Yardwork…

As I said, you know you have problems when landscaping becomes working on Halloween.

Unfortunately, there are no “before” pictures, so, you’ll just have to imagine that while there was clearly a concrete border there, from a time before we moved in, it was just grass and weeds, a couple rose bushes that were more thorn than flower, and a bunch of unwanted quakie sapplings in that flower bed Friday morning.

No longer…

Yes, more grass is left to be ripped out, but nowhere near what it was. The front yard got a bit more attention.

And, we planted the first batch of the desired onramental grasses. Waiting for the next batch to arrive in the mail…

And, as long as we’re planting…may as well plant the clothes for Fred.

Going onto the Monster List, I discovered this nice tutorial. You know we have to try this out. Now, it calls out for some scummy pond water to help rot the clothes…

We don’t have a pond. But, I DO have a fish tank that needs cleaning…plug up the hose to the python vacuum! Water down those clothes Alec…

They were once sooo pretty…

“The Grave” as the kids have named it…a LOT of water a little dirt, some grass clippings for good measure…we’ll see how it goes.

And, finally, we got a little more work done on the mask. Starting to come together. And yet, there are a few surprises going to happen to this mask yet…

Let the marketing begin!

Boy, this week has seen a massive ramp up in marketing for the new Indiana Jones movie.

Got to see an extended trailer in the theater when I took my mom and the boys to Iron Man. Several new TV spots airing over the weekend.

Spoons in cereal boxes, canteens from pop tarts, lights from some other food, Dr Pepper promos. Lego sets appearing in the store. And lots of new little stuff has been added to that little doodad I have in the corner there. Bumping around it, I see the store is up and running with the new stuff.

Nice little light up crystal skull…

Course, we had that one figured out long ago. You can see how the crystal skulls we were making for Kyle’s project light up fine as well on the left side of this pic (hence, one is redish, one bluish, one clear, thanks to the LED’s behind them).

And if WE can make one complete with an LED to light it up for about $2 (wouldn’t be at all difficult to imbed the LED inside the thing, in fact I did one just for fun), you know mass production can make em a lot cheaper. Selling for $12. Gotta love capitalism.

I’ll be curious to see the booby trap set in person. Sounds interesting.

And I HAVE to get me a little Mola Ram.

Speaking of…Hey LEGO! Where’s the respect for Temple of Doom!?!?! We get a boulder chase set, a Well of Souls (ok, lego calls it “lost tomb”) set, a truck chase set from Raiders of the Lost Ark, a ton from the new movie, and one little mini-set from Last Crusade. I can’t be the only one that wants a lego set with the little cage over a pit of fire and a little lego Mola Ram holding up a little Lego heart, big evil statue in the background. Can I?

But, all this activity has already given me a little idea or two of something I can add for Halloween. Hopefully the full film will add even more.

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More updates.

Did a bit of work last night on the mask. Getting teeth started. I’m thinking I might have to go get some Air dry porcelain to get them to go how I want.

Also finished up a tutorial on how to go about making your own shrunken heads.

And, as long as I’m going to be making tutorials, figured I may as well get a section together here to organize that for folks. So, I added in a “how to make your own” section in the sidebar there. Couple links to the tutorials I’ve made for molds and heads right now. I’ll add in things as I either make them, or use someone else’s. Lots of good stuff out there already.

But, mostly, it’s been getting yardwork done. Lots to clean up. Gotta get ready to do the planting. Goals for the weekend: Get the latex on the next batch of shrunken heads, and finish up the flower bed preparations.

Maybe plant some clothes.

And, not to forget. For your viewing pleasure, AMC presents a very special Extremely Crappy Movie Friday night this week. Triple feature:

The Omen: Above average fare for Friday nights.
Damien: Omen II: That’s more like it…but you can do better, AMC.
Earth Vs The Spider: THERE we go. Anything with “Earth Vs” in the title is bound to be excellent…

"I never noticed"

Gore.

Blood and guts.

To most, these are synonymous with Halloween.

There was once a time I attempted to recreate realistic gory creations. They told me to come to work in costume back when I worked at Burger King. Laughed, and put me at the register when I showed up, then asked me to go remove the bullet hole from the middle of my forehead after the third complaint from costumers saying the sight of it made them sick.

And they love to put me in charge of makeup on mock disasters at work, just to give folks something to be squeamish about.

Maybe it was witnessing one too many amputation in the heavy machinery while being a first responder at a former job. Maybe it was saving a guy who tried to blow off his leg when booze, firearms, and homemade fireworks mixed one 4th of July season in the field across from our old home.

For whatever reason, as I sat down to figure what we were doing for Halloween, gore ceased having a place in it some time ago. I’ve never quite understood why some people think gore is ‘scary’ to begin with. Besides, none of the makeup stuff, or even movies, ever gets what’s bothersome down right anyway: the smell.

I’ve never really done much in the gore department at this house. I’ve always preferred the Edgar Allen Poe method of leaving the impressions and allowing people to come up with their own details.

So, I happened to be talking to some local kids the other day. Showing a bit of how the new mask is coming along, and describing some of the new things we’re working on.

And, they went off on how I could add all this blood and stuff to here or there because it would make it so cool, ‘like last year’.

Confused a bit, I commented how I don’t do blood or gore.

I was greeted by some confused looks, some quiet discussions, and then a bewildered remark.

“You really don’t, do you? I never noticed.”

Which, in the end, I suppose, is the entire point.

You know you have a problem….

…when you start actually landscaping your yard specifically for Halloween.

Bought the tallest darn grass the local shop had. I thought it was what I wanted based on the little picture on the little card in the pot. Looking it up at my mom’s, and I see it’s not exactly right, but will still work great for some Halloween projects.

So, I looked up in her big book what I actually DID want. Stop by another nursery to check it out. It is here that I learn that buying plants, like when buying aquarium fish, you really have to know your stuff.

Just like with aquarium fish, the label isn’t neccessarily what the item is. And buyer beware. Here they had the same name as the grass I wanted, yet the picture was clearly different. And, what’s more, down the row a bit was a clearly different grass, yet labeled the same. And, like the petshop, if you ask for assistance, you typically get a kid who doesn’t know much about the subject at hand.

Yeah…I’ve seen this before. When shopping for Cichlids. And, I’m thinking the answer is the same as it was then. The internet.

For grass.

For Halloween.

Yeah, we have issues…Let’s not even mention we’ll be planting some clothes right alongside the ornamental grasses.

We get new neighbors this week too…maybe some nice pumpkin cookies as a welcome.