Resolutions and Living in Tomorrow...a kind of rambling

Howdy ya'll!
Today is New Year's Eve, 2009 (thank goodness it's almost over!) and I'm sitting here pecking out the last blog entry of the year before 2010 is ushered in.   I used to make a list of resolutions to faithfully follow that I would end up butchering a week later whether it would be saving money, losing weight, eating healthier, bla bla bla...I was never really good at keeping resolutions.  Last year I remember resolving not to make any resolutions, maybe I jinxed myself by doing that so I'm going to make one resolution this year...

I, Mr. Bellasarius Macabre, do hereby resolve for the year of our Lord 2010, to henceforth live not in tomorrow, but to live in the today.

Now, what does that mean?  I was thinking while driving the other day about a resolution, should I go vegan?  Should I join a gym?  Should I go all organic?  Lots of things that are truly good things, but then I realized that I would envision myself doing those good things in a future life, ie: tomorrow.
Therefore, nothing would ever happen because I would do it tomorrow.  I started thinking again, that it's kind of like living in the "if onlys", 'if only I had this tool I could build that', 'if only I had a weight set I could train', 'if only I were, had, yadda yadda yadda, then I could la tee da'.

Cowpoopie!

If I wanted to lift weights I could fill 2 milk jugs up with water and that would work.  I realized that procrastination is my bedfellow and he lives in tomorrow.  I'm reminded about my late aunt Flora who died of cancer 2 years ago, she always lived in tomorrow.  We hauled out 50,000.00 dollars worth of clothes to the Salvation Army (her wishes) that still had tags on them.  She had stacks and stacks and stacks of magazines neatly categorized for when she would use them...tomorrow.  I was given a complete set of expensive china for 8 that was going to be used someday and when I took it out of the pasteboard box, it was wrapped in newspaper from 1976.   It hadn't seen the light of day since then, and the company has long since folded.  But someday it was going to be used, but I doubt she expected it to be by her eccentric 40-something macabre nephew.

My resolution is to quit procrastinating and living in tomorrow and someday and to start doing and living today.

I'd like to hear some of your resolutions too!  One of mine is straightening up and organizing the shop...

Aw #@$%&, I'll do THAT next week!

My Sentiments Exactly Your Majesty

From The New Adventures of Queen Victoria, one of my favorite comic strips through Gocomics.com, where you can get your daily fix of comics delivered to your inbox.

2 in the morning on Christmas day

What am I doing up?  Oh yeah, couldn't sleep.  I must be going through menopause or something because sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night for no reason absolutely roasting alive.  Anyone else have that problem or more importantly, have a solution?

I was thinking back a bit about 2009 and all in all, it was a dang weird year and I'm glad it's just about over.  Maybe this year was the year everything was a bit crappy to lay the groundwork for 2010 being great.  I wondered why money was a bit tight this year and my business was off by about 45% and I was down about 9000.00 overall from last year.  That was a bit scary but we made it OK.  I missed Hallowe'en this year, it just didn't happen which I don't know if I regret it or not, I don't see how I could have done much anything differently.

On the upside, I have met some wonderful people out in Blogland, some that I have the honor to call friends.  I have read their blogs and learned of their ups and downs and gained insight to my own life through their experiences and that has been richly rewarding.  One blogger inadvertently has made my relationship with Mrs. Macabre a whole lot better by allowing me to understand and accept that differences in two people that love each other is just fine (thanks Peter!).

As 2009 draws to a close, I think that I will remember this as being a more difficult year but one that can be looked back on to say we got through it. 

Now it's 3:05 and I'm finally cooled down and am going to saunter back to bed...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good fright night (sorry, couldn't resist).

Mr. Macabre

Your Home For Fantastic Bad Crafts! Craftastrophe!

I love bad arts and crafts. I can't help it, I just do. There was this lady in our mall with a kiosk that would draw your picture for 20 dollars and I believe her guarantee was that your eyes wouldn't point in the same direction in the drawing. They were bad but like a horrible accident, I could never avert my eyes from them, I kept trying to repair the drawing in my mind and I always failed. She was there for years before she retired.  I hate myself for not buying something from her.

I present to you Craftastrophe, your home to all crafts that aren't quite right, or downright wrong.  This site is like crack, or peanut M & M's, once you start, you're addicted.  The fun part is that a vast majority of the products are still for sale!  You see something like bedazzled bikini briefs made of beef jerky, you can buy them!  or this...

*Shudder*

I'm going to go get my Snuggie and turn all the lights on in the house now.

Just a dang cool picture

Don't know what I like about this picture, I just do.  Took it with the cell phone in the Piggly Wiggly.

I collected saint candles at one time but had to give up, there was just too doggone many of them to keep up with!

Christmas shenanigans and a new tradition is born

Sausage Von Trapp and I exchanged ornaments for Christmas this year.  We went to our local ceramic paint-a-plate studio and made an ornament for the other one but we didn't show each other what we were working on until today when they came out of the kiln and were finished.

Mine to her

Christmas Drives Me Crazy!

 

And her's to me, that's her alter-ego, Cheesecake Charlene, chawing on a chicken leg.

I then had an eyeball laying around my van and decided to desecrate Sausage's sweet Advent calendar door thingy (what the %$#@ is that thing called?  an advent box, a Christmas cabinet?)

 

A quick little story and the 21st of December will not be the same.

*UPDATE* just got a text that the Christmas eyeball will be a tradition in the Von Trapp household.  We are going to do the ornament thing each year because it was so fun.  You might want to think about it too!

Goths and Baseball

Found this accidentally and can't stop watching it.  Some of the looks these guys make are priceless!



The Sequel!


Makes me want to go to Spencer's and buy some black lipstick.

Techno Grim Grinning Ghosts

Why do I have the sudden urge to throw my hands in the air and spin while wearing a crop top and tight leather pants after hearing this?

Haunted Book Review Thursday

(no, the link doesn't click, go to Amazon for the preview)

Give Them A Real Scare This Halloween-A Guide to Scaring Trick or Treaters and Haunting Your House, Yard or Party

Authored and Illustrated by:  Joseph Pfeiffer

This is a deceiving book.  Upon first glance, the cartooned cover as well as the profusely cartooned illustrations would lead you to believe that for the more advanced haunter, this book would be of little use.

Au contraire mademoiselle et monsieur!

There's a lot of information and more importantly, ideas for Halloween costumes, decorating and haunting in this book.  I've had this book for a number of years and I still find myself flipping through it for ideas and inspiration.  I can see the train of thought in this book, a veritable haunting brainstorming session that was put on paper and published.  And that's ok, no, that's good!  He doesn't tell you HOW to use pneumatics, control circuits, or carpentry skills (although, there are some elementary molding and prop construction instruction overviews that are quite valuable to get a start on construction) but gives you ideas on how you can make and use a prop in a haunt.  I want to do one of the first ideas in the book:  sit in a wheelchair with a blanket over the lap.  When the trick or treater comes close, rip off the blanket to reveal two skeleton legs and start wheeling towards them saying "I want your legs, give me your legs, I need your legs!"  I would think that would be instant mental scarring.  The idea is in the book but the execution instructions for this isn't, which is ok, you purchase two bucky legs off of Ebay, tuck your own legs under the seat of the chair and away you go!
Well, maybe a little more than that, but not much!

Three words, get this book, great ideas when you're feeling mentally dry and need an inspirational jump start.

And now for something completely different...

Does Captain Crunch make your mouth raw!?  I had a bowl this morning and the top of my mouth is raw and my tongue too!  Do they put sandpaper in the crunchberries?!

Enquiring minds want to know!

Dr. Steel

I was looking for Voltaire on Bing, found a website, scrolled down and found Dr. Steel.  Isn't randomness on the internets fun, you find all sorts of cool things!
He's insane and evil, bent on world domination and enslaving humanity.  I like him!










See more of Dr. Steel HERE and become a Toy Soldier...I am!!!

Rennovation of a haunted house

I was scared to death that they were demolishing the haunted part of the house but it's the adjacent building to it that's getting the wreaking ball.  The haunt is listed in the 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffery, documenting Alabama ghost folklore.  This house is still haunted, firemen keep getting called on a WEEKLY basis to investigate mysterious 'flames' and lights from the top arches.  I'm glad to see it getting a well-deserved facelift.

From the Tuscaloosa News:

TUSCALOOSA

The Drish House, one of Tuscaloosa’s most prominent “haunted” houses, is being returned to something approaching its original appearance this weekend.
Early Friday morning, a crew from Arrowood Excavating began tearing down the large red brick church building that had been added to the 174-year-old home by Southside Baptist Church in the 1950s. The church building is adjacent to the house.

James Arrowood, the owner of the Romulus-based company, said he hoped to have the job finished today.

The Drish house was built on 17th Street around 1835 by Dr. James Drish, who died after falling off a balcony in the house. His death, and that of his wife, Sarah, led to several stories that the house was haunted by their ghosts.

Over the years the house passed through many hands and at one point during the Depression was an auto parts store, captured in a famous photograph by Walker Evans.

Two years ago the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society bought the house from the church and has been working to stabilize it, according to architect Evans Fitts, a member of the preservation society’s board of directors.

Southside Baptist had used the house for Sunday school classes and added a small addition to the east side that was demolished last year. Tearing down the sanctuary of the church is a more complicated job.

“The church is attached to the side of the Drish House and we don’t know yet what it will look like when this demolition is finished,” Fitts said. “Hopefully, there won’t be too much work to be done to the side of the house to stabilize it and make it look something like it did in its heyday.

“But the inside still needs massive renovation and the preservation society does not have the money to do much other than repair and stabilize what’s inside. Hopefully sometime in the future some one will come forward with an offer to renovate the house completely.”

The claw of a large bulldozer made its first incision in the south side of the church building Friday morning, and by noon the bulldozer was still at work, sitting on a large mound of rubble.

Arrowood was keeping a close eye on the project.

“We’ve torn down several buildings this size before, but not one that was connected to another building that needs to be saved,” he said. “My main concern is that we don’t do any damage to the house itself.”

Katherine Mauter, the executive director of the preservation society, was bundled up against the cold weather and keeping a close eye on the work.

“I’m here to document the process,” she said, holding up a small camera. “This is a big project and just the latest chapter in the Drish House history.”

Arrowood said he was well aware of the stories about the house, but said he noticed nothing out of the ordinary as the demolition work began.

“Yeah, I know all about the ghost stories,” he said. “I’ve even been in the house at night alone and you can bet that I had those stories in mind while I was in there.

“But I didn’t see anything unusual.”

TUSCALOOSA - Of all the allegedly haunted houses in Tuscaloosa — and there are more of them than you might think — the Drish House on 17th Street near downtown has been the holy grail for those looking.


“We’ve been waiting for years to get to go inside the Drish House,” David Higdon, one of the co-founders of the Tuscaloosa Paranormal Research Group, said last week, as he prepared for a night of investigation. “The house has so many stories associated with it, maybe more than any other house in town, but it has been off-limits forever.”

All that changed last year when the last remaining members of Southside Baptist Church, which for 70 years owned the three-story mansion built by Dr. John Drish around 1835, signed the deed over to the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society. The society has been cleaning and stabilizing the deteriorating building ever since.

“We’ve finally got all the trash out of the house and even though there are still some places in the floors you can’t walk because of termites and a stairway that is too unstable to climb, we think it is safe to enter now,” said Susan Haynes, the executive director of the society, as she joined the members of the paranormal group in their three hours to look for, well, the paranormal.

“We’ve worked with this group before,” she added, “and I kind of think it is fun to investigate places like this just to see what we can find.”

The tragic beginning

While there are several versions of the story behind the ghosts in the Drish House, they all revolve around Drish himself, who was also a planter, gambler and, by all reports, an alcoholic, Haynes said.

“The story is that one night when he was trying to dry out, but had the shakes and was seeing things, he leapt up out of his bed upstairs and charged right over the banister, falling to his death,” she said. “But maybe sensing something, he had left elaborate instructions for his burial, and they included lying in state upstairs in the home surrounded by candles.”

Drish’s widow, Sarah, lived in the house for several more years, becoming increasingly unstable as she grieved for her husband.

“She wanted her funeral to be just like her husband’s and became obsessed with preserving the candles that were used at his bedside,” Haynes said. “But when she finally died, no one could find the candles — she had hid them too well — and she lay in state without them.”

That’s when the strange occurrences began, Haynes said.

“There are numerous instances of people reporting seeing the third-story tower on fire and calling the fire department,” she said. “But each time when they got there, there was no fire and no sign of fire.

“The lore is that the light people saw was from those candles that Sarah, or her spirit lit. Even in recent years, there have been reports of strange lights coming out of the house.”

There are several other stories of the supernatural elements in the Drish House, including some about Drish’s daughter, Katherine, said to be insane, and runaway slaves who hid in the house only to die of starvation.

“But Dr. Drish’s violent death and his widow’s sorrow and what happened after she died is the story most people know best,” Haynes said.

The Drish House also achieved some notoriety in the mid-1930s when Walker Evans photographed it while it was being used as an auto parts store and wrecking company headquarters.

“That’s really a famous photo that hangs in a museum in New York,” Haynes said. “It was part of Evans’ documentation of the South during the Depression.”

Night in the haunted house

As Haynes recounted the stories surrounding the Drish House, a white half moon set behind the old mansion as more than half a dozen members of the Tuscaloosa Paranormal Research Group unpacked their equipment. Unpacked were three infrared cameras that attached to a digital video recorder and a monitor that showed scenes from all three cameras at once, several digital tape recorders, highly accurate thermometers, hand-held video and digital cameras along with other sensors.

Mike Corley, who co-found the 20-member group with Higdon about three years ago, didn’t bother hiding his excitement as the equipment was being unloaded and investigators waited for their first glimpse inside the mansion.

“The story of the Drish House was told in Kathryn Tucker Windham’s very first ‘13 Alabama Ghosts’ book,” Corley said. “I know that a lot of groups all around the country have been interested in getting in this house for years, but its never been available until now.”

Once inside, Higdon and Corley set up the DVR and monitor in the small kitchen the church had built on the ground floor, while cables were run to the infrared cameras placed in the main ground floor room, looking down the stairwell where Dr. Drish plunged to his death, and vertically on the second floor looking up into the tower where the “fires” were often reported.

“Once we get everything set up, we’ll all gather in the big room and have what we call ‘lights out,’ which is when we will see if any of our equipment can detect anything or we can hear or see anything ourselves,” Higdon said.

Both he and Corley shrugged off any suggestion that the 30 members of their group are “ghostbusters.”

“We don’t mind anything people might think of us,” Corley said. “Look, I’m a skeptic myself, but I do know that in some of our investigations we have come on things we can’t explain.

“We’ve recorded some very unusual lights and sounds with our equipment, and I have even felt myself physically pushed by something on one of our investigations.”

Higdon said his group has investigated more than a dozen structures in Tuscaloosa County, including Smith Hall at the University of Alabama and the original site of Bryce Hospital on University Boulevard.

Questioning the ghosts

By the time “lights out” finally came at 9 p.m., the group gathered in the front room of the old mansion had swelled to about a dozen. Many sat on the floor, a few stood and a couple of people sat in folding chairs they brought with them.

After a few moments of silence, punctuated only by the sound of a nearby train whistle, Corley began to ask questions of the darkness, pausing for a long time between each inquiry.

“Is there anyone here who would like to contact us?
If there is someone here, could you tell us your name?

“Is there anyone here who might want to communicate by knocking on the wall or floor?”

After several more questions and seemingly no responses — at least none that could be detected by the people in the room — the group went upstairs, where the ritual was repeated, again to no obvious paranormal reaction.

But Higdon said he was not discouraged, that the data collected from the various sensors had to be analyzed before any judgment could be made.

Later in the week, he said that while the data had yet to be assessed, there did appear to be some anomalies detected both by the infrared cameras and some of the audio recorders.

“There were some lights floating around the room,” he said. “Now whether that might just have been dust, or even a bug, we can’t say yet. And there did seem to be some response to some questions that we couldn’t hear, but that was picked up by our monitors.

“But I think Monday was a good start — we usually visit a site three or four time before we’re through,” he said. “I’m just glad somebody finally got in the Drish House.

“There is just so much good lore there.”

What's scarier than Christmas decorations in August

A call from the Feds!  I get a call today from an agent of the USDA on my cell phone (my cell phone number isn't published).  Agent Scully (of course not her real name) asks about a plant purchase I made on Ebay from Thailand (hair starts standing up on my neck, oh great, the lemon grass was actually opium poppy or pot and they're after my haunted @$$!).  I said yes, I purchased 3 red lemon grass plants that died immediately and they were disposed of.  Scully isn't satisfied; how were they disposed of, landfill, compost pile, etc.  I said I threw the whole pot in a black garbage sack and threw it in the garbage months ago.  Scully was then satisfied.
And by the way, Scully was at my folk's house and before that was at my house looking for me.  She had looked me up and traveled about 300 miles.   She had undoubtedly gotten all my account information from Ebay and government records.  Scary.
What had happened was that a seller on Ebay was selling plants...without going through customs.  I remember going through the wringer through customs in Atlanta coming back from Cancun as they were looking for any items that weren't allowed into the US.  I remember getting the package early this spring and wondering how that was possible but didn't give it a thought after that.  She then gave me some sobering facts that if certain plants were introduced improperly, it could be disastrous (read: kudzu), turning into a agricultural nightmare. She said that even something as simple as a bark birdhouse manufactured overseas and brought in could harbor some sort of horned beetle that could hatch and attack hardwood trees.  They wouldn't have any natural enemies over here and the only remedy would be to destroy any infected trees with the beetle.  She then asked me if I had citrus trees and I said yes.  She asked where I got them and I said "Lowe's".  I was safe, it seems that Florida is under an agricultural quarantine for citrus plants and can't be exported out of the state because of some disease on them. 

All kidding aside, Agent Scully was very nice to talk to after she realized that I was COMPLETELY cooperative and had no idea what I had done and that the plants in question were buried in a black bag in a hole halfway deep to China.  She said Ebay was being cooperative in their concerns against unauthorized plants being brought into this country and left me her card in my mailbox in case I had any questions.

On behalf of Agent Scully and myself, please be mindful about buying or bringing items that the customs people frown upon.  It's for our own good.  There's probably a freeze-hardy kudzu out there that will take over the US if given a chance that must be kept out at all costs!

Haunted Book Review Thursday

It's been awhile hasn't it?  Let's crank back up with a book given to me by another blogger weic? and his great blog when is evil cool?.  It's one that I know will have worn covers...

Halloween Vintage Holiday Graphics

Edited by Jim Heimann

  I'm old school Hallowe'en, and happily so.  My memories of Hallowe'ens past keeps the passion alive in me.  I'm constantly searching for items from my youth or beyond that brings back those innocent fun days of Hallowe'en fun and this book helps.
Besides the brief forward, this book has no text aside from incidental text from copies of vintage cards or advertisements in the book. Lavish illustrations of Hallowe'en iconography from the turn of the 19th century to the 70's is displayed throughout.  There's no rhyme or reason or order, just page after page of vintage products, cards, photographs, costumes, decorations from an era unfortunately past.  Although there's no how-to's, commentary or instruction, this book is a wonderful romp through the days when everything was a little slower and simpler.  This is a truly fun book if you like vintage graphics as I do.

Can you get any more Christmas Goth than this?!

I like Voltaire, a lot.  He's learned, witty, talented, and multifaceted.  I would have seriously hated him a few years ago because I used to dislike anyone that I viewed as talented/beautiful/smart/gifted at one time in my life because of jealousy and severe insecurity, but thankfully I've moved on from that neurotic stage in my life.  Everyone has different talents, everyone is gifted differently in their own way. And you are also, don't let anyone tell you differently.

I like him a lot more since I saw this...



Powerful message.  I personally like it.

I want to have this man's baby

Meet Thomas Kuntz, master automaton artist, with a flair for the dark side and an inspiration for me.  I love automatons, kinetic art, anything that moves and this first piece is well worth selling one's soul for....




This one is creepy in a sort of wonderful sort of way, love the shifty eyes...



An interview with Thomas Kuntz...


Can you imagine what possibilities this man would have if he decorated for Hallowe'en?!  I would freaking MOVE just to live next to him to see what he put in his yard!

Then again, he probably just puts out a pre-carved pumpkin from the WalMarts.

The food of nightmares

Why do I do these things, someone please tell me.  While channel flipping (I'm a guy, I channel flip) I zip by the Travel Channel and watch this guy eat a barbecue sauce with habanero extract in it (he was sweating like a pig, he was insane for doing it!), and then another show he tries to eat an 8 pound hamburger (didn't do it, looked like he was going to throw up) but in between, there was an ad for some guy that eats weird @$$ food, food being a very loose term.

He had a *&*;$#^% big @$$ spider on a stick.

After I crawled down off the ceiling when I had finished screaming, I took my masochistic self to the computer and verified what I thought I had seen...

I'm Southern. As a rule, we fry everything, salt it and then put gravy on it. I haven't heard of any Southern recipes calling for big @$$ spiders and Mazola.

This makes every fiber of my being cringe in abject terror, so naturally I had to share.  The question remains...ranch dressing or honey mustard dipping sauce?

A Confession

I'm coming clean for ya'll.  I have a confession to make and it isn't pretty.  I have to face your rejection, ridicule and ostracization  because of this deep dark secret of mine.  I'm sorry for the hurt that I will have caused you, my dear readers, it was nice knowing you all.

I have a Snuggie and I like my Snuggie.

There, I've said it and I'm proud of it.  My world was grainy black and white as I struggled to answer the phone on the sofa with a regular blanket until my Snuggie from the CVS came into my life.  And yes, I am well aware that I look like a tool when I use it.

This cracks me up (has some naughty words in it so just to let you know)...



Told my dear friend Sausage's husband that I had a Snuggie.   He said that he was embarrassed for me.  Sadly enough, I want the Snuggie 2.0; it's 40% heavier and has a place for your cough drops and Kleenex!

Something tells me I'm going to regret pushing the 'PUBLISH POST' button...

Suckerrrrrrrrrr!

You ever know when you're getting conned and for some reason you just can't stop the train of it for the inertia?  This happened to me yesterday.  Some guy comes up to me in the grocery store parking lot and starts talking to me, the hello, can you help me sort of thing.  This one was interesting because he said he was a videographer for a local TV station and that the van he had ran out of gas with a million dollars worth of television equipment in it.  He knew some names of some of the professors at the University here (I was in broadcast and film eons ago before I switched majors) so I offered to fill his tank up but he said that he had to have 60.00.  I offered 40 and a ride to a parking lot a couple of miles down the road but he begged for 60.  He said that he was only going to borrow the money and was desperate.  I thought about it for a moment, withdrew 60 bucks from my account and gave it to him, I try to do unto others as I would like people to do unto me if indeed I was in his position and had a real emergency. He thanked me as he got out of my van.  Curious, I doubled back just to see where he was going...some seedy cigarette store across the street.  

Yeah, I was had. Big time.  I was scared to death to tell Mrs. Macabre about it but strangely enough, I was told that I did the right thing.  I'm very disappointed in the person for not telling me the truth, (the story was in infinite detail too, it was incredible. The first tip off when someone wants money is a complex scenario that has an element of immediacy or emergency to it and promises of immediate repayment), just be up front with me.

That was just to blow off steam, I'm over it now.   Then two kids came by the house selling stuff for their school...a 12.00 scented candle in a variety of migraine inducing scents and a 25.00 Boston butt roast.  I could have done without the candle in 'Alabama Kudzu' scent (how the &%$# did they come up with that scent?!) but I'm all over a Boston butt roast for barbecue.  If kids come by the house, I always buy something from them, it's just the thing you do.  I bought 14.00 worth of sugar cookie dough a couple of weeks back and it is still staring me in the face. 

Oh well, it's only money.

Celebration of Peace and Coexistence

Traipse on over to Good Mourning, Glory! to read my guest post and thoughts on Christmas/holiday traditions.  More macabreness is in the drafts files to come...actually have had some work for a change!  Yaaah! Money good!  Paying mortgage good!

Celebration of Peace and Coexistence

Diane of Good Mourning Glory is hosting a week of the Celebration of Peace and Coexistence.  In this day and age, what the h e doublehockeysticks is that?! The answer is something that we all need in abundance right dang well now!  As we come into the holiday season, she has asked some (including yours truly) to reflect on the traditions that we have held and any thoughts that we may have on holiday season. 

Go take a look all this week, mine is on Wednesday and see how others have celebrated the holidays with their friends and families. 

Let the battle begin!

Me: "I'm putting up a tree this year"

Mrs. Macabre: "That's nice, it's about time you got in a holiday mood"

Me: "Yep, I cleaned Michael's out of all their LED lights last week when they went on sale"

Mrs. Macabre: "Wait, Christmas lights are going on sale this early?!"

Me: "Orange Hallowe'en lights, what do you think I meant?"

Mrs. Macabre: "You are not putting up a Halloween tree for Christmas."

Me: "...then I'll pull out the papier mache' and work in the kitchen again"

Mrs. Macabre: "It goes in the back of the house, away from the front windows then.  You play dirty."

You want some of this?

Come get some, but first you'll have to get past my friends.
These are from House of the Unusual, a MOST unusual webstore that specialized in all the stuff that we border-baby-boomers (yes, I was born on the cutoff year to be considered a baby boomer) saw in the backs of comic books.
Eddie, the owner, has taken the time and effort to bring all this back to us and I can say from personal experience, he does indeed care about his customers.   From bugs in ice cubes, remote control flying ghosts, fake blood, dirty soap, x-ray specs, all the stuff mother wouldn't buy you because she knew how much trouble you would get into with it is here.

This is a second review of their products, as you may (or may not) remember, I was shipped a Boney the Skeleton of lesser quality which turned out that the printer was at fault, not House of the Unusual.  These bad boys are printed on heavy paper and the ink is consistent and deep. 

Did I mention that they are HUGE? The image themselves are 7 feet tall at least!

The Whole Thing..,

Found the rest of it, a beautiful little movie...

Happy Dia de los Muertos

I don't know what she's singing about but I have a feeling it's something sad...beautiful animation and music...

 WHERE HAS VOLTAIRE BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!  THESE GUYS ARE GREAT!!!  Love the animation too!


via Tiny Sepuku (This person is a great cartoonist and has a blog, he finds the coolest stuff out there and posts it to which I promptly steal! Just kidding, I always try to give credit where credit is due.)

Halloween 2009

Despite my whining and the rains, Hallowe'en wasn't so bad after all.  We didn't have that many trick-or-treaters (probably less than 25) but I placed about 2 dozen pumpkins in the yard and for some reason, it gave a magical feel to it.  And we were given 2 HOMEMADE caramel apples!  I was stoked!  A dear friend came over and wanted to help give out candy...

Would you take candy from this woman?

We ate pizza, drank wine and watched the Addams Family marathon.  Everything considering, it wasn't that bad and the cleanup was a lot easier.  Mrs. Macabre knew that this year was a disappointment to me so while at Lowe's yesterday, I saw a deep fryer that I had my eye on in the buggy.

I smiled, nothing says love like deep fried food.

For My Last Couple of Days...

Have been on pins and needles lately...literally.  I was working on my corpse head and the knife blade snapped...through my thumb.  I traipsed myself to the doc-in-da-box and got stitches.

It wasn't bad...except for the anesthesia...that HURT LIKE A MUTHA! The nurse brings in a quart Mason jar syringe with a steel turkey baster needle tip on it and says so cheerfully, "It's just going to be a little bug bite." Her 'little bug bite' must have meant sticking my hand into a hornet's nest and flipping them off!  My thumb in the picture isn't that size normally, I have slender fingers, that's the quart of fluid she pumped into it!  I got feeling back 15 HOURS later this morning!

Before then, I went to the Pig...with the iPhone...

You're welcome.

And WTF does anyone use chicken feet for?!  Ms. M tried to dry some in a dehydrator a few years back for a Hallowe'en costume and they never would go rigor mortise, they just kind of turned a gray and rubbery.  She threw away the dehydrator after that.

I had to go to Birmingham on some errands today and while driving, I ran across this house...

I hope that they were used to people staring because I stayed there for several minutes just snapping away and admiring their work.  Actually I was stalking but we will let that be our little secret.

Happy Hallowe'en Ya'll!

What Would The Frog Queen Do With A Custom Banner?

Just ask her because she's the recipient for one!  Thanks to the generosity of UPrinting.com, she can put up her custom "WARNING, ZOMBIE AHEAD" banner and leave it up until the police or HOA (Home Owner's Association) makes her take it down!

Congratulations Frog Queen from UPrinting.com and Mr. Macabre!

No Hallowe'en For Me...

I have been watching the weather flip flop for the past several days from partly cloudy and nice to nasty.

Nasty won, meaning that I can't decorate the yard because all of my props are weather-sensitive (in other words, very non-UL listed for outdoor use and would probably fry you if you got too close in the rain, and everything would more or less be destroyed if they got soaked).



Pootie!  Oh well, there's always next year. 

No Shame

Give me a couple of glue sticks and watch me go! This was before art class the other day.  Sausage got her camera as I permanently elongated my nostrils.

Why?  I often ask myself this question.

Sad, so, so so sad.

Weep for the future, weep bitter tears...
For some reason this looks like a soul's awakening or something. Again, this is a cry for help.

Post Cards Galore! A Fantastic Giveaway from UPrinting!

Postcards are fun.  Face it, you probably go and buy some cheesy cards on vacation, usually they're corny or just doesn't say what you want.  How about if you could make 100 of your own CUSTOM 4 x 6 post cards in  full color printing...ON BOTH SIDES!  You could make invitations, thank you's, note cards, reminders, anything that you want...for free!  What will I do with my 100 cards that I receive from UPrinting for hosting this giveaway?  I'm going to make promotional cards to send to local businesses in hopes to get a haunt sponsor for next year (this haunting thing is killer on the budget, I need someone to share the love [or at least the cold hard cash] with!).  How would you use a set?  To enter, just tell me in the comments section by October 28 and you're entered!  How easy is that?!  Don't forget and do it now before you forget, you can't win if you don't enter!

• Giveaway Prize: 100 Postcards for One Lucky Winner

• Size:  4x6; Paper:  14pt Cardstock Gloss; Printing: Full color both sides  

• Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the US (Canadian residents pay only shipping and taxes)

• Winner will receive a coupon code by email on November 6 2009 (plenty of time to make holiday postcards if you'd like!!!)

To get an idea of all the options, head on over to UPrinting's Postcard Site and see all the different things you can do! 

The great people of UPrinting.com graciously allow me to make these giveaways available to you, so please give them a chance if you have any printing needs.  I have received several custom courtesy products from them and I can attest that they are the highest quality and quick turn around time!

Good luck!!!

My First Blog Rant--a revisitation of Trunk or Treat

I saw it the other day, a sign promoting Trunk or Treat.  I blew a fuse, again.  I looked back and found my first blog rant and I can say that my feelings have only grown stronger...In case you might not know what Trunk or &$%@# Treat is, or my thoughts on it, here you go...

Ok, I'm strong, I can do this without cussing. No I can't.
Trunk or treat is a fairly new concept in which people go to a parking lot either in a church or a shopping center and open the trunks to their cars, decorate them, usually cute or (shudder) educational, and provide a safe, well-lit area for children to come, heavily supervised, to get candy.
Whew, I did it, I really got through an explanation of THAT @$%&# ABOMINATION THAT IS AS STUPID AS IT IS LAME!!!
Looks like I didn't get through it after all but I don't care!  I despise the concept and the underlying watering down of Hallowe'en, I have seen one where everyone's cars were lined up and each trunk was an educational thing on different countries.  You learned about the country and got a treat that was respresentative of the country.  GOOD LORD PEOPLE, THESE KIDS GO TO SCHOOL ALL THE TIME, AT LEAST LET THEM HAVE A LITTLE INANE FUN FOR A #@%&# CHANGE!!!  I would have had Australia and given the little nippers Vegemite (being a terribly salty and yeasty spread from Australia, had it once, tasted like boiled down brown beer) and told them, "Now, you learn from this, trick or treating means sugar and chocolate, trick or @$#^%& trunking or whatever the #@&*$ this is, means learning more crap and getting lousy crap to eat.  Now go be a little @%#$% until your mom and dad lets you go to a couple of doors and get something to rot out your teeth and don't let me catch you near a car trunk again. Happy *%#@$% Hallowe'en kid".
Do I make myself crystal clear?  I don't like Trunk or Treat.
The other thing is Fall Festivals, Harvest Festivals, Family Festivals, and the like. I grew up going to a Hallowe'en Carnival at my elementary school, Crestmont Elementary.  You could tell when it was October 1, advertisement signs were hung in the lunchroom from strings like garland. We got to wear our Hallowe'en costumes on Hallowe'en and I believe the Friday night before we had the Halloween carnival. Every classroom had an event and you bought tickets to each event. You could go fishing in which you cast your line over a movable blackboard with cutout fish adorning the front and when your line gave a tug, you reeled in a toy!  Or you could visit the witches' house and feel a bowlful of worms (cold spaghetti), dead men's eyes (peeled grapes) or bowl of blood (ketchup).  Maybe you had the hankering to find out what the future held by visiting the fortune teller (who looked suspiciously like one of the fourth grade teachers) or walk through the haunted house (ignoring the Patch the Pony posters and desks lined up to make a path through horrors of volunteers jumping out with rubber masks in the blacklight).  I fail to see where I am, or anyone else that went to our school has been mentally scarred or turned out to be a Satanic priest because of Hallowe'en carnivals.
Then came the 80's where suddenly Hallowe'en was suddenly the devil's birthday and the grand and glorious crusade of imposed rightousness stripped us of Scream in the Dark put on by Campus Life Ministries, Savage House Haunted Hayride hosted by Gordo Methodist Youth and a host of other VERY good quality haunted houses.  Lies permeated about Hallowe'en and the deep evil that it imposed on our children that we must protect.  And I bought into it, for about 1 year and I was miserable that year.
Never, ever, ever again.

Countdown To Hallowe'en--Sweet Potato Bread Recipe

This recipe was the first one that I posted on the blog nearly a year ago.   I made a loaf of this breakfast/coffee time/pig-out time bread last night and it simply tastes like fall. 

Sweet Potato Pecan Bread (Courtesy Martha White Flour, with my alterations)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup golden raisins
Preheat oven to 325.  Spray Pam into bottom of a bread pan liberally.  Combine all dry ingredients.  Combine oil, eggs, milk and vanilla and stir into dry ingredients. Stir in sweet potatoes, pecans and raisins, mix well.   Pour into loaf pan and bake until toothpick comes clean, around an hour or so.  Cool in pan for at least 15 minutes before removing and cooling on wire rack.  Bread is moist but crumbly but oh so good.

Closeup of the crumbly goodness.

Hallowe'en Countdown--15 Days and Counting....

I...I...I'm speechless...They're all so...beautiful....

 

 

 

 

via Geekologie.com

This Is Going To Be An Uber Cool Giveaway--250 Custom Stickers!!!

Howdy Fiends!

Stickers are cool.  Personalized stickers are uber cool.  How would you like to have 250 custom stickers that are unique as you are?  Well, thanks to UPrinting.com and me, Mr. Macabre, one lucky winner is going to have that chance!  What will you do with yours?  Promote a business?  Announce or promote an event?  Say what's on your mind?  Whatever you can dream up, UPrinting.com can do it for you (within reason of course; they as well as I would frown upon copyright infringement or anything that might be considered obscene).  As a host of this giveaway, I will be receiving a set in which I will promote my graveyard, The Final Unresting Place Cemetery to give out to promote my haunted attraction.  Head on over to see the many different  sticker printing options that are available to you!

Giveaway Prize Details
250 Stickers/Labels for One (1) lucky winner
Sizes:  2” x 3.5”, 2” x 4”, or 3” x 3”
Paper:  70 lb Label Matte
Specifications: Full color front, blank back; 4 Business Day printing

How do you go about getting your own set of stickers?  Very easy!

• Tell me in the comments how you would use the stickers.  UPrinting.com is interested in how people use their products in creative and diverse ways.

• Want an extra chance?  Just blog about this giveaway in your blog and you have another chance!

• Drawing by Random.org will be held October 29, coupon code will be sent via email November 6

• Drawing is open to US and Canadian residents; Free UPS Ground shipping in the USA (Canadian residents only pay shipping and taxes)

• 
  

Good Luck from UPrinting.com and Mr. Macabre!

Someone is going to be making their own personal greeting cards!

Throwing everything into the random.org machine,  Mr. Macabre and UPrinting.com is happy to announce that Stephanie D. of Walks By Night is the recipient of 250 custom greeting cards!  She is going to get a head start on next year's Hallowe'en invitations!  Congratulations to Stephanie D. from UPrinting.com and Mr. Macabre!

Haunted Video Review Thursday--Make Your Own Scratch Built Corpse

Make Your Own Scratch Built Corpse

Author: Christian Hanson of Monstercloset.com

Seldom do you get a DVD that is both informative and entertaining in the cheesy sort of way.  Taking common materials that you can find in most any town, you can whip up a full fairly convincing corpse pretty easily from the top of the decaying head to the bottom of the decomposing toes. How fun!  Between segments is a troupe of horror characters that lack of acting ability is only surpassed by their cheesiness.  And it's a lot of fun.  The instructional segments are clear, concise and easy to follow.

This DVD would be very good for the beginning corpser (if that's even a word), or the corpser that would like to make a legion of the dead for very cheap.  It's well worth buying to add to the arsenal of scare.

Hallowe'en Countdown--Day -17 Days--Pullin' Out the Big Guns

This little gem is part of a show that scared the %#$@& out of everyone that saw it back in 1975.  All the stars and the planets lined up when they made this one.

First Part...


Second Part...


I have a copy of the Zuni warrior doll.  It literally gives me the creeps still.

I gots me an award!

Moriah of M L B Studios bestowed upon me the Kreativ Blogger award!  Thank you so much, I very appreciate it very much!

Someone To Lay Your Money Down To...Mexicansugarskull.com

I got an order from Mexican Sugar Skull  the other day...if you aren't familiar with the Mexican Dia De Los Muertos or Day of the Dead celebration, HERE is a fascinating and beautiful summary of the Day of the Dead tradition. 

Now, back to my goodies...

Going around I got a set of two sugar skull cookie cutters (I have a thing for cookie cutters, these may not look like much right now but after you decorate the cookies like skulls, they become works of art), a handmade skull pin with little black leather wings ( I'm guessing that this might mean a soul's flight), the recipe pamphlet that went with the cookie cutters (haven't tried them yet but the recipe looks like it would be wonderful) and a really cool skull tea light holder (one can never have too many).  I have purchased a lot of candy molds in the past and sugar skull molds but they now have added jewelry, clothing (the tee shirts are to die for!), and tons of other fun things pertaining to skulls and the Day of the Dead celebration (I knew I loved Mexico for a good reason!).

Bottom line...fast shipping, excellent quality unique merchandise that I haven't run across anywhere else.  Click over there and take a look, you'll be glad you did!