The Fabulous Miss Doxie is a Halloween-decorating fool, as she explains:

People, I love Halloween with an unrestrained passion. My love for Halloween is Not Normal. Nobody in my family knows where this came from. We are the kind of family that carves a pumpkin, MAYBE two, and that is all. We do not fuck about with spiderwebs and mood lighting. We open the door, dole out a Three Musketeers or a Snickers, and that is the end of the matter.

But something in my genetic makeup was dissatisfied with that arrangement, and somehow, y’all, I have become…I have become That Person who feels the need to decorate the everloving HELL out of her house. I am That Person who BUYS those full-sized skeletons, hanging witches, and packages of fake spiderwebs. I am That Person, and That Person is me, and together, we are a nutbag.

She recently posted some photos of this year’s decorating efforts to Flickr, and oh I am passionately in love with this side table. It is, obviously, meant to be just a Halloween decoration and I’m sure that something a little less unusual occupies its depths during the rest of the year, but holy crap I want this table year-round. I think it’s because the bones look real instead of fakey-plastic, and they’re so artfully arranged and look so elegant on top of the dirt. The dirt-and-bone color scheme matches the shabby-chic distressed paint on the table nicely, too.

The bones have enough of an archaeological-dig feel about them that they’re interesting rather than disturbing; a coffee- or end table decorated like this would be an amazing accent piece in an otherwise mainstream room. Lovely!

How amazingly cool are these? Martha Stewart recently posted a recipe for “invisible lollipops” made of uncaramelized sugar syrup, and Forkable decided to turn the same recipe into clear “glass” specimen slides.

The inspiration was the Showtime series Dexter, whose serial-killer hero saves droplets of blood from all of his victims, but these would be wonderful for any kind of mad scientist- or biohazard themed party. Make yellowy-green splotches and claim they’re blood samples from zombies, or use reddish-purple for extraterrestrial Blob specimens.

The blogger had trouble finding a wooden slide box, but they seem to be available fairly cheaply here, here, or here.

I’m quite impressed with how realistic these look. They’d be a real novelty at any kind of science-themed gathering, and you could even add a little mint flavor and offer them as after-dinner “mints” at a blood-themed dinner party.

(via Creepy Cupcakes)

Hornworm: Autumn Lamentation
Stanley Kunitz

Since that first morning when I crawled
into the world, a naked grubby thing,
and found the world unkind,
my dearest faith has been that this
is but a trial: I shall be changed.
In my imaginings I have already spent
my brooding winter underground,
unfolded silky powdered wings, and climbed
into the air, free as a puff of cloud
to sail over the steaming fields,
alighting anywhere I pleased,
thrusting into deep tubular flowers.

It is not so: there may be nectar
in those cups, but not for me.
All day, all night, I carry on my back
embedded in my flesh, two rows
of little white cocoons,
so neatly stacked
they look like eggs in a crate.
And I am eaten half away.

If I can gather strength enough
I’ll try to burrow under a stone
and spin myself a purse
in which to sleep away the cold;
though when the sun kisses the earth
again, I know I won’t be there.
Instead, out of my chrysalis
will break, like robbers from a tomb,
a swarm of parasitic flies,
leaving my wasted husk behind.

Sir, you with the red snippers
in your hand, hovering over me,
casting your shadow, I greet you,
whether you come as an angel of death
or of mercy. But tell me,
before you choose to slice me in two:
Who can understand the ways
of the Great Worm in the Sky?

I suddenly have newfound respect for Velma.

From artist Dr. Monster’s Flickr stream.

(via BoingBoing)

Halloween Town – Lovely little papercraft buildings.

Haunted Game Cafe – This shop sells all manner of spooky board- and card games. It looks like a great place to pick up a unique party game or gift. (Also it makes me deeply happy to learn that there’s a game called “Call of Cowthulhu.”)

Proposal of the Living Dead – Aaaaawwww….

13 Tombstones – Pictures of the original tombstones in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion wait area, along with an explanation of who is honored in each one.

Bat Beauty – What appears to be a flying fox being groomed with a toothbrush. Presented without comment. (Well, presented without comment by the blogger. My own personal comment is “WTF?”)

I Just Call it Housekeeping – I love this T-shirt. (Hat tip to Kitten Herder)

Medium Large – This made me giggle.

Halloween Labels – Cute idea for making bottle labels using embossed scrapbooking stickers.

Bones Leggings – It’s fairly easy to find T-shirts with a skeleton design, but these are the first leggings I’ve seen.

Beer Fairy – This costume just amused me.

I ran across a mention of the Primitive Needle on another blog (whose link I can’t find now, so I apologize for not giving credit wherever it’s due) and liked the country/vintage look of their patterns so much I decided to give them a try.

I chose the Hallow Sampler, which recommended floss and linen from Weeks Dye Works (which can be purchased cheaper at Picture This Plus). I finally finished the piece, and although I’m quite pleased with it I do have some comments:

– The directions call for “Dill” linen, but the Dill color is way darker than whatever they used for their sample. Since the floss colors they specify are all fairly dull, I think some of the detail got lost in the background. I’d recommend ignoring their fabric suggestion and choosing a lighter color.

– The directions also specify 40-count linen. Brothers and sisters, as dog is my witness, 40 count is really freaking small. I had to either sit under a strong light source or borrow Shadow Jack’s reading glasses to see the holes well enough to count them, and I still wound up missing stitches and having to pull rows back out. (This piece definitely has the highest profanity count of any cross-stitch I’ve ever done.)

– The hand-dyed floss is gorgeous, with subtle variegation and colors that aren’t as harsh as many commercial brands. However, the variegation tended to be a problem with the small size of the elements. In particular the “Thyme” color–a mixture of grey and green–gave me trouble because the floss would change noticeably from grey to green about halfway through the row.

All of that being said, I really do like the richness that the hand-dyeing gives to the piece, and the tiny stitches make it look old-fashioned and elegant. The pattern itself is great (and the same company has loads of others in the same mold), and if you don’t have the patience for little fiddly stitches you could always use linen with a lower thread count. One or two of the elements would also be cute stitched onto clothing as an accent.

If you enjoy cross-stitch, I’d definitely recommend these guys.

Bonus link: Check out the awesome new Headless Horseman pattern at Picture This Plus.

The ever-marvelous Wondermark has created The Stokes-Whibley Natural Index of Supernatural Collective Nouns, an eminently useful guide to consult the next time you need to know what a group of succubi, manticores, or gnomes is called.

(Also check out the Fiction Generator, which several fans promptly automated.)

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.

Today is All Soul’s Day, when many believe that the spirits of the dead return to the world of the living for one night. Dishes made with beans or lentils–long associated with ghosts–are often eaten, and cookies in the shape of bones are popular.

Ossi die Morti (Dead Bone Cookies) – Makes about 4 dozen

2/3 C sugar
1/2 C butter
2 large eggs
2 C all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 C almonds, finely chopped
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400F. Cream the sugar, butter and eggs together. Add the flour gradually, beating until smooth. Add the vanilla and nuts, blending well. Form teaspoons of dough into a bone or crescent shape, placing the cookies an inch apart on greased baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

If that recipe doesn’t appeal, you might also try making your bones out of pretzels and mini-marshmallows, shaped meringue, or plain old sugar cookies cut into bone shapes (you can cut them freehand or use a cookie cutter). The little meringue or marshmallow bones would also be cute decorations on cupcakes.

Halloween may be over, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop celebrating. Give these little bones a try!

Halloween
Dexter Kozen

Autumn’s turned the leaves to rust
The trees have fallen bare
Silver clouds enshroud the moon
A chill is in the air
Shadows of a thousand years
Rise again unseen
Voices whisper in the trees
Tonight is Halloween

On wings of mortals’ weary dreams
Across the night we’ll fly
We’ll dance among the stars unchained
Until the dawn is nigh
A year has passed away, my love
Since we’ve each other seen
Softly now and take my hand
Tonight is Halloween

This was the text inside my wedding invitations. It’s also been set to music by the band “Severe Tire Damage.” You can hear a sound file of the song at their site (http://www.std.org/).

intro   C7-5/E  Em

verse   [Am6/E Em-5 E] x4
         E7 Am4 Am
         C#-/G C#-/F#
        [Am6/E Em-5 E] x2

vamp    [Am6/C  C#-
         Em-5 Em Em-5 Em] x2
         Am6/C  C#-
         C7-5/E   Em

fugue   [Em     |       |Am       |        |
        |D      |       |G        |        |
        |C      |       |F#       |        |
        |B  B/D#|E      |A    A/C#|D       |
        |G      |C/G    |A        |Dm/A    |
        |B      |C   Am |Em/B Am/C|Em/B  B7] x2
        (vamp)