Michigan's Otherside

I've been pretty busy lately so not much time to post here but I thought I'd pop in real quick to let you know that a blog post I wrote got published on a Web site called Michigan's Otherside. If you're interested in the paranormal, check out their site. To see my blog post on their site, click here. Purty cool, huh?


The below info was taken from the Michigan's Otherside Web site. They are symbols you may see while in a cemetery. Thought you fellow graveyard walkers might be interested.

Dove - The dove is a very common animal symbol, mostly because of its Biblical meaning. Usually holding an olive branch which refers to Noah from the Bible. Also a symbol of purity and peace.

Willow Trees - Grief, sorrow and immortality.

Closed book - Many represent the bible but they can also stand for a life completed.

Curtains - Passing into another existence. Protection.

Broken Column - Life cut short and life coming to an end. A very popular symbol in cemeteries in the 19^th century.

Praying Hands - Christian symbol.

Lambs - Innocence. Usually found on the graves of children and babies.

Flowers - Flowers have been used in burial ceremonies since the early days of civilization and before. Flowers have always held a soft spot in people. Their beauty and fragility is a symbol for life and love.

Fingers pointing up - A symbol of the soul rising to heaven.

Hands shaking - Matrimony. Sometimes there is one masculine hand and one feminine hand. Look at the sleeves of the hands. If there is no difference in the sleeves, then the hands are a symbol of being greeted into heaven or saying good-bye from earth.

IHS and IHC - Many times these letters are seen connected with each other. IHS comes from the first three letter of Jesus’ name using the Greek alphabet: Iota, Eta, Sigma. IHC stands for the same thing, but is Roman.

Broken branches - Life cut short.

Tree stumps - Life cut short.

Life is short.

I was back near my hometown last night. I don't get over there very often and figured I'd swing by the local cemetery to grab a couple pics. My cousin's headstone is in the cemetery I went to.

Ben died sixteen years ago in a car accident at the age of 18. From what I remember (I was 14 years old), the accident happened the week before his high school graduation. His girlfriend was driving them home from school and I believe they were following friends. They were driving on a curvy road and Ben's girlfriend lost control of the car and they went into a corn field. Ben's girlfriend was wearing a seat belt. He wasn't.

There are many images from that accident and the week after that I will never forget. There is one that I will mention here. The local news was doing a story on the accident and one of the pictures they took was of the corn field and school books were scattered around. It was just so sad.

Ben's brother accepted his high school diploma on his behalf. I can't imagine what that must have felt like for him. He was closer to my age. Now that I think about it, he must have relived that moment when he accepted his own diploma years later.

When my cousin was buried, they had one of his senior pictures engraved on the front. I've shared pictures of his headstone and others below.

Please remember to buckle up when you drive. It could be the difference between life and death.

A random headstone pic. I loved the effect at the top of it.

Another random pic.

My cousin's head stone with one of his senior pics etched in.

The poem etched into the back of my cousin's head stone.

To dump or not to dump?

I was going to do something I've never done...a link dump. I've decided against it though. Instead, I'm going to be giving you gothy/creepy/cool stuff to check out over days instead of throwing it all in one post. Some things just deserve more attention than a link dump. :)

The first find is:


This company specializes in perfume oils and they have some pretty unique options. Below are some of the scents I came across.

June Gloom 2009 - Bright summer flowers, fresh herbs, and a bit of citrus rind dampened by the scent of morning mist and rain.

Pink Plastic Flamingo - Pink sugar-crusted marshmallows, dandelion, and sap.

Blood - Essence of dragon's blood resin, thickened with myrrh and cherry, with a trickle of clove.

Burial - The Dark Side of Earth: deep, brooding forest scents, including juniper and patchouli. The scent of upturned cemetery loam mingling with floral offerings to the dead.

They even have scents based off of Neil Gaiman's work as well as Alice In Wonderland scents. The March Hare smells like "A twisted teatime tart: apricot and sweet clove". Yum!

According to their Web site, they open an actual shop on every full moon. If that falls on a weekday, they open from 7pm to 10pm. Sounds magical, eh? They do tend to joke a bit on their site so not sure if that part is true. This part is true, however...

With the exception of the products that contain honey, their items are vegan. They are all cruelty free. This is the best part, in my opinion.

They do tend to be a bit pricier but that's because you're getting a concentrated oil, they use really good ingredients and don't test on animals.

The second find I have to share is for all you gamers out there. I was closing out of a game the other day and saw this ad. I thought it was fake but when I looked it up online, it was real and pretty freakin' awesome. Check it out...


You can get Mana and Health potions. They're energy shots that are stocked full of vitamins! To get more info on what they're all about, click here. I plan on buying some once I have some moolah to spend.

More cool finds to come soon!

An award and cemetery pics!

Halloween Spirit over at the Orange and Black blog has awarded me the Gourdqueens Scream Award. What a fabulous looking award it is! Thanks, friend!


According to her post, this particular award is to be shared with anyone whose blog you just love. Whether it's their art, their interests, the things they share, you just simply love to visit their blog.

Some of the people who I list below may have already gotten this award before. I'm trying to pick those that haven't gotten it yet though. If you've gotten this award before and you're on my list, this just means you've been Super Awarded! So without further adieu and in no particular order, I bestow this award on the following bloggers.

Cindy @ Twas The Brillig
Chris @ Frog On The Pumpkin
Diane @ Good Mourning, Glory!
Diane @ Wouldn't You Like To See Something Strange?
Catherine @ Suburban Vampire
Laura @ Laura and Her Favorite Things...

Yes, Diane is listed twice. That's cuz' she has two very different blogs that I like for different reasons. : ) Thanks to all of you for having wonderfully interesting blogs!

Now for a few of the cemetery pics that I took the other night. Enjoy!





UPDATE 6/23/2009: PumpkinBrain awarded me the Gourdqueens Scream Award too! Thanks!

Peace!

I was out and about today and as I'm driving, I happen to notice a giant peace sign in someone's yard. I was on the phone at the time and had way too much to get done so I went back tonight because I had to take a pic. It's not every day you see something like this! While I had my camera, I decided to grab some other shots. I took some at a local cemetery but those will be on a future post. Enjoy!

There is an ironworkers factory downtown and this is one of the big metal piles in their yard. It was all shiny in the sunset's rays.

Outside of the factory, they have a bunch of metal sculptures.

I don't think I've ever seen one continuous cloud like this?

One more day to enter to win my giveaway!

For those who haven't guessed, you have until tomorrow night to place your bets. : ) The winner will be announced Thursday morning. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can click on the goth dog tag in the upper right part of this page or click here.

For those who have guessed, thanks! Here are some cemetery pics that I've taken in the past, for your viewing pleasure.

Mini castle in a local cemetery. I love this!

In a cemetery near where I used to live in Ohio.

Also from Ohio. This little area was far away from all the other graves. Interesting.

This was taken somewhere in Ohio. I had pulled off the highway to check out a cemetery. There were five of these kinds of statues all in a circle.

Have you ever wanted to know...

What really happens when you die? Warning: This article does get a bit graphic. It is very informative though so please do read it and skip over the parts that may bother you. I thought this was a great article that gave a lot of information you don't normally get to hear about. Enjoy!

PS: The pic on the right is one that I took in the cemetery referenced in this post.

Alright kiddies...it's time for a ghost story!

I guess you could say I'm your stereotypical goth who occasionally likes to walk through cemeteries. I find them peaceful and intriguing. I had heard a rumor that a nearby cemetery was haunted and I had to check it out. This happened last summer.

The story goes that there is a stairway to hell and that, on some nights, you can see a "blue" man at the top of the stairs on Ferry Hill. I wanted to check the cemetery out during the day, as I like to take pictures and although I love the moon, my camera does not. The cemetery is about a half hour's drive away. What I didn't know was that it is absolutely huge. It's 80 acres! So when I set out to find the infamous stairway, it took a bit longer than expected. There was no map so I just wandered until I found it.

At this point, I should tell you that I can pick up on spirits. Creepy? Not really. Most cemeteries are surprisingly quiet and by quiet I mean not a lot of activity from ghosts or spirits or whatever you like to call them.

So there I am walking along, taking the occasional picture, and something tells me to go a certain way. Lo and behold, there's the stairway. As I approach, I'm not hearing much noise around. There was a lawn crew at the entrance to the cemetery but you couldn't hear them where I was. There wasn't anyone around, which seemed normal for an afternoon during the work week. Everything seemed normal until I got to the stairway. As I started walking up, my stomach began to cramp and I could hear crows cawing. I looked up and there were about five crows flying in a circle over Ferry Hill. Hmm, that was strange. I kept going to the top and my stomach cramps kept getting worse. The crows were circling overheard and I had a bad feeling about the place but I didn't come this far for nothing so I decided to stay for a bit and check it out. Eventually the noise from the crows got to me and I began to descend the stairs. By the time I got to the ground, my stomach cramps had vanished and the crows had too.

While I was up there, I did sense a man in his late 30's or early 40's dressed in a brown suit with a bowtie. When researching the cemetery and who was buried there, I came across a Web site that had some pictures and one of them looks eerily similar to the man I sensed on Ferry Hill but he died in his 70's. He did have a son who died in his 40's but the only picture of his son was from when he was probably around 10 years old. There wasn't much information to go on.

I plan on going back there once the weather warms up and this time I'll go at night. Who knows? Maybe the blue man will make an appearance?

The picture shown below is one that I took that day. Looks harmless, yes? Sometimes the creepiest things do.