Justine's Halloween Blog Party!

Welcome to my first Halloween blog party! I asked all my blog friends to send me photos of themselves in costume, from any point in their lives. I was so thrilled with the amount of participation in this!

I think this will be a fun way for us to get to know one another better. I had no idea what some of you looked like before you sent your photos. Actually, in a few cases I still don't know! Anyway, on to the party...

As the hostess, I'll start the party with my costume. In my Little Red Riding Hood outfit, I'm waiting for you guys on the front porch. You can click on these photos to enlarge them.

Here are the guests in order of their arrival. Next to their costume name, is a link to each guest's blog. May I present to you...

Bone Man ~ wicKED from http://wickedwaysproductions.blogspot.com/

Bat Man ~ Johnny Zombie from http://nightmarefuelpodcast.blogspot.com/

 
Death ~ Pensive Pumpkin from http://pensivepumpkin.blogspot.com/

The Creep ~ Dex from http://aeiouwhy.blogspot.com/

The Venetian Priestess ~ Vivienne from http://viviennemoss.blogspot.com/

Zombie ~ Autumn Forest from http://autumnforestghosthunter.blogspot.com/

Cat Woman ~ Little Gothic Horrors from http://littlegothichorrors.blogspot.com/

 
Cat ~ Halloween Spirit from http://spiritofhalloween.blogspot.com/

Brain eating zombie ~ Slowdeath77 from http://horrorsmorgasbord.blogspot.com/

Toothpaste
Adsila from http://above-the-norm.blogspot.com/

Here's the back view. She probably has a list of directions and ingredients displayed here. I think I see a logo. I'm sure she's ADA approved. :)

The dead school girl ~ Zena "The Real Queen of Horror" from http://www.realqueenofhorror.com/

Old Mister Six-Snips ~ King Unicorn from http://kingunicorn.blogspot.com/

Dolly Holly ~ Holly from http://hollyshorrorland.blogspot.com/

This is Holly as a little girl, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. Her brother is the Big Bad Wolf.

Romeo ~ The Great White Dope from http://thegreatwhitedope.blogspot.com/

This is a photo from his performance in "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged".

Leatherface ~ Sean from http://fishblogwash.blogspot.com/

Sean was also nice enough to bring some cupcakes to the party!

The Goddess Hel/ Norse Death ~ Kweeny Todd from http://kweenytodd.blogspot.com/

U.S. Mail ~ Lisa (the lady in the middle) from http://maplegrovecemetery.blogspot.com

It looks like postal workers know how to party!

                            
Anubis (The Egyptian God of the Dead)
Marvin the Macabre from http://montanamancavemassacre.blogspot.com/

Anubis unmasked! How cool that both the Norse Goddess of Death and the Egyptian God of Death are here!

Alice Cooper ~ The October Boy from  http://deadwoodcemetery.blogspot.com/

Ghostface, the killer from Scream ~ Till the Following Night from http://tillthefollowingnight.blogspot.com/

Here he is as Jack Skellington, as well. (if Jack had hair) He makes a pretty threatening Jack Skellington!

Of course, every good party needs some music. So I have the Monster Mash playing in the background! There's a cool B-Movie montage playing with the song.

Time to bring out the popcorn and watch a movie! I think Ghostbusters is a fun party movie. Here are some of the best moments:

Next, it's time for some drinks and dancing!

I'm even going to share my Arsenic with you!

Feel free to dance along with these at home!
Thriller anyone?

We're not done dancing yet!

I'm sure you're tired after all that dancing, so now it's time to sit down and have some caramel apples.

The best part about virtual snacks is they're calorie free!

Of course, we have to end the night with a Ouija Board session! Since we aren't all in the same room, here's the next best thing: a virtual Ouija Board!

http://www.brainjar.com/dhtml/ouija/

So far, this virtual board hasn't told me much. Maybe you'll have better luck with it!

Thank you to every one of my guests! It was so fun to open my email and see your entertaining photos. I will add any other photos that are sent to me over the next few days. So, if you haven't sent me one yet, there's still a chance to visit the blog party!

The winner of my giveaway and other contests to enter

Last week I advertised a contest to celebrate having 100 followers. Today I chose the winner from the antique cauldron I found at the estate sale:

 I reached in, and pulled out...

Congratulations Vain Glory Sinner! Just email me your address, and your candy art print will be on its way. By the way, if you guys aren't following Vain Glory Sinner's blog, you should go take a look. Her blog is a mixture of makeup, antiques, and Gothic goodness in general.

If I didn't pull your name out of the cauldron, there are still plenty of Halloween contests for you to enter. For instance, I just ran across the Trick or Tweet Halloween giveaway from http://aeiouwhy.blogspot.com/ This blogger is giving away lots of generous prizes! You also have the possibility of winning a rock. Hopefully it won't be a very large rock, because I can't imagine the shipping charges for that!

You won't win this specific rock, I just thought it was a fun picture. I found it on a web site called: http://www.allgoogly.com/ where, you guessed it, people post pictures of various things wearing googly eyes. But I digress...

My blog buddy LuLu is also holding a giveaway for a lovely Halloween crown she made! You have until Oct. 7th to try for that: LuLu's Spooky Crown Giveaway

Also, not to be missed is Raven Fae's giveaway for a set of Grandin Road Halloween Goblets! Raven was the blogger who sent me the lovely bottle labels. You only have until 9:00 CST tonight to try for these, so
get on over to her blog: Raven Fae's Goblet Giveaway

Of course, there's still the duct tape pumpkin contest that I mentioned last time. You have until November 1st to try for that. I'm starting to get some design ideas for that one...

Well, tomorrow is going to be a fun day in blog-land! Many bloggers will be participating in the zombie blog walk. I'll share some zombie thoughts tomorrow and post links to the other participating blogs!

Monsters are good

Why are monsters good? Probably because life would be pretty boring without them. At least, a lot of old sci-fi movies are in great need of monsters. I mean, what else would the characters have going on in their lives if there wasn't something to run away from? 

Monsters, or whatever lurks in the shadows, are one of the more fascinating parts of life. Why is the darkness so fascinating? I have no idea. There's probably some basic part of human nature explaining why I am addicted to true crime TV shows and books. It's probably the same reason that we're fascinated by the villains in fairy tales as much as we're horrified by them. I do have to wonder why I (and most of you) have so much fun blogging about sinister characters and the darker side of the supernatural. If you have any insight as to why you enjoy focusing on darker subject matter, I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment sharing your thoughts.

 

Speaking of things that are enjoyably dark, yesterday I received a fun package in the mail! It was a set of pins that I won in a giveaway from Goblin Haus. The pins were produced by a company named Monsters are Good. (Hence the title for this post) Both companies' web sites are fun to page through. There are a wide array of horror related items on the Goblin Haus site and plenty more pins and clothing on the Monsters are Good site. Here's the generous prize I received:

See Vlad peeking out? :)

This was the pin I wanted most out of the whole bunch! This one will be going directly onto my black hoodie, and the rest will reside on the bulletin board in my studio. (Next to my other spooky pins)

 

 

Goblin Haus also tossed in some nice, large stickers printed with their logo. I love the logo's old school German design! It sets the perfect tone for their business, because let's be honest, we Germans really know how to do it up with the scary stuff...

...and because monsters are so good, here's a treat for everyone: A wonderful monster montage set to "The Imperial March." Enjoy!