The estimable xJane sent me a splendid idea for making an army of teeny googly-eyed minions, and she has kindly allowed me to share her technique. The only sticking point is that I can’t point you to an online source for the type of trim she mentions because I’m completely stumped as to what it’s formally called. I searched for half an hour for things like “fur fringe” and “fabric trim fur tufts” and the closest I got was fur braid which I’m not dead sure is the same stuff. So check your local craft/fabric stores and if you know of an online source let us know in the comments.

Take it away, xJane:

So you take one of these things, which is a trim that you can get at most fabric stores with little fur tufts connected to a ribbon by beads that they expect you to, I don’t know, put around your lamp or something?

And add googly eyes to it!!

So now you have a bunch of these:

(he looks a little worried and he should be because I’m about to cut his umbilical cord)

Leaving me with a saucer of tiny friends (the best kind—also they don’t talk, which is a plus—but they’re great listeners).

And then I place them strategically around my office. I can’t decide if these are theft protection for my teas or a slightly crazy companion for tea time.

Hello, cheap and easy way to create many tiny, silly friends. Hide them everywhere. Tuck them in coat pockets when nobody’s looking. Perch them on keyboards and let them gaze sternly at cubicle interlopers. Drop one in your kid’s lunchbox and leave them along with the tip at restaurants. Everybody needs a lurking minion or two, and this is a marvelous way to make people’s day a little more surreal. Brilliant.

(Incidentally, you could also leave them attached to their ribbon and use them as trim on lampshades or whatever. Then your lamp can read over your shoulder.)

Thanks, xJane!

Over at Eclectic Wonderland, Marisa showcases some splendid Doctor Who-themed sneakers that she embroidered to wear to a convention. She comments elsewhere that they were too time-consuming to make for sale, so these aren’t something you could knock out in an afternoon, but if you’ve got some time the required skillset is fairly minimal.

The embroidery is all very simple outline stitch, and none of the images have any fiddly detail bits, the easier to stitch onto an uneven surface. You’d want to choose shoes made of thin material with no extraneous decoration, such as simple canvas sneakers (slip-ons rather than laced would make this even easier).

Marisa chose iconic images from the series, but obviously darker material could be used: Either images from your own favorite TV series/movie or simply random spooky elements like blood droplets, vampire fangs, and bats. Hand-draw (or, if you’re truly hopeless with drawing, find clip art with very simple lines) your chosen images, then using transfer paper (available at sewing supply stores) to copy them onto the shoes. If you really mess up, the transfer lines can be removed by dabbing them with a wet cloth and a drop of dish soap. When stitching, be careful not to leave big knots on the inside which might irritate your feet.

This is a nicely portable project, so it’d be a good project for long car rides or just sitting in front of the TV.

Here’s a “skin food” that’s super-easy to make and is wonderful for dry, cracked skin. Most of the ingredients are available at the grocery store; wheat germ oil, vitamin E, and essential oils can be found at health food stores or online at soapmaking suppliers like From Nature with Love.

If you don’t want a citrusy fragrance, you can substitute another essential oil of your choice; make sure that you use “essential” rather than “fragrance” oil, since the latter can sometimes irritate skin. Also make sure that the essential oil itself isn’t too harsh; some resinous ones like rosemary can be a problem if you use too much. (And, of course, since there’s peanut oil in this, watch for peanut allergies. You can substitute sweet almond oil if necessary.) In the summertime, you can also add several drops of citronella essential oil to ward off insects.

Erszabet’s Perfection Skin Oil

1 oz. soybean oil
1 oz. corn oil
1 oz. peanut oil
1 oz. safflower oil
1 oz. wheat germ oil
1 oz. vitamin E liquid
3 drops orange essential oil
3 drops lemon essential oil

Shake together thoroughly and store in a pretty bottle (instructions for making the one shown above are here). Rub on skin, avoiding eyes, as desired.

This will last longer if stored in a dark place that’s not overly warm, but will still keep for 6 months or so on a bathroom shelf.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned decoupage as a way to decorate shoes before now, but Anomalous Musings has a particularly nice tutorial on how to customize with comic books.

Step 1: Cut up your comic book.

I know, I know – that’s like promoting sacrilege, but it’ll be worth it. Just don’t just do it haphazardly. Go through the book looking for the scenes, characters, speech bubbles, and lettering that you want to feature. I would recommend nothing much bigger than about silver dollar-sized. If in doubt, hold it up against your shoes and see if it’ll lay flat. (I wound up with a bunch of stuff that was too big, because I didn’t actually look at the shoes while cutting).

You can easily find suitable comics at thrift stores and eBay–I’m thinking particularly of the old “Tomb of Dracula” stuff or the wonderfully gruesome pre-comics-code E.C. Comics publications like “Vault of Horror” and “Tales from the Crypt.”

Carefully selecting images and word balloons will result in a fascinating, and completely unique, pair of shoes. Leftovers that are too big for the shoes could be made into earrings or a pendant.

I’ve mentioned the splendid Curiomira site previously, but here’s a prop I’d previously overlooked: A wooden shrine which displays the “corpse” of The World’s Smallest Man. I really like the carnival sideshow feel of the case; it’s very reminiscent of something that P.T. Barnum might have commissioned to wring a little extra utility from an unexpectedly-deceased freak.

I have neither the sculpting ability nor the woodworking chops to pull off something quite this elaborate, but I’m thinking that a perfectly respectable wunderkammer-type display might be made with slightly easier methods. A somewhat more dessicated corpse could be built using the same technique I describe in my mummified fairy tutorial; you wouldn’t even need to bother covering most of the body, since it’ll be hidden by clothing. It should be reasonably easy to find suitably-sized doll clothes, and in a pinch you can also sew your own: Most major pattern manufacturers offer a whole range of doll-sized clothing patterns.

This particular suit appears to have been treated with starch or maybe diluted white glue and then arranged to make it hang on the body a little more naturally. It also seems to be slightly dusty, which could be achieved with a light dusting of baby powder whilst the cloth is still tacky.

The “body” is laid out on a plain white mattressy-looking thing–probably muslin–but it’d be fairly easy to make a casket-type lining instead: Make a sandwich using a remnant of satin or velvet for the top, a piece of fairly high-loft quilt batting for the middle, and whatever fabric you want (since it won’t be seen) for the bottom. Make small stitches at regular intervals through all three layers, pulling tightly and knotting in the back; alternately, you can sew small buttons at intervals: You’re looking for a ruched appearance similar to this. The raw edges of the fabric can be finished with bias tape or simply tucked out of sight beneath the bier.

The case itself would probably be most easily done by embellishing a small wooden shadowbox. The pediment and columns could be made of styrofoam, insulation foam (of the sort sometimes used to make prop tombstones), or the decorative wooden shapes found at hardware stores. The detailing can be hand-painted or computer-printed and decoupaged in place.

The finished piece may not be quite as rich-looking as the Curiomira installation, but it’s something that we Mere Mortals should be able to handle, and it would certainly be an excellent decorative accessory or the centerpiece of a carnival-themed party.

It figures I’d see these too late to use them as holiday ornaments, but they’re attractive enough to leave up year-round.

Artist gnarledbranch made these gorgeous ornaments using papier-mache apples. I love the little skulls atop each stem.

You can make papier-mache apples or other fruit easily enough; or you can find premade ones in craft stores or online. You could also use wooden or plastic apples, although with the latter you’d want to make sure that the paint you used would stick.

I like the matte, dark colors used to paint the apples. The skulls could be painted using a stencil if you aren’t ambitious enough to try them freehand. The skulls on the stems appear to be little plastic novelties similar to these, but you could also use skull-shaped beads (a quick google turns up loads of them; I like these) or make your own from polymer clay.

The material used for the hangers appears to be fairly stiff; possibly something like thin cardboard. You could also use a pretty ribbon, or rough twine for a more rustic look. It could be attached with a dab of hot glue or, if you’re using a heavier wooden apple, a small nail or staple. You could also omit the hanger entirely and just pile these in a bowl, but I have to say that a tree covered with “cursed fruit” would be extremely striking.

Incidentally, be sure to check out the rest of the artist’s Flickr stream, particularly the gorgeous jewelry boxes that he paints.

(Hat tip to Cat)

Here’s a perfect thing to carry for Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day or any time you want to add a bit of steampunky veracity to a time-traveler costume.

A couple of years ago absinthetic–whose splendid Wonderland Expedition Kit I’ve mentioned previously–dressed as a 19th-Century time traveler for Halloween and built the “Chronotheric Fluxing Capacitron” to use as a prop. He’s got a photoset up on Flickr, and while it doesn’t give any detailed instructions there are enough different angles that it should be possible to put together something similar. He listed the materials in a post on the Brass Goggles forum:

The clock case was just that; a cheap plastic clock I got at a yard sale for $1. I removed all the guts (except for the handsome clock face).

The backing of the “backboard” is just some leather/vinyl material I had leftover after making some curtains for my bedroom.

The “time dial” is a gold (well, fake gold) napkin holder, with the glass face of a broken pocket watch and a “time circle” graph that I created in Adobe Illustrator.

The thingy in the center is just a doorknob, another yard sale find.

The “lightning” is an EL cable I acquired at an electronics store. Originally I wanted to use a chasing LED circuit, but I couldn’t find any chasing circuits in time that would fit what I needed, so the EL cable (usually used for bicycles or other things you would want to illuminate at night) was used as a substitute.

The “glass tubes” came from a $1 plastic ‘parade baton’ that you’d get for a little kid…I emptied out all the glittery stuff from the inside and cut the tubes to size. The metal caps are just some capping devices from the electrical section at Home Depot.

Otherwise, everything else was just glued down with Gorilla Glue. The EL cable cost about $20, but the rest of it cost me less than $10 for everything (yay yard sales!)

This is a great use of repurposed objects and the results are splendid. It would be a fun project to build up over time as you found appropriate bits at thrift stores and yard sales.

Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 C all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 C pumpkin puree (homemade or canned, not “pumpkin pie filling”)
1 C whole milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 C sugar
4 large eggs
2 C pecans, toasted, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 10-inch (3 quart) bundt pan or two 9 1/4 x 5 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pans.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and spices in medium bowl. In small bowl, mix pumpkin, milk and vanilla. Using an electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in sugar until thoroughly incorporated. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat pumpkin mixture and flour mixture alternately into butter mixture in 2 additions each, making sure to mix only until combined. Stir in pecans. Transfer to prepared pan(s).

Bake bread until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Turn out onto rack and cool completely.

Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Wrap tightly in foil and let stand at room temperature. Can be frozen up to three months.

This lovely wunderkammer piece was done by the fabulous Propnomicon a couple of years ago, but it just bubbled back up on Pinterest.

It’s a “vampire heart” complete with stake hole, along with the offending stake; they’re packed in a wooden box and include a backstory involving a vampire that stalked Louisiana in the 1900s. His posts about it are here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

He’s got photos of the finished prop and a few vague notes about the build (noting that it involved liquid latex and followed some techniques used to build sideshow gaffs), but unfortunately doesn’t have any pictures of the work in progress nor details about the construction. (A couple of his other posts indicate that he might build these on commission if you can’t live without one.)

Part of me is almost tempted to see whether it would be possible to achieve something similar by mummifying a pig heart (sometimes found at ethnic groceries; beef hearts are easier to find but they’re too big). I’ve covered DIY mummification previously, and if the heart were carefully trimmed of fatty tissue and well-packed with a drying agent it should get hard and leathery. The only thing I’m unsure of would be its long-term durability; treating it with a taxidermy rot preventive like Stop-Rot might help with that. Since the materials are fairly cheap, it might be worth an experiment.

This is adapted from Baked Explorations, a lovely cookbook full of comfort food-type desserts. I’ll be honest: I tried making standard doughnuts, but when the recipe says the dough is sticky it means the dough is Really Fricking Sticky. I eventually gave up trying to cut doughnuts out of the gluey mass and just rolled tablespoonsful of the dough into doughnut holes intead. However, they tasted great, so the recipe is worth the annoyance. To cut actual doughnuts, flour the hell out of your work surface before patting out the dough, work with well-floured hands, and use a doughnut cutter instead of trying to fake it with a round glass or cookie cutter.

The other fun thing about these doughnuts is that you can color the glaze however you want. Divide the glaze into small bowls and add food coloring as desired (for a dark color, use paste-type food coloring instead of liquid so you don’t thin the glaze too much). Autumnal orange, red, and yellow would be attractive right now (and a pile of mixed orange- and black-glazed doughnuts looks spectacular on a Halloween party table, so tuck that idea away for next year).

Farm Stand Buttermilk Doughnuts
Makes 10-12 doughnuts, plus holes

3 1/2 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
2 large eggs
3/4 C buttermilk
1/4 C sour cream
1/4 C (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly browned and cooled
Vegetable oil for frying

For the Vanilla Glaze:

2 C confectioner’s sugar
1/4 C whole milk
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract or 1 tsp vanilla paste

For the Cinnamon Sugar:

1 1/4 C sugar
3 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Line one baking sheet with parchment paper and another baking sheet with two layers of paper towels.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, buttermilk, and sour cream until combined. Add the melted, cooled butter and whisk again.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the liquid ingredients into the well. With a rubber spatula, slowly fold the flour into the liquid until the mixture forms a sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface thoroughly dusted with flour. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour and with floured hands pat out until it’s about 1/2″ thick. Dip a doughnut cutter in flour and cut out as many doughnuts as possible, transferring them (and their doughnut-hole middles) to the parchment-lined baking sheet. Pat leftover scraps together, flatten back out, and cut more doughnuts until all of the dough is used up. Place the baking sheet with the doughnuts in the refrigerator until the oil is heated and you’re ready to fry.

Pour enough vegetable oil into a deep skillet to a depth of 1 1/2″. Heat over medium high heat until the temperature reaches 370F. Whilst waiting for it to heat, make the glaze and/or cinnamon sugar.

For glaze: Whisk together the sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Add food coloring as desired and whisk to blend.

For cinnamon sugar: Whisk together sugar and cinnamon. (Easy!)

Once the oil has reached the correct temperature, gently lift the large doughnuts off the baking sheet and place in the hot oil. Work in batches, frying no more than three at a time. Once the bottom side has browned (2-3 minutes) flip over and continue frying the other side for another 2-3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the doughnuts to the paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain. Once you’re done with the large doughnuts, fry the doughnut holes in two or three batches; they’ll cook a little faster so keep an eye on them The doughnut holes will cook faster and can be made in two or three batches after the doughnuts are done.

Once fried, dip the doughnuts in the glaze or sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar (or both, if you’re feeling particularly decadent). Serve immediately or cool completely and store airtight for 2-3 days.