Ghoul Friday Bits & Bites

The Story

I don't know her name, but locally she's known as the Witch in the Woods. She treks through the forest and marshland twice a day, hunting and gathering. She places items in an old black sack (what the children refer to as "her death bag").

I know what you're thinking. After such a long hiatus, you're posting a scrap of burlap?

This is a preview of the ensemble I'm making for my latest project. Lots of firsts happening in this one:

A) It's a sculpture of a human being

B) I have to make clothes for it

C) It will have a base

Let's go back to today's topic of clothes. I am not a seamstress. I do not own a sewing machine. I haven't made a piece of clothing since Grade 7 Home Economics (and if memory serves, I made a pillow in the shape of a D. Not clothing).

But when I started sculpting the hag, and she had such an organic feel to her, I decided I would cheat myself if I didn't give her actual clothes.

This is an image of her shawl. I made it while watching the Russia vs. Canada hockey game (trying not to fling it across the room as both arms shot into the air for each goal). It's burlap with the edges tied in knots and weaved with twine to make a hem. Then I knotted some more twine in different sizes and tied them to the edges. A little brown and white paint, and voila.

She has simple (very simple) footwear, a babushka (peasant scarf), a dress (more of a wrap) and a scarf belt.

More to come.

Hello Ghoulies. I have yet to find our copy of Photoshop which means I haven't been able to post images, which explains why I haven't been blogging since the resurrection of my computer.

I've tried to use the time to catch up on emails, other blogs, twitter, and everything else plugged into the online world.

Worst case scenario, I will install the old Photoshop 6 program I have kicking around. After all, I have Underbiters, a brand new sculpt project, and a plague doctor door snake to show you!

In the meantime, I've been plotting out a road trip to the west coast in April: driving along I-80 through Iowa and Nebraska, dipping down into Colorado (maybe taking the more nicer I-70), popping back up to Utah and finally arriving at our destination of San Francisco.

We don't plan on staying more than a night at main stops along the way, but if anyone has some favourite places along that route - maybe even some ghost towns - I'd love to hear about them.

I'll tackle the plans for the route home (up through Oregon, east through Washington, and on) later.

Question: if I bring Brains Vs Coffee in the car with me, can I dub this a book tour?

I signed into Twitter today and there was a lot of chatter about Groundhog Day. Morbius Kromwell got me thinking when he tweeted "Just once, instead of a groundhog, I wish some mutant creature from the depths of hell would rise and wreak havoc...". I started musing about ways to improve this holiday.

This is what I've come up with.

We replace the Groundhog with a Chicken. On the special day, the chicken gets decapitated. If it runs around for more than 1 minute, it means we have a longer winter. If the corpse stops moving before then, we have an early spring (hence the term "spring chicken").

If children in the crowd of festivities get splattered with blood as the chicken runs around, it means more precipitation (rain or snow depending on the spring/winter forecast).

AND best of all, if someone eats the chicken - and by doing so, devours the chicken's living essence/soul - THEY get to overrule the outcome of the chicken run and decide what the forecast will be.

There is a small group of supporters already. Who else is with me?

While waiting to see the specialist, I noticed the sign for doctors whose reception area was next door. There, near the bottom of the list, was "Dr. Wolfman".

I need to find out what he/she is a specialist of, and get in to see them, just because.

As an update, the evil viruses on my computer are too crafty. Looks like a full restore is definitely in order. This should take place early next week, and I will once again join the blogging realm.

Will try to get a picture of the doctor sign when I go back in May.

At the moment, I am typing on my laptop, surrounded by used tissues and packages of Halls candy. Have been hit with a good old fashioned cold, and hit hard, but I'm rebounding.

I can't say the same thing for my main computer. It, too, is under the weather. It got hit with a nasty virus a few days ago, which is especially frustrating because I am very careful with my downloads and suspect this little lovely came from a hacked WordPress website that hadn't been updated by the blogger. I was already on the site when I saw the post that warned it had been seriously hijacked. *sigh*

We've been able to find some of the files on the system that have been tampered with, but it's not all clean. Now, when I'm connected to the net - and only when I'm connected to the net - and try to do a scan, it logs me out and causes a Windows restart (DCOM server process service terminated yadda yadda).

SO I'm still around but not as much (hate the laptop). If you have any suggestions, let me know. Otherwise, I'll hopefully see you soon when I am in a cootie-free zone.

As haunters, we often talk about storage for our finished props but we rarely talk about storage of our supplies. My vanishing act the last little while can be contributed mainly to trying to figure out how and where to store my inventory of goods.

I never had a considerable surplus of art supplies before this year. Sure, there were a few salvaged items left over from the Halloween decorating rush, waiting another year to be recycled into next Halloween's theme. That's different. Now that I make a number of smaller items throughout the year, each of them needing different craft supplies, it's a whole new game.

While the blog has been quiet, it has not been forgotten. On the contrary, I've been thinking about it a lot. I'm currently in the beginning stages of an upgrade to the site.

Changing your website is like making changes in your life: you look at what isn't working, try not to make the same mistakes, and attempt to make new choices that will improve it. You also have to be realistic in what is attainable (based on your ability, talents and resources).

The site isn't going to look much different. I don't have the resources to hire a web designer who does theme work. And that's ok. The focus is on organization and usability. And refocusing the main goal.

Was looking for the perfect image to celebrate New Years and found The Zombie's First Love by Justin Reed. I'd come across a few images that had potential, but they were all disqualified because the bloggers didn't post who the artist was. Not only were the images not sourced, but when I tried to track down a specific illustration that is common around the net, I saw that it was being sold on zazzle (or another made-on-demand site) on merchandise by someone who obviously wasn't the artist (there were a number of images, all different styles, being sold).

For my Christmas post, I couldn't think of a more perfect picture than the one snapped by Spirit of Halloween. Poor little pumpkin. Probably thinks we've all forgotten him. Well I haven't.

He's like my own personal Tiny Tim.

Last night we had family over for dinner. My mother, on the brink of her sixties, still cares for a household of troubled teenage girls - two of which came with her last night. And while I was out of the room, one of them said as she was looking around "I was expecting more scary things in her house." They both seemed genuinely disappointed. I thought that was pretty funny.

Even funnier were the big smiles on their faces when I took them into my office where I have all my ghoulish goodies tucked away. As if the sight of glowing pumpkins, macabre figures and art, and a flickering skull candle made everything right in the world for them.

And that's how Halloween saved Christmas.

Merry Christmas, folks. Happy Holidays. Seasons greetings. Be kind to each other today.