Honeysuckles are celebrating Dia de los Muertos

Dia de los Muertos is celebrated between October 31 and November 2nd. A celebration of those who have gone before with us with feasts and laughter and at times in the grave yards. When you think about it, not a bad idea.

Oh, Mexico, you are so right with this celebration. Okay, my little honeysuckle peeps, yes I am trying to get inspired to create some Mexican art for a swap I am participating in.... remember India.... this month we travel to Mexico.

I visited Mexico at a very young age - around 8 years old. We went through Brownsville, TX, and went into the country and I fell in love with it. My parents honeymooned in Mexico in the late 40s after my dad came home from the war. So, yes, there have always been warm and fuzzy thoughts about this marvelous country. Well, kind of... OK, I also love San Antonio and the Alamo and didn't like the Mexicans trying to kill my boys! Even bought my first coonskin cap and sang Davy, Davy Crockett outside the Alamo and stuck my fingers in the bullet holes.... as I sang.

Today, I started to get serious about my creation. Nope, I still don't have a clue on what I am going to create - this is the time to absorb stuff to creep into my creative juices getting ready to flow through my creative process. I hope it pops out soon. I took photos while shopping today:

Bought some food products to see if I want to use the packaging - don't know yet, but it will be on hand when my muse wakes up.....


I do promise not to be wasteful and will cross my heart that I will try to use these products. cross, cross. Also found some recipe books after eating at my fav eatery - Taco Bell (have to keep with the program here), amigos,

and already had skeletons cut out from my September workshop, (I do love my blue painted watercolor paper but not sure blue will work with Mexico, we will see),

Bought some fake skeletons to cut up if I decide to,

Here is an example on how they might work cut up:

CSI would love the remains:

To use a Michelle Ward saying, "I crack myself up!" Yes, it is that time of the night when I tell you I need to run and cook dinner. BUT, tonight in about 1 hour my buds, Ghost Hunters, have a live marathon on SyFy! I love Halloween. And hugs to all,

Travel Journey Visited!

For your viewing pleasure this evening in the Honeysuckle Breeze, we have pulled out our trusty travel journal and added the Boston/Salem pages. It has been a hot and steamy day in the Washington, DC, area - as it has been in most places east of the Mississippi. I did manage to get through cardio tennis this morning for one hour. It was sweaty just standing around waiting to run onto the court. WOW. Hot, steamy, muggy and just down right hot. Larcy and I did some running around. She left Oliver pup at home since it was just too hot to take him with us.

When I returned home I decided I had to get the travel journal out. Started with my blank pages. Above is the left hand side after I added Black Gesso to the page to "muddy" and distress it. And then the finished page....

In Salem I "negotiated" with a shop owner for a used box of Tarot cards which I knew I wanted to use in art work. He was a little thrown off by my wanting a "used" and old set - but I explained I would not have to do that much distressing to them. That was fun.....

And now, my little kiddies, lets wander off to the right side I titled, "She only flies after dark . . when moon light falls...."

OK, I admit it -- I did get carried away with this side..... yes, I did....

One of my fav nuns and a rub-on of a dandelion! Why not.... The finished product for both layouts:


I have to admit something to you. If this post seems a little "quick" and to "the point" - it is .... I am upstairs and although the sun has gone down - It still gets mighty warm up here with the southwest exposure and sometimes, especially during the day, I don't like to come up here but can't really move this room downstairs to the living room where it is deliciously cool and nice TV... BUtttttt - OK, here I go off again..... I have to show you all the Swan Boat Harley, Betsy, and I rode on one lovely day in Boston. Is it not beautiful????


Harley fell in love....

Yes, Harley is just a little harley-about-town.... just a roust-about......

We can't forget my "odd hotel" Very odd


The Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers.... Room 935. Dead phone, crazy coffee maker, air conditioner (don't get me started)....... just down right odd. I swear there was something weird and eerie about the whole 9th floor. Trust me. Yes, I will have to do my own investigation online to see if there are any lurking stories out there on this hotel! Yes, I will.

Don't get me wrong - a fun time was had by all in a lovely city.....

Nighty, night boys and girls. Stay tuned tomorrow for a give away -- a book I bought BUT am not into zentangles...... OH NO, they tangle my brain and in my world, there is no zen in a zentangle! LOL

Back Home in the Honeysuckles

Hi, Harley here - Mom is at lunch and I wanted to do a quick post to let you all know we made it home safe and sound from Boston and Salem. It is SOoooooo good to be home among the honeysuckles - OK, it is hot and muggy here and we are sweaty - Buttttt, it is so good to sleep in your own bed.

There were times in our travels on the highways, byways, subways, that I truly hung on for dear life. But the busy life is the exciting life, as they say. Not sure who said it butttttt......

And then - BAM - the dreaded sign, who do they think they are? Well, that didn't stop my mistress and me traversing wherever we wanted until our little paws and feet were really tired and sore. And then we found...... a jewel in the hot and muggy Salem Breeze

Yes, we did dunk our Dunkins' in ice coffee, our way. My mistress will return soon - maybe tomorrow. Tonight she has to take her tired butt and feet and play tennis in the muggies and won't be home till late. OH my, work, tennis, work, tennis, and then hug a Harley. Perfect prescription for a perfect life. I will let her fill you in about the hotel from the Twilight Zone we stayed out. *shivers* Looks like Colorado's The Stanley Hotel to me, a.k.a The Shining by Stephen King! Butttt we were in Boston..... oh no *shivers* and more *shivers*

See you later........... Harley and

DIY in the Breeze OMG

YIKES -- the Geisha Page, OH no, OH no...... splitting - more horrible than splitting hair ends, more heartbreaking than split nails, . . . YIKES...

After finishing the "Chucky Lives" creation in the "Off the Walls Notebook," I noticed that some of the signatures were starting to "split" apart. Not sure why, but imagine it is the way I have been creating the pages. I do not need pages to start "falling" out of the book since I cannot take this book apart and rebind. SO, today we have done a little DIY in the Honeysuckles. Got the masking tape out,

and began identifying where the problems were and then laid the tape down before I did another layout. Had to put something over this page which is the back on one of the "doll" pages:

What this meant is I had to cover all of the back of the page and it just wasn't possible to glue two pages together and cause strain on a signature. So I found a February 1997 "Shape" magazine and ripped out an ad from it t use as the background.

I love this quote on this page: Energy escapes the body in the form of shivers. Who knew. Well, guess they did, and, of course, I have never met a scary doll head I didn't like and had one left over.

YES, boys and girls, I was using left over items on my table. To me this just screams, KISS ME, sucker. OK, never mind, we won't go there. Just pucker up.

Don't have a clue where I picked up the "regression" card - but love it: "A depression is sometimes called a regression." Hmmm, I never called depression a recession but I know some recessions that cause depression. Duh..... And then I went to the mall. There is no correlation between the mall and depression or recession. I am HELPING the recession. Found this little lovely from Brighton

on sale at 30% off:

It is called the Brighton Tiki Tile Wheeled Weekender. OK, I going for a little bit longer than a weekend to Boston this week to meet up with my good friends Ron and Betsy who live in Oklahoma City. Betsy and I have been BFFs since the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, -

you get the idea.... here we were at the Louvre..... (oh yea, Harley was there too....)

I will be hanging out with her while hubby attends a convention and then on Saturday we will all head to Salem.

Oh yes. Love witches. Have a good eve! Cackle, Cackle, Cackle.....

K = Killer Klowns

What can I say - I loved that movie.... 1988, Killer Klowns from Outer Space. OK, I know I am quirky, I admit it without argument. I am comfortable in my quirkinesssss....

BAck to topic at hand....Killer Klowns, oh yes. The K card came together when I heard "killer" on Most Haunted today (yes, watching my DVR at lunch) and then I remembered one of my fav "worst" movies rated B (for BADDD) in the whole wide world. Until you watch it, don't judge. If you would like to read about it: click here. (hey it was labeled a comedy kind of) And - so inspired, I started with the lovely Elizabeth's (Altered Book Lover) deli paper that she sent to me a while back.

All of the images used here are from two different digital collage sheets from Itkupilli's Clown collections" (1) Clowns and Pierrots, and (2) Vintage Circus. I love her images and many of you know because you keep seeing them? LOL. I had fun with this card:

Added some rhinestones, some buttons, some stickles.... What more could a gal ask for?

Because of the "busyness" of this card, I decided to place the letter "k" on a red button to lift it up and away from the card. It kept getting lost. Did the same with the "sick" klown face in the middle. I used some pop dots to give it some depth.

The little bunny was an after thought - and no, he is not lunch, because I needed to add something right in that spot to bring it all together and he was just the right size. Hope you enjoyed this card because I am now trying to figure out the next letter. Only FOUR left.... today has been one of those great Saturdays... grey and rainy but sun was out early so I did get in cardio tennis this morning. Lunch was delish, a salad,

Even got in a tea break about half way through creating the "k" card..... Larcy brought me some great tea back from South Carolina for taking care of my nephew pup, Oliver, and I love the dish she gave me at Christmas time:

Tonight, bacon and eggs, and an "original" movie on the SyFy channel - The Mothman. I so love that urban legend. I wanna go to the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Sounds like a cool weekend trip to me. OK, my little suckles, tonight I wish you a pleasant sleep with dancing dreams of circus clowns all night long. Nighty night....