Everyone likes background....well my roots in witches goes very deep...lol...Witch, not Bitch !...semantics you say....now be good......My mothers family settled in MA around 1628....you got it...Salem was a vital part of my families history...one relative was hung at the Salem Witch trails....but my history goes way back..with fire ,a witch thing......a member of the Episcopal clergy, a Bishop on my mothers side was burned at the stake by Queen Mary...Henry the 8Th first child....because he would not recognize the Catholic Church as supreme during Mary's rein...he would rather burn...
My mothers family came to this country as ship builders and settled here,becoming a vital part in forming the first navy....you couldn't live in MA during the early days and not have the sniff of witches pervade your families lore...now don't misunderstand...they were not witches...although , my maternal grandmother could have qualified... the sight of her bright red hair, puffing away on her ciggy...with smoking swirling around her was scary ...she was small and a force to reckoned with, with a laugh that could bring a shudder to anyone within hearing distance...that is how I remember her.....the picture at the top is of my maternal great-grandmother
her mother... and in a witchy woo costume that I would be proud to have any Squiggee WW wear !...her name was Esther Byers Saunders Smith...taken 1895...she was three......her hair was snow white by the time she was 25 and when widowed in 1916 ....she never changed her mode of black widow's threads...all in black till her death when I was 13 .......I love it...so witchy wooey...lol...OMG...a new term !
My mothers family came to this country as ship builders and settled here,becoming a vital part in forming the first navy....you couldn't live in MA during the early days and not have the sniff of witches pervade your families lore...now don't misunderstand...they were not witches...although , my maternal grandmother could have qualified... the sight of her bright red hair, puffing away on her ciggy...with smoking swirling around her was scary ...she was small and a force to reckoned with, with a laugh that could bring a shudder to anyone within hearing distance...that is how I remember her.....the picture at the top is of my maternal great-grandmother
her mother... and in a witchy woo costume that I would be proud to have any Squiggee WW wear !...her name was Esther Byers Saunders Smith...taken 1895...she was three......her hair was snow white by the time she was 25 and when widowed in 1916 ....she never changed her mode of black widow's threads...all in black till her death when I was 13 .......I love it...so witchy wooey...lol...OMG...a new term !
she was very sweet ,but like all the women in my mothers family...a force....my great grandfather was an Episcopal Minister and she was a Deaconess in the church ..tall with shocking white hair and all in black she sported spectacles that were framless...just a wire that pinched her nose...just like some of my witchty woos...I just realized that I use that look a lot ,even on my round Santa's....wooooooooooooooooooo.....
I was interested in custom designing in my early twenties and the top picture is a photo of me in a medieval witch custom I designed for a big formal Halloween Ball in DC...I won 1st prize...lol....I was out of college ...so I think it must have been around 1974...you can't tell from the photo but I had spent hours gluing clear sequins all over my skin that was showing...so I glittered...I also had very long fake nails that made the evening very difficult...how women sport long nails is beyond me.........now I tell you...don't I look like a natural witchy woo?...it never occurred to me until I came across this photo, when we unpacked...it is now hung above my drawing table....at the time...I had to have a headpiece to make me look more witchy...I now have the white hair to carry the day....lol....everytime I wash my hair and dry it ...when it is loose and free flowing I could scare little children....
I love Halloween...always have since I was tiny and my choice of custom was always a witch of sorts or a gypsy.....I was a hippie in college ,and according to my father dressed the part of a gypsy/witch all four years....he use to refer to my clothes as costumes....it suited me...and I was sad to conform to more regular clothing when I had to find a job after college...I really have never been mainstream or conservative in my dress....over the years I have toned it down and since i paint most of the time it doesn't matter what I wear, because it gets paint and holes in it......with age I have become more utilitarian in my dress......mind you I still have a love of big gypsy like earrings...although I have given up the ponchos that use to make my mother cry !..long gone are the head scarves and flowing floor length skirts....I think all this would be overkill with my white hair...lol...
I love Halloween...always have since I was tiny and my choice of custom was always a witch of sorts or a gypsy.....I was a hippie in college ,and according to my father dressed the part of a gypsy/witch all four years....he use to refer to my clothes as costumes....it suited me...and I was sad to conform to more regular clothing when I had to find a job after college...I really have never been mainstream or conservative in my dress....over the years I have toned it down and since i paint most of the time it doesn't matter what I wear, because it gets paint and holes in it......with age I have become more utilitarian in my dress......mind you I still have a love of big gypsy like earrings...although I have given up the ponchos that use to make my mother cry !..long gone are the head scarves and flowing floor length skirts....I think all this would be overkill with my white hair...lol...
take a look at Mr. Squiggees blog he has more scoop !
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