Bloody Splashes – Interesting vinyl wall mural for that “Dexter Was Here” vibe. (via Witch Arachne)

Hogwarts House Couture – Dress designs inspired by the various houses. I would wear the hell out of Slytherin.

Zombie Luau Pineapple – The best centerpiece for a zombie luau themed party that you will see all day.

Skullis – Huge selection of skulls carved from gemstone and crystal, many one-of-a-kind. Their geode skulls are especially neat. (via Cat)

Dork Tower – I see no flaw in this logic.

Tinsley Transfers – Large selection of good-looking temporary tattoos, some of which double as special-effect “wounds.”

Blue Moon – Cocktail recipe featuring crème de violette. (Hat tip to xJane)

Cthulhurotica – This is a thing. That can be bought. Huh.

Matt Dixon – Artist who specializes in cute “horror pinup” artwork. On the NSFW side. I like the Broom of Doom.

Exposed Anatomy – Neat set of photomanipulated images. (Hat tip to Sisifo)

Great googly moogly you guys: This stuff is astonishing.

Tom Spina Designs is a group of artists and propmakers who do a lot of work for movies and TV and also, y’know, will make you just about any custom sculpture, prop, themed furniture, or decorative item you could possibly want. (Assuming you can afford it; I hesitate to even guess what a few of these installations would cost.)

So they’ll make you your own “carved stone” skull throne. They’ll help you devise a display for that authentic Invisible Man costume you have laying around. And they’ll also build you a King Kong-themed home theater, complete with giant ape-hand easy chairs and Kong himself peering at you over a sturdy wall. I could not love this more if I tried.

Check out their various galleries for fantastic inspiration: A wishing well and incredibly-detailed tombstones carved from foam, an amazing giant spider, and a full-blown “man cave” designed to display a large collection of horror movie props (with all kinds of great details like a rock formation featuring a spooky face).

There’s some phenomenal stuff here, either as a source of project ideas or just plain old coveting. Take a look!

Alice Cooper looks like he’s about 12 years old in this.

The rest of the episode should start automatically; if not, here’s:

Part 2
Part 3

These are pretty neat. I ran across them on Pinterest and tracked them down to HouseofDewberry on Etsy (which has lots of other neat stuff, too). The friend who pinned them speculated on doing a DIY version, and I think they should be pretty easy to hack together.

These are essentially heavily-hot-glued PVC candles, which are a popular Halloween prop. You can find a zillion different tutorials for making the basic candle with a bit of googling: Here’s a video tutorial, and there’s a nice overview here (omit the step where you fill them with insulation) with some additional tips here. Choose a pipe diameter that will let you slip a battery-powered tea light inside, since they’ll be used both as a wick and to illuminate the interior.

The eyes and mouth can be cut pretty easily: Use a marker to draw the holes (it’s all going to be painted, so it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes), making sure you leave enough space around them that the pipe won’t crack when you cut it). Drill a pilot hole (google “how to drill PVC pipe” for instructions such as this one), then cut the shape using a keyhole saw or Dremel tool.

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It’s time for another round of Death is Not an Option! The rules, as always, are simple: Given the choice of a pair of people, you have to decide which one you’d sleep with; choosing death instead is not an option. This time we’re looking at movie remakes.

The Hitcher Matchup
Original	vs.	Remake

The Fright Night Matchup
Original	vs.	Remake

The When a Stranger Calls Matchup
Original	vs.	Remake

The I Am Legend Matchup
Original	vs.	Remake

The Mummy Matchup
Original	vs.	Remake

The Bride Matchup
Original	vs.	Remake

The Psycho Matchup
Original	vs.	Remake

The Wolfman Matchup
Original	vs.	Remake

The Cat People Matchup
Original	vs.	Remake

The Willard Matchup
Original	vs.	Remake

Leave your choices in the comments (I suspect at least a couple are going to be pretty easy). And remember…Death is not an option.

Giger Counter – Silly little prop that, um, counts Gigers. (Hat tip to Kitten Herder)

Mythic Creatures Embroidery Patterns – Transfer patterns for Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, a jackalope, and several others.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles – One can never have too many recipes for pumpkin.

Unexplained Mysteries – Extensive site which “explores the unknown, the unsolved and the unusual.” (via Cat)

Run for Your Life, Charlie Brown – An entire gallery of horror movie characters drawn in the style of “Peanuts.” This is just so wonderful.

Devon Tread Watch – Rather awesome steampunky design from Watchismo, if you’ve got an extra $25,000 laying around.

This is CorpGoth – Trystan Bass of Gothic Martha Stewart has a blog devoted to dressing “corporate goth.” (Hat tip to Pixel Pixie)

Halloween Clocks – Great roundup of spooky clocks. I especially love the flock of bats.

Caramel Apple Jello Shots – Nom.

There’s a Human in My Closet – Appears to be a riff on There’s a Nightmare in My Closet, about an undead little boy with human problems. Kindle-only, unfortunately. (Hat tip to Sisifo)

Continuing from yesterday, here are the rest of the recipes from my Bar Supply Extravaganza.

Praline Liqueur – Makes about 4 cups

4 C pecan pieces, lightly toasted
4 C high-proof grain alcohol such as Everclear (or the highest-proof vodka you can get)
2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
2 C firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 C white sugar
2 1/2 C water

Place the pecan pieces and vanilla beans in a jar, cover with alcohol, and seal. Let sit in a cool, dark place for two weeks, shaking daily. Line a strainer with two layers of cheesecloth (or a clean kitchen towel) and place over a bowl. Pour in the mixture, giving the cloth a squeeze to extract as much liquid as possible. Reserve the vanilla beans. (You can discard the boozy nuts or use them as an ice-cream topping if you wish.) Line a strainer with a coffee filter and place over another bowl. Pour the mixture through it a little at a time; it will drip slowly and you’ll need to change the coffee filter fairly often.

Place sugars and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat and stir until sugars dissolve. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add reserved vanilla and simmer another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Remove vanilla and discard, then stir in the filtered mixture. Pour into bottles and store at room temperature. This will keep pretty much indefinitely, but for best flavor it should be used within a year. It’s great in coffee or poured over baked apples.

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My pal Empress Pam had a birthday recently, and I gave her a collection of homemade bar supplies as a gift. They were a lot of fun to put together, so I figured I’d pass the recipes on in case anyone wants to try them out.

These are easy, not too expensive, and can be made over a period of several weeks. They also taste better than most commercial versions of the product, and you know exactly what ingredients are in them.

They look attractive packaged in matching containers (I used swingtop bale jars and bottles from Specialty Bottle), but they can be put in anything from thrifted vintage bottles to recycled spaghetti sauce jars. For extra appeal, especially if these are meant as a gift, you could decorate the bottles with glass paint to make them a little more match-y. Label them–I used manila tags, but you could paint the contents on the bottle or use computer-printed labels–and arrange them in a basket, wooden crate, or similar container. Decorate with a bit of ribbon and add a tag with an appropriate quote (such as, “Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness. — Seneca”).

Since there are several recipes, I’m breaking this into two parts; the second half will go up tomorrow.

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Victor the Undertaker used to offer a line of six artisanal hot sauces under the Haunted Hot Sauce brand. He’s recently simplified and re-branded as Halloween Hot Sauce, offering Spider Venom (mild jalapeño), Bloody Bat (medium cayenne) and Grinning Skull (hot habañero) varieties. He’s–sadly–ditched the little coffins they used to come boxed in, but the labels and packaging are still splendid. He’s currently taking pre-orders for shipping in mid-September, and it appears that he ships worldwide.

Reviews of the previous line (such as here and here) seem to be quite positive, so this is one of those rare items where you don’t have to sacrifice quality for spookiness. These would be perfect for a Halloween party or as condiments at a Dia de los Muertos-themed dinner. They’re also inexpensive enough that a trio of flavors would make an attractive hostess gift.

Since he’s a small operation I wouldn’t count on these being in stock for long, so if you’re looking for highly-thematic hot sauces you’d better order soon.

(via Cult of the Great Pumpkin)

The Secret Pumpkin gift exchange is a long-running tradition amongst the Halloween-L listserv members. It’s similar to a Secret Santa exchange, only it takes place in April (six months in either direction from Halloween) and the gifts are supposed to be spooky in nature.

I’ve been managing it for the group since 2004, and last year I finally realized it might be a good idea to mention it here. You can read that post, with more details about the way it works, here.

And now it’s time to open up registration for next April’s exchange! If you’d like to participate, go to the Secret Pumpkin site and:

1) If you did not participate in the last exchange, click the “Join” link and fill out the form.

2) If you DID participate in the last exchange, log in, click the “Update Profile” link and change the “Activate My Membership” option to Yes.

Last year I suggested that participants should join one of the two mailing lists, but they’ve withered away to the point that I’m going to make that optional; I’ll send occasional reminders directly to the participants instead. All that I ask is please, PLEASE don’t sign up for the exchange unless you’re serious about following through. We occasionally have participants flake out, and their Pumpkins are always sorely disappointed.

The deadline for signups is October 15, and non-US residents are welcome as well. C’mon and join! It’s lots of fun, and getting something unexpectedly Halloweeny in April is a treat.