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One Halloween prop/decoration is done!  Yea me!  It's in my photos, check it out.  It's a sign post pointing the way to some "horrifying" places  Sleepy Hollow, Amityville, Transylvania (even though it's not called that anymore), Salem, and for Twilight fun Volterra and Forks...hey I hear they have loads of very menacing sparkly vampires :)  And yes the mileage is accurate (a la Google Earth). 

I still may either paint/stain the wood a bit (if my plan of leaving outside for 3 months to weather it doesn't work out).  I'm also contemplating adding something to the top, either a lamp or statuette of some sort. 

So I've got these plans...big plans for Halloween this year.  I've been given the 'go ahead' to start construction after the 4th of July...and wouldn't you know it, the 5th is a Saturday!  How great is that?  So in addition to bigger prop building this year, I've found some cool smaller decoration ideas a well.  I'm planning two different sets of "demonic eyes" to hide in the bushes and trees (using tin cans and film canisters and xmas lights).  I'm also planning to convert an old bird-bath into a skull fountain.  I also want to build a small (model type) guillotine, one that will be stationary and can fit on the porch.  My most ambitious project will probably be burning a witch at the stake (fan-box fake flames of course....I think the city might have a word to two for me if I were to try to burn a dummy on the front lawn). I plan to have her surrounded by these cute ghost thingies...My second most ambitious prop is the headless horseman...I'm not sure how to go about building that one yet, I've got some schematics drawn up that may work in theory, but I've got 3 months to figure out how to make it work. 

Some of my ideas I found on this awesome website check it out:

http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/

Tags: Prop Building

Well it's come and gone...  The house completed...well sorta.  Remember when I said that I was hoping to NOT have to scramble to complete things on Halloween day???  Well that didn't work out too well.  I still was running around finishing lighting and other various projects.  Mostly due to the road construction going on.  They've been putting in new water and sewage lines for months now...but they're done, and on Halloween they were laying down the new sod (grass), so some of our stuff had to move... :(  But it got done.  Not everything is how I wanted it, but there's always next year (and a new list of things I want done that won't :p ) The super sad part...I only got a few dozen trick-or-treaters.  I seem to remember that last year we had more; and it was colder last year!  I think people are going to those indoor (a.k.a. lame) trick-or-treating things.  My town has one at the Armory :(  What's up with that!!!!!!  I went trick-or-treating three days after I had all four wisdom teeth extracted...now THAT'S dedication! 

Anyway....

  New pics are up in the gallery now, so take a peak!

Well its October 30...one day left...actually four hours till Halloween.  Remember when I said that I wanted it all done by Sunday????  Well that didn’t exactly happen.  I never made the extra tombstones for the graveyard, so it looks kind of empty right now.  Also last night we were playing around with lighting (strobes and spotlights) and discovered that the small fogger that was for the cauldron broke.  I think what happened was when the fogger was inside the cauldron all the moisture from the fog couldn’t fully escape so it fell back onto the fogger and shorted out the pump.  I tried to dry it out as best I could but to no avail.  So I’ve rigged up the bigger fogger to pump fog though a shop-vac hose and into the bottom of the cauldron...it’s ugly as hell, but it works.  The inflatable are up, except one, for some reason it’s not working properly (seems to be a running theme this year).  The gallows is set up complete with dummy for hanging, but I couldn’t work out the trap door drop, so he’s just hanging there by his noose, which is sad, I really wanted a drop...maybe next year.  We are still trying to figure out the lighting, I’d better get that done tonight.

U R tagged!!!!! Read this

Rules: Each player of this game starts with 7 weird things/habits about you. "People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own". 7 weird things/habits. As well as state the rules clearly. At the end, You need to choose 7 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says, "You're Tagged" and tell them to read your blog.

7 More weird/habits about me...

7 I would rather have Halloween than Christmas

6 while I hate spiders, I'm cool with snakes

5 I used to have pet rats as a child

4 I once rescued a baby squirrel

3 I secretely love tabloids

2 both of my thumbs and pinkies are double jointed

1. even though it's 20 years old the Labrynth is my favorite movie...ahhh David Bowie....

The 7 people I tagged are:

1 susan

2 woodhegm

3 creepychriss

4 belladonna

5 grandma080

6 empress nightshade

7 heatherlynn

Another weekend down only one left.  I've decided that this year I refuse to be setting things up mere hours before the trick or treaters arrive!  So I'm in crunch time...good thing that the last weekend is a four day weekend for me!  My birthday is on Thursday (hint hint) so I took that off, then I already have the weekend off so I decided to take Friday off too...might as well eh?  So this weekend I got the tombstones up, then of course I sat there looking at it and decided that the graveyard was too big for only four stones so I decided to make two rows of stones, the back row having five and the front row having four (so you get a walk way).  My major qualm with this is that I'd have to come up with five new names...and decided the first three was just horrendous, so I copped out, I'm making only one named stone and four crosses...plain ordinary crosses...I know, I know, but thinking up and agreeing on the first three took DAYS and I just don't have the time to do all that again.  We've got two male psycho killers (Jason and Jigsaw) and only one woman (Lenore) so in the interest of fairness I've choosen Lizzie Borden for the final stone.  Now I've just got to cut the wood for it.  Originally I wanted to do the foam stones, but decided against it, one because they are so easily trashed (either by punk vandals or by storage); two I didn't want to spend that much money on foam; three I had plenty of wood lying around to make tombstone out of.  Bonus' of wood, it's durable (against aformentioned vandals and the elements), and fairly easy to work with (provided you have enought tools). 

I also got the hanging caged guy fixed and cleaned and hanging in the tree.  The cage was all beat up from over the season and the skelleton was wicked dirty and his leg fell off, don't ask me how all this happened concidering it was sitting in a covered shed over the seasons...go figure! 

I've also fixed up the funkin scarecrows and even have one of them lit up and working properly.  The ordinary funkins are also placed and lit up with the exception of the two shadow funkins I've got to place them later.

With the help of Susan I've got my cauldron mostly completed.  I've got the "coals" all worked out, now I've just got to place it and build a tripod...hmmm...I think I've got one lying around somewhere just can't think of where... I've also completed my mini zombie crossing sign, for the life of me I don't remember the user name of the person who orginally posted it on this site...so props to you unknown person, your idea was really awesome!

Now what's left...dear god this is the part I hate...

the inflateables STILL have to be put up, I know I say this every weekend, it's not a matter of where to put them its more a matter of getting them on the roof, and attaching them to said roof.  Granted they are kinda cute...maybe I could put two of them on the "cute side" of the yard (I live on a corner so I've got two front lawns to work with, the back yard we never do anything with...someday maybe). 

I've got four crosses and one Lizzie tombstone to make and place in the graveyard.  The dummy for the gallows is complete, he's just got to be placed...probably safer to do that the day of halloween...

but I've got to complete the gallows...since it's made of pallet wood, it needs some sort of covering...anything to make it look better than it is.

Placing and setting up the cauldron needs to be done

There is still talk of making a human-ish scarecrow...but I'm not sure if that's going to get done this year

I've also got two long strings of purple rope lights and two normal strings of purple/orange lights to figure out what to do with

Not to mention all the strobes and spotlights that have to be placed so that you can see the props...ugh...not looking forward to that one bit!

Well enough ranting for now, hope all is coming along with your props and other last minute details!

So I spent most of my Sunday afternoon putting up the smaller, but suprisingly time conusming decorations on the house, in a fabulous 80% humidity.  Yea, I've still got a whole lot more to do...finish the gallows, set up the pumpkin-headed scarecrows, build a "human" scarecrow (and somehow make him look menicing), build two more dummies, hang a full length caged man, plus corpseing a skelleton, and put the inflateables (yea I know they're cute) on the roof...but hey the lights are up!  Somehow it still managed to take me most of the afternoon to get them up...loads more to do and three weeks left...

It's begun...I've I finally started to put up some halloween props...ok I've got the first one up!  The giant spiderweb is attached to the house complete with Aragog (the spider) and George (his victim).  It looks nice...although I wish I would have thought about how I was going to attach the spider to the web before I made him...oh well, I just sewed him onto the web.  Now if it can make it the next 26 days without being destoryed by the weather...or random acts of vandalism...we'll be set.  Left to do is all the lighting, the graveyard, pumpkin headed scarecrows a "human" scarecrow has to be made still, also the gallows needs to be finished and of course the minor display items need to be placed...it's kinda overwelming when I look at what I have...it also makes we wonder why the hell I make new stuff every year...Ha well...I love Halloween!

If you look at the picture gallery you'll see some of the props and things we created last year for Halloween.  I'm still trying to figure out how to make the guy in the stocks better, in the picture you just see the paper mache head, there was a mask on him during the festivities, but for some reason I don't have a picture of that.  The picture of the guillotine is hard to see, but I'm trying to devise a way to make it better.  Currently I have plans on making a gallows, if anyone has anything that has been tried and holds up that'd be great.  We were thinking of trying to rig it so that a real person would walk up and put on the noose (which would be on a break away safety line), strobes would flicker and the trap door would fall the real person hides somewhere while the dummy is revealed...still trying to figure that out...I'm starting to think that it might be a bit too intense for super younger kids, but this is something you would do later at night when the teenagers are canvassing the neighborhood for leftover candies.