Monster Ball Imminent…

-DHM Delort Std editon set_zps4xdr56wy

 

These spectacular images designed by Nico Delort for Dark Hall Mansion go on sale tomorrow, Tuesday October 13! This collection is a masterwork of theme and design and are certain to sell out quickly.  For more information on this incredible set, visit the DHM site.  Pic is clickable.  Check their blog for more information.  Don’t wait to get yours.  I won’t.

Mirth and Musings Part 11

A lovely New Yorker cover from my collection. Edna Eicke has captured a wonderful moment.  Everything the night should be, the “ghosts” peering through the gate to judge if the walk is worth the risk.  I think the lighted windows highlighting the porch seal the deal.  I love the importance of the porch, the threshold, the approach to the door.  So much anticipation, exhilaration, consternation.  You get it.  Sometimes with haunters its meant to be a very long walk, even when its a hop, skip and jump to the door from the sidewalk.  Like running the bases through a gauntlet, real or imagined.  With only the thought of reaching the porch, the door, safety always to be found at home, even if for just a moment, someone else’s.  A lovely tradition I think.  Thanksgiving has the turkey shared with family and friends, Christmas gets the tree with thoughtful gifts to be given out amongst nearest and dearest.  On Halloween we invite neighbors and strangers alike to our doors.  We wait upon the knock, the doorbell, we pause and savor the shrieks and hesitant approach of children and adults through the keyhole or from between the blinds.  The magical ‘say “trick or treat!” and enter’ that signals a kindred spirit whereupon we open our doors and distribute rewards for stopping by.  Simply marvelous.

NYH

Rogers Gardens

Halloween-Boutique-Opening-Something-Wicked-This-Way-Comes

 

I have attended the first day opening of the Rogers Gardens Halloween Event for the past few years and I will be there early to enjoy it this year as it looks to be especially creepy.  The four rooms they usually design/decorate traverse beautiful to bizarre, worth the stop if you are near Corona del Mar, Ca.  See you there? Click pic to link to site.

The first catch of the Season!

IMG_5706

 

Was visiting my local Pottery Barn today, hoping to catch a glimpse of what I’ve seen on their website and was surprised to find a few samples of this years’ offering on a table in the back.  I grabbed a set of their Jack O’ Lantern Salt & Pepper set.  Was checking out at cash wrap and the nice lady “J” was pleased to show me a couple of treats “from the back”.  These included items not to be found on their website at this time! Yay! I purchased the above, a Black Cat Wine Topper, a Witch Hat Wine Stopper, a Crystal Skull Wine Stopper.  It was awful nice of her to give me the sneak peak and I really appreciated her thoughtfulness.  Can’t wait for more…

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
169319

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
6a00e54efdf1128833017c32b2147c970b

 

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

whitehaunthouseNYC