: halloween :

: costume :


DIY Paper Crow Mask 
Assembling images for "The Cask of Amontillado" post last week plunged me deep into two subjects: crypts and Carnivale masks. Of course crypts are right up my alley, and looking at ossuaries and Parisian catacombs fit my morbid tastes quite well...Carnivale masks were a different story altogether. They freak me out in a way that chandeliers made of skulls and femurs will never do. 


DIY Fantastic Mr. & Mrs. Fox Costumes 
So this Halloween I finally got Ben to do a couples costume, how exciting (for me). I am certain he agreed based on two things; first he could just wear his own clothes, and second he saw how much time I had already put in to the  fox masks. Now that I know the recipe, I will take laziness and guilt, throw it into a bucket of festivities and bake a cake of awesome couples Halloween costumes every year!


DIY Skeletor Skin 
So yes, if you can't tell already, we are excited about Halloween. When Christine and Catherine visited  Burbank a couple weeks ago, the task we were charged with was a tutorial on creating a skeleton face. We soon realized this was easier than we made it.






DIY Jon Snow & Ghost Costume 
Halloween is quickly approaching and year after year I ask Ben if we can do a couples costume, and year after year we throw something together at the last minute. Usually it turns out really amazing, but never has it been a good couples costume. So this year I find myself, yet again, in the same dilemma...but I thought of a way to get some mileage out of him yet: force him to dress up with me for a blog post! 



DIY Spirt Animal Masks 
While visiting Monika in Burbank, we decided that some serious sister crafting was in order. And since it's Halloween time, what better project than spirit animal masks constructed from paper? So, dear intrepid crafters, collect your supplies: cardstock, glue sticks, scissors, and writing implements. Pssst! Don't forget your creativity.




DIY Volcano Costume I was a Mountain for Halloween. I did a lot of ranting about pyroclastic flows and Plinian eruptions (while constructing my costume I was watching documentaries on Mt. Vesuvius...and the X-Files...and Doctor Who).
Read more...







: craft : 




DIY Halloween Cat Toys Halloween is getting closer and closer. My cats have certainly gotten into the Halloween spirit. It probably helps that I made them some Halloween feline toys to get them ready for all those trick or treaters. Seriously, they'll need to be high on catnip to not freak out from every little knock at the door.









DIY Gilded Bug Wreath Halloween is only 2 weeks away! You know what that means? You better get to getting on your golden bug door wreath...You may remember that I've been busy knitting on a secret project. Well, I've still been working hard on the project, but it's taking forever and a day. I also had a little accident.

DIY Halloween Banner Like my sisters I enjoy going to the dollar store to find goodies, this trip not only did I pick up some little cardboard letters, but I also grabbed some creepy crawlies (as seen on a spooky wreath or scary garland), and I rushed home to make a Halloween banner.






DIY Skeleton Garlands This fancy pants skeleton garland was very easy to make; it cost next to nothing, and is really quite creepy. You can make one too--check out how.







DIY Rorschach Prints 
I've been thinking a lot lately about the clean graphic quality of Rorschach prints. That's not weird, right? I know the inkblot test has largely fallen out of fashion in the psychiatric community, which is probably for the best since they do seem a tad pseudoscientific. But Rorschach's original prints are really quite beautiful nonetheless. And our tendency to assign meaning to patterns in an attempt to make sense of random shapes (an example of Pareidolia) is really pretty cool. Window to the brain!


Eat Me: Zombie Cake Tonight is bad movie night at Aaron & Megan's. Season of the Witch is on the agenda, and dessert is my department, so I decided to attempt a sweet creep-out chocolate cake. For inspiration, I turned to British baker and cake designer, Lily Vanilli. I've seen a couple of her cakes floating around the internet and like everyone else in the universe, I'm pretty dang impressed.







: music :


Halloween Mixtape: Dark and Deep For the past several years, I've exchanged Halloween mixtapes with my friend Dan. I don't know if I've assembled enough new Halloween-ish songs to send him a full cd this year, so I might end up quitting the tradition. Terrible! But that doesn't mean I can't share some of my favorites with you. Maybe you have a big party coming up and your playlist is lacking songs which feature gravelly-voiced outcasts singing about murder, mayhem, and general bad behavior. mood.

Halloween Mixtape: Creepy Sleepies I like to listen to my Halloween music all in a jumble--dark and bluesy, old school punk, vintage jams, instrumental, and the category I call 
creepy sleepies. This is the area of my Halloween collection that makes me want to dance less and die more. That's not weird, right? By die more, I mean I just want to lie down and listen to this music and get creeped out and drift away. Die more: it encompasses all those elements. I bestow upon you my lucky 13.

Halloween Mixtape: Old School Ghouls This mixtape includes some of my favorite Halloween music from the '80s and '90s (well, the '60s too, because hello, The Rolling Stones). I should probably mention that I listen to this business all year long.  And let me tell you, business is good. Really, you knew that was coming. Get ready for a spooky blast from the not so distant past.


Halloween Mixtape: Country Killers We all know there's a lot of fighting, drinking, and heartache in country music, but there's also a whole lot of murder and devilish doings. So, I've compiled a collection of troubled songs in the country & blues vein. Why not round out your Halloween party playlist with some unexpected gems?


Halloween Mixtape: Vintage Villains Yes, finally. A Halloween mixtape that features not only Monster Mash but also I Put a Spell on You. Jeez, take forever! Well, we're here now, and isn't it just dandy? Now, let's all get together and watch Hocus Pocus. Deal? Deal. 







Halloween Mixtape: Instrumental Ills Well, Halloween is upon us. I hope you've amassed an incredible playlist of spooky, creepy, unsettling, downright terrifying music--I certainly have. Now, if only I knew someone who was interested in a 14 hour Halloween party, my mixtapes could achieve their destinies. Who knows? A Halloween miracle might just happen.

Halloween Mixtape: Musical Miasma  Maybe miasma is going a bit far, but I've boarded the alliteration train and I really don't want to get off. EVER. The Halloween music exchange went into effect again this year, and I received some real gems from my friend Dan. Since we've been making Halloween mixtapes for several years, I mentioned that it's getting tougher to find offbeat or unexpected spooky, murderous, ghoulish music.

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