Halloween at Michael’s

The local Michaels arts-and-crafts stores have been slowly stocking their shelves with Halloween.  Also, they have some deep discounts on their spring and summer merchandise.  Some of these can be used for Halloween too!

First, the Halloween goodies!

The Lemaxx Spooky Town displays have a bit of a canival-like atmosphere this year.  I took some pictures below.

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There are lots of elegant decorations with variations on the skull theme this year…

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…and other stuff (please forgive the occasional blurry picture)…

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The changing portraits were sufficiently creepy

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Check out this video for the full effect

I also saw a good selection of bisque ceramics.  You’d need access to a kiln to glaze and finish these.  There are craft locations that will do that for you (Like Art and Soul in the Plano TX area)

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The stores are also deeply discounting spring items.  One thing that caught my eye was the decorative boxes.

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I especially like the boxes in the background that look like books.  These are just crying out to be altered into some creepy Necronomicon or other spooky book (with a secret hiding place inside for your spell-making ingredients!).  Check out Dave Lowe’s blog for ideas on how to make these into a faux leather creepy book.  Even the regular boxes could be turned into a vampire killing kit, like this one in a video from Shadow of Palms.

ScreaminScott says “dig it up!”

Halloween in the Garden

Garden Ridge (now rebranding as ‘At Home’) has their Halloween stuff out!  My son David and I took a look.  David decided to make a video of some of the items we looked at.  Take a look yourself!

The selection is very good this year.  If you have a store near you, I recommend you check it out!

 

Full Size Skeletons are $49.99 this year

Full Size Skeletons are $49.99 this year

The Garden Ridge skeletons have metal hardware for 2014.  Hopefully this makes them sturdier.

The Garden Ridge skeletons have metal hardware for 2014. Hopefully this makes them sturdier.

more cute signs

more cute signs

Mickey and Minnie

Mickey and Minnie

Zombie signs!

Zombie signs!

Skull wreath with color changing eyes

Skull wreath with color changing eyes

What's better than chains?  Chains with huge hooks!

What’s better than chains? Chains with huge hooks!

This guy has popped his head off his shoulders

This guy has popped his head off his shoulders

The lantern in his bony hand emits an erie glow.

The lantern in his bony hand emits an erie glow.

Ghostly pumpkin with color-changing LED's inside the head

Ghostly pumpkin with color-changing LED’s inside the head

This witch shakes and cackles

This witch shakes and cackles

Perfect for a dungeon sceen

Perfect for a dungeon sceen

Standard Halloween candles

Standard Halloween candles

This skull is about twice the size of a normal skull

This skull is about twice the size of a normal skull

The exposed brain on this head is lit with color-changing LED's.  Perfect for a mad scientist laboratory!

The exposed brain on this head is lit with color-changing LED’s. Perfect for a mad scientist laboratory!

Skull with red LED eyes

Skull with red LED eyes

A good selection of Tombstones.  The 3rd and 4th from the top left are actually plaster.  The rest are Styrofoam.

A good selection of Tombstones. The 3rd and 4th from the top left are actually plaster. The rest are Styrofoam.

This guy screams and shakes

This guy screams and shakes

A hanging zombie figure with light-up eyes

A hanging zombie figure with light-up eyes

Hanging skeleton figures with light-up eyes.  Only the top part is a skeleton.  The bottom part is just cloth

Hanging skeleton figures with light-up eyes. Only the top part is a skeleton. The bottom part is just cloth

Ice, Ice, Pumpkin

The north Texas area had some freezing rain and sleet blow through recently.  Complicating this is an extended period of freezing temperatures.  SO everything has been closed and the streets and parking lots have been turned into ice rinks (literally – kids were playing ice hockey in the church parking lot down the street).

One of my traditions during cold weather is to build a snow pumpkin outside somewhere, like this:

Snow Pumpkin

Well the sleet and ice didn’t work with snow-building techniques, so I tried something different.

I give you.. the Ice Jack-o-Lantern!

Ice pumpkin

I took a old plastic jackolantern pail, and cut it in half.  Then I duct taped it together and filled it with water.  However, the duct tape was not as waterproof as I would like, so it took me 2 days of refilling it until I was able to get enough to freeze before it leaked out.

It didn’t freeze all the way through (I didn’t expect it to) so I drained out the water and was left with a hollow pumpkin.  I did put a little battery operated tealight inside last night, which looked OK.  But you can’t really make out the features so it just looks like a ball of ice.

If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t cut the pumpkin pail until after the after froze.  Then I might use a hot knife to cut out the eyes, nose and mouth.  But it was a fun experiment anyway!

Someone else online had a similar idea.  His instruction are over at Instructables.com

ScreaminScott says “dig it up!”

Halloween Night 2013

410 Trick-or-treaters!

Four hundred and ten!

A new Stonehaven Manor record!

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After all the traveling this past month, including the 3-day conference just before Halloween, I finally got everything set up (almost)  There were a few new things, like the sign above.  And the sign below:

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And a few items didn’t make it into the yard this year (the  skeleton/rat tug of war and the moving spiders).

But when it’s all said and done, it was a good yard this year.  I was especially happy about the weather.  We had a lot of wind, with gusts up to 35 mph during the day.  But it completely died down in the evening, allowing my fog to stay low and slowwww…

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I could come up with humorous quips for all the other pictures, but I’m tired.  So here’s a selection of pictures from this years Stonehaven Manor

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Happy Halloween!

A Sign of the Times

Home haunters like to name their haunts.  Some call them “Bob” or Sue” (OK, not really).  Others think up really elaborate names like “The Dungeon of Everlasting Torment” (Actually, that’s not bad.. let me make a note).

But I’ve been calling my humble yard haunt “Stonehaven Manor” for a few years, if only in my head.  Stonehaven is the main street that runs through our neighborhood and past our house. The name has a nice imposing feel to it.

So I decided to make a sign for the yard.  I have a lamppost  at the corner of the yard that was a perfect place to hang it.  I also created a little photo-op under the lamppost, with a bench and a skeleton for kids to sit and roll their eyes while parents take pictures (and teenagers to create in appropriate poses with the skeleton… but I digress).  So I hope that the name of the haunt will make it into at least some pictures for posterity. Continue reading