Pocket Mouse

fall mums

Today, my friend at work gave me the most beautiful mums I have ever seen:

In2Books

I signed up for this recently and wanted to spread the word because they're looking for other participants.  I'll just cut-and-paste from their notice:

Help Students Write a Better Future! Become an In2Books Pen Pal
Today!

Are you looking for a volunteer experience that engages your
heart and mind - without leaving your desk? Then we have the
perfect volunteer opportunity for you! Become an In2Books pen
pal and enhance the reading, writing, and thinking skills of an
elementary school student this year.

In2Books is an innovative, web-based, literacy enrichment
program that provides third-fifth grade students with meaningful
books to keep and an adult pen pal to correspond with about the
important issues in the books. Pen pals submit their letters via
Pen Pal Place®, an In2Books website for all your pen pal
resources. Teachers deliver the letters to their students and
enrich the pen pal experience with related classroom lessons.

To become a pen pal, visit http://in2books.epals.com/penpal08

Thank you for opening your heart to help more children reach
their full potential.

Pumpkin Patch

Updated photos of the pumpkin patch (click here to see what it looked like at my last update):

There ARE pumpkins (I think four so far), but they are kind of hidden:

My favorite pumpkin:

Here's Linus and Sally waiting for the Great Pumpkin to arrive:

And here's a garden gnome who still needs a name:

Manifest Hope Gallery

My favorite out of all the finalists, by Ben Dutro:

I hope they make it available in a print!  See more here.

colorful, sparkly chandeliers

I know most of these are intended for kids' rooms, but I love these crazy, colorful chandeliers:

Gypsy Chandelier from MiniStyle featured in the autumn issue of Small Magazine:

Whoopsie Daisy Chandelier from Land of Nod:

Spectrum Chandelier from Urban Outfitters:

misc. stuff

- The wonderful blog, Appropriately Named, used my photo of Mr. Coffin!

- The autumn issue of Small Magazine is up!  I know I don't have any kids, but I still love this magazine.  They always feature profiles of wonderful artists like this issue's article on Jayme McGowan.  Also, this praying mantis Halloween costume cracks me up!

- This post on Creature Comforts inspired me to spend a ridiculous amount of time on Polyvore yesterday trying to come up with storybook-inspired looks.  Here's my Alice:

And my Snow Queen:

- Speaking of designing stuff, someone (unfortunately, I can't rememer who) posted a link to a thing on Zazzle where you can design your own Keds shoes.  There aren't many color and pattern options right now though...I wonder if they will add more?

- Meet Me At Mikes posted some videos of Mary Blair's work.  Mary Blair is best known for her work on Disney's Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.  This one makes me really happy and I kind of want to go ice skating now:

More honorable mentions

These are not my favorite movies and some of them aren't even horror movies, but they get a mention because they have all have one exceptionally creepy character:

The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Barnaby Barnacle from Babes in Toyland (1986)- Yes, I know it's only Harry from Empty Nest, but still!

Reverend Henry Kane in Poltergeist II (1986)

honorable mention

Here are a few horror movies that I like, but don't really make the list:

Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)- This one falls into the same "basically a terrible movie, but really creepy" category as Burnt Offerings.  The funny thing about this movie is that Brooke Shields is given top billing even though they kill her off in the first five minutes (which is a good thing).

And three from the Creepy Disney Era:

The Watcher In The Woods (1982)- I love this movie up until the ending.  I really want it to be a ghost movie, but it gets all alien-y at the end.  The alternate ending is hilarious.

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

The Witches (1990)- The beginning used to scare me so much when I was younger.

favorite horror films

This is something I've been wanting to post about for a long time.  I have a serious weakness for horror films, and I can really watch any scary movie (even stupid Hollywood crap) and be entertained, but I have a very strict formula for the perfect horror movie:

1. Must be a ghost story.  Zombies, vampires, werewolves, mummies, etc. do not scare me.  Could also be something witchy or Satan-y but has to be really well-done in order to pass.

2.  Ghost story must be sad (for example, the death of a child) and inspire sympathy for the ghost

3. Heavy on creepy, light on gore

4. Extra points for hidden rooms, secret doors and passageways. etc.

5. Beautiful cinematography

(More rules to come, as I think of them.  I know there are more!)

This will be an on-going list.  I will keep adding movies as I think of them.  Here's the list so far (in chronological order):

1. Faust (1926)
2. The Innocents (1961)
3. The Exorcist (1973)
4. Burnt Offerings (1976)
5. The Changeling (1980)*
6. Ghost Story (1981)
7. The Devil's Backbone (2001)
8. The Orphanage (2007)   

There are more that I can't think of right now and I have to consult with Dave on some- for example, did we like Don't Look Now (1973)?  All I remember is that there was a long naked love scene between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie that I did not appreciate.  I also can't remember if it was the orginal version of The Haunting (1963) or the original House on Haunted Hill (1959) that I really liked, or both.   

I was going to include The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922)  because they are classics, but they don't really fit the criteria and don't really scare me.  However, I did include Faust because the hat-tipping scene really creeps me out.

*Even though I always imagine George C. Scott as General "Buck" Turgidson no matter what he's in.

Alright, I can't do a horror movie post without a picture of Grinny McGrinnerson:

(shudder)

The Snow Queen's Garden

You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail has been on my list of books to read for a while now, but I finally got around to reading it yesterday.  I finished the book, but couldn't get enough of it, so now I'm exploring the forums on the You Grow Girl website.  I found a really great list of themes for themed gardens here and a link to another list here.  I was already exciting about shopping for things to plant in the fall, but now I'm trying to think of a theme that will revolve around the snowdrops that I'm ordering tonight.

I was thinking of a theme sort of inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" (or maybe The White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia?).   Lots of white, early-blooming flowers peeking up through the snow. 

In my fantasy world where I have several acres of land, there would be a path leading through a forest to a small clearing, and that's where my snow garden would be.  Of course, there would be elaborate Edward Scissorhands-style ice sculptures, vintage crystal cake stands used as bird feeders, an icy pond, glass bell jars/cloches, antique chandelier crystals hanging on the trees, garlands of glass icicles.

But since all of that is kind of impossible and would probably look really strange in my backyard, I'll have to think of more realistic ideas!

More to come...I'm really having fun looking through all these seed catalogs online!