What I've Been Up To...

I know I've been a bit quiet as of late but it's because I've been super busy! After moving here to DE and to a townhouse that is a lot smaller than the big home I had in Texas, it's been a big adjustment. 
For Halloween, it meant that I could not use the gazebo, but instead, I had to put together a pvc pipe framework inside the garage and the side workroom. I kept with the same idea of having a haunted cave and a bit of a path to do a "U" turn inside the garage itself and then instead of stepping into the black-lit cave itself, this time, to just go by it. 

The reason I did that instead of having the kids go inside it is because there is a step up to go into the workroom/cave and I didn't want any of the trick or treaters (fondly known as ToTs) to trip or fall. I know many kids can have elaborate costumes and their vision is impaired or compromised while wearing masks and they may not see that step so I felt it was best to just avoid that situation completely. To further dissuade them from not going up there, I've built a half fence in front so they will feel they can't go up there. I started out with pvc pipe frame and I'll be zip-tying some plastic chain link fencing to it that I'll cut to fit in the coming weeks.

This is the workroom area:

Now of course the pvc piping is not the only progress we've made! :) We have already began to put up the black sheets on the walls and cover the ceiling as well. The pvc pipe really helped a lot to make this so much easier. We also un-safety-pinned the camoflauge netting from the black sheets and began to attach that to the ceiling. I used the brown paper for the background in the cave room that I had splooged with black latex paint last year. I'll need to make some more to fill in the few areas that are still bare walls. 

You can see what a difference a bit of black sheet can do and how dark it makes it in there! That's the Evil Entity behind the bars there in the corner of the cave. I will be painting the bars black/dark grey so they look more like bars of a cage. I won't do anything fancy like apply rust to them as the Evil Entity, who we used before as the Spider King last year, moves up and down and rubs on the bars and I don't want him to get stuck or get that on him. So I'll paint the bars smooth and mostly just on 3/4 of the bars and not directly behind him.

We also added some black lights to the cave, two of the long ones, zip-tied them up to the ceiling. I have another I may angle from the floor or utilize in another area in the cave to help light it up well. I might put it more so out into the walkway so that the kids get to light up as well when they reach that point to get their candy.

Now I am hoping to make a large cauldron for the middle area of the cave. I am starting to run out of time however so we'll see how that goes. It's an indoor thing so I can be working on it too all of October which I will probably need a fair amount of time to get it completed to how I want it to look.

Meanwhile, this weekend we will be covering those white shelves with black trash bags and I'll paint more brown paper to match the other sheets already on the walls there. I may also go around and paint some of the pvc pipe black. And yes, ideally, I should have done that before we put them together but we were in a hurry to get this part set up and I thought I would be covering them entirely but turns out no, so I'll have to do the painting afterwards, not a big deal really.

The Evil Entity barely fit behind those bars! I wasn't sure if he would but it all worked out. Not too shabby for mostly eyeballing it and not planning it exactly with measurements! 
Oh and that is the Time piece from the graveyard last year that I had won from the Davis Family's graveyard class at Hauntcon. We had to toss a black sheet over him as this one lady stood out on the sidewalk just gawking at it. We didn't want anyone to really know what we were doing just yet. They'll find out soon enough! Muuahahhaa!

On another note (said I was busy!), I have been reading and following the various Halloween Home Haunters and DIY groups on Facebook. If you are wanting some good quality props and you have Facebook, you really need to join these groups! What a great lot of talented folks there and all so very nice and friendly and willing to help you with suggestions or how-to's! It is nearly overwhelming and hard to know just where to start. I just absolutely love it. And I say good quality props because YOU would be making them and not buying them from a store. I have to say I am becoming disappointed with some of the poor quality some of the stores are putting out. Some places, yes, they have some good quality items but it all comes down to buyer beware and beware inDEED!! It's scary out there. I look at it all tho' like this: if you buy a prop from a store and it breaks, most of the Halloween stores do have great customer service and will help you out, but if not, learn how to fix it yourself or you can take what you purchased and build on it! Add to this prop and make it better.

I never really thought about painting some of the props, like you know the rats? Those plastic rats? Just didn't cross my mind and you know, I saw some people paint them and just wow! How great and so utterly fantastic they look and it didn't take much at all! You don't have to be Picasso or Rembrandt, just a little dab or two or ten and wha~la! you have a grand masterpiece! Of course remembering that it is pretty dark too but still, some items really come out looking so much better when they get a little tender lovin care from you! :)

I want to talk about another idea too that I ran across and I bought the book and I am going to give it a whirl soon but I'll leave that for the next post, coming soon!!

What else is coming? More pics, more props, more book & movie reviews/recommendations/info and lots of creative ideas! And yes, maybe even more recipes! I will also be adding a lot more links too as I get thru everything.

Oh and ummm yes...I know, I still need to talk about Hauntcon and Transworld Halloween Tradeshow and yessss Scarefest!! Stay tuned as I am settling in more and getting everything organized. 

Til then, let the countdown continue!

~*Bugs n Hisses*~

Wanda