All Hallows Eve Blog Party

Welcome All! I am so happy to have you come to visit!

Please come in and sit with me for a cup of tea. I have some lovely African red roobios tea with almond and vanilla brewing.

Here, Let's sit at my holiday table. This is the celebration of the Third, and final, Harvest in the northern hemisphere. The last of the "crops" are in and we prepare for the dark months when the sun shines less, it gets cold, and the inner work of the year begins. We celebrate the abundance of a year of our work. Some of it was difficult, some of it a joy, but the dreams we had last year have produced the abundance upon which we will survive the winter ahead. Would you like to drink from a cup of abundance? Sip from the cup of your dreams?This year, for my party with you, I drew upon some work I did about 30 years ago. This is a twisted column vase. I figured out how to make crochet spiral up to the Heavens! I like how it looks. Yes, I crocheted all of these pots for the party; I have had this long fascination with vessels. They are all about holding something precious. Also, they symbolize for me the sacredness of Women's Work.I hadn't done any crocheting in a long time and it was good to have an excuse to do it again. I thought that I might send them out into the world. What do you think? Pass on a bit of the bounty.
Oh! Who is that at the door?

Why, it is the Junque Couture girls from next door! Please come in! Meet my friends!This is Shanna, who wishes you Glad Harvest. Her dress was embellished with buttons, keys and other fripperies from my junk drawer.Please meet Franna, who, as her bird so boldly exclaims, is the voting fairy. She wants you to know that she heard on public radio that the polls only indicate the probable voting preferances of those of us who are registered to vote, while the choices of those who are actually, statistically, most likely to vote show a slightly different picture. This year's presidential election is therefore possibly in the feet of the "under 30, unmarried and non-white" crowd. This is what Shanna has to say to you: "Get your feets to the polls on the 4th of November!!!" In case you are wondering, Franna's dress is made from cut paper snippetts left over from an ATC making foray. Her wings and the golden eagle coin on her stand are color photocopies of a bead ribbon and chocolate coin wrapper that I had - yeah, in my junk drawer. Here is Roxanna. Her dress is a luscious blend of paper cut snippetts, leftovers from the flag-string behind her and some sparkles from my junk drawer. Her wings and bird were found in my prototype book Your Artist Journal which is in redesign at the moment.
And finally meet Deeanna, who is another Voter/Woman of Power. Her Junque Couture includes color photocopies of ancient Chinese key reproductions, a glass heart, that bead ribbon again, an iron gear whatchamacallit and a copper colored foil candy wrapper.

Hey! May I give you a "party favorite"? (This term was coined by a 5 year old friend.) Well, I am so glad that you have stopped by, and the Junque Girls would love some company (politically fierce or not). Well, here you go: click on this image, download it to your computer and print it out. The instructions are there on the page.

Check out the wall paper: What IS that noise outside? Com'on. Let's go check it out ... What is that over there?Oh! It is the Gnomies!Hi Gnomies! How are you all this fine fall day?
Mamma Gnomie reports that they are all well. She wanted to know if their mining work had disturbed us. It really didn't, I just forgot that Autumn is the best time for them to gather their gold for the year. Young Gnomie showed us shere the King was: He is offering us a tour. Shall we see what they have been up to?Someone scouts from above, and, using ancient Gnomie methods, locates where to dig.Look what Green Gnomie found!!It is getting close to suppertime. I have a big feast laid out - will you all come back to my house and share it with me? Yes? Great! Oh! No! There are the squashes! I forgot to make the soup! - Hey, you all wouldn't mind if I got out my magic wand and kinda, well, made it that way, would you?

Yes, you are correct: I think that a little dollop of magic tastes good too.

Well then: zzzzz... rrrrr ... uuuuu ... jjjjj!Oh, look what the Gnomies brought: over there on the left - some gold coins! How generous they are. You can see how much they love what they do:And they loooove that Little Lad's popcorn! They get right into it!! Now for dessert: I have made you some Great Wheel cookies. The Great Wheel is how the Old Ones in north-western Europe imagined the year and the turning of the seasons. Here, let me show you: See how we move around the wheel?

Well, the Wheel is moving into the time of slowing down, turning inward: indeed, we are moving into the time of dreaming. Birds are the symbol, especially at this time of year, of journeys, and, because they are inhabitants of the skies, of Heaven.

So take a cookie,

Let the bell ring to start your Winter's Journey into the dream ...

Take a coin - the Gnomies have invited us to share their wealth ...

And join them at their fire on this quiet, sweet night.

Thank you for your company. I have other gatherings over the course of the next month, so stay in touch. I also have gifts for random posters of comments to this blog post. I have lots! So do let me know that you stopped by. (Comments in person count too, for those of you close enough to do so!)

Sweet Dreams!