Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

 As I’ve mentioned before, when I was younger, all of the Halloween decorations in my home had personalities and backstories.  Most of the decorations, in my childhood, were given spooky but silly storylines, in the vein of something you’d see in a kids’ Halloween cartoon special. My interest in horror actually didn’t pop until I was fourteen.  There was one decoration, though, that danced a fine line between silly-spooky and sinister, to me at least: A scarecrow window cling that my mother had had since before I was born.  (This is not my photo. I actually found him listed on eBay several days ago as part of a lot, the first time I’ve seen him in many years, thanks to a conversation with a friend, that, oddly enough, originated with Easter decor memories.) He may not look so intimidating now, but something about his dead stare just got to me in my youth. He usually wound up on our main kitchen window, extended arm pointing directly at the door where trick-or-treater...

 If you know me at all, especially around Instagram, you probably already know that I’m obsessed with the movie Trick ‘r Treat, and its iconic character, Sam.  The movie has really gained popularity over the last few years, especially since Spirit Halloween started selling merchandise, but what you may not know about Trick ‘r Treat, is that it got off to a bit of a rough start. Originally planned for 2007, the movie wasn’t officially released until 2009, direct to DVD save for a few screenings here and there. I recall seeing a little blurb about it in a pamphlet about new movies that we used to get with video rentals at the grocery store. This was probably some time in early 2007. Not much was said about the movie in that pamphlet, I can’t recall if there was even any kind of picture or logo included with it, but being a Halloween movie, I instantly became excited to see it. Halloween 2007 passed, with no signs of Trick ‘r Treat being released, and after awhile, I kind of just...

 One of my goals with this blog for 2021 has been to introduce my collection and their stories/personalities a little bit more. I’m kind of out of practice with such things, as I really haven’t written profiles and the like since I collected “normal” dolls several years ago, but a trip to the cemetery yesterday really inspired me to finally kick this off, with my group of “Pumpkids” from an amazing artist who calls herself  The Beast Peddler  . From left to right we have Hebbard, his tiny sister Wynna, and cousins Abe and Lauretta. Abe and Lauretta were the first Pumpkid additions to the family. They arrived on the same day and I immediately got the sense that, though she is smaller and appears just slightly younger, Lauretta was the more level-headed one, while Abe was the goofball. Case and point, Abe thought this box should be either his tomb or his bed, and you can see that Lauretta is half-amused, half losing patience. Abe is an explorer and tends to be very fascinat...

 The last week or so has been rough for me, and my mind has been wandering a lot. I find sometimes when you’re going through things, it helps to think back to times of previous triumph, so today I’d like to share this odd, but weirdly inspiring, story from when I was ten. When I was a kid, I was extremely shy. I really didn’t have much to do with the other kids in my class. However, I made good grades, probably the best in my class at one point in time, so naturally, kids wanted to team up with me on projects. I also think some were just intrigued by my quiet, mysterious, somewhat spooky way. So, although I didn’t really have friends, per se, I had what would probably be described today as frenemies. Two such girls were a pair of BFFs named Tara and Amanda. Amanda was someone I had known since kindergarten. She usually tended to drift more toward the “friend” side, until she met Tara, a girl who moved to our school district in fourth grade and had clearly modeled her entire persona...