Witch Jars, Fall falling, and pine needles...

I'm supremely tired, so this is gonna be a VERY short post. A few picture posts will be forthcoming tomorrow when I finally run out of errends to do.
When in doubt/bored: Check online Classes, Facebook, Halloween Forum, look for Halloween pretties on Flickr and other image sites.
lol.
So I have so far Four Witch Jars.
Mine are inspired by pumpkinrot, but the Back Story is... different...


I imagine my odd, and wildly obsessed druid/shaman type witch pouring odd liquids and strange, thick extracts from Jars... the empties being thrown to the side and forgotten for years, possibly decades... Finally she gets to Halloween night and in a frantic rush to bring light in to her abode to hold back the spirits uses the Messy jars as candle holders: the blackened sealing resins, particularly disgusting verities of dried sludge, various fibers and dust filtering the light. The stoppers are all missing in action, used for other projects one wouldn't wonder.
Some where on there is at least one severely unfortunate cockroaches leg stuck to a jar.


Anyway, I'm achieving that forgotten, discusting, sludg-y look by coloring white glue (not school glue) with watercolors. You have to tip toe the line between opacity and color saturation to get the right look.
Its fun.
I'll have pictures some time soon, all hanging from their hemp chords and pissing off my husband.

Well its fall in Vegas, the winds have kicked up and Sunday the temperature peaked at a BEAUTIFUL 87F.  However Vegas weather is anything but stable, and the bipolar nature of our weather will kick in with low hundreds on Thursday, Friday and Saturday...

With the wind comes the pine needles and I plan on using them in my display this year... I'm letting my porch collect them, and I'll put them out on the concrete with a healthy layer of red dust... Its the desert's version of fall leaves.
Alright. G'night.

The Brainstorm

So last night I was just NOT tired. So I was laying in the bed, listening to the wrestling DVD I had popped in to the X-Box (Yeah, rockin' it old school) and I brainstormed, what else, Halloween Stuff.
I'm working on a seriously tight budget this year, but I have this interesting idea involving Paper bags and Theban, as well as other cipher writing systems.

Theban, One Version

Theban is a latin based cipher writing system, used typically by neopagans for their spell journals to hide what they are doing from prying eyes. I used it when I was a teenager, when I went in to the neopagan thing, and then realized how stupid it was to hide my notes using this method since resources on Theban are all over the place. (It is much better used for spells and entreaties to angels, as one has to seriously think about EVERY letter your writing while using it, thus adding subconscious power of intent to what ever your doing. Reminder: Spells are a form of prayer, essentially when you pray, you weave spells. Don't go crazy, okay kids?) Anyway, It has origins in the 1500's, and its cool looking.

Theban, Alternate Version (the one I learned)

So I was thinking about my costume this year, what I want to do, how I want to pull it off, ect ect. And doing a witch seems right up my Alley. It's been years since I've done my version of something simple like a witch, since I did not dress up last year, and the year before was a failure. So I was thinking about how my witch would look sitting on the stairs with my display so far in my head. So far I have Pumpkins (the goal is 20), my take on Pumpkinrot Witch Jars (small for now, bigger later), Cob Webs, and Neovana/Devotional Candles. I'm planning on making A fog Chiller, and a couple of other accouterments, but I figure that what I have is not enough for me... So I see paper bag LED luminaries, but not just any paper bag luminaries.... Spell Luminaries. I place inserts in to the paper bags that filter the light and illuminates spells in cipher writing on the insides of the bag.
I'll be doing a few tests tonight. And I might do this with The Witch Jars, which would be interesting.
If you have any suggestions for what the spells should be, please throw them up in the comments.
This should be fun.

Of Pumpkin Tealight Holders and stormy nights.

Image by Strublay

Shorty post for now, I might go trolling for some cool images later tonight... Went to Home Goods picked up the big guy on the right, I loved his small nose and big grin. Best 8 bucks I've spent on Halloween so far. Also It was storming in the Henderson area, so walking back to the car with my Jack pail in one hand and holding my husbands hand with the other I felt like I was trick or treating. It was awesome. 

Pumpkin Spice, and everything nice.

Image By Strublay

So I picked up my first pumpkin spice candle of the year from wally world. It smells awesome and brings up my spirits immensely.

Image by Strublay

Found on bathandbodyworks.com

I'm addicted to this scent. I haven't tried the perfume version yet... but I'm loving the body spray and lotion. 

Smells like fall.

Of Grunge, Spikes, and Colorful Devotional Displays.

Found on Flickr, Image By clockworknate

Found on Flickr, Image By Cremini

Found on Flickr, Image by JoelDeluxe
*Edit* This image is actually a Christmas Display, but I liked it so much I decided to post it anyway.

Of Fog, a Rose, and a Mausoleum Covered in Vines.

Found on Flickr, Image by ShotsAtRandom

Haunting Image, I adore the Celtic Crosses.

Found on Flickr, Image by Juergen Kurlvink

Found on Flickr, Image by Luigi Mancini

Just an epic image of a mausoleum, fog and vines, and that dreamy look... *shutter*

Music To Create By

This post isn't wholly Halloween Related, but it is a quintessential part of my creative process. 
Guild Wars is my Favorite game of all time, as of this moment. Guild Wars is an MMORPG that I started playing back in 2005, and back then I had a CD of the origional score that I listened to constantly (COLLECTORS EDITION FTW!)

I recently remembered my Account information to the Direct Song website and re-downloaded the Original CD, which I have seemingly lost in the intervening years, and I re-downloaded my Guild Wars Factions soundtrack that I bought in 2006.

Jeremy Soule's sweepingly epic music really adds the right punch to the game, to give you perspective I picked up WoW after I played Guild Wars and hated the game for its LACK of a good musical score. The soundtracks stir somthing inside you from begining to end, and this is the soundtrack to jump-start my creative process

If your looking for something to put in your Haunts I would Recommend Eve's Theme (shes a necromancer, and as such her theme is dark) and Abadons Mouth both from Prophesies, I haven't gone through Eye of the North or Nightfall yet, but both might have good stuff on there.

Enjoy.

No job = changing plans

So there will be no pumpkin beast this year. As much as making one would be awesome, a lack of money, materials, and space to house it has prevented any possibility of creating one this year, or any year in the near future.
Also the automated lighting system I had devised for the front yard of the house has also proved too expensive as well.
I'm sticking to what I have, a ton of Jack o lanterns, simple western cross grave markers, neovana candles, witch Jars (pumpkin rot's creation that I'm unabashedly stealing) and day of the dead altars. throw in some lighting fundamentals, cobwebs, a low laying fog, incense and candles and I'm set. I'll probably throw in some cheap rosaries and dead flowers too...
Its best, in my mind, to throw the majority of what measly budget I can claim towards the pumpkins, since they are the heart of Halloween for me. The rest will be for mason jars, neovana candles and the rest.
It's just the way it has to be this year. I can still get the creep though, and that's my intention.

Dear Chainsaw Man.

You know that archetypal chainsaw scare in EVERY haunted house? Yeah, well in my last post I bashed it, and apparently the God of Halloween has determined that I was wrong for doing it.
Mr. Scary Chase-you-around-with-lawn-care-items is now running around tearing up my dreams. I've had nightmares for the past two nights of Mr Chainsaw.
The first nightmare was something out of a damn video game.... It started off where I was working in a pop scare haunt, every one had chainsaws and I was trying to improve upon the scare. Then this discovery channel like pop up overlayed and fuzzed out the image and gave me the complete stats on a particular type of chainsaw while giving me a 360 view of the tool. Then all of a sudden I was in a house running down the stairs with mr chainsaw running after me, I just got out of the door, a'la Halloween (movie) and I heard his foot steps right behind me and woke up. It was like Doom meets Halloween meets Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
So this morning I wrote this on my FB after encounter #2 with mr chainsaw man.

Dear Mr. Chainsaw Man: As much as I am flattered that you enjoy hanging out in my subconscious and proving all my lofty ideals when it comes to horror incorrect, GTFO. ~~~Not really that cordially, nor yours,
S.A.S

I'll be going around and finding pictures of Halloween later today. For now I'm going back to bed.

Somthing I forgot to mention, and the nature of fear.

All of the pumpkins that will light on their own, will be evil. Glaring pumpkins with nightmare grins lighting of their own accord at your approach, oh.... oh yes....

It will be beautiful.

One of my friends once told me that Terror could only be derived from what I like to call the pop scare style: pop ups, loud noises, chainsaws, screaming, gore, spurting blood... all that rubbish.

I despise that sort of scare. I like scares to be a deep down, stays with you, "I should not be here", give-you-nightmares kind of scare. I like creep.

The best haunted house I ever went to was a cheap piece of work put together by a local group and hosted in the parking lot of the power company. No trailers were involved. The most vivid memories were of girls, decently young, in tattered and torn dresses, in chicken coup cages. They stared, made no noise, just stared at you as you walked past. It made you question, "why am i walking past these girls and not helping them?" It made you question what you were doing, and the more you thought about it, the more those girls stares ate at you.

I had nightmares for weeks. It bothers me even now.

That, THAT is a good haunted house.

I walk through pop scare houses and never flinch, I just smile and keep walking, giggling at the terror of my comrades. It takes real creep to get me.

Innovation, detail, creep. The more it begs you, no, DEMANDS that you think about whats going on, the more it gets to you.

I work for that and it heartens me that there are others like me who like the creep.

I like me some detailed displays, and this year.... this year will be awesome.

I'm Back!

And somthing awesome has happened. My Aunt, an extremely social creature who loves to throw a party, has invited my mother and I too decorate her house for a massive Halloween party.

It's my first chance to really go all out for a Halloween display. She has a HOUSE, a with a legit front yard and everything. I haven't found a Job yet, I'm still trying, but I'm skeptical that I'll find one before the Halloween season.

So needless to say my pumpkin beasts have taken a back seat for the year. This year is still the year of the pumpkin, and I plan on taking over the front yard with as many Jack O' Lanterns as I can. If I can afford to make them all real pumpkins, then I will, but if not I'll be making faux pumpkins.

The idea is that someone will walk up to the front yard, seeing a bunch of pumpkins in the yard, some (mostly happy ones) lit, some/most that seemingly had gone out before they got there. As they walk up to the door, pumpkins begin to light on their own by some ghostly hand. Lanterns on trees and in the porch area (most inspired by Pumpkin Rot's witch jars) light on their own as well. The creep factor will be insane.


I can't wait. God I can't wait. *continues R&D*

hehehehe, I get to freak out middle aged party goers. Life is good.

For Pumpkin Rot and Friends

I stumbled upon my Favorite Haunters work Today. Pumpkin Rot's Roots was on De-motivational Posters, as such i sent him The link. I went home from My electronics class today only to find that Mr. Rot had featured Greeter and Guardian on his blog.

So, for friends of Pumpkin Rot: May I present, Greeter and Guardian in some of my favorite photos of them from last year. This will be my last post until June, When I will be starting to make my artificial Pumpkins for my display this year. Enjoy.

Image by Strublay

Guardian and Greeter resting after a long night, This is my absolute favorite photo of these two, simply due to the light hitting Guardian.

Image By Strublay

Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay

I'll see you in June, my fellow Creatures. 

Greeter and Guardian: How freaks carve pumpkins.

Image by Strublay

The Greeter before the sun went down fully, you can see the paper bag luminaries with LED candles, I wanted to do more, but I didn't want the risk of them getting stolen.

Image by Strublay

The Guardian at his post on the table of food.

Image by Strublay

Greeter as one would have seen him walking up the steps.

Silly boys, and thier silly pumpkins.

Image by Strublay

The one who couldn't take it. "Phoenix Wright" Tried to carve a template pumpkin but unfortunately failed when his dragon popped out with the rest of the pieces he was trying to remove. When Perfect Timing and Phoenix went to Cici's to pick up Pizza, Batboy and I "fixed" PW's pumpkin by turning him over and carving 'xX' for eyes.The mouth just worked. We then took a pizza box (after we ate) set our victim on it, grabbed some pumpkin guts, the Bottle of Jack, Some candy Wrappers and a pizza crust and placed it all together as you see above. I decided to light him, which seems an unusual choice considering the abundance of vomiting pumpkins out there. This image is very very nice, the lighting of which aided by the neon bat behind "the one who couldn't take it". I'm glad we averted another soulless pumpkin.

Image by Strublay

Retro Gamers pumpkin, a soulless one. A template by pumpkin masters was used here, and the lighting was augmented by our Neon cat in the background.

Image by Strublay

Perfect Timing's pumpkin, a soulless one. Another pumpkin masters template.

A Haunting In Las Vegas

Image by Strublay

My mother did her house up this year, and this was an off year! all the images in this post is of my mothers work, and the heritage passed down from mother to daughter as years go by.

Above is one of the candelabras my mother purchased years ago. Don't be fooled by the lack of a scale, they are about 6 foot tall and 5 feet wide. Yes, those are REAL candles.

Image by Strublay

My mother didn't carve a Pumpkin this year, these were her substitutes.

Image by Strublay.

This is a wreath made by my grandmother, who has passed on. We display halloween items of our passed family every year, and this year Nana's wreath went up in moms house, Papa's Phantom Hat went up in mine.

Image by Strublay

I love this picture. Just had to share it.

Image by Strublay.

The gemmy ripoff of the Flying Crank ghost. The Lighting in this picture is perfect I think. 

Image by Strublay

Here is a neighbors house, I loved the little stakes.

Of the Halloween Sunrise

Image by Strublay

The Halloween sunrise. I've never experienced it before but since I was up so late, I figured no time Like the present. This was the state of my cobwebs BEFORE they tried to blow down. they were so pretty in the first rays of dawn.

Image by Strublay

The bats and my cheesecloth and sheet curtains. One can also see the faint outline of my neon bat in the window on the right.

Image by Strublay

That's one fearless little bat.

I would suggest enjoying the Halloween sunrie with a cup of vanilla caramel tea or a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Pre Halloween Photos

Image by Strublay

I wanted to get some photos of my pre Halloween prep, and here are some of my favorites, above is the view from my kitchen looking at the orange haunted house night light and the purple glow of the LED lights we picked up this year in the other room. I love the contrast of the orange and purple lights with the darkness of my condo.

Image by Strublay

My decrepit wreath. Looks like it was attacked by spiders and moths. this entire thing was made in around 30 minutes using a 3.00 bare branches wreath, a bit of bag webs, a sign which was 50% off, and a strip of shredded cheese cloth stained with a combination of tea and supremely watered down craft paint.

Just the way I like it.

Image by Strublay.

Our pumpkins. The light one (second in line) is the Greeter, and the far one (bulge at the end) is the Guardian the other two became the soulless (template carved) ones.

Pumpkins grinning in ghastly delight.

Image By Strublay

 The greeter.

As the few T.O.T's walked up the stairs, the light of a strand of purple lights and apparently only four luminaries illuminated their way. As they made their ascent the wicked grin and insane eyes of the greeter became apparent, flanked by two more luminaries.They hesitated a moment before knocking on the door.

Image By Strublay

The guardian.

The guests took their food under the stare of this toothy beast, who guarded the food. Keeping the devil at bay, while making sure that one did not gorge them selves to bloatation.

Image by Strublay

 The grim gourds.

Greeter and Guardian, Sitting side by side after a long night, laughing at the two soul-less ones and the one who couldn't take it. They reminisce at the tiny bit of fun they had, and wonder if their kind will ever get their moment of glory. The creator reassures them: Next year will be the year of the pumpkin.

The list of pictures to be taken:
HF comrades displays here in town;
My Skeleton,
my spiderwebs,
my future curtians.
Pumpkins, pumpkins pumpkins
My pumpkin spice latte I get as I go home
my labcoat
my countdown sign
my mothers house and her sundries
the candy
the food from the party
I cant believe its almost here!

Of lights, graves and a major spider infestation.

Image by Strublay; Northwest Las Vegas

This was the first one I saw, A cute little house that was obvious it was trying to pull off something nice they did a good job I think.

Image by Strublay; Northwest Las Vegas

Here is its  little grave area.

Image by Strublay; Northwest Las Vegas

Spider infestation!

Image by Strublay; Northwest Las Vegas

Heh, VERY las vegas.