It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It's finally here! Happy Halloween!


Earlier in the month a friend commented that this must be the most wonderful time of the year for me. She was absolutely right as I've felt elated and full of glee the entire Halloween season. While I'm sorry to see it go, I'm going to make the most of the spooky, gory, haunted goodness of today!

Lio's a great little comic strip that I just discovered this week thanks to Haunt Style. Be sure to check out the Lio comic strip site for more twisted Halloween fun from Mark Tatulli.

For my photo a day I went to a nearby park and photographed some slightly sinister-looking steep stairs. I had to wait for the elderly folk who take their morning walks in the park to clear out as I had no intention of telling them what I intended to do with the photo. I then used Photoshop to add in a picture I found in this fun pool of pictures of people falling down stairs. The one I blatantly stole is thanks to Helga Weber, whoever she is. Thanks, Helga!

A Photo A Day [Day 63]

Not the best Photoshop job out there but as it's one of my first I'm pretty pleased.

A Photo A Day [Day 61]

Didn't get a chance to post yesterday's photo. For the Halloween season I figure it's acceptable for our neighbors to see a small display of our weirdness. Donna usually stands in the corner of our guest room, creepily staring at our guests as they slumber. But for Halloween she gets moved to a prime position in front of the window where she can cast her undead gaze upon the world. At night I set an eerie red strobe light under her so she looks even more frightening. We've had lots of people compliment us and several mention that they make it a point to drive past our house to see her. And then there are the trick-or-treaters too scared to come to the door because they see her waiting. I love it!

Britain's Scariest Building?

3 days 'til Halloween! Today we'll tie together my love of Halloween with my love for all things British.


No, Britain's scariest building is not wherever Tony Blair happens to be, which I'm sure would be my husband's suggestion. One of my favorite sources for British news, the Guardian, featured a story yesterday about the spooky-looking Royal Masonic School for Boys and touted it as being one of the scariest buildings in Britain. Now that the school is closed developers are turning it into luxury flats, which I'd love to buy if any of you want to give me that spare one million dollars you have lying around. Although the above photo has been heavily edited the place features some beautiful gothic architecture, evocative of specters and haunts and things going bump in the night.

For my photo of the day I bring you one of New Jersey's scariest buildings. Seems more or less normal from here:


Until you look more closely. That's when the creepiness sets in. (Click on the pics for larger versions.)

A Photo A Day [Day 60]

Why is the one in the middle staring right at me with such hatred? Why is she the only one looking in my direction? Why does this even exist? Why why why?!

Halloween Wine

4 days 'til Halloween. Too bad it took me this long to get a really good idea for how to decorate our porch this year. Not sure I'll have time to implement it but it's high time I got some decorations out there. I feel guilty keeping all the good stuff to myself inside the house and gypping the kids.


When I was back home in the land where they trust you to be able to purchase wine and groceries in the same store, I picked up a few bottles of Halloween-y wine from World Market. Now, you should know that I'm not a big drinker and have never tried a wine that I actually like. Clearly I was caught up in the novelty and swayed by the nifty design of the labels. I'm sad to report that the one bottle I've opened so far does indeed taste like wine, which is a bad thing in my book. Still, I like that there's exists a Vampire Vineyard and that they seem to have fun with the theme. I guess if you're a wine drinker these might actually taste good. Me? I'll use them for cooking and save the bottles for decorations. If you're less of a cheapskate than I you might also want to splurge on the "7 Deadly Zins" wine that, at just over $10, was out of my price range. Quite the catchy name.


Photo a day:

[Day 59] - Want to come over for dinner tonight?

Theme: "Spooky"

Zombies Have Invaded Harrods!

5 days 'til Halloween. Eek!


Check out the creepy cupcake feast coming up on October 29 at Harrods to promote the book, A Zombie Ate My Cupcake. Zombies will be on hand to pass out cupcakes and provide witty banter as dinner party companions.


As if I need more reasons to want to go back to London and stay there forever and ever. Seriously. Does anyone know of a British guy looking for a mail order bride? I promise I'll behave.


I have to say, when I visited Harrods last year it was the bakery section that most impressed me so I'm sure this will be a hoot. You may have noticed that I have a bit of a sweet tooth but even so I couldn't justify spending £4,999 on this cake. And no, I didn't forget to add the decimal point. You read that right. A cake that costs almost $8,000. That'd better be one darn good cake for that price. John Cusack had better pop out of the center covered in gold or something.


Oh, London, I do so love you.


Also throwing in today's photo a day. The theme is "spooky."

[Day 58] - Hungry for breakfast?

6 Days 'Til Halloween

We're almost there. Sorry I couldn't keep up with posting something Halloween-related every day this month but as I was out of town with no internet access I don't feel too guilty about it. Plus today's installment is a fun one!

Thanks to Haunt Style for alerting me to this one. Sears has set up a zombie-themed site for the season. Either that or the zombie plague has reached the web programming department at Sears. Note that you can switch the language to Zombian if you find doing the translation yourself from English to your native tongue to be too cumbersome.


Due to a bad customer service experience I happen to hate Kmart, which is owned by the same company as Sears, but Sears has managed to escape my wrath. Especially now that I've seen this inspired silliness!

9 Days 'Til Halloween!

I'm heading out of town today for a weekend trip back home so I'll be offline during that time. Rest assured I'll keep taking my photo a day pictures and will catch up with you all once I'm home. I'm heading down to Virginia to supply desserts for and helping out with a book club discussion my mom's hosting. I'm bummed that the book club meeting and Charlottesville's 1st annual zombie 5k couldn't have been scheduled for the same weekend as I would have happily participated. Either because I like the exercise or because I'd be running in terror from the hoards of the undead. The run was last weekend and looks to have been a success, raising money for central Virginia's independent film production and promoting Danger. Zombies. Run. I worry that there may still be zombies lurking on the streets of my hometown and that more are on their way. Especially since the University of Virginia campus is touted as having some of the finest braaaaaaaaaains in the country. Maybe their publicity department should cut back on the self-aggrandizing press releases until this zombie plague is under control.

If this becomes an annual event I just might make the pilgrimage back home every year for this kind of fun!

10 Days 'Til Halloween

The winning image: A Marvel of Ants by Bence Máté. Photograph: Bence Máté/Veolia Environnement wildlife photographer of the year 2010

Just yesterday I was boasting about how I bravely watched It as wee lass and suffered no ill effects as a result. I might have left you with the impression that I was some sort of tough kid, unfazed by the horrors of the world around me. Not so. There is one creature that frightens me more than evil clowns, serial killers, and that weird King Friday from Mister Rogers: Ants. Yes, Them.



The award-winning photo at the top of this post, while beautiful, will probably haunt my nightmares for the rest of my days. I can only hope the photographer used a telephoto lens so he didn't put himself in harm's way by getting near those terrible beasts!

Halloween Countdown & A Photo A Day [52]

11 days 'til Halloween. By far one of my favorite horror movies is Stephen King's It. The first time I saw it was when my little brother and I were too young for such horrors. My parents and older brother were watching it and us youngsters snuck behind an arm chair and watched it from there the entire time. I didn't see what all the fuss was about, why our parents had tried to keep us from watching it, but I did enjoy it. I guess I was unflappable even at that age. Then again, I lived in fear that Darth Vader lurked in my closet at night waiting to get me as soon as my dad turned out the light, so I wasn't exactly a sane and sensible child.



Photo a day theme is "blur." This is an easy one for me since half of my pictures turn out blurry anyway, although I suspect that's not quite what they have in mind for the theme.

A Photo A Day [Day 52]

Snooki Pumpkin - The Horror! The Horror!

12 days 'til Halloween. I am not ready. Don't have my decorations out and don't have enough candy for the kids. Let's not discuss the fact that my "costume" will consist of a pair of jeans and one of my many Halloween t-shirts. My lack of preparation this year is frightening me. It's just not like me to be like this!

I now present to you the most horrifying pumpkin you can expect to see all season:


That's right. You too can make your very own Snooki pumpkin thanks to The Swell Life. For those of you not in the know, Snooki is an unnaturally orange creature that haunts the streets of the Jersey Shore, leaving behind in her wake terror and puddles of booze-filled vomit. The pumpkin is a surprisingly accurate replica although the real Snooki is much more orange. But this is close enough.

Halloween Countdown & A Photo A Day [50]

13 days 'til Halloween! Today's Halloween Countdown post will be short because I've got too much going on. I'm just going to share these clever little spooky shoes from corvus tristis:


The best part? She gives a handy little tutorial so you can make them yourself.


New photo a day theme is "blur." Because I'm in a rush I'm going to be a smart ass and go with this picture:

A Photo A Day [Day 50]

Halloween Mantle o' Doom

14 days 'til Halloween!


The moment you've all been waiting for has arrived. The big reveal of my Halloween mantle o' doom! Growing up we always stuck "o' doom" after mundane things in order to make them sound more sinister and exciting. "Pork chops o' doom" sounds a lot more intriguing than having plain old pork chops for dinner, doesn't it? No? Guess it's just me.

I may not actually have a mantle ('o doom or otherwise) but I wasn't about to let that stop me from putting together my very own Halloween pseudo mantle just like all of the other fabulous ones I've seen cropping up on blogs these past few weeks. I cleared off space on a tall dresser in my sewing room that I thought would be perfect to house and highlight some of our creepiest decor. I should preface this by saying that in our home we love Halloween and all things spooky enough that we keep our Halloween decorations out all year long. Where others might have sweet snapshots of the family or replications of Monet's finest work we've got skulls, vampires, and creepy crawlies. That's why I was so eager to get this right because I know we'll keep this up even after Halloween has come and gone.


I've already highlighted some of the items you'll see here in my posts about the alien invasion silhouette plate, the cheap and easy cloche, the spooky framed pictures, and the tree branch vase. Most of the other items are from our permanent collection. In fact, I had to clear a bunch of Halloween decorations off of the dresser to make room for the new ones. I think we might be at the point now where we need to start packing some away in storage and rotating them in and out periodically. I guess we suffer from Halloween overload in our house!


Other items on the mantle o' doom that you may find noteworthy:

• The tall Dracula candlestick holder you see lurking in the back on the left side was found at Home Goods a few years ago.


• The skull and crossbones cloche was a lucky find at a post-Halloween Target sale.


• The googly-eyed puppets propped up in the Target candlestick holder (useless for holding candles but still pretty at 50% off) were a gift from someone I don't like very much (husband's ex) but they're so cool that I don't want to ditch them because of their inauspicious origin. Even if I do have to put up with the constant reminder.


• The skull picture stand with the Dracula sticker was from Target last year, I believe. Do you see a Target trend here?


• The sleek black rat is actually a candle I found highly discounted after Halloween at Old Navy. I think it wound up being around $2. Old Navy seems to start their Halloween markdowns before Halloween so if anything's left after they get aggressive and go for 75% off or better.


• The tiny grey hooded figurine holding his heart in his hands was one a series of figurines we bought at Five Below. We've got a whole row of his brothers and sisters in front of our TV.

When arranging everything I had to be mindful of the fact that two of our cats use this dresser as a perch from which they can survey their kingdom. I had to make sure to leave enough space for that and couldn't put up any sort of runner or slippery cloth that could cause them trouble. Ideally the items would be spaced out more evenly and I'd use that darkened cheesecloth I found at the Dollar Store for added texture, but it is not to be. Yes, we spoil our cats in our house. But even spoiled cats are less trouble than actual children so I figure it's a fair trade off.

Here's lookin' at you, kid

15 Days 'Til Halloween & A Photo A Day [48]

Getting ready to snuggle up with one or more cats to watch Audition. This movie's been on my list of movies to watch for about ten years. Now that we have Netflix free for a month I thought I'd take advantage of that and check it out! I started it earlier today while using the elliptical and although it hasn't yet entered horror movie territory I can say that it kept my attention for so long that I didn't look down to see how much icky exercise I had left for 27 minutes straight. That's got to be a record for me!



A friend commented that my photo a day entries have been getting weirder and weirder lately. So to calm his fears that I'm in need of a stay at the nearest mental facility I present you with a "normal" photo for today's self portrait. Don't know how normal it can be since I'm still in it but here ya go.

I've seen others do this same shot of photographing one's reflection in the side view mirror of the car but because I like the effect so much and because my Mini's mirrors are utterly adorable I feel no shame about copying them.

A Photo A Day [Day 48]

100 Followers & A Photo A Day [47]

I just hit 100 followers! Thank you all for seeing fit to follow my little experiment in vanity! You have no idea how happy it makes me to know that someone out there is paying attention and likes what I have to say.

Now then, on with the Halloween countdown and another Halloweeny photo edited with Picknik's Halloween effects. Only 16 days 'til Halloween!

A Photo A Day [Day 47]

Theme: Self portrait

Halloween Countdown & A Photo A Day [46]

17 days 'til Halloween!

A Photo A Day [Day 46]

Theme: Self portrait

Note the similarities between me and another evil creature captured on film:


It's uncanny! Alright, alright, his eyebrows are much more finely manicured than mine but otherwise we could be brothers!

More Dollar Store Halloween Decor

18 days 'til Halloween!


Can you tell I've been mentally absorbing dozens of Halloween craft ideas from my fellow bloggers and went on a shopping spree at not one but three different Dollar Stores over the weekend inspired by those crafts? Still putting the finishing touches on my pseudo mantle so you can continue to eagerly anticipate the upcoming big reveal.


I picked up a few $1 frames, spray painted them black, and printed some spooky images from random Google searches onto plain paper. Not the best quality pictures if you get up close and scrutinize them, but who's really going to do that? I wish I'd been more meticulous and mindful of the fact that I was going to blog about these but I wasn't. So I can't even tell you what general search terms I used to come across these images let alone the actual sources where I got them. Sorry! Everyone's allowed a bad blogger moment once in a while, right? I can tell you that the "Keep Calm And Scary On" graphic is from Craftily Ever After. I struggled to find the right image for the largest frame but just yesterday discovered a post with lots of free Halloween printables compiled at Sassy Sites. Thanks to them for pointing me in the right direction! I did glue a tiny plastic spider onto one frame and propped a skull and crossbones charm onto another. That added bling really makes the difference, eh?


The vase thingy is obviously just a Dollar Store vase on a Dollar Store candle base with some dead branches from my dogwood tree stuck inside. I dumped the leftover plastic ants from my Halloween cloche into the bottom and wrapped a scrap of spider-covered ribbon from Jo-Ann Fabrics around the vase for some extra scares. For a final touch I tied on some Dollar Store skeletons. I intended to spray paint the branches black but due to my morbid tendency to cover everything in our house with black paint I ran out. Perhaps one day I'll finish the job if I can scrounge up the extra dollar to buy more from Lowe's.

Halloween Cupcake Ideas & A Photo A Day [44]

Check out this list of 12 Halloween cupcakes that are so creative and fun that I wish I'd come up with them myself. As it is, even with the ideas right there in front of me I'd still struggle to find the skills to put some of those together. For added fun they've suggested horror movies appropriate to pair with each cupcake, including the obvious pairing of The Howling with these stunning werewolf cupcakes:


Every year I fully intend to make some spooky cupcakes for Halloween but it seems like this is always the time of year when I realize I've gained too much from the previous months of gluttony and decide to crack down and cut back on my baking. Not that this should stop me from making diabolical cupcakes the rest of the year.

Thanks to Riverfront Times for the list and pictures.


Today's photo is another self portrait, this one a little silly and sad. You see, we were hoping to adopt a certain dog ever since we spotted the little guy at the shelter last Thursday. We've had our application in pending approval and pretty much had our hearts set on him. Bad idea because we just found out someone else whose application had already been approved is adopting him tonight. Needless to say, I'm more than a little bummed. Not sure yet if we're going to keep looking and eventually adopt a different dog but we'll see. For now I'm feeling :(

A Photo A Day [Day 44]

Zombie Cupcake Kit & A Photo A Day [43]

20 days 'til Halloween!


How much do I need this zombie cupcake kit? How much does a cat need an unlimited supply of sunlight, constantly running water, an expensive sofa to claw up, and a fresh can of food every seven hours? If you've guessed that the answer is "very much" then you're on the right track. My cats seem to have me convinced that those are the necessities of life so why shouldn't zombie cupcakes be added to the list? Of course, I would never pay that much for it. I'm a cheapskate after all. Instead I'll sit here silently pining away for it wishing I had a wealthy benefactor who would buy me such necessities.

For my photo a day project I'm back to following 365 Project's theme: self portrait. At least for today. It took a lot longer than I expected to get a usable shot and I still didn't get quite the effect I wanted. But here you go:

A Photo A Day [Day 43]