Happy Halloween!

It's time for my favorite holiday at last! I have a grocery list ready and cleaning underway all to get ready for tonight's Halloween shindig. I can't wait to dress up in my costume, most of which was bought on Etsy, and hand out candy to all the little trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood. We bought extra candy this year, because we usually run low as it is...but with us having friends over tonight, our porch light will stay on longer, which will probably mean more little monsters and goblins wanting candy.

I will be making a yummy drink called Pond Scum tonight. Don't worry, it tastes better than the name sounds! :)

Pond Scum

3 oz. Club Soda

1 oz. Vodka

1/2 oz. Bailey's Irish Cream

Pour into a highball glass and float Irish Cream.

Oh, and just because no Halloween could be complete without some Charlie Brown... Happy Halloween, everyone!

Friday Feature

For today's Friday Feature, I thought I'd do something a bit different. Since tomorrow is my very favorite holiday, today I'm featuring some wonderful handmade Halloween goodies! Enjoy!

Let's start off with an adorable lampwork pirate pig bead. There were so many beads in Gelly's shop, that it was hard to decide. But the pirate piggy's name made the choice for me... Take a look at Capn Jack Sparerib! (Capn Jack Sparerib lampwork bead, $30.00)

The doggie costumes in Spoiled Bratzwear's shop makes me wish

that my own doggie would wear a costume. But alas, Booger doesn't like to wear anything but his fur. :) But if I could get him to dress up, I'd totally buy him this ladybug costume. Maybe next year I'll get one for my brother-in-law's dog, Holly. I bet he'd *love* that idea. :) Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home, $30.00)

No Halloween could be complete without a survival kit. The Canton Box Company carries just such a necessity. Vampire problem? Have no fear! (Just make sure you have your kit with you.) (Halloween Survival Kit, $33.00)

Halloween Humor

Happy Thursday-before-Halloween, everyone! This is one of my favorite Halloween funnies. Makes me laugh every time. :)

Music Monday

As one of my friends put it in her Facebook status... It's Halloween week! Halloween is my very favorite holiday. Seriously. I had my costume picked out a long time ago. (I even planned ahead and bought parts of it on Etsy!) I love all of the decorations, spooky music, movies, all of it! Surprisingly enough, I'm not big on horror films.... the Halloween movies are about as horror as I'll go.

Anyway, the point of all of my rambling is to let you know that my blog postings this week will be Halloween-ish, if that's the right way to describe it. Starting today with Music Monday, featuring the intro song from one of my favorites, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Enjoy!

Hump Day Humor

Fall is a busy time of year for me at school. Between getting ready for PTA programs, Fall Festival performances, and a 4th grade field trip to the symphony, I sometimes feel like I'm running around like a madwoman here at school. Since I have school on the brain at the moment, today's humor is brought to you by one of my second grade students.

Why didn't Beethoven like the chickens?

Because they say, "Bach, Bach, Bach."

:)

Etsy Veg Team Rocks!

This week I've been making my To Do list for this Saturday's festival (and checking it twice, don'tcha know). Meanwhile, I received a nice message from Kylie, fellow Etsy Veg teammate, letting me know that my Cuticle Balm was included in a treasury on the Etsy Veg blog. Definitely check it out, Etsy Veg-ers make some fabulous products!

Music Monday

The PE teacher at my school really doesn't like roosters. As far as I know, she doesn't have anything against the actual bird. She just can't stand rooster decorations. You know, the country-looking home decor with roosters. Anyway, over the weekend some teachers at our school (who shall remain nameless....) decorated said PE teacher's office in the gym. Needless to say, there were rooster decorations involved. All day long I had a children's folk song stuck in my head (not surprising, I teach elementary music after all). I tried to find it on You Tube to put in my blog for you today, but no such luck. Instead I found this really neat Rolling Stones cover of "Little Red Rooster" from 1965. Enjoy!

Oh, and cock-a-doodle-doo! :)

New Soaps!

It's that time of year, when the weather gets cooler (sometimes...this chilly weather really is unusual for us) and you just want to curl up under a blanket with something hot to drink. While I always say that my favorite season is Spring, I'm absolutely in love with Fall scents. Recently I listed Autumn Afternoon, which to me smells just like I imagine an Autumn day should smell -- crisp and clean.

Today I'd also like to introduce you to my two latest Fall soaps -- Pumpkin Spice and Apple

Cinnamon.

Pumpkin Spice smells just like it sounds. If you're like me, and your favorite dessert at Thanksgiving is anything with pumpkin in it, you'll love this soap. My Pumpkin Spice soap is colored with a small bit of copper mica to help give it a little of that orange color all of us pumpkin pie fans know and love. (Pumpkin Spice Soap, $5.00)

As much as I love my Pumpkin Spice soap, I have to (secretly)

admit that Apple Cinnamon is my new Fall favorite. To me, cinnamon and apples are a yummy combination of scents. Not only can you smell the cinnamon, but I also used some ground cinnamon to make the brown swirl in the soap. These soaps look like marbled apple cinnamon cake. Yum! (Apple Cinnamon Soap, $5.00)

You can find both of my new soaps in my Etsy and Artfire shops.

Music Monday

Lately I've been listening to Pandora Radio in the mornings when I'm getting ready for school. I love having this app on my iPhone, because I can put the phone on the counter and listen to music, but I can also see the time...which is great, because I'm definitely not a morning person at all.

Anyway, one of my favorite channels is the Simon and Garfunkel channel. If you haven't noticed, I love folk and folksy music. :) The first Simon and Garfunkel song I really fell in love with was "April Come She Will." I remember listening to the LP that my parents had, and playing this song over and over again. My mom loved that I enjoyed Simon and Garfunkel. I don't know how many times I heard about how they played at Miami when she was in college. (And this is the "good" Miami, the one in Ohio, as my mom would say.)

Music Monday

My husband showed me this last night, and I thought it was pretty much the neatest music remix I've seen in a while. If you like science, space, Carl Sagan, or Stephen Hawking, this video is right up your alley. Oh, and if you're like me, and you enjoy all of those things too, you should check out The Universe. This is pretty much the coolest science show ever. Seriously. Then again, I love learning about space. Maybe I'm just a nerd.

Hump Day Humor

This week was a tough choice... There were two kittehs that made me laugh pretty hard. Since my September blogging hasn't been as regular as I'd like, you may enjoy two--yes, two--laughs today. You're welcome.

Music Monday

Wow, I can't believe it's so far into September and I haven't blogged! Well here to kick off the month (even if it's a couple of weeks late) is a song from Chicago. I love musicals, but we're playing a medley from Chicago in the Mansfield Wind Symphony for the Mansfield Pecan Festival later this month. So I've especially had this song stuck in my head for a couple of weeks. Enjoy!

Friday Feature

Today's Friday Feature is Elemental Dragons!

At Elemental Dragons you can find precious polymer clay dragons from one of seven different clans, each with their very own story. One of my favorites from her shop is Hankie of the Water Clan. I just love his little ears! Hankie also has lovely wings and glow in the dark eyes. You know you want to give this little guy a home. (Hankie of the Water Clan Elemental Dragon, $15.00)

New at Bohemian Rose!

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since my last blog post! Although I really shouldn't be... Two of my busiest weeks during the year are the week that school starts and the week before. So if you haven't guessed, I've been doing the back to school thing. Which means I've been really tired in the evenings, even taking a nap yesterday! And I don't nap that often.

Even though I've had my hands full, I've still had soap on the curing rack. So I'm happy to introduce you to Minty Lavender, one of my favorite scents.

Refreshing peppermint and spearmint blended with soothing lavender. This scent brightens my day every time I smell it. It goes well with my Minty Lavender lip balm and sugar scrub too... (Minty Lavender Soap, $5.00)

Friday Feature

Before we get any farther, let me just say that it's just about lunchtime here, and I'm starting to get hungry. That being said, today's Friday Feature is.... Heaven Baked Sweets! I just got a box of goodies from her the other day, and they're all fantastic.

The first cookie that drew me into her shop, and ultimately I ended up buying, are her Andes Creme de Menthe Cookies. How can you pass up a cookie with bits of Andes mint in them? If you know me at all, you know that mint/chocolate is one of my favorite flavor combinations (ahem...Mint Chocolate lip balm, anyone?) of all time. When I told Ben about the cookies we would get in the mail soon, he asked if I was planning on giving one to his dad. My father in law *loves* Andes mints. When we go to Olive Garden, he's always happy when the server brings a giant handful to the table at the end of the meal. (Andes Creme de Menthe Big Bite Cookies, $13.00 for one dozen)

Not sure if you want to commit to an entire dozen of cookies? Heaven Baked Sweets also offers sample sized orders of many of her goodies. I ordered a sample of her Pomegranate Cream Brownie Bites, and they're full of tart chocolatey goodness. Even Ben enjoyed the bite I let him have, and he's a majorly picky eater. :) (Sample Pomegranate Cream Brownie Bites, $4.25)

Hump Day Humor

One of my favorite websites to read is Totally Looks Like. Seriously, it cracks me up every time.

Old Tree Totally Looks Like Clint Eastwood

see more Celeb Look-A-Likes

New Lip Balms!

Today I had the chance to take photos of the two newest editions to my lip balm line -- Vanilla Mint and Irish Cream. (And of course you'll find them in both my Art Fire and Etsy shops.) Both of these wonderful new flavors are also part of the Pick Two lip and cuticle balms. You can find that offer here.

The brightness of peppermint softened with sweet vanilla. Such a lightly refreshing combination of flavor! (Vanilla Mint Lip Balm at Art Fire and Etsy, $3.00)

What could be better at the end of the day than a glass of Irish cream over ice? Smooth, sweet and chocolatey all at once. Cheers! (Irish Cream Lip Balm at Art Fire and Etsy, $3.00)

Music Monday

Ben and I were in Austin this weekend. Friday night we were at a breakfast-for-dinner party, and Saturday night was game night. Lots of fun times! Yesterday for lunch we went someplace I hadn't been before -- Shady Grove. Not only was the food really good, the scenery was great too. Huge shade trees cover the entire back patio area, which keeps the whole area nice and cool.

The entire time we were at Shady Grove, I had a folk song stuck in my head. I played it for everyone when we got back to the car, and got it stuck in my friends' heads too. This version is different than the one I played for my friends. I played the Jean Ritchie version for them, which I posted in my blog back in June. This version is for all you Dead Heads out there -- Jerry Garcia's version of Shady Grove. Enjoy! :)

Hump Day Humor

This morning I was browsing Graph Jam, and came across the following graph. Now I have Sesame Street songs stuck in my head. Thanks, Graph Jam.

see more Funny Graphs

What's Going on at Bohemian Rose?

Well thanks for asking! The answer is... a lot! I have a batch of NEW lip balm waiting to be labeled, along with restock of Minty Lavender lip balm. And this afternoon I'm making another NEW lip balm flavor. I just have to decide which flavor I'd like to make next. That's the hardest part. :) Look for two new lip balm flavors to be up in my Artfire and Etsy shops soon!

Speaking of new, I also have some new soap on the curing rack. How about Minty Lavender soap? Smells just like the lip balm, but you can use it in the shower! Amazing! This one should be up in my Artfire and Etsy shops in a couple of weeks. Also coming up soon soapwise - Fall scents!

Yesterday I spent four hours at the car dealer waiting for them to do my 40,000 mile check up on my car. I knew it would take a while, but I was thinking two, three at the most. By 1:30 I asked how much longer they thought it would be. He told me that ETA was 2:30... So I called my amazing friend Alana, who had just finished up with teaching the flute sectionals at band camp. She lives about 8 minutes from the dealer, so she came to pick me up and we went to lunch. By the time the dealer called, it was after 3:00. That's a crazy long time! Good thing I brought things that I needed to work on, otherwise I think I would've had cabin fever about an hour into it. Even though it took a while, Rusty Wallis always does a great job with their service. All the service guys are great, they do a wonderful job, and they're (usually) pretty fast. Plus, my car is all shiny and clean now. Bonus!

So since I missed it yesterday, here's Music Monday for your listening pleasure -- some dueling banjos arranged for mountain dulcimer.