Mortem's Tricks or Treats: Sharpie Marker Jack O' Lanterns.

I've wanted to write for so long, even had a nostalgic conversation about our blogs with Mrs Insomniac during my latest visit home North. Sufficed to say, it's been a community that I (we) have missed dearly, and seeing the efforts of some of the Ladies in Black continue despite dwindling traffic, well it's inspired me greatly.

I would like to get back to writing, even if its on a much more limited basis, say like once a month! I think it's about time to re-break the ice that has been turning into ancient glaciers on this blog.
BWO will be temporarily disregarded as I thaw the frost from my brain, hehe. I encourage all my fellow bloggers, who like me stopped blogging, to pick up the keyboard and write-- even if it's a simple personal update that's no more than a paragraph... something to shift the ice!

To kick off, I have decided to recycle a mini DIY that I posted to my IG account a couple weeks ago...
Clearly I didn't/don't know what to write about, but it helps to get the juices flowing and since my life has been revolving around Strange Coven and getting it established enough to take off with, I decided not to write about that...
Not yet anyway...

Ironically though, this DIY was done because I started vending this year for the first time in over a decade and during my search for things to use for display and decorations, I stumbled upon these plain ceramic pumpkin photo holders on clearance for 85 cents a piece.
I figured they'd hold my signs just dandy but they weren't "spooky" enough to fit perfectly into my booth display. So in true fashion... I spookified them.

Ceramic Pumpkin Photo Holders Updo

You'll need:

• Ceramic photo holder-- pumpkins in my case
• Normal sharpie pen
• Oil based sharpie pen
• Convection oven

When I saw them, I remembered the DIY project trending a year or so ago on Pinterest: sharpie mug art-- this would be the culprit that sealed this little deal for me.
I took an ordinary sharpie (the same color as your oil based one or the colors begin to mix) and free-handed a couple of my favorite jack o' lantern faces; I went over with a plain sharpie first because it's easy to rub off mistakes that might've happened with some rubbing alcohol. The oil based takes a bit of scrubbing but can and does come off with rubbing alcohol in any case.

Once I was happy with all the lines, I simply went over and filled with an oil based sharpie.
Put them on a pan, baked in a convection oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 mins constantly checking to see that it didn't scorch/bubble the marker paint and/or crack the ceramic.
Let cool and viola!
You would need a little stronger solvent to remove the drawings from this point.

Things to note: imagine my disappointment when discovering that an oil based pen is a push-nib reservoir kind of pen, these are notorious for over flowing the felt nibs and creating puddles everywhere... which it did for me because it wasn't flowing out for the first several pumps and I was really unaware of the low viscosity of the actual paint/ink. These types of pens were probably invented by the anti-craft himself.

Since I don't need to display signs anymore, I use them now to display some of my favorite die-cuts from Micheal's I got this past Halloween, as seen in the first photo.
But be warned, this is awful addictive once you realize you don't need to zentangle to doodle on ceramics and glass objects with sharpies.

Spooky ya later, ghouls!

Fashioning My Cyber Microcosm: It's A Strange New World

Lot'a cobwebs in here... Miss me?

No? Darn.

The month's kind of got away from me; Instagram and Facebook have been my short and sweet links to the world; condensed socialization at the click of a button!
Not very personal, true... but without which I would be as invisible and clueless as I am in actuality. Well... who am I kidding, I'm not exactly bursting with popularity on any platform, heh!

Ok, we got off on a morose start...

It's the rain. Washington has been cold and constantly wet.
...I can just hear the 'duh's.

You know when you hear something you think is ludicrous so you choose not to believe it, and then you're left really unprepared for reality? That's it, that's what happened right here. I just didn't think it was going to be this much rain.
It's almost too much for me, and I would say I like the rain.
Not being able to wear my beautiful velvet coats, and cloaks or fancy shoes stings a little having looked so forward to cold weather to take them out of storage where they were when I lived in heat of the South... here I am with temperatures where I should be able to, but the wetness and mud keeps me in galoshes and a raincoat-- oh the irony.

Ok, I didn't really expect to wear summer dresses...
But you get the point.

One thing's for sure... with clouds this thick it makes midday light look a little like dusk for nearly weeks on end, it sure makes you appreciate a partially cloudy day.

Weather aside, everything else is darn near perfect. I am still rather gobsmacked we were able to afford to buy a decent home in this horrendous housing market... thank the gods for qualifying for a USDA home loan. Another thing I discovered not to be an exaggeration... people want gold prices for what is essentially 'fools gold' around these parts.
Of course there's still things that need to be updated and kept an eye on in our home... but not nearly as bad as outright foundation issues that plagued nearly every other home on our rather short list.
Foundation problems caused by... you guessed it, the constant rain (lol!).

I got a part time gig by sheer luck at an antique mall right in town and within walking distance owned by an introverted older gentleman and his extroverted 80+ year old foster father. I have one other colleague, an older lady whom is this insurmountable wealth of knowledge on niche and popular antiques; she is quite old fashioned as to be a bit shocking in this day and age... but I find to be quite pleasant.
My boss' foster father has given me the nick-name 'The Lady in Black' and will greet me as such each day. On occasion the boss buys us lunch and will often make sure that I and my colleague are comfortable and happy. I am getting feelings that remind me of my time in New Mexico, that I'm part of a family here-- I'm relied on, needed, and wanted. I didn't think I would be lucky enough to have this kind of work situation again after New Mexico. I feel blessed.

As one might have guessed, in the same manner that working a fabric store is dangerous for me... so is a vintage & antique store. I am tempted daily by a plethora of neat and pretty things; these are a few of the treasures I couldn't 'live without'... but so many are left behind!

So regardless of the ails of the weather, Washington has been (so far) a nice place to call home.

In other lesser but still mention-worthy happenings, a small back injury I suffered inspired my husband to finally replace my nearly 6 year old and very crooked computer desk and chair with a DXRacer in orange and black, and duo trayless widetop desks. I very nearly asked for the purple and black chair... but these days, I'm becoming more and more fond of orange as my compliment color.

We now live the typical 'gaming couple' setup, and as disgustingly cute as that sounds... it is.
I love it, haha.
In gaming related news, I finally got around to playing and finishing Divinity: Original Sin 2, a review may or may not come. It's not usual for me to review games... I really should. It's such a huge part of my life. It took so long from release for me to play it due to moving and other unrelated drama; sufficed to say, it's an incredible game totally worth every penny spent on it... and I went ahead and backed this on Kickstarter and got the collectors backing tier with a Fane statue and art books and maps. The first one easily became one of my 10 all time favorite games, the 2nd one just reinforced the series' status in my most loved gaming experiences.

Finally, the last bit of update I have...

I have been selling on etsy through the name Strange Coven. It took me a while to get a name and brand going for my handmade shop from last I spoke about rebooting an art shop back in 2016, trying to decide between this name and Serpent & The Thimble: I really wanted something simple, easy to remember/lookup, but was still reflective of the 'sometimes spooky, sometimes spoopy' nature of my style. Two to three syllables is apparently what the human brain can remember with ease-- rule of thumb if you're trying to think of a shop name by chance.

Right now, I'm running a sale for 15% off all my ready-made items. On top of that, I'm running a giveaway for this little guy on the FB shop page.

I know they say that exposure is a poor thing for an artist to hope for... but the ground floor could use a little of that to get the ball rolling a little more, heh! Come show your support, and heck you may even get lucky.

That's it for now, fiends!

Spook ya later.

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Outfit in first photo:

• Dress: Handmade
• Choker: Handmade
• Pumpkin handbag: Handmade
• Boots: Ironfist
• Socks: Target
• Hat: Gifted to me

Outfit in second photo:

• Shirt: Walmart
• Leggings: Walmart
• Same handbag as first