Beloved

I'm thinking its a yard haunt requirement these days to have  a "Beloved" tombstone. Kudos to the originator. We setup the cemetery tonite and some of the lighting.

Last Minute Projects

We're just finishing up some last minute tombstones and fences. "Norman Bates - devoted son" was a new one this year but it sort of lacked so we dulled a knife, rust-ified it and cemented into the foam for some added effect. I'm not even sure most youngsters have even heard of the movie Psycho though...

Go Team BOO!

Halloween Wars final competition between Team Boo and Team Blingbats on the Food Network Sunday. There appears to be a division in the household over who we should be cheering for... I am of course behind the team that will win, Team Boo, with pumpkin carving master Ray Villfane, although admittedly Blingbats is really good.

Ray Villafane with one of last weeks judges, Rob Zombie.

Zombie Ammo? Really?

Fence-ing

Got some PVC and Wood fence panels cut and drilled and we finished painting the first one today. This will be about the extent of what we'll be doing this next week. We're very  pleased with the cork and Cross pin finials.

This whole black and white look at Halloween Horror Nights just has me fascinated. I thought it was the photograph, I didn't realize it was this whole haunt done in a gray-scale. Going to see it for myself on the 26th!

Courtesy Jim McCrary

It's All In The Details

,,,well at least for us it is. A yard haunter friend was recently giving some feedback on a prop and stated that he got by with the "cheesy look", (his description not mine, the photos I saw of his props and setup looked great) and he counted on the alcohol and the darkness to enhance his scares at the mega adult Halloween party he throws each year.. Besides a laugh at the logic to his haunt enhancement he got me too thinking we probably do spend too long working on the little things. I mean, after all, it is dark, and we're only dealing with children. We certainly could build more props if we spent less time fretting over the little things. I notice some haunters do and some don't. In the scheme of things neither is probably right or wrong, just different.

I think though that trying to make things look authentic, if there is such a thing in the imaginative world of haunts, is one of the things we enjoy most about building our props. Last year we had no finials  on top of our genuine imitation iron fence because we couldn't agree on any of the options we saw in forums and the cost of real finials isn't even an option. This year we came up with a plan using some Gothic style Cross pins from Oriental Trading, some cork stoppers, and some hot glue we could make our own finials. So while Belinda spent hours snapping the pins of the back of each Cross and gluing each to a cork, we discussed spending the time to give the fence and finials some rust and corrosion in the paint job. It will probably take more hours than we'll want to spend and most people won't even notice, but for us its all about doing the best we can even on the little details.

 Gothic Cross from Oriental Trading Co. and cork stoppers to fit in the top of each PVC fence pole. One down...

Couple hundred to go!

Dear Santa...

Rights reserved kahtequila.com

I love me a good Margarita plus this Tequila has the advantage of having the coolest bottle ever! It's Kah Tequila and the Kah Anejo is described as having aromas of Chocolate Tobacco and Coffee! I know it's Halloween but is it too soon for a letter to Santa??

Arose

Our final big prop for the year...on to making more tombstones

Ok... so it doesn't look like the Disney Haunted Mansion Sign.... *sigh*

It's as done as its going to be for this year...

There are Pumpkin Carvers and there are Pumpkin Carvers

Generally carving real pumpkins to display in Florida is pretty much a waste of time in this heat and humidity. Unless of course you just want that "science experiment gone bad" look  after about 2 days. So anyways, its not something I pay much attention to. This week however I  watched the pumpkin carving challenge on the Food Channel and was blown away by the work of this guy Ray Villafane, who ultimately won the championship. If you think you can carve pumpkins go check out his website or FB page... then go back to practicing!

All rights reverved Villafane Studios

Howl O Scream

These reapers at Howl O Scream are just too cool. I guess its Universal's Horror Nights for us this year but next year we definitely have to check out HOS. Thanks Jim!

Courtesy Jim McCrary

HHN XXI

Courtesy Jim McCrary

October 1

I can't think of a more fitting way to greet October than the temperatures we have here in Florida today. Current temperature is a beautiful 71 degrees with a forecast of 61!!!!