Spooky Haus Tour Part 1...

Promised tour of the newly in order Spooky Haus! Part One anyway. Another tomorrow, and perhaps another yet Monday, as there are a LOT of great pictures, and if I may be permitted to say, a Spooky Haus this cool can't be done right on one post. (by Tuesday, Fod knows how, it will most likely be a MESS again)



First, The Gorey Kitchen. Does anyone wonder why I don't cook here very often????



I just got curtains for the glass door and the windows as it is always kind of cold in there, and uh, I am always forgetting I live in town now, if you see what I mean...I like my pot rack, in kind of a Medieval Torture rack sort of way.



The curtains of the left in this next picture, cover a glass door the goes out to the deck. The black ones on the right, go to a sort of Butlers Pantry, and on into the dinning room.



And into the dinning room. This is from the other side of the Butlers Pantry, looking out, and on thru and into the sunroom. Yes, of course that is a cat bed on the dinning room table. They like it there. Notice the two glass cabinets, they are filled with skeletons, before I had my Spooky Haus, I used to keep them in the closet. But really, what is the point?



Notice next that there are only two houses in Halloween town in the top shelf now....MIM!!!!!



Here next is looking back at the pantry and the Halloween Bathroom...



Speaking of which, it looks huge in these next photos, but it is the smallest bath EVER!



I live the hanging bone thing here, but what the heck IS it? (oddly enough, that is not at all an odd thought for me in this house, I often wonder at some of the things that show up here...Don't MIND, just wonder)



The Romance Room is one of the nicest rooms in the house. And stays the neatest, as I am not there too often. The door on the right here goes into Le Solace Leopard's room, which I think we will skip for now. I want to make it nicer, more of a real room, but am not sure how, or if it would disturb him any.



Here's another angle, that door goes to the front porch, as does the one in the dinning room. Those wacky Victorians. This house has door everywhere. And I hang keys in all the windows. Old keys. Just in case.I didn't take another towards the Stardust dress, as you have seen that many times, and this is getting a LITTLE long here.



And back to the Sunroom, which Bengals, and a fire and my strange little Xmas tree. Which is where I am now, writing to you.



Love and Spooky Houses,
Lorraine

Tonight's Gig Cancelled....

Not that I think any of the Minneapolis Fiends are quite this nuts, but in case you were going to head out to Paul and Lorraine tonight, that gig has been canceled in its entirety.

Even if I couldn't make it, which it looks like I could not, Paul and Dylan were going to try, but it is such a mess here, snow wise, that the gig has been called off completely.

Driving simply makes no sense for anyone, either for us or anyone coming to the show.

Stay in and stay safe!

(Proper post tonight, not to worry)

Love and Home,
Lorraine

How To Shoot Movies In One Easy Lesson....

What a wonderful, wild, long couple of long hard days! Learned a lot since Tuesday. Tuesday was the day I learned I was the Person Running The Screening and also that this Doc Shoot was not a couple of guys with a camera for a couple hours, but a full on, day long movie shoot.

Right. Now last weekend I made an error. (yes, time you knew, I am very so not perfect, it is true) I hate making errors more than anything, and I work really hard to make things go perfectly, which, sadly, they do not always do. Makes me insane when it happens. So I was very determined that with both this screening and the Full On Doc Shoot, things were perfect, insofar as I had any say in it.

The screening, as you have heard did go off perfectly. (I figured out I was running the show when Henry Sellicks Assistant dropped me a note asking what Henry should do when he got there and what was going on) He was happy. Boss was happy. Everyone was happy.

While waiting for things to begin, Boss and I had a few moments to chat about the shoot the next day. He asked me when it started (got that one) when was he needed (got it) how long would they be there (Yup) How many in the crew (easy) and how many of those were hair and make-up and was there a separate wardrobe person.

Huh????????????????

I froze. I stalled. I never thought to ask about hair make-up and wardrobe. How could I have missed that??? I hadn't worried about wardrobe, I mean, he only has the one outfit unless we take it to suit, and that was in the closet. Well, yes, make up, but clearly this is not MY problem is it???

Well, if he was asking, it obviously was and I ought to have thought about it, and I am dead, as I have , for the second time this week, messed it up. (the words I was thinking were rather different and not printable)

I took a deep breath and with a sinking heart told him I had not asked.

Only to find my Buzzard of a Boss cackling fit to kill! MORE than pleased with himself. Got you that time, he said.

I admit, as I decked him one, that I was laughing too, but at the same time telling him exactly what I thought of this prank and how worried I was and how well he knew it. Got me indeed!!!!!! Coal in his stocking.

The shoot was loads of fun. The people were great, and as such things go felt like family by the end of the day. I love the logistics of movies, and the behind the camera bits. I'd never want to be in front of the camera, but all the different jobs fascinate me, and how it all works, and how people work together to make it happen.

It's them that make the film. Not the front of camera. I know they do their bits, and do it well but they certainly could not do it without the skill of everyone behind the camera. Today was a one day shoot. We had one front of camera, and 14 other people making it work.

I was Boss's Assistant and the "Lorraine can we, Lorraine where is, Lorraine do you have" person. For 14 hours. Loved it. Every minute of it. There was one women, not sure what her job title is, but she was the one coordinating everything, making it happen, making sure everyone had what they needed and that things happened when they needed to. That's the sort of thing I like to do.

Again, very fun to see how things work. Can't wait to see the final version. We got to watch it all on a monitor, which was fun, watching the rooms turn into sets, and the magic work.

The only time we ran into snags was, well Princess Snowflake the Cat is a bit of a Diva. They got a lovely shot of her running down the stairs, and then she prowled the set in a delightful manner, but then decided things weren't going quite right and started going back to the camera people, and the lighting and sound guys and telling them it wasn't all THAT perfect....

We had to banish her to the attic.

Cabel did pretty good, but he was a little enthusiastic and wanted HIS bits to be NOW, so off he went to Doggie Day Care until we were ready for his big scene where he romped in the snow with Boss. Had to re-take it a few times, more walking more romping, but he did great and didn't seem to care HOW many times we re-shot.

It was only when we were leaving that he let me know how he really felt. He took me aside and said...

"All I want for Xmas is more screen time than the cat"

Everybody wants to be in movies...

Love and film,
Lorraine

Coraline!

Just got back from a screening of Coraline, complete with 3D! Boss said to people if you like it talk about it, and as I rather more than liked it, I will say so now.

(And I suspect Beez, Aleta, Gayle and El will not say a word until I give the ok, talk away guys)

One heck of a magic film, on every level. I am not sure I have ever heard a film better scored. The music was amazing, and added to the film in a way I hadn't exactly experienced before.

The animation, obviously, was, I think I have to go with Very. Very. Good. Took my breath away. Magic.

I think one of the best moments was seeing the reaction of the kids who were there. Allison Stemple in particular, I have seen a child's eyes shine like that, but never from a movie. It made my heart feel so good. Dr Score's boys were there too, and I loved seeing them quiz Neil and his friend about how exactly did they do everything. I think everyone went away feeling a little bit of magic.

It was a working night, in part as I did not know I was arranging everything, and being the official rep until yesterday. Learn fast. I kept thinking Someone would be Doing Things, and Someone did. Just hadn't thought it would be me. I feel like I did good. Instead of tickets, or a guest list, I gave out Black Buttons for people as their Tokens into the event. And little flyers for free popcorn and pop.

I wish I had had more time, (I know you know this, Minneapolis Fiends, but it bears saying) to talk with people and hang and such, but work is work, no matter the magic in between. I am very glad you were there.

It also goes without saying that I wish ALL of you could have been there too. The best I could wrangle were the local folk.

-12 here, and a cold cold night. And an early day tomorrow.

But I think my dreams will be sweet.

Love and great movies,
Lorraine

An Unexpected Two Hours...

I virtuously got up early this morning in order to go for a workout ride before work, and virtue being its own reward, Trainer Mel had to cancel, forget why, either death in the family, viral pneumonia or a holiday party that was earlier than she expected. Anyway, I found myself with two free hours!

And I thought perhaps I should do a post, as today will be a bit busy, tomorrow more busy and then I have gigs all weekend which makes for some more busy, and now we are up to Sunday, and by then you have forgotten me, gone off and formed your own country, built upon the shores of 500 or so comments....

Clearly, I need something exciting this morning.

Perhaps pictures of King Lear the Huge and Queen Mab the Dainty?

OK.



These Kitties get more fun every day. They are still getting used to me, and too close is not too good, but they come out every time I go in the room now, and I have done pets on Queen Mab.



Lear, as you can see is a big guy. Not 30 pounds, tho I make it 20 or very close.



The are truly two of the most beautiful Bengals I have ever seen, but more importantly, they are not damaged. They can love, and really want to love. They love to play, and we get further into it every day. Someone is going to be very, very lucky. The King and Queen are SO much further along than the Jungle Loves were. Lear is an F2, but I haven't seen any sign that he has any problems, and Mab an F4.



We are looking for a home for them. They need to stay together, they love each other SO. And their new Friend needs to be a women or perhaps two women, who have no plans to add any men to the household. Lear's one issue is he does not seem to like men. It is possible that his last home was simply the wrong one, tho I know of nothing the Gentleman did wrong exactly. Lear had no litterbox issues in his first home (the women moved away) or his foster home (tho she says she was fine with him, her husband could not get near)

There should also, I believe, be no other pets or children. I would keep them in a second, they are that much fun, but I believe they deserve their own home, and their own person who will love only them, someone who will come home at the end of the day and call out to them, like I do Venus and Mim, and have them come running up for love.



Love and Long Live King Lear and Queen Mab!
Lorraine

Let Them Eat Cake. Or Write My Blog. Either Works For me.

I have been getting some cool things lately from people, and so it being late and today being long, I thought I would let them write tonights post, as they are all wonderful!

First off, this from our artist friend Kelli Bickman, pointing us at a friend of hers website. She sent it to me saying she thought you might all like it as there were a lot of SKULLS going on, and she could tell how we felt about such things. (HOW one wonders, hee-hee) Thanks for thinking Kelli, you were right, the site is wonderful!

We haven't heard from Hera lately, our Icelandic friend in a while, so I was glad when this pic came in, in the course of the great address update today. She is back down in New Zealand with her Freaky Pets, working on a new video. This vid she sends us is not the new music, but fun all the same.



(Brjann is the only Kitty I know who could win a Who Is Freakier contest with the Bengals)

And finally, Janet, aka Bengalgirl, aka the Women who does all the work at Great Lakes Bengal Rescue, sent me this that someone had done with a shot of her Bengals. Gotta love it!!!!!!!



Thank you all for sending! You sure did get together at the right time to save my post tonight! It was -14 driving home (-29 to you C people! I think.) And the temps are falling. Need some warm, and some sleep! Till say SPRING!

Love and cold,
Lorraine

An All New Look For Horses.....

Despite the fact that my horse, Rommy, was a brat today, and I got rather scared, and had to battle it out with her, I had a lot of fun. Trainer Mel's daughter had the BEST idea. I had brought in some clip on hair extensions for my riding friends, so they could have cool hair too, and we had extra, so....



Pretty fun, eh? Here's another with Trainer's daughter Jeannie, who knows more about horses than I ever will, and helps me with the hard bits. (IE everything)



Horses sometimes take into their heads that they are going to do what they want, and not perhaps what you want. And they will try it on just to see if it might not work. This is the point where you HAVE to win. My Winter Romance was being a BUTT today, and I got scared. Riding is scary. Horses are big, and Rommy is a lot more horse than I ever did ride. I had the help, and the skills, but it was my head that defeated me. Mel helped me thru it, and my friends told me that it had happened to them, and to everyone. (I Really like my horse friends, we will do some pics of them soon, they can RIDE!)



I am going to keep at this, and I am going to get good. And fit. My one problem with this stable tho, is that this horse thing is meant to be helping the "How the hell did I gain 20 pounds???" problem, and people are not so helpfully bring in Goodies....AH well, I will win this too.

It was an interesting lesson to learn about fear tho, and how it is your head that can defeat you...



In other news, I am getting a new horse. Meet My Lady May, or Mazie for short. Had nothing to do with today. Mel had a chance to acquire some horses from someone who had heard about her, and had too many horses, so she was pretty much offered them, only she said she could not take so many as she had no one to lease them to, and I had the idea I could give Rommy back, her owners are fine off, and take one of these new horses instead, and she should just pick me out the one best for me.

Lady May is a full Arab, and a top level show horse. And, meeting her today, by the looks of her, a whole lot of horse! I am thinking she will be teaching me a lot about riding in the months to come!

Can't wait!

Love and Horses,
Lorraine