The pictured cookie cutter and spatula set I actually acquired some time back. Not sure where the cookie cutter is these days, but I use the spatula so often, the Dia de los Muertos detailing has faded and peeled a bit, and there’s a small chunk of the rubber/plastic that broke off the tip of one corner. But I love it. It’s an older photo from when the set first arrived by mail. I had spotted it I think at a Ross Dress for Less and didn’t buy it, then it DISAPPEARED! But careful web-combing by myself and my friends unearthed a site from which I could order it. I have since learned my lesson. If you see limited quantities of something at a discount store, grab them ASAP!
Been looking at kitchen things online. Thinking about going with a rainbow stainless steel look– that oil slick in a rain puddle effect combination of colors. Not sure when I would be making these updates, but I could use newer kitchen stuff. And hey, favoriting stuff is free. Pondering future investments for the home. I can also suggest them as Christmas gifts, if’n I maybe help with ordering them? Kiddo knows how to get into my wishlists. So that’s something.
I also wouldn’t mind some new kitchen towels. Found really fun ones out there, including foamy reusable paper towel equivalents that all have unique designs. Great stuff with black cats, or skulls, etc., that would gel nicely with some of my Halloween kitchen things.
And, more oven mitts or potholders would be helpful. Especially as I am trying to do more cooking at home. Kitchen utensils, too. I have no idea what happened to my pasta spoon, but I’m fairly certain at one point we had one. The colander, too. POOF! Just not there.
This precise photo, of the spatula and cookie cutter, I had tried to use as another slide in my “October Oracle,” but I struggled with getting it to look how I want. I suppose I could take another crack at it. I already used my black cat Happy for “Vampire,” with a pic of his fangs poking out. Trying not to overload the “deck” with selfies of me, while still only using photos that I took (or, maybe, one that I’m in, that someone else took). My thought was that this would be a good combination for the “Black Cat” card.
I suppose I could use a second pic of Happy, however. That could work, too. Not like I don’t have a WEALTH of cat photos to choose from. And Happy is so pretty.
It’s not a super-polished looking photo as it stands, but here’s what I had in mind for the background for “Bat” or “Bats.” Maybe just “Bat” since there’s only one of them? This is one of many different things made for a fun Halloween dinner I threw at my parents’ house. Kiddo might have still been here at that point. It might have been one last big shindig on Halloween, for her/with her? I seem to remember working on all the treats with her, and her having gone through the book of Halloween-themed foods with me, picking things out to serve.
I also made some soft shell tacos, from an online recipe. Plenty of seasonings, but my mom insisted I halve all them, thinking they might upset my dad’s esophageal issues. So the meat could have been more flavorful. No preservatives in anything I added. I think most likely it would have been fine. It seems to be additives and really tough meat that bother him. But this was slow-cooker-ed, and fully homemade.
Better safe than sorry, however. Ultimately, I’m just glad everyone got through the meal, even if it was somewhat unconventional. I think the tacos were the only thing that was hot. Apparently not what was expected. Alors.
Maybe if I run into the Facebook memory with the taco recipe again, around October, I could try making them for myself. That’s something to look forward to!
Probably making tacos tomorrow. Still plenty of spaghetti meat left, but I think I’ll freeze that, so I can use up my avocados while they’re still in a good mood. Nothing worse than surly avocados!!! Like those angry onions in the Angry Whopper from Burger King.
This is maybe even simpler visually than the lil peanut butter cup, Oreo-fragments, and candy googly-eyed bat, but here’s one of the healthier things I offered with that dinner (though the tacos were healthy, too, really).
I think my bigger skull charcuterie thing turned out much cooler. Maybe if this had been larger, with more components beyond carrots and pepper slices and a bit of celery, it would’ve been more impressive. But it was still fun to eat, and cute!
That one and the bat might be easier to turn into oracle slides than the cat cookie cutter and spatula set pic, since the photos aren’t as busy. More room to play with adding text and other visual details.
It’s a bit late at night to consider toying with any of them now, but I did duck into my work in progress and make some edits. I actually had a random insight about a better line using “forever” to rhyme with an earlier “remember” in “Havensong (Before You),” just as I was about to fall asleep, too, days ago. Grabbed my phone and added it in my Notes app.
Good thing, too, because I had completely forgotten about it, until I was looking for something in Notes, tonight. I doubt I would’ve recalled it at all without the reminder.
In my youth, I joked about how “The Muse” would keep me up at night. All the ideas that come, when you’re tossing and turning in bed. I guess that’s still a thing!
I also encountered the term “microcore” for the first time today, on Spotify, as a suggested genre I might enjoy. Googled it. The top result was a Reddit thread full of people who had ALSO Googled it unsuccessfully, all postulating what it might mean, based on their playlists. That was rather fun. There were a few theories that stood out:
A collection of songs with very loyal fan bases, maybe like “cult followings,” who wouldn’t necessarily be recognized as familiar by the general public.
Similarly, maybe a semi-generic label applied to the tastes of the individual listener. Perhaps artists and songs that don’t fit into a greater collective genre but that you tend to enjoy regularly. That just feels like cheating, though. Why not come up with a more creative use of genre labeling than that?
Alternately: Songs that employ quiet sound effects amplified to be perceivable by the human ear.
Mkay, that’s about all the news that’s fit to print today.
I added and edited in my current fiction, so I figured I had “earned” some time to ponder life and what-all here, before bed. Work was especially intense, but I had leftover spaghetti waiting for me. And some chocolate, and fun salad fixins.
Hm, there is meat left now, but no more already-cooked noodles. I suppose if I don’t want to freeze the rest of the meat, or bother with breakfast tomorrow, I could just boil more noodles in the morning. That’s a pretty low-effort option. I work earlier than usual tomorrow. Someone else is on vacation, so shifts have been juggled around a bit differently. BUT I will be off for my birthday weekend. So YAY!!!
It looks like I never uploaded the other October Oracle slides I have made thus far! Here’s one using the skull charcuterie board I made on a cookie sheet. It was SO DELICIOUS! I had a really good time, chillin, watching movies, picking at it. And then eventually ordered some delivery, for something more filling.
Here’s the rest of what I’ve got so far:
This is the cover slide. Not my photo– just something I found on Canva and tweaked a little. But the rest all began as my photos. So if these were actual Oracle Cards, as part of a deck, the backs would all look like this:
(And yes, I did come up with divinatory interpretations for each card I’ve made so far).
That one, I rather wish I hadn’t been wearing my earbuds. The rest of the photo is so great! I suppose I could look up an app or program similar to Photoshop and edit them out. But it is just a labor of love, so they also don’t need to be immaculate. Just 31 things I archetypally associate with October, each with meanings.
There’s Happy, above, with the fangs I was calling his “Kiefer Teefers,” after Kiefer Sutherland’s role as David in The Lost Boys.
Sky Messenger features a pic I took from inside my car, when there was a crow perched in the tree close to my parking space, against one of the landscaped islands in the lot. The crow cawed at me repeatedly. At first, I thought it some sort of otherworldly message, then later noticed there was a bird carcass on the ground, nearby. “This is MINE,” it was saying. “Stay away.” Who knows? Maybe it meant something else, too.
I found two versions of Light and Shadow in my downloads and don’t recall offhand which one I actually uploaded to Instagram and Facebook. Looking at them tonight, I think I prefer this one. Same photo as the backdrop for both, but slightly different added details. This one seems more legible.
Here’s a simmer pot shot. Simmer pots are so delightful! In the future, I may combine that idea with mulling cider, so that the end result is also something consumable. Would I want Bay Leaves flavoring something I drank? I know they’re good in stews, if you take them out before serving. Not sure about mulling. They’re suggested for simmer pots, however.
You can buy pots made specifically for this, that are all glass, so that all the colors and beauty show through, as the contents bubble, and fragrance the air. But any kind of pot will work. I suppose I could also wish-list a proper simmer pot! That might be fun.
Wildwood Tangle shows a photo I took on one of my jaunts around my neighborhood. These are some brutally chopped trees around an empty lot, off the side of a nearby road that borders both business- and residential-zoned properties. This area used to be a nursery, before they finally tore the building down. I’m not sure if they’ll ever uproot the base of all those trees so the lot can be repurposed. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to develop it as-is. BUT the tangle made for some fun aesthetics. One of my friends said the three tree trunks reminded her of the Fates, or the Norns.
Last one… the very first of my parents’ dogs who was around late enough that my daughter remembers her. The dog I grew up with passed when she was still tiny, but they did meet. This is Daisy, who was a very spirited Border Collie mix. Here, she’s investigating a nearby wooded area with me and my daughter. Daisy loved “the woods,” which are really more a small ravine with trees. But even if the space isn’t very wide across, it does run fairly deep. My daughter’s Dora the Explorer boot shows in the original version of this photo, as she was climbing a tree around the edge of the frame.
Clever Harvester and The Seeker not only had meanings for if you “pulled” them in a reading; they could also be theoretically employed as cards representing the querent, like to see where the cards fell in a particular configuration (which were closer or further from the querent card), or to give the querent a card upon which to focus their energy while holding it, prior to shuffling. I thought rather than splitting querents into a gender binary, the option of cat vs. dog would be more inclusive.
Okay that all took longer than expected. I need to get to bed!
I will leave you with one final image. I don’t think I uploaded a bunch of pics from this excursion previously? Forgive me if you’ve seen this one before. A display of masquerade masks at House on the Rock, from when I visited with my daughter and her boyfriend, on one of their trips here. Both in keeping with anticipating Halloween, AND the vibes of Mardi Gras/New Orleans.
163 days to Halloween, my peeps!!! SQUEE!!!
Have a good night, or an excellent day!
All the Bright and Sparkly Things 
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