#CountdownToHalloween2024 - WIP part 3

 

#CountdownToHalloween2024 - WIP part 2

 

#CountdownToHalloween2024 - WIP

Just a quick little WIP video.....

 

#countdowntoHalloween day 21 - a Work in Progress

Just some cemetery "work in progress" shots & a night time video.

 I've cut down the hostas & cleaned up the flower beds since I took these.

 This needs a repaint.  I like the epitaph, but the paint job is lousy.

 




The critters finally came out to play!

I *adore* my chickens!!!

 The 'haunted CB' radio will go in there.

A project on the books for next year... replacing all those cheap foam headstones with simple plywood like the rest.  I used to think they were fine for "filler" stones but I'm just not happy with them anymore. 

October Wrap Up (finally)

So I consider Halloween a success!  

The weather ended up being pretty close to perfect - it was cool but dry and the damn wind died down so it was decent sitting out in the driveway even without the fire pit.

I got about 40 kids, including one reverse trick or treat (Randy brought me home a Zombie Killer cider and made me say the magic words for it) and one repeat.  The first time this girl / bunny stopped by was with her mom, the second time she was with her cousin and announced the fact.  So I made sure to give her something different that time around.   My favorite costume(s) were a young couple and their adorable baby girl.  Mom was wearing baby in a front-facing carrier and wrapped in a box painted like a podium with a Presidential Seal on it.  Mom & Dad were her Secret Service men!  They had on black suits, sunglasses & earpieces!  So stinkin' cleaver & cute!  Another cutie was about a 2 year old Mini Mouse who came running up the driveway, just giggling like crazy! 

I also found it entertaining when parents tried to get their kids to stand in front of the (skeleton) pony for a picture and the kid would stand and look at the cemetery, probably looking for....

(real) PONY

and not seeing it!

One kid flat out told his mom NO when she tried to get him to stand in the walkway to the front door so she could take a pic.  He wasn't having it!

********************

So 40 seems to be about the average number of kids for the last couple years, considering how many live in the neighborhood.  And probably 2/3 were little ones. I imagine the lack of porch lights / street lights / sidewalks on my street are probably contributing factors to them going elsewhere.  I was also somewhat disappointed when I drove around and saw very few houses with as much as a string of orange lights up!  I saw only 5 other houses that put an admirable amount of effort into their yards.  More had a few decorations and/or lights.  But the vast majority....nada.   I get that Halloween isn't everybody's thing, but it was sad nonetheless.

I have to give a shout out to my darling spouse who willingly offered up (for the 3rd year in a row) to take November 1 off work and help me disassemble the cemetery and put it away!  He's amazing & I couldn't do it without all his help!  MUAH!

So by the time the neighbors were coming from from work & school - this is what they saw.   Pooof!  Magical.  

Chuck & Jack supervised clean up efforts and even helped out a little bit by raking the lawn where the coffin had been sitting. 

Chuck also conducted the annual debriefing. 

Oh, hey - someone on one of the many H'ween pages I follow on FB posted this awesome link to Instructables.com on how to make skeleton repairs and how to get them to stand!!  I'm happy with my fence posts & zipties making mine stand, but the repair info is pretty interesting & I might be using some this new knowledge before next year. 

Speaking of next year...  it'll be Maple Grove's 10 year anniversary!  

I've already got a loose idea of what I plan to do with my skeleton army!  I'm thinking of something along the lines of ~them~ trick or treating!  

And I've had plans for several years on how to get a skeleton to move, so maybe I'll finally do that, too. 

I've already posted this on my Facebook page, but here it is again!

The official 2017 Halloween video

Maple Grove Cemetery Masquerade Ball 2016

I finally got my video for the Masquerade ball together - hope you enjoy!

Wow, that sucked!

I don't think I have ever so epically failed a countdown linkup before!  I apologize to anyone who stopped by and saw NOTHING!  But ya know - life happens.  I will go visiting the other blogs, too.

I finally unpacked the nutcracker troops - Rudy hung out with the girls.....

 And the rest of the squad.

 We played with the Rudolph toys

 Found some neat stuff at the Salvation Army - I think he'd fit right in with my snowmen & Santas out in the yard right now.  Put a Santa hat on him and call it good!

This witchy nutcracker came from a Detroit store that was bought out in 1999, so she's a nice old hag!  Love her skull!

But the main thing we did this weekend was attend the Spawn's first dance competition of the season!  It was their first time competing as an "All Star" team, against some really good, established teams of high school cheerleaders.  But they pulled in 4th place, so they held their own! 

So I again apologize for missing the last couple days of Creepmas - but Rudy's still not going back into the garage!   We're having a family gathering on Christmas Eve at my sister's house and then on Christmas afternoon we're all meeting about an hour or so north of us at Frankenmuth.  The hotel has a water park and we'll go to Bronner's and all that touristy stuff.  However, I will probably take Chuck from the Ohio trip, since Rudy likes to pop his legs off when I pose him.  Chuck can handle the family playing with him better.  Rudy can stay home and hopefully keep the kitten from messing with the tree!

#MGC 

! ! ! ! ! HAPPY HALLOWEEN ! ! ! ! !

Welcome to the 2015 Maple Grove Cemetery!

Hope everyone has a super fantastic day with no wind or rain or snow! 

Thank you so much to John, the Mastermind behind the Countdown and to everyone who stopped in to visit this past month! 

#MGC

Home Depot & stuff

Yeah, I was intrigued with all the hype regarding the Home depot offerings this year.  So after a chaotic day at work, I did some retail therapy.  

These huge freakin' skulls were awesome! $50. They had a ginormous 3 foot tall gargoyle, too.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture, since I like gargoyles!

 I'm not sure why everything has LED eyes this year.   

I caved and got one of their $30 pose & stays.  It's very lightweight and also has LED eyes.  I'll have a review up on it soon. 

 Now THIS I was very impressed with.  It's very heavy resin and almost 2 feet tall (with LED eyes, of course).  I like the detail and heft and the perfect amount of goofy to fit in my cemetery.  Best of all....$15!!!  The only thing I noticed that could be a problem is that the base is somewhat narrow, so if its sitting on uneven ground it could fall forward or back.   And there doesn't seem anyway to anchor it to the ground. 

I saw the fire & ice lights there, but they only had red & purple.  If they had blue, I probably would have been all over it.  So I got the ghosties instead.  They also had skeletons, spiders & one other that I can't remember. 

I like how the post is easily adjustable. 

 Let's see if the video works.....

I also popped into Hobby Lobby where for some reason all Fall and Christmas stuff was 40% off, but not the Halloween.  But that's OK.  I didn't see anything I liked there.  But my nutcracker collection is more racially diverse now!  Seriously - I've never seen black nutcrackers before - love them!!  

 I'm still on the quest for the hearse from Home Goods.  I found this one the other day....hidden amongst the fall stuff.

Which I like a lot, but I've seen pics of a silver one with a driver that I'd like, too. 

Now I need to come up with a suitable horse.....

This plate is pretty awesome.  I got the smaller of the ones available.  They had silver & gold & red, too.  This actually has red tints in the black when the light hits it just right. 

I got this today.  Come on - a blinged out purple skull candle holder - awesome! 

Kmart didn't have much out yet, but then again - its technically still back-to-school time since around here school doesn't start until the Tuesday after Labor Day.  Sooon! 

They always have the best hand towels. 

 I got this neat throw pillow and only 1 towel (so far - muahaha!) 

 

 I was thinking of kicking back with a Buzzball (never had one before) but Randy is out with a bunch of people from work, celebrating with envy the guy who is moving on to new opportunities so I don't want to crack open something with 17% alcohol if I may need to pick him up.  So it'll wait til later!  I need to finish getting my Secret Reaper gift together so I can get it mailed out anyway.  Or I could be domestic and like OMG, clean my house....

NAH! 

#MGC