ive been in pittsburgh for a few days now and last night i had the brilliant idea of actually going to the monroeville mall..where romeros original dawn of the dead was filmed..so today we all jumped in the car on a mad mission to find the zombies..

all of the zombie goodness is located in the back of galaxy toy store..there is room filled with zombie memorabilia.. different posters and pictures and zombie busts and statues and a small scale model of how it looked during filming..the only part of the mall that is the same i guess is the jc penny store..which back in its day was called only pennys..

all in all it was a fun little trip..complete with a "death ride".. i climbed in a coffin and had a simulated trip to the grave..not amazing but amusing in itself..worth the 3 bucks..i was totally deadset on coming home with some zombie swag..however there wasnt really a whole lot to choose from..i already owned a few of the tshirts they had for sale and the others i dont own were all in a 2x..but the thing i wanted the most was a monroeville zombie hoodie..however they were all sold out.. i have no choice now but to leave the cash with my friends who live in pitt to go pick one up for me when they get more in stock.. damn.. i really wanted a hoodie (im a complete tshirt and hoodie junkie)

so if your in the area.. go check it out.. just a neat little memory to add into your morbid brains...

braaaiiinnnssss....

nothing better than flesh rot..

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i absolutely CAN NOT wait to get all this christmas crap behind me and start building again at the start of the new year.. i have sketches and designs and lists and i know that the hardest part is where to start.. but i also know that once i start.. its gonna start flowing and i will find something to do every day.. i already feel like im running out of time! how sad is that..haha..

i hope everyone is well and their creative juices are stirring.. cant wait to see what everyone has up their sleeves..

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hey everyone..i know its been a while since anyone has heard from me..im sure there are plenty of you out there that have been in the same situation as me.. busy busy busy! especially with the halloween season..

things are finally winding down now.. back to only 2 jobs.. still slowly starting the put everything away process.. everyone knows the drill..

for the longest time i havent been able to post pictures due to something going on with my computer..i had so much to put on here however..now that the season is "over" and i now have pictures of the haunted houses as a completed element..i dont think i need to post pics of it in the making.. so take a look.. enjoy.. and you all can now look at previous pics in my gallery and see how its all fallen into place..

once i get thanksgiving and christmas out of the way..(cant wait for that)..ill start building again the beginning of the new year.. i already of sketches and plans and have already started a to do list.. so it will be a repeat of last year..haha..posting pictures of all next years work in progress..

glad to see you all have had a great halloween..im happy for your success.. and you are all now one more year experienced than you were before..  things can only go up!

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ive been work work working (as usual).. i finished my costume which i thought was the last thing i really had to do. tonight i threw on the thermals and headed outside to put together my levitating woman room.. piece of cake right? wrong.

i had originally planned on using a 8x8 pop up tent.. i have made beautiful backdrops for walls complete with a curtain that has all 3 pieces of a curtain already sewn together so all you have to do is slip it on a rod (thank you ollies)..
and its not working.

i have fallen in love with grommets.. i am now putting grommets into everything i own.. it helps tremendously to be able to hang drops.. well.. my friggen tent has slant legs and it just does not work. i looks ridiculous and it shrinks down the size of the room SO much that the bed doesnt even fit into it.

new plan. im going to build a structure.. four corners all attached 2x4s.. i have no choice now because the tent i was originally going to use broke. snapped the leg right in half. ew. why me?

so now i have to design a new structure.. remeasure everything.. go to home depot.. buy more lumber.. cut and assemble..drill holes.. figure out how to hang shit.. blah blah blah.. all while working 3 jobs from sun up to sun down.. my only time really able to spend working on this new HUGE project is at night.. its cold and people are sleeping.. but you do what you gotta do right?

sorry. im complaining. i guess thats what this is. im not really sure. im angry. im excited. im stressing about stupid crap.. and the worst part of it all.. i only have 12 days before my official start of load in for my first haunted house. and that my friends.. makes me happy.. as long as i can pull through this all..

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ive checked around a bit but havent found anything that has caught my eye.. does anyone know of any websites that have decent quality fair priced motion sensor trigger pad mat things? 

i have tried a few different motion sensor "hacks" and nothing works with the props that i have.. the problem being.. the props dont activate themselves when first plugged in.. so i dont really even know if a switch mat would even work..

any ideas or suggestions? im desperate..

**sigh** someday ill meet my electrician..            (these are the skills i seriously lack)

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slowly i am seeing more and more of my basement again.. 3am yesterday morning i decided it would be a great idea to drag all my previous years tombstones and stanchions and everything else out of my attic and out into the shed.. i guess im glad the entrance to the attic is a whopping foot and a half by two feet.. note the sarcasm..

tonight i solved the mystery of how to display a certain clown.. now i just have to paint..yada yada.. we all know that drill..

i weeded out more things to go into the shed..however.. its raining cats and dogs here all day.. just to find out this morning that i have a leak somewhere towards the back of my shed.. so nothing else will be going in there until that problem is fixed.. although it must stop raining in order to do that.. please luck.. be on my side..

although it will be very helpful.. i had an ocd attack by sorting all my extension cords by size.. and then color coding them so it makes anyone helping me and my own life easier.. i just pray that i get the same person to help me as i normally do because unless a person is familiar with stage direction and how concert/stage production works.. they are going to be in the dark with building my scenes the way they need to be done.. on the good note.. that project allowed me to make a list of all the things i have yet to get.. so i wont be scrambling last minute..

sometimes i think i make it harder on myself.. i swear.. when all intentions were to make things easier.. i think thats why i work so well alone.. i am SO not a people person..

my nephews first birthday is rapidly approaching in a week..last year when he was a newborn.. i bought him a little skunk costume to give him on his birthday for him to wear on halloween.. hes gonna be the cutest kid on the block.. although hes a little handful so im not sure how long the headpiece of the costume will stay on.. lets hope..

its 4 30am.. i have to force myself to stop working for the night.. i just wish i had a switch for my brain..

hope you all keep busy...

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just a quick note to all of you out there that have a spirit store near you...

i know our store opened a little late.. but just so everyone knows.. spirit has put some items on clearance.. i believe mostly all of it is costmes and lighting but its super cheap all the same..

i picked up a renaissace/sorceress esque costume.. its definately not something i would ever wear.. but its just another costume to add to the collection.. plus its another costume i can put on a future chicken wire body...

so get out there kids.. our time is running out.. hopefully if you get the chance to check it out.. i wish you all the very best of luck in finding something useful without hurting the pocket anymore than normal for this time of year..

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so yet again here goes another one just to catch everyone up on whats goin on with me... when i have more time.. ill try to get some pics on here..however i will apologize in advance that they are so teeny tiny its so hard to see.. i just dont know how to fix the problem..

anyhow.. 2 weekends in a row now i have been working on getting my shed built.. and today.. completion!  i have started to move some things into it out of the basement..its going to take some serious work since i have to get crap out of the attic and larger props that i have stored in a friends barn.. plus im ocd so i will pace and move things around until they are satisfactory.. its amazing though.. this evening i have seen parts of my basement i forget even existed.. and its great because i can finally start to put together my levitating woman scene now that i have some room to work..

lately my life has just been work work work.. we still havent opened the halloween store.. we are all ready to go however the fire inspectors LOVE to take their sweet old time.. which is ridiculous because its really hurting sales a bit.. the community is getting impatient!

ive been working on small projects here and there.. still waiting on the perfect day that i can be outside to paint my last 8x24 backdrop..  thats the last major project.. i stress about not getting it all finished but really.. all thats left is cake work..

i will be doing 2 haunted houses this year.. im super excited to do twice the work.. the first one that im doing will be awesome because ive already been there.. so i know what im doing.. and it will be a good practice run for the second one.. which is the HUGE one.. i cant wait to see a line of people waiting down the road to come into the haunted house..

ill keep everyone posted during my hectic schedule.. im here and there.. never for long though because theres always some place else that beckons me..

hope everyone is staying busy.. our days are numbered!

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so i dont know if its just because i work at spirit every year (this is my 4th year).. but i was starting to get a little irritated that it seemed that there was the same stuff year after year after year.. well.. ive been working there this whole past week opening up the shipment and setting up the store.. so i just want to give everyone a heads up before the store actually opens..

we have a TON of new stuff.. new costumes.. new props..new animatronics.. new everything..

now.. to me...some of the stuff is cheesy..and ill be the first one to say that it is all overpriced for what it is.. but really.. what do you expect from a huge corporation.. but it is still kinda cool.. and it will all look cool no matter what in a halloween display..

so to those who are in an absolute spirit heaven.. get ready to be excited that there will be more to choose from this year..

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