10.31.2012 Happy Halloween
Halloween is my second favorite time of the year. For Halloween night I enjoy making my house look spooky. Halloween is all about witches, ghosts, and goblins. No fairy princesses or super heroes for me. This is fright night: the time for scary costumes, creepy music, and terrifying decorations. Because haunted houses are supposed to look run down and dilapidated, it makes no sense to me to spend a lot of money. Most of my decorations are home made, and the stuff I've bought has been accumulated over the years usually at deep discounts (anywhere from 50% to 90% off) at post-Halloween sales.
If you didn't guess by now, that is me in costume above. I wear the same costume every year. Why mess with success? It is at the same time one of the simplest and also one of the scariest costumes you will ever see. One year I won a prize for scariest costume at a friend's Halloween party. Little kids routinely avoid me, and teenagers either compliment me (mostly boys) or say it creeps them out. But what I like best about the costume is I can put it on or take it off in 30 seconds or less. No messy face paint. No long preparation or complicated straps or ties. I put on the gown and zip it up, pull the mask over my head, slip on the gloves and voila! I'm the Grim Reaper coming to claim his next victim!
I added the small graveyard a couple of years ago. My "stones" are made of Styrofoam that came in packing boxes used to ship stuff.I dirtied them up with some ready mix patching cement that I had lying around the house. Most were already in rectangular form, but a couple I trimmed to have rounded tops. I straightened out some coat hangers and pushed the wire through the Styrofoam with about 4"-6" sticking out the bottom. I push the wire into the ground and that holds the stone in place.
Every year we carve a pumpkin of course. I have one of those little pumpkin carving kits, and they are fine for detailed work, but for removing the top and carving basic triangular eyes, nothing beats a Sawzall.
Unfortunately this year we have no power thanks to Hurricane Sandy, so I won't have such an elaborate display.
Happy Halloween everyone, and safe trick or treating!
http://sannerud.com/house/halloween.html
