The Morgan Library in New York is exhibiting the wonderful illuminated manuscript The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, and have also digitized all of the miniatures.

This digital facsimile provides reproductions of all 157 miniatures (and facing text pages) from the Hours of Catherine of Cleves. The original one-volume prayer book had been taken apart in the nineteenth century; the leaves were shuffled and then rebound into two confusing volumes. This presentation offers the miniatures in their original, fifteenth-century sequence.

The Hours of Catherine of Cleves is the greatest Dutch illuminated manuscript in the world. Its 157 miniatures are by the gifted Master of Catherine of Cleves (active ca. 1435-60), who is named after this book. The Master of Catherine of Cleves is considered the finest and most original illuminator of the medieval northern Netherlands, and this manuscript is his masterpiece.

The images are simply chock-full of little demons (illustrating that the devil really is in the details). The scans are fairly high-resolution, and they’d be wonderful source material for all kinds of projects.

(via BoingBoing)

Hello, wonderful online graphics resource. Letterheady is “an online homage to offline correspondence; specifically letters.” However, unlike most other letter archive sites, they don’t care about the letter’s content–just its design.

The result is a small (but hopefully growing) repository of all kinds of great stationery ideas. Use them for wedding- or party invitations, or pop them into Photoshop and manipulate away. There’s some great design inspiration here, and I’m definitely going to be checking regularly to see what new things they’ve posted.

(via Cynical-C)

Barb Foster is a scrapbooking, stamping, and papercrafting hobbyist with a passion for Halloween. Her “mundane” hobby site Foster Design House wasn’t enough to contain her Halloweeny enthusiasm, so she also started Haunted Design House to handle the overflow. This blog is simply brimming with amazing papercraft ideas, and there are loads of photos and resource links to help you create similar beauties.

She also hosts Macabre Monday, a design challenge with themes like “Lurid Love” and “Perplexing Pigment Play.” The artistry and detailing are just amazing.

If you’re looking for unique ideas for any kind of papercraft–and particularly invitations for parties or weddings–definitely check out Barb’s stuff for inspiration.

Shanty2Chic is the work of two sisters who delight in taking cheap items and transforming them into lovely home décor. They have all kinds of great ideas for little projects, and since they tend to do things with dark wood and metal their style definitely has a gothy vibe.

Some of my favorites include the apothecary jars made of wooden candlesticks and glass canisters, some spruced-up white pumpkins made with cheap faux pumpkins and twine, a magnet board with wonderful vintage-looking letters, and some revamped candlesticks (even the “before”–which one of the sisters also did–is great).

If you’re looking for inexpensive ways to add a lot of personal style to your home, definitely check out this blog. It’s amazing how much you can do with a little paint and some imagination.

Creepy Queen Magazine has posted some great ideas and lots of links for throwing a Steampunk Party, complete with theme inspiration (I love the seance and time travel suggestions), decorating and food ideas, and even some music and game recommendations.

Since steampunk fits in well with all things Victorian, you could borrow elements from traditional Victorian parties to round out the festivities. (You could also go the other way and use steampunk trappings to spice up a Victorian tea with a “mad scientist” element.)

If you’re casting about for something different as a party theme this year, this might be an excellent jumping-off point.

The University of Texas’ Ransom Center has digitized their Edgar Allan Poe collection, including books annotated by the author. The collection was launched to accompany the bicentennial of Poe’s birth.

The digital collection incorporates images of all Poe manuscripts and letters at the Ransom Center with a selection of related archival materials, two books by Poe annotated by the author, sheet music based on his poems, and portraits from the Ransom Center collections. Poe’s manuscripts and letters are linked to transcriptions on the website of the Poe Society of Baltimore.

There’s lots of interesting stuff, including some manuscript pages that would be lovely printed out and framed or used as part of a collage.

Link (via BoingBoing)

I referenced Curious Goods in a post the other day but wanted to feature the site a little more prominently. It’s a marvelous source of inspiration for all kinds of weird little tchotchkes.

As a lover of movies, Victoriana, magic, science, and fiction, I’ve endeavored to create objects I love. The purpose of Curious Goods is to both disseminate information on my personal projects as well as the projects of others.

Tiffany specializes in little detail bits like Chocolatl wrappers and wand boxes, and the execution on all of them is just lovely. She frequently works directly from screenshots of movies, so her replica props are wonderfully authentic-looking.

The site only has a couple of “true” tutorials, but many of her other project pages include notes about how they were created. She also makes many of her graphic files (like the Order of Merlin stationery) available for download.

She recently opened an Etsy store; there are only a couple of items in it right now, but they’re gorgeous and have wonderful descriptive text.

Check out the site for all kinds of intriguing possibilities.

Here’s something that I thought I’d mentioned previously, but my archive search comes up empty so apparently I’m hallucinating. Several years ago, before I had children and could occasionally think straight, a friend and I put together an elaborate Halloween dinner party of the sort where everybody plays a role and they’re supposed to solve a mystery. In this case, it involved a haunted house. I posted details and materials in case anyone else was ever foolish ambitious enough to try something similar.

The premise was fairly straightforward: It’s 1926*, the inheritors of an old house have just re-opened it, and they’re celebrating by throwing a dinner party for the cream of society. During the party, strange things start to happen (disembodied knockings and moanings are heard, a bloody rag is found, objects seem to move). It could be a ghost. However, each of the guests also has a motive for “haunting” the house. Whodunnit?

Logistics

We sent out an initial invitation, explaining a bit about the theme of the party and asking each guest if they planned to attend, whether they were bringing a guest, and what sort of role they and their guest wanted: A major character (someone with gossip and clues), a minor character (playing along, but in a lesser role), or the maid/butler.

Once we had this, we planned the characters and assigned clues. We decided to base each character loosely on real people. The guests then received a second invitation and packet containing:

• An invitation, with the envelope addressed to their character’s names
• General information (with slightly different instructions, depending on whether they were a major character or not). This included a page from an “old book” about the house itself
• A fact sheet about their character (including two short ones–one of each sex–to accommodate one guest who didn’t know who he was bringing).
• Some gossip (everything that others knew about them, plus one or two tidbits about other guests)
• Some “clippings,” background information about their character, plus information about a couple of other guests

Read the rest of this entry »

Calling themselves “your tour guide to the dark corners of the globe,” Dark Destinations maintains a database of macabre locations around the world.

They’re apparently very gung-ho about the concept of “market penetration,” since in addition to their blog they also have a Livejournal site, a Myspace page, a Twitter feed, and another Web presence. (That last site also includes a “Dark Traveler Library” which lists books and DVDs useful in planning trips to spooky places.)

They list everything from haunted buildings to torture chambers, and the blog offers interesting historical tidbits about a variety of unfortunate happenings.

Whether you’d like to tour a haunted ocean liner or spend the night at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, these guys have got you covered.

Fathers Day is coming up! If you’re stumped for gifts for the goth dad in your life, here are some suggestions.

Traditional doesn’t have to be boring. These neckties at Zazzle are attractive and unique; I especially love this graveyard one. Zazzle also has a number of other products, like this Goth Dad hat and Good Mourning coffee mug, plus cute Father’s Day cards featuring skellies Bonnie and Clyde.

There are loads of ideas at Cafepress, including dad-centric T-shirts like The Gothfather, Dadthulhu, or The Anti-Parent. Searching “goth dad” will bring up many other designs.

Accessories are another good option, like these Coffin Cuff Links or Hearse Stick Pin from Pushin’ Daisies. This Goth Animation Watch from Fossil is attractive and understated.

You might also get a little more creative with clothing; perhaps getting him that top hat or fedora he’s always wanted, or maybe these awesome vampire glasses. There’s always boxer shorts as a fallback, perhaps featuring Anarchy or Skulls.

A new dad might appreciate this Skull Diaper Bag, and a cook might enjoy something like Day of the Dead Hot Sauce or a Crossbones Apron.

The reader might like a book on cemetery photography like Haunter of Ruins or A Gathering of Souls; a collection like the Oxford Book of Gothic Tales or Victorian Ghost Stories; or perhaps a coffee-table book such as Tattoo.

For the gamer, a set of dice (like these or these) might be welcome, along with an attractive dice bag to keep them in.

There are loads of skull-themed automotive accessories available, like this gear knob and this steering wheel cover.

Another nice gift is the horror movie basket: A box of microwave popcorn, some jumbo candy bars, and DVDs of a couple of horror movies, all arranged attractively in a basket or box. For an extra treat, tuck in a book like the Horror Movie Survival Guide or the The Amazing, Colossal Book of Horror Trivia.

A beer drinker might like this attractive Goth Beer wall clock or this Grim Reaper pilsner glass, or perhaps a homebrew kit so he can try it himself.

The geeky goth would probably appreciate a Leatherman tool, a Police Line utility bag, or this amusing severed hand handrest.

Music-lovers might like a “greatest hits” album of a band like Bauhaus or Sisters of Mercy, or a collection like Gothic Party Time, Dancing in the Dark, Projekt: Gothic, or Goth Industrial Club Anthems.

That oughta be enough to get you started. What’s your favorite Fathers Day gift?