5 days - Masquerade Ball Playlist

I put a lot of thought into the playlist for the ball in the cemetery on Halloween night.

I wanted appropriate music that someone could actually dance to, but when I searched for songs online, it appeared that most playlists I found picked their music based on the name of the song and not the actual lyrics. 

Sorry - Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" is NOT a Halloween song.  Neither is the Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper".  I saw so many songs that made my eyebrows go up that I can't even remember any more without doing another search. 

So far, my playlist has 16 songs / 48 minutes, which means it'll play twice during Trick Or Treating.  Pretty confident that I'll be the only one who notices.  

There are some that are no surprise - Monster Mash, Time Warp, I Put a Spell on You - ones like that.  The ones I like to think are unique are the Man With the Hex (my daughter's first competition tap routine was to this song and I keep picturing her dance when I hear it!) and the three by Sharon Needles.  Seriously - you need to listen to them - you'll be pleasantly surprised.

(I hope the playlist shows - if not, here's the link.
Halloween playlist)

Any other suggestions?  

 

This looks promising - it just needs to stop changing!!

Moving right along.

Ya know, I have a beef with people who post on the Halloween Forum that they don't have the $$ to do their H'ween display this year, woe is me, woe is me.  Why can't they reuse the stuff they already have?  That should cost all of $0.  Or do they throw everything away come November??   

Sheesh.  But I digress.

Anyhoo.  I've added a few new things so far. 

I ordered another 4 foot skelly from the Skeleton-Factory.  It's entertaining that the family isn't even fazed that Paul is currently chilling on the couch in the living room. 

I used my 55% coupon at Michael's to get the red velvet skull.  

And damn if I didn't get an email today that if you're on the new Rewards Program, you have a 60% coupon!  I can't think of anything else that I want!

Joann's already has what little H'ween stuff they have out 30% off.  

I got this little headstone for the kitchen cemetery. 

The one I stopped at had very little out, but a lot of empty shelving with shelf plans taped to them.  I didn't see anything really exciting on the plans, but I may change my mind once I SEE it in person. 

And since I've decided on a masquerade ball for the cemetery this year, I've started getting some stuff from the Salvation Army to dress the skeletons with.  I asked my Secret Reaper for masks & beads & other scraps of materials.  I refuse to spend any more than $3 per piece on these outfits, so it's kind of fun to see what I can find.  These are some fabulous scarves, tho!

I found this village piece today in with the Christmas knick-knacks!  

Super cute.

I also found this reaper candle-holder.  It's hard to tell, but he's pretty happy looking. 

oh, and these......this isn't all from one trip.  I've been finding these nutcrackers since the beginning of the year.  I've been avoiding "typical" nutcrackers and only getting "unique" ones. 

A Royal Canadian Mountie, a bunny that will go in with the Easter stuff, an aviator and a biker holding a helmet & gloves. 

Actual Christmas nutcrackers.  On the right, the average looking guy is stained & not painted so that's how he rated as "unique".  The snowman is also a candle-holder and may possibly be regifted to my sister who loves snowmen.  

A postman, a gardner and a very fabulous pirate on the left. 

I found this one at an antique store.  He needs a little work, maybe a new paint job and glue here & there, but is otherwise solid.  He's got that old attic smell.  I've got quite the herd of these now. 

Speaking of herd.....did you see this is coming soon to a Home Depot near you???

OMG - how awesome would this be???  Over 6 feet tall (I assume they measured to the ears and not the base of the neck like a real horse)  O the possibilities!  

I would LOVE to have one, but storage would be a huge issue for this.  It would be hilarious to store it in my sister's barn!  She's got 2 live horses but 3 stalls in the barn so the skeleton could have its own space!  Heehee, she would probably disagree, tho.  A photo-op for sure, but not actually storing it there.   We'd (hubby & I) have to figure out a way to rig a pulley system to get it up in the garage rafters with the rest of the skeletons.  He's great at figuring out things like that.  It won't happen this year so I hope they bring it back for 2017!  

Going back to the masquerade ball idea - I discovered I had like $64 on my iTunes account and before I went nuts buying more music, I researched music for the ball.  Gots to have tunes at a ball!  I didn't want to use stuff from Midnight Syndicate or Nox Arcana.  While they are super awesome and creepy, I wanted to find music someone could actually dance to.  So I uploaded some of the usual stuff, but found some others that are pretty awesome.  

Witch Doctor

Purple People Eater

Monster Mash - did you know there is an explicit version of this????

Love Potion No 9

The Addams Family Theme

This is Halloween (Marilyn Manson)

Time Warp

I Put a Spell On You (CCR)

Monster in my Pants (Fred Schneider from the B52s)

Call Me on the Ouija Board (Sharon Needles)

Dracula (Sharon Needles)

This Club is a Haunted House (also Sharon Needles)

This is only around 38 minutes, so I'll have to find at least a couple more songs.  I won't have it playing every night, but will for sure during ToT.  And I've been listening to it while painting.

I thought of another quick improvement project to do for this year.  I have a ground-breaker coffin that I made a couple years ago that needs to be aged.  There are all sorts of recipes to stain wood on Pinterest using steel wool & apple cider vinegar so that's the plan.   

I'm almost done with repainting the headstones.  I've not doing a lot at a time, but tomorrow (Well, today since its after midnight) looks like it'll be decent (cloudy but not too hot and hopefully not humid) so maybe I'll get them finished up.  It'll be nice to get them put away so we can actually get into the garage!  I have the sawhorses right inside the door so they're in the way. 

Time to turn in - busy painting day tomorrow!  And I should do thru some boxes in the house that are mysteriously labelled "Halloween" to see what's in them (insert Twilight Zone music)!

I can't possibly be the only one who has such things floating around, am I??

Man, I am beat!

I honestly don't know how some people can tear down their Halloween display the same night!  Both Randy and I feel like we've been run over by a truck!  But the entire cemetery is tore down and 95% put away.  I so appreciate his help because there's no way I could have done all that on my own in just 1 day.

 

The big day was a bit of a buzzkill.  We did a whole lot of nothing during the day. A nap may have happened.  Then around 3... here came the rain.  I guess I should be happy that's all it was.  Last year it showed up with wind and snow, too!  I probably got about 35 kids.  It seemed like a couple more houses had lights on, too.  Nobody had any really good costumes this year, other than 2 adorable tiny little girls dressed as kittens.  3 women came up, possibly in their 20s - its hard to tell - but they were in costume and having a good time!  3 teenaged boys showed up with only 1 in a 'costume', but they were in awe of the cemetery and gushed over it.  OK, kissing ass will get you candy!  One little boy's dad went crazy over the campfire scene and another lady asked if she could take a picture.  2 cars pulled up with year with a bunch of kids pouring out.  Then it was over. 

My sister came over after passing out candy at Mom's to see the cemetery all lit up.  As we stood there chatting (under our umbrellas), our dogs roamed around between the front and back yards.  All of a sudden, we both sniffed.  Uh, oh.  Skunk.  My Beagle apparently really likes the smell of skunk, since it's only been about a week since the last time he got blasted in the face!  Luckily her dog with his really thick fur (and a 45 minute drive) were spared for the most part.  Not really how I wanted to end my evening!  At least the Skunk-Off and puppy shampoo were still handy. 

 I confess to doing absolutely NOTHING on Sunday, even tho it was gloriously sunny and in the low 60s.  I'd thought about cleaning up my flowerbeds and picking up the multitude of sticks that are scattered about.  It clearly didn't happen. 

I didn't go out of my way to hit any clearance sales, but we did get some (in my opinion) unnecessary candy since I gave out all of what we'd bought.  My diet is shot by having all this stuff in the house!  I've learned Almond Snickers are my downfall.  And KitKats.  And Butterfingers.  Shall I go on?   And I looked around at WalMart today when we went to get exciting stuff like kitty litter.  I got a butterfly mask, a cute little tinsel headstone and some pumpkin scoopers, then another green LED spotlight from the Christmas section. 

It took us about an hour and a half to clear the front yard.  This just meant everything except for the sign & headstones were inside the fence. 

Randy said it looked like these guys were in line for their unemployment checks. 

 Gulp.  Do I really have that many skeletons???  

 We had a couple laughs about all them.  I posted this pic on FB saying the seasonal workers were waiting to get their pay before leaving until next year.  He thought I should have said before they were deported back to Transylvania.  

 Yay, everyone loves Tim Horton's! 

 The grass got yellowed, but didn't die under the coffin this year!  I have it on casters for easy moving around and they also help to raise it up off the grass. 

 This is where they all go in the off season. I hang them using a piece of twine looped around their tailbones, a half-hitch around the spine just under the ribs and another around the neck - it helps to distribute the weight more evenly and they're not hanging by the string out of the top of their heads only, causing a lot of stress on the neck.  The 3 foot guys I paired up back-to-back and tied the twine thru their pelvises and then looped around under their ribs and around their necks. 

 The critters are in the tiny little loft in the shed with the lawn mower & headstones.  I forgot to put out my groundbreaker coffin this year!  I saw it when I was putting this stuff away in the shed.  Dammit. 

 Since I had plenty of time to spare while waiting on the ToTers, I jotted down a few ideas for next year.  Since it probably won't ever be nice enough for me to use old dance costumes (Miss Angela probably won't ever wear them again but I don't want them messed up) I'll get some dresses and suits from the Salvation Army and do a masquerade ball type thing next year, instead of having the skeletons just standing there.  And I've finally gotten the OK to board up the windows!  That will look pretty awesome. Once I was able to show Randy an example of how it could be done (thanks to a house on Tillson St!) he was good with it.  Of course I'll need some tunes for the ball.  I'm going to add a couple more stones to the cemetery and touch up the paint on the current ones.   That's a pretty good start.  

Shucks, I have to find clothes and stuff since I have to go to work tomorrow - blargh.  5:30am rolls around pretty early!  I'll sign off with this picture of Chester & Daisy sharing my lap.  Daisy has no concept of "he was there first" or "one cat fits better at a time". I'm glad he's such a good big brother! 

#MGC

Day 14 - Tunes

These make me happy. 

The usual, an oldie but a goodie. 

Backstreet Boys - Everybody

Still a favorite.

Lindsey Sterling - Moon Trance

Bobby Pickett - the Monster Mash

The Skeleton Dance

#MGC

11th day - fun musical offerings

Fun Christmas Songs!

Gretchen Wilson "Nuttin' for Christmas"

Joe Diffie "Leroy the Redneck Reindeer"

Bob Rivers "Walking 'Round in Women's Underwear"

Da Yoopers "Rusty Chevrolet"

10th day - metal carols

Why is it Twisted Sister has the best Christmas carols??? 

 You wouldn't think of an 80's hair band to be able to come up with anything decent, but they indeed have! 

Of course, this came out in 2006, so it's probably old news to some, but I still enjoy hearing A Twisted Christmas every year!

O Come All Ye Faithful

This is my current favorite.....

Heavy Metal Christmas

On my heavy metal Christmas my true love gave to me, 

12 silver crosses 

11 black mascaras 

10 pairs of platforms 

9 tattered t-shirts 

8 pentagrams 

7 leather jackets 

6 cans of hairspray 

5 skull earrings 

4 quarts of Jack 

3 studded belts 

2 pairs of spandex pants 

and a tattoo of Ozzy!

1st day - flea market finds

Wow!  December creeped right up on me!  I'm not ready for this!!!

This past weekend, after the gluttony of Thanksgiving was finished, we (Mom, sister, hubby, kid & me) all went to this store called Past Tense that sister (Laurie) told me about and I wanted to see.  One building was an antique store / tea room, another a cider mill / restaurant and the other a 'country' store.  The antique store part was pretty cool, it's in a beautiful old farmhouse that's supposedly haunted.  They had very creepy old vintage items, especially the dolls - and some handmade items.  I didn't have any cider or donuts, but the hubby & daughter both agree they were very good.  The country store part is what I am using as my post today.  They had a lot of home decor items, a faux floral section, garden decor, and of course a Christmas section etc, etc, etc.  

But venture upstairs & there's all sorts of Halloween goodies!!  Right above the stairs was a smallish Victorian coffin with the glass panel over where the deceased's face would be. Wish I would have gotten a picture of that!  But there were security cameras everywhere.  They had all sorts of neat vignettes set up - a Halloween village, a Big Top section with a lot of clown & alien stuff, a creepy kitchen section with bizarre old machines, jars of body parts, rats, a fortune teller area, a Day of the Dead area and my favorite...the rock band!

and I was really surprised to see this window!

C2H - 2 days More tunes!

I'm not big into Disney, like at all (don't throw things at me!!)  but even I can appreciate this video!

Post by Disney.

And also Michael Jackson's Thriller sung in 20 different styles in 5 minutes!

C2H - 7 days Tunes

This is a good ol' standby of the season.

Backstreet Boys, Everybody

C2H - 14 days - Moon Trance

Another new artist to me .....

Lindsey Sterling - Moon Trance

I like it!
I think it's my new favorite song!

C2H - 20 days Calling all the Monsters

Another unusual selection of tunes for this season - straight off the Disney Channel!

China Anne McClain - Calling all the Monsters

Don't knock it - it's cute and catchy!

C2H - 27 days Monster

I confess to not being familiar with this band.....but this is a pretty good song!

Skillet - Monster 

C2H - 30 days - Zombified

Not someone I see on the countdown often (ok, ever!)

Southern Culture on the Skids - Zombified

Creepmas Day 1 - The Creep

Welcome to Creepmas 2012!  Seeing as how retail stores shoved Christmas onto us while we're still wearing shorts & flip-flops, this is our little way of bringing the darkness of Halloween back for a few more days in the midst of this joyous, happy season.

Let's start with some tunes, shall we?  In honor of the season, I present to you...

The Creep!