Now that it’s going to start getting cold, this Crime Scene Scarf might be good to keep the chill away. It is just hilarious! I must have it.

As often happens, I was reminded of something when I found this. A couple of years ago we were just going about our business at the bookstore when suddenly multiple police cars arrived at the apartment building next door. I employ a bunch of curious people, so we all had our noses plastered to the front windows.

Turns out we had a double murder next door! A little too real for my blood, but it was interesting to watch the drama unfold. For the next two weeks there was what we started to refer to as the “murder truck” parked out front which appeared to be some sort of CSI RV. This of course started to drive us crazy because the RV blocked one of the entrances to our parking lot and the police were not willing to move it.

Now, of course, they taped off the entire area. Being the wicked-minded person that I am, I began to covet this police tape for my store. If you’ve read the About Me page you would know that I have a haunted used bookstore and if you haven’t well then get to it! Anyway, we all decided that we couldn’t take it while it was still technically a crime scene, so we waited. Eventually the murder truck was gone and they were done with their investigation. We decided to wait until the next morning to take some tape. When we came in they had already removed it. And put it in our dumpster! In the end we didn’t have to steal it at all. Now it’s cool to know that our crime scene tape is the real thing. And yes, they did catch the guy who did it.

Once again it is T-Shirt Tuesday. This time I am showing my favorite t-shirt of all time. I am a huge fan of Edward Gorey as I know a lot of people are. His wit was just amazing. I have owned this Gashlycrumb Tinies t-shirt for a long time and enjoy shocking uptight people with it. Every once in a while I will throw it on to pick up my 7 year old daughter from her ultra uptight private school. I know they think of me as the weird crazy mother and I’m okay with that. In fact it actually makes me very happy. I just LOVE the weird looks I get on an everyday basis, but especially when I wear this t-shirt. I even get them when I’m leaving since the back has a bunch of little gravestones on it! People have no sense of humor.

What’s with all of the blood drinks lately? Apparently the world is obsessed with vampires. I’m not sure how I feel about the general public coming to the dark side. Sometimes when things go mainstrean it messes them up. I enjoy looking for scary things. I don’t want to go into Target to find my next blog item unless it’s in their Halloween section. Anyway, the latest drink to hit the shelves is Blood Energy Potion made by Mana and Health Energy Potion. This one they have tried to make as realistic as possible. Unfortunately I have yet to be blessed with a sample like the other Blood Drink I covered the other day. So there will be no review for this yet. It only comes in a fruit punch flavor. Though it contains no actual blood it does have the same color, look, and consistency of blood. As it says on the website, “Get real blood nutrients without that real blood taste!” The fun part is it comes in a re-sealable transfusion bag pouch. Unfortunately this will not be released until January of 2010. Bad luck if you wanted to make your vampire costume more authentic for Halloween. I will be putting in an order for mine at $5.99 each and plan to review it when I receive it next year.

I saw this the other day and got extremely excited! Who knew there was a way to make even your trash scary? This is called the Bin Bag Bear which was designed by artist Shay Alkalay. Now I’m not sure that this was meant to be scary. Apparently it is supposed to look like a teddy bear. I choose to see something different. The first thing I thought of was how cool it would be to put one of these out on your curb the first time. Your garbage man might even do a double take. I know I would. Just think what stories the neighbors might start telling about you. Anything to further my reputation as the scary lady is fine by me. The only thing is I wish it came in a full human size. This way it looks like a small child, which even for me might just be too gruesome. I know. Surprisingly I do have my limits. I still want them though. Unfortunately I can not find them for sale anywhere.

Okay, so like many of you Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday and October is my favorite month. Mainly because of Halloween, but also because it finally starts to cool down. Scary Jane doesn’t do summer. Anyway, starting on October 1st, every day I will blog about something related to Halloween. It could be a costume, a decoration, a craft or just anything related to our favorite holiday. I realize that pretty much everything I cover could be called a Halloween item. For this month though, I want strictly Halloween stuff. Things you wouldn’t necessarily put in your house during the year. More of the cheesy decor type stuff, if you know what I mean. I have many things I plan on blogging about, but thought I would send out a message to everyone in case someone’s got an idea of something I should cover. It could be a recipe you make every year, a decoration that you made and would like to share or just a link to a fun item. Pretty much anything goes. So, send in your ideas to jane@scaryjane.com and I’ll try to cover them all.

Apparently being a blogger of all things scary does have it’s privileges. I received this new drink that just came out called Tru Blood. I actually received it before my life went haywire, so I am a little late in reviewing it. This is brought to us by HBO to tie in with the show True Blood. The bottle is red with a black cap and the label says O Positive, Tru Blood, Blood Orange Carbonated Drink. The presentation is great. Now on to the flavor. I hesitate to say if something is good or not because obviously that is up to each individual to decide. I will say for myself and the three other people who tried it that we were split. Two of us liked it and two didn’t. Here’s my opinion. When you first open it there is an orange smell. The first taste you get is actually very good. Very fruity and refreshing, but not orangey as the smell would suggest. Unfortunately the taste quickly disappears and leaves you with the taste of artificial sweetener. I tried to drink a whole bottle, but really did not enjoy it. Again, this is all personal taste. Of course I don’t like Diet Coke either and there are people that swear by it. Don’t take my word for it. Try it yourself and let me know what you think.

I keep buying new cases for my iPhone. I find one and think it’s the perfect one and then another one comes along that I can’t live without. Now of course I have found the ultimate one and this time I mean it. I’ve never come across a creepy one before, so this one fits my need for everything scary and makes me very happy. It’s the Demon iPhone case made by iDeal Case. It’s made of 100% pure silicone for the 3G/3GS. The case comes in yellow, purple, orange, light blue, green and white which glows in the dark! I love the blue, but I think it was a major mistake not to make it in red. I personally think of red when I think of demons, but who am I? Apparently I know nothing. Anyway it can be had for only $14.99 which is actually really cheap for an iPhone case.

*Update:

Apparently the case is available in red and also black and navy. The glow in the dark version is seperate from the white one. Thanks to Brat for being on top of things, while I continue to be in a fog.

Due to an unforseen event I spent the last week in the hospital. I’m sorry that my posts came to an abrupt stop, but I am back now so watch out! Look for my first post to appear later today.

After a huge marketing blitz and much anticipation The Vampire Diaries has arrived. I was busy that night and had to Tivo it, but finally got around to watching it. I knew it had premiered to big ratings. Well, big for the CW anyway, so I was excited to see it. I was looking forward to it just as much as all the other vampire lovers out there. I’m still looking for a vampire show to really get excited about and thought this might be it. Unfortunately for me this was not it. It was okay. It wasn’t horrible. I just felt like I was watching the 90210 version of Twilight. I know, I know, Vampire Diaries came out first, but you can’t tell me their casting wasn’t influenced by Twilight. Practically every character looked like one from Twilight. I really felt there was nothing original about this. It was nice to see Ian Somerhalder from Lost again. He fit nicely into the cast and gave it some edge that it was missing up until the last 10 minutes. The fog rolling in sort of bugged me as well and seemed cheesy. I was bored by the writing in the diaries and voiceovers, but I do realize that it is called Vampire Diaries after all. I just hope it doesn’t rely on this for filler. Will I continue watching in hopes of it improving? Yes, but I don’t have high hopes. I was just hoping for a vampire show that I could really sink my teeth into. Just my 2 cents.

I, like many normal people, love Jane Austen. Her words are brilliant and bring everything to life. I can’t get enough of it. Shameful I know. Scary Jane, who professes to love all things scary and unusual actually loves something normal. Then in April of this year I was rewarded for my love of all things Jane Austen. The book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was released. This of course just thrilled me to pieces. I no longer had to hide my love of Jane Austen and hang my head in shame. I could shout it from the rooftops. It married my two favorite things and it was hilarious to boot. I was finally hip. Now, I am thrilled to announce they are releasing Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters this Tuesday, September 15th. I am perfectly prepared that this one may not be quite as good as the first one. Just the same I will be standing in line to purchase it with all of the other closeted Jane Austen worshipers. Now, if only they would release Mansfield Park Vampires.