Vintage Halloween Hop

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I was totally charmed by the Vintage Halloween Hop link party when I came across it on NewlyWoodward's blog this morning. So, when Joseph and I went to my mother's for some happy pumpkin painting fun, I brought my scanner and took a little stroll down Memory Lane.

Memory Lane started with a 3 month old bunny named Caroline. I still have that long new baby stare, but my Mom is really cute!

Since my Dad was in the Army, we promptly moved to Germany before my next Halloween. Living off base in Germany for 3 years means that you don't really celebrate Halloween. Thus, no costumes or Trick or Treating.

The next time we hit the states I was 4 and I finally got to remove pumpkin brains with my Great Aunt Meg. I think we had fun:

But, still no Trick or Treating until the following year. I was 5 and my sister Amy was 3. I got to be a fairy princess. Amy got to be a one handed pirate.

I was clearly in love with my fairy self. Amy was less than thrilled. She didn't have pink wings or a sparkly wand. So. Not. Fair. Also, having lived all of her life in Germany and having a naturally skeptical mind, Amy didn't trust this whole "Trick or Treat" thing. At the first house, Amy turned to my Mom and said something like this: "You expect me to believe that I just walk up to that door, ring the bell, and they will hand over the candy?! Yeah right! Good one, Mom."

At the age of 6, I vehemently told my Mom that I wanted to be a rose for Halloween. Not just any rose, mind you. Beauty and the Beast had just come out and I wanted to be THAT rose. The sparkly one under the glass dome that controlled the Beast's fate  with the fall of its petals.

Really. Every other girl in the world wanted to be Belle that year. Me? I wanted to be The Magical Rose... because I'm weird like that. My Mom, supportive as ever, set about creating a rose costume for me. She's awesome like that. All I was missing was a glass dome to float around in. My Mom searched and searched for one of those clear, narrow dome umbrellas, but couldn't find one. That's ok. I was still a very, very happy domeless rose. Amy finally got to be a princess and she gave me her patented, "My sister is such a WIERDO!" look.

Along came our sister Kate. She got to revisit my fairy princess costume and proceeded to cast spells all over us. Since we always made her play the evil witch in our very dramatic Rapunzel plays, those probably weren't nice spells, but you never know with Kate.

At the age of 9, I decided to be a bat. That's right. A bat. As in, the creature. Me. The woman who hates bats. Maybe it was an omen of things to come?? Most kids would decide to be a vampire for Halloween. Me? I go with bat. Wierd. My leggings have glittery, orange bats on them and there's even a stuffed bat hanging upside down from my shirt. I just don't understand it now, but I thought I was SO cool. After all, I made that costume.

This is a before school picture, so Marshall isn't dressed up, but he went trick or treating as an Indian brave.

When I was 10, I went candy begging as my beloved stuffed bear Muffy who, sadly, had been lost during one of our many moves. Yup. I chose to be one of my former stuffed animals. Who does that??? Wierd. I even made that costume myself out of an old brown towel and a nightgown. Kate went as Queen of the World. Possibly Empress of the Universe. Marshall switched sides and went cowboy. Amy was a witch again. All black was going to become a Halloween pattern for her.

Due to moving around and getting older, I may have skipped a few Halloweens here and there, including whatever year The Matrix came out. That year, Amy decided to be the oh so cool Trinity from The Matrix. Kate wouldn't be left out of that action. Thus, the Year of the Two Trinities:

Amy was ticked, but at least she got to continue wearing black. I'm pretty sure she was Trinity again the following year. More black. She may have had something of a black fingernail polish goth phase.

Sometime after Pocahontas came out, I made yet another strange choice in costume. I decided I would be Meeko. You remember Meeko? He was Pocahontas' raccoon sidekick. I loved the biscuit thieving critter and made myself a raccoon costume. Yup. Most girls would want to be Pocahontas. Me? I wanted to be her pet raccoon. Wierd. Marshall actually ended up wearing my raccoon costume for Halloween 2000.

Amy, continuing to embrace black, was a ghoul. Kate was a Brownie. As in the miniature forest race in the movie Willow. The one's who prance around screaming, "I stole ze Baby!!" I was... a fairy queen? I was working part time at a community theater and had access to fluffy dresses in their costume department. What 14 year old girl turns down fluffy dresses? Never mind that I'm too old to be trick or treating. I was small for my age and young at heart.

Obviously... since I went trick or treating with my friends again when I was 15. We were the three blind mice. Walking canes, sunglasses, inside out school gym clothes, paper mouse ears attached to headbands, and no tails. I'm the short one.

In college, I always dressed up, but I aimed for more clothes than lingerie. Eighties chick, Princess Leia on Planet Hoth, and other dorky things. But the best year was when my roommates and I went as The Golden Girls. You know. To protest all of the lingerie. We were really, reeeally hot.

Goodwill is so helpful when one is trying to dress like these lovely ladies...

All of this reminiscing reminds me of the Halloween Dance Party in 2008. Which half of me is embarrassed to share... but the other half reasons that you already know about The Rose.



I miss my roomies. Nancy went as Sarah Palin with a shotgun. Peaches was a doctor. I forget what Laura went as... but I think it had to do with the 70s. Did you enjoy the bad eighties prom dress and big hair? I did.

Lastly, I'd like to leave you with, what is possibly my favorite Halloween picture of all time... My parents:

My Dad is a standard male Monty Python member dressed as a female. He does the voice so well! My mother is a Monty Python gumby. The picture of my Dad dressed as Saddam Hussein came in close second to this one.

Of course, if you don't get the Monty Python Flying Circus references (and I comfort myself with the knowledge that at least my father-in-law gets it)...  Then you can always just laugh at my brother in this next picture:

He hasn't changed a bit.

Fear not... Adorable Joseph the Lion Halloween pictures are in your future.

My Kid the Photo Bomber

Stephen, Joseph, and I recently met up with the Longbrake family for a friendly family picnic and photoshoot.

We had lots of fun eating peanut butter crackers and carrot sticks together. Mr. Colton is such a cutie. Don't you just want to smooch on him?

I do!

Joseph came along so that he could practice his barking skills with Mr. Colton. He was all about following Colton everywhere he went. Colton was all, "Dude? What's with this kid on my tail?" And Joseph was all, "MOM! He's MY size!! (almost :P) We're going to be best friends!! I want to do everything he does!!"

All that following ultimately led to this:

This picture cracks me up. Here I am in the middle of a Longbrake family photo shoot and I have... Mary Carolyn Longbrake, Colton Longbrake, and Joseph Not A Longbrake. My kid the photo bomber. Gotta have fun during a photoshoot, right?

Mary-Carolyn - I worked diligently on separating your photos into "everyone looking at the camera and smiling" and "Colton is so, so not cooperating" yesterday. I'll begin the editing process today. Hopefully I'll have a nice sneak peek blog post for you on my photography website this week! I had lots of fun spending time with you as usual! We definitely need to plan out a thrifting weekend sometime soon. Do you hear that Sarah? DO YOU????

The Living Room - Before & At Present

Since I wasn't even aware that my living room would be losing a wall so soon, I was unable to supervise the taking of living room before pictures. Thus, I have NONE. Harumph. SO, I have reconstructed the "before" living room using random photos of miscellaneous family events.

This is our living room shortly after we moved into the house. I had just painted it when I took this picture.

This is the wall and archway that divided the living room into two separate spaces. You know, the one the boys demolished...

Each side of the room had a matching rug. For the most part, the couches were typically arranged in the front half of the room. We have a long couch, a medium length couch, a loveseat/ottoman, and a recliner that Stephen can't live without.

The couches were usually located around the TV which Stephen mounted to the wall in the corner of the front room. The cords hanging from the TV drove me crazy, so I usually placed a piece of furniture underneath it to hide them. In the summer, the long couch sits in front of the radiator under the front window to the right of the TV.

In the winter, we move the long couch to the back wall of the back half of the living room so that the radiator won't catch it on fire. You can just see it if you look past Sarah driving a car over baby Joseph's face. What a mean aunt! ;)

For lack of a better place to put it, Stephen's recliner always sat under the archway pushed to one side. It was the only spot it had room to recline.

The back half of the living room usually contained a desk with computer, bookshelves, and lots of open space for Joseph to play with his toys. Sometimes we had coffee tables, sometimes we didn't. The furniture usually moved around once every few months (it's migratory), but that was the basic setup.

Then, a few weekends ago, Aaron and Stephen took out the central wall and arch whilst I was out of town. Sneaky devils.

Farewell, wall! It's been a fun 2 years, but it's time for us to move on.

See all the furniture behind Aaron in the above picture? I wasn't there to supervise the removal or covering of said furniture during the destruction phase (because I didn't know about any of it), so it was all pleasantly covered with dust. I'm still cleaning up demolition dust around the house. Stephen did buy plastic drop cloths to contain the dust, but he forgot about them in the excitement of destroying something. I'll probably kill him later.

One of the reasons Stephen and I had discussed possibly taking out the central living room wall at some point in the distant future was because we knew that there was a chimney inside the wall and we were interested in having an actual fireplace. It's just strange to live in a 130+ year old home and not have a fireplace. I mean, really!

Once they were finished ripping down the wall and had begun the beginnings of the new fireplace, the boys got started on cleanup... Which they took very, very seriously...

Careful Aaron! Don't let the shop vac get you!!

Please note that the carpets are still on the living room floor in these pictures. Yes. Seriously. They were there the whole time the wall was being taken down. No one rolled them up and took them to another part of the house. *rolls eyes* Boys.

Also, remember when I said that they didn't move or cover any of the furniture? That included the couches...

BOYS.

Dust. Everywhere. Even upstairs.

Do you see why supervision is necessary??? Do you see??? I will probably never be able to bring myself to leave my husband home alone again.

Fortunately, they had vacuumed the dust off the couches and taken the rugs outside to beat the dust out of them before I got home. I might have cried otherwise.

To give credit where credit is due, they did a really, really nice job. I'm definitely enjoying having such a huge, open space for a living room. I'm especially looking forward to having a mantel and fireplace to decorate for Christmas. Now we just have to finish the fireplace/mantel/chimney and patch/paint the walls and ceiling. Before Christmas. Right? Right?

Anyways, here is the living room as it is right now:

After a great deal of cleaning, cleaning, and rearranging, I think I've finally found an arrangement that works and leaves plenty of dance space.

Dance space if very important when you have little kids. That's why I've taken a disliking to coffee tables. I like having space to wrestle. Er... I mean... Dance.

Our couches are difficult to arrange because they are 3 feet deep and extra wide and fluffy. They are the most comfortable couches in the world, but their size makes them frustrating. On the other hand, they were a matching set and free hand-me-downs, so who am I to complain?

I probably tried 20 different arrangements before settling on this one. All the others made me feel claustrophobic or blocked easy passage through the room.

Of course, now the ceiling fan is completely off center in the room. We need another overhead light fixture in the center on the other side of the room to help balance it out.

The room is also down to one rug. I tried arranging things with both rugs, but it was just odd looking. So, I'm moving the second rug into the dining room.

The desk and computer are necessary in the living room since the computer is connected to the TV. We don't have cable, just internet, and everything we watch runs through the computer. I'll just have to find a way to prettify the corner and the desk.

Actually, I have lots of plans for this room. They involve lots and lots of paint. However, since I'm preggers, those plans will have to wait awhile. In the meantime, I need to hang pictures. The walls are a bit bare.

You may have noticed that the loveseat/ottoman are missing. I dumped them out in the Sandwich Shoppe for the time being. There was just no way to have all 4 pieces of furniture in the room and not feel crowded.

By the way, this is what the couches originally looked like. Hotness. My parents bought them 20 years ago. Nothing like turquoise and pink paisley!

Oh and apparently a local stray cat has taken up residence in the Sandwich Shoppe. I came running out from under the beds while I was taking these pictures. He scared a yelp out of me and then bolted under the stairs where there's a hole leading into the cellar. See his tail?

Sorry it's blurred. My camera was set to take pictures of stationary furniture, not feline interlopers. To be fair, it's snowing outside. In October!!

 I'd have snuck in too. We've already got 3 inches and we might get a little more. They were calling for 6 to 10 inches this morning, but it seems to have slowed down.

That's ok. It's the perfect kind of weather to be thinking happy fireplace thoughts in.

The Disdain of Big Brother Joseph

Hey Joseph! Guess what?? You are going to be a big brother! What do you think??

Oh. Hmm.

So, you aren't in the least bit interested? But babies are lots of fun! Trust me.

Oh, come on! Don't be like that! Don't you even want to look at the pictures???

WAIT! DON'T DO THAT!!!!

I managed to rescue the ultrasound pictures before Joseph damaged them too much. He'll come around. I don't think he actually understands any of it yet, but he will.

Blogosphere, meet Baby #2. The cause of my current near narcoleptic-like state and thus my  primary excuse for lack of blogging.

We're referring to him/her as Cobalt until we pick a name. Why? Well, when my husband was in high school, he decided that his children would be named Gastropod, Cobalt, and Frankenstein. Naturally, I objected. Wouldn't you? Thus, these names became temporary code names for our unborn children.

This little tyke is due May 3rd, which also happens to be my sister Amy's (and apparently Mary-Carolyn Longbrake's) birthday. I'm about a month apart from my sister-in-law Sarah, who is also wonderfully pregnant. We get to grow huge together. EEEEE!

Victorian Wallpaper Aplenty

When the boys tore down the central partition of the living room the weekend before last, they discovered not one, not two, but three different Victorian wallpaper patterns. Honestly, there could have been more, but it's hard to separate really old, crumbly wallpaper from the previous wallpapers. All I know is that there were lots of layers and, at present, on the very top of those layers of wallpaper is textured plaster.

The living room used to be divided into two rooms by this arch:

Really. Old. Picture. 2009.

It was a really nice arch. I really liked it. (Is it an arch? There's got to be a better word.)

It made arranging furniture a HUGE. PAIN. IN. THE. BUTT.

The first thing the guys did in their quest to destroy the arch was remove the molding. Under it, on both sides, they found wallpaper. Two different kinds of wallpaper. The fact that the wallpaper went all the way under the molding and the multiple entrances to the living room lead me to speculate that maybe these two rooms used to be completely separate and that the arch was cut into the wall sometime after the house was built. That or the owners decided to wallpaper the walls before putting up the molding. Not a bad plan, but who knows.

Unfortunately, I had the nice camera with me that weekend, and so all of these pictures were taken with Stephen's phone... I apologize for the poor quality and I'm really sad that I don't have any detail shots for you... Sorry! Or maybe... You're welcome? Depends on how much you like to gaze adoringly at old wallpaper! ;)

The first wallpaper (and my favorite) was a green/gold/grey leafy number with a nice border around the ceiling. I think it was put up after the arch was put in since it didn't continue under the molding.

Underneath that wallpaper was the lovely burgandy/green/gold checkered damask that we found by the old walled up chimney.

A lot of the damask wallpaper survived the demolition. :) It also appears to have an altered pattern near the ceiling.

And, oddly, it matches my couches...

I do have a nicer detail shot of this wallpaper, so you can see the flower in the center of the design. 

The third wallpaper that the boys uncovered was on the opposite side of the partition (the back half of the living room). It is a light green with widely spaced red damask prints.

I apologize. I know it's hard to see. These are the best pictures I have of it. My history loving soul is weeping a little on the inside, but I know I can probably see it for myself if I ever get the sudden urge to tear down the rest of plaster on that side of the room... you know... when I lose my mind. Or decide to replace it with drywall and board and batten... in twenty years.

And yes... There is a hole in my living room ceiling, but the boys aren't responsible. Thanks to gravity and age, the plaster in that spot came tumbling down a year ago. I finally have plans to fix it. Along with the rest of the ceiling where the wall used to be...

So, what do you think of the Victorians' taste in wallpaper? Pretty grand, eh? I think I might like to duplicate it all over the living room walls! Wait! Make that the whole house! I'll bring it back to life! Give it some vim and vigor!

Kidding!

(Mostly.)