Feedback needed

I just finished this painting and would really love some opinions and feedback on it. 1-is it too simple? Too bright, too dark? Did I mess it up adding the interference paint in the trees? (I wanted to give it a feel of a breeze blowing and just a hint of magic.) Do I need to add something? As everyone knows I hate too much detail and love color. I also love sparklies and It's killing me not to add small rhinestones as stars. Should I try to sell it as is or should I add the stones? I feel like I'm not voicing my own vision not to add the stones, but I would really love to sell this as a print too. It's called Early Autumn Night. Help!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Comments | Costumes and Decorations

Halloween Party 2010

Hey, there you are! Thanks for coming. Cool costumes. Come on in and let’s get started.
Hands out of the candy by the door. It’s for the trick or treaters.

Now, everyone find a seat. There’s popcorn on the coffee table. Help yourself. I also have drinks, candy, and other goodies for all on the dining room table. There’s pigs in the blanket, toasted nachos with cheese, and green punch. There is also cookies, candied apples, and cake.








For those who wish, I’ll be making Bloody Marys and Midnight Margaritas.
























Now then, what shall we watch first? How about something fun like A Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride. I love Tim Burton movies.

Or maybe a little scare. I so love to watch B movies from the 50s.












Or maybe we could watch one of the movies that truly scared me. This is one of the best ghost stories I have ever read or seen.












Ok, everyone got snackies? (Barney! Get down. You don’t get sweet snacks. Sorry , folks. My cat is a pig.) Let’s get started…

...lights out.

Hope everyone has a lovey time party hopping from Vanessa's Halloween party 2010.

October the First

Yay, It's October! My favorite month. It is time for the leaves to change and fall, the apples to ripen, and mums, pumpkins, and corn stalks bundles are everywhere. It's time for decorating ones front yard with Autumn scenes. It's time for watching a football game huddled under a blanket, for friends gathering around bonfires, time to pull out your most loved sweater. It's time for Starbucks to bring back the pumpkin spiced lattes!
It's also the month of scary. Halloween always singles the start of the holiday months. In my opinion Halloween should be a get out of work holiday so one can spend all day getting ready for that night. I mean, really, it's takes a while to become a convincing zombie.
Also, during October the TV stations pull out all the horror movies. And though I love horror flicks, there has been not too many of them lately. Sure there has been slasher flicks where the whole movie depends on special effects and shock value. The seems to not be a real plot. I guess this bothers me because I am a story teller. I like plot and deep characters. The suspense has been lost. Don't get me wrong. Everyone who knows me knows I can sit though twelve hours of zombie movies. I love B movies. But today's B movies lack the suspense of the old black and white movies of the fifties. There was just something about them-the fear of the unknown, the build up to the revel.
This month I will share the trailers of some of my all time favorite B movies. So, for your enjoyment here is the first (and my ultimate favorite)- War of the worlds (the original)

A Spooky Story

BANG

Stacy groaned and flipped over to bury her head against Jim’s back.

BANG!

Jim grunted and pulled his pillow over his head.

BANG!

“Stacy, do something about that cat!” Jim’s muffled voice came. “I can’t sleep.”

Stacy laid there, reluctant to leave the warmth of the bed. Another bang of the door came. She turned over and sat up. She could see a small white paw under the door where it didn’t quite meet the floor. She could also see the glean of a green eye staring at her next to the paw. She got up to open the door and glare down at her tortoiseshell cat, Munchie. Glancing at the clock Stacy saw that it was 3:23 am.

“Can’t you wait for morning?”

Munchie turned and ran down the stairs to the kitchen door, her miffed owner behind her. Once the door was opened she sashayed over to her bowl to sit with a queenly dignity for her very early breakfast.

After ten minutes of dainty eating and a quick wash she led Stacy to the back door. Stacy opened the door and stared out at the heavy fog that obscured the night. Munchie started out, then sat down just inside the door, looking out.

“Oh, no, you don’t. You are not waking me up again to let you out.” Stacy put her foot under the cat’s rump and shoved her out the door. Munchie turned to hiss at her then raced across the deck into the fog. Stacy turned to make her way back to bed. As she got settled back against her husband’s back she heard a jingle coming from downstairs. She raised her head. There, she heard it again.

“What the…?”

“What is it?” Jim asked.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“That jingling noise. It sounds like it’s coming from the kitchen.”

He listened.

“Sounds like the bell on the cat’s collar. Big deal.”

“I put Munchie out.” Stacy got up to investigate the sound.

Back downstairs Stacy opened the kitchen door and flipped on the overhead light. There, in her bed next to the iron stove, laid Munchie. She opened one sleepy eye to glare at her in annoyance.

“If Munchie is in here,” Stacy moved to the door. “what did I kick out the door?”

Then it dawned on her. The whole previous episode was silent. Not once did the cat meow, purr, or make a sound with her collar bell.
　
　
　
　

Why I Hate and Fear Clowns

I really do not like clowns. Have never been able to face them. It’s a good thing McDonald’s have remove Ronald from in front of their establishments or I would have to forgo their yummy coffees. I believe I know where this fear came from. It is from an old One Step Beyond episode. This one below. Since I saw it I have hated clowns.


One Step Beyond - Clown
Starring - John Newland, Yvette Mimieux, Mickey Shaughnessy, Christopher Dark, Paul Moose Garner, Jack Daly, John Close, Karen Scott, Jim Nolan
Directed by - John Newland
(1960) - B&W - 24 min
In this episode -The Clown, a jealous boyfriend kills his girlfriend, played by Yvette Mimieux, when he finds her hiding in Pippo the Clown's trailer at the carnival. Then - he is haunted by the menacing clown - but all in some dream world. This episode is probsably the original of all the scary clown tv and movie themes we have seen since. Really great episode - check out that clown's face!


Here is the link to the episode on youtube if you want to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrY7_tPLzgg




And of course, this did not help matters at all. I hear Warner Brothers are doing a remake. So am NOT going to see this one. *shudder*

An Autumn Poem

GOD’S PALLET

Deep Autumn blue
seen through rustling leaves
my heart sings with joy
at the song of the breeze
God's pallet surrounds me
crimson reds, deep oranges,
bright yellows, deep greens
shadowy purples and blues
dry leaves crackle
under my dancing feet
the scent of life fills me
all is well with my soul

Autumn In The South

It's images like these that make me glad I'm living in the Southern Appalachians.
http://www.southernliving.com/southern/features/special_sections/article/0,28012,1123013,00.html

An Old Halloween Song From My Childhood

Halloween Night, Halloween Night,
Witches and Goblins are out on the run,
Halloween Ghost, Halloween Ghost,
Creepy sounds scare us the most!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Graphics for Halloween Comments

A Bright Leaf

You see before you one bright leaf, shifting in the Autumn breeze, hanging in the darkened shadows of the other leaves still clinging to Summer's green. One small orange-yellow leaf, showing the ravages of time in it's holes and dying edges. It's a beautiful thing-this lone little leaf. It gives us joy in it's lovely color, sadness in knowing that Winter is around the corner, and hope for the far off coming of Spring.

An Autumn Poem

Deep Autumn blue
seen through rustling leaves
my heart sings with joy
at the song of the breeze
God's pallet surrounds me
crimson reds, deep oranges,
bright yellows, deep greens
shadowy purples and blues
dry leaves crackle
under my dancing feet
the scent of life fills me
all is well with my soul

This Time Last Year

While I was painting my toenails black while wearing a frilly pink night gown I had to just laugh and think about this time last year.
What a difference a year can make. At this time last year, I was in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery, my phone cut off, and about to lose the house.
I had quit a job I really hated because they were getting ready to fire me anyway for poor performance. I was very tired ans weak all the time and just could not keep up. So I was working a temp job making very little and going under from all the bills backing up. The mortage was three months overdue and the phone had been cut off. I was feeling worse, my heartbeat irregular so I decided to go to the ER to have a doc look at me. Mine you, I was bleeding heavily due to a menstural period that would not stop. I was bleeding constantly for at least a couple of months because I could not afford the birth control pills my doctor had put me on to keep me regulated. I no longer had insurance. I figured if I went to the ER the doctor there would give me a prescription for some more pills.
So there I was in a little room, waiting for the doctor after seeing the nurse, when all of the sudden my room was full of nurses and techs,hooking me up to all kinds of things-like blood, EKGs, and other IVs and machines. That had me alittle nervous. Then the doctor came in and hummed over my chart, looked at me and said he was calling in a specialist. WTF? Now I was more than alittle nervous, bordering on a lot of scared. So about an hour later after I worked my way up to a point, another doctor came in, looked at my chart, and ordered an ultrasound. Uh? So a nice nurse wheeled me down the hall to the ultrasound room. And let me tell you, those things are not fun. The gel is cold, the instruments not much warmer, and it hurt. When that torture was over I was sent back to my little room. A few minutes later the doctor came back and made an announcement that so totally floored me.
"You need to have a hysterectomy tonight or you are going to die."
Talk about going numb with shock. At least for a minute. He explained that they could give me blood, send me home with a prescription. That was only treating the problem, not fixing it. I voted for the surgery, insurance or not. Next I knew I was being wheeled down the hall for preping. I did have time to call and leave a message with my sister to let everyone know where I was so no one, like mom, freaked. Then I was out.
Next I knew I was aware of someone calling my name. I woke up enough to vaguely understand my sister and two of her boys were there. One, Patrick, was on leave from the army, and he left the next day, so I didn't get to see him. And know one came to see me while I was there in the hospital, alone and in pain. I don't think any of my friends knew I was there, my sister's car was in Kentucy where her boyfriend was pulled over for speeding and had to wait for her to send him so money, and my other sis lives out of town and couldn't get off work.
Then I got a call from mom telling me the mortage company was getting ready to forclose and I had to do something. So here I was recoverying from a major surgery trying to stop that. In a round about way because one cannot make 800 calls from the hospital. I finally got a call from the agent and asked them to wait until I got out. Then had to call around and beg money fron relatives to keep my home. Thank God my out of town sister worked for the government and had the money. One crisis taken care of, at least for a while.
A couple of days later I was discharged from the hospital. They really don't like for you to have a long stay, especially if you don't have insurance. But the nurses freaked when I asked them to just wheel me out to my car. No driving for me for at least two weeks. Yeah, right. My sis's car was still in the bluegrass state, so I had no ride home. They got a ride with a "taxi services" that offers rides for free or low income. As soon as I got home, I got me a ride back out to the hospital to get my car. I still had things to take care of such as my last paycheck from the temp service to pay my phone bill, a trip to Wal-mart for my prescriptions and groceries, and a call to the mortage company. I was in very bad pain, afraid I would accidently reopen my surtures, but life does not stop to give you time to heal.
It was a horrible end to the year. Christmas sucked. From the first of October 2007-April 2008 things have been rough.
But, here is is, a year later, and things are looking better, somewhat. I have a good job I like most days, making more on the hour than the one I quit, I still have the house, and I feel better than I have in a long time. I'm looking forward to opening a store on Etsy.com of my artwork and am looking to publish my poetry. Life is better.
All I need to make it better is a good man to share it all with.

Autumn

Yea! It's finally Autumn. The weather is cooling down, even if it's a little rainy. I was standing on my porch last night and a wind came through, rattling the leaves off the trees in the woods behind my house. Seeing those yellow popular and crimson mable leaves fly across my yard just made my heart thump.

I love Fall.

This time of the year I can ride down the road and see peoples little autumn vignettes set up in their yards featuring the hay bales, corn stalks, scarecrows, mums and pumkins. I guess I like this season because it features all my favorite colors-reds, golds, oranges, and black. I just get giddy when I pass a corn field or a pumkin sale or a greenhouse covered in mums. And the sky is the color blue that can be seen only in Autumn.

And now that it is October it's time to think Halloween, my second favorite holiday. Yes, it's only one day, but the whole month is really deciated to the human love of being scared out of our wits. In a fun way. And it all accumalates on October 31st when our kids go out in search of sweets in all their cute costumes. Then they bring it home for us to go through and hunt out the chocolate....I mean bad candy.

And yes, I am already thinking ahead to Christmas. As well as the stores. I swear I've seen christmas decorations and supplies in some stores.

Damn.

A Nice Video

Inuyasha AMV - The Other Side of Time


I'm not really into this stuff, but I thought the video was well done and I love this song.

My Dark Angel

a coppery red moon
hangs low in a midnight sky
you stand in the darkness
beneath a crimson canopy
where October's chill breeze
sings a dry mournful song
and lifts your night black hair
your piercing grey eyes
stare from your pale face
I know your kiss
death cold yet burning
turning my soul to ash
my dark angel
with broken wings.