Nettie's Gnomes Home ... The magical Place Gnomes and Witches Appear!

I saw my first Nettie's Gnome at the Barn Boutique in Springville, way back when it was held in a barn.  Lets just say I was beyond charmed .... that day Dorthea went home with me.  Dorthea is a charming little girl gnome who looks surprisingly like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

Later when Nettie came into the antique store where I work, to buy antique gew gaws and jewelry to accessorize her gnomes and witches, I was lucky enough to meet her.  Nettie Barnett exudes the charm and magic that she sews into her creations.

Despite the fact that I have acquired six of her wonderful gnomes and witches, I had not been to the magical place of their creation, until last weekend.  Whoa, I was pleasantly amazed!!  This cobbled walk leads to a magical cottage.

Over the foot bridge, including its toes, one finds a life size witch, at leisure on the porch, to greet you.

Inside, at least during The Witches' Ball event, one finds wonderful witches lounging everywhere.  I took some pictures of favorites.  Nettie's attention to detail is legendary.

 

 

I hope you all enjoyed the fun and whimsical witches.  Witches not exactly your thing?  She also has some cute little Halloween children.

And there goes our good friend and Treasures Antiques' customer Lisa with new witches for her own little witch family!! 

I hope to be able to show you some of her charming gnomes during gnome season.  If you love her witches and would like to contact Nettie you can click here .



Playing Wacky and Wonderful Witches' Bingo

 Playing 'WITCH' bingo was the main activity we played at my luncheon which allowed time to visit and laugh and win prizes and laugh and interact with new witches from new regions that some of us were meeting for the first time.

 I gathered most of my images from Graphics fairy, needing 24 different ones, unlike the great number used in bingo.  I drew a letter and image for each turn and announced, "A spider in the H column".  It was lots of laughs and the prizes all had a witch theme too.

Witch Which is Witch at the Witches' Fall Ball?

Well, here we are, the moment I have looked forward to for a month.  The culmination of lots of decorating,  cleaning, planning and cooking.  I knew my friend LaVern would arrive an hour early to help so when the doorbell rang, I expected her.  BUT when I opened the door I could not imagine that the witch standing there had anything at all to do with my friend LaVern.    What a great costume. 

Here are her great pointy witches shoes ... and a display of her culinary talents too!

The table was set and ready to go ... time for the 'witching hour'!

... And here are some of my favorite witches.  Raelene is to the far left, looking every bit the fashionable witch that she is.  Wendy is next sporting a charming glittered and lime green hat.  LaVern is hard to miss in the middle, then there is Robin in her best witchy finery.

A few more witch friends and relatives arrive, from the left  is Bri, my adorable daughter in law with her son, (and only male at the event) Elias.  The red hat is worn by my sister Joyce, with Raelene and LaVern finishing out the picture.

Next to arrive is my friend Cathie, in her red and black festive frock, matching perfectly with Joyce's red and black attire. I told them that they looked like the Witch Diplomatic core from the south of the border.

Next it's Eva with her mom and sister too.  This picture is in honor of Eva and me choosing the same festival Halloween color scheme.  (I loved her bat and tinsel antennae!)

Now we all gather around the table ready for our witches fare, and it is at this point, with Eva sitting at the head of the table that she takes in the site of her aunts and my friends, all dressed up as witches and turned to me and says "Grandma, this is the BEST witches' party, EVER!"

In this picture we see the head place setting, where Eva sits for the luncheon.  The bowl will soon contain Butternut Squash Soup, to be eaten with the ghoulist crackers on the bread plate to the left.

Then Witch LaVern brings in the main dish, 'pumpkin brains and eyeballs', every one's witchy feast fav.  It was served with charming bone shaped bread sticks that LaVern was nice enough to bring.

After finishing our carmeled apples we played a game of Witch Bingo.  It gave us a chance to visit with our neighboring witches and if we paid attention, it even gave us a chance to win some chilling witchy treats!! 

After the luncheon I gathered my daughter, and daughters-in-law together on the couch with their children for this picture.  I think they are all just witchy wonderful, don't you!!

... and last of all I wanted to show off a couple of decor corners.  On the left is one of my homemade mannequins.  I dressed her up as a festive witch after seeing a segment of a local TV show that features one of my favorite local boutiques, Dear Lizzie.  The mannequin in their segment is actually one that I made and sold at the antique store where I work, she is an older sister of the one shown here.  If you would like to take a look at the segment, which is worth watching, click  Here  The mannequin siting is about 3/4 of the way through the segment if you want to fast forward.

To the left is a corner of my entry hall.  The birdcage with the tiny pumpkins was just fun.  The witch doll is actually an original crafted after Elphaba of 'Wicked' fame, a favorite of mine.  My husband had her commissioned by a local doll artist whose work I collect, what a nice surprise.   I actually had a chance to go to the open house last weekend for Nettie's Gnomes and Witches, and in a future post will show you her amazing work, as well as her charming cottage like home.

Thanks for coming along on this witches' venture.  It was my first witch party, but definitely not my last.

Oh So Spooky Nut Cups!

 I wanted some super fun and spooky details for my witches party.  I found these large size nut cups at the dollar store, and spray painted them black.  I didn't like the unevenness of the paint around the rim, but also didn't want to paint the rims, as I didn't want paint on the inside food surface.  I ended up using some more of my great black and white woven trim to finish off the edge, and then lined them with inside out cup cake papers.   The cute little skeletons, I also got at the dollar store, were posed to look like they were holding the nut cups.  I actually hot glued the first one I made, but realized that I could just 'pose' them and they stayed just fine.  I told my daughter Emily (25) how cute they were, and when she saw them she said the were great, but definitely NOT cute ...

I used arsenic labels that I printed off Graphics Fairy for the front of the cups, the skull and crossbones fit perfectly with the skeletons. (Check my side bar for a link to Graphics Fairy!)

On the left is a close up of one cup and on the right, we see a cup filled and taking its position in the place setting of my witches party.  I will post soon with more details about the party.  Its was a lot of spooky fun, in fact my four year old granddaughter said "Grandma, this is the BEST witches party EVER!"

Alert! Pumpkin Invasion on My Diningroom Mantel!

 In Keeping with my Black and White Halloween decor theme this year, I decided to take an idea that Emily had on http://www.52mantels.com/ . She had done a monogrammed pumpkin with polka dots, and I loved the polka dots, so... I used little round stickers and then spray painted the pumpkin.  There was some bleeding under the stickers, so I did some touch up.  The diamonds which I cut from clear strapping tape allowed for a LOT of bleeding and therefore needed a lot of touch up.  The stripes were the worst.  I resprayed the whole thing and then painted stripes.

Still I loved how they turned out.  All the pumpkins, but the solid black one started life as white pumpkins, the black one was actually green originally.   The center piece of the mantel is a mask that I bought in the 'children's room' of our local http://thebeehivebazaar.com/next-event/  last year and thought it was perfect for the holiday and the color scheme.  (I later found out it was made by the oldest daughter of my friend Jenn, whose blog you can check out on my side bar)

I was very happy with the bold statement this group of squash made by their gathering on my mantel and I am likely to invite a few of their descendants to happily occupy the same spot next year ....

Our Less Than Famous Utah Color ... Why is that?

Scott and I were so amazed at the color on the mountains yesterday we decided to take a drive up Payson Canyon, part of the Nebo Loop drive which is famous for fall color this time of year. The day was overcast, so the light was perfect for appreciating the change of colors.

The Virginia Creeper on the North side of my house is turning too, just not a brilliantly as it does some years.

And these trees in my neighborhood were amazing too, so I thought I would add them as well.  

Here we are headed for the canyon, the mouth of which is just a couple of miles from our house.  The first glimpse of a colorful hill fills us with anticipation! Then, while I was out of the car for a minute, taking this picture my husband was busy fiddling with his Ipod... when I got back in the car he was playing the sound track to 'You've Got Mail', which made it a romantic ride as well.

Now we are into the canyon and are being astonished at the color.  I wish words could convey what these pictures cannot.  My husband, a man of few words, said "These colors don't even look possible!"  They are astonishing, and my pictures pay faint homage to that fact.  I wish you could all drive up my canyon.  Its is just delightful.

Thanks for coming along and seeing our 'not so famous' Utah color.  It was a great drive and time well spent.