Pocket Mouse

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!

This post is for Dave, who will laugh at me. :)

I made the mistake of watching this old Burnt Offerings trailer today when I was home by myself!

I don't care if the acting is terrible (especially that of Miss Karen Black) and it's from the period when Bette Davis only ever played creepy old ladies, this movie terrifies me!  See if you can spot what freaks me out the most in the movie.  Here's another, longer one:

Holy crap, someone made a YouTube video of the creepiest part in the whole movie.  Help!

No way! I just discovered that you can watch the entire movie on YouTube.

Stuff I Love

I don't usually buy lots of bath and body products, but at this year's Pile of Craft, I bought a few things from Bunny Butt Apothecary that I really recommend.  My favorite was a blackberry vanilla perfume oil.  I don't usually like fruity scents, but this one is delicious.  Sometimes I blend in with my favorite scent ever, Comptoir Sud Pacifique's Matin Calin.  I also got some blackberry vanilla whipped cream and two lip balms (clover honey and vanilla velvet).

I also recently got my order from Ivy Keep: Apple Spice Tea Balm from CrazyRumors and delicious Chocolate Banana Nutter Butter happyspoon gourmet granola.

Krystyne from Ivy Keep is so sweet- there was a delay in my order (that I really didn't even notice) so she included tons of soap and tea samples and a $5 coupon as an apology.

Salad!

As promised, here are some pictures of my very first homegrown meal:

It had dried cranberries, dried cherries, granny smith apples, sliced toffee-flavored almonds, and creamy maple dressing.  Here's the recipe I used for the dressing:

Creamy Maple Dressing

1/4 cup regular or reduced-fat sour cream
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Whisk together all of the ingredients in a small bowl until well combined.  Let stand 15 minutes before using.

My pumpkin patch

This summer I decided to plant an organic mini pumpkin patch in the side garden.  I used Burpee's Jack Be Little seeds:

This is what the pumpkin patch looks like so far:

I added the sun jars and still have to add these solar lights so the pumpkin patch with have an orange-y glow at night for autumn/Halloween.

A few other garden pictures...here's an awful picture of one of the trees I planted for Arbor Day this year.  Only two out of six grew, but I was still happy because I didn't expect any of them to survive.

This is the adorable toad house I bought on Etsy from Teresa Wooden.  I don't think there are any toads living in it yet, just spiderwebs, but I love it anyway:

This is the little square that was always mine growing up...I would weed it sometimes and stick a few seeds from fruit or vegetables in it and they would never grow.  Mostly I would play with my toys in it.  Now I guess all of the gardens are mine.  I haven't decided what to put here yet; for now I just have the toad house and my heirloom tomato.  I am about to move my alpine strawberry there too.

I'm sad that I seem to have lost the ability to take a decent photo over the past few years (the last time I was really into taking pictures was 2004; since then I've maybe taken 10 photos a year).  Mostly it's laziness and impatience...I would much rather use the automatic settings, snap a quick picture, and move on to something else than take the time to get a really good shot.  I am about to delve into the latest issue of Somerset Studio's Artful Blogging, though, so I hope that will inspire me.

AeroGarden progress!

I meant to post before-and-after photos of my AeroGarden like Rachel did, starting when they were just tiny little baby plants sprouting up under their plastic domes, but I never got around to it and now my salad greens look like this:

Needless to say, I am having salad for dinner tomorrow night.  And yes, there will most definitely be pictures of my first ever homegrown meal.

Downstairs, I am growing "English Cottage" flowers on my mini AeroGarden 3.  The seed kit includes Fantasy Petunia, Stock, and Twinkle Phlox. These are growing more slowly than the salad greens so at least I can show you some pre-flower photos and it will kind of be a before-and-after once they're blooming:

I'm kind of mad that I didn't get the Edible Flowers seed kit (with snapdragon and marigold) but I decided to get this one because it was supposed to have lavender.  I guess the lavender wasn't growing well or something because they have now replaced it with stock.

More garden photos soon...