Ghostly Images For Halloween

 

I don't believe in ghosts, I've never seen one but if I had to imagine a ghost, it would be something like these images. So enjoy some spooky ghostly images for Halloween Month.

Haunted swamp?

Haunted pirate ship?

Ghostly fairy? 

Do you like ghostly images?

Book Review: Caught By the Dark by Alexa Michaels

 

Book Description

At Blackwater Manor, there's only one rule: Stay inside after sunset.

No matter what noises you hear. No matter how the beast beckons. No matter how tempting his offer.

It should be simple. Stay indoors.

Of course, I’m not always the best listener.

Especially when I see myself out there. It would be ungrateful to ignore Fate’s visions. I’m psychic after all, and breaking the rules to explore my visions is what I do best.

Besides...I'm drawn to the beast lurking in the dark. Others might see him as a monstrous being. But to me, he's been nothing but protective, caring, and maybe a little sweet. Although he'd never admit it. Neither will his other half, the man I'm fake mated to when the sunshine is out.

If I'm going to break the curse, save both man and beast, it's time to venture outside and let the dark catch me!

A spicy, fake-relationship tale, this stand-alone paranormal romance raises the question: what prowls through the shadows? If you like a fearsome, growling hero, a sharp, witty leading-lady, and a beauty & the beast style romance, then grab a copy and snuggle up with Caught By The Dark today!

My Review

Addi is a psychic so when Miro's brother, the pack alpha comes through her bedroom window to kidnap her to help his brother, she's already packed and ready to go. I found the banter between Addi and the alpha so funny because he thought she would be putting up a fight but all he had to do was ask, she was ready and willing to help. 

Miro is a wolf shifter but he was cursed over a century ago so his wolf is a bloodthirsty killer. Miro's two halves can talk to each other when the other is in control but they mostly just yell and talk down to each other.  At night his beast is in control and during the day Miro's human half is in charge. Miro is not able to leave his land at night when the beast is in control because the beast has no problem killing anyone. 

Miro's brother finds Addi and brings her back to Miro's house because they all think she is the key to breaking the curse. Since she is psychic, she's seen herself helping but Miro has some rules. He wants her to stay in the house and away from the beast at night. He can't get into the house because of magic so she's safe as long as she stays inside. Miro cannot control the beast and is scared he will kill her but when they meet, he's sarcastic and threatening because he doesn't want the curse broken obviously but he doesn't hurt her. Seeing Addi and the beast together made me smile more than once. 

This book has elements of Beauty and the Beast as well as Jekyll and Hyde and kept me engaged right from the very beginning. Addi is funny, strong and sometimes reckless but I loved that about her. Miro is strong, so alpha and scared of his other half until they start working together to make sure that Addi is safe. I love a Beauty and the Beast retelling so seeing his other half as a real beast to be scared of was fun because you never knew what to expect from him. 

Breaking the curse is not the only thing that's going on, there's also someone trying to cause problems and causes there to be more danger brought to their doorstep as well as someone else trying to bring Miro down. I loved the mystery surrounding all of this. This ended up being one of the best wolf shifter stories I've read this year. I absolutely recommend this book if you like this kind of story. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Halloween Recipe: Spider Cookies

 

Photo and Recipe Credit- Cooking with my kids

INGREDIENTS

  

100 g (1/2 cup) butter, softened

125 g (2/3 cup) golden caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg beaten

150 g (1 1/8 cup) self-raising flour

100 g (1/2 cup) plain chocolate chips

To decorate

Chocolate chips

Black writing icing

Preheat your oven to 375F and line 3 baking trays with baking parchment/paper.

Measure butter and pop it into a large mixing bowl or freestanding mixer. Measure the sugar and add to the mixing bowl.

Mix the butter and sugar together until they are evenly blended.

Add the vanilla extract and egg.

Add the flour.

 Finally add the chocolate chips and give it one final mix.

Make the cookies

Spoon large teaspoons of the cookie mixture on to your prepared baking trays. Make sure you leave enough room for them to spread.

Bake in the oven for about 8-10 minutes. They’re ready when they are turning golden. I like them a little gooey in the middle still.

Decorate the cookies

Remove the cookies from the oven and carefully place them on to a wire rack. Place a few chocolate chips on them while they are still warm. These will form the spider’s bodies.

Leave them to cool a bit more and then pipe the black icing on to create the legs.

Enjoy! The cookies will keep for a few days in an air tight container.

Aren't these the cutest?

Apartment Life # 338

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 25 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 25 years here in a weekly blog post.  

This is a vacant apartment in my complex. Maintenance had the living room window boarded up to keep the homeless out but they just busted out the bedroom window and were even crawling in through the empty air conditioner can. So maintenance boarded up the AC can from the inside and secured the door and the bedroom window better. 

I didn't post this last week when it happened because I wanted to see if I could find anything in the news about it first but I couldn't find anything. So, Last Friday I noticed this officer looking at the sidewalk and into the windows of my building. You can see him looking at my window right here. A moment later he knocked on my door and asked if the video camera I have in my window records, I told him no, it's live only, no recording. He said thanks and left. He asked several other neighbors the same thing who also have video cameras in their windows.

An unmarked police car showed up and this detective got out and was using his flashlight to look at the sidewalk along my building. My daughter and I were curious about what was going on so we watched him on the cameras. 

We saw him come into our courtyard and was still searching the sidewalks with his flashlight. 

So my daughter was texting a neighbor letting her know what was going on and they both decided to go outside and see if they could talk to him. He ended up being a Homicide Detective looking for evidence of a stabbing. 

They both asked him what happened and he told them that someone had gotten stabbed on my street earlier that day. A witness saw the person running down my street in front of my building. The stab victim unfortunately died. This homicide Detective said that this was the 5th homicide in my neighborhood just this week that this neighborhood is getting bad and he told both of them they should arm themselves with guns. 

More unmarked cars showed up and more detectives were walking around. 

You can't see it well but there are three detectives down near the garbage can on the other side of the fence. I went down there the next day to see if I could spot anything on the ground but there was nothing that I could see. 

I wanted to see if I could find anymore info about 5 homicides in my neighborhood in the past week but there is not one word about it in the news that I could find. 

The high this week was 92F/33C

The low this week was 65F/18C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Favorite Type of Spooky Images?

 

If you didn't know before now, you will after this post... I like Grim Reapers. If I was ever going to get a tattoo it would be of a grim reaper. I don't find them scary at all, I find them fascinating, mysterious and a little sexy. I might have a problem...

If I had to say I had a favorite type of spooky image or type of spooky Halloween décor that I like, it would definitely be Grim Reapers. 

Do you have a certain type of spooky image or décor that you like this time of year?

What is it about Grim Reapers? I'm not sure. Is it the cloak? His dominating presence? The fact that he has dark, soulless eyes or that you can't actually see his skeletal face in most pictures? Could be...

I would probably get on the boat with him if he beckoned me with those gloved hands. I definitely have a problem. I love this time of year. Bring on the Grim Reapers. 

What's your favorite spooky image or décor this time of year?

What's Your Favorite Halloween Candy?

 

What's your favorite Halloween candy?

What is now or was when you were a kid?  Mine was always chocolate. I can't imagine anyone not loving chocolate, but that's another story all together. 

When I was Trick or Treating, I always wanted a lot of candy bars. Didn't matter what kind of candy bar it was because I liked them all. 

My mom liked picking out some of the hard candy for herself and I did the same thing to my daughter when she got home with a huge load of candy at the end of the night, I think most parents do. They wait until the kid has gone to bed, coming down from the sugar rush and then go through the candy stash to pick out their favorites. Stashing them away for later. 

*Don't look at me like that. You know you did it too.*

So what did you hope for when you went Trick or Treating?

Chocolates?

Hard candy?

Lollipops?

Sour candies?

Gummi candies?

Pixie Sticks?

Those weird homemade popcorn balls the old cat lady always made? lol 

Candy corn? I love candy corn. 

What about candied apples? I like them. 

Everyone Has A Story, Here's One of Mine

 

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir but it just never comes together for me but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order, I'll just write them as they come to me.

Taking A Walk With Uncle Jack Christmas Night

Not sure how old I was at the time but probably between the ages of 7 and 9 years old. My uncle Jack was at my grandma's house for Christmas and we were all there as well. After the sun set that night my Uncle Jack took my brother and I on a walk to go trash digging. This was a thing in my family for some reason. My mom kept the tradition alive when my own daughter was a kid and she gave her a porcelain doll she found in the trash. It would have been fine but the head was cracked in half. LOL 

Anyway, that Christmas while out with Uncle Jack, we were walking up and down the streets, looking in trash cans and I found a Farrah Fawcett puzzle that turned out to have all the pieces. Score!

My brother found some toys and on the way home, Uncle Jack started taking all the trash cans from the sidewalk and moved them into the middle of the street. We were little kids and thought it was funny so we helped. He was always such a bad influence on us. Then he spotted a small hibachi bbq by someone's door that had some chicken legs and a large steak on it. So Uncle Jack told us kids to hide behind the block wall and be quiet until he got back. A couple of minutes later he came back with the steak that he proceeded to eat on the walk home. My brother and I had fun that night and Uncle Jack had a steak. 

That man was a bad influence on us for the most part but sometimes he was fun.

 Links to past stories

2023

January 2023

February 2023

March 2023

April 2023

May 2023

June 2023

July 2023

August 2023

September 2023

October 2023

November 2023

December

2024

January 2024

February 2024

March 2024

April 2024

May 2024

June 2024

July 2024

August 2024

September 2024

Book Review: How To Help A Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein

 

Book Description

What We Do in the Shadows with the small town feels of Gilmore Girls in this swoon-worthy romance that will leave readers delightfully cozy and hungry for more.

When Cassandra Camberwell returns to her hometown of Hollow Brook to clear out her late grandmother’s ramshackle old house, the last thing she expects is Seth Brubaker on her doorstep. 

Her former best friend was responsible for the worst moment of her high school life, and she can’t imagine he wants to do anything but torment her all over again. Until she unearths the real reason this annoyingly gorgeous beast of a man keeps hanging around: he’s an actual werewolf, who’s certain she’s the witch that will ease his suffering. 

But Cassie just isn’t sure if she can trust him again. So Seth offers a pact: he’ll teach her all about her undiscovered magic, and she will brew the potions he needs. No feelings, no funny business, just a witch and a werewolf striking a deal.

Totally doable. Until they get hit with a do-or-die mating bond. And now the heat is rising, in between fights with formers bullies and encounters with talking raccoons. They just have to not give in. Unless giving in just might be the very thing they never knew they always wanted.

My Review

Seth and Cassie meet up again after years of her hating him because of a prank he and his friends pulled on her in high school. But once Cassie's grandmother passes away and leaves her a house, she comes back to town to clean out the house and probably sell it. But Seth shows up and sets a whole slew of things in motion. For one, Seth is now a werewolf and needs the potion or recipe that Cassie's grandmother used to make him so he can control his shifts. But instead Cassie just thinks he's in the basement trying to steal something until he starts to shift and he has to tell her to run, block the basement door and wait. Which she does and is not prepared to face her new reality that paranormals exist, the next day. 

Seth and Cassie start to spend more time together because Cassie has a lot of questions and she doesn't have anyone else to talk to about this stuff. So Seth fills her in but she's not sure she can trust him yet even though the prank was years ago. He really hurt her since they had been best friends before the whole thing happened. But the more time they spend together, the more she sees her friend in Seth again and they start to act like friends again. All the while Cassie is trying to help Seth with a couple of potions to help him out and they need some ingredients that they have to go looking for. 

In the meantime, those old jerks that Seth used to hang out with and set Cassie up for the prank in high school are still holding a grudge against her and Seth knows she's in danger from them. But then halfway through the book the plot takes a backseat to the mating urges that first Seth starts to feel and then Cassie feels. They are so strong that they have a hard time focusing on anything else and the book focuses on sex between them for quite a while. After they get that out of their system, it gets better and we get back to the plot of this story. I really liked the characters, and Pod the racoon familiar for Cassie after she realizes she's a witch. 

It was a little slow at times and a little wordy but the storyline was a lot of fun. You can bet this won't be the last book I read by this author. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Amazon

Halloween Craft Using Avocado Seeds

 

How To Make Bleeding Avocado Seed Faces

Here's a fun Halloween craft to do with the kids or grandkids.

What to do: 

Remove seed from avocado

Wash seed

Carefully peel away brown part from seed

Carve a face into seed

Wait 10 minutes and watch as face starts to 'bleed'. 

I found that making more shallow cuts instead of deeper cuts will make it bleed more and look redder. This would be fun to do for Halloween. Nothing says I love Halloween like a shelf full of bleeding faces. 

Happy Halloween Month!

 

Tomorrow starts Halloween Month. I used to post Halloween related pictures and other things during the month of October and then life got hectic and in the way and I stopped. So now that things are getting back to normal, I decided to bring back Halloween Month! You can expect spooky pictures, Halloween related content and whatever else I come up with throughout the month of October along with some regular posts. Most pictures that I haven't taken myself will be from Pixabay which are royalty free. So enjoy.

Since today is Raturday, how about we change things up and I share some AI generated creatures.

Apartment Life #337

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 25 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 25 years here in a weekly blog post.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed my toilet wasn't flushing right, it was slow and that usually means the pipes are getting clogged and the cleanout is overflowing. So I looked out my bedroom window and sure enough raw sewage was leaking out of this pipe again. Long time readers know that this happens a few times a year. 

So I went outside because those of you that remember last time, there were a couple dozen bugs on my wall and window from the sewer pipe that's right under my bedroom window and I was afraid that would happen again. I only saw two huge sewer bugs but that was enough for me. Those two black spots on the wall, lower and one higher are bugs. No thank you. So I called maintenance Friday afternoon and told them raw sewage was leaking all over the ground and the maintenance guy came out fast. 

I was actually surprised he got here so fast. 

He was mad about something though because for a few minutes he was just yelling into his phone. 

But he pulled out the electric snake, unclogged the pipe and went home. I did not want to deal with bugs and a slow toilet and backed up tub all weekend. Thankfully I didn't have to.

---

I think I showed you a while back when my daughter found these unspent bullets in the alley. Strange to find bullets that haven't been fired but I just figured it was a fluke. These are .22 bullets.

Then she found a .38 unspent bullet. Still weird but ok. 

Then this month she found this, it's a .223 Remington bullet from what could be several different semi-automatic and manual rifles. Now I don't have a problem with guns. I learned how to shoot when I was 12 years old. I just find it weird that there are so many unspent rounds in my alley. Ammo costs quite a bit of money, bullets aren't cheap according to my brother. So what's happening? Are their ammo cans so overflowing when they open them the ammo is just falling out? Or do they have bullets in their pockets and they are dropping them on the ground when pulling a few out of their pockets? I just find it weird. 

Is it all from the same person? Several people? I have questions. 

The high this week was 106F/41C

The low this week was 71F/21C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Sky Pictures From This Week

 

We had a cloudy couple of days this week. These pictures are courtesy of my daughter since she was up before me and heard the thunder that I missed. 

She said there was some lightning coming out of these clouds too.

It was early in the morning. I got up at 4AM, took the dog out, saw a few clouds but nothing like this and I went back to bed and missed the thunder and lightning. 

Not one drop of rain where we live though. Other parts of Vegas got some rain but not us. 

You can even see the rain coming down in some of these pictures. 

It sure made for some good pictures though.

And then we started seeing blue skies after noon. 

How was your week?

Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received: 

A Lancome perfume sample. 

It smells good so that's always good. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: The Beta's Challenge by Alexa Phoenix

 

Book Description

When my brothers and I decided to start a new life inside a new pack that accepted us, when all others turned us away, I vowed never to endure the pain of a mate bond again.

However, I should have known fate always enjoys playing games with us. One look and everything I’ve built comes crashing down around me.

When I took up an extra shift, one gaze threw everything I had ever worked for out the window.

Conrad Miller, my newest pack’s Beta, was my second chance at a mate.

Blessed by the Moon goddess, he was supposed to be my perfect half. The person who was made to complete my soul, my happily ever after. From his compassion to his protectiveness, he’s everything my wolf has ever wanted.

However, I want nothing to do with him. Unfortunately, he refuses to take no for an answer.

Now, I'm torn between the mate bond and my own desires.

Will I be able to resist his charm, or will fate once again have its way?

If you like paranormal romances with fated mates, intense conflict, and strong women, you’ll love The Beta's Challenge. Recommended for readers 17+

My Review

April's first mate, Josh ended up being a cheat and jerk so April refused to be his mate and she and her brother's left. They are finally able to find a new pack who will accept them and April gets a job at a cafe as well as working at her brother's auto shop. She doesn't plan on having a mate after the horrible first one so when Conrad walks into the cafe and April recognizes him as her mate, she runs. April and Conrad are both wolf shifters and finding a mate should be a happy occasion but it's not for April, she's been through this once already and isn't going to do it again. 

But Conrad doesn't take no for an answer, he just wants her to give him a shot, get to know him a little before she rejects him completely. Conrad is the pack's Beta so either way April knows that she's going to have to see him and agrees to go out with him once to get to know him better. He's nothing like Josh and she's incredibly attracted to him. So she gives him a chance, slowly. But then there's a miscommunication and their relationship takes a backseat until Conrad realizes that April is in danger from her past. 

I loved the banter between her and her family. They were great and they loved her and it showed. Conrad is such a nice guy, I loved him. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon