The Dead End

2009's Party at the Dead End

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:23:00 +0000

The story goes pretty much the same as last year, only this year we had only 14 guests actually show up. I finally got into the spirit of things, late, but I did it... with only 2 weeks to go, I got the house ready. I spent 2 days working on last minute stuff, food prep ALL day long on Saturday... all while being sick and in pain, even having to call out from work because I felt so bad. But I kept going, just to throw this party together because I had already committed to it. Had so many people, AGAIN this year, begging for invites, telling me how much they look forward to it, yadda yadda... that I didn't wanna disappoint anyone by canceling.

I did not enjoy the party at all. I will not be throwing one next year. I am very thankful to those friends who did come; they are good sports to stick around the completely boring party that was going on. It was a lot of work, a lot of stress, for not much enjoyment.

Finally a bit o' fall inthe air!

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Last night, we opened some of the windows in the house before going to bed. The fresh air smelled good coming into the house and you could feel the slightest bit of a coolness on the breeze. Yes, folks, autumn has finally come to Florida! Last night's low was around 58° here in the Jacksonville metro area and was a PERFECT companion for the annual bringing down of the Halloween boxes from the attic. All the main decorating boxes have been stacked with care in the main living areas of the house and now we have to weave through the maze of them to get around. I'm excited to finally get the gossamer up on the walls today and transform the beiges and tans in the house to the Halloween blacks, grays and reds. It's crunch time, and I've only just started, but I'm hoping that the cooling off from our 90°+ weather helps to speed me along in my attempt to "git 'r dun" in the 24 days I have left until the party. Wish me luck!

Images, images and more images!

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:04:00 +0000

I found a lot more images today on my quest for graphics to use with my invitations. There is one site that stands out in particular, mainly because of its HUGE collection of public domain images that deal with religion, ancient signs and symbols, medical reference (skeletal charts), literary images, tarot, and so much more.

I could peruse this site for hours!

http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/

Printables for Halloween

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:13:00 +0000

While I was perusing the interweb today for some vintage graphics for my Halloween party invitations, I stumbled upon a nifty craft blog with some links for images that you can print out for your bottles and jars for Halloween displays. A couple of the sites listed I was already aware of, but some new ones were on there that I really enjoyed. This image from Love Manor was the one that caught my eye:

Image source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3293/2782116590_3275791a85.jpg?v=0

Take a gander at Free Printable Fun:

http://freeprintablefun.org/2008/09/free-printable-halloween-potion-bottle.html

Dollar Tree's offerings for 2009

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:51:00 +0000

I decided to get in the spirit of Halloween by visiting the closest Dollar Tree today with my daughter and we picked a few things out to bring home with us. They had some usable new stuff, a lot of the same boring stuff as every year, and some really cutesy stuff that I totally passed right on by. I saw a few painted signs I liked, so I grabbed them to put in my kitchen:

They had some of those small resin tombstones again as well, but I only snagged two of those that I didn't already have:

There were some small crows, so I picked up a few of them. I wish they'd had these small skeletons last year when I needed them. I paid like 5 bucks a sheet for 8 of them last year at WalMart, when this year they are a buck for a sheet of 4 at Dollar Tree. I plan on making some of Willy's Fairy Art with them, so I bought a few sheets of them. I also got a small black sparkle skull too... dunno why. It looks more like it's coated with tar than glitter, but that's fine by me. :)

I found some bottle labels that looked alright too. I have about 50 wine bottles that I picked up off someone via FreeCycle, so I can use them for some of those. I thought about using the wine bottles as invitations and making my own labels... but I decided against it. Anyway, there are 8 labels in the package, 4 different types - 2 of each.

And I totally could not resist these socks!

Bugs, bugs, bugs... and other things

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:22:00 +0000

I love my children. :) Chips off the ol' block for sure. My daughters are always on the look out for interesting things for me to use in my witch bottles and other assorted Halloween projects. Two days ago, my youngest daughter brought me a gift that she and her sister found out in the driveway:
They also bring me cicadas when they find them, knowing that they used to be called "tree nymphs" back in the old days because of their "singing".
They keep an eye out for spiders as well, since I have a nice jar 'o arachnids that I'm collecting. This particular beauty is one that my husband found in our bathroom and called me to come retrieve:
I've just decided to start using our beach findings in the display as well. I found a really nice sea urchin skeleton on our last trip to the beach:

I love mermaid's purses as well, I remember the first time I found one at Little Talbot Island. They're actually shark/skate/ray egg cases and are also called Devil's purses. They sound gross, but they're lightweight and dry somewhat hard. I was thinking of making a papier mache "Devil's Purse" on a much larger scale to add to the display. This one is from our last trip out to Talbot and is about 3 inches long:

I think a walk around the yard is in order now...

Invitation inspiration

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:09:00 +0000

FINALLY! I have been inspired! I was perusing the party section of Halloweenforum.com, and I came across this thread:

http://www.halloweenforum.com/party-ideas-experiences-recipes/80428-spell-book-party-invitations-pics.html

I absolutely LOVE these invites (Cover shot pictured above)! Kudos to BevAnn for coming up with these fun little spell books. Very creative, and lots of room for individualizing them. The more I think about what I want to do for my own invites for this year's party, the more I really am leaning toward doing something like these little gems. I have been really getting annoyed, because my mind just is not cooperating with me in the Halloween sense lately, and seeing these mini spell books totally jolted me into creative mode. Exactly what I needed!

So, I was thinking, if I did something like these, of how I would give them an overall look. I'm leaning toward the usual tea-staining (I really love tea-staining, the whole process is fun to me) and maybe aging with paint like I did on my foam witch spell book. (Pictured below)

Wow... September already!

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:36:00 +0000

Time is certainly flying right by. I can't believe that it is September already and that Labor Day is almost upon us. I have not done a single thing toward this year's haunt. Not one. I think I lost almost all of my "mojo" as my husband put it on our way home from lunch yesterday. As with last year, I am just not feeling it. I'm hoping that will the annual "get it down from the attic" day next Wednesday will spark some kind of inspiration.

Anyway, on to better topics! A few weeks ago in August, my daughters were out with their father on their weekly "Day with Daddy" and my 12-year-old, Taylor managed to talk him into visiting the pet store, and subsequently the Dollar Tree next door to the pet store. Apparently, the Dollar Tree had some Halloween goodies out, and she bought me a little gift to start the season. I love my girls, they always know what Mom will enjoy:

My son, Brandon, was looking at some really cool masks for air-soft safety back in July, and came across some really cool ones in interesting shapes with wicked designs, flames and other assorted cool-as-hell paint jobs. Then he wondered if he could make his own, not necessarily for use during games, but just to have. So we busted out the papier mache and he learned to make his own masks. So far, he's only done three of them:

He painted them all by hand, doing a black base coat, then dry brushing and accenting. Not too bad for the first attempts. To make the paint jobs a little more interesting and fun, he decided he wanted to learn airbrushing. Yesterday, we busted out the compressor and the air brush kit and I let him have some fun with it. He practiced for about an hour, then decided to do a practice mural on a sheet of styrofoam that I had sitting in the garage. He calls it "Bowling with Bananas". I think he'll be pretty awesome with the air brush:

I'm looking forward to seeing his progress... and using his talent to paint my Halloween stuff... lol

An interview on Hauntcast...

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:55:00 +0000

Chris Baker of Hauntcast.net asked me to consent to an interview with him for an episode of Hauntcast, and I agreed. Now, most people know by now that I am very VERY shy, and I think everyone knows how nervous I was about doing the interview. I've done written interviews before, but I can backspace as much as I want and edit as much as I want with those before sending them back for approval, so this was a difficult thing for me to do as there's no backspace key on my mouth! Being the first female to do the show was daunting as well... but I'm a sucker for a funny guy and Chris is no doubt hilarious. Thankfully, he's also easy to talk to, so I think it went well, especially given that my palms were sweating and I was on pins and needles until he told me it was over and we chit-chatted off the record. My husband, who was in the room at the time, said my whole demeanor changed at that point and I relaxed. Wish I coulda done that in the first place!!

Chris and the rest of the crew created another fantastic episode for our listening pleasure... And, without further ado... here it is, in all its whackiness:

http://hauntcast.net

Evil Doll

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:06:00 +0000

So, back around the "other" holiday, my sister and I were working in the toy section of our store, and there was this baby doll that a customer squeezed and it GROWLED! We played with that doll half the night, and I said I wanted one for Halloween. Well, I got one for the "other" holiday - as a gift from my sister! This doll is a trip... the laugh it does is really cute, but that growl thing it does is downright perfect for a haunted nursery type display. I plan on painting her and making her "special". Anyway, here's a short video of her little sounds. The growl is at the end of the video. I wish there was a way to have ONLY the growl play and not the other two segments of laughter.

Skeletons for the Bathroom

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:18:00 +0000

My sister bought some really cool skeleton things for her bathroom last year, but never got around to using them. She has since decided she's never gonna use them, and thought I'd like them. Well DUH!! I would have to replace the original porcelain pieces in the hall bathroom with removable metal ones so that I could change them out for these during "the season", but I think I can handle that.

I'm going to Iron Stock!!!!!!

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:49:00 +0000

On my Florida Haunters Forum, my friends and I were discussing IronStock for this year. It is the LAST IronStock and I have never been once in its 9 year history, but I always wanted to attend. This year is the 10th anniversary of this event and subsequently my only chance to go. For those of you who do not know what the hell I'm talking about, IronStock is a yearly gathering for haunters up in Tell City Indiana. There are demos, games, activities, contests, and all sorts of fun stuff going on the whole weekend. It starts off with a meet 'n greet on Friday evening, then all day Saturday is spent at the fairgrounds for all the fun stuff, with the day ending at the Weasel Ball costume party, which includes a fashion show by some of our talented costume makers, and Sunday marks the end of the fun with some more demos and such. This is a total haunter's social paradise in my eyes and I can't think of a way to meet more of my peers in one spot.

Anyway, I was chit-chatting about it on the forum, kidding that I was going to sell a kidney or one of my kids to go this year. My husband later asked me if I wanted to go for real, then told me that I was going. Apparently, his boss informed him that he was getting a bonus, so he decided to use part of it for my trip to IronStock! He knows how much it means to me to go and wanted to make it happen. So, now I'm going to IronStock this year and I gotta say, I am STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!

Valentine's Day - Florida Haunters Style!!

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:40:00 +0000

What a day!!!! Our Florida Haunters group planned our first Make and Take of the year for Valentine's Day. I have to say, it was probably the best M&T I've had the pleasure of attending so far. It was a good day for a M&T too, especially since it enabled Andy to attend a RC Fly-In in Deland while I was with my haunters. His friends couldn't believe he was allowed out on Valentine's DAy... and asked, why would they schedule a gathering on that day?? Well, why would a bunch of RC guys schedule a fly-in on V-Day?

I had to work Friday night and didn't get home until 8 AM that morning, so I was already running late. Several issues slowed me down (rain, not being able to find things, etc.), so I didn't get to leave until 10 AM. My son spent the night with his dad, so that left me with my 2 daughters, Taylor and Emily. We loaded up the Suburban, forgetting several things of course, and started our trip to Edgewater in the rain. By the time we hit the Palatka exits, the clouds parted and the sun shone and the day was looking brighter. We ended up with a beautiful sunny day, in the high 70s and sunburns!

We pulled into Edgewater just after noon and were greeted by a winged Blucky creature on the front lawn and one of my favorite haunters - Coda! We made our way into the back yard of our super hosts, CylonFrogQueen (CFQ) and Hamm, and there were our Florida Haunters, building away! My friends, IshWitch, Maureen, Spyder and Hamm... and I finally got to meet my new friends CFQ and Hamm. What a great couple they are - so gracious!! They had everything set up very well for the M&T - plenty of room for the build and for show-and-tell props. You can really tell that they are the consummate hosts! We laughed and had so much fun, Coda really kept his trademark one-liners coming and Spyder with his very unassuming self would pitch in and leave me with the giggles. Maureen is an amazing and skilled prop-builder and was really quick in getting her shiatsu prop going. I would LOVE to have her for a next door neighbor. Her daughter Stephanie is always a treat to be around, such a pleasant and fun demeanor, just a really great kid. IshWitch ended up with a good movement on her prop - and man she has some GREAT stories from work to tell us! Her specimen jars were a trip and her Valentine's Day cards were great. I always enjoy being around both of these women, great personalities and talent!

Spyder is such a shy man, but he is so smart and talented... and FUNNY! He tends to be quiet most of the time, but every once in a while he comes out with a line that just cracks me up. His props are amazing and I'm glad he brought some of them for show and tell. He even let me take one of them home! My girls REALLY liked his hacked RC car ground-breaker prop, and he offered it up to me, so I took it gladly. I'd like to make some more of these using his method... they're really cool. His spider jumper was fantastic and I could definitely see one of those gracing my haunt. I really am glad he loves so close to me, I need to get his help when I really get into pneumatics.

Coda- well, what to say about Coda... He is a TRIP! Oh man, he just NEVER stops, his mind is always sharp as a tack. He is so funny and so quick with his wit. I love being around him, absolutely LOVE it! He's also so helpful and generous. He brings his "garage on wheels" with him to our M&Ts and has everything you could possibly need to make a prop with him. I can't even begin to tell y'all what a gifted man he is (gifted in the good way, not the "short bus" way...lol). His props are amazing... every single one of them. I especially loved his "Brutus", which is just fantastic. He's another that is really talented at everything he does. His deviled eggs were yummy! I could go on and on, but that'd make his head swell up!

Brushe - what a wonderful man! He's another really talented haunter - his props were outstanding! I love his pneumatic works, and I'm kinda partial to the gator. :) I can't believe they packed all those props in their motorhome. They had several of them, and these aren't small props! They brought their dogs too, Kong and Dixie, and the kids LOVED them. Beautiful animals.. I am so glad that he and his wonderful wife Becky made the trip all the way from North Carolina. Such nice people!! They are our "Honorary Florida Haunters". I truly wish they lived in Florida. I hope to see them in the future and consider them part of our Florida Haunter family. Becky made a terrific Kahlua gelatin "body part" mold, which was DELICIOUS! I wish I could have had more of it, but having to drive kept me from doing more than tasting it. (I very well could have devoured the entire thing!!) The sweet potato biscuits were to die for as well... and that bread pudding? OMG - SO good, I had TWO helpings! I wish I could have stayed longer to hear Brushe sing and hang out with them both more. Maybe one day I'll get that opportunity. I'm very thankful for the Fairy art that Brushe gave to me... I absolutely LOVE it. I thought he did a wonderful job on the ones he did (Versions of VoodooWilly's originals on HalloweenForum) and was blown away when he said this one is mine.

CFQ and Hamm- Sharron is a really genuinely GREAT person. With all she had going on with sickness in her family, she still managed to pull off being such a gracious hostess. I can't believe how creative and kind she was - even making up some parting gifts for all of us. She went to Home Depot and charmed some of the essentials that we haunters use out of them and made up some really cool gifts for us to take home. My personal favorite is the FloridaHaunters tool belt pouch. She even made up certificates for everyone! The food was great, everything was great... and this was her and hamm's first personal encounter with our group. They outdid themselves. Hamm's butt (a forum joke) was so tender and delicious!!!! Everything was delicious for that matter. And Hamm is such a funny and kind person. They are a great couple and great haunters. I wanted to stay and hang out some, but that long drive and no sleep was such a party pooper. Thanks to Hamilton, I was able to actually leave. Apparently, someone (probably kids) hit the interior light button, so with the back door open all day on the Suburban, my battery was dead. Thanks to Hamm and Coda, it was back up and running in no time - and now Coda can say he had the opportunity to "jump" me! :-D

We left after 6 and got home just after 8. Taylor kept me awake by playing the "Worst Case Scenario" questions game with me and we made the stupid incorrect answers into a story line. When I got home, Andy was waiting for us. I read my Valentine's Day card from him and opened up that box of chocolates I knew was waiting for me, and we settled in for the season opener of Survivor on On-Demand. After that and a nice hot shower, I was SO ready for bed. Once my head hit that pillow, I was gone into oblivion and slept for 12 straight hours.

I just can't thank everyone enough for the day we had yesterday. Even though my day started off kinda on the wrong foot, I forgot half my supplies, I ran really late and didn't even get to make my prop, I STILL had one of the best M&T days ever. Thank you, to my friends, my haunter family... you guys and gals ROCK!!!

Our Florida Haunters, left to right:
Back row: Maureen, Becky, Coda, Brushe, Hamm and Spyder
Front row: Ghostess, IshWitch and CylonFrogQueen

Photo courtesy CylonFrogQueen

Happy New Year

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:28:00 +0000

Greetings, friends (and non-friends). I'd like to start off by wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

A short recap from my last post to now:

Halloween was nice. A bit more quiet than past years, but nice all the same. My mom and her fiance were in town and she got to see my display for the first time. Both of my sisters came over and my best friend and her mom came by as well, so it was a cool night. I didn't go all out like I normally do, just as the party went, but to everyone else it was impressive. For once, I didn't stress out over last minute details. I even was in full zombie make-up by 4PM, which is AMAZING for me. Usually, it's dark before I can get a minute to get into costume. We had a lot less ToTs than previous years. Got in a couple of good scares, but it's hard to scare people when your nephews are giving away your location by talking to you. :)

Scary, huh? Even had maggots in my scars. :)

It took me several weeks to take everything down and get it all packed away. Some of it didn't even get taken down until after New Years. Call me lazy, I just didn't feel like bothering with it.

Thanksgiving was good. My sisters and their families came over. Yes, this year I had gravy. We had SO much food. It was a good time.

That "other" holiday was very low-key for us. We just chilled at home, no big dinner, nothing special. Sometimes, ya just gotta have an "off" year.

New Year's Eve was pretty tame as well. Andy and I went out to eat, and then headed to bed around 10. I was too tired to stay up for the countdown and all that mess after being awake for 26 hours straight.

My youngest had her birthday as well. She's 7 now, but thinks she's 37.

Last weekend, we all went to Savannah, Georgia. Visited Fort Pulaski and the Bonaventure Cemetery. Andy and I will go back to the cemetery at another time WITHOUT the kids. They kinda ruined the trip for me, just by being their usual "there's nothing in this for me" selves. I did get some great pictures though.

And that should be it as far as catching up goes. Work is still okay, I still enjoy my job - just not all the people I work around. I'm trying to catch up on all my forums and groups and working on updates for the websites. Looking forward to our next Florida Haunters make and take on Valentines Day - what a way to say I love you!!! Making props!!!!

Until next time, haunt on!

This year just sucks, period.

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 07:13:00 +0000

So, I had the party on Saturday. A whopping 20 people showed up, not including my next door neighbor and her party guests who came over for a few minutes. It felt like a lot less people since a few didn't stay long and a couple didn't come til late. I almost felt like I went back in time to the first party I had where only 5 people showed up. It just seemed so danged LAME after the growing party every year. Anyway, I didn't stress out this year, didn't get all upset and end up in a crying spell at 4 pm before the party, didn't rush or yell at everyone. I just did what I could, Andy helped out and did what he could and whatever didn't get done just didn't get done. I just had a "screw it" attitude about it all this year.

I had to work on Friday night/Saturday morning before the party, so I came home from work around 8 am and took a 2 hour nap. The previous mornings I got about 3 or 4 hours' sleep, so I was pretty tired. I had a ton of food, even without doing all the homemade stuff and Jello molds and other things I normally do... which led to a lot of leftovers, so I took some of them to work for my coworkers to enjoy during our lunch break. I really am wishing now that I just canceled the party this year. My BFF and I ended up going next door and crashing what was left of their little party since every one left my house around 11. We played a dice game and had some laughs. I came home around 2:30, stayed up and talked with Andy until about 3:30, then cleaned up the party mess til I was falling asleep standing at the sink at 5 AM. I slept until 7:30 PM Sunday evening, when Andy had to come in and wake me up so I could get ready for work that night.

Since we didn't have many guests and the party just wasn't hopping like usual, we didn't take very many pictures.

This is me with my very best friend Shelly. Pic is dark and blurry, but I find that I look best in dark and blurry, especially standing next to her. :)

This is my other best friend, Ivy on the left, with two of her friends. Ivy was dressed as Ellen Degeneres... the costume was great!

This is our friend Gary's son, Jesus. If he is Jesus, does that make Gary God? Hmmm....
But I LOVE this picture. It just seemed so... perfect.

This is Chip and Cindy, Ivy's parents and our good neighbors that live down the street. Their costume with the body tattoo sleeves and all was a riot. These are two of the most laid back and reserved people I know. Cindy's a school teacher (sorta) and Chip's a lawyer.

This is Daniel the Dork who never freakin' dresses in costume and his beautiful and always perfectly costumed wife, Ashlyn - who even coordinates whatever wonderful dish she brings with her costume! This year, she was the Princess from the Princess and the Pea, and she even made matching individual beds with peas desserts!

Here we have an action shot of Gary and his wife Jackie and the rest of their gang. And all the rest of the crew, including a couple of our very best friends, Catherine and Darryl.

Andy, watching the World Series, he just can't resist.
Chip, Cindy, Shelly and her husband Dave.The rest didn't get photographed. I took a few pics of the food and stuff, but they're on a different camera that I can't locate right now. Andy and I were zombies, in case you were wondering. :) I didn't need a whole lot of make up with the lack of sleep and all. Next year, the invite list will be pared down some. Three strikes rule is in play now, and those who haven't attended in the past 3 years of being invited will be eliminated from the list.

It's beginning to look a lot like ... HALLOWEEN!

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:08:00 +0000

I am finally making some forward progress here at the Dead End. It's been a slow moving ride though as I still really just don't feel like doing any of it, but I know that if I don't get it all done, I'll be miserable and I'll regret it. So I plug along. My work schedule kind of puts a kink in things, but that's something that everyone else deals with too, so it's not a big deal. The hardest part is that I can't really work on anything that requires noise or being outside since I'm awake at night and sleeping part of the day when I'm off from work. If I'd gotten started sooner, I wouldn't be in this predicament! Anyway, I got all the invitations out save one or two that need to be hand-delivered. Kinda went simple this year:

Got all the gossamer up on the walls, webs up, most of the stuff that needs to be hung. Today we got the big stuff down from the attic and got the crypt put together. I set up most of the tombstones and 3 lights as soon as it got dark. So far, this is all we have:

Later today, I'll set the columns, arch and fence up, and get the FCG set up, as well as the beef netting webs on the house. I started to do them today, but I realized I had to clean up the hedge and trim back some limbs before I could get the ladder in there. I also plan to get the PVC set up in the back yard around the pool deck for the lights to be strung up and set up the assorted clay and ceramic stuff I have collected over the years for candles. I think I may stick some fake fall colored flowers in the flower pots around the pool too since I really don't have the time or money to plant live ones right now. Anyway, it's finally starting to look like Halloween (on the outside) so now people can stop asking me if I'm okay. :)

I've also been working on the website, adding new pages and stuff. All that stuff can be found on the home page or on the "In The Works" page for other stuff.

And speaking of the web pages, someone - wait, no, TWO someones - decided to burn my and other haunters' webpages and content to CD sets for sale on ebay. It ticked us all off, but the auctions have been reported and removed. It's not the first time, and certainly won't be the last, but it's prompted me to make a few changes on how I do things on the website. I won't ever take down my content though. The whole point of having the site is to share with other haunters. I just want to make sure that people know WHOSE content is being shown. ;-)

And speaking of "WHOSE"....... I was folding some Halloween t-shirts at work, and I got to looking at one in particular that has a picture of a mummy on it, and the caption says, "Whose your mummy?" That darn pet peeve of mine reared its ugly head and I hollered at one of the supervisors and asked who the heck authorized the sale of a grammatically incorrect t-shirt! I can understand a typo or grammar/spelling errors in a written ad or something that is not a big deal, but the MAIN QUOTE on a t-shirt being MASS distributed????? Aye yi yi! I can't believe that no one caught this before it went to print (either that or they're all just ignorant). I realize most people won't even notice it, but that kind of stuff just makes me shake my head in wonder. I know a lot of the t-shirts are made in [insert third world country here], but the designs are concepts by English-speaking artists.... there is just no excuse. (For those who actually DON'T get what the error is, the proper usage is "Who's" which is the contraction of "who is" -- not "Whose" which is the possessive form of who, like "my" or "your" or "their". You wouldn't respond like this: "My your mummy!" You'd say, "I'm your mummy!" That's basically the error made there.)

Aside from all the Halloween prep and things irking me out of the blue, things are going okay. I still love my job. My sister works with me now in the same department, which is actually kinda cool. It takes some of the load off of the other 3 of us and keeps things running smoother on the days I'm off because she's totally nit picky like me and takes good care of our sections.

So, that should catch everyone up for now!

Mmmmmm.... beeeeeer....

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:03:00 +0000

As I was walking some opened food merchandise to claims, I passed the "great wall o' beer" in the back room, and something caught my eye: a pumpkin. I had to back up and do a double take. Sure enough, there was a case of beer there that had pumpkins on the box! I decided I must have it. So yesterday, I picked up a 6 pack of Blue Moon's Seasonal "Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale".

I saved it all day, waiting patiently for prop-building time, when it would be most needed and useful. Now, it's been a while since I've had a beer, so I was really looking forward to this. I LOVED it. It's a good brew, with a hint of pumpkin and spices. Went down really easy and didn't leave a bad aftertaste. I've never even tried any of the fall seasonal beers before, so I have definitely been missing out. It's a good companion to the other tools in my propmaking arsenal. :)

More info on Blue Moon's fine beers: Blue Moon Brewing Co.

Mmmm... chocolate

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:51:00 +0000

So, I'd like to start off with saying "THANKS" to PumpkinRot, for posting his blog on the fall editions of Hershey's Kisses and making me want - no, NEED them. I finally bought some today after work, and just had a little taste testing.

The Candy Corn Kisses are pretty good. They taste like a mixture of white chocolate and an almost "butterscotch-y" flavor. I like them, but not as much as I love regular Kisses. They're a nice change though from the usual fare and I hope they stick around for many future fall seasons.

The Caramel Apple Kisses are another story. The chocolate just doesn't really "go" with the fake apple flavor that is somewhat reminiscent of Jolly Rancher's "Green Apple" flavor, mixed with a runny caramel. I didn't care for them at all. I'll probably put them in a candy dish and let the kids eat them all.

I also picked up a bag of Peanut M&Ms in the Halloween colors.... ALWAYS a good thang to have on hand!!!

Hellraiser, and some other stuff...

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:58:00 +0000

If you can believe this, I never saw the movie, "Hellraiser". So when I had nothing better to do this past weekend since I was off work, I stopped on the Encore channel that it was playing on and gave it a watch. Interesting movie. Sadistic, dark, strange. I liked it. I missed the first 15 minutes of it, but I got the main idea of the movie as it wore on. I also found it a good source of inspiration for some new props. I really liked the winged demon at the end of the film. I can see one of these gracing my haunt (on a smaller scale for storage, of course).

Photo source: http://www.cenobite.com/index.shtml

I also watched "Mommie Dearest" again. I LOVE that movie. It's sad that it is a true story based on Joan Crawford's daughter, Christine's memoirs, but it is a GREAT movie. I can't tell you how many times I've watched it, and it kind of creeps my kids out that I like it so much and that I recite phrases from it often. On a Halloween-related note, I really sort of thought the scene where she goes nuts over the wire hangers and dirty bathroom was a good spot for some prop ideas. Joan's (Faye Dunaway) face with the night cream on it and her hair pulled back was just frightening and would make a great prop for a hag. :)

"I told you... NO WIRE HANGERS..... EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

image source: http://www.tvgasm.com

As for the rest of life right now, I'm just sort of drifting with the ebb and flow of sleep and work. I love my job. I don't care for the cattiness of some of my coworkers, but I really don't have to WORK WITH them, so it's all good. I'm training with an intelligent and wonderful woman and she is a lot like me in her work ethic, so she and I will make a good team. My sister also works there on the 3rd shift in a different department, so we get time to catch up on breaks.

I still have no interest in Halloween or doing anything for it, and now the time crunch is here. I'm giving myself until next Monday, and if I have not gotten the itch to get something done, I will just go ahead and start decorating and setting up inside the house. Usually it's all done by now. It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to get it set up from start to finish (the interior) under time constraints.

I'm also struggling with keeping up with emails, forums, and blogging... so if anyone has sent me comments or messages, bear with me. It's taking me a while to get back to everyone. I'm not ignoring people, just have a lot to adjust to and it's gonna take a while.

I think that's about it. Catch y'all later!

Child's view of a cemetery

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:12:00 +0000

I recently took my 11-year-old daughter, Taylor, to one of my favorite cemeteries with me to take some pictures. I was going to go alone, but she actually asked me to go, so I figured I'd hand her a digital camera and see what she thinks is photo-worthy. We've done this before with cheap film cameras, but I still haven't gotten those developed. Anyway, we headed to Old Hickory Grove Cemetery in Green Cove Springs. This is what she saw through the lens.

And this is what I saw... She really got into it. She learned to discard the ones she didn't like or that turned out blurry. She learned to get close-ups and different angles. She basically mimicked me and is a quick learner. Now she wants to go into wildlife photography when she gets older. She did spend a large amount of time taking pictures of flowers, insects and dead rabbit carcasses... :)

Halloween Decorating and Party Planning

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:17:00 +0000

I have collected a few books over the years that I pull off the shelf and peruse quite often throughout the year to get some inspiration. I love looking at the pictures and descriptions on each page, drinking in each one and letting it swirl around in my mind for a while.

Lately, I've been feeling some burn out. Lots of things I want to do, things I plan to do, things I need to do... but I have NO motivation at all. I've started things, only to leave them collecting dust after only a few minutes of starting. I will walk out into the garage with the intention to work on something, only to just sit there staring at it and not DO anything at all. Normally by June or July, I have several new projects completed. This year I have nothing, except that one batch of tombstones that I gave away.

So, I decided it was time to pull the books out and hopefully give myself a little spark of "something" to get back into the swing of things. I scanned the covers of the books that I love to look at the most, and a few pages of each. If you like Halloween books, these are definitely worth buying. I got most of them from Amazon.com.

One of my absolute FAVORITES out of my collection, is "Halloween - A Grown-up's Guide to Creative Costumes, Devilish Decor & Fabulous Festivities", by Joanne O'Sullivan. This book has it all... really cool, beautiful costumes you can make yourself, simple and elegant decorating ideas, party theme ideas with matching invitations, stories, history, and recipes. The section I loved the most was for the New Orleans Voodoo Cocktail party.

The book is very well written and artfully laid out, making it an excellent choice for Halloween party planners. I highly recommend it.

Another book that I look through MANY times during October while planning the party is "Halloween Treats - Recipes and Crafts for the Whole Family" by Donata Maggipinto. There are so many delicious recipes in this book that I find it really difficult to decide which to try. GREAT photographs accompany the recipes and instructions and many of the crafts are perfect for children to help with.

"Halloween Parties: How to Throw Spook-Tacular Soirees & Frighteningly Festive Entertainments", by Lori Hellander, is an awesome source for some fresh and contemporary party ideas. There are several different themes included and it's loaded with recipes and ideas.

From cute and slightly country to spooky and cool to vintage and beautiful... "The Big Book of Halloween, Creative &Creepy Projects for Revellers of All Ages" has it all! I LOVE this book by Laura Dover Doran. There are lots of great ideas for Halloween decorations for both inside and outside the home. She mingles scary stories that would be perfect for sitting around a campfire with wonderful snippets of history, myths and quips. Loads of pictures grace this book with personal stories from other people, their traditions and festivities surrounding Halloween. Recipes, costume tips, and even some do-it-yourself prop instructions are all in there. This is definitely another must-have for Halloween lovers.

Jill Williams Grover's "Scary Scenes For Halloween" totally delivers some spooky goodness for Halloween. I've used MANY of the ideas from this book over the years. Ideas for children's AND adult food and decorations are included and the photos are just wonderful to look at. Some really neat and simple prop instructions are mixed in with some candy displays that will TOTALLY wow the kids and adults alike. This is the first Halloween book I ever bought for myself, and I am completely in love with it.

Below are some of the other books I have and look through often. Some of them are super, some are so-so, but all are great for ideas in some way or another.

Garage of Evil - Network!!!

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:03:00 +0000

Steve-O started up a network on Ning.com for the Garage of Evil members to join, post and get to know each other better. If you're not a part of it already, you MUST check it out. If you don't, Steve-O will come to your house in his underpants and sing Yankee Doodle Dandy while juggling bowling balls at your front door.

One note of warning, this network for the Garage is for PROP builders and haunters... not for sharing Jello-mold recipes and showing off your pets/soccer awards/goth/fetish stuff. The occasional mention of BOOBIES will occur!! It also is not to replace the GoE Yahoo Group which we lovingly call the "treehouse", but to supplement it.

Now join, or else!

http://garageofevil.ning.com/

How far I've come over the years

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:03:00 +0000

I was just going through some old photos, and I found it amazing how much progress I've made in my display over the past 9 years. I didn't really get into doing anything outside the house until 1999 other than an ape dummy and JoL's. I had a LOT of inside knick knacks and decorations all over the inside house though. Anyway, here's the before and after shots of the differences in 1999 and 2007.

The outdoor part, 1999:

And 2007:

First foam tombstones, 1999:

Much improved 2007:

First props that stood up - scraps of 8-foot long quarter-round and tree limbs hammered into the ground, masks, stuffed clothes and gloves, 1999:
And 2007's handmade heads and hands with PVC frames and duct tape double bodies:

My 1999 party decor in the nook:

And 2007's version of the nook:

Which leads me to my ultra-boring version of my dining room in 2000:

2007's less "bright" version:

The extent of my 1999 decor (aside from orange flowers and other crap) in what's now the office:
And how the office is done in 2007:

A look through the kitchen in 1999:

And what a difference a few years makes in 2007:

Imagine if you will, a lot of white wall... and no spooky ambiance above these two clowns in 1999:

Now the same wall in the family room in 2007:

Everything about my display and party has changed, and thankfully for the better. This just goes to show, for those of you who are still intimidated by doing your own thing, that you CAN do it. It only takes patience, lots of trial and error and being able to follow instructions. A tiny bit of artistic talent is a plus, but it's really not all that necessary to pull off a decent look. It's taken me a long time to get to where I'm at with the whole haunting thing and I've been working on it diligently for the past 10 years now -- and I STILL have a lot to learn!

Cauldron Light cover

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:45:00 +0000

I was looking through some old pictures, and I ran across some for a light that I modified for Halloween in my breakfast nook. Someone asked me how I did it, so I took some pictures of the assembly when I removed the light fixture to replace it with a new one. I don't bother with it anymore, but I figured I'd share it here since it's not on my website.

I took a cheap plastic cauldron from Wal Mart and drilled holes in it randomly. I cut a big circle out of the bottom of it as well. Then I cut it down the seam, but not all the way down, so it's still held together at the base.

Now, I took the light fixture down to replace it with a new one, so I wasn't able to work with it on my desk originally - I had to use a ladder and work with it hanging from the ceiling. :) Anyway, I managed to get the cauldron around the light fixture and I used hot glue to close the seams back up. The hot glue comes apart fairly easily for quick removal of the cauldron after Halloween. I also used some black electrical tape on the seam INSIDE the cauldron, so that the light didn't show through the seam.

My light fixture has holes on the top for heat ventilation, so I used them to help secure the cauldron on there level. I drilled some holes along the rim of the cauldron and used some scrap wire to create hooks to secure it.

I wanted something to cover the top and help with color, so I used some green stretchy spider web stuff to line the top edge of the cauldron. It's VERY important to NOT cover the top of the light fixture itself. You don't want it to over heat and cause a fire hazard.

Now it's all done and ready to be lit up.

The green webbing really made the cauldron stand out. The hole in the bottom of it helped illuminate the table below, and the little holes all around it cast an almost disco-ball-like feel in the room. I got lots of compliments on it and I am currently thinking of making some table lamps from thrift store lamps using this same method.

The search for inspiration

ghostessdeanna@gmail.com (Ghostess) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:23:00 +0000

Today, or yesterday as it were since it's now after midnight, I decided to take a break from my life and went for a walk. I was only planning on being gone for at the most an hour... but I ended up staying gone for 3 hours, just walking and enjoying Mother Nature's offerings. I was actually on a mission to get some good photos of banana spiders, but for some reason, there were none to be found. Although, my son found a nice one the other day and snapped a pic of it for me.

Anyway, I did run across some cool stuff today. First, I'd like to introduce you to the path I jog when the energy levels kick in. These shots were taken in the spring and show only about a half mile of what I run.

The first thing I ran into that caught my eye, was this big ol' locust thing. They're always back there along the trail except in the winter. This one is eating a button bush plant.

Then I walked a few more steps and encountered this curious little guy on the ground. When I put the camera down low to the ground, about an inch from him to get a close up, he kept walking toward the camera and touching it with his antennae. He kept following the camera, it was kinda neat. Then suddenly he jumped up onto the camera while I was holding it. After I got him off the camera, he just kept following the lens like he wanted to eat it, so I gave up and moved on.

I passed some green passion fruit getting heavy on the vines. The flowers were beautiful this spring.

Then I came to my original destination, the Slough. It's a trail along a creek in our neighborhood. When you step off the boardwalk, and cross the chain barrier, the first thing you see is this sign. The path starts off wide, but gets narrow toward the end.

Anyway, I walked a couple of miles ... I'm not sure how long the trail actually is, but like I said, I was gone a long time from home today. :) I had a nice little companion for the walk though. This blue dragonfly stayed with me the whole time I was on the trail in the woods. He'd fly up a ways, land and then I'd try to take a pic and he'd fly on a little further. I think he was taunting me since I LOVE dragonflies so much. I did finally manage to get one decent non-blurry picture though. His body is about 4 inches long and the top of its body is a royal blue.

Along the path, there were lots of these pretty little moths and purple flowers.

Finally, I came to the end of the trail where there is a little foot bridge to cross the water. Over on my left on the other side of the creek, sunning on a fallen tree, was a gator, about 4 feet in length. He seemed very unconcerned with me. Usually they take off into the water at the sight of a human.

After that, I emerged from the forest, crossed the soccer field and headed to the dock.

I got down to the gazebo and got a nice, but scary surprise up in the rafters. There was a HUGE spider resting up there on the ceiling of the gazebo. When I say huge, I mean it had the leg span of my hand. I totally got the shivers just looking at it up above me, like it was waiting to pounce on me as soon as I looked away. She just stayed there, in that one spot the entire time. And that was perfectly fine with me. I wish I'd had the good camera with me for this pic. This is as close as I could get with the zoom on the little Cybershot.

I managed to get one halfway decent picture of this butterfly that kept fluttering around me. It only took about 30 tries...lol

Finally, I figured I should probably get back home as it was dinner time and I'd been gone much longer than I thought I would be. So I stopped to get some pics of these colorful little birds that were twittering in the holly and crepe myrtles. They flew all around me, not really afraid. I stood within 3 feet of them.

In the last quarter mile before getting home, I stopped to say hi to a friend. This is one of our resident ducks that visits our house for free food.