A Wee Cradle...

The kids need a place to sleep too, you know? So Brent decided to make a little cradle for a couple. This is a bit more sophisticated than the cut up box we have for a few of the larger ones...

 An idea starts coming together...

 Rusty paint gives it a nice touch, don't you think? 

I think these two will be very happy hanging out in the new crib...

Need a new bed?

We've got some really fun stuff planned for the Scaryview Cemetery this year. Here's a sneak peek at the layout:

What? You didn't think I was going to make it readable, did you? Not that it matters. My scribbles are nothing compared to how it will all look in 3D. ;-) We're doing a haunted mansion theme this year - the yard being our "mansion". There will be a dining room with a feast and entertainment, a sitting room/nursery for the babies and their nanny, a bedroom for the Master & Mistress of Death, and of course, a private graveyard for the estate. You never know what else we'll throw in just for kicks, so plan to stop by if you're local to the area!

Brent's been working hard on some of the "hardscape" props we need this year. Anyone need a new canopy bed? Ours is built of scrap wood, foam insulation, PVC pipe and pipe insulation.

 Bottom Frame - we needed it off the ground for...ah...well, that's a surprise.

 PVC canopy frame over a "foam" mattress (luckily, the undead aren't picky about hard surfaces)

Canopy frame covered with dark gray PVC insulation, which will not only make it disappear in the dark, but will provide a bit of friction for the fabric we'll be hanging off of it.

Next up, something a big smaller... 

50 Days to Go - New Stuff and Party Prep

Look at that - the countdown clock says 50 more days to Halloween! that means there's only 42 days to the party on Oct. 23rd...and we'd better get moving! I got the official clock out today - it plays scary sounds every hour on the hour during daylight. My favorite clock, bar none. It's especially fitting this year, since our theme is a "time warp" - Halloween through the ages. We'll be focusing on ancient times (celtic/druid), 1600's - 1800's, and a nod to the future for our party deco.

We did some shopping today too - Target finally has their stuff out here, and we had a good time. This year, no paper plates for us - we bought a whole set of 20 melamine plates, and 8 bowls (all dishwasher safe, of course). We need to go to the other Target store and see if we can score some more bowls...

Naturally we got napkins too. Can't have a party without napkins. Just above and to the left are the bags I'll use for trick-or-treater packages this year. We also got a big beverage tub, and a whole kit of lights/sounds found at Lowes - because you can never have too many flashing lights or scary noises.

We also got some craft supplies for other projects - including this year's invitations:

Then we came home and while I was washing up 24 brightly colored coffins...

Brent was in the garage working on a new prop for our cemetery.

He's also been working on a few other things...wonder who will end up in this?

 This week, I'll be working on getting those invitations done, and I think it's time to start putting some interior decorations up!

Party Week: Thursday Scenes

Blogger went down last night, so this is yesterday's post, finally up.

My main mission today was to finish painting the graveyard fence black - mission accomplished! Of course I forgot to get a picture, but there will be plenty once we get the tombstones out tomorrow. After letting my hands recover for a bit (I don't love spray paint!), I headed downstairs and set up the autopsy room:
Cool in regular lighting, but way spookier with the red bulb in!
I spent the rest of my time today cleaning, putting totes away and working on the main activity for the party. We're very close to being done with all the scene setting - here are some shots of the pediatrics ward:

Peek-a-BOO!

What's that they're playing with?

We also brainstormed the party ideas our guests will vote on for the 2010 party. The themes are:

Heaven & Hell
Worst Fears/Superstitions
Time Warp

Which one would you vote for?

More to come...

Party Week: Tuesday Report

Today was half taken up with errands this morning, one of which was gathering up and donating Halloween stuff we don't need/want anymore to the local rescue mission store. Most of what I did this afternoon involved cleaning, vacuuming and putting stuff away.

So I thought I'd share some pics of things already mostly done:

Our bartender this year - the creepy lab technician.
Brent's crematorium - looks creepy this way, but with the lights and fog...primo!
Our MRI machine - another of Brent's brainstorms. This one will have special lighting/sound too.
This afternoon I put the x-ray box up...looks pretty good here, even without the lights on!
Why am I showing you a gray shower curtain? Hint: our normal curtain isn't gray. Doesn't it make you wonder - what's on the other side?

I'm running half a day behind...tomorrow morning, I'll be finishing up the basement as much as possible. Tomorrow afternoon, time to assemble party bags and start prepping the contests. More photos tomorrow...

Fence Panels & Clay Toes

We made good progress last weekend, assembling all the new fence panels for the graveyard this year. Each panel is comprised of two wood furring strips and nine pieces of PVC.
Much measuring, drilling, screwing and innuendo ensued...
And voila! 31 fence panels, ready to be spray painted black this weekend!
I finally finished the clay toes this weekend too - 25 little toes made of modeling clay, with a ring through each heal.

They were baked for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, and Brent painted the toes black for a final touch. Now they're all ready to go!
Wait a second...what are these toes for? Anyone care to take a guess?

Photos of some of our new props coming soon, and I need to finish the invitations to be sent out on Saturday!

New Graveyard Fencing

Last year on Halloween night, we had problems with parents stepping over our low fence - followed closely by their kids. Because we have all kinds of electrical cords, etc snaked through the lawn decorations, we prefer that kids especially stay out of the graveyard proper, just to keep anyone from tripping & hurting themselves. So we decided it was time for a "proper" graveyard fence.

We got the instructions online (see the HauntProject.com link to the right), and Brent decided to build a panel just to see how it would look, how hard it would be, etc. Turns out it was pretty darn easy, as you can see above. These 6ft panels just stake into the yard with rebar, and are made of 1/2 inch PVC pipe and 2 inch furring strips. Obviously we need finials to put on top of the posts...we're still looking for something suitably haunting.

We need 32 panels to do both halves of our graveyard, so today we bought 90 PVC pipes and 60 furring strips, 2 more boxes of nails and another box of black spray paint. Once all the panels are finished, we'll add some moss & creepy cloth to finish off the look. Can't wait to see what it looks like all put together!

This weekend we also bought bloody tablecloths, and cheap MP3 players with cheap speakers for sound effects around the house. Can't believe we didn't think of it before, but it's the perfect solution for getting specific sound effects to match individual "scenes".

Now if we could just pin down the invitation format...

Box of Goodies & Fence Building

Less than 100 days to Halloween, and we're revving up for this year's party & yard haunt! With any luck, I'll be posting weekly updates now through the "big day".Yesterday we got our second order of Halloween goodies, as you can see from the photo above. I just love the new "evil pumpkin", and we're already "testing" one of the props in a jar of water there. Some cabinet covers for the kitchen, body bags for treats, and some craft items for our main activity this year. All very exciting! Good thing I cleaned off the kitchen table last week, eh?

Last week, we headed to the local hardware store, and got all the materials to build a couple of new fence panels for our yard haunt. We're using plans we found on HauntProject.com (linked to the right) - if you're looking for new projects, go check it out! We're putting two panels together, and if it works well, we'll be making enough to do the whole front yard. I think it's going to look really cool, and be much more sturdy that last year's cobbled-together barrier. I'll post pictures of our first efforts as soon as we get a panel finished.

This coming week, aside from working on the fence, my main goal is to get our "save-the-date" magnets done and ready to mail out next Saturday. I have magnets leftover from a previous marketing venture, so it's just a matter of printing out cards, sticking them to the magnets, and mailing them off. Gotta find some hospital-themed clip art though...which is sometimes harder than one might think.

Better get to work!

A Little Behind Schedule...

I know. How could we possibly be behind schedule already?

Every year, we say we're going to order things early. Plan things early. Make things early. And we always end up running late. So far, this year isn't much different (though we did order some early props, and have been saving up containers and used (washed!) syringes for various things.

At the moment though, there are two things we need to get going on:

1. A story for our Haunted Hospital mystery, and the poor souls who died there.

2. Save the Date cards. Magnets, maybe? It seems like every year, we have several people who can't remember the date of the party (different people, so I don't think they're just avoiding us). This year, we're planning to send out little items (magnets for the fridge, I think) to remind people when the party will be, and what the theme is, so everyone can clear their schedule and get costumes planned in plenty of time. I think we'll send them out in late July/early August.

We've got tentative ideas for both, but of course, I can't share the details just yet, or it would spoil the surprise! Stay tuned...

Halloween Bites

Two weeks ago, one of our dogs had two teeth removed. They’d gotten infected, and when the vet tech asked if I wanted to keep them, I almost let him throw them out. Obviously, I came to my senses in time, and grabbed the nifty test tube he’d put them in, remembering that our theme is centered around all things medical this year!

So now we have these nicely grotesque infected teeth to add to our prop collection. The tech suggested that maybe we’d need to clean them up before use…but I’m not so sure…

Scaryview Sanitarium 2009: IV's

A couple of our first props for this year's party! Always handy to have IV's on hand...


Currently on the planning table: A Corpse Buffet

Treasure Island: Yard Display

Our yard display was much improved in 2008, with the addition of a fence (for crowd control), foam tombstones, two spotlights and flying ghosts above the cemetery. Our “fence” was made of garden stakes screwed together and pounded into the ground, then connected with creepy cloth stapled to the “posts”. Small foam skulls served as finials, with larger skulls at the entrance. It was cheap and easy – we got all the creepy cloth at the dollar store, but not really all that sturdy when the wind started blowing. Another problem we had was that the fence just wasn’t high enough – it kept kids from stepping over, but not parents…and I’d really prefer that people don’t walk through the graves due to the cords and such that are needed for the lighting and effects. We’re planning a “fencing upgrade” in 2009 that I think will really add to the atmosphere of the display as well as keeping people from wandering through the cords.When we first decided to set up a yard cemetery for Halloween, rather than spending money on tombstones, I came up with the idea for these white markers you see here. They are simply wire hangers, stretched out then bent in half, with white garbage bags stapled around the wire. We made a tombstone for each invited party guest, without names, but just a short quip that would be a clue as to who was buried there (with the date of our party, of course). They’re rough around the edges, but I’m not quite ready to retire them just yet. You can also see one of our flying ghosts in the picture there – we had two on cables running over the graveyard. $10 each at Walmart…not a bad investment. They make spooky wailing noises that are somewhat cheesy, but fun at the same time. And of course the very cool wooden tombstones that Brent made a few years ago...we're still working on a better method of keeping them upright.
The “foam” side of our graveyard was new this year, and turned out far better than I thought it would. The spotlights really made the difference – after reading a lot on the Halloween forum, we bought a few cheap floodlight fixtures at Lowes, and some outdoor spots in blue and red. Aside from the problematic garage floodlights across the street from the neighbor’s house, we have no streetlights, so once the neighbor’s light was off, the yard looked really dark and creepy. Our next goal is to get fog pumping through the graveyard…We had a bubble fogger near the front steps that was the hit of our display – and this year, I’m trying to decide how to integrate it *into* a scene, rather than just have it as a stand-alone prop. It was under our big picture window, where you can see our pirate flag, though it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped this year, but still brought an element of our party theme to the outdoor display.
And of course the basket by our front door – rather funeral-esque this year. I was pleased with how it turned out – very dark and foreboding.Next post – party pics!

Treasure Island: Décor

We had so much fun with the décor for our pirate party. I can’t decide whether the “No Quarter” hall of heads or the “Spider Stairway” was my favorite, but by far, the favorite “prop” of the evening for our guests was the “Bathtub Burial” scene (above). No, the bathtub isn't filled with dirt - it's amazing what you can do with foam board & plastic bags!
The "No Quarter" area - this was completely dark (no lamp light behind as in the photo), blocked off from the adjoining rooms with black tablecloths and our burgundy curtains. When the curtains were opened for people to enter, it set off a string of strobe lights with eerie music and laughter - the strobe lights illuminating the heads just enough to be super-freaky!Our "Spider Stairwell" - all the webs were lit by a blacklight in the stairwell...very cool effect. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of it all glowing, but you can get the idea:
What would a pirate ship be without a captain? You may have seen this photo in your local paper - I was interviewed last year for an article on Halloween theme parties. Fun!More to come...