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Tuesday, October 18, 2016

October and Edward Gorey

I'd love to visit the Edward Gorey House !  His illustrations are so charming, and I loved the way PBS's Mystery incorporated them into their introduction.  Gorey also illustrated T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

No question that the man loved cats.

Years ago, my daughter gave me one of his cat pins.  
It just exudes joy!  
This little fellow is my favorite pin of all time.  :)


The Gorey House has an annual envelope contest
and you can find the 2015 winners here.
one of the 2015 winners

You can download the 2016 entry form here. 
What a fun and creative challenge for kids.  :)

I've been putting out all of my Eccentric figures for Halloween, sorting out witches and goblins and ghosts and various monsters.  


I've begun one new creature to send to my daughter Erin, who is excited about giving a Halloween party in her new house.  They moved in after Halloween last year, so this is there first spooky October.  Her boyfriend teased her about trying to create a school carnival, but school carnivals are so much fun!  The kids are very involved in the planning, so bobbing for apples may or may not be part of the activities--might be bad for costumes and makeup.

21 comments:

  1. You should enter an envelope! I love Gorey he has such a great sense of humor.

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    1. Gorey decorated/illustrated the envelopes he sent to Peter Neumeyer, his publisher, and whoever instituted the envelope contest deserves a medal. I loved looking at past winners!

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  2. Fun post! I love Gorey's artwork.

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    1. I love his work, too, and the very eccentricity of his life and art. :)

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  3. Loved looking at those participants' works! Some of them are so creative! You should enter if there's one for adults. :)

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  4. Love it ALL! Yay to the school carnival. Kids are so much fun and love to be involved. I'm sure it will go well, afterall, what could be better than a big Halloween party!!
    xx, Carol

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  5. As the mom to 3 furkid cats: he's my kind of guy! And I love his illustration too.

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  6. Will you be able to attend your daughter's Halloween party? Sounds like she has big plans. :-) I love your collection of figures you made. The envelope art is amazing!

    I do love cats (who would have thought given I did't care for them much until Parker came to live with us)!

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    1. No, we already had plans for that weekend, and I do hate to miss it! But Erin has promised me lots of pictures. Isn't that envelope art great? I love that so many kids participated and look forward to seeing this year's winners.

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  7. What a cute challenge and I agree I love the Gorey illustrations that PBS Mystery incorporated. Would love to see his house too. Before you send off your new creation to your daughter we need a picture :) Your spooky shelf is so cute!

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    1. Wouldn't an envelope challenge be a great way to get young kids to write to their favorite authors? They could illustrate the envelope to represent the story. :) Teachers could get a lot of mileage out the challenge.

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  8. What a great contest, I would love to see the entries. Your Halloween Eccentrics are delightful as usual.

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    1. The elementary grades are the most fun! Did you check the link? So cute, and I bet the majority of entries are from local schools. I'm still surprised that I have made only this one new figure in a year, but I hope Erin likes it.

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  9. It seems to be a female thing to do, decorating for the holidays, but you know what? I think that's the first thing her boyfriend would miss...her happy involvement of bringing joy to others.

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    1. :) Remember the school carnival booths that had spaghetti for brains and olives for eyeballs--I'm hoping Erin will go with it! I always had a love/hate with that one.

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  10. I'm really going to date myself with this comment but I actually attended a one-room schoolhouse on the prairie of North Dakota when I was in the 7th and 8th grades. I'm 71 years old now. My favorite teacher of all time taught first through eighth grades. I was the only student in my class so it was like I had a private tutor. Anyway, that marvelous teacher (as if she didn't have enough to do!) always put on a Halloween Carnival for us in the basement of that schoolhouse. Oh what fun we had. Thinking back now, I realize she enlisted her husband to help and he seemed to enjoy it as much as she did and I know they paid for everything. They even created booths. One was "Go-Fish". You didn't see who was behind there but someone would attach a piece of Halloween candy at the end of your fishing line. Oh, the memories that wonderful woman gave us.

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    1. How wonderful to have a teacher that you remember so fondly after all these years!

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    2. She had had a stroke at one time that paralyzed one side of her face. I'm sure that eliminated her from the more plum teaching positions but I like to think she enjoyed all of her "kids" (she had none of her own). She could pretty much do as she pleased with none of the administration woes suffered by some teachers. It was so cute to watch her reprimand the two big farm boys who made up the entire seventh grade. Even though they towered over her, it was "yes, ma'am" and "no, ma'am" in those days and the boys usually knew they had it coming. We all loved her dearly. Mrs. Odenbrett. I'll never forget her. She even permitted me to help with the little first and second graders, usually just with their winter boots, coats, scarves and jackets but if I was very good, I could read to them.

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    3. Mrs. Odenbrett sounds like she influenced a lot of children in such positive ways!

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