Click on Gothtober DAY 11 and receive a delicious and ghastly presentation from Dianne Chadwick, drink vampiress extraordinaire! If you’ve been stumped at what to serve at your Halloween cocktail party, fear no more, here we have thirteen wonderful recipes to knock people’s heads off… literally. From the “Corpse Reviver” to the “Bitter Pumpkin” there’s plenty to add to your boiling cauldron this month that will impress all of your ghoulie guests.
Serve these drinks in themed glasses, if you have the option. If you can find garnishes that call to mind things like severed fingers or bloody eyeballs (or you know, in a pinch, the real thing is even better.)
Nothing builds friendship and good times like wormy ice cubes and plastic spiders.
We’re considering trying each and every one of these before October is done, we’re very goal oriented around here.
Upon asking Professor D.M. Chadwick about this year’s Gothtober Apple project, she sent back a very analytic and scholarly stream-of-conscious email that said some great things about Pomme de Terre, as they are fondly known as in fancy France.
Apples are lovely, apples are nice…
I always thought it was strange that apples have this perception of being the most wholesome of fruits, and yet it was the APPLE that led to Adam and Eve’s downfall. So…there’s something kind of appropriate in turning the deceptively wholesome apple into a crinkly, creepy ornament. I’m not sure why shrunken apple heads had their zenith of popularity in the 1970s, but with the DIY aesthetic that’s been booming for awhile now (I’m looking at you, Etsy), I figured the time was ripe for a tutorial for the Gothtober masses. Start now and you can have oodles of tiny, devious faces looking at you from every corner of your house by Halloween. I taught a class on making shrunken apple heads this summer at ScareLA in Los Angeles and one attendee told me she was planning to make a wreath-like necklace of shrunken heads. I can’t even begin to imagine how fantastic that is going to look!
The Gothtober masses couldn’t be happier with this opportunity to dehydrate as many “heads” as possible, thanks, Professor Chadwick!
Happy Monday! To start off the week, Dianne Chadwick made you a BOARD GAME!!! OmigoshOmigosh how fun is THAT?!? All you have to do is visit DAY 7 on Gothtober.com and download the game, follow the instructions, and you’re ready to experience the thrill of victory, or the agony of defeat. The game is called “Trick or Treat” and it consists of three pages that you print out, cut and assemble. It’s for players 5 and up, Dianne used her very own 5-year-old as her test subject, and said that
He loved it, but mostly just wanted to eat the candy.
Dianne wanted to make a game that you can pretty much play anywhere, all you really need is access to candy and coffee container lids (to serve as “cauldrons”) Here’s some info from the official “box instructions” of the game
It’s Halloween and mischief is in the air! Collect as much candy as you can and return home before your house is trashed by marauding tricksters!
One of the great things about this game is that if you lose game pieces, no worries. Just head to the snack bar and purchase some more jelly beans. Dianne hasn’t played this game with four people yet, so if you want to give feedback or tell us how you did playing “Trick or Treat” with four or more players, let us know. You should be able to extend game play by acquiring more candy. “Trick or Treat” can be played at the park, at recess, during your lunch hour, on the train, practically anywhere, it’s made for travel. We’ll be playing the game at CraftNight (at Akbar) this week, thanks Dianne for giving us this very clever and beautifully designed diversion for the Halloween holiday!
Decorate your lair or crypt with this dainty and ornate cross stitch design!
From world famous internationally known and celebrated graphic designer for film and television comes Dianne Chadwick’s excellent downtrodden and hopelessly gloomy needlepoint project! Is your mausoleum feeling too cheery? Are lighthearted and gleeful sentiments seeping into your sarcophagus? Well banish the warmth and joy once and for all with this absolutely capricious and morosely lovely craft project! This wonderful design contains a “down home sophistication” with its swirls that harken back to a more ornate time period, while also staying focused on the important things like skulls, crows and bats.
We made sure to launch it on the Calendar on the 3rd, to give you plenty of time to download the pattern by clicking on Pumpkin #3 on The Gothtober Countdown Calendar, then geting your supplies and sewing your heart out before Halloween!
We’ve even given you enough time to make this if you’ve never done needlepoint before. Now is a swell time to try a new hobby, start today! AND if you want to see more of Ms. Chadwick’s awesome Halloween-oriented art, take yourself to October Shadows on October 13th Mountain View Mausoleum, 2300 N. Marengo Avenue in Altadena, CA 91001 It’s a big fat showcase of artists from the worlds of fine art, comics, film, TV and animation! The show will run each Saturday and Sunday from 10am – 3pm through November 3rd.
And, speaking of Halloween, it’s time to start thinking about your Halloween costume! Have you been brainstorming? While you sit and work on your needlepoint, have a conversation with yourself about what you’re going to wear at all those costume parades you’re sure to march in this autumn.
The hot ticket predictions (According to the National Costume Prognostication Society) you’ll be seeing this October 2012 will be (of course) Obama and Romney lookalikes, followed by PSY, the Korean Rapper who hit the big time with “Gangam Style” and you’ll probably see a lot of Lady Gagas, Nicki Manajs or Kim Kardashians. If you’re looking for big cash at the costume ball, avoid these, they’ll already be everywhere. Of course, if you’re going to rock Gangam Style, show up with the entire cast of characters (or even just the dude in yellow with the bowl cut) from the video and blow everyone away with your awesome dance moves. Bring 12 blowing fans to make it authentic!
It is also a fact that pet owners nationwide spend about $370 million on costumes for their furry friends. If you have somehow gotten yourself embroiled in a high stakes pet costume contest: steer away from the hot dog, devil or pumpkin, as those are the most popular. Go for robot, taco or “Alpine Girl” and you’ll have more luck.
Anyway, get back to your “Gloom Sweet Gloom” needlepoint, and we’ll discuss this more later…
