A Haunted House Halloween!

The other day, my sister called and asked if I wanted to go with her and two of my nieces to the Haunted House at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.

Now you would think that it wouldn't be scary, since it's a Children's Museum.  But it was Frightening Hours, which means it's scarier than normal, and all of the lights are off.

Sure I'll go!  The Children's Museum is a wonderful place.  And the haunted house theme was clowns this year.  We started out in line, but from the first room on it seems like we went through it in a bundle!  We would scream, and laugh, and scream, and laugh some more.  BUT.....when we got to the very end....you walked through this tube that was going around, and to me, it felt like I was going to fall over.  I had the 56 year old vertigo issues with this portion of the house.  So, I hung on to the rails and closed my eyes to walk through it.  You had to walk through single file.  I was near the end, opened my eyes and looked behind me and asked my sister if she was ok   When I turned back around......a "clown" jumped out of the wall, and he went boooowwaaaaahaaaaaaahaaaaaa
  in my face. 
O.H.  M.Y. G.O.S.H!!!!!  
I SCREAMED!!!!!!
 And I did not laugh....until I put my heart back where it belonged.....Then I laughed! 
ummmm....Do not take little children in this haunted house during Frightening Hours.  My nieces were fine.  They are 11.  I'm talking littles....

Afterwards we had dinner at P.F. Chang's.  YUM! 

And since we were already in downtown Indianapolis we got in line at the best ice cream place evah!  It's called Sub Zero.  Have you ever been?

It's like a buffet for the ice cream lover!  You pick your ice cream....premium, low-fat, yogurt?
Pick Premium. 
Seriously, if you are going to have ice cream, then HAVE ice cream. 
They pour cream in a big bowl.

Next you pick your flavor.  I went with chocolate.  One of my nieces went with mint and you can see
 the green in this picture.
 

Then you pick your mix-ins.  I went with Reece Cup.  I know I know...I LOVE chocolate.  So you see in the bowls everything is a runny, goopy mess.  At this point you could drink it.

But then they zap it with nitrogen? (am I using the right chemical word?)  Anyway, it freezes it.

And I think this would be one of the worst jobs ever.  These two girls were stirring and chopping and stirring and chopping the frozen mix....

And viola'!  You have the best ice cream you have ever eaten in your life!  I'm serious.
Best...EVAH!  I'm tellin' ya.

 

Halloween decorations at my sisters house.

BOO!

 

 Trick or Treat!

Cindy Bee

I love to see Before and After projects!

You might have noticed this bakers rack in a few pictures...

 

or maybe you didn't!  It actually came from a neighbor's trash a couple of years go.  My Shug 'picked' it and I cleaned it and used it to hold fabric in my craft room.  Well, I started rearranging my craft room and was going to throw this out, when I realized it fit snuggly in a corner of Coral Belle. It ended up being a catch all for awhile, when she was being refurbished.

 Before, minus the shelves because I never took a pic of her before painting.

 AFTER! 

I got the ice bucket at a yard sale this past weekend for $1.00!
And here it is, all snuggled in her little nook.

 The next update I decided to do,

 was the legs to the table.  I know, simple,

but huge difference.

I feel like I've had a lot of irons in the fire lately.  And one thing on my list was to do something so my "bird girl", that my parents bought for my birthday, would be safe outside in our Indiana winters. One time, when I was an active Master Gardener, we had a class on antiquing cement statuary.  I decided to give it a try again.

 The first thing I did was put an etching liquid on her, then I painted her with this concrete stain.  I used two coats of Earth Brown.  And I painted a small area on her back side to make sure I was going to like it before painting the whole thing.  The first time I painted a small spot I didn't like it at all.  It was terra cotta color.  I told my Shug they mixed it wrong.  They did!  He took it back and they said Terra Cotta is one number off from Earth Brown.  So always check the color in a small area first.

We had to buy an entire gallon of this stain, and of course, I only used about a cup for the statuary.  So we are going to use the rest of it on our breezeway floor.  I think I can do it.

After I stained her, I put a concrete sealant on her.

 She will weather over time, but I really like the way she turned out.  I think it made her facial expression pop!  I like it so much I got more statuary out and stained it too!

 

Have you done any before and after projects lately?

If so, post them on your blog and tell us where to look in the comments.  I love looking at before and after projects!

Cindy Bee

Moving Coral Belle

As you know, I've been fixing up Coral Belle for the last few weeks, a little bit here and there.  Well, Saturday was moving day.  I was so excited. 

We've been trying to figure out where to put her.  I thought I had the perfect spot picked out, but we've noticed that the ground slopes a bit there, and it's wetter than other areas.  Then My Shug asked what I thought of putting it on the inside edge of the woods!!!  Of course, we had to clear a spot.  A couple of crooked trees lost their life as they knew it.  They are now campfire wood, so they didn't get totally wasted.

After spending two or three hours clearing the area, it was time to move the camper. 

Dave borrowed a hitch from the neighbor for our tractor (I don't think I've mentioned he has wrecked his truck to the point of no return.  He was not hurt. Another story for another time...maybe.)

 Here he comes...

and there he goes!  I thought he was going to pull it in, and obviously he thought this through way more than I did.  If you pulled it in, the door would be facing the woods, and not the path. 

So he backed it up across the entire ex-bee yard, now pole-barn yard?  (who knows what we'll call it now.)  Anyway, a long way to back up.

And here it goes, into the woods.....

And after a couple of times pulling in and out, not bad really....

and a bit of back and forth and back and forth maneuvering....

and getting off and on the tractor to see what I was talking about when I said, "a foot back, and a little bit more forward..."

She was finally just right!

 

This is the view from the old campsite...

 

And this is the view from the bee/barn yard!

Now...about the "old campsite"....I sort of camped there one time. In a tent.  I am not a tent camper.  

But we used to use it a lot.  See here,  here
or really see here for the best pictures. But when we cleaned out my potting shed at the house we lived in before here, we dumped anything that would hold up outside, in the campsite.  Then weeds grew up around it.  We haven't used it since, which has been a year or two.
I've decided since I have a camper in the area, I'm cleaning up the campsite.  I have a list a mile long, and I'm going to get 'er done today!  It's going to get up to 80 degrees on this fall day peeps! And this is one of the last warm days.  So....See ya later!

Cindy Bee

Coral Belle's floor and wall update

 So last week a friend called and asked what I was doing today.  Painting Coral Belle's floor.

 She popped by as she was out running errands and we were discussing the paneling wall.  She gave me several options, and she does a lot of this kind of work, and she finally said, "I could dry brush that for you and it wouldn't take me long at all."

 So she did! 

 Then we both started in on the floor.  I decided to use the same paint/stain that we used on our porches since we had some left.  Of course, we didn't have enough left....

 So after a trip to town for more stain/paint and a latte', we came back and finished the floor.  I didn't think I was going to like it at first,

 and you know what?  I don't like it....

I LOVE IT!

So does Dixie Doodle!

Cindy Bee

Poncho Tah Dah!

I've been trying to share this for a couple of days now.  I've had two 11 year olds living with us in our basement room while they are on fall break.  The "year around school system" is hard for parents when they both work.  I've also had a lot of other things going on, including a tooth ache!  I go to an endodontist today.  I think that's the correct way to spell it.  I've never even heard that term before...but I hope it's nothing serious.  Ugh.

So, this poncho...... I love it.  But I have to tell you....I started over THREE TIMES!  I kept crocheting too long of a chain.  The beginning chain measured OK, but when I'd get a few rows crocheted, it would be too long.  I'd rip it out and start again.  I don't know if it was the yarn or maybe just make it a bit smaller than the pattern calls.  The pattern is free on ravelry and it's called the Customizable Poncho Pattern.

I used chunky yarn, but I think there are a lot of different yarns you could use.  And it's a very simple pattern.

You can work on it and watch TV at the same time!  You just chain the first row, of course, half double the second row, then double crochet from that point on until you make a big rectangle.  It would be simple to change the pattern to a knit poncho too.

You also need to let your precious pet enjoy the poncho with you because, well, they are just too cute to say no to!

 I really like the poncho.  I do not like this picture of me....

but LOVE the poncho and the pattern.  I might have made it a bit too long, but I still like it. The original pattern calls for buttons, and I had some on this, but I didn't like them.  I thought about maybe a big crocheted flower, or just leaving it as is.
 Now I'm working on some WIP's that I discovered while cleaning out the craft room.

Cindy Bee