Countdown to Halloween is alive and well and if you click on the Frankenstein badge to the right it will take you to the listing of over 150 halloween blogsites!! Wow, so if you’ve got a spare minute or two this Season, check them out, there’s something for everyone. It’s my third year on their list and its been a blast every year. Always lots to discover! Happy Halloween. Indeed.
Tag Archives: Literature
Edward Gorey….treat of treats!
Wish to indulge in a different type of treat this year? Got my invite for this yesterday and wanted to share in case any of you out there wanted to join in. Sounds like fun and its all ages which I think is SPECTACULAR!! Click pic for a link to the site and to download entry form. Flights of fancy well received and I hope to poke and prod all of you into submission. Wink, wink! Be sure to check out the 2014 winners, wonderful stuff!
THE EDWARD GOREY HOUSE 2015 ALL-AGES HALLOWEEN ENVELOPE ART CONTEST
Our annual Envelope Art contest is now open for submissions from artists of all ages from around the world. Submit your original envelope artwork postmarked no later thanOctober 23rd, 2015. There is no entry fee though artists can only submit one entry to the contest per year.
Decorate an envelope (of any size you choose) with your Edward Gorey-esque Halloween themed image(s)—with the Edward Gorey House address clearly visible on the front—and mail it to this address:
Edward Gorey House
8 Strawberry Lane
Yarmouth Port, MA 02675
USA
Mirth and Musings Part 10
100th Post! For you all out there thank you! Hope you will all hang in there with me through the months ahead.
Serious withdrawals this week. Its now 320 days until Halloween 2014.
While I don’t plan on posting a running countdown, I can’t help but look around at all the red and green and cast my mind back to just a short while ago when orange and purple and acid green were the colors of the day. To be honest, I still have my orange and black lights up (inside my dining room), along with a few other Halloween decorations I couldn’t bring myself to take down, yet. I’ve a couple of weeks, right? Anyway – as I un-bubblewrap ornaments from years past I pause and reflect just why I try to drag it all out as far as I can, simply the place never feels so cozy than in the Fall and I try to keep that going well into Winter. When it is mostly packed up and the upcoming holidays firmly take over, I still long for and compare subsequent manifestations of my homes decor to those three months in Autumn, the highlight of the year. Time to start planning. Really never too early, I think. Themes and plans and lofty goals. Looking forward.
Here is another lovely New Yorker cover, the intense orange is simply wonderful.
New Yorker Magazine, Kovarsky, 1961
Blue Mood
This is a stunningly beautiful and haunting image from a favorite series of books. I read more this time of year, the weather calls for it, and I mix old and new readings since I have the time to revisit past stories. So amidst my perusals of Bronte and Dickens I pick these up for a “bit of light reading” (HP,SS, 1998)
Click image for source
Perils and Perseverance
Once in a night as black as pitch, Isabel met a wicked old witch. The witch’s face was cross and wrinkled. The witch’s gums with teeth were sprinkled. Ho, ho, Isabel! The old witch crowed, I’ll turn you into an ugly toad! Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry, Isabel didn’t scream or scurry. She showed no rage and she showed no rancor, but she turned the witch into milk and drank her. Isabel met a hideous giant, Isabel continued self reliant. The giant was hairy, the giant was horrid. He had one eye in the middle of his forehead. Good morning, Isabel, the giant said, I’ll grind your bones to make my bread. Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry, Isabel didn’t scream or scurry. She nibbled the zwieback that she always fed off, and when it was gone, she cut the giant’s head off.
Excerpt from The Adventures of Isabel, Ogden Nash, 1931
Click images for source
Mirth and Musings Part 9
The holiday season provides ample opportunities for socializing amongst family and friends, coworkers, club members, and others and I look forward to such occasions with heady anticipation. I’m usually a homebody, so this time of year is nice to step out and experience the excitement and expectations in the wind up to the big day and New Year beyond. I hum carols to myself as I get ready to attend an event, package goodies to deliver as host gifts, wrap small gifts for friends I won’t see at the end of the month. There is much that is undergoing change at present and just now it feels the time will slow briefly so that we can savor the season, I hope that you all find a little downtime to do just that. Between parties, of course.
The New Yorker Magazine, Charles Addams, 1987
Mirth and Musings Part 8
So we are one day away from December and I feel like this lady looking out her window, straining to catch any glimpse of Halloween still out there on the fringes, before our sight is obscured by the glare of holiday lights galore.
The final glimpse as it fades from view
Mirth and Musings Part 7
The weather here on the west coast is definitely Fall-like at last, chill temperatures and brisk gusts of wind remind me of why I prefer this time of year. Time to break out the scarves and mittens, flannels and fuzzy slippers. Just to make cozying up that much more enjoyable. The approaching Thanksgiving holiday makes me pause and reflect, as I still see pumpkins decorating porches and sills and tabletops. We always save one or two from October to enjoy through November – a bright orange reminder – it’s interesting how the pumpkin, the idea of it, transitions from the herald of giving treats to the herald of giving thanks. Many of us will close the holiday with that slice of spicy sweetness. It’s a fitting way to bookend Autumn. Enjoy this New Yorker cover from 1973, a house simply celebrating the season.
New Yorker Magazine, Stevenson, 1973
Darkness Radio
As the nights grow longer, deeper and darker, this may help while away those hours between sunset and sunrise.
Darkness on the Edge of Town – Paranormal Radio Show
Mirth and Musings Part 6
13 days past Halloween and I’ve decided it all went way too fast. The outside decor has been removed and the interiors are nearly back to pre-Halloween state. Though not entirely as there are some aspects of the interiors that I liked too much to take down. I maintain the house never looks so well than it does in October. In any case the neighborhoods have begun to transition towards the next holiday season and soon Thanksgiving will be here. The color palette is still where I like it to be, greens and oranges well represented and Fall weather steady even for the West Coast. Everywhere I look I still keep an eye out for those hidden Halloween touches still peeking out from behind other decor, always so exciting when spotted. Holdovers and clearance tables. Or just avid conspirators like myself determined to keep it going as long as possible. I often look to collections around the house to inspire me – like my New Yorker Magazine covers. I’ll highlight others in coming weeks, but here is the first I framed and its still my favorite. She is obviously getting ready for a big night out. It keeps me smiling and looking forward.
Artist Abe Birnbaum, 1967
