Erutan, aka KatetheGreat19, does lovely covers of all sorts of interesting songs. Here’s her version of “Come Little Children” from the movie Hocus Pocus, transposed with footage from Pan’s Labyrinth.

(via Cult of the Great Pumpkin)

Harry Potter Stamps – The U.S. Post Office is introducing a whole commemorative set.

Ghosts in a Cloche – Cute little decoration for a tabletop. (via Cat)

The Man in the Blue Box – These Doctor Who illustrations done in the style of Tim Burton hit that geeky/gothy sweet spot.

Sucker – “Fetish” lollipops shaped like sex toys. Because why not.

Fantastical Art – Lovely steampunk contraptions drawn by Mark Jason Page.

Best Wishes Brass Key – Novelty “middle finger” brass key.

Visit to the Vampire Museum – Atlas Obscura visits the Musée des Vampires in Paris.

Victorian Calling Cards – Fascinating history, with lots of examples. I had no idea some of them were so fancy.

The Blue Kraken – Interesting jewelry, many pieces made of intricately-carved circuit boards.

Deranged L.A. Crimes – Site devoted to “tales of murder, mayhem, political corruption, and celebrity scandal from the 1920s through the 1960s.”

I recently found–and then promptly lost the link to–some stripey little Tim Burton-esque tentacles peeking out of a mossy flowerpot. They appeared to be pretty straightforward to make, so I took a crack at a DIY version.

They’re almost too simple to require a tutorial: All you need is some sort of modeling compound (I used some Model Magic that I had left over from another project, but polymer clay or something similar should work fine). Roll pieces into “snakes” the way you did in Kindergarten, but taper them along their length so that one end winds up pointy. Gently form them into tentacle-y poses; I wrapped a couple loosely around pencils and draped the third over a cardboard tube. Let dry.

When they’re nice and hard, hit ’em with spray paint–I used clothespins to hold them upright so I could get all sides evenly–and let dry thoroughly. I decided to leave mine a plain glossy black, but you could use a contrasting color (or two) to add stripes, polka-dots, or similar decoration. If you want to get fancy, spray them on just one side with a contrasting color, holding the spray can far enough away to mottle the edges.

You can stick them down into the soil in an existing flowerpot, or give them a pot of their own. To do that, use a little modeling compound to hold them in place; I used a tiny flowerpot to make the tentacles appear comically oversized. If you want to add live moss, fill the pot with potting soil and then carefully press the moss around the tentacles (be sure to water the moss occasionally). You can also top off the pot with pretty stones, fake moss (found in the floral section of craft stores), or even–again, if you’re feeling fancy–wax or resin to represent water.

The number and size of the tentacles is entirely up to you; mine are all similarly-sized, but a pot studded with lots of different sizes would make it look less like some dirt-dwelling monster and more like the shoots of a really peculiar plant.

They’re the perfect low-maintenance desk accessory, and small ones would make really unique wedding favors (especially if they were striped in your wedding colors). In my case, Shadowboy asked to adopt the tentacles as a pet and tried to feed them snacks.

Start to finish these take less than a day, and 90% of that is drying time. The actual active project time is closer to 15 minutes. Easy! Super-cheap! Both are things that I like in a project.

A couple of years ago I suggested that, in addition to the necessary-but-boring resolutions that people tend to make on New Year’s Day, everyone should also make a silly, fun, unnecessary one: Something that you’ve thought about doing but could never quite muster the motivation for one reason or another.*

This seems like an excellent idea to dust off and revisit. What’s a fun goal, within your time and budget constraints, that you’d like to accomplish this year? Make it a formal resolution, and at the end of next year you’ll be able to state truthfully that you achieved one of your goals.

For me, I think that this is the year I add all of the poisonous plants back to my herb garden: I rooted out all of the henbane and nightshade and monkshood when Shadowboy was a toddler and liable to put random things in his mouth, and it’s high time I put them back.

What silly, fun resolution do you want to make? Share ’em in the comments!

*Mine was to learn to play the ukelele, which I did, despite sucking at it. The point was to have fun, and at that I succeeded.