creepshow

Confession: I can't stop looking at Halloween stuff. Decorations, costumes (for people and pets), food, accessories, pumpkin art...I've got Halloween on the brain. So much Halloween.

Fortunately, I don't really see this as a huge problem. So what if I listen to The Cramps scratch out I Was a Teenage Werewolf over and over? My neighbors probably don't mind. I mean, I listen to them practice their guitar while I'm trying to watch Reno 911, so it only seems fair.

Getting back to it. I'm mini-obsessed with these necklaces by Fable and Fury (from where? Seattle, WA, son!) Actually, I can zero that obsession down to one necklace in particular.

This one. 

zombie girl

But maybe you're not into Night of the Living Dead. I know it's nigh on impossible, but it could happen. Well, there are other perfectly suitable objects of ghastly desire. 

Frankenstein's monster

Bride of Frankenstein

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

See? Lots of possibilities, and even more if you visit the Fable and Fury etsy site,
which I most heartily recommend. Oh, and I almost forgot. 

Tom Waits

Yep.

And just in case you're like, "The Cramps? Who or what exactly are The Cramps?"
As if. Here's a little taste. 

Appetite whetted. 

25 cent treasures

I've been meaning to have a roundup of recent estate sale treasures, but honestly, sifting through everything can be so overwhelming. So, I decided to focus on some of the 25 cent vintage finds I've picked up recently. I never cease to be amazed at all the strange and wonderful little things people accumulate throughout their lives. I'm including myself in that people category because I'm busy as can be accumulating bits of other's accumulation. Um...accumulations? 

Look at that floof!

This froggy has a dubious expression. 

Diary lock and key

Salt spoon? 

By golly, it's a compass.

A mallard pencil sharpener!

Yup, treasures abound if you're willing to do a little digging. 

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.

cake of the recently undead via Lily Vanilli Cake Design

Awesome? Yessir. Now here's my replicant. 

My zombie fingers are made from cookie. I think Lily Vanilli uses marzipan or something fancy. I just sculpted these suckers from dough and baked them resting atop some rolled parchment paper (to keep their graspy-reachy curve intact). I've seen some people use red sugar-glue (confectioner's sugar, red food coloring, and a little water) to stick on the slivered almond nails, but I used chocolate frosting. I mean, this cookie person is crawling up from the depths of their baked grave...there's going to be some chocolate dirt.

Now for a little Season of the Witch teaser. 

snake box

Yup. Exactly what it sounds like.

A box containing a snake. 

Don't panic! 

It's actually a snake skin. 

Or, to use the proper terminology, a shed. 

And I found it in the bushes in front of Mom's. 

We have a whole family of garter snakes living at Mom's. 

They come back every year because they like us so much.

We like them too...well, Mom only sort of likes them.

But don't tell the snakes that...it would break their tiny hearts. 

Hello, bordello.

Or more appropriately, bordello museum, which would make it, of course, a defunct bordello. Wow, those two words are super-depressing together. Not that an operating bordello is something to get ecstatic about, but what do you picture when you read defunct bordello? 


Something along these lines, perhaps?

The ladies stayed for four months at a time and then
moved to another brothel. A sex worker circuit, if you will.

I bet it is.

All this was left by the ladies. Not the mannequins and packing peanut- simulated bubble bath, but everything else. Yes, that includes sheets, Mr. Bubble, and lingerie, which the mannequins now wear. 

So, yeah. This is the Oasis Bordello Museum in Wallace, ID. Catherine and I went for a visit last Saturday. It was...creepy. Honestly, I don't know what I expected. Well, I think I expected it to be creepy in a way that didn't actually creep me out as much as it ended up creeping me out. Creepy-funny, not creepy-think-about-it-while-trying-to-fall-asleep-and-being-incredibly-disturbed. It was so very much the latter in this instance. 

The bordello operated until 1988--it stopped because the FBI set up shop in town to investigate the crooked sheriff. But before all that came to pass, the ladies of the evening made a tidy profit (around a 100K/year, according to our guide) serving up to 40 gents a night. All right, calling them gents is bit of a stretch. I believe Catherine called them dirty husbands...as in, "Can you imagine your dirty husband getting his paycheck and going there before coming home?" I think we all can. 

The dirty husbands entered through this door. 

While Catherine had the good sense to ask about condom usage--there were regulations in the 1980s, but they were not enforced--we really wanted to know about the doctoring. There was a weekly exam and blood work, but we were skeptical about the regulation of this, too. And what about the STDs and pregnancies from the unenforced condom policy? Good questions, which we did not ask. Not because we were shy (we did ask to have the sex menu decoded and now know what the half and half option entailed), but because we got the sense our lackadaisical guide would not know the answer. We preferred to come up with the answers on our own--our imaginations are quite thorough.  


However, we couldn't come up with an explanation for this. 

It's just an extra mannequin leg. Whatever. 

I can sum the experience up thusly: it was like going to the 4H tent at the county fair and seeing the cow with the visible stomach (You know, the window?). It's a learning experience, but it's also gross, and somehow sordid, and really doesn't seem as acceptable as it once was. 

Do not rent a room here. 

The term for cow windowing is cannulation, by the way. Did you think you were going to learn that today? I certainly didn't. You're welcome. 

We dig Terri Planty!

Monika deserves the credit for discovering Terri Planty, as Monika is the one who wandered into the Pergolina store and met the mastermind behind Terri Planty, Bianca. 


You know how the sisters love all things succulent and cacti? Well, Terri Planty is all about succulents and cacti! And tillandsias, and ferns and moss, and vintage containers, too! And perhaps the biggest bonus is Bianca's terrific sense of the curious, whimsical, and wonderful. 


Just look at these seriously swoon-worthy custom terrariums...

This little gem is from June. Peruse the full post here.

I picked up several similar vintage brass receptacles and am totallyinspired to revamp all my succulent housings. 

Here's one from May. Peruse the full post here. 

And this one hails from March. The colors are stellar, don't you think? Peruse the full post here.

I don't want to be bossy or anything, but you should click on every link in this post. You will most definitely not regret doing so. That's the on my honor guarantee. 


All Terri Planty photos are by Bianca d'Amico. 

Wild and wonderful

When Catherine and Nicholas visited Spokane a couple weeks back, they came bearing gifts. 

Gifts in the form of plant oddities!

A lovely lithops. You may remember how I coveted Catherine's lithops.

And an air plant! A Tillandsia bulbosa, to be precise.

The bulbosa portion of this plant's name comes from this particular section--why, it's the bulb, of course.

Right now, it's green as can be, but when it blooms, the leaves will turn
cherry red and have lavender flowers. Most excellent!

I've decided it will live beneath this bell jar--between its weekly waterings, I mean.

And I'm particularly fond of its graspy, reachy, I'm-going-to-get-you feel.
Perhaps best illustrated in the following picture.

Uh-oh. This looks like something that would happily creep onto your face while
you're sleeping. Mayhap to steal your dreams? One can never tell when
dealing with plant oddities. They're a fickle bunch.