Crappy Halloween

Halloween, though one of my favorite holidays, is always a bust in our neighborhood. 

No trick or treaters ever, even though I dress up my porch every year, and play scary music.

Everyone seems to be doing Trunk or Treat instead.

That's no fun.

When I was a kid I loved nothing more than walking down the dark and spooky streets running from house to house being scared out of my mind. I remember there was a house down the street that scared me and thrilled me at the same time. All they had was scary music playing. I don't even think the homeowner showed their face when they handed out the candy.  That's it! But I loved it so much! 

Now that I think about it, how was it that I was such a brave kid on halloween night, but I couldn't even walk down the hallway in my house without all the lights on? ha.

Oh well, I still enjoy spookifying my house, even if it ends up just being for JC and me. 

Here are a few photos from early Halloween morning at Colonial Williamsburg.

I saw on our neighborhood page that someone close by had "three adorable trick or treaters", so maybe there is hope for next year. 

Thanks for visiting. 

🎃

A Haunted Halloween at Colonial Williamsburg

Haunting on DoG Street (Duke of Gloucester) is in full effect at Colonial Williamsburg through the 31st.  I took a stroll through the streets before opening hours this morning. 

Boy was it spooky. I hope I can sleep tonight.

Have a look for yourself....if you dare.

☠

Thanks for visiting.

👻

Halloween Decorating Inside and Out

I hate the weather getting cold, but I love that it brings my favorite holidays. So, it's a trade off. 

I'm a minimalist for Halloween. (just wait for Christmas, though.)

The skeleton votive holders are 3D printed, and painted with acrylic paints. 

And then, of course, we have to have JC's legos. 

OH, and what's Halloween without a dog walking a skeleton dog?

I wonder if we'll ever have too many holiday inflatables? 

We just picked up this spider from Aldi last week. I love Aldi.

These are my favorite inflatables. Three pooches who are out trick or treating. Along with my ghosts and pumpkins handmade by myself and my Dad. I blogged about them last year. 

Sadly, just yesterday, the fan failed on the pooches. JC researched new fans online, and found them to be in the $35 range, but then someone commented that for much less than that you could buy some other inflatable that you don't like and take the fan out of that! Aldi, here we come to pick up another $9.99 inflatable to sacrifice for my pooches. 

Thanks for visiting!

🐶

More 3D Printing and Halloween Paper Crafts

I've been busy. JC keeps printing, and I keep painting and paper crafting. 

3D printed spider:

Nightmare Before Christmas Bats, Jack Skellington, and Sally cut on my Silhouette Cameo. 

My plan is to make a mobile with them:

So much stuff to finish painting here; 3D Groot, Dalek sitting on a 3D column, a water tower, a bunny, coffins and mummies. Yes, all this stuff is 3D printed, except for the paper bats, which are painted cardstock. 

USS Enterprise, Next Generation model:

whew.

Thanks for visiting!

👽

[All 3D print designs found on thingiverse.com]

Autumn Is Here with Halloween Yard Art!

Here are some more handmade yard art pieces, designed and painted by me, and hand-cut by my Dad.

Dad cut out the originals for me many years ago, and when I moved and used their garage as storage, he kind of stole them from me. ha. So, I had to have him make me a new set.

Happy October!

Thank you for visiting!

Happy October! Glad We'll Miss Ya, Joaquin!

It's one of my favorites times of the year! Happy October! Happy Halloween month! It's time for things to cool down and for the leaves to start turning colors.

If you live on the East Coast you are well aware of Hurricane Joaquin, and all the spaghetti monster models showing it's possible path. Well, it now looks like he's going to miss us completely, which is great. But, here in Virginia, we are still getting lots and lots and lots of rain, with some areas already flooding, with more to come.  

Alas, everything is pretty much canceled this weekend; all the normal Farmer's Markets, Fall Festivals, Art Festivals, everything. It feels like a good excuse to have a nice, quiet weekend with nowhere to go and nothing to do. I'll take it!

Haunted House built and decorated by my husband, because if I did it the building would surely collapse. ha. Okay, I did make that fabulous walkway. ☺

My talented sister made the very precious double sided quilt (Halloween on one side, Fall on the other). 

♥

Thank you for visiting! Stay dry!

Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream 2014

We went to Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream this weekend. 

(all photos taken with my iphone 4s and edited in google+.)

For those unaware, Busch Gardens, in Williamsburg, Virginia, is the most beautiful theme park in the country. Literally. It's award-winning:

World’s Most Beautiful Theme Park – Awarded by the National Amusement Park Historical Association (NAPHA), Busch Gardens has received this honor every year for the past 23 years. NAPHA Historian Jim Futrell says, “Members have long praised Busch Gardens Williamsburg for its amazing setting with its world class thrill rides and attractions surrounded by detailed European theming all nestled into a lush, rolling, forested landscape.  As demonstrated by the survey results, it’s an atmosphere that is hard to duplicate anywhere else.” - via Busch Gardens official website.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg (there is also a Busch Garden Tampa) has a European theme with 10 "hamlets" that are based on villages in England, France, Germany, Italy, Scotland, and Ireland.

Ok. So, maybe during the month of October that beauty is shrouded in darkness...and a little gore. For the "Howl-O-Scream" season each European country has it's own  themes, or as they call them, "Terror-tories" with six haunted houses throughout the park, including 13 Your Number's Up, Bitten, Catacombs, Cut Throat Cove, Deadline, and Root of all Evil. We only made it to Bitten this visit. 

England becomes "Ripper Row". 

Germany becomes "Vampire Point"

When we got to the park the first item on the agenda was food. Our favorite is brisket at the Smoke House in New France. I highly recommend it.

The shows are always great fun. The photo above is from the show "Night Beats", which is located in Das Festhaus, or rather the "Casket Club". Two other shows are "Fiends" and "Monster Stomp".

My one beef is that the haunted houses are not as scary as they were when the park first started putting on Howl-O-Scream back in 1999. Throughout the park they also have a "scare squad" that walks around the hamlets jumping out at guests. They used to be great years ago with stilt-walkers dressed like dark lords, and just all around more elaborate and SCARY costumes. 

New France is "Wendigo Woods"

It just seems each year the scares get more and more tame, which is probably directly related to parent complaints, even though there is ample warning that at 6pm the scares start and might not be suitable for younger kids and other sensitive souls. 

I know they can't alienate the families but I wish there could be some compromise so those of us who want to be terrified can get what we want, too.  Every time we go, I think of ways they could make the haunted houses scarier without compromising safety, or hiring tons of people, or spending tons of money. (Ok, maybe they'd still have to spend money.) Ah well, they didn't ask me for my help. 

Aquitaine is "Demon Street"

Don't get me wrong! We still have a great time, and it's always fun to walk the park and see all the work they put into it each Halloween season. I just want more scares. I mean, I'm a certified scared-y cat, so when it doesn't scare me and make me climb over top of my husband then it's really not even remotely scary. But then, I know everyone has different tolerance levels. 

ok, this photo might be scary, but maybe that's just my awesome editing skills..with the help of google+. ;)

And that reminds me of the best Haunted House I think I've ever been in, which sadly is no longer. We live near the small town of Poquoson, which is on the Chesapeake Bay, and there was an old abandoned house that would open up during Halloween season. You walked through each room and there was a different scary, gory scene, and people chasing you around, grabbing at you, and the last thing I remember was that you had to crawl out of the house on all fours through this dark, creepy, tunnel. Now, that was a scary good time, and that place always had a long line each night. You probably couldn't get away with today what you could get away with years ago, though, which is a shame. 

(We didn't even make it to Italy this visit, which becomes "Ports Of Skull".) 

I love these last three photos above.  I might even print them out for I-don't-know-what.  Maybe I'll start sending out Halloween greetings. 

All in all, it's a really fun time, and I highly recommend it, even if I didn't get my requisite scares in. It is still a really beautiful park. (And you know, amazing roller-coasters if you are into that kind of thing.) 

☺

Thanks for visiting. 

P.S. Did I mention that my first real job was at Busch Gardens, waaaaayyyy back in the late 1980's?  It was kind of  a rite of passage for local kids to work at Busch. Fun times. Even if I had to walk 15 minutes through the park, up and down those beautifully landscaped hills, from the employee parking lot to my work area. Needless to say, I was quite fit back then. ;)

Happy Halloween 2013 and a Spooky Story by Emily Carroll

Just a little spooky fun with photoshop using only the tools available within the program. 

I miss decorating for, and scaring the trick-or-treaters.
We don't get any here in the sticks, so I don't do much for the occasion.
Though, I do have some candy just in case the few kids in the neighborhood come by.




I also wanted to share a web comic with you from the amazingly talented Emily Carroll, called Out of Skin.
I love everything she creates. Her illustrations are amazing, as is her storytelling.  Click the image below to read the story. It's wonderfully dark and gruesome, and a perfect Halloween treat.

A safe and Happy Halloween night to you.

Tis the Halloween Season

Happy October!

We all know what that means. 

In celebration of what always feels like a very short month of fun with ghosts and goblins, here is a collage I made of my husband's Halloween office party from last year. 

The theme was a circus freak show but to be more PC, they went with CarnEvil.

click the image for a larger view...if you dare...

Pictured from left to right starting from the top left: What looks like the little shop of human body parts; peep show of grotesque images; talking sculpture of doom; hall of mirrors; more body parts in jar; bloody hand print; shrunken village; skulls galore and more; creepy veggie meat platter clown head; a human sawed in half with guts and all; tattoos; and balloon darts game, where I won a prize on my first throw! 

Tis the season to be scary!


p.s. collage made in Picasa. 

Happy Halloween

from my new favorite ipad app, Paper by 53. Makes anyone look like they can draw, or at least it makes your scribblings look artistic.