Well the holidays are over, lots of fun and food. Time to look toward 2012. For gifts this year I made lip balm and perfume oils, something that I found I love doing, and actually have a nack for both! I plan on reopening my Etsy store AkimaBotanicals to sell my bath & body products, medicinal & magical herb products (including teas!), and more. My holistic medicine studies continue and I’ve taken a new job where I may have the opportunity to practice as an herbalist in the future. I’d like to start doing product reviews here too. This blog will be well maintained as I find I’ll have more time in 2012. Here’s to a grand new year!
xo
Akima
Halloween is upon us once again… and if you haven’t gotten your costume by now, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?? Luckily Etsy still has lots of great ideas & choices. I was going to list a full costume for sale, but thought, why not list just an accessory piece and let the wearer spin their own Halloween magic into a full costume idea? Well, this piece is sure to inspire a full blown badass costume with a little imagination and perfect accompaniment clothing. CrudeThings has other wigs in their store, but none as eye-catching as this red and black number. With a nod to Marie Antoinette, this red queen meets vampire goddess wig is sure to turn heads! It’s still available, and if you’re really nice (and pay the extra shipping) maybe you can arrange overnight shipping with this hair master Etsy seller!
Click on the pic to go to the listing!
I have to start off my apologizing for not posting since September! October-December is such a busy time for me, between decorating, events, haunted houses, planning parties, working, family, etc. We always take off 2 weeks for vacation, the last week of October and first week of November. Nov. 1 is our “Black Friday”, wherein we go shopping at the crack of dawn for all the 50%+ Halloween sales! We have to stock up for next year! We’re home haunters, so the bigger the savings on decor the better!
Anyway, I haven’t forgotten my blog, and there are big new things in store! Samhain in the witches’ new year, and so I’m making a new year’s resolution: Spending more time on my crafts and less time doing nothing. My crafts include my 2 Etsy shops DarkEuphoriaDesigns and AkimaBotanicals (this name may change); THE Craft, of course; studying to finish my B.S. Holistic Health and various certifications; possible opening my holistic boutique in the near future.
I’ve got my hands in a lot of cauldrons, but blogging is fun for me so I’m putting aside time for it. I plan for 1 post per week, unless something badass pops up that I cannot ignore, or if I want to promote some of my Etsy listings or other goings on. Also the Etsy Find of the Day will become the Etsy Find of the Week. I am interested in doing contests and giveaways, which I will source from some of my favorite Etsy sellers. I’d also like to cross promote with other similar blogs. More details on all of this will follow shortly.
I am still hopeful that my followers will increase with my networking, promotion and marketing of Dark Euphoria. I’m so excited for the coming year, and I’ll be so happy to have other like-minded individuals following my ups and downs, failures and successes.
Thanks for the ongoing support everyone!
xo
Akima
RavenEveJewelry has a thing for lavish headpieces. This one, with its art deco, mid century influences, caught my eye in an instant. She has many other pieces made of deconstructed vintage jewelry. Also check out her store for unique rings & custom pieces, you won’t be disappointed! Click on the pic to go to the listing!
Bob Basset is a Ukrainian leather mask maker with a flair for the darker fantasy, gothic, steampunk, and fetish styles. They definitely make a statement. Check out his website for a gallery of his work. There they write,” Bob Basset is workshop of unique, high-quality art pieces made by Petrov and his team from Ukraine. Many of things are created from leather, artists have 20 years experience in this field and have crafts from stones, metal, resin, glass and many other materials.”
Here are a couple that caught my eye:
Part Giger, part Alien… you just can’t go wrong with this one!
Good ole’ fashioned apocalypse wear!
But wait, you say, these are works of art. I wish I could have one…
Guess what, you can! Just visit their eBay store! Prices are around $600.00 per piece.
PS The Head Hugger piece is still for sale on eBay!!
Posted in Fashion, People |
If you want to know why I love this sign so much (and will most likely buy it), just read the post below titled “Bumps in the Night”. CountryWorkshop has tons of fun primitive wood signs to hang up around your home & garden, no matter how creepy or mundane it is! The shop is full of off color ones to tickle the fancy of any nostalgic spookykid; from halloween, to vampire, to zombie themed signs. Take advantage of a 100% positive feedback seller and buy something for yourself or a loved one today! There are quite a few I have my eye on… Click on the pic to go to the listing!
While searching for my Etsy Find of the Day, I entered primitive halloween into Etsy’s search box… and found something that truely touched me: A wooden sign with an old Scottish prayer that was repeated to me by my mother when I was little. “But wait!”, you say, “I thought you said you were Irish?” Hooray, you’ve read my other posts! Yes, I am, and on my mother’s side. She read me this prayer out of one of my favorite books “Bumps in the Night” by Harry Allard.
My copy is older, and looks slightly different than the one above. The title text is in a creepy font. ;D
I made her read that book to me over and over and over again, and she never skipped over the little forward page before the story begins:
“From ghoulies and ghosties
and three-leggety beasties,
And things that go
bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us.”
Interestingly enough, upon using the Look Inside option for this book on Amazon, this page is missing! So I’ve taken a pic from my copy with my iPhone:
Bumps in the Night is about Dudley the stork, who moves into a new house and quickly realizes it is haunted! Every night at exactly midnight there are noises in the dining room, thumps and creaks all about the house! And BUMPS! Dudley’s best friend Trevor Hog (who for some reason wears a fez hat) suggests calling Madame Kreepy, an alligator medium. All of Dudley’s friends gather to help him and Madame Kreepy conduct a seance… and get some fun surprises! Now what kid wouldn’t love that!?
It seems that some PARENTS didn’t love that, as I found out while researching this blog (“You research your blog posts?”, you ask? Why yes, yes I do!) that Bumps in the Night is listed as the number one banned book in the juvenile picture books category on Central Conneticut State University’s website. WTF???!!! I was happy to find out that CCSU offers ALL of these books to read, as they are a progressive and intellectual community. They are in a special section with signs protesting their banned status. Ghosts, psychic mediums, haunted houses, friends rallying to help one of their own… oh yes, these are things that children should be kept far away from. (Can you hear my eyes rolling?)
Anyway, this book rocks my socks, and I would suggest it to any parent with a youngin’ or two. This little Scottish prayer will most likely be tattooed on me someday, and it will always remind me of my mom. ::blush::
Mushiness aside, this brings me to my Etsy Find of the Day!! Continue to next post…
Hobo Nickles are highly collectable. During the circulation of the Indian Head nickles (1913-1938), self proclaimed hobos would carve these for fun, to trade for food or shelter, or as momentos. Either the Indian or buffalo would be carved, turning it into another character alltogether, like a woman or clown. The tradition has no doubt been carried on here, with a modern day nickle being carved into a skull!
Taken from BoingBoing.com:
“Scott Beale of Laughing Squid writes: “Colossal has a great roundup of Skull Nickels, carved coins that are made in the tradition of Hobo Nickels, which are still celebrated and collected by the Hobo Nickel Society.”
For mor info on Hobo Nickles, visit the Original Hobo Nickle Society’s website.
EJPcreations makes lovely head & body accessories out of very durable and very black clay material. The designs are highly detailed and are slightly moveable to fit the curves of your body. This tiara comb is so attractively evil & sexy! Click on the pic to go to the listing!
By the way, I know how great they look on, I purchased this one for a vampire ball I hosted in 2009:
I’m very sorry to say I lent it to a “friend” that never returned it, boo hoo hoo! One of these days I’ll get something else from EJP!
Katsuyo Aoki is a Japanese artist with truely amazing hands. She works in ceramics, in which her Master’s Degree in Fine Art was achieved as well. However, she’s not your run of the mill ceramic artist, creating art or practical use items out of slabs of solid ceramic: she makes skulls that are woven of pearly white porcelain. The intracacy in which these skulls are held together is nothing short of mind blowing. They seem as fragile as eggs, as if a slight breeze may shatter them. They force us to treat them as dainty flowers, something to be admired and adored. This delicate impression in the form of an otherwise dark and sinisterly reputed skull adds to the allure. Her sculpture has been featured around Japan, China, Taiwan and even New York. Aside from her collection of skulls, she’s created other sculpture such as dragons & horse hooves pertruding from the wall, and even “mundane” items like vases & picture frames. Click on the pictures below to visit her website and see her various collections.
Artist’s statement taken from her website:
“Currently, I use ceramics as my material in my method of expression, incorporating various decorative styles, patterns, and symbolic forms as my principal axis in creating my works.
The decorative styles and forms I allude to and incorporate in my works each contain a story based on historical backgrounds and ideas, myths, and allegories. Their existence in the present age makes us feel many things,; adoration, some sort of romantic emotions, a sense of unfruitfulness and languor from their excessiveness and vulgarity.
And on the other hand, they make us feel tranquility and awe that can almost be described as religious, as well as an image as an object of worship.
By citing such images, I feel I am able to express an – atmosphere- that is a part of the complex world in this age.
In fact, the several decorative styles and forms I cite simultaneously hold divine and vulgar meaning in the present age, having an irrational quality that contradict each other, which I feel express an important aspect in the contemporary age in which we live.
Also, the technique of ceramics has a tradition that has been a part of the history of decoration over a long time, and I feel the delicateness and fragile tension of the substantial material well express my concept.”
