Everybody knows I like Halloween. It's my favourite holiday next to Christmas and Taco Tuesdays.
Last year for Halloween I couldn't find anything appropriately creepy for a doormat in stores or online so I made this Halloween demon doormat (and showed you how to make it too).
I mean, that guy looks genuinely disturbing.
I didn't want a happy Halloween mat with a cheerful, smiling witch. Halloween witches should look like they just swallowed a cupcake made with lungs and bile, not a fistful of Ecstasy. A smiling witch, I mean honestly.
Personally, I like my Halloween decorations to be closer to something that might prompt a search warrant. They should be a little alarming and full of creep, but an elegant creep, like my doll body parts under glass.
Commercial Halloween decorations have been reduced to two categories:
a) so cute the sweetness makes you sick
or
b) so gory the oozing guts make you sick (think misshapen heads with eyeballs dangling from those cords that are supposed to hold your eyeballs in your head)
I'm not opposed to gore, but I am opposed to cute for Halloween; it feels unnatural; like vacuuming.
So I spent last weekend scouring Amazon for my kind of Halloween decorations because friends don't let friends buy stupid stuff.
And because it could be said that buying any plastic garbage Halloween decorations is stupid stuff I specifically scoured for items that work well for Halloween but aren't necessarily Halloween decorations, so they can be left out all year.
Some of them are a bit weird to have out all year long but that's what will make them great. Every house needs 1 piece of weird - because weird is usually unexpected and always interesting.
I'm going to continue to add to this list which you can find on my Amazon storefront so check back every so often over the next couple of weeks.
If you buy anything by clicking one of the links, I will make a monumental commission from Amazon. If you wash your face I'll make a commission from Amazon. If you drink a coffee I'll make a commission from Amazon. If you breathe I'll make a commission from Amazon.
Sorry. I said my wishful thinking out loud.
I was *just* about to buy the Ouija board doormat on Amazon.ca for myself, but in Canada it's $70, not $25. So - there might be a DIY Ouija board doormat in our future.
I am thrilled to have stumbled onto your site. What started as reading about how to dry herbs led me down a rabbit hole to your Halloween stuff. Bravo! This year I decided my decorating theme from here on out is to make my home look like a witch's cottage. Not fake witch crap, but "is she a witch for real?" The time I have had trying to find good, elegant but spooky, creepy things...now when I visit thrift stores, flea markets and such I'm definitely going to be on the lookout. And will start saving my bones......
I've wanted to make my house a realistic Hansel and Gretel type witches cottage as well. :) I have naturally occurring dust and cobwebs so you'd think it'd be easy but I never get around to it. Maybe this year! ~ karen!
If you’re interested in a book about the funeral industry, try Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. The author wanted to become a mortician but had to work in the industry for a year before she could enroll In mortuary school. So she got a job working at a crematorium. Well done and interesting.
Oh, thanks! I'll add it to my list. I'm just reading Mercy House right now. ~ karen
Oh if you like creepy but really fun watch "Ask a Mortician" on YouTube. She is brilliant! She has me truly laughing out loud (that takes a lot, believe me). Thanks for the Hallowe'en tips Karen - I'll have to try a few this year.
Oh! I'll look her up. ~ karen!
Love the doormat (looks a bit like me when I wake in the morning) and the cat! 😻
Indeed Halloween isn't supposed to be cutsey! Last year I was a "member" of kiss. This year either a pink lady (RIP Olivia) or cheese in the "green can" and hubby.....spaghetti and meatballs.
Ok, so maybe that's a bit cutesy! Haha
Is that the shining twins?!?! Now to me that's the spookiest thing there! "Come and play with us on the cameo,forever and ever and ever"..........
FYI, I saw those twins were there to honor the Queen and they look just as scary today! lol
Vacuuming=unnatural.... You kill me Karen😂
Oh, and Six feet under? One of the best shows ever!!!!!
It was WAY ahead of its time in so. many ways. ~ karen!
I do luv me some Halloween. Thanks for sharing the tips and ideas. It makes the former Funeral Director/Embalmer in me smile. That doormat is pretty cool, but even in USD$ a bit too spendy for even a semi-rabid Karen B fan like me. lol Maybe something else? Oh, I dunno. We shall see what we shall see.
Did you ever watch any of the funeral home shows? Family Plots? Six Feet Under? (which had the absolute, without question, non negotiable, best series finale last seen ever) ~ karen!
In my humble opinion, Six feet Under was the closest thing to reality that I've even seen. For a while I was a 4th Generation participant in the profession and a lot of the stories could have been our home movies -lol
Totally agree about the finale!
Omg.Thank you.l love you shopping for cool stuff for me.lf l had your skills l would be in trouble.