The Art of Darkness

Happy Halloween!

October 31st, 2009 by Cobwebs

Halloween Carol

(From Para Abnormal, natch.)

Posted in Whatever | 1 Comment »

The Link Dump from 20,000 Fathoms

October 30th, 2009 by Cobwebs

Burning Cities Firescreens – These are just prototypes, but they’re kind of awesome. Choose London or Rome.

The Vampire Survival Guide – This would be an amusing gift accompanied by a stake and a wreath of garlic.

Halloween Cheese Assortment – I’m mostly just amused at the marketing genius who figured out how to promote their product for Halloween, but this is also a nice suggestion for a party.

Craftster art and craft roundups:
Werewolf
Vampire
Day of the Dead 1
Day of the Dead 2

Zombify Yourself – Promotional site for Zombieland; upload a photo of yourself and turn it into a zombie. It’d be fun to do photos of all your friends and use printouts as placecards for a dinner party. Or slip them into your holiday newsletter without comment. (Hat tip to Fiend4Halloween)

The Watchers – Awesomely cool handpainted matryoshka.

Bob Burns’ Hollywood Halloween – Bob Burns did legendary Halloween displays. This site includes photos and video of his “haunts.”

Terrorium – Tutorial for making a decorative jar with a landscape of teensy skulls. Also I love the name.

Soft Sculpture Bats – Really cute free pattern for making a mobile out of cloth bats and a tree branch.

Bookstore Sign – You’ll laugh because it’s true.

p.s. – I’m participating in the unfortunately-acronymed NaBloPoMo again this year, so there will be a post every day of November, including weekends. Can you hardly wait? I thought so.

Posted in Link Dump | 1 Comment »

This Year’s Costume

October 29th, 2009 by Cobwebs

ShadowboyAs is customary, I have to show off my little guy in his Halloween finery (click to enlarge).

I predicted last year that it was probably the last Halloween when I was going to be allowed to dictate his costume, but fortunately he’s become rather passionate about wizards so it wasn’t too hard to chivvy him in that direction. Someday, though, he’s going to come home and announce that he wants to be Spiderman and then my little brocade-and-velvet-loving heart is going to shatter into a million pieces.*

This portrait will join the others in my Halloween gallery: We do a professional 8×10 photo of him in costume every year, choose an appropriate-looking frame (this one will go in a bronze frame with lots of twisty metal bits), and add it to the lineup. It’s a nice year-round reminder of our favorite holiday.

What are you doing for Halloween this year?


*And then I’ll sweep up the pieces and start figuring out how I can make him a functional web shooter, because my family motto is, “If a Thing is Worth Doing, it is Worth Overdoing.” But that’s another post.

Posted in Bittens | 3 Comments »

Inappropriate Soundtrack

October 28th, 2009 by Cobwebs

(via I have seen the whole of the internet)

Posted in Funny Peculiar | 2 Comments »

Coffinwood

October 27th, 2009 by Cobwebs

CoffinwoodYou’ve probably seen the all-coffin kitchen and other themed furniture made by Coffin It Up. It probably comes as no surprise that the proprietors’ own house is also coffin-themed.

Bryan and Dusty Schoening have a year-round cemetery at their house, complete with a coffin-shaped gazebo where they host several weddings every year.

HGTV has a short home tour of their exterior, plus some photos of the famous coffin kitchen that they did for a client. I’m very much taken with the columns on their front porch.

Posted in Bad Things | No Comments »

Autumn Morgue

October 26th, 2009 by Cobwebs

Autumn Morgue

Isn’t this gorgeous? It’s the Old Brompton Cemetery in London, all ready for autumn.

The image is Creative Commons licensed, so you could use it as computer wallpaper. The photographer also sells prints of the photo, although apparently only in 4″x6″ size. That’s unfortunate; I’d love a big framed blowup of this.

Check out her gallery for other pretty stuff.

(via Baxter King)

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Arsenic and Old Link Dumps

October 23rd, 2009 by Cobwebs

Zombie Attack – Roundup of zombie-themed craft ideas.

Steampunk Haunted House – Gallery of photos from Pittsburgh’s ScareHouse, where they’ve gone clockwork this year.

Family Photo – I found this oddly unsettling.

Pleasantville – Miniature vignettes featuring people being axe-murdered in the woods or having furtive sex in the park. Some amusing ideas for decorating a terrarium, if nothing else.

Hitchcock Halloween Décor – ThreadBanger video with suggestions for Hitchcockian decorating ideas.

Wickedminky – Etsy seller who specializes in hand-painted tattoo jewelry. (Hat tip to Empress Pam)

Papercraft Halloween Invitations – These are just lovely.

Harry Potter Concept Art – Stuff from Half-Blood Prince that didn’t make the movie. Some really neat images.

Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead – Interesting book that examines various cultures’ ideas about the walking dead, from Haitian zombies to Scandinavian draugr.

Regretsy – Exploring the worst and weirdest that Etsy has to offer. Some items are NSFW, so beware.

The Drama Button – It’s…just what it says it is.

Halloween Party Decor – Dabbled has a nice roundup of links, many of which would work year-round.

Posted in Link Dump | 1 Comment »

Nerdcore Horror Calendar

October 22nd, 2009 by Cobwebs

Nerdcore CalendarNerdcore does a pinup calendar every year with scantily-clad models dressed as science fiction characters or superheroines or whatever makes the geeky heart go pit-a-pat. Their theme for 2010 is horror movies, featuring scenes from Carrie, The Shining, Psycho, and other genre classics.

Destructoid has the first nine images and Shock Till You Drop has the last three. Even with Nerdcore “modesty glasses” covering up the especially nekkid bits the images are pretty NSFW, so be warned.

The calendars are available for pre-order at the Nerdcore site. This would certainly be an…arresting gift for the horror movie aficionado.

(via io9)

Posted in Needful Things | No Comments »

Taxidermied Mouse Cake Topper

October 21st, 2009 by Cobwebs

MiceYou are welcome.

San Francisco artist Jeanie M hand-makes* each topper by stuffing the mice and then posing them in detailed little costumes. I’m assuming she’s also the person behind the skunk in Edwardian costume and the other mouse specimens on the same site.

These are kind of adorable, and would certainly be a unique cake topper. The mice make it appropriately gothy, but I can see it working especially well for a fairy-tale themed wedding.

(via Dabbled)


*This is probably unnecessary to say. I can’t imagine there’d be a machine for making them.

Posted in Terror in the Aisle | 2 Comments »

Happy Birthday, Bela

October 20th, 2009 by Cobwebs

DraculaOur favorite vampire was born on this date in 1882. I think it’s pretty safe to say that his middle name was “Typecast.”

Still, his portrayal of The Count helped to revolutionize the image of vampires, changing them from stinking, blood-clotted apparitions to suave and alluring Renaissance men. The massive explosion of vampires in pop culture can be laid at his and Bram Stoker’s feet. Which technically means that they’re also indirectly responsible for Twilight, but let’s choose to ignore that.

So, happy birthday, Bela, and…uh…fangs for the memories.*

(The photo on his Wikipedia page amuses me; he looks young and eager and friendly and…there’s still something about him which hints that walking down a dark alley with him might not be the best decision.)


*Oh, like you weren’t thinking it.

Posted in Whatever | 1 Comment »

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