Wickedly Awesome Folk Art

Seriously, I have never been the biggest fan of Halloween. I LOVE autumn, its my favorite season of the year... and don't get me wrong, I like Halloween. It is certainly an over-the-top theme holiday with so many possibilities for decorating everything from your front yard to your face. And the food... I remember moving to Arizona for college and spending Halloween with the Godsey family in the Caballero Circle cul-de-sac drinking homemade root beer from a "steaming" cauldron complete with dry ice and everything. I remember Halloween themed college parties with hayrides and barn dances, but I guess I have just never been obsessed by it. I remember carving pumpkins as a kid and with my kids. Who doesn't like trick-or-treating and bringing home bags of candy that you cannot possibly eat without getting seriously ill?

And the years and years of fun costumes (certainly this is one of the joys of being a parent right... dressing your kids up in silly, I mean cute, costumes... )

Of course Joey is the turtle on the left and Sammy: Winnie-the-Pooh!

and I will never forget the year Sammy dressed up like Austin Powers and celebrated Halloween with the Ellsworth Family. Taylor walked in and said, "who are you supposed to be... Elton John???" Ha, too funny!!!!

So this year I reunited myself with my old ASU college roommate, Tracey. I say I reunited because I stalked her on the internet and finally found her, sent her an email and anxiously awaited her reply. It had been 17 years since I had seen her. Its kinda crazy how 17 long years have gone by and yet we get together and it is like no time has passed at all--except that we have 17 years of stuff to talk about--like we needed anything more to TALK ABOUT!

Now Tracey IS obsessed with Halloween. She has the most awesome house and it is just filled with beautiful antiques and one of a kind folk art, mainly holiday pieces.
Above: Tracey's kitchen island decorated with sweets for a Halloween Party

When Tracey asked me to go with her to a Halloween Folk Art Show, I honestly was mainly looking forward to spending some time with Tracey. We had grand plans of hanging out in San Francisco and seeing the play 'Wicked'. Probably doing some shopping and visiting an old friend of Tracey's who owns a bakery (yum!). But in the end, the show ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip. Halloween and Vine was in Petaluma (just north of San Francisco) a couple weekends ago and I didn't realize how amazing some of the folk art would be. In the picture below, the artist has crafted some beautiful pieces out of fabric and then hand painted them. She makes the eyeballs and everything. Not exactly wickedly evil looking, but amazingly constructed.

Speaking of wickedly evil, Tracey ended up purchasing the couple below. They are each at least three and a half feet tall and come with their own death certificates:

After the show, we spent some time enjoying Petaluma and then also had to find a TJ Maxx so Tracey could purchase another piece of luggage to house her treasures. The couple above were not the only purchases Tracey made that day.

Then, if spending a long weekend in San Francisco wasn't enough, as it turns out, the even better Halloween Folk Art Show was to be the following weekend (last weekend) in Northville Michigan. Of course I would not be crazy enough to spend two weekends in a row out of town with Tracey at Halloween Folk Art Shows.... would I... ???

Ghoultide Gathering was really in the most ideal location and the weather totally cooperated. Yes! It was 50 degrees, windy and raining!!! Ha, if you are going to love Halloween, you can't expect it to be 95 degrees and sunny (like it was in Petaluma). This was true Halloween weather and I truly got sick, but hey, the folk art was AMAZING. They did not allow pictures inside, but the little village where the show was being held was really fun. We trudged around in the mud and, of course, Tracey bought more amazing folk art.

We were greeted by this guy:

and this guy:

The buildings at Mill Race Historical Village in Northville, MI (outside of Detroit) are all historically significant buildings that were facing demolition in their original locations and were moved to Mill Race Village. Its a fun gathering place for the town and also a great way to learn a little bit about the history of the buildings. Also a great spot for the folk art show.

Spooky...

Finally... Tracey with her "Buddah-Head" Pumpkin... (don't ask).