“Orange” is the word on this [tag]Manic Monday[/tag]. Mo gives us a word, and we are supposed to be inspired to write. It doesn’t always work! My first thought is of some orange trucks that we have around Denton, Texas, I’ve already told you about Frenchy’s Brand.
That leaves me with “Halloween” as my only connection to orange (other than my hair). But orange is the color of the season. “[tag]Halloween[/tag]” means jack-o-lantern pumpkins, which are orange (unless you use a “ghost pumpkin.”
crazy costumes (and I love to play “dress-up!”)
How can you not love a holiday centered around dressing in silly costumes, telling shivery ghost stories, and hitting up strangers for candy? When my children were small, we went all out for decorating on Halloween. Yes, we carved pumpkins, and used an old sheet to make a [tag]ghost[/tag] to hang by the door.
We also went out in the woods and cut a branch from a dead tree to make our “Spooky Old Tree.” This was back in 1986 or so, and having a [tag]Halloween Tree[/tag] was an unusual thing. We hung white Christmas lights in the branches and draped the tree with rubber snakes and plastic spiders. My boys liked to take a lollipop and wrap a Kleenex over it, fixed with a rubber band on the stick. A ghost. They used a black marker to put eyes and a spooky mouth on the Kleenex. I still had one of those “ghosts” they had made last year; it was 19 years old but I still hung it in the tree. Sadly, one of five fe-lions at my house discovered it and destroyed it. With cats, nothing is sacred.
Nowadays, I don’t go out to cut branches, because I found a tree at the craft store.
It’s not as dramatic as the big one, but it works on the mantle.
It’s spookier in the dark.
I don’t get to celebrate Halloween much, because it’s “prime time” for a storyteller. I’ll be out at other people’s parties entertaining their guests with ghost tales. What will you be doing?
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What a great post on orange. You just do this so well. Have a great MM.
You are always so kind to me! Hope your day is good, too. I loved your video!~skt
What a fun post! Love the pictures. What will I be doing this Halloween? I’ll be helping take my 1 year old granddaughter trick-or-treating for the very first time. I haven’t been this excited about Halloween in a long, long time.
Whoot! Trick or Treating with a baby! Nothing is finer than that. I know you’ll be having fun with it. She won’t understand a thing that’s going on, but you are gonna have a blast!~skt
Very cool decorations, Shelly!! Since it’s officially October, I am going to start putting my out, too. I got some stuff ot make a cemetary on my front yard. I used to do all kinds of stuff outside, but thugs wopuld wreck it every year, so I stopped. I’m going to live on the edge and see if I can keep them this year!!!
I was going to give Manic Monday a try this week and then I saw it was orange and couldn’t think of anything really interesting to write about. I’ll give it a go next week!!
Jessica
Thank you, ma’am! I hope that the thugs will leave your decorations alone. I don’t know why people have to be doing stuff like that.
~skt
Yeah, some weeks Manic Monday doesn’t have a theme that my pea brain will work with…you don’t know how long I struggled to come up with this!
The branch is such a neat idea! I would decorate our yard, but we don’t get many kids here. However, we have had three young families who have moved in, so I think we may go for the scarecrow this year and scary music.
The branch was always fun. We live in a cul-de-sac, and NOT in the rich part of town, so we don’t get a lot of visitors, or I’d decorate more. Saves on candy, I guess.~skt
Howdy! Just wanted to stop by and tell you more about your Amaryllis bulb..
Yes, you can cut back the leaves and stem when they begin to die and get saggy.. Then you can get your bulb ready to bloom again…
Thanks for the info!
LOL!!! Great post from a sort of free-association angle, yes? Love the pics. All I can think is “Oranges poranges, nothing rhymes with oranges” I like this manic monday thingy. Maybe I’ll give it a shot. I was going to start working on my Hallowe’en decorations today, but decided to play online instead. I think I’ll go do a late Orange post. I’m feeling inspired.
Manic Monday is a fun meme! You should try it. Mo doesn’t always pick words that blow my dress up, but he gets me thinking.~skt