Welcome to my first blog. I never post anything on my MySpace blog but since this is HAUNTspace, I'll do things much differently. :]
Well, first off, is anyone as thoroughly shocked as I am that it is almost September?! I think it hit me a couple of days ago when I kept receiving catalogs filled to the brim with Halloween goodies. I can't believe that in 2 months I'll be inhaling the crisp fresh air of Autumn and smiling on a hayride or delighfully screaming at a haunted house! Soon, I'll have to make my annual October calendar and book reservations for Sleepy Hollow! It's overwhelming but absolutely wonderful at the very same time :] This is what I live for!
So, after coming to terms with this lovely fact, I immediately thought, "I must start planning how I'm decorating the yard this year!" I didn't want to decorate the exact same way I did last year. I do keep the graves in certain positions each year but I like to add new props to the mix. Last year I made my first true prop, a pathetic Michael Myers scarecrow guy in pink pants (don't ask) whose stuffing repeatedly fell out and whose head continuously plopped over. Although Trick or Treaters enjoyed him (either because he was so strangely creepy or because I am literally the only one in my neighborhood who tries to decorate enthusiastically) I don't believe I'm going to put him out this year, at least not in the center of the yard. Maybe, yes, I think I'll put him hanging by the bushes or something. Well that's one problem solved.
But what I'd really like to make this year is a jack o'lantern scarecrow type figure as the focal point of the yard. I searched high and low on the internet for directions to make something like it, I found some that were so complicated I felt dizzy just reading how to do it, but finally I found one which was fairly easy to make (I use the word "fairly" loosely).
I like how he explains how to create it, for the most part, although I do not understand the whole "pvc" pipe things, nor do I care to know. Instead I am going to alernate a few, errr, most of his directions. I found a pole in my garage which is going to be the base, a weight is going to be duct taped on top of the pole as a platform for the head- the arms are the problem. I am still not sure how I'm going to make the arms. I'm thinking maybe nailing in 2 branches or some other long piece of wood. If anyone has any ideas for me, PLEASE let me know. I'm desperate!
So that's my first project. The second one is much easier:
I'm going to make this ghost following the exact directions which were given, since it is pretty easy: "We haunted our yard with these large ghosts. We made "T" shapes out of 2 x 4's, and duct-taped a 12 inch child's ball to the top, center of the "T". We then draped a sheet over it. Very simple! We held the sheet in place by stapling it in the back to the wood. I made the eyes and mouths out of construction paper and taped them in place."
I'm going to start working on these props this week, I'd like to get them done by the end of the month/early Sept. so I don't have to worry about them anymore. I still have to plan for my Halloween party after all. But that'll be another blog ;]
Happy Hauntings!
Erin
