Our fifth Secret Santa Can Suck It pretend-gift exchange was heaps of fun, and everyone’s imaginary gifts were great.

Here’s a list of all the participants this time ’round. Follow each link below to see what they chose for their giftees!

• Cobwebs (Recipient: xJane)
• xJane (Recipient: KSena)
• KSena (Recipient: Cat)
• Cat (Recipient: Kathy White)
• Kathy White (Recipient: Cobwebs)

Kathy doesn’t blog, so she sent her gift to me for posting here. It’s quite thoughtful and lovely.

Your blog has been giving me pleasure ever since I discovered it. Giving you a virtual Christmas present is very easy since you and I share similar pastimes. We like to sew. We like beautiful things to make and we enjoy the macabre.

My first gift to you is an all-inclusive art adventure to Orvieto, Italy, May 25-31 2014 where you will create a one of a kind art quilt.

“….Begin with a textural pieced background using a combination of fabrics and then an applique which will be filled with your own visual journey…..For your design, use journaling and include simple drawings from the streets of Orvieto. The use of imagery using wool, taffeta, silk, silk velvet, and cotton applique as well as dimension using stacking of fabric, couching embroidery stitches, beads and words will be explored.”

— Adventures in Italy

By all-inclusive, I mean your air flight, food, drink, your materials (all those glorious fabrics!!!!) and tools for your week long art adventure, and, last but not least, all the pocket money one needs to satisfy the inner magpie are part and parcel of this gift.

I would like to include a subscription to Somerset Studio’s “Altered Couture Magazine”. It contains many ideas for making something innovative out of something ordinary. While many of the illustrations are usually overtly feminine and pretty-pretty, the trained gothic eye will see the potential of a possible garment.

Finally, because I am a doll maker and I would like to introduce you to my world, my last gift to you is your choice of one of the dolls made by Beth Robinson. You will find her website at http://strangedolls.net Click on ‘Shop’ and feel free to choose what ever doll you desire – I’m a Dr. Scops fan, myself.

Isn’t he just fabulous?

Thank you so much, Kathy! I love my “gift!”

I was recently listening to the radio and was rather startled to hear a Cocteau Twins cover of “Frosty the Snowman.” I was even more startled to learn that it’s one of two Christmas classics they did, the other being “Winter Wonderland.” They were originally released on a (now out of print and selling for insane prices on eBay) two-track CD entitled “Snow,” and can also be found on the second volume of their singles collection Lullabies to Violaine.

Here’s “Winter Wonderland,” with a fan-made video:

And here’s a link to their version of Frosty (just audio over a static picture).

I’m glad I could make your holiday a little more surreal.

The matches for our Secret Santa Can Suck It exchange have been made and sent to their assignees. After everyone posts about their “gift,” I’ll list all of the entries to peruse. To kick things off, here’s mine.

My recipient was xJane, and from her comments on the ol’ blog here I know that she’s a big fan of spiders, steampunk, and–I recently discovered–pens and writing paraphernalia.

Well then.

Let’s start with with small stuff: She’s going to need a selection of pens.

A rare spider design Mont Blanc pen (#1) is a good starting point. The Michel Audiard sterling sculpted spider (#2) is great for making a statement. The Visconti limited edition Ruby spider (#3) is fine for everyday use, and a set of Mont Blanc steampunk designs (#4) is perfect for the office.

She’ll need ink, of course; two types: First, super-high-quality ink by J. Herbin; their anniversary collection is a good choice:

Next, we’ll arrange for an expert to give her lessons on making her own iron gall ink:

She’ll also need an appropriate inkwell; I can’t think of any better than an antique spider:

She’ll need a personalized wax seal; a Victorian seal should fill the bill:

And to remind her of a favorite pastime, a silver seal charm would be lovely:

Obviously she’s going to need something to write on, so a Victorian writing desk will be required:

…as well as a matching office chair:

Finally–and remember, in this fantasy gift exchange, the budget is Very Large Indeed–she’ll need a suitably inspirational space to write in, and that means a home office makeover. We’ll hire someone from The Steampunk Home to create something like this:

Happy Holidays, xJane! I hope you enjoy my “gift!”

If you want to sign up for this year’s fake virtual gift swap, today’s the deadline.

C’mon! Join us! It’s fun!

Here’s another film that didn’t do particularly well at the box office but deserves to be rescued from obscurity. It’s based on a “White Lady” legend local to the area where the film is set, concerning a ghostly woman who eternally searches for her lost children. It’s probably a bit too spooky for small children, but reasonably okay for older kids (with the caveat that part of the plot involves a serial killer of children).

You don’t even have to go rent this one, since the whole movie is available on YouTube. Ta-da:

We’ve been doing this virtual fake gift swap for a while now, and darned if we aren’t going to do it again.

It’s easy (and free!) to participate: Between now and December 10, leave a comment on this post or email me saying that you want to be part of the swap. On the 12th I’ll tell you who your assigned “giftee” is, and some time before December 21 you post a picture on your blog of what you would have gotten that person if you had money and, y’know, cared.

Your “gift” can be as silly or serious as you like, and since you probably won’t know the recipient, feel free to make up whatever story you want about why the gift is appropriate. (If you don’t have a blog, you can arrange to have your gift posted here.)

On December 24 I’ll post a list of everybody’s entries so we can all marvel at each other’s good taste. It’s a silly, fun way to take a short break from general holiday craziness, plus we can all discover new blogs we might not otherwise find. The more people who participate the more entertaining the gift list will be, so put your inner Scrooge in a corner and join in!

(Image Credit)

Slate Magazine is doing a series of articles on life expectancy in the U.S., and their kickoff piece was an overview of the medical and public health advances that have contributed to the increased longevity of humans in the developed world.

It’s a fun conversation starter: Why are you not dead yet? It turns out almost everybody has a story, but we rarely hear them; life-saving treatments have become routine.

Or, as the article puts it with a riff on The Gashleycrumb Tinies:

M is for Maud who was swept out to sea…then brought back to shore by a lifeguard and resuscitated by emergency medical technicians.

O is for Olive run through with an awl…but saved during a four-hour emergency surgery to repair her collapsed lung.

S is for Susan, who perished of fits…or who would have, anyway, if her epilepsy hadn’t been diagnosed promptly and treated with powerful anticonvulsant drugs.

So I’ll pose the same question to you: Would you have survived the Middle Ages (or, possibly worse from a medical standpoint, the Victorian period)? Myself, I would have likely made it to adulthood (assuming my father hadn’t died of that burst appendix when he was six). I would probably have survived the teratoma* I developed in my late 20s, providing it didn’t strangle anything important. So far my closest brush with death has been childbirth, when my son would likely have died (the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck), and I may or may not have followed. So, provisionally, my status is, “I’m not dead yet.”

How about you? (Bring out your dead!)

*A teratoma is a usually-benign-but-really-freaky tumor which frequently contains tissue that resembles human body parts: Most often teeth and hair, but occasionally even stuff like eyeballs. They can cause problems when they grow big enough to interfere with your innards. (The strangest look I have ever received from anybody came from my surgeon, when she explained the removal procedure and asked me if I had any questions. I said, “If this thing has teeth, can I have them?” Her reaction indicated that she had never been asked that question before, ever. I was serious, though. Wouldn’t that be a great icebreaker at parties? “Hi, nice to meet you. You’ll never believe what these earrings are made from.” But I digress.)

The year has finally rolled around to my very favorite day. I usually turn the blog over to the commenters on Halloween, and this year I’m looking for true tales of the weird or creepy.

Here’s mine; it’s one of my favorite bits of family history and a great icebreaker at parties (if by “icebreaker” you mean, “make people smile nervously and edge slowly away”).

This story was related by my late paternal grandmother.* She was born in 1905 so these events would have taken place around 1911 or 1912, when medicine was on the crude side and rural folk didn’t bother with a doctor much anyway.

One of her great-aunts died, and in the tradition of the time the body was laid out at the house to let the relatives pay their respects. Normally you’d have to worry about the body beginning to decompose, but it was the middle of winter in Nebraska so they just put her in an unheated back room. She lay there for three days.

When they finally went to bury her, the body was still warm.

And…they buried her anyway.

At this point in the story I said, “Um, grandma…?” And she looked sort of embarrassed and said, “Well, apparently nobody liked her very much.”

Huh.

Now it’s your turn. Share your favorite spooky anecdote in the comments. And…Happy Halloween!

*She was alive when she told the story. Just in case that wasn’t entirely clear.

Making costumes is one of my favorite activities, so every year I go all-out on Shadowboy’s Halloween duds. For the past few Halloweens I have predicted that he would eventually break my heart, costume-wise, and this is the year he finally went and did it. Doctor Who is his new passion, and he insisted on dressing as the Eleventh Doctor. I’m perfectly happy with his Whovian fandom, but the Doctor essentially wears street clothes. Street clothes!

To make it even worse, I also make costumes for a friend’s niece, and this year she wanted to be a cat. A shapeless overall with a tail and ears swam across my vision.* Sob.

So I did my best. Shadowboy’s outfit is, sadly, mostly purchased; the boots are from Morenza, and everything else except the coat came from local clothing stores. I did make the coat; a simple blazer pattern done in tweed. My only change was to add elbow patches. (Incidentally, if you’re looking for an exhaustive guide to the Doctor’s clothing, check out Steve Ricks’ blog.)

I had a little more leeway with the cat since she didn’t have to hew to a particular style, and I parlayed that into a lot of leeway. I just couldn’t countenance a plain-overall-with-ears-and-tail sort of costume, so I decided that if the fabric was leopard- or tiger-print, I could do anything I wanted.

I normally provide pattern numbers for reference, but the resulting kitty princess is such a bastardized melding of patterns that pinpointing its parentage is difficult. A lot of its DNA comes from (discontinued) Butterick 4320, but I added a stretchy velvet panel to the bodice and shortened the skirt dramatically. I added an underskirt which was just a simple circle skirt with a whole bunch of black tulle ruched on top,** a long tail (just a plain tube stuffed with fiberfill), and a fabric-covered headband with ears. She also requested a matching costume for her favorite dolly, and I was happy to oblige. That was Simplicity 1711.

My reward for doing this sewing every year is professional photos, which I add to my big gallery o’ costumes. The photos above, plus these of Shadaughter and Shadowboy and Shadowboy and friend make me awfully happy.

*Thank goodness for Shadaughter. Not only did she request a gender-bent Tenth Doctor costume (covered here), she recently informed me that she wants to go to next year’s Comic-Con as Daenerys Targaryen. I can always count on her for a challenge.

**A friend recently mentioned that she liked a particular costume made largely from pink tulle. I said, “If you don’t mind using black instead, I’ve got 100 yards of black tulle in the basement.” She replied, “Why would anyone have 100 yards of black tulle…never mind, I forgot who I was talking to.” Clearly.

This whimsical short film is a project by Kristin Kemper.

(via pdq)