13 Days of Creepmas: 7 Macabre Books to Add to Your Creepmas Wish List

Looking for some unusual, strange, and macabre books this Christmas? I hope you are, because I have hand-picked some that are sure to send shivers down the spines of their lucky readers! I've picked a variety of books, some which are new, while others have been lurking in dark corners for years, but all are the perfect spooky antidote to the holiday cheer that seems to be infecting everything.

Vegan Bake Sale to Benefit The Gentle Barn this Sunday

Come buy some delicious vegan holiday treats this Sunday, December 7th at The Gentle Barn animal sanctuary in Santa Clarita, California! This is the first holiday-themed bake sale that is happening at the Gentle Barn, and it looks like it will be the biggest one yet! That means you can stock up on baked goods for the holidays to gift or just enjoy them yourself! Here is a sneak peek at the goodies you could be enjoying:

• Cupcakes from Courtesan Cupcakes, Luscious Organic Desserts, Sprinkles and Sensitive Sweets
• Bundt cakes from Biggie Bakes
• Various goodies from Life is Sweet Bakeshop 
• Brownies from Native Foods
• Cheesecake and cookies from Bloom Confections
• Raw desserts from Feel Good Desserts
• Various desserts from other bakers, including snowballs, gingerbread and candy cane muffins, sticky buns, holiday cookies, s'mores bars, and much, much more!

Besides the bake sale, a trip to The Gentle Barn will let you meet some truly amazing rescued animals. This sanctuary takes in abused and neglected animals that no one else wants and rehabilitates them, letting them live the rest of their lives in peace. In turn, they use rehabilitated animals to teach their visitors about these amazingly resilient and loving animals. You can pet, hug, cuddle, and spend time with most of the animal residents, which is truly a life-changing experience in itself!

Go for the treats, go for the animals, and spend time with some inspiring people and animals!

Here are the details of the event:

LOCATION: The Gentle Barn
ADDRESS: 15825 Sierra Highway, Santa Clarita, CA 91390
DATE: Sunday December 7th, 2014
TIME: 10am – 2pm
FOR MORE INFO: Facebook Event

You can read about my past visits to The Gentle Barn here!

13 Days of Creepmas: Gingerbread Haunted Houses and Gingerdead Cookies

The Haunted Mansion's 2014 Gingerbread House at Disneyland! 

They change it every year for their Nightmare Before Christmas 

display! It is massive and I believe it is made with real gingerbread.

Building gingerbread houses for the holidays just got a whole lot creepier! Instead of traditional cutesy gingerbread houses, this year you can make a ginger-"dead" haunted house, taking inspiration from Halloween or The Nightmare Before Christmas, like the photo above! A lot of gingerbread kits are sold around Halloween, but you can also make or modify your own for Creepmas. 

13 Days of Creepmas: Creepy Calendars for 2015

Need some help creeping track of all your eerie appointments in 2015? I've dug up some suitably spooky calendars that will scare your co-workers and family while also keeping you organized. Check out some cool calendars below:

Edward Gorey 2015 Calendar - "This 2015 twelve-month calendar from Pomegranate features the wonderfully odd characters that appear in Edward Gorey's illustrations. In these images, fantastic creatures mingle with eccentric Edwardian folk in the strangest of situations. Inside this calendar you will find illustrations from the opening credits for the PBS series Mystery! , the books The Doubtful Guest, The Broken Spoke, more. Pomegranate calendars are printed with soy-based inks on FSC certified paper."

13 Days of Creepmas: Making Creepmas

[original image source]

It’s December 1st, which means it's time to kickoff the 13 Days of Creepmas, where we inject some much needed holiday FEAR into the season! You can read more about the event and find a list of all blogs participating on the official Creepmas site…be sure to visit the other sinister sites that are participating, too!

For some reason I didn’t join in last year even though I was part of it in 2011 and 2012, but I am back this year and will be posting every day the first 13th days of December. Everything I share will be a way to spookify the season, from gothic gifts, to sinister sweaters, to gruesome gingerbread, to zombie Santas, to creepy carols!

Restaurant Review: Fresh Brothers in Newport Beach, CA

Vegan Sausage and Cheese Pizza from Fresh Brothers

Fresh Brothers is a small chain of pizza restaurants with locations all over SoCal, though mostly centered in and around LA. I was excited that they recently opened their first Orange County location in Newport Beach (near Roger's Gardens and Fashion Island). Pizza is my lifeblood, so I was stoked to hear they had vegan options and couldn't wait to check them out! In fact, they have a special vegan section on their menu that includes a couple different kinds of pizza, plus Gardein chick'n tenders, salads, fries, and even special vegan dressings!

It's Nearly Time to Celebrate Creepmas Again!

It's almost time to celebrate the 13 days of Creepmas and inject some much needed spookiness into the Christmas season! I've participated in the Creepmas blogging event since its inception back in 2011 (browse past posts here!), and I'm excited to participate again this year, along with some other fantastic bloggers!

Photo Post: Halloween Leftovers

I know Halloween is over (but not really, not when it is everyday for some of us), but I wanted to share some leftover Halloweenie pics I never got around to posting before October 31st. For those that follow me on Instagram, some of these might be familiar, but there are a few new ones I haven't posted anywhere before.

Besides the 31 Days of Halloween countdown, here is what I was up to this Halloween season:

 I frolicked in pumpkin patches with lost ghosts.

Next Year's Halloween Bucket List

I still have the Halloween blues, so I decided to start dreaming of next year's events, and write down stuff I missed out on that I want to try for next year!

Though I felt like I did a lot of activities this Halloween season, I barely made a dent in all the events that Southern California has to offer in September and October (and some November). I figure that I should start a new tradition of writing down what I want to tackle next year, so I can start my plan of attack early!

I know there is no way that I could do it all (unless perhaps I took the whole month off and went completely broke), but I want to add these bucket list items on here as a placeholder/reminder for events/haunts/activities that I want to do next year in and around SoCal!

Food Review: Eat Nākd Bars

Written by Sarah E. Jahier

I have been drooling over Natural Balance Foods' Eat Nākd bars ever since my UK friends started snacking on these yummy raw fruit and nut bars! So far they have been out of reach as they weren't previously available in the US, but that is about to change! Right now, US residents can order Eat Nākd bars online and in 2015 the delectable bars should start popping up in stores here in the USA! We will finally be able to get our hands on these all-natural, raw, vegan, gluten- and wheat-free bars!