Hallowe'en 2009

Anyone who loves Hallowe'en as much as I do knows that it's a hectic day for us decorators! I didn't begin my set-up until 3:00 in the afternoon! I had to run to Home Depot for wooden stakes and last minute items. Also, I had to go to Future Shop to get some small speakers for my portable CD player so I could have the church organ music outside!

After all that, I took advantage of a fallen limb from last week's wind storm. It was perfect for my owl to sit on.
I then proceeded to attach my newly made Grim Reaper to a wooden stake so he would stand taller than his previous 5 ft height...which would have looked silly.
I had to quickly sew his robe onto his body after I got him into place. It was also very windy and I had to wire the scythe into place so it wouldn't be whipped around.
My previous plan of setting up the Grim Reaper's left hand to be pointing outward had to be abandoned for this year. I just had to let it hang down at his side.

Here I am at approx 6:10 PM as the sun was setting. I hadn't had any time to do any make-up on myself, so I was a very bland looking witch.

The Grim Reaper still has his blinking red LED eyes that I'd put in him when he started out as one of my first props a couple years ago.... just a skull on a stick. (scroll to the very bottom)

I was thrilled at how well the owl turned out! Amazing what you can do with some very simple items. I got the lantern at a thrift shop and followed instructions from the internet on removing the wick and other parts from it and replacing them with a flickering flame bulb. (I just checked and the website seems to have been removed)...so I'm glad I did it already!

And here's my Reaper again.
I had many comments on the fake fire beneath the cauldron. One boy said, "You're burning all the candies!" (because the cauldron ended up being my candy holder....because I couldn't get a hold of any dry ice to put in it)

And here are a couple photos of some Trick or Treaters. I noticed tigers were a popular costume this year.

Because it was quite chilly, a lot of kids had to wear winter jackets over their costumes!

You can watch a video below to get a better feel of the ambience of my display. Unfortunately, it's quite dark, but you'll get the gist of it. A lot of kids said my display was great and they loved it! I think subtlety is better than those big inflatable ghosts that say "BOO" on them or too many disconnected props that have no other unifying theme to them except for the fact that they were in the Walmart Seasonal Department together. (I guess I shouldn't "dis" my neighbours, but that's what they did to their houses)