Beware the Shadows in the Wicked Woods (Countdown to Halloween day 5)

Mid Summers Halloween projects

We find ourselves in a state of flux. We are under contract to move to a MUCH bigger house with the perfect yard to haunt, but...the closing date could be anywhere from Sept 30th to Dec 30th. So we run the constant stress of "should we decorate?" We have decided to go on as usual and just anticipate the moving to come after Halloween. 

My office is a constant mash of Halloween items that I use for both inspiration and for sentimentality. This is the view over my shoulder from my computer desk.

M had been planning some projects this year all on her own. She is going to be mass producing PVC candles to start with.

Her inspirational urges strike even late into the night.

Here is the first batch of small candles.

Here they are in action!

I am working on a few projects myself trying to keep in mind that a move could happen at any given moment. So far I have one creature I am building around a toy motor. My biggest fear is the motor will give out before Halloween and it is at the heart of the build and cannot be replaced. Here is a sneak peek at what I am working on...any guesses? 

Hope that we can find time for many more projects in the days to come!

One man's junk is a yard haunter's treasure.

It's less than 3 months till the big day. Time to start rolling out ideas, projects, and props. I just happened to have lucked into a few good items recently for next to nothing! Behold my super cheap treasures I have collected!

One fully functional Shiatsu Massager. Not sure if I will use this to animate a ground breaker or a breathing grave. Found this in my mother's yard sale junk for free.

The two bottles were thrift store finds and I paid a dollar for them both. They will be filled with disgusting liquid and added to the apothecary. The lantern was another mom yard sale find. I will paint it black and add it to the ground breaking coffin and shovel scene from last year. 

I also plan on adding a grave robber to this so I am looking forward to how it all ties in

Gothic shelf perfect for a skull, candle, and raven (1 buck at a thrift store). Large candle holder for another skull or pumpkin and a tarnished, twisted candle holder which I will creep up a bit and put a nice black candle in (both for a buck at a yard sale). 

I won this on a bid from ebay for 9.99. 

I now have official Friday the 13th wear as well as a good convo shirt for Superbowl!

Found this bargain at a teachers supply outlet. They had 3 for 50 cents each.. I got em all. 

I was shocked to find Bath Salts at a yard sale, but for 50 cents, how can you go wrong. I plan on dressing as a zombie, then taking the bath salts and eating my neighbors faces off. Not really.... The bottle was just cool looking and M said it needed to go into the apothecary (after disposing of the zombie drug inside). 

M found this at Dollar Tree for a buck. It's large and a great door knocker cover. In a pinch, you could also add this to a bathroom as a towel holder! Dollar Tree also has large pieces of creepy cloth, die cut bats, spider, and ravens like Martha Stewart, and black roses. I am going to send M back to make some creepy arrangements soon.

M found black duct tape for half off marked price at Rue21. 99 cent duct tape at a teeny bopper clothing store? Don't ask, just take it! 

M got this for me a while back. A glow in the dark pointer. It will come in handy for Halloween party games. 

This is the crown jewel of my bargain haunting finds. This is one of those light boxes they put in basements or center offices to give the illusion of a window. It has two large curved florescent lights (as you can see through the plexi) to give the illusion of a window to the outside. When I saw it, it screamed X-RAY BOX and will be perfect to display my collection of x rays.

The only problem is, it is designed to be hard wired as a wall fixture. I will be able to rewire it with an old toaster's cord, pull the window slats out of the front and paint the box black for a perfectly wicked x ray box to go along with my apothecary/bar area for the Halloween party. The lights alone would run me close to 30 bucks, not to mention the light housing and hardware, plexi-glass, and wood frame. This is an easy 50 dollar or more project found at a yard sale for a mere 2 bucks!

Maybe adding a small plaque which reads, "Exploring the brain of a serial killer"  

The (not so) secret behind the Mourning Skeleton.

    Everybody has a skeleton in their closet. I have them in the spare bathroom, the work shop, back closet and under the bed. One of my skeletons has generated a lot of email to me. That would be the Mourning Skeleton :

  I received 3 emails, today alone, saying how it was a favorite and asking how it is done. Here is the dirty little secret to my most talked about prop of 2011 :

   It all started out with three Walgreen's skeletons :

   I got a great deal on these thanks to a loyal follower who recognized my name at the Walgreen's in Johnson City Tennessee. The one on the far right went straight out to the front porch as a door greeter and the one on the far left spent the Halloween season trying to escape from a coffin  :

   The skele in the middle hung out in the house with us. I just knew it was destined for greatness (well as great as a skele can get). That skele went on to become the bony witch in one of my posts:

A lurker who follows my website but remains anonymous:

A witch who has her tea party interrupted by Jason :

And finally as a quasi permanent Halloween Party decoration amid the apothecary :

This was consensual I assure you.

   Here, the future Mourning Skeleton sat and entertained party guests and visitors for weeks. 

   Then came Halloween day at 1:30pm. M was on her way home to start applying my zombie makeup. I had been putting props out and adjusting the cemetery since 7:30am. Everything that I had planned to put out and set up was complete. I just happened to notice a bare spot in the cemetery near the coffin. I came in the house to grab a big pumpkin to take up the space when I noticed the skeleton still attached to the lamp. I quickly popped the wire that was holding it down, threw it over my shoulder, and headed for the bare spot. 

   At first, I had planned to lay it on the ground with its arms over it's chest. I set it down in the spot and started to head back in for a wire to hold the hands in place. That is when I saw that a piece of creepy cloth had stuck to the skele's back and that both hands were covering it's face like it was crying. The black string loop that comes out of the top of the skeleton's head (from which you can hang them) had tangled up in the bony  fingers as I carried it. I re positioned the creepy cloth stuck to it's spine, like a shawl, and I liked what I saw:

   There was a spare piece of rebar nearby and I just added it for stability. I moved an LED candle from lid of the nearby coffin and I was done. It took me all of 5 minutes to make (quite by accident) my most talked about prop of 2011. It even made the local newspaper (which I will be posting about Friday).

   Of course the lighting and the fog helped out tremendously, but I have to admit, I am fond of this one as well. I think that this prop (or some form of it ) will be making return visits to the Wicked Woods Cemetery for years to come.

2012 Haunting Wishlist

   I was starting a list of things I wanted to make sure I worked on for next Halloween. I am notorious for loosing lists so what better place to store that list than right here in the archives of my blog. While I am at it, might as well make it a fun and interactive posts to boot!. Here goes my 2012 wishlist.

Chicken and Cheese Ghosts : 

As in chicken wire and cheesecloth. I will make at least one if not all these by next Halloween.

Cemetery Fence : 

Going to have to work hard on this, especially if we plan on expanding the haunt out into the whole front yard. The design needs to be collapsible and in the mindset of storage. 

Jumping Spider Prop :

With all the spider props we have, this would be a perfect addition to the haunt. I envision a corner of the cemetery overrun with spiders and webs. 

Tombstones :

If we do expand the cemetery like M wants to, (M usually gets her way), we are going to need a bunch.....I mean a hearse load of them!

PVC Candles : 

They look super cool and add so much to the ambiance of a cemetery. They are also nice to cast some light at your party if you use black or colored lights for your house. 

Breathing Grave : 

Very easy to build prop that really causes some concern as you pass by it. 

Second Ground Breaker Coffin :

I liked the one I refurbished this year and this would be a perfect prop to animate or even hide a fog chiller.

   That is about it for the MAJOR things I would like to do for next year. There is a never ending list of smaller things that I may or may not add such as :

• Building a chicken wire witch prop with a stirring cauldron and fake flame.
• Full size Mummy prop. 
• Flying Crank Ghost (I always say I am going to build one but never find the time).
• New Fog Delivery system (not a new chiller but a PVC pipe delivery system).
• Animated escaping skeleton coffin.
• Faceless Bride prop.
• Better Mourning Skeleton Prop.
• Lots of Bucky arms!
• Animated escaping skele from our water main cover
• LED eyes for all the skeles.
• At least 3 more Wallgreen skeles. 
• Blue Led Spotlights (I already have a ton of green).
• Few more heavy duty extension cords.
• Couple more portable CD players for more targeted sound ambiance . 

   That is about it for now. I am sure I will think of a few other things in the 300 or so days left to plan. Anybody else have any suggestions for my haunt or even better, what wishlist items are you hoping for in 2012?

Rainy day project of evil (or how to keep from losing it cause you can't work on your big Halloween projects outside)

   This time of year, there is so much to do. Every minute could/should be filled with working towards our party, decorations, and yard haunt.  The rain is confounding me greatly.
   Thankfully, my ever eagle eyed mother found a candle at a yard sale that she thought I could "spook up".

   The little fat cherubs stared at me with blank mockery. My mother told me if I could not use it, just toss it and give the coconut scented candle to my girlfriend. With all I have to do on my plate, that was a possibility. Looking closer at the candle holder, I saw there were oak leaves at the bottom of the cherubs feet. This was a good sign. Since the rain was keeping me away from my large projects, I grabbed some paint and started to work on "spooking up" this Victorian reject.
    Here is the finished product :

   Not bad. I was planning on doing some more detail, but my girlfriend said she liked it the way it is. I am not sure if I will use it as a candle holder still.

   I think a fat red candle would look good, but those are all packed up (till the dang rain stops).

   It could function as a pumpkin holder in a pinch. I bet a sinister jack-o-lantern would look good (again packed away and can't get em out due to rain).

   Something about this seems very Shakespearean to me. I had to use the Target glow in the dark skull because all of my good, realistic ones are... well you know where they are. I think I like the skull.
   I am looking for opinions. What should it hold? Should I do more detail work? Should I buy a huge umbrella? I look forward to your wicKED comments.