Damn.

(Photo courtesy of KTLA.com - tree destroys truck in Long Beach)

So, it was a little windy yesterday. 10,000 people in L.A. are still without power and that's about a quarter of what it was last night.

Most importantly, half of my Hallowe'en display ended up in the street! Thankfully, the husband was home to retrieve it all and once the winds die down, I'll reset the whole deal.

Thankfully, our power stayed up through the night (Thanks Burbank W&P!!!), so I was able to finish the majority of my gown and set my wig! Tonight, I'll be finishing the gown and doing some baking for our office potluck.

Lesson learned. Next year, I'm doing my gravestones in concrete.

Remiss - 5 DAYS 'TIL HALLOWE'EN!

Remiss, I say!!! Unfortunately I have spent way too much time at the cemetery this Hallowe'en season as my grandma died last week. Therefore, despite massive preparations ongoing for the Hallowe'en season, I have had some problems with posting and getting photos.

Today, because I feel like I have to post something, I'll post links to some of the haunters I'm stalking around the intertubes these days. I've found them through the Countdown to Hallowe'en.

Shellhawk. I found her pretty late on in the month. Shit. She is powerful talented. Look at this gravestone she made. Now come ON! That's just freaking AWESOME! I wish I could apprentice with some of these people. Like Dave Lowe who not only builds his own props but also is an incredible artist. Here is one of my faves.
Then there's just the all around creepy like SpookyBlue who brings us this terror.
And one of my favorite things about all three of these haunters is that they are EXTREMELY generous and provide how to's for some of their projects. Awesome.

I will indeed be bringing photos of my haunting up to this site. In the meantime, check out some of these other sites.

All hell has broken loose

New York trip is cancelled. So, no new gravestone photos but more time to work on my yard display.

The Witch Next Door

This is a 1965 copy of the book, the Witch Next Door. Norman Bridwell writes a sweet book with some very modern and wonderful morals that stand the test of time.

The first moral: Just because someone is different doesn't mean she is bad.

Second: Mean people suck but usually just need someone to be nice to them.

Third: You are wonderful just the way you are.

Pretty progressive for 1965!

Norman Bridwell also wrote How to Care for Your Monster, Witch's Vacation, Monster Holidays, Ghost Charlie, Witch's Catalog, Magic Matt and the Jack 'o Lantern and the entire Clifford the Dog series including a bunch of autumn and Hallowe'en titles! Mr. Bridwell is clearly a lover of all things Hallowe'enie as well!

Thanks Mr. Bridwell for this book. I loved it as a child and recently bought it to share with my niece.

L.A. Opera Costume Sale

In preparation for the upcoming holiday (and I don't mean Simchat Torah), I am going to be attending the L.A. Opera Costume Sale this weekend. It's the first time the Opera has ever sold off any of its costumes and items will include capes, hats, full costumes, fans, gloves, shoes and more.

The sale begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 10 at 330 South Alameda and parking is at the Little Tokyo shopping center. They indicate that sizes range from "robust Wagnerian" to "Mozart's petites" and prices range from $10-5,000.

They are selling off pieces from Don Giovanni, Die Meistersinger, La Traviata, Carmen, Idomenio, Romeo et Juliette and many more.

See you there!

Zombieland

No spoilers here, just F to the YI as long as you know there are zombies, people die and there is eating of flesh...

So, Michael and I had a perfect date last night and saw Zombieland at the AMC 16 in Burbank. There were 4 other people in the theater besides us! Mostly because we saw it at 3:40, not because it sucked.

The pros:

Funny. The RULES are brilliant and worked into the movie perfectly. Did not take itself seriously at all, if it had I would have been sorely disappointed. The zombie makeup on the closeup shots was pretty darn good and any bone crushing and eating of flesh was ookie enough to make Michael squirm (see "Squeamish?" for my squirm factor). Woody Harrelson is high-fucking-larious. Perfect, short and sweet explanation of the zombification...really, not what the movie was about and I'm glad they didn't spend any time on that. The digital effects around Los Angeles were great. Soundtrack was pretty sweet also.

The cons:

Slow at some moments. Makeup on lesser zombies was hastily done and not particularly "realistic" also, at one point you could totally tell the dead guy was a bag of fiberfill. Super cheap... Some of the digital effects looked like they belonged on Photoshop Disasters. Abigail Breslin did not get enough shooting in. Wanted to see more of that. Yeah, she's 12 but you're fighting for your brains here people.

Overall, a great, fun movie. Perfect for Hallowe'en laughs!

Do you have any Grey Poupon?

I went to Joann's etc. today.

Y'know how the corner market has like two brands of soap and the crappy ass generic ketchup that tastes like corn syrup with some tomato flavoring in it and then you go to the Ralph's Fresh Fare or the cool-ass new Pavilions pavilion and there's like 18 different brands of hand molded soap with ylang-ylang and oatmeal flakes and gourmet ketchup from 5 different countries and two American tomato farms with fresh basil and chunks of garlic? There's just no comparison right?

Yeah, well that's the difference between the crappy ass Joann's on Riverside and the Joann's etc. superstore in Porter Ranch. The Joann's on Riverside had like 6 Hallowe'en fabrics and each one sucked more than the previous. Their Hallowe'en decoration selection was, at its best, pathetic. A couple of dented candles, some of last year's stock of plastic pumpkins, a bag of styrofoam bones, a couple of tangled bat garlands and some autumn leaves...

Joann's etc. gives the full Hallowe'en crafting experience. I bought 4 different kinds of fabrics. One just because it was super cheap and cute. I don't even have a project planned for it. They had AISLES of Hallowe'en fabric and as I was checking out, there was more!

The patterns for costumes were actually out of the files on racks so they would be really easy to find. What a concept. I also found the tights that I needed, the fabric for my cape, 18 different kinds of tacky glue and some letter embossers that are going to look AWESOME for my new gravestones!!! Really, including fabric, the Hallowe'en stash at the Joann's etc. would barely have fit into the Joann's on Riverside. Two full aisles of costumes, one entire aisle of folksy Hallowe'en stuff and then candelabras, ribbons, trim, buttons, foam projects, Wilton baking accessories, molds, candies, sprinkles, three (3!) different types of witches brooms and a minimum of 4 witches hats! There were some super cute decorations and some candles that I would have bought were I rich and flush with cash but such is life.

I'll try to make it in on November 1 and see what's left over that I can pick up at a 90% discount.

I promise photos are coming of all of this but in the meantime, check out this cute top and matching purse I made for my niece. Cute, huh? It's a tank top but it was actually cold at the game so mommy put a t-shirt underneath. She's a big Dodgers fan. She also turned 3 last month and started preschool and is the 3rd tallest in her class!

A quickie

A quick post before I hit the proverbial hay - I got out today and scoured a couple of yard sales for prop pieces. Found a few and I have next weekend to finish up the majority of my shopping. Picked up a couple of really amazing deals. I love when things I'm actually looking for are going for 50 cents! This week after work will be a blur of spray paint and foam. Gravestones start going up on Tuesday.

I did have my first unfortunate mishap when our gardener thought the branches Michael had collected were waste and chopped them up into bitty twigs. So, I'm gonna have to get out the saw... Well, the peach tree needed pruning anyway.

In the meantime - check out Halloween Town on Magnolia in Burbank. All Hallowe'en, all year round!!!

Squeamish?

I am not squeamish. I have often bragged that if I was out of a job and needed to change careers, crime scene cleanup could be an option. I have done phlebotomy and I have listened to far too many lectures on HIV-related gastrointestinal disorders during dinner lectures (with slides) to be grossed out by much.

The last few years, I have made some, in my opinion, fairly mild Hallowe'en treats. Unfortunately, my co-workers were/are not as robust as I seem to be.

Last year I made a meatloaf foot. Damn, I wish I had photos of that one. Toenails made of onion pieces and ketchup artfully smeared on the stump with a plastic bone pushed in just for fun. Totally easy. Also, easy to transport to work for the potluck!

I made witches fingers one year but these were not nearly as gross as I wanted them to be. They flattened a bit and therefore didn't have quite the look of actual fingers. But the greenish tinge was quite nice.

Two years ago was really the piece de resistance of freaking out my co-workers. I really didn't expect that practically no one would even try it. I mean, really. It was a lovely chocolate cake. It was made from scratch. No boxed mixes in this house!

I guess, perhaps it was a tad too realistic. C'est la vie!

This year I am planning a host of Hallowe'en treats. I'm not going to go for the gross out at work as I don't plan on wasting my time and money on something that won't even be eaten, but I am going to have a few items at home that will be a little stomach churning!


Bone appetit!

A nice place to lay your head

Last year I attended a friend's wedding in Pacific Grove, CA. I haven't been up to the Monterey area in many years and I had no idea where I would stay. As I looked through the list of hotels, one quaint scenic hotel after another, I checked on some travel review site and the review that caught my eye was this:

"But the main dislike was the fact that our room - and on that basis over half of the rooms - overlook a graveyard."

I took the plunge. I love old graveyards. I spent pretty much all of my free time in Boston taking photos of historic gravestones and will likely take some photos when I'm up in Rhinebeck in two weeks.

Despite the fact that I have no intention of being buried (cremation and remains tossed surreptitiously and without fanfare off the coast of Hawai'i near Kalapana) I have always appreciated the study of the symbology and ritual of memorialization.

Here are some of the photos I took in Boston and Pacific Grove (guess which are which!)

Happy October!

And now it begins!

Last week when my husband called me at work to crow about the lovely city of Burbank trimming the trees in the neighborhood I yelled at him to run outside and grab a bunch of branches from the maws of the woodchopper. I'm sort of hoping for a windstorm between now and Hallowe'en to pick up some more. Depending on the weather this weekend, I'll start working on some spookified trees for the yard. Love free stuff. I might also go yard sale trolling for some props as well... Let's hope it's below 90 degrees this weekend!

In other news, we took my niece to Disneyland this week for her 3rd birthday and it just so happened that Hallowe'en had already begun at the Mouse House. I have to say that while they did spook up the place and the fireworks display was pretty awesome (and inspiring) the whole thing was a bit of a let down (just in the Hallowe'en department - Disneyland itself is never a letdown!).

Here's the scoop:

The official Disneyland map featured the hag witch from Snow White and all of the light post hangers featured both the evil witch and the hag which led me to believe that the traditional Disney villains would be featured heavily in the park. It was not to be. Unfortunately, other than some really great pumpkins, most of the park Hallowe'en decorations were weighted toward the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Don't get me wrong, I like Nightmare well enough, I'm just a traditionalist. I would have liked to see a lot more Malificent, Evil Queen, etc. While kids could get the autographs of Jafar, Jack and Sally, and Cruella deVil, they were located primarily in Fantasyland and seemed to mostly scare the crap out of the kids.

One more complaint, just in case anyone's listening...MORE HAUNTED MANSION MERCHANDISE!!! I looked and the only merch available from the Haunted Mansion was pins and a classic CD. That's it.

On the upside, the fireworks show was great. Lots of fireworks, big and dramatic including a big Jack projection that was really great and Zero flying over the crowd. Loved it.

Also, Space Mountain was SPOOKY! It was a total step away from the traditional Disney and featured really creepy skeletal projections jumping out on the turns. Nice touch!

I didn't get to the Hallowe'ened Big Thunder Mountain - after all, we did have to do some 3 year old stuff which included the Tea Cups twice, It's a Small World (which BTW was redone VERY tastefully and really stuck to the original), Peter Pan and the Merry Go Round. She also got to meet Tinkerbell at Pixie's Hollow, which I think was her favorite part as she loooooves Tink. Fun!

On the whole, Mia's first trip to Disneyland was a huge success and Hallowe'en starts with a big sparkly BANG!!!

Countdown to Halloween

OK - there's only 39 days until Hallowe'en and I've joined the Countdown to Halloween group which means one posting EVERY DAY throughout the month of October.

During this time, I will be not only turning our home into the creepy and haunted Landsman Castle, I'll also be attending a writing retreat in Upstate New York where I expect the autumnal changing of the leaves will be occurring. Therefore, there's a lot to write about and I'm looking forward to the challenge. In the spirit of the holiday upcoming, I bring you some of my very favorite Hallowe'en blogs. Please feel free to add your own in comments as I LOVE a good source of inspiration!!!

X-Entertainment - home contests, reviews and all things Hallowe'en

Grim Visions - This guy is an amazing artist and an incredible inspiration. He makes the most amazing creepy and scary life sized ghouls, monsters and other freaks and is an Etsy seller!

Orange and Black - is a great blog written by a guy named All HallowSteve! Love him!

Skull-a-day is not necessarily about Halloween but he does have some great skulls. Check it out.

Dave Lowe Design also has some AWESOME inspiration. How much do I wish I was this talented.

Alright. Send me your links. Need more braaains. More braaaains!!!

The countdown begins...

Six weeks until Halloween!!!!
I'm not going to start the decorating until October 1st (but don't think I'm not tempted...)

cliff list

So, some of you have heard what I want done with my body upon the occasion of my demise. For those that haven't, I would like my ashes tossed off the same cliff on the big island of Hawai'i that we tossed Jeff's ashes.

In honor of the 10th anniversary of Jeff's death, on July 1, 1999, I hear by present my Cliff List (in no particular order).

Some of the following I have already accomplished so those are crossed out, but it didn't seem like I should leave them out just because I've already done them...so here it is.

1. Get my book published
2. See the Taj Mahal with my niece
3. Go into the Grand Canyon on a mule
4. Make 100 beautiful things (more on this to come)
5. Take a frame-worthy photograph
6. Visit South Africa
7. Return to Israel for a visit with friends and float on the Dead Sea
8. Rent a motorscooter in Greece
9. Visit the Clinton Library
10. Travel around the U.S. in an RV
11. Visit Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial and ride through the Black Hills
12. Learn to fence
13. See the Northern Lights
14. See Chichen Itza
15. Cruise to Alaska
16. Learn to play poker
17. Learn to do metalwork
18. Learn woodworking and make something useful (or a treehouse!)
19. Get my master's degree
20. Mentor a student
21. Have high tea while sartorially appropriate
22. Have occasion to make and wear a renaissance style gown
23. See the grunion run
24. Spend a week at a writing retreat in New England in the fall
25. Write a children's book
26. Take a train to Canada with a sleeper car
27. See a meteor shower in the desert
28. Stay at the Shady Dell in Bisbee, AZ
29. Make a quilt for myself
30. Make a quilt for someone who is special to me
31. Take "that picture" with the Leaning Tower of Pisa
32. Visit Zion National Park
33. Visit Bryce Canyon National Park
34. Visit Yellowstone National Park
35. See Old Faithful erupt
36. Stand on the Great Wall of China
37. Have my portrait painted.
38. Have a "drive in movie night" in my back yard
39. Fly in a helicopter (that isn't lifeflighting me to a hospital)
40. Be in New Orleans on Mardi Gras
41. Write a cookbook
42. Design and build my perfect back yard
43. Have a spa environment in my bathroom
44. Eat fire
45. Buy a needy stranger a meal
46. Dive off a cliff
47. Learn to ride a motorcycle
48. Snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef
49. See an active volcano
50. Stay at a monastery or convent
51. Eat fresh lobster in Maine
52. Pick apples at a U-Pick farm and make applesauce
53. Grow a bunch of heirloom tomatoes and eat them with olive oil and mozzarella
54. Have a glass of Greek wine while watching the sunset off a balcony in Greece
55. Have the best Hallowe'en display on the block
56. Make my own Hallowe'en costume
57. Have a reunion with my Israel classmates
58. Go to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl with box seats
59. See a seriously campy movie at Cinespia
60. Go to Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach
61. Fix up an old car (preferably my 66 Ford Galaxie >photo) and join the Hell's Belles
62. Finish my tattoo
63. Get the rest of my body tattooed
64. Grow a pumpkin
65. Visit the longest yard sale
66. Design and print my own fabric
67. Have a yearly themed party until I can't think of any more good themes
68. Build a firepit in my backyard and have a s'more roast
69. Make and can my own pickles
70. Start an Etsy site and sell my wares
71. Make my bedroom into a cozy retreat
72. Learn to sew well enough that I can make an item of clothing without hesitation
73. Have a massive Hallowe'en party
74. Have an article that I wrote printed in a major magazine
75. Go kayaking in Hawai'i again
76. Take a belly dance class
77. Ride in a hot air balloon
78. Successfully make spun sugar
79. Sleep on a houseboat
80. own a home
81. sit and read in front of my own fireplace
82. learn to scuba dive
83. Get my SCUBA license
84. Go to the races
85. Make every recipe in one cookbook
86. Run a 5K
87. Have a full day of beauty at a spa and enjoy every moment
88. Leave a 100% tip for someone
89. Teach a University course
90. Fire a gun
91. participate in an archeological dig and find a treasure
92. Skinny dip
93. Visit Pompeii
94. Visit the Anne Frank house
95. Visit (or at least pee in) all 50 states
96. Take a pilates class
97. See the Milky Way from Joshua Tree
98. Open a store
99. Retire!
100. Ask a stranger in another country if I can take their picture in their native language
101. Have my photographic portrait taken
102. Build a snowman
103. Visit the Louvre
104. Go to the top of the Eiffel Tower
105. Take a swing dance class
106. Make a piece of art that I could hang on a wall and be proud of
107. Stop ending sentences in prepositions.

That last one was just for those of you who are still with me. I'm going to try to update this list to let you know how I'm doing. It's not a complete list. I'll probably add to it as I go.

I'm looking forward to checking things off the list!

Hallowe'en Haunts

I am a tad on the morbid side. Jeff used to call me a death junkie, but honestly, I always had a little taste for the macabre. I suspect it's from all those times as a kid that I turned a lovely shade of gray and almost died. Love me some coping mechanisms. Even my tattoos are mementos mori. Which was the theme of my senior thesis.

Anyway, I love this stuff!!!
There is some serious WANT going on in this post.


via frightcatalog.com


















via CrimeSceneProducts


















And these wall hooks. They are just the end all, be all.

Oh, how I wish we weren't having an economic meltdown and I was less responsible because daaaamn...I would have these on my kitchen wall year 'round. Via A+R Store












Also, in case you weren't aware, the L.A. County Coroner's Office has it's very own Gift Shop which carries some seriously fun stuff.


Happy Hallowe'en y'all!!!!!

October!!!!!!

It is officially my favorite time of year.

• When my neighborhood starts the annual guessing game of who works at the best prop house, which neighbor is a sound engineer and which is an executive that has someone come from the studio to do all the decorations. (I'm telling you, the competition in my neighborhood is freaking fierce.)
  
• When I can eat all the pomegranates I can stomach
  
• When putting a hot pot of chili on the stove doesn't make me want to yak.
• When x-entertainment is having their Whatever-O'Lantern contest.
• When children run bawling in the aisles of Target because dad thought it would be awesome to scare the living shit out of his 4 year old. While mom has on her best, "What are you? A freakin' 12 year old?!" look. (saw it happen twice this weekend!)
• When it's time to start getting out saws and wood and carving tools to learn how to create a custom coffin because I can't find one cheap on Craigslist.

Hi honey! It'll be fun! Really! And then I'll have woodworking skills!

By the way:

This is a coffin = hexagonal

And this is a casket

Just in case you were wondering what the difference was.

I'm going to continue with my favorite Hallowe'en finds for the rest of the month because it just makes me giddy.

Little lady strikes again!

I'm a little sore this morning.

Here's why.

It looks so nice and tiny and easy to maneuver when it's a photo.

It isn't nice or tiny or easy to maneuver. I had to rent a truck to get it home. I had to learn how to turn on the drive shaft while the cutter blade was vibrating the 330 pound machine. I had to open the choke and tilt the blade and then I ripped up my entire back lawn.

Did I mention how much I hate Bermuda grass?

When I went into the home improvement store to ask about rental on Saturday and then to rent and return it on Sunday the words, "Little Lady" were at the tip of everyone's tongue in each of their smirking faces.

For instance,

Me: "Excuse me, where do I go to rent a sod cutter?"
Home Improvement Store Employee: "You're going to rent a sod cutter?" (little lady)

Me: "I'd like to rent a sod cutter."
HISE: "Well, that's very ambitious" (little lady)

Big construction guy renting some other equipment: "Are ya building something?" (little lady)
Me: "Nope, I just do demolition." (asshat)

Ultimately, I got it home, got a trench dug up, read the instructions, started up the engine and within about 2 1/2 hours, the back lawn was no more.

Damn it. I knew I could do it. And I needed to prove to myself that I could. Frankly, if I didn't do all the things I was scared of or was unsure of, I'd never make curtains or put up hallowe'en decorations...in fact, I'd never write a blog post or make dinner if I had to be completely certain about what I was doing.

It is by no means perfect. I missed a couple of spots that I'm going to have to go at with a shovel but overall - not a bad day of work for a total amateur little lady.

Hallowe'en roundup

Hallowe'en was awesome. Everything I was hoping for and more.

I had a party during the afternoon at work for which I made the kitty litter cake. Total hit. In fact, such a hit that the daughter of the woman I sent it home with sent me back candy as a thank you. How's that for a hit!?

Michael and I came home early on Hallowe'en, put on our scrubs and lab coats. I stuck an Anatomy of the Brain poster in my front hallway so it was the first thing trick or treaters would see upon opening the door.

About 1/2 hour after sunset the first of the kidlets arrived. They kept on coming until about 9 p.m. I was already cleaning up. I think as the doorbell rang I heard Michael yell, "Those better be some damn good costumes to be ringing my doorbell at 9 p.m." Grumpy ol' grouch.

Anyway, in the hour before sunset I finished off the tombstones. The tombstones read,

Here lies Jeff - Quit talking about me!
(a phrase he frequently said)

Your Name Here

and

Christine Amen
(who was the lovely and talented but dearly departed alter-ego of my husband)

Then I lit candles on our mantle and set up the fog machine. I downloaded about 2 hours worth of really, really scary sounds off iTunes and set up the speakers in the front window.

Needless to say, we had a few young kids who were afraid to come all the way up to the door and some smart-assed teenager who I heard as he was coming up to the door, cough out "I have asthma." Duh. It's a fog machine kid, not a smoke machine. The wind was perfect so that we had the gauze curtains blowing in the light breeze and the fog would come out of the entryway in billows and then hang over the graveyard like I designed it that way...yeah...I designed it that way...!

Then on November 1st, we had the Stitch and Bitch dia de los muertos party. So fun!!! I went as La Calavera de la Catrina. I won the prize for the best dia de los muertos themed costume!!! Made the hat and shawl that afternoon with one trip to Michael Levine and some stuff I had in my craft room. I love CRAFTING! Not only that - I got the best damn bag in the whole world - handmade by Natalie! Woo hoo! (I'm the one on the left. Middle - Monkeygurl, Right - Crazy Aunt Purl - Photo credit L.A. Ell)

(P.S. I have to note that I have absolutely no makeup on my neck or chest. I am just that white. I am..."the whitest white girl in whitetown.")

Finally, I just had to share pictures of my niece on Hallowe'en. Oh my. She is just out of control cute!!! Baby Elvis has left the building!

Graveyards for Dummies, Pt. 2

ok -

So I started with

• 8x5 feet of polystyrene Insulfoam (Lowe's)
• wooden garden fencing (Lowe's)
  
• black felt (Michael Levine)
  
• plastic chain (Target)
  
• some skewers (had in my kitchen)
  
• a ton of gray and black spray paint (Michael's)
  
• some gauze (Michael Levine)
  
• one very large spider (50% off at Great Indoors)
• some foam craft letters (Target)
  
• Malibu solar lighting (Home depot)
• Solar flicker candles (I hope to find a better and more honest supplier before next year)
  

One great thing about the Santa Ana winds is that trees come down the weeks before Hallowe'en. This gives me plenty of opportunity to grab tree branches full of dead leaves and twigs for witches brooms and leaves for the graveyard. I take full advantage of the free stuff, yo.

Once the spray paint on the tombstones is dry, I used black foam lettering for the epitaphs. By the way, I didn't get nearly enough black letters and found that a little black acrylic paint adheres to the foam just beautifully - even over fluorescent yellow letters. You can't even tell they were yellow. There are some great epitaphs on the net - though I chose dead people I actually know. Way more realistic that way. Put the letters on before you stick 'em in the ground.

I inserted the skewers into the lawn (heavy duty ones are best) and then inserted them into the polystyrene tombstones. Trying to do it the other way will make you cry.

I stapled some gauze - which was heavily discounted due to holes (woot!!!) onto the beam above my front door for some curtains through which my treaters have to walk through. Muy scary!!! Then I took my 6 foot spider and staple gunned him to the outside of the house. He kinda freaks Michael out a little bit.

Next I took some felt and measured the mantle and the side windows seen below. Remember if you're doing two of something, especially symmetrical, just fold the fabric in half and then in half again. Just cut out the center and you have two perfect window silhouettes seen below. I did the same thing with the mantlepiece.

Now for the lighting. Solar is your friend. My house was built in 1951. I have no outdoor outlets so I got solar lighting and hid the lights behind the cheap tombstone I bought at Target to light up the others. Then I bought some solar flicker candles (loooong story) and hung them from the trees with heavy duty black upholstery thread. They look like they're floating in mid air. Spooky. Also, I can leave them on all the time and they don't wear out like battery powered candles would.

For the final piece, I have a bit of spider webbing which I will use SPARINGLY!!! and I'm going to hang some super light white threads in front on the door step so they tickle people's faces as they come up to the door (feels like a spider web!).

Here's the finished product.

Happy Hallowe'en!

October in Los Angeles

Photo credit Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles smells like a campfire this morning and the surface of anything sitting still for more than 10 minutes is covered in a fine veil of ash. There is about 3% humidity right now and it feels like I have had a gallon of water before 10 a.m.

None of this is new to me. I grew up in the foothills of Los Angeles. Many a Hallowe'en night was spent trick or treating as my father stood on the roof with a garden hose. In other cities, the leaves turn orange. In our city, the sky becomes pumpkin colored and thick every October.

It starts every year with the Santa Anas. These are the driest of hot winds that come in devouring the moisture from the air, our skin, every living thing. Then, whether by cigarette flung out a window on the side of the 405 or an arsonist or a kid with firecrackers or just a freak occurrence of nature and the sun, a fire erupts. Suddenly 4 or 5 counties are ablaze and we are glued to our TVs watching the pageant of water-dropping helicopters and beautifully formed cyclones of flames whipping around the chaparral.

Not a thing is safe from the embers that float like bitter snowflakes down on cars and homes and businesses across freeways and firelines to touch off another storm.

It is fire season in Los Angeles.

Don't tell me we don't have seasons.