“A pair of home invaders consider their potential character choices just prior to their planned invasion.”

The Horror of Blimps – This story has been knocking around the intartubes for years, but it’s funny every time I run across it.

Chocolate Covered Coffee Bean Skulls – These are sort of adorable.

If These Are the Four Houses of America’s Hogwarts, They Are Completely Insane – I like J.K. Rowling, but goddamn is she tone-deaf where cultural appropriation is concerned.

Hoard of Nightmares – A recent commission in Iguanamouth’s ongoing “dragon hoard” series of awesomeness.

15 Fun Facts about Bunnicula – I was unaware that there’s a new animated series based on the book.

Michele Carragher – The blog of the costumer for Game of Thrones. Gorgeous photos, and even some tutorials for things like creating “dragonscale.”

More Vampires Who… – This Tumblr thread amused me vastly.

Beautiful Madness – EPBOT reviews a book subscription box (like Lootcrate for the literary, I guess) which sounds pretty neat.

A Walking Tour of the Shambles – Travelogue of a fictional area of Chicago, written by Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe, and illustrated by Gahan Wilson.

My Little Baphomet – Etsy shop full of felted demons and other adorably evil things.

Michelle of The Little Review has…well, something. “Too much time on her hands” and “An unhealthy interest in Barbie dolls” are two things that spring, ineluctably, to mind. But “relentlessness” must also be added to the list, because she’s managed to dig up enough Barbie images to populate an entire tarot deck.

The Barbie Tarot replaces the suit of Swords with Hats and Pentacles with Purses, and the minor arcana use Princes and Princesses instead of Knights and Pages. Also it’s bubblegum pink. Each card identifies the doll used and describes why it was selected.

11   Justice   Wonder Woman from Barbie Loves Pop Culture
The traditional image for Justice is a blindfolded woman holding the scales, balancing fairness and virtue against a lack of consideration and rigidity. The Amazon superheroine must balance her disguise as an ordinary woman with her use of the Lasso of Truth and indestructible bracelets to bring criminals to justice and help the downtrodden.

I’m…speechless.

(This post was first published in April 2008; I’ll be doing a few days of “blast from the past” archive posts in a probably-vain effort to catch up with real life.)

Uncialle’s Halloween Darksite is a trove of spooky inspiration. I love the originality of her ideas and her vast enthusiasm.

One of her projects that I’ve been itching to try is the Pocket Cemetery: A terrarium made over into a miniature graveyard. She’s made tombstones out of Sculpey clay, uses bare twigs as miniature trees, and even plants grass seed in early October so that the cemetery can be properly grassy by Halloween. My very favorite touch in her cemetery is the little plastic skeleton buried right up next to the glass, with a tombstone appropriately positioned aboveground.

Now for the fun! There are countless things you can add. Go wild in a miniatures shop! In her Pocket Cemetery, Uncialle has placed a tiny red wagon with two pumpkins in it, as if a small child had visited, and perhaps run home, frightened. Two tiny, glowing red LEDs are monster eyes, hiding in the shadow behind a tombstone. Miniscule black paper bats hang from “invisible” sewing thread in the tiny trees. A tipped-over vase beside a tombstone spills out dried flowers, while a miniature white pitcher holds “fresh” flowers. Tiny stones can create a stone wall. You could even put in a witches’ hut, a tiny hand reaching from the ground, miniature people, a goblin, or a mummy going for a stroll!

I’ve been saving various odds and ends for a terrarium of my own: A marble pestle that broke in half is eventually going to be a ruined obelisk, and I have miniature bones ready to strew about. Now that the last of our tropical fish is sleeping with the humans, I’ve informed Shadow Jack that the aquarium is mine. (He’s learned not to argue when I get that look in my eye.)

A miniature cemetery like this would be an intriguing focal point for a room, particularly if it were in a Victorian glass terrarium or a Wardian case. Add a blue lightbulb for moonlight, and you can have your own little pocket of gloom to meditate on even when it’s perfectly sunny outside.

(This post was first published in November 2007; I’ll be doing a few days of “blast from the past” archive posts in a probably-vain effort to catch up with real life.)

Y’know what’s irritating? Trying to find a photograph to accompany a blog post and discovering that there’s a book by the same title that everybody and their cousin has written about. I slogged through 37 pages of “the Hatfields and the McCoys sure didn’t like each other” to find this photo for you. I hope you’re happy.

Anyway.

Coffin Quilts date from the days when people were rubbing up against death all the time, so it was treated a little more matter-of-factly than it is today. As with most other types of patchwork quilt, they appear to have originally been an American invention.

They were usually done in somber shades of grey or brown and consisted of a plain center (the graveyard) surrounded by either pieced blocks (star, nine-patch, etc.) or by appliques such as a picket fence. These quilts were sometimes also embroidered with vines, flowers, and other funerary symbols.

Now for the fun part: Appliques in the shape of toe-pincher coffins, each embroidered with the name of a family member, were loosely basted on the quilt’s border. When a relative died, the coffin bearing his/her name was removed and sewed permanently in the center or graveyard area, along with the date of death.

Yeah, that’d be a hoot, wouldn’t it? Going to visit Aunt Agatha and seeing the little coffin with your name on it, just waiting….

Anyway, if you like to quilt (or would like to learn–it’s truly less daunting than you think), this would be a fun project. It’s nicely morbid, but can claim real historical roots if anyone complains. Depending upon your skill level you can choose a simple block (stick with squares or triangles that make up squares, like Churn Dash) or can go nuts with the appliques and make your own cemetery, complete with wrought-iron gates.

There’s another couple of photos of the quilt above on Flickr.

(This post was first published in September 2007; I’ll be doing a few days of “blast from the past” archive posts in a probably-vain effort to catch up with real life.)

The indie-folk group SHEL did a neat, weird cover of Metallica’s Enter Sandman that turns it into a creepy lullaby.

(via Society of Rock<)

FraterOrion – Artist who makes all kinds of creepy sculpted items, including these Lovecraftian bottles.

Rat Bag – This cute rat-shaped tote bag has sold, but it looks reasonably DIY-able. (Hat tip to Pixel Pixie)

Maor Zabar Hats – Etsy shop full of completely bananas headwear featuring spiders or shaped like carnivorous plants. There’s a “featured shop” article on the Etsy blog.

How to Make a Fairy House – Some cute ideas for making miniature garden dwellings.

10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs in History – A little something to add to the playlist.

Eldritch T-Swift – “she wears high heels; all my feet are bare. she’s cheer captain, and i live deep under the bleachers, watching, my mandibles gently clicking” (Hat tip to xJane)

17 Bloody Facts About ‘Friday the 13th’ – A roundup.

BoringSidney – Etsy shop specializing in “Unusual hats and headdresses.” The Vampire Squid Fascinator cracks me up.

16 Real Old-Timey Photographs That Will Give you Nightmares – Some odd vintage photos, courtesy of Cracked.

Gothic Charm School – The Lady of the Manners offers advice on how to be a better black-clad freak.

May 26 is the original publication date for Dracula, and there’s a Facebook page and Twitter feed set up to celebrate the upcoming anniversary. (The website linked on the FB page just goes to a generic placeholder.) The event doesn’t seem to have gained much traction online, but last year The Vampire Historian did a special mini-sode and there were scattered mentions on history and literature sites.

There’s still time to plan a party, or at least a get-together with a few friends. There are loads of thematic recipes and party ideas–one thing the internet is not short on is vampires–and a search for “vampire dinner party” turns up suggestions from Food Network, PopSugar, AllYou, Hostess with the Mostess, and Not Quite Nigella, and that’s just the first page of results.

For something a little less involved, just invite a few friends over for a vampire movie marathon and order a pizza with extra garlic.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I run the Secret Pumpkin gift exchange, an annual event which seeks to bring participants a little out-of-season Halloween joy. The exchange has become an April highlight for me, particularly when I’m matched with somebody amazingly talented like Cat from Spooky Moon.

Last week I received a comically oversized package in the mail, which proved to be a custom-made Ouija board covered in Halloween-y symbols. Cat has a full post with build notes on her site, including lots of photos. She did an amazing job, festooning the board with haunted houses, cemeteries, skulls, and spiders. In particular, I love that the board’s alphabet is adorned with spooky images starting with the appropriate letter: The Z has a zombie hand bursting from its base, the J has a jack-o’-lantern perched on top, and so on.

The board came in a black velvet bag, with a separate little bag to hold the candy corn-shaped planchette. The detail is amazing, and I adore the creativity involved. (The fact that her husband opined, “You’re gonna be so sorry when a demon eats her entire family,” is something that I’m choosing to ignore.)

Thanks, Cat! You’re the best.

1. Voldemort made Horcruxes from items belonging to three of the four founders of Hogwarts. Which founder wasn’t included?
2. What is Jonathan Harker’s profession?
   A) Psychologist
   B) Physician
   C) Solicitor
   D) Travel Agent
   E) Schoolteacher
3. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice meets a pepper-hating Duchess whose baby ultimately turns into what animal?
4. The pipe organ in the ballroom scene of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion was originally a prop used in this Disney movie.
   A) Darby O’Gill and the Little People
   B) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
   C) Bedknobs and Broomsticks
   D) Swiss Family Robinson
   E) Treasure Island
5. The Winchester House in San Jose, CA is reputedly haunted. It was built by the widow of a man who made his fortune selling what?
6. The famous goth nightclub The Batcave was founded by the lead singer of this band.
   A) Alien Sex Fiend
   B) Bauhaus
   C) Fields of the Nephilim
   D) Flesh for Lulu
   E) Specimen
7. The Bunyip is a large mythical creature reputed to lurk in swamps, creeks, and other watery locales. What country does it call home?
8. What kind of car was Christine?
   A) Plymouth Fury
   B) Cadillac Eldorado
   C) Ford Mustang
   D) Dodge Demon
   E) Chevrolet Blazer
9. C. Auguste Dupin is a fictional character who uses “ratiocination” to solve mysteries; he was invented before the word “detective” was coined, but laid the groundwork for most of the common elements of the detective fiction genre. What gloomy author is responsible for Dupin?
10. The Egyptian god Sobek was associated with the Nile river and was represented as this animal (or a human with this animal’s head):
    A) Hippopotamus
    B) Ibis
    C) Crocodile
    D) Bull
    E) Falcon

(Answers below the fold)

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