dear Luna has been patiently waiting by our broom.

She knows it's almost time to grab our

witchy hats and carpet bags. It's midnight at last....

.....and now we're off to visit all of you!

Have a most magical Autumn season.

Click HERE to go to the blog party home page and to see list of participants.

Blog design, photos and digital art were created by me. Please remember to be kind and not link to or take them away(except for the giveaway page which you are free to download). If you have questions feel free to email me at frostedpetunias@gmail.com

is that a blender i hear?

One week to the Practical Magic Blog Party!!! Oh my goodness I can't believe how HUGE the list is. This morning I counted nearly 220 people. It's just amazing. Well I'm definitely excited and I can't wait to see what incredibly creative things everyone has come up with. I've had a sneak peek at some of them and I'm truly blown away. You can still sign up if you can get a post together. It can be as small or as big as you like. There's still a little bit of time so won't you join us?

The leaves are falling. Pumpkins are sprouting at the market.

Candies are filling the shelves and ever so faintly I hear a sound

in the distance.....

Yes, the sound of blenders and ice cubes swirling in amber glasses.

Womens voices cackling softly in the night.

Fragrant roses (or lilacs) fill the thick midnight air.

It's almost time....(hee-hee-hee)

practically magical and bloggy gadgets

Exactly one month to go before our Practical Magic blog party and it's absolutely incredible how many people have signed up to play. There are nearly 160 participants and more keep coming! It's really beyond mine and Justina's wildest dreams. And the incredible art and talent from these women is just amazing. Who knew how many people still love this film. Well I'm so excited....and a little anxious. I'm still working on my post and a giveaway which I'm determined to have done by next week. But at least my camera works again. Yay!

I love finding fun bloggy gadgets when I visit other blogs. I've come across 2 that I thought are so cool. You guys might already be using them but I thought I'd share in case you haven't. I haven't put them up yet but I will the next time I do a redo. The first one is this cool gadget for your Etsy store from Craft Cult. Now my little shop is really bare right now but I'm showing you the gadget so you can see how fun it is.



They have a few different backgrounds to choose from. Unfortunately my sidebars are too narrow so it doesn't work very well on mine. I might have to do some adjustments later when I redo.

The other gadget is from Shelfari. You can create a virtual bookshelf and show books you're reading, have read or are planning to read. And you can add your own reviews and all that fun stuff.

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Here's a quickie sample I made. This one has a customizable size which will actually work for my sidebars. I think you have a few shelf choices too.

Anyhoo....hope you guys aren't melting in the heat today. I'm off to Lowes to see if I can buy some of their old wallpaper sample books. They sell them for $2.50 at the end of the month and there's a line of other crazy collage artists trying to snag them too!

Today I'm grateful for.....

Pizza coupons. Too hot to cook tonight!

pink saturday bags

Happy Pink Saturday! Thank you again to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for hosting. Don't forget to visit her for more pinks.

Last week I posted one of my favorite (blue) bags so this week I'm going back to pink. These bags are ones I don't have but are on my wishful list!

I love Mary Frances bags. They're highly embelished and look like vintage Victorian and turn of the century bags. They're like little works of art. Most of her bags are little evening ones like this one but she recently started a line of bigger more practical bags. This one is from Victorian Trading Company. I love the crushed velvet and all the rose, mauve and amber hues. Don't know where I would use it right now but I would love to own one.

This Isabella Fiore fairy bag is in my favorite shape. A framed stachel. Again another little work of art. I think this has been discontinued but you can still 'borrow' it from Avelle.

You know how much I love Alice in Wonderland and here is a Madhatter tote from a line of bags from the movie. I've seen this one in person along with a few other designs I couldn't find online. They're very sturdy and well made heavy canvas. I just thought they would be so much fun to carry around.

Finally there's this pink cut velvet satchel from Petunia Picklebottom (of course I love the name). And believe it or not this is a diaper bag! A very fancy and rather pricey one ($350). Now they didn't have diaper bags like this when my son was a baby and if the price was a little more affordable I would actually use this as a regular bag. I love big bags with lots of compartments and this would be perfect. This color has been discontinued but there are lots more yummy ones from their Cake line over at their site. 

Happy Pink Saturday!

*   *   *   *

Calling all Practical Magic fans!

If any of you lovely ladies are fans of the movie Practical Magic I'd like to invite you to join me and my friend Justina from La Boheme Magique for a Practical Magic Blog Party this fall. We just put up the site and we're really excited with the response we're getting. You can visit here or click on the button at the top of my page. Come and join us!

Practical Magic Blog Party 2010

"My darling girl. When are you going to realize  that being normal is not necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage!"

That's one of my favorite quotes which happens to be from my all time favorite movie. I loved the book Practical Magic from the time I first read it. When I heard a movie was being made about it I couldn't wait. Then when Victoria Magazine featured the house created for the movie I was absolutely in love and by the time I saw the movie on opening day at the very first matinee I was obsessed.

Even if the movie was quite different from the book I still loved it. Not just the story and the characters but THAT house! Oh I loved that house. The white carpenter Gothic Victorian with its creamy vanilla, golden honey and buttery sage palette was brilliant! Of course these women with their fabulous clothes and history could only live in such an enchanting house.

After I did a post on this issue of Victoria I realized that lots of people still love the movie. Ages ago I had a Practical Magic website (Verbena) and even then I was amazed at how many people were practically obsessed with it. I thought why not have a Practical Magic blog party! And my bloggy friend Justina who also loves the movie (and who happened to do a Practical Magic post almost the same time I did) thought it was a great idea and we put our witchy heads together and with encouragement from even more PM fans we did it!

*   *   *   *   *

Today I'm happy to announce the first Practical Magic blog party to celebrate this spellbinding film! We created a separate site just for the party and set it for September 25....a very witchy date I might add being the first Saturday after the first Autumn full moon!

Get out your blender, dust off your spellbook and make room around your kitchen table. If you love Practical Magic join me and Justina from La Boheme Magique. You're welcome to share your Practical Magic inspired story, art, fashion, garden, decor or real live party.

Where you inspired to decorate your home in the Owens style? Did you collect outfits to get the Sally, Gillian or the Aunts look? Perhaps you've created jewelry, a recipe or art inspired by Practical Magic or would you like to share an actual Practical Magic themed party? We'd love to see it all.

There are lots more ideas over on the party page and if you have questions feel free to email either one of us. You can grab the party button from my sidebar here or when you visit our page.

We put our hearts (in true Owens fashion) into putting this party together because we're both very passionate about this film. It's inspired so many women and though it's been over a decade since the movie came out there is no shortage of blogs and websites dedicated to it. We're hoping to bring everyone together that's been enchanted by Practical Magic to share, reminisce, create and of course party!

Here's the link to our party page.

Just leave a comment there and we'll add you to the list.

Practical Magic Blog Party 2010