Happy Birthday

husband.....here is your cake! :D

It is a very good

Friday! Not only is the new Hauntcast out....they have a cool new website (which I believe our friend and fellow haunter Guy over at House Bloodthorn has something to do with :) ) that you have to check out, but best of all.....I know, how can this possibly be any better?.....our good friends Tina "The Baroness" and Tim "The Barron" Reuwsaat are the featured home haunters who run Darkwing Manor are featured in this episode!! Yeah!!! We loves them!!!

Husband and I were fortunate to meet these local (well in the same state) haunters in Denver when we were attending (our first) Hauntcon (Like I keep saying, this is one of the best reasons to go to Hauntcon!) Funny how you travel all the way to another state to meet someone in your own back yard. :D We were in line to get into an haunt and we overheard someone say "Ashland". Our ears perk up...we know Ashland, it is a town in Southern Oregon that we visit a couple times a year for the Shakespeare Festival to check out some plays and visit all of the great wineries in the area.

So we introduce ourselves and find that they have been haunting forever and they are good friends with Leonard Pickel who puts on the convention. After talking we learn that they know Steve Koontz, who owned the haunt down the road from us, who we met on the plane ride over and that their son Cody worked for him....small world.

We became fast friends and have been lucky enough to visit and stay at their house several times, even after we tried to flood their house on one particular visit :D We will be down their way again this May, and likely see them at FFNW and West Coast Haunters Convention, and as a special added bonus they are one of the couples that are heading over to Scotland to stay in the castle with us!! They are the coolest people!

BTW - they have a permanent sign in their yard that says "Darkwing Manor" - how cool is that....a permanent sign is on the Frog Queen Follies list! And as they said on the podcast - Husband does covet those flaming pumpkins.....I am happy to say I will likely get something like that this year!! So I owe them one! :D

They have an amazing haunt and I could not be happier to hear them featured on the latest Hauntcast. They have to be some of the most dedicated haunt people I know, their lovely house is decorated all year long...definitely an inspiration to husband and I. Great people that husband and I are proud to call friends. As I have said in previous posts....I want to be Tina in my next....or this....life :D

I knew he would

get into trouble.

I rarely talk about this, but being queen of the frogs can be a real pain in the arse. I don't know if you are aware of this, but most frogs can be right gits, especially the giant ones. One of my particular problem children the actually "Frog King" - he likes to call himself that, but he is no king....I am not sharing this ruling title with anyone :D And yes, I would also like to know where he got that crown, I better go check the hold...if there is anything missing...... :D

Anyway, looks like he is busy terrorizing East Sussex, guess I should go over there and sort him out. Hold one everyone....I will be there in November.

Yes, that was the frog queen being completely silly again!!! :D

Seriously, check out this cool blog Monsters in Real Places, that had the cool picture that inspired my little whimsy blog post (picture by Matty Long). The post of Dom, the pumpkin is my second favorite. Lots of talented people out there, definitely check it out.

Thanks to the Art of Darkness blog for the link.

One of my best thrift store

finds made even better by Toph!

I could not believe my luck when I walked into my local thrift store and found this old church bulletin board. A cork board with a little cross carved in the top....and I turn my garage/shop into a church each October and this would be a perfect party decoration...even as is.

Then the immensely talented Toph got a hold of it and made it perfection.

Of course, I would have painted it black, but leave it to any of the guys to find any excuse to use fire! :D (Can't say I blame him!) He took a blow torch to it to scorch it black and make all the finish peel off! Oh, it is a thing of beauty. And they he removed the cork board and replaced with latex "skin" and then made some cool writing on paper that was aged and stained with blood*.

Instead of thumb tacks, we found cool looking old small nails.

This stays up in the shop most of the year, we will take it down about April to replace it with the large dry erase to board (our project/shopping list). But for now it is on the wall of the shop making me smile each time I pass by!

Thanks Toph!

*Pretty sure it is fake blood or ink...but I don't know that for a fact, I learned with Toph it is best not to ask :) - Could be though....if I remember right, last year Dan went out of his way to make sure that there was plenty of blood offered to the Halloween gods! :D

I was waiting until

we actually told Leonard (which we did last night) that we were not going before I told the world that this year Husband and I are skipping Hauntcon.....and almost all the other conventions (we were going to try to visit Midwest Haunters Convention this year and we had scheduled to visit Rocky Mountain Haunters again.)

What? Is the frog queen getting out of haunting?

LOL! No, we actually have a good reason....at least we think it is a good reason.

We are going back to the UK for three weeks! Leaving right after we take the yard down the first weekend in November.

So all my money and vacation time are going to that trip in November. The plan so far is to spend a few days in Edinburgh (my home someday) and then on to the west coast of Scotland (over by Glasgow) for a week in a castle called Castle Law, then after that we are down to Cornwall (around Penzance) and a few days in Bath (another beautiful city that we both love) before we fly home.

While we are there I will go on as many ghost tours as I can, visit every cemetery I see and visit the Witchcraft Museum (largest in the world) is Boscastle Cornwall. (and maybe take a train up to Alton Towers to visit that new ride....maybe.) See I even do Halloween stuff on vacation!

I told you it was a good reason, just not sure Leonard thinks so :D

Inspired by

the wonderful and immensely talented Ghoul Friday, I decided to reclaim some ugly orange pumpkin lights and make them work for indoor decor.

Because she is more talented than I, she did all this cool detail aging stuff and made them look perfect with a few subtle touches. Genius.

Me, not so much so, when it comes to the frog queen, you might have noticed that almost every item that makes its way out into the shop; I paint black. What can I say, I am one dimensional that way :)

Then I took some dark gray paint and dry brushed it...then when that was dry, I took a lighter gray color and did the same.

Viola! An otherwise boring and tacky pumpkin light has been rescued and made useful and creepy. As far as I am concerned...big improvement...but then that is my general feeling about black and gray paint :D

Evil plans are afoot!

been working on plans for the graveyard for 2010 - yep, this is gonna be good. :)

I have seen the enemy

I know where it lives.....bring your sling shots and your pellet guns - we are off to save Halloween. :D

the ememy

In case I did not

talk about myself enough on this blog :) you can head on over the The Drunken Severed Head blog....he interviewed me the other day and just posted it on his blog.

He has a great blog that I always enjoy visiting, check it out....the interview was a lot of fun, it is always great to talk with other bloggers and he asked some great questions. Thanks!

Now, back to prop building...who am I kidding....I am still playing Plants vs. Zombies :D

we are in trouble

now :)

I can now post from my new phone!!

And you all thought I posted lot before :)

we are in trouble

now :)

I can now post from my new phone!!

And you all thought I posted lot before :)

I was going to say

Oooh, shinny! But it is actually more glittery and sparkly. (I have the glitter all over the house to prove it!)

Anyway, here it is the Home Haunters Association First Place Home Haunt of the Year Award!

Ooooohhhh.....no, you can't touch it, back away, mine! :D (Sorry frog queen is feeling silly today.)

Thanks to all of you that helped us win this! Could not have done it without the help of the blog community - thanks! :)

Wow, I am a bad person....because you know, right now.....what I want to do is......(deep breath)....take this picture and email to to that Kate person at Willamette Week :D LOL!

It is the end

of an era. (Well, sort of.)

Many of you haunters may know this, but for those of you that don't, let me tell you the sad situation that is happening. "Propmaster" Paul Venturella moved to California, into a gated community.....with an neighborhood association with rules and stuff, and we all know what that means....likely no Halloween decorations :(

Not only does Propmaster have one of the most extensive prop sites on the web, he has been haunting his yard in Salt Lake City for years, if you have seen the Haunters DVDs you have seen the camera he has by his front door for his jumping prop that scares the beejeeses out of everyone (we love that, nothing like watching grown men scream to warm your heart!), then he is the driving force behind Rocky Mountain Haunters (husband and I have traveled to Salt Lake to be part of their events) and he is also the creator of all those Haunters Video DVDs -he has been creating them for the last 11 years....for free! Yep, he is a really great guy.

Propmaster has been a guiding force in the haunt community for years, and not just his haunt but the countless many other haunters he has fostered along the way. If you have a question about any prop in his yard, he would explain in detail how it is done and encourage you all the way.....and if you are lucky enough to live in the area, he would be happy to help you make the prop.

Hopefully, like most haunters....it is in our blood and a change of venue cannot stop the desire to haunt and he will continue to help us fellow haunters through his site and extensive advice and working on the DVDs (otherwise husband and I will have a bit of a panic attack! :D )

A great haunter is the true sense of the word. In honor of his contribution in the community last year we created a new category and award in the Haunters Video Awards called the "Propmaster" award (shaped like a pumpkin, inspired by his website) that will go to someone in the haunt community every year for their long term dedication to home haunters. Here is the video from last year when our friends John and Jon from EFX-TEK presenting the award.




We have known him for years and feel honored to call him our friend.

I can tell you that as I am setting up my yard this year....I will be thinking of him :)

(Mostly thinking....wow, what must it be like to have free time in October and a garage you can park your car in and extra money and a life :D )

Washing up would be

so much more fun if I had these.

Thanks to my friend the lovely and very talented (and she loves our graveyard....we like her) Margie Boulé for tipping me off to these great knitting patterns at Kris Knits for Halloween dish/wash cloths. I see these and think....maybe I should learn to knit, making these would be so cool.....then I stop laughing and come back to reality.

Like I need another hobby! :D

Check out the Kris Knits link for more details, she has a great blog and sells the patterns and they are really reasonable. If you are a knitter, this is a project for you.

Husband and I are

disagreeing (which always happens when I switch into "crazy mode") and I blame it on Pumpkinrot :D He posted a picture from the new Thirteen ride, and we both had to learn more. To some people, finding that the ride was in the UK might have been disappointing, but not to me! I am headed over there in November - so I think, sweet!!! - we are going!!

It turns out not to be that easy.....our trip will take us to Scotland, because we that is my home (well, at least in my mind), and then we are going to head down to the west country Bath, Cornwall and Wales. So will be at both the top (area) and the bottom of the lovely island....and wouldn't you know it? The park is just about in the middle. *&%$!!!!

Husband says no way, it will waste a whole day, but I am looking at train schedules to see how I can get there from Bath (which is a bit of a trek)....I have seen the Roman Baths, Stonehenge and the chalk hills several times, and they are stunning, and I highly recommend that you see it if you are out that way.....but I have not seen this ride. I really want to see this ride. Does this not look like the coolest rollercoaster ever?!

For some reason he thinks I am being completely unreasonable wanting to go to an amusement park when there is many other things to see :D (I know he is right....but I really hate to admit that :D ) I know this quest is madness and very silly - I would say that this is definitely the epitome of a frog queen folly! :D

Yeah, you should all feel sorry for him, putting up with my craziness is not easy. He deserves a metal or something :)

What might quash the whole thing is that it might not be open when we are there.....not all their rides run in the off season. I have an email in to them asking about the schedule, but since it looks like they are busy working on the grand opening of the ride in March...I don't imagine I will hear from them anytime soon. At this point they may not even know if it will be running in late November.

So I put a tickler item on my to-do list for July to check back with them :D Yes, I know I am insane, you should all know that by now....and I am fine with that.

I used to have a life

but the damn game ate it. Okay, I have a problem with this Plants vs. Zombies game. It has gotten a bit harder and a bit frustrating...but that has not stopped me from spending way too much time playing (and also playing Majong the cool touch screen computer....but that is another story.)

Anyway, because I am the nice type of person that likes to share her misery (and I LOVE this game), I am going to give away a copy of this game on my blog. So if you want to your very own time wasting, endlessly entertaining game...now is the time to win it....you have time now...I mean Hallwoeen is 9 months away. :D

And to make it that much more cool....there is even a pumpkin (jack o'lantern) as one of the plants. He is a hard shell that you can put your plants in that make it harder (not imposssible) for the zombies to eat. Is that not uber cool?! I love this game!

Leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner next Wednesday, February 24.

Good luck everyone!

While I am in

a bad mood, I might as well bring this up. (my self loathing kicks into high gear whenever I have to spend time with my family :D )

As I have posted before not everyone likes the Davis Graveyard display or me for that matter, but that is cool, everyone is entitled to their opinion - just like I am entitled to mine :D

Is this not the most wonderful world! :)

So to show it is not all sunshine and roses here at the graveyard (or my case tombstones and skeletons), I will share with you a not so flattering review from last October from one of the larger free publications in our area. :(

To be fair, and all things being what they are, I know that my display is not very interesting for people from about early teens to early 20's - we are too family friendly and not scary and thus uninteresting to the bulk of that age group, which is the primary haunted house attendees. This is one of the main reasons, husband and I have no aspiration to create a haunted attraction. I really have no desire to adjust my style to that demographic....personally I like it, gore and jump out monsters are fine, I have no problem with them. I love haunted houses, but it is not something that sparks my creativity.

So when every you are talking about Davis Graveyard in the same context as a haunted house, we are going to fall short. I appreciate that they even include us, but it usually does not bode well for us in comparison :)

Well, this particular paper/magazine, the Willamette Week, is definitely for the hip crowd and they were none too kind to us. So about now, I am having flashbacks of being the un-cool kid in high school again :D

Davis Graveyard
8703 SE 43rd Ave., Milwaukie, davisgraveyard.com. Dusk-10 pm Sunday-Thursday, dusk-11 pm Friday-Saturday. Free.

Davis Graveyard is not a haunted house. Officially, it is an elaborate yard display, with special effects thrown in on the weekends. Unofficially, it’s just a cluster of cheesy tombstones, fake cobwebs and blue lights. Sometimes there are creepy noises, but overall, it’s the opposite of scary. It’d perhaps be a nice surprise while trick-or-treating (especially since the Milwaukie High School dance team will be performing “Thriller” Halloween night), but it’s otherwise not worth the trek to Milwaukie. KATE WILLIAMS.

Pants wetted?  Only when my car got stuck in the mud.
Scream level:  Sesame Street.
Zombies spotted:  None, but there will be several dancing zombies on Halloween.
Worst failed attempt to frighten:  One tombstone read, “Hold my beer and watch this.” If only I had been holding a beer.

Okay, it could be worse, and actually I am not too affected by her not liking it, like I said, that happens, we are not for everyone. Being a scream level of Sesame Street works for me. I like Sesame Street - that made me smile :D

What does bother me are a few things. Calling 60 tombstones a "cluster" is a little insulting (but I guess in comparison to a real graveyard, that is fair), there are no blue lights in the display and come on, even if you stretch the truth a bit, not all of the tombstones are cheesy :D

But the "officially" and unofficially" statements - basically she is saying we are exaggerating in our description.....wow, I mean I am in marketing and exaggerating is something I will have to say I am familiar with....but in this case, I thought "elaborate yard display" was more than a fair description. And saying that one of the largest displays in the nation is not "worth the trip to Milwaukie" hurt a bit. Just so you know, the houses across the street from me are in Portland, so basically she is saying the display is not even worth crossing the street for :D

"Some special effects thrown in", yeah, nothing too special, just 5 video effects, custom lighting system, animated skeleton and spider, video and mechanical ghost effect (preacher), and custom sound track depending on where you are at in the display. Yeah, we just threw those in. I mean we just had them lying around..... :D

And, yes, I did notice that there was a lot of mud in front of the house before Halloween, so I did have a couple loads of bark dust brought in, some of those little expenses for the display that I forgot to budget for :D

She is 100% correct, the fake webs I bought last year sucked, they did not stretch very well, I actually took a lot of them down. After whining a lot, I now have a great web gun (and a friend that LOVES webbing) Problem solved for next year - No more fake webs for the graveyard.

Well, the "Hold my beer and watch this" tombstone has never been one of my favorites, but other people like it. So I have to thank her for finally giving me a reason to put it in the back of the yard! :)

On that note, Kate, if you ever come by to visit the display, just come on up, I will be more than happy to offer you a beer :D

So what's a girl to do? I was recently talking to someone about how my being in marketing works with the graveyard, and this is a perfect example. I could have sent an email out to our list and asked everyone to contact the Willamette Week....but working with media like I do, I know that this will likely offend the person that did the review, so if they did not like me before, after that, they would likely not cover me or give us an even worse review next year. The best thing to do in this case, just ignore it.

I just remember that we make this display as a form of expression, and there will always be someone that does not like what you do. Just part of life.

Finally!

....and yes, going to the white cliffs of Dover to dump the spider over the cliffs it also seems, completely reasonable to me. :D

Husband is not afraid of spiders like me.....but I don't know if even he would grab a huge spider!! (shudder)

That was mean

wasn't it....I only posted the first part...I wonder how many of you went to find the next two :D

Well, for those that didn't here is the next part (my FAVORITE PART)......and yes, I too would sell my house if a Category 2 spider went missing in my house.

"For the love of god please buy m-y h-o-u-s-e-!!....." I just about bust a gut at that part every time I see it!!!!

And for those of you that actually get the Adam and the Ants reference....well, that is just an added bonus!!!

The man is a genius!

I am posting it

even though sadly this ride (The Haunted Inn) was destroyed in a fire just a few weeks ago (I knew I should have posted it sooner.) It was the last ride left in the original park. Is that not sad? I am remembering why I stopped posting these a while back :)

Pleasureland in Southport, UK was open in 1912 and closed in 2006. (It opened again in 2008 and 2009 for a bit, but then closed again.) What I love about this park is it looks like it had, two, count them boys and girls, two haunted rides!!! .

The second ride was called the Ghost Train.

They are baaaack

Yes, the spiders are back on the masthead.

The other day when I was at a meeting...one of those things that are distracting me from my very important blog :D, and as I am looking at the person speaking, I see it....a small spider is crawling down my bangs onto my face.

(I am screaming like a banshee on the inside!)

I am in a big room full of people so I don't want to jump up and scream and do my spider dance...well, actually, that is exactly what I want to do....but I don't because I really don't want to distract anyone from the meeting so that we can just get it over and done with :D So I just jump a bit and brush the spider off my face.

Afterward at dinner I tell husband what happened.

He laughs and says he was wondering what I was doing over there! Looked like you were going to have a fit or something! :D

Actually I was quite proud of how I handled that, you have no idea the amount of restraint it took not to scream!

Anyway, I have posted this before but it has been a while, and some of you might have missed it. Here is Phil Jupitus (one of my favorite British comedians) doing part one of a three part routine on spiders (thanks YouTube for that 10 minute limit :D)

And, no, I do not think it is insane to board up a room if a Category 1 spider gets away! Seems to be the only logical solution to me, I mean what else do you do? :D

This three part routine is probably one of my favorite comedy routines.....ever!

Where did she go?

Sorry everyone.....I usually have lots of post written and at times like this when I am super busy at both work and home, I can just put the blog on auto pilot - not so much this week :)

Oh, and there is that damn Plants vs. Zombies game...while the zombies were trying to eat my brains, the game was eating my life!!!

Bare with me, I have a three day weekend coming up and I promise to get back to blogging (I have soooo many things to tell you!!) . . . I mean you all want to see what the Home Haunters Association first place award looks like, right? :D

I spent too much

time wondering how I was going to be able to tie this blog post into something scary/Halloween/Davis Graveyard ish - cause I know that it may not seem like it, but almost every post does...very loosely mind you, but they do. I don't have marketing awards for nothing :D

Anyway, I finally thought of what it could be.

One of the scariest things I know...I mean seriously makes my skin crawl and start to feel dizzy (and generally irratates the crap out of me) . . . it is. . . . my full name.

Christine (shudder) - worst name (for me) in the universe right? :D

I look at that name as an almost unforgivable mistake on my parents part.

When I met husband he quickly corrected the situation and started calling me Chris (I then promptly killed that Christine person and buried her the yard :D) ....it has taken years for my family to stop calling me "that name" - they still do on occasion, and I am not sure if it is just the name or the fact that it is that "family" thing.....but it creeps me out! :D

Thanks for sticking with me this long....you will be rewarded finally, with the actual point of this post.

Some friends sent husband an email from urbandictionary.com of his name... the description fits him perfectly. So I wanted to see what mine said.

Of course, Chris, comes up as guys name and it makes reference to parts of the anatomy that as a girl, I don't posses but always enjoy playing with :D.

But my full name - now that was funny - and true, did I mention true?

1. Christine

A deity; the best person to be in your corner; unlimited power and potential; a muse; someone that can change your life. Someone that takes your side even when you're wrong; soul mate; kismet; fortuitous; serendipity

If I only had Christine, I could do anything!

2. Christine

Christine from the word Christian, also from the Greek word Christos.
my name is Christine! with an 'E' not Christina with an 'A'! why do people always call me the one with the 'A'.

3. Christine

This person is very smart and GORGEOUS. She is very easily loved and very sweet. People are attracted by her loving and beautiful hair. When people hear her name they faint for love and jealously

Person 1: Hey I saw CHRISTINE the other day
Person 2: overhears *faints*

I have to say that that is the first time in 26 years that I have actually not loathed my full name. :D

BTW - the second one is sooooo true! Stop calling me Christina....that is even worse! And it is Chris with a "C" not a "K" do I look like a Kris to you?

And yes, my "beautiful and loving" hair, does in fact, love all of you. :)

The only reason that I

would watch the super bowl (yes, I know I purposefully did not capitalize to truly convey my complete lack of enthusiasm for the whole thing.)

One of the commercials for Dockers will be using my favorite Ren Faire/Novelty group the Poxy Boggards. They are hysterical, their tag line is a "drinking group with a singing problem".

Not for the faint of heart - a good portion of their songs are hard R/X rated/and are heavily centered around drinking - so if you click these links make sure you are not at work or and your kids are not around. I will not even play some of their stuff at my Halloween party - not good for mixed company - I mean husband's dad is there!

Seriously, don't even for a moment kid yourselves that "oh, my kids can handle this" - no, no they cannot, and that is brought to point by a very funny song that they start their Ren Faire shows* with a song called "A Warning" aka We say F*ck! (A lot, and that is not even close to the worst of it! - if you are an uptight female, don't even bother, you will be offended...... several times - that said, why are you reading my blog...have I not driven you all off yet?! :D )

That, of course, is not the song that Dockers will be using....they are using a very funny song called "I Wear No Pants" - the song is quite simple, made up of several verses that are the same lines just in several "languages" or something resembling other languages......some of those words sound a bit suspicious to me :D




Their CDs have been the soundtrack for prop building and drinking at the Graveyard for years. I get giddy each time they release a new CD - positively giddy!!! Husband and I have corrupted a lot of people (I mean turned people on to) with their music....I even remember a friend of mine getting their catalog for someone as a wedding present. Is she not awesome!?

So imagine my utter excitement when that same friend (Babbling Banshee) sent me a link to a music video of that song with news that it would be used during the Super Bowl!!! WooHoo....had to email my other friend Jason (Yamfu) immediately.

Here is a link to their other videos

Not all of their songs are naughty, they actually do great versions of many classic sea shanties and drinking songs. Their versions of The Grey Funnel Line, Whiskey Your the Devil, Rolling Down to Old Maui, and Finnegan's Wake are all tradition songs delivered perfectly with love and dedication. As fun as they are to listen to - their live show is a party - I would go so far as to call it life changing :D

If you at all think you are going to want them....I would order them now...I imagine by Monday, they will be almost impossible to get.

Oh, and no, I am not watching the Super Bowl, I am doing what I do every year and watch the ads on YouTube!

*yes, frog queen goes to Ren Faires.....grew up in Southern California.....big one down there. We still travel to them from time to time....I know, really, it is any excuse for me to put on a corset and cinch it up so that my boobs are touching my chin and I cannot breath, drink lots of mead, and talk dirty to complete strangers! All in fun, I take husband with me. He is big guy at 6'2" with long blonde hair and a claymore strapped to his back....no one bothers me :)

Noms!

I found this awesome....and I do mean awesome cake over on the talented Boo Spooky's blog. Her current post is about some stunning cakes - you really need to check it out, they are not to be missed.

But anyway, of course I liked this one.

Zombie noms! Is that not me?! I didn't think I could find anything better than a frog cake....but this is it!

Like I said to her "I want this for my birthday cake!!!"

WANT big time!

got pumpkin?

You can win yourself a very, very cool one if you hop on over the ShellHawk's Nest blog and enter. She is working on a new art form (actually just a new form of pottery) and she is giving away one of her latest creations to one lucky winner!

Head on over there and leave a comment to get yourself in the drawing......wait, why am I doing this? I want to win that pumpkin :D

While we are talking

about awards, I am ready to pass on the cool new award I got from Geoff over at Enter the Man Cave.
This award goes to all of you that comment frequently on this blog. I always appreciate comments, let's bloggers know that there is indeed, someone out there listening :) Thank you. I tried to grab everyone that has posted on my blog....recently at least a couple time. Focus on the word "try" people, cause I am sure I have forgotten someone - I am hoping that because these awards make the rounds.....one of these people will correct my error and make sure you get this cool award!

I am purposely leaving off three people that should be on this list - Carl at ILHM, Wiec? at when is evil cool and MJ at My Two Yens Worth......because I don't want to give them an award :D

LOL!!! - they already got the award from Geoff already. So, guys, consider this your backup copy :)

Andrew Green - from the always fun and interesting Who Wants Taters Blog (I love that title!)

Arcane - from The Scarecrow Post blog - very talented prop maker and great blogger

Dawn - of both Nicolas Manor and Whacky Whimsy blog fame. We love her!!

Dawnabelle - not only is she my good friend...she is one of the few of them that reads my blog!

Emme Toaye - Over at the Mystic2awesome and back blog. Fun blog and she makes all kinds of lovely items.

Halloween Spirit - Great blogger, not only does she write the most eloquent blog posts, she leaves me comments that makes me laugh!!

Johnny Thunder - He posts the most interesting things and provided me with my favorite computer wallpaper!! And he is a Hauntcast host!!

Judith - Her Blog "Merlin's Magickal Mistress" blog caught my caught and keeps my attention for many reasons.

Max the Drunken Severed Head - Great blog - always has something to say - always look forward to visiting his blog

My Ghoul Friday - an amazing blogger and artist. I cannot say enough nice things about her :)

Pam Morris - Great artist (Labyrinth Creations), great blog, likes gardening....what is not to love.

Rue - from the Rue and Hyssop blog. Lovely blog, very honest and open blogger

ShellHawk - one of my original blog buddies - great haunter, Hauntcast host, talented ceramic artists and funny blogger.

Stephanie D - She has two blogs - Scraps and Walks by Night - Always has something interesting to say....I like that.

Suzie - Another of by gardening/Halloween blog buddies!! Cat in the Pumpkin Moon

The Captain - What can I say, we all know this great blogger/haunter and long distance Davis Graveyard Helper.

The Pumpkin Queen - you know us queens have to stick together. She has a great blog, definitely an other one of us crazy Halloween people :D

The Quirk Shop - Always a great blog and leave the best comments!! And she has a blog called the Illuminated Frog - me like!

William Bezek - Another interesting blogger - if you have not, check out his blog, you will really enjoy it. Very clever guy!

Wings - We all know his blog Caffeinated Joe....well you should. How could I not recommend someone that not only likes "Friday the 13th the Series" - but is also part of a site about the show!

Yamfu - Jason is my friend and the coolest guy....mostly because he is one of my few friend that post on my blog

Okay - I am sure I have forgotten someone, and you should not be surprised....this list is coming from the lady who forgot to mail packages left in her car for a month!

So what do you do now.....

1) Link back to the blog/blogger who nominated you and say a few kind words

2) Paste the picture of the award in your award post

3) Nominate bloggers you think deliver great comments to your blog

4) E-mail/post/tweet or do whatever you need to do to inform these bloggers they have been nominated for an award.

Tag, your it!

Some days you can't win

and other days you do :)

So at work we got a couple of cool awards for our fantastic Marketing schemes! Woohoo! Yes, our marketing team is just that good :) They are now in the box in the back with the other awards....really, you think I would move the frogs out of the way to make room for the awards? Think again my friends, think again. :D

So, when you win a bunch of awards from the outside world, the powers that be here on the inside think that I should be getting one of those "you are doing a great job" type awards. Oooooh, shinny!

These awards all have names...or reasons why the person gets the award. My award* was titled "resisting generic" - The whole room about busted up in laughter. Believe it or not (I know this is a stretch) but the frog queen has a reputation for being a bit unconventional :D Everyone thought it was perfect....except for maybe my boss :) I think she feels I "resist generic" a bit too much for her taste :D

I am famous for rolling my eyes at any sentence that starts... "Well, the competition is doing this, so we should do ..."

My overly passionate response is usually. . . . "How about we do NOTHING like that, seriously people, be original...if you can't do that, at least do better." Which I quickly follow with saying...."Oops, did I say that out loud?"

I do not want to spend my marketing money fitting in with the crowd....I want to be the one the crowd is following behind :) I admit, it is a bit dangerous out there, I have "taken one for the team" a few times, but I am the first to jump up, dust off and admit that maybe that was not the best idea.....and tell you what we are going to do next! Marketing is kinda fun that way!

And at the same meeting one of my fellow co-workers, and oddly the only other person in the department that day, also got an award....oh yes, marketing rocks!

Later my husband emails me to tell me that we got our Home Haunters Award in the mail. Inspired by the good karma coming my way and feeling a bit bold.....I adjusted the sign outside the department. I only kept it up for the day....since not everyone here shares my sense of humor....

* The award is a silver star thing....kinda heavy. I call it my ninja star. I have always wanted a ninja star!

I don't want any

zombies on my lawn.....and especially none getting in my house and eating my (alleged) brain!!!

So imagine my glee when I found out about the game Plants Vs. Zombies over a The Spooky Brew. She had a link to the theme song....which is almost as good as my current favorite - Portal theme song. Check it out. It is FUNNY!

After that download the game Plants Vs. Zombies from Popcap games. Gardening will never be so fun.

While we are talking about gardening (one of the other loves of the frog queen) you need to go over and check out the new site The Haunted Gardens. Yours truly is co-op blogging with a few other lovely and equally creepy obsessed people to talk about gardening and our flair for the dark and spooky.

I am doing a major remodel to one of my garden areas this spring and you can follow my progress on this blog. One of my major changes is the permanent addition of the a skeleton (which you will see in the masthead on the new blog) and a scarecrow as garden art to my vegetable beds.

If you are interested in gardening and Halloween...we have the perfect blog for you. Check it out!

While I am cleaning

out the basement, I thought I would finally get my act together and do something about all the lovely awards you nice people have sent my way......so, one Picasa web album creation and small change to the blog and we have a way to display the awards.

You will see them on the left....thanks to all of you for the awards. I really appreciate it, and all your great blogs.

That being said, we are back to the frog queen shilling for another of my favorite blogs Enter the Main Cave. What more can I say.....great guy, great blog and extremely supportive of other bloggers. Check it out, you will love it. Thanks to my friend Geoff for giving me my latest award.

Best Blogger Comments Award

Thanks man, I love commenting on your blog! Thanks for the support.

I am supposed to nominate other bloggers......and I thought about it for long time last night and I am still not sure what to do. It brought to mind an interview I read from a performer I like and she said "the reason she does not "name names" was that another person she respected when asked about influence etc, listed off "just about every other female artists from that time" except me....I was devastated." Ouch, that had to hurt!

I don't want to hurt any one's feelings by not nominating them for this award, if you are reading this blog, you are cool people and deserve lots of awards as far as the frog queen is concerned :)

Give me a day or so to think this list thingy and I will post something soon.

And, in light of this award, let me just say "thanks" to all of you that post comments, they are always appreciated :)

I will use any excuse

to light the skull candles on the patio :) And tonight is the perfect time to light the darkness with skull candles.

















....don't you wish you were spending Imbolc at the Graveyard? Oh and I made some yummy potato soup.

Awfully traditional for the frog queen.....but sometimes traditional is good. Makes me smile.

Happy Imbolc everyone!

"So, when exactly are you

going to do the happy dance?" husband asks me on Saturday as we are packing stuff to take to donate.

I hesitate.....What if they won't take it all.....and I have bring it back?

I think about it for a second, I don't want to jinx this.....it is important to me.

I look at his truck and the back of my car. both are completely full of stuff we have been accumulating for close to 20 years that are on their way to be donated.

And I say, "as soon as we get back and they have taken everything...every last item."

Returning from the trip I pull into the driveway first, and as husband is pulling into the driveway I hopped out of my car and did a "happy dance".

I see him laughing in the car and hope he is paying attention enough not to drive through the closed garage door :D

It is like a large weight has been lifted off my shoulders. But it did cause another problem. . ..

I found things in the basement.....more things I really need to get rid of. :)

That said, husband has added a few things to our Davis Graveyard products page. I have energy drinks, t-shirts and calendars (and travel mugs will be up there tonight) left over from last season - as well as DVDs for the past few years (we are working on 2009 at the moment, it should be there shortly.)

I am not marking up any items, they are what I paid for them plus what it will cost to ship them (shipping is included in the price). I am only selling what I have in stock - so every item is a "limited edition" :D

I will also be giving away items to some of you that I know will want them....and several things I will give away on the blog....this time I promise to mail them in a timely manner :)

So, here is your opportunity to get some cool Davis Graveyard swag and help the frog queen clean out her basement so I can have some indoor prop making area....and more room for wine :D