Tag: halloween

Crocheted Kitchen Towel Topper

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts4 Comments

Remember going to Grammas house and seeing these on the oven or fridge door?  Ever wondered how they make those?

I always have a towel on the fridge door because… well, that’s what you do, right?  When I’m done with the dishes I dry my hands on that hand towel.  Well I was thinking, I wonder if I could find a pattern for making the towel topper so when I dry my hands it doesn’t come off all the way.

Well I found one and you are welcome.

My search brought me to YouTube which has a full 22 minute video of how to make it from sewing the chain into the towel with the yarn, crocheting all of the rows, making the button and the button hole and then finishing it off.  It’s really not that difficult and it looks so good.

The video on YouTube also has a link for the full instructions which is over on the Art of Crochet by Teresa blog on Blogger.  The video is over on YouTube via the Art of Crochet channel.

My problem is that I have carpel tunnel syndrome which means my hands get numb very quickly and I feel a very painful pinch in my palms so I shouldn’t really work on this.  The problem is that I love to crochet so that’s a huge bummer for me.  I mean, I can see the endless possibilities with this, I can make a topper for a towel for every holiday and for every season.  Like in the summer I can have the sunflower or watermelon towel, Christmas can be the Christmas towels, Halloween, Easter…  If there is a towel for everything then you bet that I would want to make a towel topper for that time of the year.

I found like 4 Christmas hand towels in a drawer too that would look so awesome with the vintage Christmas yarn that I have that has the mixed red, white and green colors in it.

Maybe some day I might be able to do this but for now I can’t but that doesn’t mean I can’t share the pattern and video with all of you crafty people so besides the link above which you can view to rate, comment and subscribe to, here is that video.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdePxyZ6Kog

Information OVERLOAD

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

I have been reading a lot of books lately, I’ve made it a point to read every day.  When I finish 1 book then I start another the next day. It can take me 4-5 days to read a book depending on the difficulty and/or length of the book.

The last 2 months I’ve been reading an average of 4 books per month and this month since I bought my Nook I’ve already read 3 books. Although 1 of those isn’t available in e-book format so I had to read it from the actual book but still. We’re somewhere in the middle of the month and I’ve already read 3 and I can see myself reading 2-3 more.

I wonder if I read so many books if they might blend together in my brain and then I won’t remember what I read from which book.  I might think that what happened in the David Eddings novel might have really happened in the Piers Anthony novel and vice versa.

Just as long as I don’t think what happened in the Marguerite Labbe novel happened in the Xanth novel, then I’ll be fine because that would really confuse me lol.

Tomorrow I start reading “Crewel Lye: A Caustic Yarn” by Piers Anthony. By the way, if you have not read any Xanth novels by now based on my past recommendations, you should.  They are so good.  There are 35 in the series although only 33 available for sale and only 17 available in e-book format.

And if you haven’t read any of the Rainbow eBooks yet you should start with “My Heart is Within You” by Marguerite Labbe.  Next month I will be on the final book of the Triquetra Trilogy which is sad because I kinda wanted that series to be longer but that’s ok, she has written other books.

Maybe since I’ve become such a Nook worm (get it? cause I have a Nook… no?) I should dress up as a worm with glasses for Halloween, although instead of reading a book, I’d be reading a Nook lol.

Scary Kisses

On By Michel McDonaldIn Halloween, Products I LikeLeave a comment

Anybody who knows me knows that Halloween is my favorite time of year despite the fact that I sit in my room with all the lights off because I can’t afford to buy candy for the little brats that don’t even bother to dress in costume.

It’s my favorite time of the year because I just love carving pumpkins, I love the funny spooky Disney channel movies, special Halloween episodes of my tv shows and well, and frankly, I love candy.

Unfortunately this year the Halloween candy is off-limits because I am diabetic now. I can’t say that the candy contributed to it because I only eat candy 3 times per year, Easter, Halloween and Christmas. During those holidays I don’t eat enough candy to have caused the diabetes, it’s everything else that I eat that did it.

This year I will not be able to indulge which is sad because of this…

Candy Corn Kisses, Pumpkin Spice Kisses and Caramel Kisses. I do love me some caramel but this I can have every day, how often can I have a candy corn kiss or a pumpkin spice kiss? Now only on Halloween.

Sorry sugar-filled blood in my system but some of your friends are gonna come for a visit tomorrow lol. Don’t worry, I wont be inviting too many of them over, just a few. I can still eat sugar in moderation which means when I buy these candy I gotta buy a safe then forget the number.  Or maybe give the rest away.  I have no self control lol.  I wish they didn’t have to sell them in such big bags, why can’t they sell these in little bags at the check out counter with the other candy where I can get a small bag with 3 or 4 pieces in the package?  It’s totally unfair.

True Blood

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

Wow, this show is a roller coaster ride.  Every time I watch it I’m like whoa.

In season 1 when grams died I was in shock.  I just wasn’t expecting them to kill her off and so soon in the show too.  Then it just seemed like every episode I was left with whoa, that happened didn’t it?

Season 2 is the same.  It’s like they have this formula that just works and you can’t escape it.  It’s as though the creators of this show have glamoured me just like a vampire can glamor people.

Now Sookie has a new power with her hands but it has only worked on Mary Ann so far.  She didn’t even know she had this and perhaps it’s because she didn’t need to know she had it because it only works on 1 person which is the demon Mary Ann.  Actually she needs to know how to control it so it would’ve been good for her to know she had it so she could figure out how to use it.  Although if it only works on Mary Ann then she wouldn’t be able to practice but when she does need it I’m sure she will be able to figure it out on the spot.  Trial and error I guess.

Boy has Sookie missed some shit up in her crib while she was gone in Texas.  If she stayed she would’ve probably been killed because Mary Ann probably wouldn’t have been able to glamor her.

I would like to know where all the Bon Temps vampires are and why they didn’t contact their sheriff Eric to tell him that some shit’s goin’ down lol.  I know Bill isn’t the only one in Bon Temps.

Well, I love the show and I hate that they only have 12 episodes.  Too bad they don’t have a regular season at the same time as all the network channels do from September/October to May.  24 episodes per season would be awesome lol.  I think it would be neat to have a Halloween and Christmas episode don’t you?

Ghostly Dreams

On By Michel McDonaldIn Dreams, ParanormalLeave a comment

ghostI’ve been watching all these ghost videos on YouTube that it has entered my dreams lol.

The one thing that I’ve learned from watching Ghost Hunters on the SyFy (formerly Sci-Fi) channel is that they can’t hurt you.  Well, they kinda can because Jason has gotten scratches and they show people with scratches on their back that they couldn’t have possibly done to themselves.  And there was that one Halloween episode where Grant was being held back and you could see the collar of his jacket being tugged on.  But is that really hurting?

The videos on YouTube that I’ve been watching have been that stupid “Pantry Ghost” video where you can see hands and a face through the glass but someone has proven that it is a fake by showing you how they do it.  So I don’t believe in that one.  This same person has also shot video of himself playing hide n’ seek with his daughter and at the very end you see what appears to be a ghostly apparition in the corner by the dresser.  Well, that could’ve easily been faked using the same techniques as the pantry video.  They also made a video of going into a room and seeing a ghost girl standing up and then another where he opens the board to theattic and he sees a ghost girl turning around to see the camera.  Those are all fake because you cannot see through the ghost, it’s a solid apparition.

I’ve actually had encounters with “ghosts” in my bedroom.  Feeling a cat jump up on the bed and walk around.  That happens sometimes but I’ve accepted that it’s a kitty cat ghost, it can’t hurt me so it doesn’t frighten me in the least.  And one night, this only happened once, I was laying in bed and I felt what seemed like 4 cats on the bed but then I felt as though someone just sat down on the edge of the bed.  The edge of the bed felt like it was pressed down.  You could feel someone sitting.  I didn’t move because I didn’t want to scare it, it didn’t scare me.  I even said hello to it.  I eventually fell asleep.

But last night I had this dream that there was this ghost in the house and it was stalking me.  I went to the front door and there was a piece of furniture sitting in front of the door and it was keeping me in the house.  But I can’t put any stock into that dream because some how our toy chihuahua dog “Flower” duplicated so I had 2 “flowers” lol.

It still scared me, I was frightened and basically just scared out of my mind.  But I know that it was just a dream, they can’t hurt me.  I have to just keep saying and thinking that they cannot hurt me.

I saw “ghosts” as a kid, so did my older sister, my mother told me that she sees them too and that if I feel scared then perhaps it’s not good, it’s “evil” and to say the “lords prayer”.  Well, personally I don’t believe in evil as in hell or the devil.  I do believe in evil as in people who are evil such as those who have murdered other people and laughed about it and don’t regret it or apologize for it.  So I guess if a ghost can be good as people can be good then a ghost can be evil as people can be evil.  It works both ways.

I think the only way to stop those dreams is to stop watching YouTube ghost videos that try to scare you lol.

My Pez Collection

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog1 Comment

It was time to dust off all of my pez dispensers.  They collect a lot of dust sitting on the shelf that I made for them and I don’t clean them very often because it’s such a job but they desperately needed to be cleaned lol.  While I was cleaning the dust off I decided to take pictures of them in all of their collections.

There are a couple collections that I wasn’t quite sure about like the first one with all the bugs.  I’m not sure what those are from.  I think 2 of them are from Bee movie but then some are from Bugs, I don’t know.  They are all bugs so I just added them together lol.  Then there are the Madagascar ones, I accidentally added a panda to it not knowing where it belongs but apparently that collection only has 3, not 4.  But I don’t care lol.

The very last picture is all of them on the shelf (except for the boxes and the petz, those are on another shelf).  I made that shelf by the way out of very very thin wood that I found at Home Depot when we were still living in Hollywood.  It started out as a smaller shelf but then I kept adding to it so I had to buy more wood and made another shelf.  I’m getting to the point where I think I’m gonna need to plan a bigger shelf lol.

I wanted to compile all of these pictures into a video and put on YouTube but I looked at other peoples videos and they all put mine to shame so I thought that they just deserved a blog post at least lol.











bat

Edit 8/28/09: I went to Walgreens today and they already have the Halloween stuff in their seasonal aisle so I went to look at the Pez dispensers and they have the new glow in the dark Bat Pez.  I added the picture above next to the pez dispenser collection rack.  Click on it to see full size.

Our Cat Is Dying

On By Michel McDonaldIn Animals, PetsLeave a comment

Our cat Shanaynay is dying.  She isn’t walking normal, in fact she is staggering and I saw her getting out of her litter box, she fell out onto her butt.  She has litter stuck to her butt and her tail and it’s already hardened and she gets mad at me when I try to help her get it off.  Her meow isn’t as pronounced as before, meaning it’s shallow.  She has to take deep breaths.  Also she is so skinny now, you can feel her bones when you touch her.  She isn’t eating at all.  I recall refilling her food bowl days ago and she has barely even touched it.

I just saw her drinking some water so at least she’s able to drink.  We can’t afford to have her put to sleep so all we can do is wait and keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t fall off the table (like a coffee table, she sleeps on it) or falls out of her litter box (which I moved closer to where she sleeps).

My Aunt Louise bought our cat this little thing that it’s like a tube with a hole cut on the side and it’s carpeted, you know what I mean.  Anyway, I put that next to the table where she is sleeping right now so she can use it as a step to get on and off the table.

She is a 14-year-old cat.  Well, 14 1/2.  Darrin got her when she was 8 or 9 weeks old and since we didn’t know her exact birthdate I estimated that it would’ve been some time in October so I decided that her birthday should be on Halloween 1994.  So considering that she is so old we have been expecting this to happen for quite some time.  Even though it’s been expected, it doesn’t make it easy.

Anyway, I will add to this post if she passes today.

Bike Light

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

I think it was the day before yesterday or something but I noticed that the light generator wasn’t touching the tire when you flip the switch and so I fixed it and then checked out the lights to make sure they were ok by pushing the peddles.  I noticed that the back red light was working fine but the headlight wasn’t working at all.  I flipped the bike upside down and pushed the peddles with my hand to make the back tire turn and the light was just not coming on.

I took the light fixture off the bike and took it apart to see if the light bulb was just out and when I went to turn it to remove it the glass part came off and the metal was just not unscrewing at all.  I’m pretty sure it’s because the light set that I bought was old, it was made in 1991.  I searched high and low trying to find a new bulb, I went to Albertson’s, no go.  I went to Walgreens, not there.  I figured that maybe an auto parts store might have them because they have little tiny lights too but alas the car lights were the same size but no threads.  The guy at the counter told me to try Home Depot or Floyd’s hardware store.

I decided that since I can’t use my bike anyway I might as well wait until I can to worry about it.  But then I noticed a Halloween tap light sitting in a drawer and noticed that the light bulb looked the same.  I unscrewed the 3 screws on the bottom and was able to unscrew the bulb and sure enough, the exact same light bulb.

I brought it to the bike area (this was yesterday) and screwed it in and flipped the bike over and plugged the wire into the generator and pushed on the peddles but unfortunately it didn’t turn the light on.  I put it back in the tap light and put some batteries in there and tapped it and it turned on just fine.

I went searching in a computer drawer with old computer stuff and found some old mic’s from when I got my first computer and never used the mic’s and was all ready to strip the wires to use it but it was late at night and I couldn’t find my scissors so I waited until today.  This morning after Darrin went to church I got up and went out there and my scissors were by the bike so I got all the stuff ready and sat down on the stool out there.  I tried it one more time with the wire that came with the light set but this time I stripped the wire that touches the light to see if it was just messed up there but no go.  I then thought, well what if the light has to be on the bracket on the bike frame so I just placed it on there and turned the peddles and sure enough the light came on.

At this point I’m not quite sure if it’s just sheer stupidity or if my ADD is really that bad lol.  At any rate I’m glad I finally figured it out and got one more problem out of the way so I can get back on with my life.

Huge Anticipation

On By Michel McDonaldIn Food, HalloweenLeave a comment

My body must have been very excited about Halloween today because I woke up at 1am but luckily was able to go back to sleep.  Then I woke up again at 4am but was not able to go back to sleep.  Around 5am I went to the ATM machine to get a $20 to give to the milk man.  I was lucky that Darrin insisted on going with me because when I went to the ATM a thug looking guy was walking towards me but when he saw Darrin he went in another direction.

At 6:20am I left to go to the grocery store to buy some coffee and some candy bars for the neighbors kids, they are 5 for $2.00 right now so that was a good deal.  I didn’t want to buy a big bag because I’m not going to pass out candy to the kids who don’t wear costumes and the kids who don’t even live in our neighborhood.  So I just bought 5 candy bars for our neighbors kids Devan, Dougie, Beth and Gracie and the 5th one will go to Karens nephew if he is with them, he’s been spending a lot of time there so maybe he will be trick or treating with them.

After I left Albertson’s I went over to McDonald’s and bought us some breakfast.  Sorry Sue, they didn’t have any Monopoly tickets lol.

8am came and Ghost Hunters finally came on and I’m going to watch that the entire day WOOHOO!