October Packages and Voting

Down to the last wire ladies!!! I hope everyone has already mailed out their October packages to their partner, or if there is a delay they have communicated by email to their partner or me....that is very important.... If you have not received your package or heard anything from your partner please email me.

I also need to see more voting for this month's photo winner of the best package..so cast your votes and post here....

Swap on the way!!

Jayne,

I just wanted you to get ready for your bewitching package filled with "boo"tastic stuff! I mailed it today!!
Trick or Treat
Beth

WOW!! Look at all my goodies!

Debb,

Thank you so much for all my goodies! It felt like Christmas in October! My girls are anxiously hoping I will lend them my cool Halloween socks! Again, thanks for letting me be a part of your swapping craze. I will miss receiving the awesome packages everyone puts together! I hope to be back next September with my new Teaching Degree!!

Take care,

Gina F. "Busymom2girls"

BOLO!

Hey Connie,
Be on the look out....
Your goodies are on the way! I hope you enjoy them!
Gina "Busymom2girls"

Package Received From Pooch

Pooch--Wanted to let you know that your wonderful package arrived last weekend. I was not able to get the picture to post before now. I loved the creativity in your packing. Orange paper wrapped all the packages and black ribbon tied in bows went around them. The books are really great and how on earth did you find the cook book. James Patterson's new novel Quickie, and a cookbook from The Whistle Stop Cafe(Fried Green Tomatoes)by Fannie Flagg. I could not believe my good fortune. Also a bookmark, box of Halloween candy, fall desert leaf plates with matching napkins, the cutest Halloween card, lavender soap, storage bags for Halloween goodies, and all this was nestled in a bed of fall leaves that can be used in a vase or around a centerpiece. Thank you thank you so much. your pal,Michelle

Gina Be on The Lookout!

Your package is on its way....so be on the lookout Gina!!!

Now Judy B. I still have not received my package from September??? Is there anyone else out there that has not received their September package??? Please post a comment here.

Mail Call

Hey Christine,

Just wanted to let you know that your Oct. BABE is on it's way. Hopping to you be watching the post.

Michelle

Pooch's Updated Wish List

My hobbies: knitting, being online, reading, crocheting
My favorite books: Chocolat, A Year by the Sea, The Secret Life of Bees I do not enjoy fantasy, romance, and sci-fi.
My favorite genres: fiction, non-fiction--particularly memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies
Books I want to read are on my Amazon Wish List posted on the side bar of my blog http://www.yarnknitreadlit.blogspot.com/
My favorite colors: I like most colors except orange/coral shades.
My favorite pet: My wonderful Boxers, Max and Lailah
My favorite scents: natural scents, nothing floweryOther info:
My husband and I have three adult children and seven grandchildren. I enjoy traveling, my Red Hats chapter--The Mad Hatters, Bible Study, our seniors group at church---Young at Heart, knitting for various charities, and most of all -- being with my DH of 42 years.
My Amazon list: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/ref=gno_listpop_wi/002-7606470-7348840

Halloween History Facts and Contest Winner and Contest #2 October

Ok ladies we have a winner for Contest #1 "Treasure Chest Alley "

drum roll ...please..." **&%$$$### And the winner is......

Shawnee

Hip Hip Hooray!!!!!

Shawnee was the only one had all the right answers and also answerd the question. Beth and Judy were real close with only 2 wrong .

Also wanted to let Sheila know that she is the winner for September's package! She will receive a prize for winning!!

Here are Shawnee's answers and question statement!!!

• A Boxer dog - Pooch with her adorable Laila pictures
• A cup of cider - Karen Beth lists this as an ingredient in Wassail
• Cat and Mouse - ME! - my fighting mouse and silly cat
• Wilson - Connie's last name!
• Himalayan Goji Juice - Gina F has a post about this "latest craze"
• Pirates of the Caribbean - Christine? I couldn't find anything else that fit, to tell the truth
• Laura Ingals Wilder series - Judy B wants to collect the series
• Large yarn ball - YOU! - great post on 8/31
• Dolphins - Michelle collects dolphins and dragonflies
• Dick Francis - Sheila SAW Dick Francis at a signing
• Indiana - Jayne was born and raised in Indiana
• Martha Stewart - Beth is a MS wannabe!

And the Question answer:

Which is the most important and why? I think Sheila seeing Dick Francis at a book signing is the most important/most relevant to our exchange since it's for book lovers!

Thank you everyone for playing and be sure to try again in our next contest that is listed below.....

Some Halloween Facts and Myths

The True History of Halloween

Halloween, or 'All Hallows' is easily the most controversial holiday celebrated in America. Spurred by rumors and religious hysteria, works of poor scholarship contend that Halloween is the day of the Devil, a satanic celebration of dark forces disguised as a children's holiday.

"Depending on your source material, the Druid lord of death and evil spirits was called Saman, Samana, Shamhain or Samhain. His "holiday" was called "The Vigil Of Saman" or Samhain (pronounced so-wein). You probably have seen a modern day version of SAMAN without even knowing it. This pagan god was shown as a ghostly, skeleton holding a sickle in his hand. He later came to be known as THE GRIM REAPER. "

Halloween history and folklore reveal a fascinating blend of traditions.
The message of Halloween, history tells us, is that it is a time to reflect, to give thanks for the harvest and to honor "those who have gone on before us". . . a time to recognize the eternal cycle of life.

Trick or Treating
Trick or treating, the practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for goodies, is largely an American adaptation of European masquerades and the late medieval Christian practice of "souling," when poor folk would go door to door, receiving food in return for promises of prayers for the dead.* This was just one of many occasions for going door to door in a time when entertainments were in short supply. Dressing in scary costumes is another holdover from medieval times.

Jack O' Lanterns
Brought to North America during the 1840's by Irish immigrating because of the potato famine in Ireland, the custom changed to carving pumpkins since they were more plentiful here, and easier to carve!
Orange and black, the traditional colors of Halloween, represent the orange of pumpkins and the black of darkness.

The black cat has long been associated with witches. Many superstitions have evolved about cats. It was believed that witches could change into cats. Some people also believed that cats were the spirits of the dead.

One of the best known superstitions is that of the black cat. If a black cat was to cross your path you would have to turn around and go back because many people believe if you continued bad luck would strike you. ?? True or myth?

There is also little basis to the persistent rumor that black cats are sacrificed on halloween, although many animal shelters will still refuse to adopt out black cats near the holiday for fear they will be used as holiday props and later abandoned or mistreated.

About Halloween and Dracula

Now are you ready for contest #2?

"Halloween Jokes and Riddles Search"

In this fun contest all you have to do is give the right answer to the "jokes or riddles " below. This is a fun one and I thought it would be cute to see what answers evolve from these question????.

Answer them all and then answer the last question from the swappers "Wish Lists"

1. Why don't skeletons like parties?
2. What do skeletons say before they begin dining?
3. What do you get when you cross a vampire and a snowman?
4. What do you call someone who puts poison in a person's corn flakes?
5. What does a Ghost eat for lunch?
6. How do you mend a broken Halloween Jack-o-Lantern?
7. What do you say to a 2-headed monster?
8. Why do ghouls and demons hang out together?
9. Why did the witch put her broom in the wash for Halloween?
10. Why do mummies have trouble keeping friends?

And the last one you will find the answer on one of our swappers wish lists!

1. What swapper doesn't like orange but likes the life of Bees?

Good Luck Ladies!!!

Partners are Assigned

Hello Ladies,


Its partner sign up time again. Below is the line up. Be sure to read all about this month's theme in the right sidebar. Its a good theme for the month of October since it is Halloween month....
I thought you might enjoy some Halloween trivia:

• As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there.
• The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds.
• By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
• In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. .
• In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.
• At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day.
• By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment.
• Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated.
• Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived.
• Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration.
• In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats.
• A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.

Have fun and any questions be sure and email DaBookLady. Remember to be sure to post those package pictures..

Partners:

• Debb - Gina
• Gina - Connie
• Connie - Shawnee
• Shawnee - Debb
• Jayne - Judy B
• Judy B - Beth
• Beth - Jayne
• Pooch - Michelle
• Michelle - Christine
• Christine - Pooch

Be sure to let me know if you have not heard from your partner or received your package for September

Happy Swapping!!!

Received Package From Beth

Beth,

I received you wonderful package on Wed. am just now getting the opportunity to post. You did great on your choices of books. I have not read either one of the Sue Grafton books, M is for Malice, N is for Noose, also the Pride and Prescience book I am very anxious to read it sounds like the Anne Perry books that I like so much. I will have to get some time to make the beaded earrings in the kit that you sent. And also some good "down time" for the tea bath and tea to drink. The crochet piece was so pretty, you must have loads of patience. It was such a great package and arrived so quickly too. Many many thanks for the hours of enjoyment ahead.

your BABE buddy,
Michelle

Received Package From Chris.....

Wow, Chris. Thank you so much for such a great package. The two books that I absolutely wanted so bad were included along with a "Winnie the Pooh" notepad and pen. I will certainly add the pen to my pen collection. Also the yummies that you sent will be enjoyed by my husband. He loves "Oh Henry"s and how can I turn him down by not giving them to him. I'm keeping the twizzler nibs for myself, though. I love those. The hot pad is really nice, also. Now for the Niagara Falls card and the keychain. They brought such memories back to me because my son took his first steps across the falls. Not the big ones, but back where they are little inlets that lead into the falls. I love that area. Thanks again for such a great package!! Jayne Davison

Yippeee!!!

Oh! how excited I was to receive my first swap package, and what a bunch of goodies did my treasure book behold from my partner Deb.
Inside I found two books both on the treasures of true friendship and a package of my fav. coffee from Starbucks, note pads and neat little pens and pencils. Once again thank you so very much Deb for your thoughtful treasures.
Once the camera is charged and ready I will post the pics of goodies.
Looking forward to future swapping!!
Beth

Thank you Sheila!

Wow Sheila --- I just picked up your AMAZING box today. You say this is your first swap?!? Let me be your partner EVERY time...LOL!! I'll add the pictures soon, but you ladies won't believe it. Everything was wrapped in tissue paper that had pictures of books on it .... every package had a sweet note saying how it was chosen especially for the theme. I receive FOUR books (!) and FOUR skeins of yarn, PLUS cookies, PLUS a magnetic notepad ....


I nominate you for swapper of the month!

Connie, It's Coming

Hi Connie -- Just wanted to let you know that I just mailed your box today. Sent it Priority so you should have it before the weekend. Enjoy!!

September Book Swap

Jayne,

Thank you so much for my goodies! I can't wait to start reading!

Gina
"Busymom2girls"

October's Theme

Hi Ladies, the October Theme is up... check out the link in the sidebar for "October Theme" its a real good one for the Halloween month! be sure to let me know if you do not want to swap otherwise the list is up for the swappers! Partners will be assigned soon....

Also get those contest lists into me I have received a few and the DEADLINE is OCTOBER 8th!!!

Received Package From Pooch.....

Pooch..
Received your fabulous package. My favorite author. Faye Kellerman's latest book "The Burnt House" and another book by Judy Blume "Summer Sisters". Very awesome. My package was filled with all sort of goodies....yarn and hooks....feeding my crochet addiction. Awesome candle in my favorite scent. Note cards, coin purse and all wonderfully wrapped with personal notes. Thanks for the great package.

P.S. Your package is in the mail....Hope you enjoy it as much as I did putting it together. Sheila