Halloween 2010

It's definitely 'back-to-goul' time! Labor day weekend... time to start thinking of decorations and costumes for Halloween. Look for project updates here shortly!

the making of the halloween tree

Halloween 2009

These were our costumes this year, a New Orleans style voodoo witch doctor and a headless ghost lady. Our neighbors stopped by as Dia De La Muerte Dolls.

The garden turned into a graveyard again, with an added spook, a hazmat suit on a flexible stick that waved slightly in the wind, with a papermache creepy face.

The 'Tree of Souls' was a spooky success. Made mostly of corrogated cardboard with some paper mache and real branches, it even held up, mostly, to the rain showers we had all night.

We had flying ghosts hanging from the clotheslines above the yard. These were made of crossed sticks with a cheap mask and some tattered old curtain fabric.

Teeth

my (& mike's) newest creations.

Pumpkin Carving Party

This weekend will be the annual Pumpkin Carving Party at our house. Here are some pics from last year's party. Starting to look for ideas for this year's jack o lanterns. I found these books by Tom Nardone, Extreme Pumpkins. I love them! And he's pretty hilarious!

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

Plot summary

A group of eight boys set out to go trick-or-treating on Halloween, only to discover that a ninth friend, Pipkin, has been whisked away on a journey that could determine whether he lives or dies. Through the help of a mysterious character namedMoundshroud, they pursue their friend across time and space through ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures, Celtic Druidism, Notre Dame Cathedral inMedieval Paris, and The Day of the Dead in Mexico. Along the way, they learn the origins of the holiday that they celebrate, and the role that the fear of death has played in shaping civilization. The Halloween Tree itself, with its many branches laden withjack-o'-lanterns, serves as a metaphor for the historical confluence of these traditions.

Haunted Tree Inspiration

this year i'm planning to make a haunted forest. i have been on the look out for creepy tree ideas. i think i'm going to make something sort of like this Tree of Souls from www.hauntinggrounds.org, a Canadian Haunt....

Painting heads

Last year I got a call from a friend who had seen these lovely ladies at a street sale in my Williamsburg, Brooklyn neighborhood, telling me to come get 'em. I did. We set them up in the haunted graveyard last year, but this year i decided to paint them to make them a bit scarier. I started painting them last night...