August 23, 2010

The Promise Of A New Season

Today, I went back to school. This was a beacon of hope for fall, despite 106 degree weather and rows of lawns with dead grass. There was a promise of a new season, carried in with a slight breeze and English projects. Soon there will be talks of carving pumpkins, falling leaves, and magic in the air. Each day gets shorter, the nights get longer, and everything feels like fall. What a beautiful thought.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

August 22, 2010

Sinister Sunday Songs #1

Every Sunday, I will share with you a song that is subtly creepy, darkly quirky, and totally worth listening to! Enjoy!

Paris Is Burning - St. Vincent
Album: Marry Me (2007)

Paris Is Burning starts off with distant-sounding horns and organic guitar-picking, quickly followed by the steady beating of drums, setting the mood for the beautiful and dark lyrics to ramble through. St. Vincent, born Annie Erin Clark, is from my native Texas, and her song-writing skills are superb, transporting you to an anarchy in early twentieth century Paris, France. It makes perfect sense that the lyrics are poetically macabre, considering that she got her stage name from the hospital where Dylan Thomas, a Welsh poet, died. To this, she said, "It’s the place where poetry comes to die, that's me."

August 18, 2010

Announcements!

Hello!

Firstly, even though this happened a few weeks ago, it just dawned on me to write something on the blog about it. As you might of seen, there is a lovely button on the left sidebar of this blog that links to Cryptkeeper 2010 at countdowntohalloween.com.

In case you don't know, Countdown to Halloween is a month-long project for bloggers where for every day in October, the participating bloggers, or "Cryptkeepers" as we are called, post something that has to do with Halloween. Be sure to check out their blog!

Secondly, I have a new Twitter account! See more on the left sidebar, and be sure to follow me!

August 15, 2010

The Magic Of Martha #2 - Celestial Pumpkins

Pumpkin carving always conjures up warm memories of my childhood when my father would aid me in carving out simple faces into our bright orange decorations. Here is a simple and quick tutorial that gives a fresh and lovely take on traditional carved pumpkins!

 

You Will Need:
  • Pumpkin
  • Drill with 1/4 Bit
  • String Holiday Lights
  • Spoon
  • Carving Knife
  1. Using the carving knife, cut the bottom of the pumpkin off. The hole should be circular and big enough for you to put your hand through so you can clean out the innards of the pumpkin.
  2. Use the spoon to clean out the pumpkin.
  3. Set the pumpkin right side up and start to drill holes into the pumpkin with the drill. The pattern can be whatever you choose, whether it is a random or organised pattern or a constellation.
  4. Set the pumpkin upside down again so you can put the lights in the hole. Push each individual bulb through the drilled holes.
  5. Set the pumpkin right side up again and run the cord to a power source through the main bottom hole.
Steps 4 + 5
See the original tutorial here.

August 14, 2010

On Hypocrites and Craft Stores

Okay, so a few days ago, I posted a very, very short post about how I was sorry about abandoning the blog for awhile, and that I would start posting more regularly. Now, I feel hypocritical for not posting anything after that, and going against my word. Anyhoo...

Today I was out and about, and I decided to pop into Michaels, a.k.a. the most AMAZING craft store in the world! (Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it's still pretty awesome.) I thought I would go check it out in the off-chance that they would already have out their Halloween 2010 decorations, which usually go out a couple months early (like late-August). I was in for a shock! Out and sitting on the shelves of the main aisles were dozens of creepy Halloween decorations! I drooled over all of them and made many mental notes about what I could possibly use in my decorating plans for this year, and will probably buy the things that would look good in September. I'm so thrilled!

August 10, 2010

Sorry!

Sorry I have not posted anything in awhile, I have been so incredibly busy! Things like that may happen every once in a while, when I don't post anything for a week or so, but everything is back to normal and I will be posting on a more regular schedule.