Blogfire Blog Blitz!

If you haven't dropped in lately, my studio on ArtFire is all gussied up for the Fall season right now even as I'm getting all my holiday shopping ducks in a row (old favorites and new additions all scheduled to be up by mid November!)

Note my new shop banner? My favorite banner designer, Winchester Lambourne has made me a new one to slip in between my summer and winter banners!! It coordinates with the new banner here on my blog and in my Etsy shop. So perfectly seasonal. Gee I think she makes my work look good!


But this post is to start my readers thinking about holiday shopping for that WillOaks Studio necklace you've been considering (drooling over?)--either to give as a gift or to get for yourself for when you're nicely dressed up (even if it is only that one time of the year!?!) --

OK, so maybe it's just for a nice original pearl design....to wear with your jeans while you're digging in the garden, shoveling snow or milking the cows? Don't laugh, I actually DO these things here at WillOaks Farm! OK, maybe the cows are a stretch....but I do put on all kinds of pearl necklaces with all kinds of crazy outfits....remember, I run a campground from May 1 to mid October! And also remember: pearls are completely washable as are the handmade silk ribbons I've been fond of using in my pearl bib designs the past couple of years.

And while it doesn't happen too often...when I'm questioned about this way of dressing (especially at the campground) I give the softball pitch about my online studios. Or if the puzzlement seems REALLY bad....I just say that pearls are my birthstone. But I don't usually need an excuse and, IMHO, neither do ANY women for wanting to put on jewelry and a dab of perfume, even if it is just to clean the house. Does this make me retro?

So I'm engaging in shameless self-promotion today because that is the theme of our new Blogfire Blog Blitz. I'm steering you over to the next blog by Janet Bocciardi of Honey From The Bee who also has shops on ArtFire and Etsy, and also belongs to the ArtFire Guild we call Blogfire. (Be sure to link to her shops from her blog--you're in for a treat!)

And while I'm not sure yet what surprises she will have for you today, here's a cool tip: also scroll down to her 10-31-11 post for a fabulous peek at La Rambla in Barcelona where everyone seems to be going a tad nutty for Halloween!! It's so cool!

True confession: I hung out in a hostel on the Rambla for a couple of weeks in my "youth" but it was during July or August, so I missed the Halloween fun. BUT my experience of this amazing neighborhood in this fantastic city was also memorable. Hmmmm, I wonder when I can wander back over there again? It's been quite awhile.....and I could use a good dose of Gaudi's art and architecture....I love Spain and Catalonia and paella!

Please enjoy the rest of the Blog Blitz, following link to link, and blog to blog (with little detours to several fine shops full of Handmade Goodness!) Happy November and thanks for dropping by!

Samhain, Summer's End, Halloween

No blasphemy intended, but I'm not a fan of the secular Halloween holiday and celebration. The pagan roots, however, I find fascinating. As someone who grew up in the rural, agricultural middle west where the seasons of weather and work still determine much of the rhythm of life, I find a kinship with older harvest celebrations.

I did love running wild after dark on Halloween as a kid. I swear I would howl at the moon and felt the very near presence of spirits, so well explained in this Wikipedia description below, which I lifted from their pages. I stripped out the footnotes, but please follow this link for more depth to this lovely overview of the holiday (holy day.)

Samhain is a Gaelic festival held on October 31–November 1. The Irish name Samhain is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end" A harvest festival with ancient roots in Celtic polytheism, it was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and continued to be celebrated in late medieval times. Due to its date it became associated with the Christian festival All Saints' Day, and greatly influenced modern celebration of Halloween.

Samhain marked the end of the harvest, the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half". It was traditionally celebrated over the course of several days. Many scholars believe that it was the beginning of the Celtic year. It has some elements of a festival of the dead. The Gaels believed that the border between this world and the otherworld became thin on Samhain; because some animals and plants were dying, it thus allowed the dead to reach back through the veil that separated them from the living. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. People and their livestock would often walk between two bonfires as a cleansing ritual, and the bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.

The Gaelic custom of wearing costumes and masks, was an attempt to copy the spirits or placate them. In Scotland the dead were impersonated by young men with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white. Samhnag — turnips which were hollowed-out and carved with faces to make lanterns — were also used to ward off harmful spirits.

The Gaelic festival became associated with the Christian All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, and has hugely influenced the secular customs now connected with Halloween, a name first attested in the 16th century as a Scottish shortening of the fullerAll-Hallows-Even.

Samhain continues to be celebrated as a religious festival by some Neopagans.

Please visit here for the source of my story reprinted here. It's been illustrated with my photos taken over time around the WillOaks Farm and Campground. Want to see more artists' Halloween blog celebrations? The master list for this Blogfire carnival will be posted here later on 10-28-10.

Enjoy your holiday! Celebrate the end of the season and the harvest. And don't eat too much candy!

Falling Falling Falling Fall.....

Around this time of year, I suddenly wake up and notice--and the trees have all turned colors. I suddenly see that the leaves are on the ground and the branches are bare. Somehow, I seem to miss the actual transitions between these different states.

Until yesterday, that is. I stepped out on my deck with my camera at the ready as the big tree over my deck let loose with most of its bright yellow leaves. Gust after gust blew through and it rained leaves for hours. What a sight and what a sound.

It was glorious! All these yellow leaves falling down, flying around, covering everything. So I edited to share a 30 second spot of this Fall transition that I hardly ever actually SEE---The falling in Fall. What a treat! Enjoy!


Blue Sky, Yellow Leaves, Gusts of Wind, Flying Gold

Visit more artists' blogs with autumn themed posts, Friday and all weekend, by checking the list of blogs here.

Happy Weekend All! It's the final campground weekend of 2010 and then, I'll resume living in a regular house.