The delightful Spookshows site has posted a selection of vintage poison labels, including a zip file of high-resolution images. They suggest attaching them to drinks at a Halloween party, but these would also be perfect as part of a collage or other artwork.

It’d be particularly cool to silkscreen a few of these onto fabric and sew up a really unique skirt or clutch. They’d also be nice, enlarged and framed, as artwork (hang a couple next to the bathroom medicine cabinet).

Link (via BoingBoing)

The FLOR company has just released a brand-new carpet tile design featuring cute little skulls. Each tile is nearly 20″ square, so you’d only need a couple for a small area rug. (via Halloween Hotlist)

To match your skull rug, check out Skull-a-Day’s “Secret Skull” stenciled wallpaper. There’s a downloadable pattern of the design so you can add a wee bit of goth to your own walls. I particularly like the subtlety of the image: You have to really look to see the skulls, but once you see them you can’t stop seeing them.

Skull-a-Day also offers prints of the popular Ornament(al) Skull, which would make a nice accent in a powder room or boudoir.

I have to admit, one nice thing about the wholesale mainstreaming of skull imagery is that it’s much easier to decorate without seeming overly morbid. Puts a little less stress on the in-laws’ psyches.

The winner, Grand Champion Division, for Knitted Thing I Would Never Even Think of Making into a Knitted Thing, goes to the Anticraft for their knitted teratoma.

They even include instructions for making the random body parts–such as teeth and eyeballs–that are occasionally found inside of a real teratoma. Also listed are several songs appropriate for singing to one’s knitted teratoma. Like you do.

I’m a teratoma, short and stout;
Here is my handle, here is my snout;
When I get all steamed up and I shout,
Poke a finger in and pull stuff out!

I happen to sport a very large scar received from the removal of a teratoma.* If I’d had this pattern then, I’d have been tempted to make one as a gift for my doctor. Now all I can do is sit slack-jawed with amazement.

Link (via William the Coroner)


*The strangest look I have ever received from anybody came from my surgeon, when she explained the 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 cocktail parties? “Hi, I’m Cobwebs. You’ll never believe where these teeth came from.” But I digress.

I’ve previously mentioned that I tend to go overboard where Halloween costumes are concerned. (Where everything else is concerned too, actually; my family’s motto is, “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth overdoing.) This year, however, even I think I may have gone too far.

Oh, it started innocently enough; I dug this pattern out of my stash a few months ago and decided to make this princess costume for a friend’s niece. I figured I could dress Shadowboy as Robin Hood or a knight or something and let them trick-or-treat as a couple.

But then Shadaughter started watching The Tudors on cable and decided that she wanted one of those fancy dresses. In a moment of weakness I agreed to make this one, which resulted in this.

So then I thought, “I know! I’ll make Shadowboy into Henry VIII!”

I have instructed my family that, should I make such a pronouncement in the future, I am to be slapped until I change my mind.

Tudor costume patterns sized for four-year-olds are not exactly easy to find, so I eventually wound up improvising. I cut this pattern off short and made it into a tunic. Then I lengthened a square-bottomed vest pattern and added puffy sleeves and fur trim, turning it into a surcoat. The only thing I was able to use an actual pattern for was the hat, which was adult-sized and just had to be cut down a whole lot. The preceding paragraph makes the whole process sound a hell of a lot easier than it actually was.

The final result was this. (The scan’s a bit dark, so here’s another pose.)

I’m very pleased with the results, but I need to find an easier hobby.

p.s. – Here are a couple of additional shots, because I feel like showing off:
Shadowboy the Eighth and his Queen
Shadaughter and Shadowboy (this one just kills me dead)