Hello! Today is Shop Small Business Saturday. This new annual tradition of supporting the mom and pop local businesses in your own town follows Black Friday every year. Today, I’m celebrating the last day of November with one of my favorite small businesses.
Backstitch Bruja
It’s been a joy to watch Yvette’s business grow from a small online shop into a real brick and mortar store in San Dimas, CA. This busy entrepreneur still makes time to travel around to Halloween and horror conventions and spooky events around the SoCal area. Follow her on Instagram for details on appearances.
This is just a small taste of what’s offered up this Creepmas season. It seems that everything pictured is still in stock, but merch moves quickly at Backstitch Bruja.
But don’t fret if something sells out. If you can be patient, get yourself a Backstitch Bruja giftcard. They usually restock.
Remember to support Small Business Saturday and shop independent or local shops. Below are only a few unique and reputable spooky shops independently owned and operated all-year long which I support and highly recommend for all your Creepmas shopping this year holiday season.
Celebrating 29 years, Dark Del provides a home for truly independent booksellers, movie memorabilia collectors, horror fanatics, and other spooky stuff in the greater Los Angeles region. The store is located in Burbank and often holds in-person signings and events. Del is also an awesome author and editor of works, such as Dark Delicacies horror anthology series and the suspense-western, The Survival of Margaret Thomas. If you live in L.A. area, stop by this weekend!
Part oddities, part occult, part horror shop, part mystics museum, Mystic Museum is one-of-a-kind place for horror and occult fans. Taking up an astonishing three storefronts, the corner store is Camp Horror, an 80s horror themed shop that carries horror movie apparel, memorabilia and more.
Next door, the oddities shop, find rare, vintage and occult items for your arts and craft. You’ll barely notice that you crossed over to Mystic Museum, a place for goth decor, apparel, books, jewelry and more. Inside that shop is a door, where, for a donation, you can enter the parlor room that houses original artwork and vintage items celebrating curated themes throughout the year.
And, then, there’s the exhibit down the street…trust me, Mystic Museum is a kooky, dreamy, satisfying day trip.
I adore Halloween Town Store. Open all year long, this costume shop is a few doors down from the original main store, which carries everything from Halloween props and spooky clothing to original art prints and spooky, vintage, pop horror collectibles. Check everyone off your list in one visit.
Online:
Gingerbread Bag by Backstitch Bruja
Creepmas wrapping paper or Krampus Folklore Mug as seen below by Spooky Cat Press
If you live in Europe, or outside the USA and looking for an amazing Halloween shop, then, try October 31st store, owned and operated all year along by Spooky Wil.
October 31st is da domb! In addition to carrying some great stuff from artists and creators all over the world, Wil also produces original crafted art and merchandise and ships internationally.
October 31st also often carries out-of-print, discontinued, or rare Halloween or spooky collectibles that can’t be found in the US, sometimes at regular retail price. Yes, shipping costs are little high, but scalpers and secondary markets on Ebay or Amazon, are gonna charge mark up prices and charge for shipping too. You can reach out and interact with Wil beforehand, he’s super sweet, and he packs items with great care. Shop from Wil. Keep a good guy in business!
Hope your holidays are full of merry and fright! Happy Creepmas!
First caturday in November is always the first after Halloween. Most jack-o-lanterns are still lounging around people’s porches. Mine unfortunately didn’t even last the weekend. I attribute that to the fast that I bought the pumpkin early this year and warm weather we had weeks ago.
Anyways, the theme this month is Halloween Encore. So, while the pumpkins might be ready for pie, we can leave our decorations up until it’s really time for Christmas.
Happy October! After starting late this Halloween season, I’m now ready to post the schedule of this year’s 31 Days of Halloween Celebration. The theme this October is dystopian Halloween. With the doomsday clock ticking down, it’s probably way past time to think about how humankind plans to survive the apocalypse, in particular, how we’ll preserve our traditions and holidays, like Halloween.
Part of the month, we’ll have some fun with the dystopian Halloween-horror theme, but I have decided to mix in some good old-fashion Halloween traditional themes as well, cuz, I just love talking about those Halloween memories.
Have a safe and happy Halloween season!
31 Days of Halloween Schedule
Monday Macabre Mondays are always dedicated to Haiku, but every Monday in October we’ll explore a dystopian Halloween.
Tuesday Terror Every Tuesday, I’ll share my favorite scary movies that I believe make great Halloween season viewing.
Wicked Art Wednesdays Every Wednesday, I’ll share some spooktacular Halloween art with an apocalyptic twist. I might even post some my own original Halloween pencil stencil art.
Throwback Thursdays Preservation of Halloween traditions is important for several reasons. Every Thursday, let’s explore the origins of some Halloween traditions and muse over whether these traditions might survive the apocalypse.
Friday Fright Nightcaps Ghosts aren’t the only ones who like to get sheet-faced on Halloween. Check back every Friday for Halloween season-inspired cocktails.
Sinister Saturdays In the past few years, Sinister Saturdays have always been dedicated to food and Halloween recipes. The problem was, besides my being the worst cook in America, people are simply reluctant to let you share their recipes online, even if you give them complete credit and link back to their website. So, in the true spirit of Sinister Saturdays, we’re just going to let the demons loose that day and see what they come up with.
Poe Sundays This year’s tribute to the master of macabre, Edgar Allan Poe, will feature my thoughts on the best Poe adaptations on film.
Happy October! Best month of the year! It’s so exciting that there are going to be five Caturdays this October!
While looking for art, I came across this piece by Wendy Snow-Lang, an artist who lives in Salem, MA. It was so simple, yet intriguing. It’s entitled Trust and it felt perfect for our theme this October, dystopian Halloween.
The theme this month is Halloween Memories. This September, I’m celebrating the return to Middle-Earth with the debut of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power this past week on Amazon. One of my favorite memories is seeing The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring in the theaters.
Lucius by Kajenna
Artist Kajenna creates fabulous animal art and her Halloween cats are my fave. Lucius reminded me so much of Lord of the Rings, I just had to share.
What goes into a good spell? Mugwort? Thyme? Bat Wool? Dragon’s Blood? Most witches know the first and best ingredient is your intentions. What are you trying to achieve? Focus on that. Your intention is what makes the spell powerful. The rest of the ingredients can come from your kitchen, your garden, the Apothecary down the street, it doesn’t matter where you get them, as long as your intentions are good. Remember, you get back what you put out. And don’t forget to write it all down for next time.
The theme this month is a Witches Halloween Spellbook.
Witch Cat by Joao Vagner
Witch Cat by Joao Vagner inspires me to create some Halloween haiku with this month’s theme in mind.
A Lykoi is a domestic shorthaired cat with a natural mutation. Lykoi sometimes are partially hairless, particularly in the face, giving them a werewolf-like appearance, hence the the name Lykoi, which means wolf in Greek.
Halloween Horror Haiku 
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