Showing posts with label Edgar Allan Poe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edgar Allan Poe. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Red Poets Society and Purple Pose: A Hint of Halloween

Top: Allegra K, Amazon; Skirt: Vanilla Star, Macy's

Bag: Olivia Miller, JCPenney

Hair clip: Target

Boots: Impo, DSW

Top: Madden Girl, Macy's; Skirt: Wild Fable, Target


Bag: Skinnydip London, Macy's

Barrettes: INC, Macy's

Shoes: Madden Girl, Kohl's; Socks: Amazon

Jacket: XOXO, JCPenney; Skirt: So, Kohl's


Bag: Betsey Johnson, Macy's

Sunglasses: Zulily

Shoes: Mix No. 6, DSW

It's late October, and you know what that means: time to scare up some spooky.  And I can't do that without the ruffled, violet top I've worn for the past two Halloweens.  Part fright night, part '90s, it puts the Poe in poet's blouse.  And it looks especially bold with red -- Red Hat Society colors notwithstanding.  

Speaking of hats (and the heads that support them), I got into the spirit of things by making some skull necklaces.  Even the ghost one has a tiny skull dangling from the center if you dare to get too close.

That said, I'll be steering clear of the occult.  

Unless it comes with candy.

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Poe and His Crow (Rather, Raven)

Top: SHEIN; Skirt: Almost Famous, Kohl's; Stockings: A New Day, Target


Canvas: Michaels



Bag: Wild Fable, Target; Ring: Pink Bopp


Top: So, Kohl's; Skirt: Wild Fable, Target; Shoes: Madden Girl, Kohl's


Bag: Cat & Jack, Target

Top: Allegra K, Amazon; Skirt: Xhilaration, Target


Bag: Nordstrom

Skulls: Marsahlls


Barrette: Walgreens

Shoes: Mix No. 6, DSW; Tights: K. Bell, Marshalls

The husband is a big fan of Edgar Allen Poe.  You'd think it'd be me, the former English major, but I've always thought he was creepy.  Not so much for the stories he wrote, but because he married his teenaged cousin.  So a few weeks ago when I was in Michaels and saw a wrapped canvas of the dark one striding down the street with his redoubtable raven, I knew I had to get it for the husband.  Now it has pride of place in our living room, and I confess that I kind of like it!  

One Halloweeny (is that a word?!) thing I have always loved is curating festive outfits.  If it's black, orange, purple, or green, then I have the best time making it kooky and spooky.  This year I was excited to bust out these asymmetrical striped tights.  I'll go against my better judgment (as I usually do!) and tell you how the sausage -- or, in this case, the sausage casing -- was made.  It's not one new pair of tights, but two old pairs.  I stuck one leg in one half of the yellow pair and one leg in one half of the orange, then tied the two extra legs at the back and bunched them under my conveniently poufy skirt.  It was more comfortable than I thought it'd be, what with the excess hosiery being so pillow-like.  Then again, I wasn't leaving my yard.

If only I could be so motivated about my actual Halloween costume.  But as always, I remain laser-focused on fun but unnecessary pursuits while procrastinating about the stuff that I need to get done.

Fellow Halloween partygoers, don't be surprised if I show up in a sheet. 👻

Monday, September 4, 2023

Summertime Blues if You so Choose; Otherwise, Onward to Autumn

Dress: So, Kohl's; Bag: Betsey Johnson, Modcloth; Shoes: Jessica Simpson, DSW

Strawberry Cherry Necklace

Top, skirt, bag, shoes: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's

Berry Blossom Necklace

Dress: ELLE, Kohl's; Bag: Simply Vera, Kohl's: Shoes: Katy Perry Collections, Nordstrom Rack

Bright Howlite Necklace

Usually, Labor Day bums me out.  It means the end of summer and sunshine and custard stands, and who wants that in her life?  So I'd hang on as long as I could, refusing to wear fall clothes or put up fall decorations, using the defense that it was still in the eighties.

Until now.

I don't know if it's because I did so much this summer -- I even went to the beach! -- but I'm okay with it being over.  I want to take the time to enjoy fall instead of scrambling to jump on the bandwagon right before Halloween.  So I'm going to collect spooky décor (just today I bought a Poe print) and mix black and gold in with my warm-weather wardrobe.  I think it'll be a whole new fun thing to look forward to.  And anyway, if what I saw today is any indication, then fall has already arrived:


So yes, folks, it's happened.  I've fallen for fall.

In the eternally wise words of Blink-182, I guess this is growing up.        

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Happy Haunt Jaunt: Jackets and Jack-o-Lanterns


Halloween means spooky times, tons of treats, and a chill in the air.  It's the chill that brings the thrill, of course -- the thrill of breaking out jazzy jackets!  Um, don't you mean costumes, oh esteemed Tote Trove lady?  No.  I mean jackets.  Because a jacket is a lot like a costume -- colorful, fun, and cape-able of turning anyone into anything.  Here's the cream of my top layer crop.  Two are oldies but goodies; one is as fresh as roadkill.   


This first jacket is a Wild Fable favorite.  Sure, it's more Saved by the Bell than Satan's ball.  But I'm willing to let that slide because of my hair horns. 


And here's the new kid on the blog, decked out in day-glo.  Sorry, Joseph A. Banks, but Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat has claimed this happening hoodie.  It's from Dolls Kill by way of Delia's.  Which, if you ask me, is pretty Halloweeny.  Most Dolls merch is mucho edgy.  To give you an idea, it comes packaged in black bags emblazoned with a knife-wielding Kewpie.  It's a sight that never fails to unnerve me.


And finally, faux fur fires up stormy denim.  Black is a fitting shade for this day of undead and its feathered friend -- or perhaps I should say feathered Poe.  Nevermore, That's So Raven, said some Nickelodeon exec at some point one day.  Mr. Foe (for I've made my decision; this foul fowl is not to be trusted) is the only frightening thing in this picture.  Unless you count my closed-eye smirk of a creepy doll impression.  Watch out, Kewp, I'm coming for you.


You could probably tell by my tongue-in-cheek tone, but I like Halloween only a little.  And even then, it has to be playful as opposed to spine tingling.  Observe the quirky cute cover of this murder mystery in which a mean woman dies in a way that's not at all gory.  


The husband, on the other hand, likes Halloween a lot, and the darker and more macabre the better.  (Who do you think bought that raven?)  This is his beloved reproduction of a Van Gogh self-portrait that haunts our hallway every October. 


The husband and I agree that Vinnie was a sad, misunderstood man who died way too young.  Even if he did want to marry to his cousin.  

Speaking of which . . . whoa.  It's a Poe-Van Gogh crossover.  Two dark dudes and artistic geniuses who had the hots for their uncles' offspring.  Who would win in a weird, tortured, incestuous-even-though-it-was-olden-times, dead guy contest?

My money's on Vinnie.  People who cut off their own ears mean business.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Christmas in April


I had the good fortune to custom paint ten of these Christmas Bell Gift Card Holders for a customer this week. After months of jewelry making, it felt good to paint again, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" ringing through my head (at least part of the time). Here's the first and appropriately Christmasy stanza, courtesy of The Literature Network:

"Hear the sledges with the bells -
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells."

Doesn't that just take you back to high school English class? Getting back to the totes, I wrapped them all up this morning (in Christmas paper, of course), doodled some candy canes and wreaths on the envelope, and sent them on their merry way. I couldn't have picked a better way to start my weekend.