Grumpy Cat

Walks on halter with leash...
and sometimes a sweater

Hates the fact that he's an indoor cat now...although he does get two or three walks a day.

But he's not the only one feeling grumpy. Yes this whole big move from the Persian Gulf back to foggy Newfoundland has not been without its challenges.

On the whole things are going well but it is a teeny bit stressful. Hubby's working...for now. I don't have job yet and buying a house looks like it's gonna take longer than anticipated. Even tho I anticipated it would.

We've been busy and it's been hard to get a breath let alone into the Halloween mood. The flesh is willing but the spirit is weak. I guess some year's it's just not gonna happen.

But a few days ago I took a walk up to MUN's campus where I once toiled endlessly on my MA. It was a beautiful October day and being out in it made me remember why we're happy to be back! Here are some pics of that walk...

Duck pond and new students residence

Memorial rose garden (tons of rosehips!)

Courtyard near science building with armillary sphere

Closer look

Halloween Creepy Crawlies

This has been quite the autumn for spider spotting around here! In only the past few weeks, I've spotted the creepy crawlies I'm going to share pics of here. I started off with that cute decorating spider cartoon to warn off anyone who is traumatized by spiders. There are some here that might make you feel like your screen is crawling!

I spotted three new spiders this month and have managed to identify some of them with the help of the internet. This first one is a standard garden spider or Argiope aurantia. (Obviously, I'm going to stick with calling them garden spiders.)  This far away pic shows how big she is next to regular siding. Pretty big, hey?

Something interesting about this spider is that she catches her prey and wraps it up in webbing for a snack at a later time. I'm not sure where she stores the little bundles of food - probably a spider fridge of sorts in part of the larger web, although I never spotted any leftovers. By the way, I'm nearly 100% sure this is a female, because it's mainly the female spiders who are out and about (alive). The adult males have mostly become another snack for the females.

Here she is a little closer:

The Garden Spider will generally keep her web in the same place all summer long, just waiting for those snacks to drop by. And get this - each night she will eat the center of the web and rebuild it! Maybe she's tidying up? One theory is that she's getting any little nutrients or bug "crumbs" that are left on the web. Nothing goes to waste.

Big as she is, this spider isn't something for you to be scared of. She isn't aggressive by nature, but if you did for some reason want to grab her, the most you'd get is a bee sting type bite.

I love Daddy-LongLegs! This one was so beautiful and delicate and nicely stayed put for me to take multiple photos. All of these spiders were cooperative in that way. By the way, that black border is there so I can show the photo larger. I don't know why with blogger, but I'm able to post the vertical pictures a lot larger than the horizontal ones. 

This little guy is a mystery. Can anyone help me identify him? This spider was super tiny and looks a lot larger here because I was up in his face taking photos.

He was inside of a container I turned over today. What a nice surprise, as I was planning to put up this spider themed post already! The sun cast a long, spooky spidery, shadow that I actually think is cooler than the spider itself!

So something that you would never see in real life, but can see magnified here, are the markings on this spider. There are two dark marks on his head and this light marbleized pattern on his body. That might help in identification.

This of course isn't a spider, but I had to share it anyway. How cool to see a Halloween colored caterpillar mid-October! In addition to some cool coloring, this caterpillar has the cute name of "Woolly Bear".

This caterpillar was very active and fast moving. I had to kind of chase it around as it explored the leaves. I found this photo adorable.

The Woolly Bear also gave wall climbing a try, but soon tired of that. If you look closely, probably by clicking on this pic, you might just see a black nose at the top of this caterpillar. At least that's what I interpret it as.

For those of you who are curious about what this caterpillar will mature into, it becomes an Isabella Tiger Moth. Another cool name, but the moth isn't quite as cute as the caterpillar. If you're interested in seeing what one looks like:

Isabella Tiger Moth

I guess they're pretty as moths go...

The Woolly Bear/Isabella Tiger Moth has quite the life, which you can read about in more detail here. Some neat trivia I learned here is that in extremely cold places where the summer is short, the Woolly Bear must go through several summers to get enough food/energy in it to pupate. The caterpillars have a special "cryoprotectant" which keeps them alive through freezing conditions. You can think of it as a sort of antifreeze. So the Woolly Bear can keep up this cycle of living through frozen weather/briefly feeding in warm weather for years! I read that these guys can even last through 14 summers. That's a surprisingly old Woolly Bear!

As far as the rumor about fuzzy caterpillars being poisonous, it appears that's not the case with the Woolly Bear. I'll be honest, I was thinking about those rumors while taking these photos. I'd heard that each of these fuzzy bits was actually a spike with venom in it! From what I just read, they wouldn't actually inject poison into a person, but you could still get dermatitis from touching one. That doesn't look like any fun! So as sweet and fuzzy as they look, it's not worth getting some crusty skin condition by touching them.

Have you guys been seeing a lot of Halloween creepy crawlies this month? There are still a few more weeks to go...



 
P.S. ~ I'm planning to do the Halloween Blog Party again this year! So you're all welcome to send me a costumed photo of yourself from any point of your life, and I'll include you at the party. I'll probably put up that blog post on the 23rd or 24th of this month.

Update! I saw a new spider today:

I was shaking out a piece of fabric outside and about five of these little guys crawled out in different directions. I happened to have my camera out there with me so I quickly took a photo of one of them. Then it occurred to me that this might be a Brown Recluse and I thought Uh Oh. So I went online and compared my pic to that of a Brown Recluse. Luckily this wasn't a Brown Recluse. With the help of some Twitter friends, I now know this is a Wolf Spider.

Lenticular Spooks

Originally used mostly in novelty items and commonly called "flicker pictures" or "wiggle pictures" lenticular printing is a technology in which lenticular lenses (a technology that is also used for 3D displays) are used to produce printed images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles. (source: wikipedia)

The image below is a quickly animated gif that I created from a recent listing appearing on ebay for a 1950's child's novelty ring.

A quick google search for lenticular imagery (or the wikipedia link above) will direct you to tons of interesting new and vintage uses of this technique. Here is one link to a gallery of vintage imagery on pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ohbyjingo/action-vintage-lenticular-pictures/

Forever After...

A HALLOWE'EN WISH

May all the bats and ghosts and frights
Bring jolly fun and laughter
And fill your day with such delights
You'll smile forever after!

Here's an incredible vision - of another pumpkin-headed spirit at the fence (see also Beware! The Gatekeeper). This is a vintage Hallowe'en card posted by Alan Mays on Flickr (originally posted on Ipernity: A Halloween Wish). Would love to know more details on this item which is stated as being a single-sided greeting card from the 1920's-1930's. Will this smiling spook be as friendly once it climbs to the other side of the fence? 

Check out the meticulous details of this illustration. The landscape above the fence reminds me of Seattle where you see 1930s brick tudor style architecture in neighborhoods of extremely tall Douglas Firs silhouetted in the skyline. The fence alone has me stunned, with the glowing highlights at top, the visible knots and nail-heads, and orange light seeping into blue shadows along the bottom edge.

Do you know any more about this image? The manufacturer? Or the artist? It makes me think of works by George Carlson for John Martin's Book, or Hazel Frazee for Child Life Magazine.

Ain't Grub Grand!

 

Shown below is a complete set of 12 table-setting placecards for a Halloween party by Rust Craft of Boston (who later merged with Norcross Greeting Card Company). The art exhibits the strange and surreal storybook imagery that makes their work so identifiable (particularly images like the ghost riding the black cat). These cards would come packaged in a small marked black box.

Cultural note - "Lay on, Macduff" refers to a line from Macbeth.  

Halloween Cat Rescue

Crumpled honeycomb doesn't have to be the end of a vintage decoration. And here's a tip that in no way alters the original piece, and offers a way to buy within an affordable range a vintage piece that others might ignore. With patience and a low-heat iron, this vintage cat dancer found new life.

I received the cat shown here as a crumpled, flattened mess stuffed into a bubble wrap mailer. On a whim, and since the item was extremely inexpensive, I tried gently ironing the honeycomb, and was surprised how well the tissue paper could spring back to life. I wonder which of 9 lives this cat is now on? This cat design (7" by varying lengths) is by Beistle (1938-1946) and is great fun to pose (shown above) in more than just the typical hanging position.

Below are some before and after shots of this decoration:

 

 

Part of the trick is knowing which vintage piece is beyond recovery such as major or too numerous tears in the tissue, etc., that prevents it from being structurally sound. If the tissue holds its basic pattern but has just been smashed, it should likely recuperate just fine.  

Generalized Instructions:


If you look at the side view (bottom images) you can see the pattern of the honeycomb, (note the places, almost like handles, that point outward). Basically you start at one end of the arm (leg, or torso), and gently pull these "handles" away from the crumpled limb while simultaneously using the very tip of a low-heat iron to press the pattern flat, section by slow and careful section, until you can get the whole arm compacted flat. (Think of it as slowly compressing an accordion or a slinky back together). In the final step, once a limb is compressed, put the full iron onto the compacted piece from front and then back. Voila! When you let the arm go, it's springy once again! From season to season onward the limbs and body should press themselves when stored correctly compressed.

Note - restoration of anything vintage is obviously something not to be taken on lightly, as it might do more damage than good (and in regards to its collectible nature).  

The After Halloween Target, Michaels, and Walgreens Haul! 2014

It's that time of year again! That time when all the Halloween stuff gets marked down and I get to have fun being the biggest scavenger bargain shark I can be! I had a lot of luck this year watching the merchandise go down in price from 50% off to 70% off to 80% off to... the most exciting of all markdowns: 90% off! I guess things don't generally get marked down any more than that.

Starting with Target!

A very cute bat towel:

I love those polka dots!

A pillow for 90 cents!

Same here:

Some 30 cent jute twine which should be great for some future craft project:

Cupcake wrappers:

Some vintage looking tissue:

Doesn't this remind you of that tissue you see in Halloween pics from the 1930s?

Hanging star decorations you fold out:

I was really excited for this! I'd had my eye on it through October. Not that $6.00 is all that expensive for a makeup set, it's just that I knew it would get marked down. There were several Halloween makeup sets made by e.l.f this year, and this was my favorite.

The "Vampire" beauty book opens up to show many eyeshadow colors, an eyeliner pencil, a lip gloss, and some false eyelashes/glue. There are also some instructions, but I didn't really bother with those. I played with the set today and was very happy with the colors. I'm a fall color makeup person year-round, so I'll get some use out of this set. The eye shadows are super pigmented!

I was intrigued by this eyeball washi tape. I have no experience with washi tape, but I've seen some neat DIY ideas for it online. So what better time to try it out than when it's marked to 60 cents? That and the bright colored eyeballs are awesome.

I stuck some of the washi tape to a pumpkin to see how it looked. This is neat stuff. It sticks pretty well but comes off with no trouble at all. I can't decide what to stick it to first! I watched some videos online of girls sticking it to everything from the wall, to their computers, to their fingernails. Does anyone out there have some experience with this tape?

A cute little 30 cent bucket:

I think these skulls were 90 cents. I think the two of them are going to look cool sitting in the urns next year. 

The skulls are a nearly real size. Maybe they're accurate as small human skulls go.

I was lucky enough to hit Michaels when their stuff was down to 80% off. I wonder if Michaels marks down to 90% off at any point? I don't think I've ever been there when the prices were that low.

This was probably my favorite Michaels find:

These little glitter doilies are so detailed. I don't even know what I'm going to do with them yet, but they'll fit into a craft project somehow. Maybe as part of a Halloween banner? I think these were 39 cents for the pack of eight.

The back shows the details clearly. Some of these have a skull in the center and others have a spider.

Check this out! It's a fake candle made in that old-timey candlestick way. It was a little over $1.00. Last one too!

I also found a few candles in the regular pillar shape.

Here's how the flames look when lit. I like the curve to the flame. These fake candles just keep getting better and better design-wise!

This is a good tie-in to my Walgreens shopping. It so happened that Walgreens had these awesome black candle holders that fit the new Michaels candles! And get this, they were marked down 90%. The shorter ones were only 29 cents! So I cleaned out the few that we were left. I think they'll be good for decorating year-round.

Walgreens had this light up witch hat that will probably be worn by a pumpkin or skull next year.

Some pumpkin window clings:

Six glamorous glitter spiders for only 29 cents!

I'll have fun sprinkling these around. They always look good on a pumpkin.

I hope you all have the good luck I had with after Halloween bargains this year! Did you get any good deals during the past few days?