Happy Halloween! Stay safe and spooky tonight.

We won an award

Taking photos tonight I found this award on a pumpkin on the front steps. We apparently missed the judge(s) taking photos with the winners in front of their decor. We sit at the top of a hill so the award is fitting. It looks like e-mails went out to 10 award winners and I found mine in the spam file late tonight.

Is everyone ready for the big day? My fear is we will run out of treat bags quickly with many not handing out candy. We are spacing out treat bags on the lower steps. I still need to make a "take one treat bag" sign with a "sorry we ran out" sign on the back.

Black and Orange

 Love this grouping! Found on our walk tonight. I hope they entered the pumpkin decorating contest.

East side of the house with the projection in scary mode!

Front of the house from across the street.

 

The judging starts tomorrow. I think we are going to call the house done with a few tweaks Halloween night. Blocking off the front stairs and the side deck. Making up treat bags with toys for the younger kids then little Ziploc bags for the later older kids. Stack them on the 3 lower stair treads.

Photos

This is the final version of the porch. The banner/bunting I am working on will be used to rope off access to the porch and yard. Good view of the new paint too! 

Mr. Old Fashion Halloween took photos of the house tonight over a 2 hour period. Hard to pick one photo of the house for the contest. We submitted a view that captured 2 sides of the house. This one: 

 

I believe the judges walk around and look at the houses that submit entries in the neighborhood. First year for the House decoration and or Pumpkin carving contest. The deadline to submit a photo is tomorrow. Sent ours in tonight. The projections running in the windows including a new portrait aging projection show up better on video. Video will hopefully be edited and up a day or 2 after Halloween. Pretty much like we did last year.

 

Shellhawk Goodies

 

Every year I want to buy a Halloween piece from ShellhawksCreations and then forget to go look in time. This years batch of pumpkin people and Jack's is spectacular. Splurged on both this time! Made my Yule list for Mr. Old Fashion Halloween in case any pieces are still around after Halloween.

Scarecrow under the Magnolia Tree

 

High winds and cold. Getting the old boy up last night was a bit of  a project. The magnolia tree is at the beginning of the front porch walkway. He looks pretty good in this spot. The neighbors kept asking if he was going to make an appearance this year. I need to hot glue more moss to his arms/hands. Every year more bits break off!

Front Porch

Porch at dusk. Getting closer to done with this project. The black tinsel garland by Northlight is from Target and is just the right amount of fullness to make the light strings look great! Shiny black that reflects the purple light. The big question is do I have time to make bunting or garland out of some purple owl fabric? Deadline for photo submission is midnight Tuesday to enter the neighborhood contest.

She is like a cat in the night

 and then she is the darkness....

Fleetwood Mac lyrics popped in to my head looking at the lanterns. Black lace draped lanterns with super long fringe. It was getting too dark to see the fringe. Little lace shawl wearing lanterns spinning in the breeze. Made me think of Stevie Nick twirling on stage. Cold moves in tonight with temps in the 30s and then 20s by the weekend.

House Video Preview

We moved the dancing skeletons to the front of the house this year. Took a quick phone video. You can see all 3 couples dancing now like they are on a 2nd floor ballroom. The video was tinted purple to match the porch lights. Trying a layered look on the porch so it looks good during the day and different things are highlighted at night. 

The skeletons are still dancing in the side window tinted purple as well. In theory, and if time permits, we should have a  comical video running on that side of the house to match the same Funkins we used last year. Edit: we have a decaying portrait of a women in the gothic window now.

What the cat dragged in

Fern loves to help decorate! She was also running back and forth across the spandex fabric I was cutting up for projection screens. We moved the dancing skeletons to the front windows so you can now see all 3 couples dance across the 3 windows. The entire neighborhood is getting in the spirit.

Witches

The same great gals as last year only they are all wearing masks! Witches are clever. The neighborhood is starting to look more festive. There is a contest this year for best decorated pumpkin and best decorated house! The year we go low key there is a contest. We also do this kind of thing for a living so I don't know that we would even compete against the 15 year old next door. She is so proud of her purple lights.

The front of our house with the triple windows upstairs will have a projection this year. Fingers crossed we pull that off. It will be the only big new thing. The dancing skeletons are dancing again in the sewing room window. Set up the section of the shelves that all the Funkins rest on. We are so late this year getting things up and running. If you are local I will give a heads up when things are running.

Bat Taper Candles at World Market

 

 

 The bat candles are lovely. The bats circling the candles is a nice effect. 

 

I bought 3 sets of the bats and no spiders. In a dark room they look great. The flicker circuit for a $6 candle is pretty good.

 

My criticisms are the same as the reviewers at World Market.

The candles have a thin wax coating so you have to be careful not to scratch them. The base is silicone to fit various size taper holders. My candelabras have larger receptacles and fit just fine. There is no on and off switch you have to unscrew the base to break the contact with the battery compartment. So, I pull the entire candle, unscrew the base, and then keep the candles in a piece of flannel or felt to prevent scratching. Plan to make little bags for them for storage. The bags meant for storing silver flatware would work.

Autumn Stand

 

We should have taken a drive today before the rain returned to see this stand. Gorgeous work. If we get a break in the weather on Sunday this might be the get out of the house trip! For locals the stand is located at 846 Cascade Dr. NW in west Salem. 

Images courtesy of the owner of the stand.