If you are in the L.A. area, check out the cavorting skeletons having a wild party at Boney Island, at the private residence of the producer of the Simpsons, Rick Polizzi.
More info available here.

Here’s a video:
Rick makes all of this himself, including the voices and music, and it’s truly spectacular. And free!

Technorati Tags: halloween, polizzi, rick polizzi, boney island, halloween events, tuesdays topic

It’s hard to miss the fact that Halloween is right around the corner, but unless you live in California, Arizona, Texas, etc., you might miss its calendar cousin, the Mexican Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos that follows on Nov 1-2.

Originally celebrated during the ninth month of the Aztec solar calendar (mid-summer) to honor the dead and the continuation of life and rebirth, the Day of the Dead was moved to coincide with All Souls Day and All Saints Day when the Spanish conquistadors gave up eradicating the custom and settled for making it more Catholic-friendly.

Kathy Cano Murillo, the Crafty Chica, has a wonderful podcast describing the background and traditions of Dia de los Muertos, definitely worth listening to! And it’s so appropriate that it’s from her of all people, because crafts and decorations are big during DdlM.

We have always been fascinated by the sugar skulls ever since we read about them in Ray Bradbury stories. (Someone was always getting stuck in an old catacomb with the mummies in those stories.)

Mexican Sugar Skulls company has great site full of things to create, buy, wear, including molds and instructions so you can make your own skulls, and cool t-shirts and fabric.

The Crafty Chica has a yummy recipe for these white chocolate skulls you see at right (a project from her Art de la Soul book) and she’s provided a link to a video on how to make them! Now doesn’t that sound better than candy corn?

A virtual font of information about the Day of the Dead is available at AZCentral.com — food, traditions, history, altars, awesome art by Kathy’s husband, artist Patrick Murillo, and it’s really fun to go through. Plus you can send some of Patrick’s art on skullery e-postcards!

And now for some favorite Day of the Dead t-shirts:

We love this quirky design from Sugar Skulls, and the cool back image is half the fun!

The traditional Katrina graphic is a dead give-away (oh yes, i did say that) that it’s Dia de los Muertos. This lovely lady in a hat is one of the many Day of the Day shirts offered by Worlds Best Shirts.

Ok, we’ve wondered about the skeletons with marracas. CelebrationTees have a line of DotD shirts, including some with this graphic. Now shouldn’t the skeletons be able to make rattling sounds without shlepping marracas around? Still, everyone likes to accessorize:

Artist Barbara Burns has created a delicate and ethereal design with her own special spin — Day of the Dead dragonflies.

This black shirt by Full Moon Emporium blends modern and traditional styles. The design is available on shirts of other colors as well.

We also loved the artistry and macabre humor at Sonoran Sunsets:

While its roots are in the serious custom of honoring departed loved ones, there is also fun to be had, and aspects of El Dia de los Muertos that can be appreciated by people of all backgrounds. No bones about it.

Technorati Tags: day of the dead, mexico, dia de los muertos, mexican, sugar skulls, crafty chica, kathy cano murillo,

Our Pirate Kitty cap sleeve t-shirt got a most awesome write-up in the wonderful Dreams & Jewelry blog. Big thanks to D&J!

Pirate Kitty cap-sleeve t-shirt, a bargain at $22.99. Now get $5 off!
Just use coupon code VOWELLEGEND at checkout (through 10/28.)

For over twenty years, the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month has motivated people to come together in an effort to raise awareness. This year, a group of thirty-one independent designers has joined the effort by creating Indie For Awareness, a campaign where each designer commits to donate a portion of sales to the organization of their choice during the month of October.

Indie For Awareness is hosted by DivaTribe and each of the designers can be seen there, with their pledges. We’ve chosen some selections:

A 100% of the proceeds from the sale of this limited edition “charmie” will go to Komen Southern Arizona. Made of sterling, Swarovksi crystal and handmade porcelain, a joint effort by A Planet 4 Creation and Earthenwood Studio.

Spun Sugar Shea Butter Scrub and Crème d’Olive moisturizing cream. Bidwell Botanicals will donate 50% of sales from these gift sets to the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer Foundation.

One of six jewelry offerings by Beach Haus.

“Paws for a Cause” collars and key fobs by Lindsay Designs.

Sommer Designs, who designs and makes fabulous bags,has come up with the snappy slogan “lets bag a cure!” and will donate 20% of the sale price of this pink toile “Malaga” bag to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Los Angeles Affiliate…all year long.

We wish we could include everything but since we can’t, we doff our chapeaus and offer kudos to these amazingly talented designers — please do check out the whole range of wonderful creations at Indie For Awareness.

And now a message from the Awareness Penguin, courtesy of the LilPenguins shop: We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the BCA t-shirt marketplace at CafePress, where you can find designs that inspire courage, hope and even humor.

CafePress.com will donate 40% of the retail price of all products sold through the Breast Cancer Donation Shop throughout October to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation or another non-profit organization with a core purpose of raising awareness and funding breast cancer research and education.

Technorati Tags: breast cancer, breast cancer awareness, bca, cure, divatribe, indie for awareness, jewelry, dog collars, spa products, bath products, bidwell botanicals , lindsay designs, planet4creation, earthenwood, beachhaus

In Japan it’s called Nihonshu no hi. Abroad it’s called rice wine or mispronouned as “saki” (it should be “sa’ke”.) But however you pronounce it, it goes great with sushi, and even better with one of our sake t-shirts with our orignal art showing a masu (ma’su.)

But what is a masu? It’s sometimes used in lieu of a ceramic sake bottle and cups, which you usually get at most Japanese restaurants in the U.S. According to John the Sake Guy, a masu is

… a small cedar box that sake is occasionally served in, particularly in ceremonies and around the new year. It was originally a measurement for rice, with rice being a currency of sorts in Shogunate-run Japan centuries ago. Both taxes and stipends for retainers were often paid with rice, and the masu was the basic unit of measure. As such, originally the size of the masu was standardized and official.

In the early part of the 20th century, folks began using these masu wooden boxes to drink sake. They were plentiful, of uniform size, and cheap. Also, sake back then was both brewed and stored in vessels of the same wood - sugi (Japanese Cedar, or Cryptomeria to be more precise) - used to make masu.

Well, gosh, I’ve always enjoyed using a masu, partially because of the fragrance it imparts to the sake, but was unware of its history. I did enjoy creating the digital art for this one digitally, though. The character stand for “long life.” And on that note, and on the day when Yom Kippur, Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Lupus Awareness Month all concur, we wish long life, good health and all good things to all our friends and readers.

Technorati Tags: sake, saki, nihonshu, nihonshu no hi, japan, wine, beverage, alcohol, alcoholic beverages, Sake Day, japanese, asia, asian, masu, got sake?, t-shirts, tee shirts, tees, tshirts