Victorian Mad Laboratory

This year I came up with a new Halloween display for our dining room! A few months ago at an estate sale I found the centerpiece to this display - an old expandable pharmacy file and bwahhahhaha the Victorian Mad Laboratory display was born.

Once I had decided on the theme - I hit the 99 cent store and got a few ghouly body parts - a heart, a brain and a bunch of fingers! I also grabbed a few bags of spiders and other creepy crawlies. I was lucky enough to already own the Victorian condiment cruet set on the far left. It is a family heirloom from Mike's side of the family. He had this fashionable great grandmother who lived in Chicago during the Victorian heyday and boy oh boy did she have fabulous taste (we also have her late 1900s tufted chaise lounge and pretty threadbare oriental rug (that I can't bear to part with). I filled the bottles up with salt or water that I tinted with food coloring.

I found vintage pharmacy labels on GraphicsFairy.com and added descriptions to them in Photoshop.

Then I hit the thrift stores for vintage books with gothic designs, worn covers or bindings and potion bottles with stoppers.

I even found an 1899 reproduction of Merck's Manual - a list of pharmaceutical ingredients for physicians.

 Last but not least I found an old mid century beverage server that I thought looked like an old Victorian style Bunsen burner with flask! I filled it with water and green food coloring for that perfect witchy potion color and on Halloween we'll put dry ice in it to spook it up!

Grandma Buiskool

I was twelve when I unexpectedly lost my Grandma Buiskool to a rare blood disease.

My mom and her were super besties and subsequently I was close to her as well.

I loved our time together eating dill pickles with sharp cheddar cheese, rummaging through her drawers for treasures, playing with her old Avon containers and most of all the privilege of spending the night all by myself in my uncle’s bedroom.

I saw her for the last time the Friday before she died. I remember my parents backing the car out of the driveway and thinking – oh no – I didn’t tell her I loved her – well I can tell her next week when we visit. I never got that opportunity as she died two days later. That omission will forever haunt me. After she passed away, I started seeing her in my dreams, popping in now and then to silently observe. She regularly visited my nocturnal visions for over a decade, each year moving a little farther away into the landscape of my dream. I last saw her when I was 23. She was so so far away as she smiled and waved goodbye. I don’t know if she left because I was a grown up now and didn’t need her to watch over me or if I finally subconsciously said farewell.

Recently my favorite aunt (her daughter) was diagnosed with lung cancer. Our family has been hit like a brick with this diagnosis. After crying for weeks about it,

I was randomly reminded about my Grandma’s favorite verse  - Phillippians 4:13.

Inspired by this memory I created this collage using a photo of her in her twenties.

I’m printing it on canvas and sending it to my mom, aunt and uncles.

Maybe Grandma will visit me in a dream this week and tell me if she likes it.