SICK!

No literally. I'm sick.
It really sucks.
I need a local apothecary shoppe that sells strange herbal teas that would work miracles on my sinuses and tonsils...

Found On Flickr, Image by Jing Tea Shop

I suppose my cabinet full of expired Celestial Seasonings will have to do. (yeah apparently tea bags expire, which totally sucks, but poor people can't be picky.)
Anyway, I hope you all are feeling better this fine New Years Eve-day. (awkward...) Be safe, don't drink and drive, and remember: always drive faster than your local demons can fly/run/scrape their talons across the ground.

Less than a month, Tron and Daft Punk.

And I'll be working at Disney.
Freaking crazy. It's hard to believe, but its happening.
So much to do.
Perhaps most appropriately, I finally saw and reveled in the visual and musical feast that is Tron: Legacy, It's an intense film, with a simple quest story that could have been deeper, as was if you knew where and had the presence of mind to look for the depth, but even short of that, I adored the movie, and its one of those films I can say is beautiful. Daft Punk's score is entrancing and addicting, and I now have it in CD form as my best friend bought it for me for my birthday/christmas. It's playing over my purple JVC flats headphones as I type this, the deep resonance of Arena rocking my ears with the awesomeness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFXYuw96d0c
I never thought I'd say "Daft Punks score" with reverence before, but trust me, its perfect.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts.

Christmas! Yay Christmas... is it Halloween yet?

Image by Strublay

Everyone here at Casa Strublay wishes you a Merry Christmas. 

Image by Strublay

Just a little bit of Halloween, just a smidge. *grin*

Where'd she go??

Life hit me with combat boots on...
I hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving, and Hanukkah.
Just wanted to let you all know I'm not dead. Yet. lol.
But! Strublay posting on BH will be non-existent through my birthday.
Yeah. Birthday. LOL.
God Help me.
I hope there are pumpkins. OH! AND CARROT CAKE! *SQUEE* I LOVE CARROT CAKE!
Anyway, so we'll be back to normal operations sometime after the 15th.
Pretty pictures and all.
Fair warning, there will be leather masks, and carnivals, and some very dark Christmas carols.
Muahaha.

Taking a break

Image by Strublay

I just need a little time to get some things under control, so Beautiful Halloween will quiet a bit over the next two to three weeks. If you want to get a dose of Halloween goodness, see the blog list on the right, or visit the forum,  I'll post occasionally, but the once a day thing is going on the decline for a while.
Yours Aye,
~~~Strublay~~~

Aura of Foreboding 2010

Found on Halloweenforum.com, Image by Aura of Foreboding

Okay, so the story, apparently, is that this dude threw up this incredibly detailed and well lit display in the four days leading up to Halloween.

Holy Crap.

I think that would be awesome, you incidentally drive by a house one day, and then drive by that house 4 days later and a decrepit cemetery has cropped up in the interim. So cool. 

Detail in this picture that I LOVE: on the right of the picture above the window is the outline of a human head. That was cool to find.

Found on Halloweenforum.com, Image by Aura of Foreboding

The lighting on these Stones are beautiful, I LOVE how the lighting is placed to draw shadows in to the engravings, and all of the organic shapes from the old branches. Also the blues punctuated by the green tombstone, and the warm oranges of the lanterns.

Found on Halloweenforum.com, Image by Aura of Foreboding

Again with the beautiful lighting. 

Lesson: Lighting matters, as does texture. 

Go see more of this awesome-ness.

Voodoo on the Bayou 2010

Found on Photobucket, image by voodooonthebayou

Found on Photobucket, image by voodooonthebayou

Found on Photobucket, image by voodooonthebayou

Of the Grim Hollow in the year of our lord two thousand and ten

First post about you guys! YAY!

Unt! Zee honor iz goingz to Grim Hollow Haunt. 

Why? Have you seen their pumpkin line up photos?

Found at http://grimhollowhaunt.blogspot.com, Image by Grim.

Found at http://grimhollowhaunt.blogspot.com, Image by Grim.

Look that that.... ooooooohhhh so pretty. This blogger loves the pumpkins, so how can I NOT start off with some of the best photographed pumpkins?

Found at http://grimhollowhaunt.blogspot.com, Image by Grim.

I adore how dark it is, the grimness of the chained coffin. 

Found at http://grimhollowhaunt.blogspot.com, Image by Grim.

That is just creepy. incredibly creepy. The clouds and the amber lighting combining for a really beautiful, haunting photograph. 

100?! ALREADY?

 100 posts!

To celebrate: 8 pictures of the witches kitchen and 2 pictures from my display!

Thanks to those of you who come to my blog, you people are awesome. 

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

We has Policy? Oh yes, yes we has.

Alright, obviously there has been a touch of confusion, and I just want to clarify some of my personal policies dealing with my blog and some things about who I am.

Policy:

• If you email me, it is likely that your email will be automatically sent to my spam folder. I do not check my spam folder, so don't expect me to receive emails. This will not change, sorry. Maybe one day if this site becomes super popular (yeah right) I'll create an account just for this site, but until then, no emails please.
• If you wish to enlighten me about something that is Horror/Halloween/Prop Making related and/or "OMG AWESOME" -worthy, please feel free to let me know in a comment. I prefer verifiable links and or "Hey Strublay! Google this..."
• Understand that what ends up on full blog posts is at my discretion, just because you throw it on the comments, does not mean I'll do a full post featuring what you sent me. If your link or search term proves to be reliable, however, I will allow the comment to be posted.
• My typical sources are HalloweenForum.com, Flickr, Photobucket, ect. So if you are shy, just post your pictures on one of those sites and I'll probably run across them during my daily scans of a bunch of sites for cool pictures
• If you see that something has been improperly attributed, please let me know in a comment.
• Yes I post a lot of my own pictures. It is my blog after all. ^_^

I honestly appreciate your understanding regarding these matters.

About me:
I am an artist and college student here in the Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. I am dual majoring in IT and 'Arcane Herbology and Spellcasting'. I am an artist that does a lot of prop making (which encompass all forms of art, really) and it is safe to say I go through phases. I was born here in Las Vegas, raised here, and I love my oddball city. I lived in Arizona for a short time, and thats when my obsession with Halloween really began to blossom. I have been obsessed with the aesthetic of Halloween ever since.

My nickname, Strublay, originated from my technical theater days in High School, we were doing a play by Brecht, and my director/teacher was a smart alack and altered my first name to one that was in the play in question and used it as my nickname for the duration of the play. My cohorts in the tech department decided that my last name needed to fit in too, as my first and last name were already odd. After the play only my last name stuck around, Strublay. After I graduated, I started using it as my pen name on my less interesting blogs That no longer exist.

Oreo wished to say hi.

Image by Strublay, of Oreo

"WTF do you want? hm? Get that f&*%#@$ camera out of my face!"

She's a little, twitchy eye'd princess. 

I wasn't planning on doing a cat-post, but she wanted to say hello, and her way of doing that is prancing across the keyboard while I attempt to post, typing a few dozen different characters on her way. 

So to directly quote my cats typing "1qwedergfhyj6y7i8ukkimjo;lp"

That sort of entertaining thing is a LOT of fun when I'm coding. Joys. LOL'z

Oh, and she also tried to add a Label whilst chasing after my hand for pets.

I deleted those.

Your welcome. 

She has also been "helping me" put some of the Halloween stuff away today, mainly the Paper Bats, the B&W Skeleton in the porch window, the paper Happy Halloween Banner. 

And by helping I mean laying on the 3 yards of black fabric I use to hide crap during my Photo-sessions in the dining room and mucking them up with white cat fur. Oh AND ripping the holy hell out of one of the bats. Luckily it was one of the newer ones, and not one of the funky ones my mother made.

Speaking of things my mother made: The paper graveyard is still up, and I'm thinking about framing it to preserve it for coming years. I'm really hesitating pulling it down because of how sensitive it is. 

I kinda want to replicate it, and laminate or seal that to preserve the graveyard as a window decoration. 

I just don't want the original to dis-integrate, its a classic thing, a memory from my past, and its really really beautiful. 

So I figure my November Non-school, non-house cleaning crafty projects are going to be knitting scarves, making some cool, easy to hang, Christmas light decorations and replicating the paper graveyard. Outside of that is packing and end-of-year purging. 

Jack, a quick tool tip, and Disney.

Image by Strublay

Long live the Pumpkin King! 

Come on, did you think that with 3 ghost pumpkins I wouldn't have ONE dedicated to Jack? 

How To Moment: I HATE the plastic things for cutting away the skin of my pumpkins, I like using Linoleum cutters instead.  Linoleum cutters can be found in art stores in the printing area. All you need to pick up are the blades and a handle, and there is really no need to purchase the fancy handle, just pick up the cheap wooden one by speedball. I used just a #2 Speedball Linoleum cutter blade to do Jack and Scarz. 

I've always had a fascination with Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, and I tend to have a Christmas themed around Tim Burton's exploration of what might happen if Halloween and Christmas collided. 

I also have a fascination with all things Haunted Mansion, but that goes w/o saying. 

So, what are you getting at Strublay?

Well I'm also taking my time posting on other Haunters for very specific reasons. 

First: In January I start an 8 month internship with Disney at the Disneyland Resort. So you can bet that there will be a gap of posting come mid-January. I'll be extremely busy with the move to Anaheim, and my first few weeks of work will be exhausting.

Second: My Sig. Other and I are considering houses at the moment. So while I'm in Anaheim, I'll also be coordinating a house move via phone webcam and weekly or bi-monthly visits. 

Countdown from MickeyPath.com

My 2011 is going to be insane, so I'm using HalloweenForum.com as my main resource and STUFFING my favorites folder to the brim with photo-sets from my fellow Halloween fanatics displays. So lets see if this works out.

Scarz of countless fights

Image by Strublay

Scarz, Halloween Night.

Taking Halloween geekery to the next level. POSSIBLY TMI.

I hit up a wallyworld today, and they had a 75% off sale of every Halloween item in the store...... I picked up a shirt, and two pairs of Halloween Underwear.
They are soft, and comfy, and orange and black stripey.
*Supremely amused laughter*

Scarz

Image by Strublay

Scarz, on Halloween Eve.

He was the one that took the longest to figure out, I wanted to use the natural features and scars on the pumpkin to my advantage, so I had his mouth grow together, and his eye deformed..... worked out great I think.

Old books, Incense smoke, and Jars

Image by Strublay

I love this picture because of the incense smoke.

The Beast, and wheres the posts about everyone else?

Image by Strublay

Beast, Halloween night.

So where are the posts about everyone else?

Well, I know I normally post about other haunters awesomeness, but at this time, I'm letting the data base build up, I'm letting people post pictures, get back to normal, and THEN I'll start covering the awesomeness and beauty of the home haunters 2010. 

I've got to stretch this out over the next 361 days you know!

Trust me, I have a VERY full favorites folder.

Pumpkins, Jars, and the Soul Cage.

Image by Strublay

Halloween Night, I love how you had to right up on him to see Beast. He's up there, by the door, you just can't see him from this angle. 

Witches Kitchen

Image by Strublay

Another from the Halloween night Still Life. 

The Beast before his moment of glory.

Image by Strublay

The Beast before Halloween night, freshly carved. 

I think you can kinda get an idea of his size.

He was huge. 

I should have lit his candle last night and taken a photo of him sitting on the corner of the dumpster. 

I threw the rest in, smashing them against the door that was in the dumpster already, but Beast was set gently on the corner of the dumpster, ready to greet the trash guys in the morning.

The Tiny Terror

Image by Strublay

Best Tombstone Ever For Nevada

http://www.jjchandler.com/tombstone/

I don't normally "do" politics, but this race was really scary for my state. 

Thought I would share my glee to see her lose.

Thank the gods, my states honor remains intact.

A Dumpster is no place for a Jack o Lantern.

Image By Strublay

Scarz, Beast and Psycho, Two Face is sitting on the Table.

Unfortunately I had to throw out my pumpkins tonight. extremely fuzzy mold grew all over the insides of Beast and Psycho, and Jack was turning a sickly orange from its original white. 

I actually teared up. 

I look forward to the day when my pumpkins can languish and rot in my back yard instead of being thrown in to a dumpster....

Dia De Los Muertos, The Skeleton Collection!

For those of you that don't know, I live in Las Vegas Nevada, and we have a thriving Mexican-American community here in town. As such this southwest town has the occasional Dia De Los Muertos celebration. There are a lot of Skeletons and Skulls featured during this Mexican holiday.

Thus a post on my Paper Skeletons.

First is my pride and joy of my Die-cut collection, the only real vintage Halloween decoration I have, and I received him as a hand-me-down from my grandmother. 

Image by Strublay

He is a Beistle die cut, one sided Paper Skeleton Halloween decoration.

Isn't it awesome? 

It was manufactured sometime in the 50's or 60's and it is from my Grandmothers collection, which means that the Skelly was used during the time that my mom was a kid. 

I LOVE my Vintage Skelly.

Image by Strublay

It's a bit beat up, but it is awesome, and it looks good on turquoise!

Image by Strublay

Here is my late 1980's early 1990s Skeleton Die-cut, I know less information about it, other than the fact that it is wearing a belt that says Dem Bones 1892 on it.

It's cool, one that my mom used to put up every year. The shirt my mom made for me the same year my mother and father discovered the combination of cheese cloth, starch, glow in the dark paint, and fishing line to create a ghost. EVERYTHING was glow in the dark that year. The year after I had grown out of the shirt and we put it on Dem Bones. 

Image by Strublay

This is an older Skeleton Die Cut, not old enough to not be printed on both sides, but it is made out of matte paper and is strictly black and white.

I think it is also a hand-me-down from my grandmothers collection.

Happy Dia De Los Muertos!

A picture from the witches kitchen, and Recovering.

Image By Strublay

I am exhausted.

Seriously.

Did a still life last night, as you can see, I set it up around the idea that my witch would surround herself with the objects that protect her, even after the stroke of midnight.

I'm taking it easy the next few days. I deserve it.

Then It'll be time to pull it all down and get back to normality until Yule. 

The Trials and Tribulations: Halloween 2010

Image By Strublay

Well things went wrong. I found out that the building defect in my condo complex involved the overhangs, the drywall was so water damaged (Unsealed drywall outside........ even in vegas: WTF) that I couldn't hang any of the witch jars as planned. As such my display became much much simpler this year. 

Ah well.

Thats life.

Above is the sight that greeted my eleven trick or treaters (ELEVEN!! I had 2 last year!!! *Happy Dance*).

We kept the Door open as my friends and I enjoyed the evening, the night was in the 60's so we could keep all the doors and windows open with out freezing out like last year. 

Image by Strublay

Top To Bottom: Psycho, Scarz, Jacobs [PUMPKIN], Jack(Nightmare before Christmas), Jeffs Stitches.

Image By Strublay

Two-Face: Hyde

Image by Strublay

Little Giggle

Image by Strublay

Lloyds Souless.

Only had one this year..... thank god.

Image by Strublay

The Beast.

Image By Strublay

Tiny Terror, the Soul Cage, and the Witch Jars.

This was a wonderful evening, I didn't get my first ToT until WELL after sundown, and I had to send out my Husband to get more candy because we got more kids than we expected. 

I also still have a full bag of Smarties!

*Grin* Yummy!

I also got to see and hear something I never thought I could pull off. I was sitting fussing over my Guild Wars Halloween Event, when my comrades and I heard the sounds of kids whispering downstairs, I walked to the door and poked my head around the corner.

Several Women, in thier 30's I'd say, were cowering behind a 9-10 year old boy. They were arguing about which of the women would go up the stairs with the boy. When they noticed me they covered by saying that the boy was scared and they all thought that someone would jump out of the door and scare them. 

I got 30-somethings to hesitate, just for a second, like scared 8 year olds. 

Simple display, but it worked out wonderfully.

I went through and did a photo session, and I'll put those pictures out in time.

I hope everyones Halloween was as good as mine.

Now for some sleep... ah..... sleep.

The Big Day

Today is the Day of Days, The High Holiday. 

The Reason this blog is here.

Halloween.

Carved 7 pumpkins and completed many of my final prep in the last few hours. 

The largest Pumpkin I carved was a 25 pounder, and his smile is nearly two and a half feet wide.

I also completed my second round of Witch Jars. This one is a round with Labels.

You see my witch likes to recycle. 

She takes the Labels from the smaller containers she purchases and sticks them on Jars she likes to use for storage, when she runs out of the component she puts the Jar in the pile of used Jars that are moldering in a corner of her abode. She doesn't like to throw them out.

They get REAL dirty after a while.

Image By Strublay

Image By Strublay

Image By Strublay

I had to have this one. Its a Lemonade Flavored Laxative. Makes me giggle.

Image By Strublay

I worked pretty hard to try to make the Labels and the outside remains match.

Glycerin is typically a clear liquid so I kept the jar very clear.

Image By Strublay

When I get Ideas from other Haunters I like to give credit.

I don't have a grave-yard, so no headstones. Labels For Jars and Potions and Herb Mixes have to work instead.

This year I am using a lot of witch Jars, so I'm giving credit to Rot for the idea.

"Monsieur Rot's Plant Animation Powder (DO NOT USE NEAR GRAVES!)" 

Shoulda' done it in French, but hey.

The more ideas I get from the Halloween Community, the more labels will bear the names of the community members who came up with the original idea.

Oh and this one smells awesome, because the plant animation powder stand-in is cinnamon, which has been rubbed on the glue prior to the glue drying.

Image By Strublay

The Rules of Halloween: hand out treats, and ALWAYS check your candy.

I hand out Full-size candy bars, this year with Owl Cards (Which essentially say: Happy Halloween, Brush Your Teeth! Visit My Blog and the Forum PLZ) with Clip art from The Graphics Fairy Blog.

See that on the Right??? 

YEAH.

SMARTIES.

It's my Back Up.

I HAND OUT SMARTIES AS MY BACK UP!

*Indignant Strublay* 

What'chu gonna do 'bout it?

Don't Hate. Smarties are awesome.

Haters.

Image By Strublay

The Eye of the Beast, freshly cut.

So Kids, Remember the Rules: Wear A Costume, Hand Out Treats, Always Check Your Candy, And NEVER Blow Out A Jack O Lantern.

May Your Day be filled with preperation and your evening filled with Fear. 

Above All Else: 

Have a Happy Halloween.

~~~~Madame Strublay~~~~