Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Here’s Nine Green Things I Love!

What better way to appreciate a day of wearing green than to celebrate things that are green?
It was hard to narrow down the list, but here are nine green things that I find especially cool:

1) Portrait of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster, by Basil Gogos.
The Monster is my favorite of the “classic” monsters. I find the original movie so heartbreaking. Basil Gogos was an American illustrator best known for his portraits of movie monsters which appeared on the covers of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, and painted these characters in an amazing array of c

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Halloween Countdown 2017: Scooby Doo Bumps for Cartoon Network Part 1!

Click HERE to watch!

I actually can’t remember if this one was called “Ghost” or “Sheet”. In the 1990’s,  I worked with my then-future-husband and some good friends on these station ID’s,called “bumpers”, for Cartoon Network. I animated Daphne and Johnny Bravo. It was very simple animation,but being less experienced it was the safest assignment for me to get it finished in the time allowed. I really,really loved doing these. I like Johnny,and of course being born in the 70’s  I grew up watching Scooby Doo after school ( I can’t stand Scrappy Doo, though).

 

Monsters of Central America:The Cadejo!

The Evil Black Cadejo

Cadejos are creatures in Salvadoran, Belizean,Nicaraguan, Costa Rican, Honduran, Guatemalan, Panamanian and southern Mexican folklore  that are usually seen as large shaggy dogs,but are not quite dogs. They often look as if they are part goat, with horns and sometimes even cloven-hoofed feet. A goat-like smell often accompanies a cadejo. There is a good white cadejo and an evil black cadejo. Both are spirits that appear at night to travelers.

Seeing a white cadejo means you will be protected by it on your journey and good fortune will come your way.

Seeing a black cadejo, however, does not bode well for you, for the black cadejo exists as three separate species: one is the devil himself assuming this form and who will drag your soul to hell, another is a man-eating beast, and the third one is a hybrid of the two. It is a strong and dangerous creature but can be killed by a well-armed person.

The Good White Cadejo

Happy Birthday to my brother!

There’s a bit more to tell about this drawing. I drew a lot of little dog and cat characters in the late 70s and very early 80s, still in grade school. I also had a mouse and bird character, seen here too. The cat’s name was Oglevie..no idea where I got that name…and the bird’s name was Elmo. This was long before Elmo Monster trashed Sesame Street, but oddly enough, the bird was red. I am drawing a blank on the mouse and dogs’ names.

Vintage Toys: A Box from my Mother’s House!

Last night I got together with my two brothers and we went through some extremely dusty boxes in Mother’s basement. We had great fun and I came home with a box of treasures–things I had been wondering about but had thought they were scattered to the wind. I have a lot of my old toys at my house, in storage and in my home, but there were still some missing pieces….I found a lot of them. 🙂

Click on the pics to see the names and stories!

Imperial Toys Turtle. My late grandmother took me to the Ben Franklin store a lot, and would usually get me a toy.After I picked out this one, I treated it like a real pet.

My amazing remote control triceratops.

Yappy Dachshund. I got one for Christmas when I was about four, and played with it till I practically tore it up. This was a replacement.

Fisher Price Parrot. He makes the most wonderful squawky sound when his wheels turn.

Prunella. Prunella is a dimetrodon my brother Jimmy bought me when I was maybe five..there were four or five others in the group but I can’t find them. She was my favorite, though.

Mother always gave me the best little toys in my Easter Basket. She always made me a basket each year up until the past couple of years, so these are not old, probably from the 90’s.

Old horses from the fifties, I think made by Marx. My dad is a railroad collector and used to buy boxlots from other O-scale train fiends, and he would always give me the extra toys and goodies that would show up in the boxlots. These are Copper, Blackjack and I think the running one is Red.

GI Joe alligator. Filched from my brothers.

Plastic Cydesdale that I think may have been part of a Budweiser promo toy.

Scooter, my pet rock. I painted him.

Pompom kitty, another Easter basket gift.

Wind-up Woodstock that no longer works. I got him at the hospital when I had my tonsils out at age four.

Bottom jaw and fin from my lost JAWS game.

Dinosaurs by Marx. I chewed off the tyrannosaurus’ tail. Marvelously outdated now,these were a gift but I can’t remember who gave them to me..either my dad or brother Scott.

A small handful of the many toy animals that were kept at my grandparents’ house for me to play with. Many are missing; where did they go?? The deer has a red mark on his nose in a dumb attempt I made to make a Rudolph.

Two little cars.

More Marx marvelously outdated dinosaurs.

I had many more small plastic dinos than this, but these are the main ones. I think these three diplodocus’ were brothers.

Two oddball dinosaurs. The yellow one is a a cynognathus by Marx. The little sauropod I’ve never been able to identify.

My first Chinasaurs!

These are the only two dinos I have from our AWESOME Strange Change Machine.. The dimetrodon-like guy has a completely blank face on the other side.

Some of the most attractive dinos I had were, oddly enough, the solid color ones. I forgot what company made these. It isn’t Marx or Sinclair.

GI Joe squid. My brother Scott relented and gave it to me. 🙂

My Fisher-Price safari animals came with a jeep and people but they don’t seem to be around anywhere. I played with the animals the most, though, even though a tiger would not be found on an African safari. 😉

I was thrilled to find my old Imperial Toys great white shark. As you can see I played with this guy relentlessly. The hat I’m wearing was Scott’s—it says “Schlitz Malt Liquor” on it and was given to him by Mother’s father, whom we all called Papaw. 😀