Happy Halloween!

I hope you all are having a delightfully spooky Halloween! I had big plans for Halloween this year with lots of new and intricate props....then life and work got in the way and all of that went out the window. I was able to finish a handful of projects that I was pretty happy with but most of this month you could hear crickets here at the ol' blog. It seems to have been a common thing in the Halloween Blogging World this year so at least I'm not the only one who slacked off. I didn't even remember to get pictures of my costume before my makeup started rubbing off. :( Oh well! I am already planning for next year and hope to get things done way in advance. 

Anyway, I don't have any new tutorials to share today but I thought that I would show off some pics of our Halloween decor all put together in the new house. 

For the witch's brewing area, I covered the buffet with some tea stained cheesecloth. The apothecary area has grown so the bubbling cauldron got moved to the right and set up on a stack of styrofoam blocks draped with brown fabric.

This area includes a lot of previous years' projects like the Embroidery Hoop Bird Cage, Snow White Spell Book...

...Aged Potion Bottle Labels and this year's Hocus Pocus Spell Book.

Since our new decor is really bright and retro, I tried to make things a little spookier by covering the tables with our old burgundy curtains. I also took down the table lamps and replaced them with candelabras and covered the mirror with cheesecloth. You can also see my Paper Rose Bouquet on the coffee table.

Sally's Worm's Warm Soup Supplies and a pic of Lizzy Borden. 

Vampire Killing Kit and Edward Cullen's Ashes

In the Mad Scientist's area my old DIY X-Ray Light Box has been replaced with a real x-ray light box that we picked up this summer at the Habitat For Humanity Store for only $10! I meant to order some real x-rays this year too but I didn't think about it until it was too late so I just printed some onto regular paper again.

My Worm Hole Generator and some erlenmeyer flasks filled with colored water. I also haphazzardly tossed around some test tubes and tools from Shelby's electronics kit.

Some of the things in this area are normal pieces that we found at antique stores. When put in this context they look kind of creepy. Like the sewing kit above that looks like it is being used as some sort of torture device...

...and the vintage canning tongs that have been repurposed as a rib spreader...

...we also found some funky gourds at the pumpkin patch that seem to have been the subject of some weird experiment.

Our new piano (which we found for free on craigslist - Score!) is being used as another surface to spread out blueprints for inventions, old anatomy books, and the Creepy Light Box.

Those are some seriously strange looking gourds.

We liked this one because it looked like a claw holding onto a ball.

If you are looking for a cool skull, I think the ones at Walgreen's are the best. I believe we only paid $6 for this one.

We found those wire stand things at the local surplus store and thought they kind of resembled a burner so I placed some of the flasks on them.

This collection of chemicals has an eerie glow thanks to the black light set up behind it. We used tonic water, antifreeze, and laundry detergent to fill the various bottles.

A full view of the piano area at night complete with my Coffee Dyed Canvas Skull Print and a huge leaf that Jer found and thought looked kind of weird. 

The tombstones were actually made last year and I never got around to sharing them with you. I planned to go back over them with some textured paint to give them more of a stone look, do a couple of washes of color to age them and  then share a tutorial but that will have to wait until next year as well. At least I remembered to snap some pics which is better than I did last year!

Some of the stones were made to look like the ones in the old cemetery that we visited, others are people that we don't really like (Will Ferrell, one of Shelby's old bosses, etc.), and a few were suggested by facebook fans (a deadbeat ex-husband, a bully from high school, Lizzy Borden).

We had some old pallets laying around so Shelby and Jer busted them apart and made a rickety little fence. it added to the spookiness and will hopefully keep Trick or Treaters from tromping through the cemetery and breaking things. 

We didn't get everything set up out here until the night of the party so when the neighbor kids noticed it the lights and fog machine were going as well. Shelby heard them yelling, "Mom! Look! They've got a cemetery!". He stepped over to the door and looked out to see who it was...not paying attention to the fact that he was dressed up like the Emperor from Star Wars. The kids started screaming, "AHHH! MOOOOMM!!!! There's a GHOST in their house!!!!"  We may not have a very extensive yard display but it freaked out the neighbors so I consider it a success. :)

We also displayed the other projects that were new this year like the Dexter Room, Spider Nest, Dracula's Pub Sign, Magnetic Interchangeable Jack O' Lantern, and the Kid's Halloween Crafts. Those displays didn't really change much from when I first showed them off though so I didn't take any new pics. 

I hope you enjoyed the little tour around our haunted house! Hopefully next year will be even bigger and better!

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