Actually this is more of a catch up on all the odds and ends of things that I have been meaning to post and haven’t gotten to. And so, in no particular order:
This is the image I was greeted with on November 1st when I arrived at work and turned over the page of my Frank Frazetta calendar. If you don’t know who Frazetta is or if you’re curious about just how geeked I can get over someone, please go here, here, and here for my ravings. This was a gift at Christmas and each month it is a thrill to see what the next image is. I particularly like this one, the cover of Death Dealer V, because the colors are very autumnal and because it reminds me of The Lord of the Rings. This being month one of two for my annual LOTR obsessing, I found this image extremely gratifying and enjoy looking at it every time it catches my eye.
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For those of you who may have been waiting for my Halloween pics, here they are. First are those from the second annual Dancing Tarts Halloween Extravaganza.
As I did last year, I made treat bags for each of the ladies. Tori and I spent the morning of that Saturday cleaning out the insides of the pumpkins so that they would be ready for carving that evening.
As usual the ladies went at it with gusto:
(Laura looking sinister with the knife)
(Laura, Nick, and Mary…and no, that isn’t our usual table cloth!)
Here is what the various Tarts, and myself (not quite tarty but a tart at heart), came up with:
(Going clockwise from the top, I did the hellboy jr-ish face, Laura did the raccoon, Nick did the scary pumpkin pile, and Mary let hers speak to her before letting out its personality)
It was great fun being with the Tarts and I look forward to next year.
On Halloween night Tori and I carved these pumpkins to add to the porch:
I took that picture because I liked what Tori did with her bat after she carved it out…it made it even more three dimensional. My ghost looked like this when lit:
I didn’t get a good picture of Tori’s lit. We invited the D’s over to eat pizza and James and I took the girls around the neighborhood for tricks and treats.
This year was the first year I was actually tempted to pull some tricks! I can’t believe how many people in our neighborhood had Halloween decorations up, lights glaring, and then weren’t home. I’m okay with people not being home on Halloween night but turn the lights off,will ya? We spent as much time going to houses where no one answered the door as we did those who were giving out candy. Annoying!!!
(Can we go already???)
That said it was fun taking the girls around and watching them partake in this wonderful old tradition. Since my daughter is now too old for this it was fun to be able to continue doing this even if it was with someone else’s kids. To close out the Halloween pics here are a few fun ones of my outside lights:
(They look like a bunch of multicolored bats, or spiders!)
and a picture of part of my kitchen table centerpiece:
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And now for something completely different:
I arrived home yesterday to see that my autographed copy of Susanna Clarke‘s new short story book, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, had arrived. It is a fantastic, cloth bound, slipcased hardback book and I love the way is put together.
As you slide the book out it has the flower pattern of the cover engraved into the book:
and the Charles Vess interior illustrations are fantastic. You can see more examples of his illustrations for this book and how they went from pencil to finished inked drawings here.
I only have a few of these (‘rare’ probably isn’t the right word) books and I love each and every one, they are treasures.
In addition to a great Frazetta image, the first day of my birthday month brought me a gift from my thoughtful wife:
I can’t wait to add him to the Christmas decorations (which I am itching to put up). I love pre-birthday surprises.
I came home last night to find this:
and some mixed nuts (the kind you crack with a nutcracker…love those this time of year). Tom Shippey is one of my favorite people on the extended edition LOTR DVD’s and I’ve been wanting to read his book for a long time. Thanks sweetie!
That’s all for this sporadic post. Have a wonderful Thursday everyone!!!
“Last night I home last night to find this:”
huh?
lol
love the carved pumpkins.. i missed out doing that this year.
and James & Julie’s kids were so cute dressed up! poor things do look a bit bored in that picture though.
Halloween appears to have been a success at your house! Tart Party and Trick-or-Treating and wonderful carved pumpkins – What Fun.
The Clark books looks beautiful. You are having a great birthday month!
The raccoon pumpkin! Oh, how I love it!
I am mightily intrigued by the Clarke book. You will tell us how it is, won’t you? Please? 🙂
I will review it indeed, whenever I get around to reading it.
LOL, Angela. It has since been corrected. That’s what happens when you type the bulk of a blog post at 1 in the morning! 😉
That is a beautiful book. I love Charles Vess. His illustrations are fantastic.
You have such a wonderful home life Carl…I’m seething with Halloween-related-jealousy! 😉 Esther and I didn’t have pumpkins this year, and decorations aren’t a big thing in the UK, but we did have a very lovely Samhain ritual, with yummy food and lots of chocolate afterwards.
I love your copy of ‘The Ladies of Grace Adieu’; I was sent a copy of the ordinary hardback about a month ago, for review at ‘Strange Horizons’, and can assure you it’s excellent. Not in the same league as ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell’, but then, what could be?
Oh My goodness I didn’t think anyone could be a bigger Frank Frazetta geek than my Husband!
(who by the way is also a huge Boris Vallejo, Diterlizzi, Tolkien, etc… fan. LOL
By the way, I love your copy of The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Very Nice!
Charles Vess illustrations are so awesome!
Happy Birthday Month to you!
Thanks for the visit Paula, I am indeed a big Frank Frazetta fan. Send your hubby over to read my gushing posts, I’d love to hear his feedback. Has he seen the Painting with Fire DVD? It is an excellent documentary.
Glad to hear it Victoria, I look forward to reading it.
The Halloween decorations are wonderful, as always – she says, having only seen one other year… 😉
The pumpkins are fantastic! You’re got some great books added to your list, enjoy 🙂
The girls were so excited about the trick-or-treating! I was glad to stay in this year where it was warm! My Aunt in Indiana got about 200 trick-or-treaters!! The worms were a big hit. I’ve found a couple stuck to the ceiling!
I like your centerpiece.
I love those sticky worms!!! I wish we had gotten more trick-or-treators…not 200…but more than we got!
It’s nice to see someone out there loves Halloween as much as I do.
And Frazetta is my favorite artist. Love the picture, too, but I’m assuming its from the Death Dealer series of books by James Silke? Have you read them? They are TERRIBLE! And then there was the Death Dealer comic book written by Glen Danzig, which was just as lousy, maybe worse. Frank deserves better!
Oh yeah, I heard they are absolutely terrible books so I wouldn’t do Frank the dishonor of reading them. I do love the covers though!
Fall does feel more like a Frazetta time of year to me, too.
My kids loved those sticky worms, too. They were flying all about the hallway on Nov. 1st. Great fun to watch them slowly roll down the wall. 🙂
Cool gifts too. Your Mary sure does treat you right!
Followed a link to here off the Bill Crider blogspot.
The Librarian in me says: “That Frazetta painting remids me of “Dawn of Empire” by Sam Barone, which just came out. Marauding barbarians have plundered and pillaged farming villages across the plains as the residents flee before them. Outcast barbarian Eskkar guides the farming community of Orak as they “build a wall around the village high and strong enough to repel the invaders.”
Happy Birthday month, Honey. I am glad you like the gifts.
I had such a great Halloween thanks to you, the Tarts, and the D’s! I love the decorations you put up.
The Painting with Fire DVD was great. Frazetta is so talented and a little troubled. I really liked his wife and the comments she made.
I enjoyed your pictures. You have such a creative way with every holiday. I was so excited about Halloween this year,I bought, literally, tons of chocolate…and had three trick or treaters. The picture of the Tolkien book reminded me of a book about him during the War, Which, of course, would be a great start for a WWI&II challenge – if one wanted to!
Looks like a great hallowe’en, those pumpkins are fab.
The Clarke book is one I really must get around to picking up at some stage, cause I loved Jonathan Strange
I just love this site. You’re like the Anti-Martha Stewart, with a site crammed with Gothic Good Things. Next year,, will you do an instructonal post on step-by-step pumpkin carving? Swooning over the lil’ HB punkin. We built a Hellboy snowman last year, but he wasn’t nearly as good.
psst, Wendi, just between us …Carl is actually a Martha Stewart fan, too. I know he had a blog post just a month or two ago mentioning this very fact.
Actually all I do is buy one of those cheap carving kits from Target or Wally World and follow the directions…I’m no genius, but I can follow simple instructions! 😉