Creepy Photography

The photographer who posted this on Flickr has a set called "Dunbar Haunted House," and it's amazing.

I really thought this one was going to turn to look at me at any second (I tinified it, in case it started to scare me again):

UnWelcome to Lowe's!

It pains me to say this, considering I live and work in Atlanta, home to the fantabulously orange Home Depot, but I do my supply shopping at Lowe's.

Scouring the web for my 'what next' project or for Halloween party ideas, I ran across their 2010 project page for everyone's favorite holiday: http://www.lowescreativeideas.com/Halloween_2010.aspx

I am particularly smitten with the Unwelcome mat, although I already have a heavy duty one (i.e. not based around cardboard) that says "Go Away" sitting at my front door, year-round.

Still, who couldn't use some home-improvement store ideas for making Glowing Ghoul Eyes in their bushes, or putting together spider pictures for their wall at under $10 each.

Gah! Which reminds me -- we still have lots of great Halloween Party Ideas to sort through from February! Only 223 days left!!!

Gothic Gardening: it's not all pumpkins and thorns (though I fail to see where that would be so bad)

Cooking and Crafting have been put aside for the last few months, except for the necessary kind of things; nothing fun and Halloweeny.

But as I said last week, I'm getting back into the hobbies slowly and starting off with some attempted pumpkin-growing, which will inevitably fail but gosh-darn-it I'm gunna try!

All this working with dirt and seedlings reminded me of an old, old website--now defunct--called "Gothic Gardening." Does anyone else remember this site?

It was MARVELOUS, and thankfully internet archive still has it up for us to enjoy: http://web.archive.org/web/20001109030300/www.gothic.net/~malice/

If you are less-inclined to kill anything you put in the ground, that might be a fun place to stroll through and get some theme garden ideas.

Some other neat, dark gardening things I've been finding on the web:

• Grim Gardens - they have a few birdhouses and these little garden 'gnomes' like things that are incense-holding Grim Reapers.
• Live Journal Gothic Gardening Community - a place to go and chat about gardening while pale
• Botanical.com - an herbalists guide; full of interesting information and neat illustrations. Includes (if you navigate from the home) a list of some poisonous plants.
• Graveyard Garden - I don't know about this exact thing (I'm not advocating you buy it), but what a cool idea! A Graveyard/Dark-themed terrarium! Here's a similar (even cuter?) idea for that theme - just need some mini-props and to make a moss terrarium.
• Halloween plant(ing) ideas

I told you there were pumpkins being grown

Sorry to keep beating this dead horse, but this is the farthest I've ever made it with pumpkin growing, so I'm both giddy and terrified:

Holy mackerel! Tiny plants are emerging!! And soon, very soon, they will become unwieldy vines!

GREAT SCOTT, WHAT HAVE I UNLEASHED?

it's a bird, it's a plane . . .

I was excited.

Talk of the "Super Moon" was everywhere. Wherever I turned. Television. Newspapers. My local grocery store. I was almost giddy with anticipation. I love a full moon. Every full moon. Rising out of the eastern sky. Clouds scudding across its face. Illuminating the bare branches of the trees as it looms above them. Dominating the night sky.

And that's just an ordinary full moon. This . . . this would be a super moon. Not to be missed. A sight so impressive would not appear for another nineteen years. I could already hear the werewolves howling in the distance. I was ready.

It was cold. And I had forgotten my gloves. Nevertheless, I stood on the edge of the waterfront park and I waited. And shivered. And wondered just how it would appear.

Perhaps it would look like this.

Or like this.

Or maybe like this.

The clouds above the horizon began to glow. It was coming. Then, the clouds parted and suddenly, there it was.

I'd like to say that my little handheld point-and-shoot camera didn't do it justice. But no. This is an accurate representation. This was a "Super Moon"?

I went home and poured myself a glass of wine.

The Easter Bunny is Coming To Town!

At EasterBunnyCostumes.com we have over 30 different cute Easter Bunny costumes for you to choose from. But you have to act fast! Some of these are special orders and you need to order them now in order to get them in time for Easter! Need a bunny sooner than that? No worries, we have many that are ready to ship within a day or two.

Bunny Mascots - delivery time is 3 - 5 weeks

Plush Easter Bunny delivery time is 3 - 5 weeks

Chocolate Bunny - delivery time is 2 - 3 weeks

Premium Rabbit - ships in 1 - 2 business days.

Maybe spring has sprung where you are?

Check out Sunny Bunny!

More On Pumpkins

Remember when I said me, growing pumpkins, would be a calamity? Oh yeah--we are off to a SMASHING start on that front.

Temperatures here in Georgia are being wishy-washy. It's been cold, so I've had seedlings upstairs where the heat rises because we have turned off heating and cooling in the house until the outside sorts itself out (we will dress accordingly, gosh darn it, but I'm not flipping the thermostat back and forth!).

Sudden and unplanned for hot air + seedling kit lid + well-watered seedlings + Carrie Mae forgetting to prop the lid=1 down, 7 seedlings left. One got moldy. AND DANG IT if it might not have spread to the only Lumina seeds I planted. But I digress.

Well, enough of that! The seed kit is not downstairs with the lid propped and I'll just keep a close eye on it, thank-you-very-much.

But the good news is it did prompt some quick research that led to a few more interesting FAQ's and Facts on Pumpkins and Pumpkin-growing, should any of you also be interested:
* General Information: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/pumpkin.cfm
* Harvesting: http://www.weekendgardener.net/blog/2007/08/how-to-harvest-pumpkins-properly.htm
* DRYING GOURDS: To dry gourds, first wash gently in a solution of 10 parts water and 1 part bleach, carefully removing all dirt, then store in a warm, dry location. Pumpkins and gourds should be stored at 55-70^oF and at 70% relative humidity.

Happy Friday, Y'all!

Yes, Yes, Yes! (Doombuggie Excitement)

I can't wait for vacation this year.

(p.s. - Captain, can we meet for drinks sometime in early-to-mid November?)

Irish for a day

I've just been reminded that tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day.





Time to get out my green-beer-drinking t-shirt.

The Great Pumpkin-Growing Débâcle

Before I even begin on the fact that my opposite-of-green-thumbs have planted pumpkin seeds and will be trying for the millionth time to actually grow something, doomed to failure... I stumbled across the picture below and thought it was a beautiful inspiration for ornamental stonework, so I wanted to share:


It's very pumpkiny, and when I have a fancy castle-house I might just use them interspersed with the gargoyles. What do you think?

But in the meantime, back to pumpkins.

This is my test run of pumpkins, because me a growing things always leads to calamity. If I can keep from killing these seedlings and get them into little-plant form, I will undergo the same exercise in a month or two so I can also have some home-grown pumpkins for Halloween.

It's not much, but it's a project. Since I haven't had the free time needed to craft, blog, complete things I enjoy, this seemed like a way to ease myself back into the real world as my time-consuming life requirements begin to grind to a halt.

And best case scenario? I might be able to bake a real, live homemade pumpkin pie at the end of this experiment. I'm not holding my breath, but wouldn't it be neat?

(pumkin growing)

midnight zombies

I habitually go to sleep listening to old radio shows on my MP3 player. Hence, it's not unusual for me to wake up in the middle of the night with either the earbud cord wrapped around me or the player having moved on to a new track. Sometimes to another radio show. Sometimes a podcast. Sometimes music. Loud music.

So it was last night when I fell asleep listening to a 1950 episode of Night Beat. The Kenny Day Amnesia Case. A soothing radio noir to lull me to sleep. I'm not sure what time it was when I awoke again. Earbuds still in place. Along with the words: " . . . he was a zombie. You know what zombies look like, don't you . . . ?"

I'll assume the character was speaking metaphorically. But I didn't wait to find out. I tore out the earbuds, flung them onto the floor, and pulled the covers up around my head.

Miraculously, I survived the night.

in the bleak late-winter

Ahh, March. Month of hope and betrayal.

Temperatures creeping ever so slowly above zero, the promise of melting snow and maybe, just maybe, the possibility of breaking the winter cycle of home- car-work-car-home-car-grocery store-car-pub-car-home.

But it was not a completely bleak mid-winter. On one of my car-store excursions, I stumbled upon an 80% off end-of-season fabric sale. It took a bit of searching, but I found some suitable ringwraith cloak fabric for this year's costumes. I bought all they had left. Ten metres. We'll see how many ringwraiths I can squeeze out of that.