Hilary Pfeifer specializes in handmade carvings made from reclaimed wood, and her particular forte is cake toppers. She does monsters and robots and witches, and recently made this lovely pair of Edward Gorey-inspired toppers. (They were quickly snapped up by a Halloween bride; a few photos of them atop the cake are here.)

In addition to the blog she’s got an Etsy shop, and some additional photos of her toppers are here. If you’re looking for a custom topper with a sort of rustic/shabby chic vibe–that are attractive enough to display as art after the wedding–this might be just the ticket.

Here’s some neat B&W footage of the Museum Of Witchcraft shot in the 1960s.

The museum is in Boscastle, Cornwall, and is still open today. Its site features a tour of a few of its artifacts, and some of them might be great inspiration for artwork or crafts.

(via Further)

Monster Family – Cute plush family of furry monsters.

Occult Jam – Article about what amounts to homeopathic jam. Odd.

Nomskulls – Skull-shaped cupcake molds. I would love them for the name alone. (Hat tip to Siegmar.S)

Is Jousting the Next Extreme Sport? – Oh yes, please.

Sharky Tea Infuser – We’re gonna need a bigger cup.

Morbid Fashion – Photoblog devoted to “non-trashy” goth fashion (although that adjective may be open to interpretation).

LA County Zombie Control – Sometimes I really, really miss California.

Garage Alchemy Is Not for the Weak of Stomach – Teaser post for an upcoming Discover article about a science historian who is recreating the work of alchemists. He’s also co-authored a book on the subject.

I first ran into Iron Fist a couple of years ago when I found their Zombie Stompers (now available as flats! Hee), but didn’t realize that they actually had a whole line of footwear and clothing.

They sell a subset of items on their site, but it appears that they mostly sell through retail outlets. However, searching for “iron fist clothing” or “iron fist shoes” turns up loads of items for your perusal: Amazon has shoes and wallets, Google Shopping lists a wide selection of products, and simple searches on Yahoo (Shoes | Clothing) and Google (Shoes | Clothing) turn up lots of individual retailers.

The prices are generally fairly reasonable, and the designs and colors are certainly arresting. Many of the shoes also appear to be Vegan-friendly.

(Incidentally, the shoes pictured above, which I am currently lusting after, are available at Hot Topic.)

Doing my laundry in a dark suburban basement. With my sexual history, Michael Myers and Jason are flipping a coin.
— AinsleyofAttack

I just read a list of ‘the 100 things to do before you die’. I’m pretty surprised ‘yell for help’ wasn’t one of them.
— has2b_christyv

In the guy from You’re So Vain’s defense, that song is about him.
— thesulk

I think the worst kind of ghost would be a barbershop quartet.
— badbanana

I bet if Jimmy cracked skulls you’d care.
— Xytrex

Cows are ultimately unknowable. If you fell in love with a cow, the lack of emotional feedback would slowly drive you mad. You’d never know whether your feelings were reciprocated. You’d know if the cow thought it was going to rain, because it’d lie down. But you’d never know if its heart skipped a beat when you whispered its name. That is the tragedy of human-cow romances. That and the locals beating you to death with hoes.
— Charlie Brooker

The voices in my head that tell me to kill are making a lot of sense today.
— derekasaurus

…literally.

I ran across this on TYWKIWDBI, but the site he got it from doesn’t appear to be the originator and doesn’t credit a source. So I can’t tell you who made this but it’s really kind of neat.

A few of the smaller toys seem to be floating, so apparently the jars are filled with fluid of some kind. I don’t know if that would be a good idea for long-term storage since I assume they’d eventually start to degrade, although it certainly adds to the “laboratory specimen” ambience.

It probably wouldn’t be appropriate to display a child’s castoff toys this way unless you want to be hit with a large therapy bill, but if you’ve got a few toys from your own childhood that you can’t quite bear to part with this might be a fun way to showcase them.

I have no particular interest in owning an iPad, but I have to say that I’m sort of in love with this iPad cover from SwitchEasy.

They claim that the ribcage design dissipates shock just like a real ribcage, which I’m not entirely sure I buy, but you certainly can’t beat it for pure style.

The company makes some other interesting covers for Apple products, like the menacy-looking CapsuleRebel for the iPhone and the cute ChocoShuffle for the iPod Shuffle.

(Their marketing department also appears to be overly fond of CamelCase, but that’s another story.)

I like accessories that make people vaguely nervous, and a Giger-esque iPad case certainly qualifies. Lovely!

(via Nerd Approved)

Putting the Punk Back into Steampunk – Gorgeous costume.

A Friendly Chat – I’m assuming this pic was snapped at the recent Comic-Con. It makes me deeply happy.

Psycho Storyboards – Saul Bass’ storyboards for the shower scene.

10 Ways to Party Hard from Beyond the Grave – Amusing ways to dispose of your mortal remains. I think my new goal may be to have a Balinese funeral.

Killer Bees – Dang it, I always miss the cool woot shirts. (Hat tip to Kitten Herder)

Manifesto – The Bloggess pointed to this recently, and I think it’s an excellent summary of how the Internet should operate.

Catalog Living – “A look into the exciting lives of the people who live in your catalogs.” Heh.

HeroRat – Charity that trains rats to sniff out land mines and TB. How can you not want to donate to a charity that involves rats? (In the U.S. you can donate tax-free by going here instead.)

Faux Twitter accounts are a popular way for people with too much time on their hands to amuse themselves funny people to find a wider audience, and although they’re often shut down when they impersonate real celebrities–I’m still smarting about the fake Christopher Walken account being suspended–there are plenty of fictional characters who also tweet.

Recently a new account joined Darth Vader (“Just rolled over & hit the fire button instead of snooze. Right now millions of people are wishing I had gone to bed earlier.”), BP Public Relations (“The good news: Mermaids are real. The bad news: They are now extinct. #bpcares”), and Jesus (“Was sent a tip to remind Michael Jackson that Gary Coleman is not a child.”): Lord Voldemort is now tweeting regularly, and for a psychotic wizard bent on world domination, he’s a pretty funny guy.

Yeah, I murdered Cedric Diggory & he came back as a sparkly vampire. I also killed Colin Creevy & he returned as Justin Bieber. My Bad.

I crack myself up: “Knock, Knock.” “Who’s there?” “You Know.” “You Know Who?” “That’s right! Avada Kedavra!”

Let’s be real, Twilight fans only want to move to Forks because they never got their letter from Hogwarts.

If you don’t want to follow the account on Twitter,* you can also check out a collection of the funniest posts on Favstar.

*Incidentally, you don’t need to have a Twitter account to view someone’s tweets: Just subscribe to them in your favorite feed reader.

This is both a post and a request for comments.

I recently got a note from RahneFan, who said:

I was looking recently for men’s rings, specifically for a jack-o-lantern one or other Halloween-themed rings. Real ones, I mean. It occurred to me that you may know of a good resource for this. I had very little luck myself, finding only one: http://www.jewelrybyemmy.com/jack-o-lantern.html. If you know of a good resource for this kind of thing, I’d sure appreciate you linking me up.

I replied that I didn’t know of a resource for that particular kind of ring offhand, and suggested Etsy’s Alchemy feature. He wrote back with a note that good-quality JOL rings seemed pretty scarce, with searches only turning up two others: this one on eBay and this one (scroll to the bottom and click “pumpkin”) by Brent Michael Kelley, which is the one pictured above.

I can’t find any information about whether the Kelley ring is even available for sale; it may simply be part of his portfolio. And I’ve gotta agree with RahneFan: Good-looking rings featuring a pumpkin or jack-o-lantern seem to be few and far between.

So I’m asking you guys: Anybody out there have a source for a JOL ring that doesn’t look like it came out of a Cracker Jack box? Let us know in the comments!