Four Weeks to Party Time...

...and today, we hung a witch in stocks above the dining room table. Hard to get a good picture - I'll try again when we have better lighting in place. We also went on a shopping spree...and got a feather wreath for the living room:

 And adopted two more Zombie Babies from Spirit Halloween to join our nursery. Cute little buggers, aren't they? ;-)

 Brent's pretty well finished with the mausoleum with a final wash of gray/stone paint today. I think it looks rather rugged and worn, don't you?

 And from the front - the moss adds quite a dingy touch, I think.

 

I hung the skull curtain today as well - I think it will fit well with the "ancient" theme we're doing for the living room area...very nice for atmosphere, wouldn't you say? 

Tomorrow is all about the party invitations - must get them finished and sent out this week!

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!

It's Coming...

Deep in the basement, a sense of anticipation is in the air. The tubs and boxes sit quietly, waiting for their moment under the watchful eye of a lone sentinel.

The clown is still sleeping in his corner...

While the babies whisper excitedly in their crib just a few feet away, "Did you see it? It's so big!"

The snowman cowers in his box, trembling in fear at the newest addition to our collection of creatures.

And upstairs, the cause of all the fuss sits proud and 2ft tall, surveying his new domain.

It's coming...

...are you ready?

Party Pics!

I'm horrible at taking photos at events, but here are the six I got. I think we can safely say a great time was had by all!






Next year's theme: Time Warp!

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: Wednesday Report

A lot of cleaning today - putting away unused decorations, getting the glassware rinsed and put out, finishing up the last loads of laundry so I can turn that area into "Autopsy". Not too much to show though...just a quick pic of what I was working on late this afternoon: Sorry, I can't tell you exactly what these are for. Don't want to spoil it for the party guests. I'll let you in on it after the party. Should be pretty fun, I think.

Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be decent, and I'm headed outside to finish painting the fence, and set up the graveyard in the front yard. Hopefully it won't be too cold. I'd also like to finish up the stuff in the photo above, and maybe get the gift bags done. We'll see how far the day goes.

More tomorrow!

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...