Dia de los Muertos Blog Hop and HDH Freaker's Free for All

Welcome to the Dia de los Muertos Blog Hop! If you've come from Emma's Blog right track. If not, you might want to start HERE so you don't miss a thing. By now you've got the whole Dia de los Muertos celebration down so I won't go over it again. My twist may not be exactly traditional (being of Swedish and Bohemian descent) , but the spirit is there for sure. I do my whole hutch and sideboards as ofrendas or alters.

Here is a picture of my paternal Grandfather decorated with traditional marigolds.

I always heard that Grandpa came home after work and read the dictionary. He was not well educated but strove to better himself by learning new words each day. I was lucky enough to inherit that dictionary as well as his glasses and the magnifying glass he used to read with. He also love his cigars. My happy skeleton is holding his cigar case while sitting on the very dictionary he read night after night. I have his bowler too and a picture of him wearing it. I think he is happy that his habits are remembered.

In Mexico they decorate the graves but I live so far away that that is not possible. Instead I made a cross from marigolds that sits atop an epergne filled with candles. In the past I made this of fresh marigolds and oasis but finally decided that using silk made way more sense. Now I have it for year after year.

My hutch is also a giant ofrenda honoring a whole slew of people who are important to me.

I've collected some traditional Mexican art like this Catrina and the platter and vase with her likeness below. Isn't she beautiful?

Here's my food offering. I made a mini pan de muertos and the carafe is water. I've been making this bread since my Junior High Spanish teacher, Mrs. Parizek, introduced it to us. YUM! The top is decorated with (what's supposed to look like) little bones. HERE'S the recipe.

This shelf honors my parents. This is their wedding picture as well as the top of their wedding cake. I've made sugar skulls for each of them.

My sugar skulls were made using the traditional molds from HERE. Since cake decorating isn't my forte and I wanted these to last, I decorated them with Polymark dimensional fabric paint. Love the vivid colors but the paint sort of melted into the sugar a bit. I was hoping it would work more like decorative icing. (Back to the drawing board!) The names of my departed loved ones are written across the forehead. Ralph and Edna are my parent's names. (BTW, those are their wedding rings)

I also used the paint to decorated my string of skull lights in the Dia de los Muertos theme too. Pretty festive, eh? Remember, this is a fiesta honoring life, not death and is a very happy occasion.

These are my mother's sisters. They are very dear to me. My middle name is Lee, derived from Orletha. This is her high school graduation picture on the left. It was the roaring 20's and bobbed hair was all the rage so Auntie Lee cut her long locks in the style of the day and that is her braid. Her Grandma refused to talk to her for years after that. LOL The braid was kept in a box of Midnight in Paris perfume which reminds me of her to this day. On the right is my Aunt Rhoda. She was very fond of hats so I made a sort of Catrina card with a big fancy hat for her on my Cricut. The skull is from Indy Art and the hat was fashioned in DS from George.

I could go on and on but you've another stop to make. But before you go, please leave a comment for a chance to win this Tim Holtz Alterations Texture Fades set signed (with love, no less) by the famous Tim Holtz himself! WooHoo! I'll draw the winner on Wednesday so come on back and see if you won, okay? There are also fabulous prizes along the way and a grand prize if you comment on all of the blogs so what are you waiting for? Start HERE if you haven't already.

Now and go visit Jessica! and be sure to stop over to Haunted Design House to check out what the reat of the Minions are offering for the Freakers Free For All (meaning ANYTHING goes!).