Don't Make Me Get The Flying Monkeys.
Weather is notoriously difficult to predict in the Pacific Northwest. Oceans, multiple mountain ranges, even the smallest change in trajectories means weather could land quite a long ways away. And also because of all the variations in land masses, we have microclimates. What's going on in one spot, might well be very different only a few miles away. I've been too snowed in to safely drive at times when only a few miles away the roads were bare and wet. All of which to say... The Big Storm barely even caused my wind chimes to move. Thursday, and even parts of Friday were way more stormy. The rains preceding the supposed "event" on Saturday morning had us preparing right up until... nothing. And so we stayed home safe and sound and cozy and enjoyed a quiet weekend.
Now that's out of the way...
Three things to cover this week: a seasonal diversion, the election (I know, I know, bear with me), a happy distraction, and exciting news!
For the seasonal diversion, Halloween is right around the corner now! In our house this is the most exciting, fanciest season of the year. The girls have traditionally started asking to decorate in late July. We are usually able to hold them off until early September before bats and skulls and pumpkins start appearing. I don't think it's just the promise of candy that they get excited about. It's when Claudio joins us, Claudio is a nearly life-sized skeleton that hangs out in the living room. We have a cat skeleton we got at the same time as Claudio last year, right after our beloved (but very old and very smelly) 19 year old cat went to join The Ancestors. I gave it a sugar skulled face and we named it after smelly cat. Now she sits in the window all year 'round. We have a leg & arm that often live under the couch... it's pretty humerous... There's the Medusa Lisa (Mona Lisa as Medusa) that lives above our fireplace. Skulls, skeletons, gravestones, glitter skulls...
But why? I think it's the dress up and the masquerading as someone else. Every year by November 1, they know who they'll be next year. In fact, M2, my youngest, already knows next year and is contemplating the following year. When else do you get to try on another costume? Or to try on a new persona, if even briefly? Or combine two into one (zombie Amelia Earhart? Oh yeah!)? This is the only time of year, and in this culture the only time in life where there is explicit cultural permission to experiment so obviously. Yeah, it doesn't stop all of us from embracing "every day is Halloween", though maybe we tone it down a little, but... we are in the minority...
With regard to the election: Short and sweet. Nasty Women Vote. And then we hold our candidates to their campaign promises and advocate for them to do the right thing rather than the convenient thing.
Ok - that's srsly enough about that! And after that last debate, we all need something distracting. I *strongly* recommend putting on your favorite chill out album and meditate on these adorable pictures of kittens for at least 15 minutes...
And the exciting news! I have bookplates! I cannot wait to show them to you! There was a bit of a learning curve with one design, but other one came out perfectly & is in my hot little hands even now! The reprinted design is supposed to arrive on Saturday, then it's just a matter of getting pictures of them for my site, and packaging them up! There are two different designs - one is based on the old library book checkout card and says 'From The Library Of'. The other says 'Ex Bibliotheca Curiosa' (which translates as "From the Magical Library Of") in the midst of a pretty border. Usually the phrase used is ex libris, which means 'from the books of', I know of my friends though, we don't just have books... we have lots of books. We have magical, wonderful libraries of our own beloved books. These bookplates will be $12.95 for 20 (compare 10 for $8.95 or 18 for $18) and you'll be first to know when they're ready to go! I really could not be more excited about them!
And my parting thought on that topic tonight is this:
