There and Back Again...

Today is a very special day indeed. It is Hobbit Day! As you are aware, September 22nd is the birthday Frodo and Bilbo Baggins share. Certainly there will be a party in the Shire, and maybe the Sackville Baggins won't show up - we can only hope. 

Oh yes. It is also the first day of fall.  It feels like it too. Given the sightings of fat birds waddling around beneath the trees and trying to go inside when an opportunity of an open door presents itself, there might be an early winter, but I suppose we will see. 

I am also excited today, as I got a new cosplay outfit. One of the local seasonal Halloween stores brought in the 11th Doctor costume, and I am just over the moon, or possibly the untempered schism of time.  Last year I desperately tried to put this costume together before the Halloween party I was invited to go to actually happened (finding a fez is strangely difficult for some reason, given we have Shriners in town). Granted, the party and the invite were about 3 days a part, so there wasn't a lot of time to prepare.  In the end, I floated in as a Flamenco Dancing Vampire, which was fun, but again not my first choice, no matter how cool I looked.  If you follow ...what am I saying...OF COURSE you follow Dr. Who, there are only two more episodes before my boy Matt regenerates to Peter Capaldi. When Matt started out his 4 year term as the Doctor, he wasn't well received by most ("Ten" had a strange lock on a certain set of young girls who were enamored by his moody Emo ways, and they just weren't interested in the "toddler in the Tardis", as Matt was known for a time) , but he had me from "hello".  I found him to be brilliant, and  it will be sad to see him go. Well, now he won't go to far, as he is hanging in my closet (that isn't creepy at all). What I found interesting in the store today, however, was that for some reason there was a song playing on the sound system repeating the words "doctor" over and over, and the young lady who helped me find the right section - looked like Billie Piper (aka Rose Tyler). It was like the universe was smiling on me purchasing this outfit - weeping angels sang, etc.

On the side, sadly I was never a Rose fan.  She just got on my nerves, mostly because she was mean to my all time favourite companion Sarah Jane Smith and she hung on the Doctor like cheap perfume. I was happier than most when she was stranded in a parallel universe, but I digress. 

So, beyond plugging two out of three of my favorite shows (the third will remain Star Trek), what did I do this week? Well, this was the weekend of the annual Pedlar's Market for MECO.  Our day started off like this...

But the sky cleared, and it looked more like this...

 Shopping and visiting was done...

We met new people too... Hi Linda!
 

There were treats and lunch....

And treasures found...

 And a good time was had by all. I snagged this mushroom (possibly a candle holder?) for 50 cents. It had originally been scheduled for a gnome house (and there is gnome place like home, as you well know) but the developer never showed up. I kept seeing it as one of those delightfully nasty Amanita Muscaria mushrooms, which are infamous for populating happy woods of children's stories, mainly because of their bright and cheery colors -sadly, bright colors tend to be nature's way of saying "Don't Touch!" so mixed messages there.  On the side, and apropos of nothing, I was a mushroom in a skating exhibition in my misspent youth, and also spent a semester studying mushrooms ... true story. 

Fairy Folk sitting on an Amanita Muscaria aka Fly Agaric

 My first task was to rid myself of the brown and gold, which again - wasn't fitting into my vision. I also removed quite a bit of straw from the top (failed roofing from a previous attempt) and glue - oh so much glue. Once the surface was clean and prepared, I gessoed.

 Already it is looking fresher. 

The house, first incarnation of paint. I liked the red top and the off white stalk, but the white spots (which are really almost little scales on the real ones) weren't looking right. I just kept painting until I got something I liked. For 50 cents I spent on it, I wasn't too upset when the first try didn't come out right.

I painted some gills on the underside of the cap....

 
 Repainted the top for a third time with polka dots - this is what happens when you listen to Dr. Who Proms while you design, space-time vortexes affect your work. I like how the polka dots work on this, it gives an anatomical fact the case of the whimsies. I did a little decorating around the opening too, although that may be revisited. Its not bad though, all ready to go on to stage two, some woodland folk moving in. Probably not these guys, though, they tend to make too much noise and they generally sing one song with one word - La. This can annoy the neighbors, which is why they are out in a secret spot in the woods in the first place...

To conclude today, I have added a little film to inspire you on a woodland folk scene....Take care and don't cause any scandals (or at least not too many) by going on grand adventures with dwarfs and suspect wizards , my dear friends, until we meet again...