If you’re familiar with the iGoogle page, you probably know that you can customize its appearance with several themes.

What you may not know is that every night at 3:14 a.m., some of the themes get a little creepy. On the Beach, Nessie surfaces for 60 seconds, then takes a deep breath and dives back underwater for another day. In Cityscape, UFOs descend and start abducting pedestrians. A monster appears in Spring Scape, and the fox spirits of Japanese folklore appear out of the mist in the Tea House theme. The timestamp is a geek homage to the mathematical concept of Pi–and in fact, the 3:14 Easter Egg in the Sweet Dreams theme is the Greek letter pi made out of stars.

You can see screen shots of a couple other theme Easter eggs here, along with a method for unlocking the other themes at a more decent hour of the day.

(via Museum of Hoaxes)

For those of you in the Philadelphia area, the Eastern Haunter’s Convention is scheduled next month. Their Saturday night festivities include the Cadaver’s Cotillion, billed as “The Ultimate Halloween Ball.”

The zombie and undead-themed Mardi Gras costume ball will feature Cajun and Creole food, an open bar, and a costume contest. I know Mike Bruner, one of the convention founders, and I think you can count on him to know how to throw a party. This would be a fun way to wear your finery out of season and celebrate all things dark and creepy.

The cotillion is May 3, in Valley Forge, PA. You can find out more information here and purchase tickets here.

Opal is releasing a line of “Harry Potter” sock yarn. According to their importer the yarns will be released in September to coincide with the release of the Half-Blood Prince movie.

Rather than any “house color” yarns, the yarn palettes all appear to be based on characters from the movie. The one with the Hedwig label is sort of, um, owl-colored, for example.

The Opal site includes a list of yarn shops which carry their products. And here’s a photo gallery of promotional images for the product.

The palettes are pretty, but I don’t think you could expect the casual observer to immediately discern the yarn’s significance. I suppose you could use the yarn for one of the Charmed Knits projects and completely embrace your inner HP geek. If you do, don’t tell me about it; I’d prefer to maintain a few illusions.

Spring is finally here, which means roses will soon be in bloom. I have a selection of antique roses–dog rose, apothecary’s rose, and a couple of others–which are vastly superior to modern hybrid roses in terms of fragrance. They do have one quirk, however, in that all the roses on the entire plant bloom more or less simultaneously and then drop their petals with a single mighty Fwoomp. If you find yourself similarly possessed of a windfall of rose petals–or if you don’t mind harvesting and dismantling a lot of hybrid roses–rose beads are an intriguing and unusual way to use them.

The general idea is to turn the petals into a sort of dough via a combination of chopping and gentle heat, then roll them into beads and dry them. The amount of petals you need depends upon the number and size of beads you want to make, but bear in mind that the finished beads shrink by more than half, so get more petals than you think you’ll need.

The more fragrant the roses, the longer the beads’ scent will last. Dark red petals will result in wine-colored beads; other petals will give you brown or black beads, so plan accordingly. (Note: Be careful not to use roses that have been sprayed with chemicals or which have had a systemic pesticide applied. “Toxic” may be a goth watchword, but not when smeared on one’s skin.)

You will need:

• At least 4 cups clean rose petals
• Food processor, blender, or spice mill
• Cast-iron pot
• Fine sieve or several thicknesses of cheesecloth
• Rosewater or rose essential oil (optional)
• Powdered cinnamon, cloves, and/or nutmeg (optional)
• Darning needle or coat hanger

Read the rest of this entry »

Flickr user SueJG knitted these fantastic Hobbit socks, combining a design called “Smaug’s Treasure” with self-charted runes from the cover of the classic hardback version of The Hobbit.

I really like the way the colors play off each other. Seems a shame to put something like this inside your shoes.

Link (via BoingBoing)

Valerie Confections offers something they call the Mori ex Cacao Collection: Bittersweet chocolate skulls with a truffle center. For $25 apiece. Whuf. Unless these things weigh 11 pounds each, I’m thinking they’re a tad overpriced.*

Fortunately, truffles are ridiculously simple to make and snuggling them into a skull-shaped candy shell isn’t much harder. With a bit of time and patience you can turn out this unique edible for a fraction of the cost.

You’ll need to start with a 3D skull candy mold, such as this one. A mold used for Mexican sugar skulls might also work, although they tend to be a bit larger than what you might want for a chocolate item.

Read the rest of this entry »

Shadow Jack really is the right guy for me. He came home from work the other day and asked me how my day was. I told him I’d noticed another death reference in Alice in Wonderland. In retrospect, this is probably not the sort of information with which most wives greet their husbands, but he took it with complete equanimity. Indeed, he didn’t even seem surprised.

Alice is full of such references, although I can’t say whether your spouse will be as supportive of you finding them. Lewis Carroll had a rather morbid sense of humor, and quite a lot of his narrative can be read with a double meaning. When Alice is falling down the rabbit hole, for instance, she thinks to herself that when she gets back home she’ll be unafraid of falling, and says, “I wouldn’t say anything, even if I fell off the top of the house,” to which the narrator adds, “which was very likely true.” (In other words, you can’t say anything when you’re dead.)

The one I found the other day was in Through the Looking Glass, and involves this exchange with Humpty-Dumpty:

“Seven years and six months!” Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. “An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you’d asked MY advice, I’d have said “Leave off at seven”–but it’s too late now.”

“I never ask advice about growing,” Alice said indignantly.

“Too proud?” the other inquired.

Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. “I mean,” she said, “that one can’t help growing older.”

“ONE can’t, perhaps,” said Humpty Dumpty, “but TWO can. With proper assistance, you might have left off at seven.”

Isn’t that sweet?

Next time you re-read the Alice books (and who amongst us doesn’t?) keep an eye out for the murderous subtext. Throws a whole new light on things.

This is inspired by an idea from Zakka Life, with a slightly darker twist.

These little figurines are Playmobil toys, which I simply love. All of the Playmobil line is wonderfully imaginative and detailed, and surprisingly inexpensive. They’re also the perfect size to make unique place cards which double as favors. Get one for each guest, print names on stiff paper or cardstock, and give one to each creature to hold. They’re great for dinner or Halloween parties, and would also make cute wedding favors.

The two little guys seen here are a skeleton filched from Shadowboy’s Treasure Island set, and a Scary Ghost that sits on my desk and makes co-workers nervous. There are tons of other options available, including a Castle Ghost, Ghost Pirate, Mummy Case with Skeleton, not to mention Vikings and Pirates and Fairies and if their next playset involves zombies it would not surprise me in the least. Playmobil also makes a few figures that are only available around Halloween, including vampires and witches, so you might want to stock up.

Fun, cheap, and easy. Three things I look for in a project.

Crafter ajmaley recently discovered the existence of glow-in-the-dark embroidery thread, and used this newfound knowledge to create a throw pillow that looks decidedly different in the dark than it does when the lights are on.

I am blown away by the brilliance of this idea.

Link (via CRAFT)

If you’re looking for a quick way to add a few skulls to your decorating scheme, you need look no further than Indonesia. Skulls are an important decorative motif in the Balinese culture, and items with carved or painted skulls are readily available in import stores.

Most Indonesian skull representations have a sort of funky folk-art vibe, so they’d fit well with casual furnishings. For a more formal decorating scheme, choose one or two interesting pieces and display them as objets d’art.

Here are some online sources to get you started:

Bali Handcrafts – Wooden wall decor and small items such as wastebaskets. Surprisingly inexpensive.

Balibo – This place appears to be wholesale-only, so you may need to either find a retailer that carries their stuff or club together with a couple of friends. They have some neat pieces, so it might be worth the extra trouble.

Maskarade – Several skull mirrors about halfway down the page.

Tribal Asia – Carved skulls, plus some other interesting decorative items like demon masks.

Asian Tribal Artifacts – These guys sell real human skulls. No prices are given online, so I expect you’d have to be a very rich goth indeed to have one of these in your collection.