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Yard Haunt set up photos - Part 1

Okay, my computer seems to be a piece of crap lately. It's just taking forever to do anything and everything. I can't wait half a day to post multiple photos, and posting one at a time is taking a long time too. So . . . . I guess I will just post these photos in instalments over the next few days. It may be just as well since I've been so busy lately. Here are a few for today.

Jack and Mary are back again this year. No, they haven't been making little monsters together. Jen dressed Baby Brooklyn in her "Tiger" outfit so that she would fit in with all of our Halloween activities for the day. ( that child doesn't care WHO holds her, as long as she's being held, she's happy.) I doubt that most people will notice, but I spent several days giving Jack and Mary some up dates and repairs for the year. I hooked Jack up with a new tie and co-ordinating boots; and Mary got a new head of hair and seems to be very pleased with her new look. Also gave them both some new eyes and some structural work. The girls and I (Jen and Heather) were talking, and we think that after three years together, maybe it's time Jack and Mary got hitched? We're giving a lot of consideration to having a zombie wedding next year - who knows. ( Heather is totally psyched about being their wedding planner.)

I'm so excited about this. I've been wanting a cemetery fence for ages, but just didn't have the time or money to make one from PVC pipe. Several months back, Roy found these fencing pieces and brought them home. Last weekend, Roy and Nick put in some time cutting and welding for me and we found that we had enough to make an arbor entrance! Yay! Today, I finished painting a "cemetery" sign to hang from it and installed some amber lighting to shine over the entrance. The kids and I added some vines of autumn leaves and spider webbing to it to creep things up.

Okay, it's taken me almost half an hour to load and post these two photos, so I think I've had enough frustration for one night.
I'm off to bed.
Good night.

The First Weekend in October . . .

Was a busy weekend here at the Foley Home. I spent all of Saturday stocking up on food for the tribe; and then, on Sunday, we spent the day setting up the yard haunt. Well, it's not completely finished, I still have a few things to add, some cobwebs, creepy cloth and whatever else I discover needs to be done. But for the most part, we hauled everything out of the basement storage area and started setting up the yard. Now, this is JUST the yard - during evenings and weekends, Roy and I will begin work on the garage - the actual "asylum" part of the haunt. Hopefully, this is the last year that we will be doing this during the month of October. I am hoping that next year ALL of the work will be finished by October first and we can start weekend walk throughs to generate donations for our local animal rescues.

It was so nice to have everyone here at home to help with set up this year. (although, I'm pretty sure they will all disappear when it comes time to take things down and pack them away) Not only did it make things go quicker and easier, but it was so much more fun. We even had Quentin, our newly "adopted" son (actually, Jake's best buddy) to help set up. Jen had her hands full with baby Brooklyn and the camera. (she took some really great shots.) I think this is the first year that Jen has been here for the yard set up. Quentin was totally amazed at how people driving by the house started to slow down and gawk as things progressed. My most favorite part is the Monday afterwards, when the neighborhood kids are walking to school in the morning and they see the transformation; then again, when they walk home from school. It's almost as if they suddenly realise that Halloween is REALLY coming this year. The look on their faces is magical.

This evening I took baby Brooklyn outside to enjoy the cool weather a bit. As I've mentioned, we have a large population of Hispanic families in our neighborhood - which is kind of cool, because they are raised to have a really great attitude about Halloween. ( I don't mean to sound prejudice, but most of the "non-Hispanic" kids, are either SO jaded about Halloween, or they have been raised to think that people "like me" are either Satan worshipers, or just plain weird) I had noticed earlier, that we had more than our usual share of kids circling our house on their bikes; and as I stood in the drive way talking to Nick, a pair of older boys finally got the nerve to pedal up the drive and ask about the new props. They went on about how scary the house looked, while their younger siblings gathered on the side walk. They finally got off their bikes and asked if they could touch them. I said sure, and they cautiously walked up and laid just one finger on Bubba's hand, then retreated to their bikes and rode away. About an hour later, they pedaled up the drive with their dog, a little chihuahua, trailing behind them. They stopped in front of Bubba, and waited to see if their dog was as brave as they had been. When the pup backed away from Bubba, they drove off laughing. I'm sure that by dinner time they were the coolest, bravest kids on the block!

Okay, I need to get up early tomorrow and get some things done around the house, so I'm going to post a few pictures from Sunday. (Thanks to Jen and her computer genius)

Uh . . . scratch that. My blogger is being REALLY slow tonight and I'm tired. I promise to post photos tomorrow night.

Sweet dreams everyone.

Glorious OCTOBER has finally arrived!

Well, it's finally October 1st !! Glorious October! And of course, you know what that means . . . Halloween is only 30 days away!! Also, the yard haunt props should be going up this weekend. Maybe, I'll have some room in my basement to actually get some of the things done that I was hoping to do this year. (better late than never) It's bad enough trying to operate with five dogs sprawled out on the concrete floor under my feet, just in case I drop something, or God forbid, move more than ten steps away! But it's kind of creepy working down there at night, with all those props staring over my shoulder.

So here's the plan, Everyone seems to have something happening on Saturday, so I have decided that we will begin construction of the graveyard at noon on Sunday. I told the kids that they can invite a few friends to help, and we'll plan a backyard bar-be-que for dinner. I'm so excited. Roy and Nick finally finished building my cemetery arbor and cutting the fence pieces. I'm not exactly sure how we are going to stabilize it all, today we had some pretty high winds and the arbor, that is currently free standing in the back yard, went crashing over -three times! I keep praying for mild weather this October, but in Kansas, this is a month that's known for some unpredictable weather. (I guess like everything else, it's just a matter of trial and error, and hope that nothing gets too badly damaged)

Okay, I've got to go, I've still go about a million things on my list that need to be done. One of which, is to find that stupid camera cord so I can get some photos posted !!!!

Good night everyone.

I need a hand . . . or two . . .

Well, I woke up this morning and I just couldn't take it anymore. The sun was shining, the air cool and crisp, and those big, brown eyes were looking into mine, begging for just a little walk, please mom? They really have been so good lately. Faithfully laying at my feet while I work in the basement. (actually, covering every square inch of floor space while I work - well, try to work) So as soon as I got myself together (which is no small task) the leashes came out and off we went. It was nice to get out and about for a while. Our neighborhood is always a little crazy on the weekend, especially this weekend.



Mahaffie Farm and Stage Coach Stop

We live just a block from Mahaffie Stage Coach Stop. It's an historical site here in Kansas - the only remaining actual stage coach stop along the original Santa Fe Trail. It's a lovely house on a large plot of land, surrounded on three sides by beautiful parks with walking trails. Over the past couple of years the city has really sunk a lot of money into restoring it to it's original condition. They have added a small farm, a pasture where they now keep horses, bulls, and livestock year round, and instead of the annual civil war battle reenactments, they now have all sorts of events there. (so we now get to listen to gunfire and cannon blasts on a more regular basis - Yipee.) Anyway, this weekend is Wild West Days and the parks were full to capacity with family pic-nickers, football games, old time army tents with character actors cooking over campfires, and horse trailers filled with horses and who knows what. Except for the occasional loud booms, my dogs just love the sights, and smells, and excitement of weekends like this.


It was almost 1:30PM by the time I got everyone walked, fed, and got Jake's glasses picked up from the eye doctors. So I finally got a chance to work on my props. Today, I spent the afternoon making hands. I have all these (sort of) lovely static props, (at least I've put in a lot of work to make them creepy) and I've always found that making realistic hands for them is so damn difficult. So I took a few days last week and did some experimenting. I decided that the best way to make them was from the bone structure up. I've been doing a lot of playing around with paper mache lately, so I thought that might be a good medium. I just needed to figure out how to make the bone structure. A week or so back, I spent an afternoon just wandering through the local Hobby Lobby store, and found these really cool things. They are sold as building blocks for little kids, but they look a lot like Styrofoam packing peanuts. ( you know, the stuff they fill the box full of to ship breakables?) Except these are different; first of all, they are dyed all the colors of the rainbow, secondly, they are totally biodegradable. When you are done building and playing with your castle, or whatever, you just place it in the sink, run warm water over it, and it melts like an ice cube. The way they connect, is by rubbing it onto a damp towel or sponge, and they just stick together. Of course, I've found that it's easier to just lick 'em and stick 'em. ( I probably shouldn't do that, seeing as it's one of those "green" products, it could be made from recycled kitty litter for all I know) Anyway, they are just about the same size as all the bones in a hand. You can even squeeze them and scrunch them to a smaller size. So after I build a skeleton hand, I wrap it in either foil, or put it inside a latex glove, pose it any way I want, and paper mache them. When it dries, I paint it, varnish it to keep it weather proof, and attach them. I built several today, and Heather helped with the paper mache, and when they are dry, tomorrow, I'll paint them, coat them, and stick them on - Ta-Da!!

I should be able to get 3 or 4 pairs done tomorrow. I could probably use a few more pair to replace the hands on the old props, but I've scheduled a break in my work day tomorrow. Jasmin and her family are coming out tomorrow for the Wild West Days, and they are going to sign little Caleb up to do mutton busting. (it's like bronco busting, except they use sheep for broncos, and little people for cowboys.) It's exactly the kind of thing that Caleb (the dare devil) loves to do. I can hardly wait. Hopefully, Jasmin will get photos that I can post. (got to find that memory card for my camera!!)

Oh, and by the way, Roy didn't build my shelves in my work room today. Actually . . . he found some already made that someone was getting rid of. They had to disassemble them to get them into my basement, but they are perfect! I can get so much more done when I am organized. Yay, Roy!

Okay, got to get to bed now - busy day tomorrow.

Good night all,
Susan

Screams from the basement

Okay, it's quarter after four - in the AM ! I really should be in bed like all good little girls and boys, but I quit trying to impress Santa about a hundred years ago. No, I'm busy with my most favorite holiday, Halloween! Sorry Mom, I don't know where you went wrong, but I'm just not a Ho-Ho-Ho kind of kid. More like Hee-Hee and Bwahahaha . . . kind of girl. I'm sure it's not your fault, I blame my brothers. I'd just rather scare the crap out of teenagers than try to figure out what the hell they want that they don't already have.

My basement art room has turned into a mini Mad Scientist's lab. I've been whipping up all kinds of ghoulish creatures. (although, I should have started months ago.) Things (as usual) are just not progressing as quickly as I'd like. Or maybe, I just can't keep up with my imagination and all the creepy ideas in my head? Anyway, I have managed to crank out a creepy little midget that I've named Bubba, and a witch named Esmeralda. The witch wasn't part of the plan - she just happened, I really have no idea what to do with her. I guess I'll set her out on the back deck for Heather's Halloween party. Haven't you heard about Heather's party? Well, She has one planned for Halloween night. So now that I'll have a back yard full of teenagers, it really will be an asylum - what fun! All I know is that I'M not picking up all the dog poo.

I HAD so much stuff that I wanted to accomplish for this year, but it's all gone by the wayside due to the never ending Chaos that is my home. I had planned to build:

*A mausoleum with a flying crank ghost (a very cool effect, I even have all the plans drawn out for the mausoleum - not gonna happen this year.)
*A demon roof crawler with glowing eyes. (might still happen)
*A very scary scarecrow for the back yard (facing the walking trail) standing guard over a field of corn shocks along the fence line.
* A grave yard fence (that IS going to happen, I have the fencing!)
*I wanted to build a padded room to keep a few lunatics. (but I guess all my lunatics have other plans anyway - so what's the point?)
* I wanted to get Roy busy on rigging up a creature box using my old trunk, but at this rate, I'll be lucky if he gets his lab put together on time! (He is REALLY dragging his feet this year)
* There just is no money in the budget for fog machines, or any new sound tracks or lighting, so I'm trying to work with what I have *sigh*
* I also wanted to get Elizabeth a boy friend - I was thinking a nice, tall, Jack the Ripper kind of guy.

So, on top of trying to figure out what can happen, what might get done, and what is just completely out of the question and will have to have to wait until next year; Earlier this week, I started unpacking all of last year's stuff. I felt like a grave robber, unearthing a years worth of boxes and debris and finally finding the coffins that I had built for my Halloween friends. When I pulled back the coffin lids, I discovered that there is a lot that needs to either be repaired, or I want to do some re-designing to. It was a total mess with every thing strung out all over the place. My husband is supposed to build some shelves in my basement for me this weekend, so that I have room to work and can safely store every one in their own little crypt for next year. (I'll believe THAT when I see it.)

So . . . . that's why I haven't had much time to blog lately. I'm up to my eyeballs in zombies, witches, demons, creepy midgets, and all the usual lunatics.
Okay, I really have to sleep now, the sun is starting to come up. I'm starting to feel like a vampire!!

Oh, I will try to get some photos up - just as soon as I figure out what the kids did with my camera's memory card!!!! (Grrrrr . . . )

Still Here.

It's been so long since I've posted, I hope I remember how to do this. Actually, I'm trying to type this up, and get it out while I am waiting for my hair color to set. Don't worry, I set the kitchen timer. I have just been so busy with babies, and teenagers, and dogs, and birthdays, and all kinds of crazy stuff.

Not to mention . . . . Halloween, the most wonderful night of the year, is ONLY 42 days, and 23 hours away !!!!! And everything is SUPPOSED to be set up and ready by October 1st ! (only 11 days from now.) NOT GONNA HAPPEN. It's going to be just like last year, I'll be putting the finishing touches on things right up until the first (or second, or tenth) visitor arrives on Halloween night. No organization, none whatsoever. In spite of all my pre - planning, family meetings, and carefully drawn diagrams and charts; It's just total chaos around here. Roy is just now starting to feel more like himself from his surgery. ( and that's not saying much) I have to try to get as much done as possible during the days so that I don't wake Nick, Jenn, and the baby with all my late night prop building. And worst of all, the funds for all of this just isn't available like it has been in the past. Our family budget barely covers survival, so I've had to make a lot of changes, and put off the bigger projects until next year. But I swear, next year will be different. Stop laughing - it really is.

Okay, I've got to go hop in the shower and get myself to bed.
Good night all.