Spooktacular Weekend

Welcome mortals...

It's my favourite time of the year, the colours are beautiful, the weather isn't cold enough to trigger my Raynaud's (more than usual anyway) and it's the season of all things spooky.

Like last year, I was scaring the pants off of grown men as a scare actor. Whereas I felt out of my depth last year being a lurking entity in the corner of the eye, this year I did baulk at the concept of the Fae Queen. This year I had lines. 

Well. As hoc lines. I kinda winged it each tour depending on whether there were children (teens, this was a mature event), and it not, randomly selected someone to pick on. Still, I was absolutely convinced I wasn't scary enough, even with the claws, the skull face and the click click click of bones against antler (foam clay, but let's not spoil the illusion!)

My first inkling that I was scary was when I spooked hubby in the dress rehearsal. I was practicing my last jump scare, neatly tucking myself behind a pillar and pouncing out with a hiss when I received "bloody hell, I knew you were gonna do that but I still jumped".

Won't lie, it was the bit of courage I needed! There were many jumps, I had joked during rehearsals I had the best scares and I do think I did, mostly because I was the only "supernatural" element and barely looked human in the dull green lights. 

Still, I am rambling. I will comment on my favourite scene and scare and move on:

We had one tour where a lady needed to use the bathroom right at the start. I could vaguely hear an extra tale being made so the lady could be "comfortable". After 15/20 minutes I was summoned and roared my way into the room, getting my first good jump scare. I then called them into the adjacent room, to hold court and allow me to choose my tribute. As they filed into the room, I hoovered behind the door, muttering and hissing and reaching out with my claws (which did gain a few jumps on most of the tours). The guide pleaded that I spare them and I declined, agreeing to let them into the bakehouse to choose their tribute.

This was my favourite part. As they re-entered with instructions to stare hard at me and maintain eye contact, I hissed and darted like a wild animal before screaming and snatching a guest, dragging them screaming into the dark gloom outside...

Of course it was a stooge. But no one knew and it spooked folk. A high pitched, half giggled remark on that tour I mentioned?

"Thank god I went for a pee already".

Do you want to know what else is frightening? I've gone and bit the bullet and made a sewing channel on YouTube - this creation is my second video!

Now back to regular programming - Missy has enjoyed a weekend of lie ins and slow mornings in bed. She has also enjoyed the mild weather brought in by Storm Ashley, long may it continue!

Our weekend plans went a bit askew owing to Banchory Village Hospital (the insane asylum) becoming more and more of a building site, and planned tea and cake in Dobbies was cancelled as it was just too busy for these tired ghosties, but we still managed some nice walks and lots of time cuddled up on the sofa.

The month is not yet over, we have plans for Halloween night, but I will share the details when I get there! Until then, rest up and enjoy the season!

A Scarily Good Time at Duncarron

It's that time of year! The most wonderful time where there's parties for hosting and pumpkin seeds for toasting and guising out in the gandigow

There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Halloweens long, long ago

No, sorry, sorry, got carried away there.

Well. Halloween this years been a bit odd. My eldest neice and nephew are too old to have family parties, and this year have made plans with friends. There was a brief glimmer of hope I may have seen the youngest ones, but alas, circumstances beyond anyone's control squashed that hope.

So. What are two Xennials that refuse to grow up supposed to do? (I finally found a generation category I fit into. All the rubbish stuff that's happened to millenials that I've experienced, whilst still having an Internet free childhood).

Well, we decided screw it, kids or no kids, let's dress up and go have fun anyway.

Duncarron were having a Halloween event that had been chalked up as a possible idea for all. So, I made Missy a new hat to complete the pirate outfit, we donned our own and away we went. 

We got there good and early before the worst of the crowds (read kids), so we could do the axe throwing and the archery without feeling like we had to hurry. We also did the pumpkin carving and (I at least) did the ghost house as Hubby hates them and won't go near one. There were nerf wars against the undead that were very popular with the kids that we didn't participate in (well, we all know its more fun being the zombie!) 

And it turns out Missy has a following from the pirate event last year. Cries of "Pirate Dogs back" followed us everywhere as we went about chatting to the employees and volunteers. It's safe to say we're becoming regulars! 

Although Missy needs a more effeminate pirate costume. Everyone assumes she was male! Perhaps some pink trim? Or a purple wool to the coat? 

On the theme of making things, I also managed to make my eldest neice a Monster High costume (Frankie Stien, specifically). 

Pop over to Instagram for the full look! And not a bad outcome seeing as I had the two dogs! Wee Ben went back on Thursday, he'd lost his target weight of 0.2kg and apparently has stopped begging at home. I'm waiting to see if it's because he's in a huff or if he's actually turned over a new leaf! 

Well, that's all for this weekend. We have a nice walk planned for tomorrow as well as seeigg friends, hence the early post. 

Till next week! 

A Scary Halloween

It's been a good Halloween this year! Last week the weather cheered up long enough for Missy to have her Halloween photoshoot (I was glad I did it early, we've mostly been out for a swim this week, awful weather!). Her Houndour costume hasn't had a proper photoshoot since it debuted in 2017 and, with Nintendo running a pokemon themed pet contest, I figured that you had to be in it to win it. 

Not that I expect to win, I just like joining in the fun! 

It's the same reason I joined in the pumpkin contest with the family! Some good entries this year from the family, and mine was this rather last minute ghostie. 

At least he looks pleased to see the trick or treaters. 

The main event on the calander this week was helping out as volunteer zombies for Foam Dart Thunders Terminal Infection event. We've done a few of the events before with them as players and, after seeing a call for zombie helpers, I couldn't resist. I did have a panic moment just before the event that perhaps my hubby would rather have played than volunteered (the running joke being that we have tried and failed for years to do the event - we could never secure tickets and, when we finally did, covid came along!). My fears were put aside after our zombie training when he was enthusiastically trying to come up with a costume idea.

On the day itself, we arrived early, got suited and booted, had some very nice prosthetic wounds put on and anxiously awaited. I was concerned I was going to be a rubbish zombie - I felt my lurching pace looked more comedic than frightening and I just couldn't make an undead groan more sinister than a wheeze.

To warm up, a "volunteer" took a zombie put to show everyone and, at the last moment before they returned them to our little room, they attacked and we all dragged them into our room. We were officially zombies.

I quickly found my niche. Watching the other, more experienced, zombies, I realised that they were very much thier own kind of zombie. From one pacing in circles like a cat to one contorting on the floor like an extra from the ring, we could do more than the basic shuffle and grown. I spied my first victim, too engrossed in shooting someone to spot me, lumbered over (drag, thud, drag, thud) then a quick lunge and a hiss.

I have never been more pleased with myself at scaring a child. Then a couple of the adults. And then we started ganging up on our victims. Tremendous good fun. Between games we discussed tactics and how to be the most bothersome that we could and genuinely had an amazing time. 

The clocks kindly went back for us this morning. It was a late night and, being absolutely fueled on sugar and caffeine, we didn't get to sleep until even later. Hubby had lost his voice and was very sore and stiff. 

I dont drink, but I'm fairly certain despite 4 bottles of water and 3 cans of coke, I was hungover this morning. We decided that we all deserved celebratory pancakes from Stack and Still - Halloween style. 

I asked hubby what he thought of the event and was pleasantly surprised when, unprompted, he said he wanted to be a zombie again for the next one. His reasoning being that we play the same games in the other venues, so he wasn't really missing out being a zombie. I'm rather pleased to hear that as that was my thinking too! 

We were booked on for a #leadtheway walk at Cramond (being hosted by the person who attended ours) and, after watching hubby lose his train of thought for the sixth time over pancakes, I told him to sit it out and I'd go myself. 

Missy was pleased for the excursion and, despite the fading light, we made it to the island and back. 

I am feeling it now. My zombie lurch has caught up to me and so a well deserved bath is being run! 

An excellent way to finish a horrifyingly fabulous weekend! 

Trick or Treat!

Well, when your haunted woodland walk with your dog buddies from the walker, and the letter of the week is T, what else are you gonna do?

It was a last minute decision this week to join in on the walk. My sister had originally planned on visiting this weekend, then Scottish lockdown happened, so we agreed to a day trip midway and then Manchester went into teir 3, so that got cancelled and I've been a bit bummed out this week (post holiday blues haven't helped either!). The dog walkers usually have a Halloween party, but restrictions have put a brake on that, so they decided to organise a woodland walk and outdoor training session.

So where did we go? A pet cemetery! We had no idea the place existed, and it fitted in perfectly with the theme of the walk. There was some recall training and lead etiquette training (Missy, having passed her level 4 training last year thought this very beneath her, but she enjoyed the fuss all the same).

Everyone stuck to social distancing and dogs were to stay on lead as we had a reactive pooch leading the way, but we still had plenty of opportunity to chat with the other dog owners. 

In other news, today was a nice break from the rain we've had all week. Poor Missy was absolutely soaked yesterday and was in a huff for the rest of the day. She's prone to getting a bit of a chill in her old age and had cheered up substantially this morning after getting to spend our extra of the day in bed having a cuddle.

In sewing news, I have finished Project Christmas Part 1, which I will share after the event, so in the meantime I will share this little stitch:

I got the opportunity to do some test stitching for Acid Panda Crafts and was rather pleased with how this turned out. Its perhaps a little too accurate for the household!  

Spooky Fun

Missy had her Halloween party on Monday and I won't lie, it was an eagerly anticipated event! As it was organised by the same company that does Missys dog walking and classes (just about finished level 3, she doesn't need them, but we approve of anything that will mentally stimulate her) we knew that there would be dogs and people she knew.

So it was a party, that means games, right? Well, there was Dookin' for (gravy) bones, various Halloween themed agility toys and games for dog and owner to partake in. We came in second with the game were we had to have Missy perform a obedience trick (sit, stay, paw, beg (a work in progress), lie down, stay, touch, back up and, strangely enough for us, stand (we need to train her to stand on command so we can work on bow which is turning into a disaster, but I honestly don't mind, there are worse things than a dog that is over keen to sit and wait for a command!) and then we'd take a little sticker off the wall with different pictures having different values. 

Amongst the games, there was time for making some new friends, including the above whippet who, had we stayed any longer, my husband was going to put in the back of the car with Missy to steal as our own! The costumes on the dogs were great, we had a Halloween onsie on one dog, another painted up as a skeleton (most of it had rubbed off by the end of the night, so he was absolutely fine), harnesses decorated with devil wings and Missy went as a triceratops. She's clearly hit middle age and has done that odd thing  some men do were they seem to get broader, not put weight on, but just physically become more broad in the chest. Most of her costumes are a bit snug around her neck and chest, hubby thinks it's muscle from all the squirrel chasing and I'm forced to agree!

Yesterday was a bit of a different dog walk - we had a two hour ghost walk in Edinburgh with Thistle Knights Tours. They were great in responding to enquiries about which of their tours, if any, allowed dogs (the ones that go into the museum obviously aren't!) and I soon organised a puppy play date for Missy and Maisie together. My brother is game for anything really and we also invited my mother, who then invited her sister who then invited their other sister...

I will confess that I was annoyed that my play date had been comandeered by the three witches of McBeth (and I mean that as in they dressed up as witches. Without telling me it was now a fancy dress affair.) Mostly I was concerned it would be a bit pants (its a free tour, X Files Edinburgh, and you just tip at the end, so I was naturally dubious of the quality) and I would somehow be blamed for dragging them all out in the cold and rain. By this point in the week I'd had to scrape frost off the car 4 out of 5 mornings and then the last 24 hours were solid rain. I was a bit concerned it would be a literal wash out.

Of the 18 booked, we made 6 of the final 7 on the tour. And it was great, I shouldn't have been so worried. The rain had stopped but the dense cloud cover had brought the temperature up away from 0C and had also brought in a dense mist, perfect for ghost stories in a graveyard. At each point we got a choice of three stories, so we could make it as Spooky, gory or silly as we liked. I got to have a shot at dowsing and we made a very slow circuit from Greyfriars to the Canongate. The chap doing the tour was great and very quickly sussed out the nature of us all so didn't scrimp on offering us big laughs and gory details. Definitely a recommend for something a bit touristy in the capital!

I also finally got a picture of Missy with Greyfriars, it's normally far too busy to try. A group of Italian tourists watched in stunned silence as I had her neatly sit and stay, at which point it suddenly sounded as though this was the most adorable thing they had ever seen as a wave of "Awww" and other such sounds were made. Missy tarted herself out afterwards as they all then wanted to pet and cuddle her. She's a daft wee thing, honestly! 

Maisie was worn through after her first bus trip and the excitement of town. So we all headed home afterwards to a relatively early night. 

Not a bad wee week! 

Dancing and Spooky fun

Its October and time for all things Spooky! Today's post is a little backwards as I'll start with Sunday first. 

I had my Manchester based sister and her family up for the weekend and, after a very late Saturday, we decided to check out the Halloween festivities at Almond Valley. They had a scary skeleton pie making diorama that was a little too scary for the six year old so Missy helped solve it instead. 

They have now introduced alpaca feeding as a paid for event at the farm and it was a delight to watch my neice and nephew get close to the animals. 

So, as I've already said, todays post is actually a litle backwards as Saturday was the main event - my mother's 60th birthday. She was in the loop for the whole thing and, after some stresses (like having to find a DJ last minute), it all came together perfectly. Everyone had a lovely time, we all saw people we hadn't seen in years and, most importantly, everyone behaved themselves and my mother loved it. 

It was a fancy dress affair of dancing through the decades and here is my ensemble - fully hand made following the vintage 40s pattern for Rosie the Riveter. I was surprised at how few people recognised it, but those who did thought it was brilliant. 

And of course I had on the red head scarf! 

Just a very short post, it's late and I'm still trying to catch up on sleep! 

Happy Howl-o-ween

Well, Missy has been popular this weekend, not one, but two Halloween parties! My honorary niece and nephew have been insisting on a pirate Halloween party since we bought them costumes for their birthday and they insisted that Missy had to come too (at four, both have decided that they should have a puppy each and are working hard to convince their father. Their mother would like one puppy, and is also working hard to convince the father!).

We arrived at two and went on a woodland walk altogether, collecting pine cones and leaves and building forts. The weather has gotten very cold and we perfectly timed it that they both got to play with the Frisbee with Missy and we were back in the car before the rain started. Once back at the house, the kids had time to get changed (as did the hubby and I, much to their delight) and have a snack before their dad arrived and the party began. There was dancing and pass-the-pumpkin and soon they were off to bed. We grown ups then played elder signs until the small hours before heading back home, thankful that the clocks going back meant that we were getting an extra hour in bed.

Waiter, there's a hair in my tea!

Today was a Howl-O-ween doggy party organised by Edinburgh Samoyed Rescue. The hubby and I took Missy, my oldest niece (13) and nephew (9), their pup Wee Ben and my mum along and we prayed it wasn't going to be a complete wash out event which some Facebook advertised things can turn out to be. Being the first to arrive at the Golf Tavern (highly recommend) we set up shop in a nice sunny bit of the function room and were soon swamped by dogs. Set up next to us were two fabulous collies and their chihuahua buddies and then the Samoyed's arrived - there was at least five of the fluffy monsters bouncing about the place as more dogs turned up.

"Mini-Missy" the spider

We made good friends with another Missy, who won best dressed as a spider, and became absolutely enamoured with a bearded boy called Loki who, with his underwhelmed and laid back demeanour was an exact match to Missys temperament. To be fair, I could have stolen away most of the dogs - as the hubby said to my mum, people have a right to take a child anywhere, regardless of how naughty they are. Dog places are such a privilege that only those with well behaved animals will go.

Case in point, as we were organising to leave, Missy quickly dashed off to a small child (2 at most) who was giggling with glee and throwing dog treats at the ring of canines about her. The dogs were perfectly behaved as they waited for the treats and gently took them from her and no one was panicking about it or freaking out. Such a lovely atmosphere!

The two hours passed by swiftly and we were soon back at my mums for the VIP (Very Important Puppy) after party. Maisie still has another round of vaccines before she can go off and play with all the big dogs so we decided to have a get together for her and continue her socialisation. Missy worked with Maisie on her play bow as they played together for a little while and then Missy retreated to the sofa to let Ben take a turn. He is still very unsure of the puppy, but hopefully they'll learn to get used to one another soon. The best thing for now is to just keep trying.

She'll grow into it soon enough!

There was munchies and cake (of course there was cake!) and then we all played Say Anything before we had to make our leave as it was getting dark. Missy is fast asleep on the sofa after such a busy weekend and we've all really enjoyed it! I've finally convinced my family that dog parties are an official thing (and not really weird or twee) and here's hoping there's a Christmas one that Maisie will be able to join us at!

Till next time!

Happy Halloween!

Well, a belated one!

This Halloween as been unusually busy for me - the last few years have fallen flat with everyone too busy to do anything, and then this year I got several invites, including a doggy parade in Manchester (next year, I have to go next year!) and a puppy disco in Glasgow. Owing to the fact that I was working, I couldn't go to any of them except for a family party.

So this years party all started as my tweenage niece wanted to dress as Pusheen for Halloween. She is savvy enough to know that the costumes available are massively overpriced and that her aunty (ie me) is completely gullible and happy to take on a challenge.

The Pusheen 'rug'

And then my nephew jumped on the bandwagon! He wanted to go as Owen from Jurassic World, only he couldn't get a waistcoat that was just right. None had pockets. Or they were black and not brown. Eyelashes fluttered and:

Well, I very well couldn't let the kids have the best costumes and not make an effort myself! So I followed on from our current pokemon phase and made Missy a Houndour outfit. The hubby and I went as Ash and Misty to compliment Missys outfit (yes, I had chosen hers before ours!) So I'll leave with the comment that we had a great night. I had brought Just Dance on the Switch and we just spent the night dancing away - although I am slightly concerned that my nephew dances better than my niece!

No pokemon were harmed during the photoshoot!

What kind of biscuits do Pokemon get?

Halloween

Halloween is coming, the geese are getting fat!
Please put a penny in the aulds mans hat!

Perhaps one of my favourite times of year, Autumn has truly settled in, everything is red and gold and the weather is still just mil enough to be pleasant for a dog walk.

Missy is a pirate this year (as she was last year) and has been delighting all the trick or treaters that come to the door. Although she's starting to have had enough with all the getting up and down! This year I've modified an actual kids Halloween costume as I have found absolutely nothing for a dog her size - come on pet companies, people with medium to large breeds want to dress up their pups too! All I could find were chihuahua size costumes....

Enough grumbling! I've gone for Pokemon pumpkins this year (I perhaps have too much time on my hands!) and so far one kid has correctly identified team Mystic (L) and team Instinct (R) and I congratulated him with an extra lollipop. 

After hearing that 70% of pumpkins grown aren't actually eaten, I felt shamed enough to do some baking with the pumpkin pieces and innards. I blended the pumpkin into a puree and made cupcakes (for humans), a loaf cake and then Missy of course got some cupcakes made for her! I adapted this recipe and substituted the banana for 4oz of pumpkin mulch. 

As you may have guessed, I am not a fan of pumpkin anything. I was brave and did try a slice of the loaf cake and have to sadly concede that my tastes have not changed, and sent the hubby of to work with the cupcakes (he's going to finish the loaf cake!). Missy loves her cakes and, as pumpkin is super high in vitamin A, I've frozen most of them and she's getting them as a special treat now and again.

I made myself some flapjack, and made sure it wasn't contaminated with the pumpkin! Perhaps next year I may try again...

As a final update, Plec-Gate is still ongoing. I've had two definite sets of eggs, and the babies themselves look to be in possibly 3 age categories. I've finally set up my nursery tank and mnaged to one-by-one, catch 36 babies out of the main tank! They're now safely away to themselves, and I'm concentrating on getting them grown on a bit more before taking them to the pet shop.

Although, I'm rather liking the second tank being set up...

Happy Halloween!