Oodles writes: "The Dennison Manufacturing Co. made many wonderful products, but none of them could top its series of Bogie Books. They were produced yearly from 1909 through 1934, and they are chock-a-block full of great, great Halloween stuff. Need some ideas for your party this weekend? Take a look at the Bogie Book from 1926."

Check out her site for more images from the books.

This is the mother pumpkin - (which I find disturbing)

and this is the father pumpkin. (He appears to be happy in spite of his wife's shrieking.)

These are their two delightful wind up children! I guess you can tell which is which.

Holy Cow! it's October 1st and I'm not even ready for all of this! Yes, the annual HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN has begun! YAY! Around these parts, it's just beginning to feel like autumn. Yesterday David asked me if we were having an Indian Summer, because it was so warm. The leaves haven't even started to change color in earnest, but I can feel a slight shift in the air and I know Halloween is on it's way! I'm excited because this year, we're having a party for all my nieces and nephews - it's always so much more fun when there's a lot of kids to celebrate Halloween with.  (I can't wait to see them in their costumes!)

If you're having a Halloween party this year, don't forget about these printable invitations that I created last year. If I have some spare time (HA) I'm going to try to make some new ones for this year - I'll let you know if I get that accomplished! There's also these treat bag labels from last year too . . .

So anyway, to kick off this Halloween Season, here's a cool little video of a pumpkin carving itself!

These Halloween house plants are the funniest and most creative thing I've seen in awhile.

If you go over to Bitter Betty Blogs she give a whole tutorial on how to construct a "little shop of horrors" all your own! And now thanks to her, I have that song stuck in my head!

I'm especially loving the little pumpkin favors filled with candy. I'm thinking about making some for my nieces and nephews - they're so clever!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves right? If you're planning to carve a pumpkin or two this Halloween you must check out Extreme Pumpkins! They have galleries of carving ideas, videos on how to do it, templates available, using power tools and pyrotechnics . . . they've got it all!

Here are a few of my favorite designs from the site (it's hard to choose a few, they're all pretty clever!)

This steaming mad pumpkin cracked me up!

Gozer: The Choice is made!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Whoa! Ho! Ho! Whoa-oa!
Gozer: The Traveller has come!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Nobody choosed anything!
[turns to Egon]
Dr. Peter Venkman: Did you choose anything?
Dr. Egon Spengler: No.
Dr. Peter Venkman: [to Winston] Did YOU?
Winston Zeddemore: My mind is totally blank.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I didn’t choose anything...
[long pause, Peter, Egon and Winston all look at Ray]
Dr Ray Stantz: I couldn’t help it. It just popped in there.
Dr. Peter Venkman: [angrily] What? What “just popped in there?”
Dr Ray Stantz: I... I... I tried to think...
Dr. Egon Spengler: LOOK!
[they all look over one side of the roof]
Dr Ray Stantz: No! It CAN’T be!
Dr. Peter Venkman: What is it?
Dr Ray Stantz: It CAN’T be!
Dr. Peter Venkman: What did you DO, Ray?
Winston Zeddemore: Oh, shit!
[they all see a giant cubic white head topped with a sailor hat, Peter looks at Ray]
Dr Ray Stantz: [somberly] It’s the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

If you're looking for something a little less extreme, and more classic good ol' Martha Stewart has a nice section about pumpkin carving. I really love these little owls!

And these choirboys are pretty adorable too . . . even if they're gourds and not pumpkins

oooohhhhh so scary!!

If you have similar talents for constructing Halloween decorations, here are some great links to templates that you can print out and construct.

Cannon's website has lots of cool masks and decor.

Here are some great horrible zombies to make from Thunderpanda.

And here are some cute monsters from goobeetsa.

Macula has lots more great Monsters to make!

Even Yamaha has some cool Jackolanterns and a Halloween Witch to make!

First up, a hand decorated Halloween themed coffee cup seen in a trash can - yeah that's funny and random!

The person who sent it to me said, yes, they did get weird looks for taking photos of the trash.

Upon closer inspection you can see there's a very cute vampire drawn on the coffee cup:

Monster Rally is having a Halloween countdown too. He has some great links you should check out.

Plaid Stallions who "mock the 70s one catalog page at a time" have a great post about Collegeville and Ben Cooper costumes from the 70s. Funny, and a great trip down memory lane. "What were adults thinking at that time?" that's what I ask myself everytime I see a photo from the 70s, then I remember drugs were often involved. Oh yeah.

DoomBuggies has a really great site about Disney's Haunted Mansion.

And endagadet has an article for you to turn your own place into a haunted house! CREEPY!

It all started with this one really. I just love this guy - even if he is wearing a top hat.  On him it's charming.

Here he is in all his glowing glory - awwwww.

Then there's this guy - c'mon, what's not to love?

I also love the paper decorations, especially the Beistle / Luhrs designs

Here is a reproduction of one of my favorite designs - again with the top hat! I can't escape them.

Here's a great moveable cat (any cat with lips like that would scare the crap out of me).

Sorry - the photos not so good, but hopefully you can see how adorable these owl witches are.

Here's another old owl - I don't know much about him.

These two little cats were bought with a bunch of stuff at an antique store. They are really small - about 4" across and there were about 20 in the bunch. Most of them are in terrible shape, but I just love them anyway - they're so cute - like little kittens trying to be all bad ass.

And I love this guys face - he's so wacky and happy . . . I can so relate to that!

These guys stay up all year because they're some of the first ones I got - they really remind me of my childhood halloweens when I see them, I just feel happier inside.

This creepy pinata witch is hanging above my desk right now. I'm not even sure where she came from. I think maybe my mom got her for me somewhere . . . but maybe she just flew in and knew I would give her a good home. Unfortunately, she didn't bring candy with her. What a witch!

'Till next time!