Somebody sent a note to my Halloween listserv a few days ago, alerting us that Rob Johnson of DarkSyde Acres was raffling off his custom hot rod hearse, the Lost Souls.

I have yet to be able to access the raffle site, winahearse.com, but Rob has posted about the raffle several other places so I can provide a few details.

The tickets are on sale now, and the drawing will be held October 31, 2010 at midnight. Tickets are $10 each or 3 for $25, and a maximum of 3,000 will be sold. The winner is responsible for picking up the hearse, so if you’re not local to Jonesville, MI, there’s transport to consider.

Taxes may be an issue–the stated value of the hearse is over the $5,100 amount that the US government allows before it expects a cut. On this thread Rob speculated that he might drop the hearse’s stated value to be in line with the cutoff, although I suspect that might open a whole other can of undead worms.

Additionally, by law raffle proceeds are supposed to go to a non-profit organization. In the same thread Rob said that the organization was “Wicked Jester,” but aside from the clothing company the only Wicked Jester I can find is this one, which does not appear to be a non-profit. (It’s possible that this is addressed further on the winahearse.com site, but since I can’t get to it, I don’t know for sure.)

The upshot of all of this is, there’s a chance to win a custom hearse, assuming a bunch of legal stuff is worked out and you’re either in Michigan or willing to travel.

They’ve said that if this raffle goes well, they plan to raffle off a custom hearse every year. If you don’t get in on the action this time, you can try again next year.

Ghoul Friday recently linked to this utterly wonderful bar set over at Gothic Rose Antiques, and whilst nosing around to see if I could find it cheaper elsewhere I ran across The Black Broom. They appear to be the original creators of the bar set, and they’ve got loads of other great cast items as well.

I’m a sucker for decorative buttons, and their metal Elizabeth Bathory and Vlad the Impaler buttons strike me as the perfect detail for a long coat or velvet jacket. They’ve got some cast-stone statuary (including fetal, newborn, and child skulls, a set of which would make a truly arresting baby shower gift), interesting jewelry like this Pazuzu bracelet, and if you’re really feeling luxurious, a Baphomet hood ornament.

They’ve also got an e-Bay store which appears to feature some items that aren’t listed on their main site. Many of their items are surprisingly reasonable, and it’s nice that they’re creating the stuff themselves instead of just reselling mass-produced items.

I didn’t see anything on their site about custom orders, but since they say they sculpt and manufacture the pieces themselves, if you’ve got a special cast item in mind it doesn’t hurt to inquire.

I posted about Yankee Candle’s “Boney Bunch” collection when they were released a couple of years ago, and since then one of my commenters has faithfully kept us updated on the status of the collection. wildeprose has come through again, recently leaving this comment:

Hey guys!
Its that time of year again!
Boney Bunch is coming back for 1 last year! The company has stated that this will be “Part 3” and that they will end it at that….not because the demand is not there, but because they are happy to see it go on as a collectors item!
This year…again as an insider…I believe they are doing the next step after marriage which is CHILDREN!
The company is being very secretive about the collection this year…so I cant give you much info….all I can say at this point is that yes indeed it it coming out again, this will more than likely be the last year, and more than likely it will be related to boney bunch children….
The preview party will be between Aug 7th and 9th….BE PREPARED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stay tuned….I will give info the moment I get it!!!!
:)

If things work out as they have in past years, these suckers will be snapped up almost as soon as they hit the shelves. If you’re in the market for wedding cake toppers, party favors, or (if wildeprose is correct about the new addition) a very unique baby shower gift, you’re definitely going to need to act fast.

Thanks, wildeprose!

A Creationist “natural history” museum in Georgia is auctioning off its collection, and although I despair at giving money to charlatans, there’s some awesome stuff to be had. Items up for sale include:

• authentic mammoth teeth
• leaf fossils
• 3-pc dinosaur fossil
• woolly mammoth hair
• dinosaur replicas
• mummified cats from Egypt
• carved and decorated hippo teeth
• authentic skulls
• mahogany hand-carved Chinese display case
• urns
• oils on canvas

Internet bidding is available and many items have no minimum bid, so even if you’re not in Georgia you might be able to get something marvelous. The auction begins June 25.

(via BoingBoing)

The marvelous xJane recently discovered Fiverr, a site where people advertise things they’ll do for $5. She was surfing around and found bsza’s offer to send a postcard from Transylvania to the destination of your choice. And she wrote me with the following suggestion:

If their handwriting is suitably calligraphic (or perhaps you could send them a gif to copy onto the postcard), this might be a fun Random Thing On The Fridge Or Coffee Table:

Dear xJane,

Was so glad you could visit this winter. You know how much the long nights here make me lonesome. What a great idea to trade meals for lodging whilst traveling through Europe! I hope the rest of your trip was as memorable. Please come back soon–I so rarely get visitors since that hubub with the Ottomans.

Yours always,

Vlad.

And then I passed out from the sheer brilliance of this idea.

So, for a mere $5 (or your local equivalent; there doesn’t appear to be any geographical restrictions), you or a friend can have an extremely cool Transylvanian postcard.

Thanks, xJane!

The Bloggess, who routinely makes me laugh until I snort in a highly unladylike manner, recently talked about a red dress that she coveted.

I want, just once, to wear a bright red, strapless ball gown with no apologies. I want to be shocking, and vivid and wear a dress as intensely amazing as the person I so want to be. And the more I thought about it the more I realized how often we deny ourselves that red dress and all the other capricious, ridiculous, overindulgent and silly things that we desperately want but never let ourselves have because they are simply “not sensible”. Things like flying lessons, and ballet shoes, and breaking into spontaneous song, and building a train set, and crawling onto the roof just to see the stars better. Things like cartwheels and learning how to box and painting encouraging words on your body to remind yourself that you’re worth it.

And I am worth it.

And last week…?

…I got my red dress.

The whole post is worth a read, not only for the sentiment but also for more shots of the dress (modeled in a graveyard, which is a nice touch). It’s a custom-made job by Etsy seller rubypearl, and although it’s expensive (as custom ballgowns sort of tend to be), it’s certainly striking. It’d be a fantastic gown for an alternative wedding, or just a very special party.

The seller also has a blog, I Will Stab You in the Face, which includes a few photos of her past work. She seems to specialize in hand-embroidered detailing, and she turns out some lovely stuff.

Reader DampViolets turned me on to this company a while back, and since my mind is like a steel trap (that’s been pried open and left to rust) I completely forgot to post about them until now.

That’s a terrible omission, because tucked in amongst the Victorian kitsch there are some lovely items. If your decor is reminiscent of Poe or Dickens, they’ve got got decorative accessories like this candle lantern and these outlet covers. They have lots of romantic jewelry (some a bit pricey, unfortunately) like this mourning brooch and this poison ring, and they’ve also got a big Halloween section, featuring lovely items like this cobweb under glass, this great “twilight” weathervane (not that Twilight), and this neat baroque chalkboard.

There are all kinds of pretty things to drool over. Go check them out!

Charles Stross has announced that Cubicle 7 Entertainment is going to to publish a role-playing game based on his Laundry Files series (which I’ve mentioned previously).

The Laundry is a branch of the British secret service, tasked to prevent hideous alien gods from wiping out all life on Earth. Players take the part of Laundry agents, cleaning up the mess after things go wrong or, sometimes, even managing to prevent the manifestation of ultimate evil. Agents have access to the best equipment they can get their superiors to approve, from Basilisk Guns to portable containment grids to a PDA loaded up with Category A countermeasure invocations.

The game will use the Basic Roleplaying System (Call Of Cthulhu) by Chaosium Inc., which makes sense, as the Laundry stuff is kind of Cthulhoid in character. Since Stross has explored online RPG-type games in books such as Halting State, I’m curious how much of a hand he might have had in designing the gameplay as well.

The press release describes the Laundry as a “Lovecraftian spy thriller,” so if you’re a fan of either genre this might be a fun game system to pick up.

(via @wilw)

(This is a rare Saturday post because I don’t like to flog my own site during your regularly-scheduled weekday darkness.)

I blogged a while back about MrX Designs and mentioned that he was going to create some Book of Shadows-style guest books for the store.

They have arrived, and they are wonderful. He also created some lovely quill pens with hand-cast skull detailing, and we’ve even got some ink bottles with pentacles on the tops.

I can’t express how thrilled I am with the quality of the work. I’m all a-flutter.

UK-based company Natural Legacy is taking green burials to a whole ‘nother level, with sustainable coffins made of wool. What makes it even more wonderful is that this site was sent to me by alert reader Linda, who found it in one of her knitting magazines. As she put it, the coffins were featured in a “‘now you CAN take your stash with you!’ kind of way.” I sort of love the idea of knitting your final resting place.

The site also offers woollen cremation urns, organic cotton shrouds, and coffin handles made of jute. The handles in particular amuse me more than they probably should.

But anyway.

The coffin and urn exteriors appear to be felted wool, and the site says that the frame is recycled cardboard. If you’re a fiber artist and like to do felting, a DIY urn might not be out of the question.