Back To Hallowe'en

Because I don't have a digital camera...yet....we laid this quilt directly on Rich's scanner. I made it last year, and it's a twin size quilt. I was too eager to finish it so I abandoned the idea of making it a double. He loves it, and uses it all year 'round. I got the pattern off of a quilt block website, and the blocks form spiderwebs. It looks even better as a whole, and as soon as I get a chance, I'm going to photograph the entire thing.
I think the best part was going out and finding all the various Hallowe'en fabric!
And here are my kids dressed up a couple years ago as a Black Cat, and I forget who that other guy was. You know .....someone from Star Wars......oh I forget his name.......(I hope you know I'm being sarcastic!) Anyway, I had to buy the helmet and light saber, but the rest of the outfit I made. I found him great boots at Value Village. (That store is amazing for finding Hallowe'en stuff!)
And here's an earlier one of my son as a Viking. It all started when he won a prize from TVO Kids which was a book on Vikings. He thought it would be great to be one, so I made it happen. I made the sheepskin vest out of scraps I got for free from a leather shop near Spadina and Queen. It took a lot of work to piece them together, but it was worth it.
The helmet is papier mache, as well as the axe blade. The horns I carved from curved Juniper branches, and the little rivets on the helmet are actually lentils. Oh the fun you can have with craft glue!
The suede boots came from a yard sale, and I just shortened them a bit. I made the shield out of plywood and painted it according to a Viking design on a brooch, (from that book.)

More Musicians

Here are a couple of other guys who were great that night too. The first is Dave Bachelor, who is an amazing bass player, and if it weren't for his efforts, I never would have gotten the chance to sing the one song that really meant something to me. Thanks SO MUCH Dave!!!!!
Secondly, is Jan Carlee, who was also my supervisor, and the D.O.P. of layout. He's a great guy with a great sense of humour and phenomenal taste in films. He was our drummer on many of the tunes we did!
A couple of others whom I don't have photos of were Tim Deacon who was absolutely amazing on harmonica, and Jean Pilotte on guitar. That really was an excellent night, and if we never get to do it again, I'm just so damn thrilled we got to do it at all!!!

Regarding "Still Singing"

Here are some photos of Music Night II at DKP/IDT/Starz Animation. I guess it WAS officially "Starz" at the time...so I should continue to call it that. It was held March 29th, 2007.
To help boost morale while our project was being overhauled, the studio was kind enough to sponsor a fun night, allowing many of the musicians that make their livings as artists get up there and show off. It wasn't an "open mike" thing....we'd all rehearsed together many times and tried to make it as coherent as possible. Although we were constantly reminding each other that it was just for fun and there would be no talent scouts in the audience, there still was a bit of nervousness involved....on MY part anyway.This is Eric Murray on the far left. He was really great, playing keyboards and singing at the same time. I, for one, can barely manage singing and playing the tambourine at the same time!!! That's Avi Katz on the far right playing one of his many collectible guitars. We were doing "Mustang Sally", and he sang lead vocals. I was just there for back-up.
Avi played an absolutely KICK ASS version of "Cross-Eyed and Painless" with Eric. I wasn't on that one though.
The two songs I got to sing as lead vocalist were CCR's version of "I Heard it Through The Grapevine" and (my favorite) "Don't You Want Somebody To Love" by Jefferson Airplane. People were calling me "Grace" for days afterwards!
Eric and I sang a few songs with him in the lead, and myself as back-up. "Here Comes Your Man" by The Pixies was one of them.
I really like this photo. It looks like I actually know what I'm doing.
Oh well, that's all the photos I was able to swipe...er...I mean ...have from that evening.

Another Hallowe'en Prop

Here's something that was cheap and easy to build. I took a Dollar Store Hallowe'en skull, repainted it, cut open the back, poked small holes in the eyes and wired up a couple of flashing LEDs. I mounted it on an old mop handle and stuck it in the ground. I added a braided deerskin headband with feathers, and now it looked like it was part of an ancient Indian burial ground.

The other skulls on the ground were more expensive....made from a thicker plastic, but I gave them a new paint job too. Here they are at night!

MORE Hallowe'en Stuff

So here is your typical "graveyard" with the styrofoam headstones and silly names. It looked great at night, and it freaked out my overly-Religious neighbour who thought I must have been some sort of Satanist. Because....you KNOW....that only EVIL people celebrate Hallowe'en......
I guess it didn't help that I placed a tea-light candle in front of every grave...........and fake calla lilies.

With the help of "The Monster List" of Halloween Props.... (yeah...they spell it without the apostrophe).....I learned how to make this nifty cemetary fence using only PVC pipe and spruce "strapping", and a whole lotta black spray paint!!!

Next is my masterpiece. My "Mahakala Jack' o' Lantern". I wanted to include some spiritualism in my celebration. Mahakala is "The Great Power of Time" in Tibetan Buddhism.

Now THIS one took quite a bit of effort. I cut the signs from an old fence, tried to carve out the letters with a cheap Dremel-tool wannabe, then just ended up painting the letters on instead. I traced them on in graphite first, copying them from an old Letraset catalogue. Remember that stuff? Letraset? If you don't, then you're too damn young!!!!!
Anyway, I was very pleased with the result, and I hope to use it during Hallowe'ens to come.