Filexd under:
Accessories,
Crafts,
Decor,
Halloween Decor,
Lighting — Tags:
black,
bling,
candle,
crystal,
Halloween,
party,
pillar,
skeletons,
skull,
table — jane @ 9:14 pm
We are getting dangerously close to Halloween and nothing could make me happier. As usual we will have our annual Halloween party and I am already in planning mode. I usually have all of the food set up on 2 huge tables and I like to decorate them a lot. I am always looking for something that I’ve never seen before to make it different each year. Well, along comes an email today pointing me towards this fantastic Crystal Skull Candle. I fell in love immediately and decided right away that 2 of them would be perfect to add to my candle collection on the tables. That is until I saw the price. No way am I spending $150 per candle for something that is burned down in one night! Why does this always happen to me? I find the perfect thing and then end up having to find something that will do. Maybe I’ll buy a couple of black candles and some crystals and see if I can’t recreate them. Won’t look anywhere near as good, but it’ll be a hell of a lot cheaper.
*Thanks to Katie for directing me to this. Now if only she would point me to a cheaper version.
Filexd under:
Books,
Fairy Tales,
News/Articles,
Office — Tags:
black,
calendar,
costume,
Halloween,
horoscope,
horror,
monsters,
ogre,
review,
skull,
vampires,
witches,
zombies — jane @ 12:28 pm
I’ve never been much of a believer in fortune telling, horoscopes etc., but I do find it fun. In college I became obsessed with tarot cards and learning how to read them. Strangely it was not because I wanted to really tell people their fortunes. I just wanted to know how to do it and what the cards supposedly meant. Now I look at it as a fun parlor trick that I pull out for our Halloween parties. I have a fantastic outfit that I wear and everyone seems to love it. I, of course, go way overboard and predict all sorts of weird things. What’s funny is when one thing I predicted actually happens. I just came back from a little vacation to visit Scary Hubby’s family in Philly and as usual we went to lots of bookstores. You know I have to check out the competition. Anyway, we ended up in Barnes and Noble and as I was looking through the bargain books I found this little book called Horrorscopes: A Little Book of Misfortunes. I didn’t have time to look at it, but it had a skull on the cover so I went ahead and bought it thinking it would give me something to read on the plane. This little book is just so fun. It has a twisted horoscope for every day of the year. The book is not for any particular year, so it even has Feb. 29th. The horoscopes can range anywhere from predicting a zombie apocalypse to preparing for impending horrors like your transformation into an ogre. It also lists dark days, unlucky numbers, evil omens and gruesome gift ideas. Such a riot. I highly recommend this book if you have a dark sense of humor or if you just need to discover the horrible fate that awaits you.
Filexd under:
Accessories,
Art,
Bed & Bath,
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TV/Movies — Tags:
black,
green,
Halloween,
pillows,
satin,
sofa,
TV,
velvet,
zombies — jane @ 10:45 pm
I bet you guys didn’t know that in my house it’s Halloween every day? Okay, well maybe you did. Let’s just say that when I was decorating it I was inspired by The Addams Family. The TV show, not the movie. I always wished that it was in color though, so I could see what colors they used. What I wouldn’t do for some of the stuff from that set! Anyway, my colors ended up being mostly black and blue. Well, I found these great Goth Pillows online, but unfortunately they are in green and black. They were created by WebSpinstress and are just so deliciously creepy. Even though I would love to see them in blue and black I have a feeling they would not be as cool. The green satin has rips and holes in it like it’s old and worn. The whole effect has a zombie feel to it and I think that would be lost if it came in other colors. It does come in a copper color, but that doesn’t work as well for me. I’ll just have to buy them in green and find a way to fit them in. You can too for the low price of $49.99 for the set of two. There are only a limited number available, so hurry if you want them for yourself.
Filexd under:
Accessories,
Decor,
Halloween Decor,
Holidays — Tags:
black,
blood,
candle,
Cats,
coffin,
costume,
Halloween,
monsters,
movies,
skeletons,
skull,
spiders,
webs,
witches — jane @ 10:40 pm
Listen, I know it’s February, but if you’re anything like me Halloween is a year round holiday. What most people will only put out for Halloween, we have as our regular decor. I have found over the years that February is one of the best months for picking up scary stuff for my house. No one, except a few of us smart people, is thinking about Halloween this time of year. Everything that was left over from last year has been marked down to practically nothing. Most people would assume it’s just junk left, but I don’t find that to be true. A lot of times I see something I love in the fall, but decide to wait because it’s too pricey. Once Halloween is over the stores do a quick clearance and then the stuff disappears to make room for Christmas. After that’s over they do the quick clearance again. Nothing gets put up for January, so they haul out what’s left from Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and slash the prices. By then no one is giving any thought to Halloween, so it keeps getting marked down until it’s gone. That’s when I swoop in for the kill. Most of the time that item I was coveting is now half the price or even less. The one thing about this, though, is that this mostly happens online. A few stores will put their clearance stuff in some hidden corner of the store. Most of the time, though, it’s only available on their sites because alot of the bigger stores have to send their stuff back to warehouses. Do a search on Google for Halloween Clearance and you’ll be surprised by the amount of listings. Anything from Target to BuyCostumes.com to the higher end things at Grandin Road.
Filexd under:
Accessories,
Art,
Books,
Collectibles,
Decor,
Furniture,
Halloween Decor,
Nature,
Weird Stuff — Tags:
antiques,
bones,
coffin,
dolls,
Halloween,
horror,
Medical equipment,
movies,
Scary Jane,
Science,
skeletons,
skull,
Store,
TV — jane @ 10:35 pm
Let’s face it, I am a little weird. Some would even say very weird. I collect unusual things, I dress weird and I decorate my house strangely. My favorite movie quote is, “I, myself, am strange and unusual.” Do you know what movie that’s from? It’s from Beetlejuice. Lydia says this when she is talking to the two ghostly inhabitants of her parent’s new house. I have always thought that it describes me perfectly. My extended family all find me rather odd and have never understood me. Once in a while I come across someone who is like minded and it helps me remember that there are many people out there like me. I have recently discovered a new show and it has quickly became my favorite. I’m actually surprised that it ever got on TV, considering it’s sometimes high ick factor. It’s called Oddities and it’s on the Discovery Science channel. It’s about an unusual antique store in New York called Obscura Antiques and Oddities. It follows the two owners as they deal with buying and selling strange old items. Anything from real skulls to old medical equipment to coffins. If it’s weird and old they probably have it or want to buy it. It’s a fascinating show and I highly recommend it to all of my strange and unusual friends.
Filexd under:
Arts/Crafts,
Books,
Collectibles,
Crafts,
Halloween Decor,
Holidays — Tags:
Christmas,
dolls,
Halloween,
Magnets,
movies,
zombies — jane @ 10:42 pm
Anyone who knows me or has spent any time reading my blog can attest to my zombie obsession. I’m not sure where or when it started. Could be when movies like Shaun of the Dead and Fido started getting released. Before that I had very little interest. I’ve never been a fan of the George Romero type zombie movies. They were just gross and didn’t scare me. If a movie doesn’t make me laugh or scared I’m just not interested. When they finally started having fun with zombies I think I became obsessed. Since some of my readers are aware of my feelings I frequently get attacked by emails with zombie links. A reader tipped me off about a book called “Zombie Felties“. This book will show you how to raise (make) 16 gruesome felt creatures from the undead. They are more cute than gruesome, but who cares? I think I’d make them magnets or something like that since they are pretty small. So, come on, get your zombie on and make a couple of these. It may be too late for stocking stuffers, but they’d make great party gifts! Of course, if you’re not too crafty or just lazy it may just take you until next Christmas to make them anyway.
* Thanks Boutsik for the link!
I get a lot of email from you guys and it’s great! You send me the best product links and funky photos. Once in a while someone lets me know that they used an idea that I posted about at some point, but rarely do I get photographs. Last year I posted a Halloween How-To called Chanting Devil Worshipers that you can find here. A couple of weeks after Halloween I was so excited to receive an email from one of my readers named Blazevic. Blazevic and his family used the Chanting Devil Worshipers idea and put their own spin on it. Which I love, BTW. Blazevic’s 9 year old daughter, Alexis, made these using my post and then added her own twist of red gems for eyes. I never thought of that! Really drives the whole Devil thing home. I might just be adding that to ours next year. Thanks so much for sharing your picture. Finally one of you idiots actually remembered to send me one! It sounds like you had a scary time.
* Thanks to Blazevic, Alexis Blazevic and Bob Blazevic for taking the pic.
Today has been a very frustrating day and there are a few people that I wouldn’t mind taking out. You know those kind of days, don’t you? As I was searching for something to write about today I noticed there was a distinct slant to my searches. I started by searching on the word blood and it just went down hill from there. Of course, right off the bat, I found something I thought was so cool and proceeded to try and find out where it could be purchased. Not as easy as it sounds. A lot of companies use different names for the same product, so what could be called a bloody knife on one site is called halloween knife on another. Anyway, after more than a two hour exhaustive search online and on the phone I discovered that the item was discontinued. This just pissed me off. It happens a lot actually, but on days like this it really sends you over the edge. I won’t mention the item, because I don’t want you lusting after it like I am and then getting up in my face because I wrote about something that you can’t have. So, my search for blood continued and I came across this cool little item. Depending on what site you go to it can be called anywhere from Bloody Bookmark to Liquid Bookmark. For my purposes (and mood) I’m going with Bloody Bookmark. This bookmark is actually made in Japan from hand poured silicone, so no two are alike. Depending on which site you purchase from it also comes in a milk version (white) and mercury (dark grey). Can you guess my favorite? The Bloody Bookmark retails at $9.99 from Thinkgeek.com, but other sites also sell it in a three piece set for $29. Just think of all the fun you could have with this. No one says it has to be used as a bookmark. If you plan on buying this though, be prepared for the dumbass jokes that will get repeated over and over. This bookmark can be especially dangerous if you are a woman reading in public. Every guy will think he’s being cute and original when he says, “Excuse me, but I believe your book is bleeding.”
Halloween was a big success at our house this year. We had 164 trick-or-treaters which is more than we had last year. A lot of that is due to the fact that we live in a new area that is still being built up, so next year will be even more. As for the unofficial Neighborhood Decoration Competition that I mentioned last week, we won hands down. All is right with the world, though some neighbors swear to outdo us next year. Considering that we already have some great ideas, I doubt it. The spiderweb came out really well. People were totally freaked out at having to walk under it. As promised I took some pictures of it during the building, but unfortunately completely forgot to take a picture after the first step when I tied the three ropes together. You can get an idea of what it looked like by looking at the first picture. I started with a knot in the middle and slowly worked in a spiral until I reached the edges tying an overhand knot at each intersection. Getting the tensions just right was a little tough because I knew it would be a lot different once it got put in place. Using a overhand knot, though, allows you to slide it up and down on the basic structure to adjust it. The whole process including measuring time took about 4 hours, but it’s reusable which will make next year a lot easier. It went up into place quite easily, but the worst part was getting the spider positioned so it wouldn’t weigh down the web. Take a look at the pictures we took during the making of the web and the final product in place. Unfortunately the web doesn’t show up so well in the final picture, but it looked great and you’ll just have to take my word for it.
Now that we are getting down to the wire on Halloween I want to pass on some things that you can do to spook up your crib a little more. A lot of the stores are running out of things and so is your wallet, so it’s a good time to get the creativity juices flowing. Every year we try to add a new thing to our house for Halloween. Up until now we have always had a 6′ spider web hanging up on our porch with a big spider on it. This year I got a bee up my butt and decided that wasn’t enough. I started looking online for anyone who had built a giant spider web. I’m talking about a 20′+ spider web and that means the actual spider web being 20′+ not counting the attaching ropes. While I did find some good tutorials none of them were quite as big as I want it. I want it stretched from the roof of my porch and across the lawn to attach to some trees on the other side of the sidewalk. Scary Hubby always rolls his eyes when I come up with these ideas, but he happily goes along. We have had some new people move in around the neighborhood who have sworn to beat us at the Best Decorated House competition and I can not allow that to happen.We never unveil our decorations until the day of Halloween. We want people to see it for the first time on Halloween night to get the maximum scare. Anyway, while the tutorials weren’t for big enough spiderwebs, I figured I would just use the same technique with more rope. I bought 600′ of white nylon clothing line. I figured the cotton would deteriorate over time since it is usually snowing or raining here on Halloween. Most of the people online that had done it, built it in place. Since we don’t like people to know what we are doing in advance we can’t really build it on the spot. So, our back yard will have to do. I thought we would just do it on the lawn (yeah, I know what you’re thinking dickhead) but Scary Hubby just had the idea of stretching it between the fences. That way there’s no bending over (I still know). Now you could just go the easy route and buy the mega one shown here from the Spider Web Man for $149.95, but I’m not willing to do that when I can build it for $20 and have it exactly the way I want. Of course, if you are the dickhead I think you are you’ll probably buy it. I’ll post some pics when we build it.
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We are getting dangerously close to Halloween and nothing could make me happier. As usual we will have our annual Halloween party and I am already in planning mode. I usually have all of the food set up on 2 huge tables and I like to decorate them a lot. I am always looking for something that I’ve never seen before to make it different each year. Well, along comes an email today pointing me towards this fantastic Crystal Skull Candle. I fell in love immediately and decided right away that 2 of them would be perfect to add to my candle collection on the tables. That is until I saw the price. No way am I spending $150 per candle for something that is burned down in one night! Why does this always happen to me? I find the perfect thing and then end up having to find something that will do. Maybe I’ll buy a couple of black candles and some crystals and see if I can’t recreate them. Won’t look anywhere near as good, but it’ll be a hell of a lot cheaper.
