My attempt at a Lolcat

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Babies are channeling their inner grown-up with a pair of stilettos…even before they’re out of the crib.

Heelarious creators have fashioned soft crib booties designed to look like high heels. Now baby will be ready for high fashion shopping trips, charity events, breakfast at Tiffany’s and red carpet events.

Apparently, these little spikes are selling like crazy in 22 states and overseas.

The tiny novelty high heals aren’t for walking, obviously, but they’re soft, funny and fashionable.

Heelarious crib booties come in leopard satin print, hot pink patent, black satin, zebra satin, black patent, and hot pink satin.

Check out welovefancydress.com - it’s a fun costume website that lets users upload their costume photos. Their motto is, “Your online dressing up box. Put ideas in, take ideas out….”

You can browse through the photos, and “tip” the ones you like. Tipping is basically voting, and you can see which photos are the most admired. Fun!

The website is run by Clementine & Rebecca. Great job, Ladies!

www.welovefancydress.com

It’s never too early to think about Halloween costumes. What are you gonna wear, man?

WTF Costumes has some great costume photos on their website.

Check ‘em out: www.wtfcostumes.com.

Duct tape has so many uses, and can solve all sorts of problems. So should we be surprised that it’s also great for making costumes?

Take a look at Kimberly Timmons and Christian Price as they attend their high school prom. Wow! Using over 50 rolls of blue and silver tape, they created costumes that rival the elegant dress of Cinderella and Prince Charming.

Kimberly entered a contest sponsored by the Duck brand duct tape company, hoping to win the $3,000 prize. According to GTR News, her dress weighed a hefty 25 pounds. Let’s hope she wins.

Looks fun, but is it painful to take off? Fortunately for Kimberly, she planned ahead. By sticking two pieces of duct tape together, she was able to don the dress without having it stick to her skin.

Apparently, duct tape costumes are immensely popular these days. Many duct tape companies and organizations sponsor these artistic contests. Check out more great pictures from ducttapeclub.com and ducttapeguys.com.

Early? EARLY!? Do you KNOW what blog you’re reading?

It’s a good thing to plan ahead. In the seventh grade I had to give up and deliver my lines in a children’s theater rendition of “The Wind in the Willows”. With no lines memorized, no plans on what to do with my hands, I played a terrible party. Worst thing is that I only had one line. I was the jailer…

So you can see, I don’t like to screw things up. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

Halloween Countdown has begun, and with no regret. We’re going to make sure you’re ready this year. For this first part of my segment I’m going to introduce you to preparations that will make you so ready for Halloween, you’ll be the belle or beau of the ball… or beast if that’s what you prefer.

Prepare with ideas and a journal 

Costumes are a thing of creativity. No one ever got away with a good costume award without having to owe some love to their creative side.  But creativity is one thing when it’s in your mind and a whole other when it’s on paper.

Here’s what you do:

• Get a nice journal from a nice place. Barnes and Noble comes highly recommended, and the Moleskine journals are perfect.
• Select on big enough to sketch in, as you’ll need some images to make it right.
• Get post-it tabs that you can stick in some pages and color coat them with.
• Keep the journal handy in a spot where you get most creative.

The idea is to act on inspiration the second you have it. It’s not hard, and once you write things down, it’s amazing where your mind will take you.

As a small business starter, I’ve done this for most of my life. You won’t believe the ideas I’ve come up with and thrown away. There are yet others I had, but did nothing about. Eventually someone else took the money and ran. You may regret not executing some ideas, and being gung ho about others. However you will never regret writing them down. It’s an exercise in confidence and faith. Try it.

That ought to keep you busy for awhile. We’ll come back soon with more ideas on how to prepare for Halloween early.

Instructables has always been a knock out for good DIY content. Without enough time to scour the pages frequently enough, I don’t see everything. Upon loading up the front page today, I came across this instructable on how to make an effective and convincing gunshot wound. It’s pretty sick looking, and not for the faint of heart, but if you’re making your own costumes it’s a must.

Since Instructables is always good for a step-by-step tutorial, you can check it out and plan out your costumes accordingly. Instructables user, Trumpetneel, seems to have a knack for these discusting flesh lacerations and wounds, so he’ll have more for you when you check it out. Now, to figure out how I’m going to manage breakfast…

I have to apologize to all of you who don’t quite know Big Daddy. Trust me, he’d love to meet you.

If you didn’t notice, Big Daddy basically cleaned up all the coolness costume awards from ‘07. After an epic public showing at the Spike Video Game Awards, he’s had more media attention than a hybrid Paris Hilton/Britney Spears money spewing robot… that dispenses predictions of the future… and has the cure to cancer…

Okay, anyway it begs the question, what have you been doing Big Daddy? Is this monstrosity of a character laying low before he stars again in another epic under water adventure?

Big Daddy, where are you now? /begin dream sequence

Well, it seems that after being bludgeoned by fame and fortune, Big Daddy had his own action figure made.

Others who aren’t in possession of the dough for their own mini-pet Big Daddy have gotten the chance to create some dazzling renditions with Legos. Lincoln Logs Big Daddy on the way?

Big Daddy tried his hand in some other work, but it may have not worked out. (thanks Fenner)

And with such fame, comes TV deals… (don’t hold your breath, it’s not as entertaining as you may be expecting)

The art world has seemed to really grasp hold on Big Daddy’s fame. I mean, what’s not inspiring about a metal drill-armed weapon wielding superhuman mutant protector of creepy little girls?

Enjoying the paparazzi, Big Daddy decided to make a few extra bucks as well. Someone on eBay had the chance to get their paws on some of his daily garb. Fetching a nice, but underwhelming price, you’d figure he could make that same money buy poking through drawers and old registers down in Neptune’s Bounty, hmm?

All in all, it has been one great year for El Grande Papa. Keep sipping your piña coladas Big Daddy, it won’t be long before the world needs you again.

Instructables is always a veritable treasure trove of awesome stuff. I love the clever crafts that people come up with and share. Some of them, I’ve nearly stood up from my computer and pursued crafting immediately.

That’s why I have to share the Living Severed Hand instructable with the bloggees today (does that word work?). This particular craft may seem a bit late for Halloween, but it’s fun anyway. The user who crafted this goes by the name a grain of alt.

The basic gist of this is to get a matching pair of gloves but create one as a stuffed “dummy glove” to slip the hand into. If the glove is stuffed well, and attached properly, all you need is to make a semi-realistic looking stub and you’re set. However, if you’re running around with your fingers wiggling on the severed hand, we have confidence people won’t be looking at your stub so much as they will be running from it. Either way, it’s a pretty ingenious costume piece and deserves a good try.

Good Work!

We’ve talked before about virtual worlds, and the value we see in them. Since we are into costumes, and all things pertaining to them, it’s no surprise that virtual worlds prove an interesting concept to us. Costumes and virtual worlds are means of escape. They’re means of taking on a new set of skin for awhile. Some of us do it for fun, others more seriously, still others for competition. Ultimately, the point is to get away from the drudgery of life and be something else for awhile.

I caught an anonymous tip of an article on Massively.com about the lamenting for a Halloween gone by. As I read it, I noticed that the writer was specifically referring to the Halloween she spent online. Come again?

A further read revealed that she misses the Halloween she celebrated in City of Heroes, a popular superhero online role playing game. I’ve never really experienced at full the concept of celebrating a holiday online, but thought I’d dig a bit deeper to find out what it’s all about. In my research, I found out more than I expected.

Popular games like World of Warcraft, Everquest, City of Heroes, and even the brand new Hellgate: London all represented the costume obsessed holiday with great detail. Each world takes on a different feel, and therefore has it’s independent story about how the holiday is incorporated into their celebrations. For example, in World of Warcraft, the holiday is actually called Hallow’s End. According to the website’s description of the Holiday.

Observed by both the Horde and the Alliance, Hallow’s End is the celebration of the break between the Forsaken and the Scourge. Adventurers can speak to innkeepers to get silly masks to wear during their adventures, and much more. This is just one way to celebrate Hallow’s End. Read below for more things to do during spooky season on Azeroth!

The dwarf city of Ironforge in World of Warcraft, all prepped up for the festivities.

Well, yeah it’s kind of a bunch of Warcraft mumbo jumbo if you’re not a player and don’t know the story. But what’s great is that there are stories that serve as launch points for these holidays that mimic the real life versions.  Each holiday is accompanied by specific lore that incorporates the holidays for the players. As stated on the website players receive rewards, participate in unique games, and experience accented changes in scenery to give the proper ambiance for the games they’re playing.

An important quality of these online worlds is that they cost to play. Gamers pay an initial price to acquire the game and then pay monthly, quarterly, or even yearly fees to keep having access to the game. The reasoning is because the games typically don’t have any defined end and tend to be regularly updated with new content. Players pay the fee for access to the game’s servers and developers can continue to deliver a living breathing world that changes with time and progress.

There’s one thing that virtual holidays do better than us. A typical online game like those mentioned earlier celebrates these holidays for often weeks on end. This gives players who may not have a chance to attend the celebration as much or on the actual day the chance to experience the events in their full glory.  In a perfect world, we would join this tradition, but a virtual platform is a great way to squeeze a bit more out of the holidays and see just how to keep the spirit of our favorite holidays alive.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be going into the ideas behind celebrating holidays in virtual worlds. More importantly, we’ll take a look at the relation to costumes and these virtual celebrations. With any luck, we’ll get some chances to pop in as well and see how it goes for us. In the meantime, stay tuned to the site.

-collinevan

In Everquest 2, players get to earn masks and candies that give them special powers for fun.

You can’t really ask for much more in terms of costumes with City of Heroes, but they manage to put on a great Halloween celebration.

The came and went is irrelevant to us here. We celebrate costumes as long as we can without going over the edge. That is why it is with good spirits that I scour to find the best of costumes of ‘07. I’d be flattered if someone dressed like me one time so I could put that on the list…

Anyway, this list today comes with a bit of a theme. We noticed more than ever that geek is sheik this year. People just love to dress up geek. So bow down and pay homage to the best geek costumery ever to exist since… well since Tron costumes were awesome.

1. Big Daddy and Little Sister from Bioshock - This one is a clear tribute to all the game nerds out there. The highly stylized art of Bioshock is just begging for some good imitation. There are a few of these costumes that have cropped up all over the Internet.

2. A YouTube Video - I wanted to hit that “report” button so badly. Will we ever just look back at a costume like this with nostalgia, or will YouTube own the world in the future???

3. Working iPhones - I see a terrible underlying theme starting here. Can’t pass up this hilarious idea though. These Apple die-hards decided it wasn’t enough to look like an iPhone, but you had to work like one as well.

4. The Weighted Companion Cube - If you don’t know what the weighted companion cube is, then pick up a copy of Portal immediately. Besides, your cube will stick with you through thick or thin. Don’t you think it’s time to get to know it?

5. Team Fortress 2 Squad - Yeah, this is getting into the uber geeky. It’s one thing to geek yourself out. It’s another to commit your friends to it and travel in packs.

EA Los Angeles Crew - Not Bad!

The real team behind the costumes

Up for consideration, but didn’t make the list:

• Comic Book Characters - Although the comics themselves are geeky, the Hollywood touch has blessed these particular getups with coolness. Sorry comics, you’re going to have to let go for this year’s title.
• Renaissance Costumes - Although inherently very geeky, many of the types to dress up in RenFaire clothes do so on occasions other than Halloween. Therefore, we deem anyone who wears these costumes as “not actually dressing up”.
• Harry Potter Costumes - There are many reasons why Harry Potter is no longer geeky. Although I feel sad for those who are in geek denial when dressed up in this genre of clothing, their sheer numbers validate them as “mainstream”.
• Ninjas, Pirates, or Chuck Norris - Very much a product of geek culture, these paragons to ownage typically are followed by rediculous inside jokes that only the truly nerdy get. However, there is a degree of awesomeness that follows this crowd. Therefore, we have to take them off the list.

What’s old is always new. Growing up I was able to climb into the recesses of my attic and find all kind of costume goodies that were amassed by my family over the years. The best part was that my dad used to be in an improv company and had the wierdest things. I somehow managed to find some cheesy costumes that were big hits. Most of it was unwearable because I was always too small, but I sure found something every year to alter and be totally unique. Most of the items in our family costume box are impossible to find anywhere else, and therefore timeless.

So why not make a history of it. Halloween is a huge part of our culture and who we are. After you’ve taken the pumpkins out the to trash, eaten all the seeds you can handle, and took down the last of the decorations start your own costume vault. There’s more to it than just putting a bunch of junk into a case though. Here are a few ways to make your costume vault a classic.

• As the night goes on, take lots of pictures. You can take these pictures and encase them in plastic protection. Once you’ve protected them, create a tag that can accompany the costume pieces. This will give anyone who will be using it in the future good ideas to start with when pulling the dusty costume out of the closets.
• Hang your costumes. Some boxes are made for hanging clothes. Make sure you have the right kind and protect your costumes from getting ratty. It’s very little effort for mass protective abilities.
• If you really wanna be organized, you can make a book of all your photos. Later on people can browse what you wore over the years, as well as anyone of your family members’ costumes. It’s a great way to prevent people from rummaging through everything recklessly next year.
• Here’s a clever one. You wouldn’t believe how many people get rid of old costumes at the end of the holiday. If you know any of these people, ask them if you can keep them for them.

The great thing about a costume vault is someone will always go back to it for the classic stuff. As time goes on, you’ll find costumes that may have been popular but will be hard to find in the future. Soon, your timeless collection will be well known.

Good luck and happy vaulting!

Hmm.. scary.

I’ve been bombarded all week by close ones about my costume choice. I unfortunately had to answer, “I don’t know” for most of the inquiries. As the days creeped on, I found myself juggling around tons of ideas that I would thereafter quickly shut down. I’m a bit of a creative snob, and I have to find the “best” way to do something or I won’t do it at all.

At any rate, take care this Holiday. I’ll be keeping at it today to bring any good Halloween info I can to the blog and give all the enthusiasts something worthwhile to read. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to leave an idea in the comments section. Keep your page open today and hit the periodic “refresh” for whatever we manage to jet your way. I’m going to blog it up and am just hoping that I can flood the pages with something worthwhile.

-collinevan

Let it be written that Rob Zombie’s new Halloween movie is of less than satisfactory qualities. Wait, it’s already been written? Worse, it’s been hit by Rotten Tomatoes.

Critics didn’t favorably smile upon the horror remake. Will the freak flick join the leigions of bargain bin Halloween horrors? Probably. To be fair, critics are notorious for taking unyielding jabs at remake films in any way possible. But the outlook is more grim than a pre-teen in a Paris Hilton costume.

In an effort to be fair to the crowd, I hit up “Ain’t it Cool News” for a legit review. Not legit because these guys are in any way experts at what they do, but because they are likely the target audience for this type of entertainment. Word on the street, and I quote:

ROB ZOMBIE’S JOHN CARPENTER’S HALLOWEEN is creatively bankrupt from the start. It is a fairly awful, leaden film, regardless of whether it’s a remake or a sequel or an original. It’s got huge structural problems, and there are stretches of the film that play like self-parody by Zombie, a real problem considering he’s only three movies into his career. When you start falling into bad habits that turn even your most serious scenes funny this early in a filmography, you could end up making hollow echoes of your work, trapped and unhappy as an artist. I think Zombie’s already in danger of that, and there’s a fine line between having a style that is your signature and being straightjacketed into a style that is an empty pose and nothing more.

What has become apparent over the course of his three films is that Rob Zombie prefers his monsters to his people. He is what is commonly known as a “monster kid.” I’ve met many of this in this industry… guys who grew up totally crazy about the monsters. I’ll bet you Rob Zombie had a subscription to Forry Ackerman’s FAMOUS MONSTERS at some point. I’ll bet you he had all those Aurora monster model kits, lovingly detailed. I know a lot of guys who grew up the same way, and some of them (like Daniel Roebuck) even appear in Zombie’s HALLOWEEN. When he talks about horror, he says all the right things. I don’t think he’s just pretending to like the genre… I just think that Rob’s particular fetishes cloud his judgment as a storyteller, and in this case, it works against the film.c

I’m not terribly taken by the horror genre, but I feel inclined to see this one for the costumes. Since horror flicks boast some of the most creative and unique costumes, it’s a given that this could really be an innovative title. In the end it sounds like I may have to go with low expectations.

Since this site has been up, my eyes have been open more and more each day to costumes of all sorts. As I lay here on the floor of the library where I’m typing this post, I just noticed something as I was checking my email. I got a notice for the new Alienware laptop coming out and figured out that these computers are in a sleek costume. Masked with shiny black armor and an ominous alien head on top, they take on a persona much different than your typical lappy.

So I thought, what better way to celebrate Halloween than to show some of the best computer costumes out there on the internet. More popularly known as “case mods” these are basically computers that have been injected into a much more attractive home. Price, expensive. Time investment, too much. Radness factor, meter breaking.

Anyone ever see Meet the Parents? Remember the huge wooden alter thing that catches on fire? Yeah well I can only see this thing going up in massive flames. If it was my mod, and it was on fire, I’d load up all the programs I could at one time to see the beast go down in aesthetic glory.

I thought this fit with the Halloween theme, mostly because this is absurdly creepy. I can only imagine the tutorial on how to make this one.. (step 1, kill beavers. Step 2, Cut beavers open…) Sorry animal rights :(.

Ahh, Bender. Everyone’s favorite foul-mouthed robot. Feed him a disc, see what he spits out. This is a mod I would keep in a basement where society couldn’t see it.

This mod will smack you in the face with awesomeness. How innovative. I’m sure it’s not running any killer apps, but how do you feel when you pull this out in front of your geek sheik entourage? Tetris anyone?

If’n it ain’t a tractor mod! Good for being tech-savvy -and- a farmboy all in one.

I swear I didn’t post this one just to bait Diggers. In fact, I’m likely to get flamed because this is ‘old’ news. What else happens on Digg but people getting flamed anyway? Either way this mod his hot.

This mod is not so hot, in more ways than one. Sure to keep lower temparatures as long as it’s burning. I can see a computer freak putting this over his/her babies crib as a mobile.

Cheap linux mod? Yes. College budget friendly, very yes.

Now that we see how computers are even dressed up for the festivities of Halloween, you surely have no excuse yourself to not dress up. Happy Halloween.

As a new blog, we’re really trying to figure out just how dirty we can get our hands without costing us money that we don’t possess in masses to spend. Yeah, it’s the eternal party killer. As such, we do rely on informing our readers of great sources of information that are exactly what we should all be focusing on.

And, in the spirit of Halloween, we nod our heads at Make Magazine to take the stage. The mag is a virtual (literally) beacon to the geeky do-it-yourself types. They offer all kinds of kits, tools, and ideas on how to produce your own technology with simple items found laying around. I’m a fan and proud.

Make put out an issue of their increasingly popular magazine centered around this great holiday. It doesn’t hurt that Halloween is a haven for the “Do-It-Yourself” crowd enough as it is. It’s a given that the team at Make would jump all over the opportunity. The magazine houses brilliant costume concoctions, tech-filled instructions for haunted house scare tactics, and even awesome food ideas for the upcoming festivities. Yeah, it’s that good. Check out some of our graciously cut-and-pasted text from the contents of this year’s Halloween special issue of Make:

The Cylon Jack-o’-Lantern by Windell Oskay
Building the Larson Scanner with LEDs. Page 60

Stencil Carving by Wendy Frauenfelder
Design spooktacular effects for pumpkins. Page 63

Digital Jacks by Eric J. Wilhelm
Tips on taking spooky photos of your pumpkins. Page 64

Tomes of Terror by Mark Frauenfelder
Spooktastic DIY books. Page 65

Sweet Bleeding Heart by Barbara Jo
Bake a bloody thorax cake that oozes with every bite. Page 66

Meat Head by Andy Oakland
Craving some cranium? You’ve come to the right place. Page 69

Pumpkin Guts to Die For by Christy Canida
Roast your own pumpkin seeds. Page 70

Graveyard Cake by Shawn Connally
The trick is in the chilled chocolate trees. Page 71

Home Haunting Basics by William Gurstelle
The pros share their tips in the exciting field of people-scaring. Page 74

Trash Can Trauma by William Gurstelle
Scare the wits out of visitors with this pneumatic spook. Page 80

Ultimate Fog Chiller by Adam Tourkow
Build the chiller that won the 2004 HauntCon Chill-Off competition. Page 85

Mini Electric Chair by Jon Williams
How to electrocute the devilish Chucky doll of slasher movie fame. Page 86

Grave Situation by Cory Derenburger
Don’t resort to grave-robbing to add realistic tombstones to your haunted house. Make them from styrofoam. Page 90

So here’s the bottom line. If you feel like you’re wearing a creativity blindfold, or just need a boost of ideas to match your superhuman ambition for Halloween goodness, leave a lot of that work to Make. Hit the links for for the site, and a place to purchase the mag. Do it quick. Oh, and do yourself a favor and browse Make for awhile. You’ll find a lot of goodies for the DIY in you.

For the other volumes in our Series, click here

Halloween Countdown - Volume 1 - Haunted Floor Plans

Halloween Countdown - Volume 2 - Find Halloween Events With Eventful

I don’t know how many of the readers already have their schedules planned out for Halloween night. I’m the type to effectively sit on my hands as long as possible until I can force the regret of not having plans. It makes for some good default party hopping and spontaneity. However, if you’re the itinerary type, you need plans. And hey, everyone wants to party with the guy/girl who’s already got a few places to go.

Well, in our countdown of suggestions for today, we’re going to throw an idea out there. Why not use Eventful. Eventful is a site that will let you put in your zip code and a key word to find events in your area. I’m always skeptical about sites like this, because they’re usefulness is predicated upon their usage.

I ran Eventful through a test run. As of right now, in my home town, the search for “costumes” brought up 4 events. That’s not bad being this early in the month. Just to see how powerful it was, I put Second Life as the location. Sure enough, there is even a list of events going on in Second Life. Not bad at all.

Finally, you can use Eventful if you’re putting together a massive party or Haunted House, and you want people to find ya. Just sign up and put a description of your event. Small disclaimer, we take no responsibility if your guest list is more than random and a bit creepy. But hey, it’s Halloween.

Anyway, take a look and use it to your benefit this Halloween. You’ll party harder than you ever have before.

For the first volume in our series, click here - Halloween Countdown Volume 1

Normally I would hesitate to link an article that’s linking another site whom is also linking from another site, but I owe the credit of finding this to BoingBoing (But nice find for Neatorama and great job to Instructables for originating this).

For today’s DIY contribution, Instructables brings us the method of creating your very own Ghostbusters zapper backpack. Good because buying a fake one is a bad idea and usually looks like a cheap toy. Bad because you’ll likely become hugely obsessed with the coolness factor. According to Honus (username of the creator on Instructables):

The packs and trap are pretty movie accurate- they were made from plans that were drawn up from one of the original movie “hero” packs on display at Planet Hollywood. The A.L.I.C.E. pack frames are the same as the movie and were purchased from an Army surplus store. Most of the small parts on the pack are movie accurate and were located at a local electronics surplus store. Even our coveralls were from the original movie supplier. The “no ghost” patches were bought online.

 Hit the link if you want to see more. It’s worth your time for sure.

Link (via Instructables)

Thanks Honus!

It’s amazing how rough it’s been for me to find good stuff to write on when it’s this close to Halloween. It seems that too much opportunity makes for tough decision making. Either way, I have some things to report on, so I’ll keep it coming.

I thought I’d draw everyone’s attention to this new Halloween site put up by Fandango. If you don’t know what Fandango is, then you either hate movies, hate the Internet, or just haven’t been informed. Fandango is a film site that sets readers up with reviews, movie times, and more.

Well this year they’re adding to the October festivities by launcing their Halloween Haunt site. From the looks of it, there’s more activity than you can shake a witches broom at. Yeah, I said it, witches broom.

Fangango is rocking a good deal of ideas for costumes, top 10 lists, polls, dirt on creepy movies, and a whole load of creepy imagery. If not just a sweet springboard for great Halloween ideas, it’s a nice place for a dose of Halloween news. Yeah, it’s that good. We suggest you read up there, but bookmark em next to us so you don’t lose track of all the radness that’s spouting from MyDisguises.