Finished!

Well, except for a sign..

Union Vote

I think Belinda wants to join a union due to her working conditions today :) We worked on our Graveyard Entry column all day except for a McDonalds lunch and a pizza dinner. But the results are worth it. It looks gooooood! Got some tiny details to do tomorrow and will post some pics or maybe a video showing the water feature. I'm glad we indulge one another in our Halloween obsession.

Still under Construction

Painted bottom half of graveyard entry pillar with DryLok except for some "mortar" touch-up. Top half has the paper mache'  mortar still drying. Hope to finish DryLok, get some color on it  and a cap on the top this weekend. We;re discussing a water feature coming out of the mouth into a basin below but otherwise this prop should be finished this weekend.

Halloween Tool Board

I stopped by Target's the other day and they were still setting up their Halloween stuff. I happened to notice their peg boards all had haunted trees on them.Some in a grayscale and some in a purple hue. Gave me some inspiration and ideas for off season to dress up a tool board for the Halloween tools. I think I could have some fun with this. Admittedly I'm kind of a pain about separating my fine wood working tools from the tools we use on props, which are more subject to abuse! Now  that I think about it, I just need a friend that works at Targets!

Spirit Store Zombies

Part of the zombie display at the local Spirit Store

Animal Casting Call

This guy showed up on our roof the other night.  We gave him an audition, but really, how can you be afraid of an owl? No owls this year at the Shingle Creek Manor... well,  unless he just shows up, then of course, he'd be welcome!

Halloween Store Visits

This past week I had time to visit a Halloween Express and a Halloween City in Orlando. I wish I could say I wasn't disappointed. Maybe this is what happens when you see all the excellent hand built props by Halloween artisans on the various blogs and forums, then go to the stores and see the mass produced work. I found myself even critical of the sale displays though... I must say the Spirit store I visted last week was much better as far as displays and the number of different items. Sorry Halloween Express and Halloween City, NO Sale.

Spider!

We went exploring the Spirit Store in Kissimmee yesterday with my son and his family. They had a cool jumping spider prop that startled me twice even though I knew it was coming. It's REALLY fast! It became our store bought prop for the year. Also acquired Xavier's cop costume. His third birthday is on Halloween.

What Was I Thinking?!

Brewed with pumpkin nutmeg cinnamon and clove, sounds like it would be a seasonable favorite... quite possibly the worst beer I've ever tasted!

60 Days

Might be time to re-evaluate things we want to build verses things we have time to build... Things are picking up speed though. Three rather large prop builds are better than 80% complete so maybe we will re-evaluate at the 45 day mark. We're setting up on the 29th this year so actually it's less than 60 days of build time.