J. Thaddeus Ozark's Cookie Jars and Other Larks

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Gearing up for Halloween

This weekend marks the start of my Halloween decorating,

unfortunately, because of the new floors

going in HERE and my wife wanting to paint the walls,

we have everything topsy turvy.

Things I usually set or hang decorations on are

still out in the garage or covered with tools

and painting supplies.

But I did manage to get the hutch buffet started.

I start with Eden's Halloween table runner

that she made for us last year!

Followed by a new purchase that

I just received in the mail...

A Dept 56 Crows on Corn candy dish.

I found it online at Ghoul Gallery, I was lucky,

I bought the last one!

It compliments my crow candle holders

that I purchased last year.

get one here

also from Ghoul Gallery.

It's the only place I've ever seen them,

and they were "retired" in 2005.

The candy dish has a cute little

smiling pumpkin inside.

which leads me to believe there's more to this set.

Here's a dept 56 tea light holder that I saw online

that looks just like that pumpkin.

And these mugs...

see the same pumpkin there,

along with all these other charcacters?

image form ebay

And here's that same cat from the mug...

I feel this was an extensive unnamed line that

Dept 56 released just before they

stopped production of Halloween collectibles.
Here's more of the collection I was able to find
pictures of....

But I digress, Let us get back to my decorating.

Next I put up the fall wreath

and placed the Kron TV Lamp Owl on his perch...

CREEPY, huh?

Then, I carefully unpacked all the collectibles,

and arranged them

along the buffet and on the hutch.

There's the crow next to the dish.

Here's my Anna Lee candy corn elf
next to my

"Frankenstein Stein" mug

One Hundred 80 Degrees.

He sits across from my

Dept 56 google eye Bride of Frankenstein Bowl From
the "Frankenstein's Laboratory" line.

AAAAHHHHHH!

She is screaming at

the Pottery Barn mice this year.
With my Halloween hutch/buffet almost done,

I move on to the dry goods pantry,

I am a big fan of the

Fitz and Floyd "Halloween Harvest" line

The Halloween Harvest Haunted House

Cookie Jar is the biggest jar I own.

I received the matching cat and pumpkin

salt and pepper shakers

free with the purchase of the

cookie jar from FitzandFloyd.com many years ago.

The matching Halloween Harvest lidded box witch

I purchased a little later.

I was fortunate to catch the
Halloween Harvest Dracula at a half off
sale on FitzandFloyd.com. They are always
offering great sales. He would have been way
too expensive otherwise.

get one here

I am also the proud owner this year of the
Glitterville stacking Halloween cake plates.

I just love the bright colors, and the little silhouettes

match the little silhouettes on the buffet table runner.

Sam won a little money at the slots this summer and

said I could get whatever I wanted, since I

had my eye on this for many years,

I figured, well now's my chance.

Now I just need to learn to make cupcakes.

I'm still decorating...I'll post more later.

Thanks for popping by!

Today I'm joining

The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays

and

Happy Haunting!

Friday, October 5, 2012

Getting a New Floor....Part 3

Day Three

If you've missed part one and two,

check them out HERE and HERE.

Mark and James arrive early
Monday morning to keep laying the
Faux wood porcelain
Bedrosians Barrique Aspen Gray "gris" tile.

Mark puts tile against the kitchen

and family room wall,

and into the pantry.

They then move all the

furniture in the living room

onto the dry side of the room

and lay more faux wood
gray tile in there.

When he can no longer reach

across the wet area,

he tackles the coat closet

by the front door.

Mark says it was a difficult area because

he had no way to rest the palm of his hand

while he leaned in...a real back breaker.

From there,

he moves to finish up the hallway.

Then moves furniture in

the family room to the dry side,

and lays more faux wood tile in there.
With that he completes day three.

Do you see the dust on the table on the right?
I'm finding that all over the house!!!
Scaping dust is on everything.

Tuesday
Day Four,

Mark finishes up the front room

and attacks the kitchen,
under the dishwasher...

and under the fridge and oven.

He then does half the guest bathroom.

Mark starts grouting the master bath.

remember we chose
Spectralock #78 sterling silver grout

Spectralock is a fast drying product

so he works very quickly.

Gray grout for gray tile...
a pretty good match.

Bathroom done, BAM!
James has to wet the area with a sponge
so the grout drys evenly
and wipes up any residue.

On to the hallway, BAM!

Not long till the front room...

is mostly done,

BAM!

Into the kitchen and

family room. BAM!

On Wednesday, Day Five

Mark is back to finish up

and the carpet installers arrive this morning

for the bedroom carpet, and
whole house baseboards.

Carpet went in fast...
(We went for a tight Berber weave
gray with flakes of beige and blue.)

followed by the baseboards.

Sam was out back painting them

as the installers were measuring, cutting,

and installing them.

master bath

I must say, they did a wonderful job.

master bedroom closet

Unfortunately they were going so fast they

didn't take into account the closet doors needed

to close.

By the end of day five Mark was done,

tile was installed, carpet was in,

and
the baseboard install needed one more half day.

Day Six

The guys arrived early and worked through midday

Closet will now close but Sam and I will need to
touch up the area.

Those corner pieces cost money and

we didn't order enough

to go on the inside of the closets

so the installers pulled them out

to use in other areas.

Kitchen looks good with the
gray grout and faux wood porcelain
gray tile and new baseboards.

Hallway looks divine.
Sam even painted the walls a tan-ish gray
to compliment the floors.

A far cry from just a week ago, don't you think?

We still have a lot of cleanup to do.

You wouldn't believe the amount of dust

the scraping of the floors created.

Plus

Sam is still busy painting the living room

so I haven't quite moved

the furniture back into place yet.

I'll show more in another post.

Hope you all are having a Great October!

Ours certainly got better!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Gone Batty for Halloween

Just found this great bat bowl at Kohl's

get one here

It's made out of metal

with bat cut outs forming the bowl.

Kohl's says it's a tealight candleholder.

Just imagine the creepy shadows it will cast!

However, it would also make a lovely centerpiece.

At 6'' high and 11''wide

it could hold small, real or plastic pumpkins,

small human skulls (real or plastic)

or any number of Halloween objects,

including snack size candy bars.

The reason it caught my eye?

It bears a striking resemblance

to the bat archway that used to be at

Disney California Adventure's

Tower of Terror

during the Halloween season.

image source

Creepy isn't it?

I don't know if they still put it up or not.

DCA has gone through some major renovations

and I've heard they've down played

Halloween this year.

No matter, I now have a lovely bowl to keep me

~~happy~~ batty!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Where have Halloween M&M's gone?

In seasons past I used to run out and buy
bags of colorful Halloween M&M's called
the "Cool Ghouls Mix".

The colors would POP with Halloween goodness

and enhance my Halloween candy bowls...

Black, Orange, Slime Green, and Creature Purple,

is there anything better than these colors for Halloween?

Apparently Mars & Murrie thought so...

Today, and for the past two years, M&M's only features

"Fall" colors for the Halloween season called
"Harvest Blend"

Great for Thanksgiving I'll admit,

unfortunately very bland and a little off for

Halloween.

The muted fall colors bring down all my bright

and vivid candy servers. I have avoided
buying the harvest M&M's during Halloween
the past two years, hoping they would
bring back the Halloween colors.

I suppose my one man boycott

didn't put much of a dent in their profits,

and I suppose many really like the

leaf like color scheme.

And now M&M's offers up
"White Chocolate Candy Corn'',

which is kind of like Halloween....but not really,
at least it's bright.

Remember when they created
their pumpkin blend around 2001?

They were just black and orange with little faces,
but in my opinion, perfect for Halloween.
From there it only got better when they
improved upon it with "Cool Ghouls Blend"
adding purple and lime green
to the black and orange.

I know it's a petty complaint
in the grand scheme of things,
but WHY did M&M's mess with perfection?

2013 UPDATE:
M&M's has just released a Target exclusive,