Halloween 2015

Ya ya, I know it's Thanksgiving this week.  Sue me.  Here's my Halloween blog:


You all know that Halloween is my favorite time of year!  This year it was a little harder to get in to.  Maybe it was because I was at a hockey tournament the last weekend of Sept, which is when I would normally start decorating.  Or maybe its because of our ridiculously unseasonally hot weather.  I didn't like it!  Go away, 80's!  I want the 60's!

I did a terrible job documenting projects this year, so I'll apologize now!

Once I got my decorations out, I got into it.  Here are some of the things I worked on this year:


Witch's Only Dinner Party

I really wanted to make my dinner party special this year.  I've always made the best food I could find, and decorated my house to the nines, but what could I do to go above and beyond?  I could hire a psychic for the night.  So that's what I did.  I built her a gypsy tent and let her do her thing for my guests!  While waiting, I bought a fire pit and hay bales for seating, right next to the dessert shed of doom!  Who wants to be on the invite list next year?

My ghost costume

This costume has been in the works for a few years.  Ever since I saw the Martha Stewart ghost, I really wanted to recreate it.  But it didn't completely work out, which is why I tried it for a few years (unsuccessfully) before finally committing to make it work.  So Martha's is basically one big hooded cape with several layers of tulle.  My problem was that it wasn't opaque, which kind of ruined the illusion for me when you could see my t-shirt underneath, and it made me feel very "big" with a tent starting from my neck.  Those two statements feel kind of contradictory, but just go with it.

So to solve these issues, I used the yards and yards of tulle, and ripped them up!  I made a no-sew tulle skirt like this one, but longer, and for adults.  I also used a satin ribbon instead of elastic.  The elastic probably would have stayed up better.  I didn't have this tutorial when I made it.  The long skirt was actually tied around my chest like a long dress.  This made a huge difference from starting the dress from the neck.  With the extra material, I made a hood that I tucked into the dress, and a little shawl that tied at the back.  This made me feel a little less lost in the costume.

But the final touch was the glow.  I think ghosts glow!  So now trying to figure out now to pull this off!  I bought battery-operated blue LED lights (this was a dilemma for me - do ghosts glow blue or purple?  I went with blue), and put it under my skirt.  I saw little circles of blue.  Dammit.  Not the beautifully diluted glow of light that I expected.  So I got some cotton material and made little tubes, and put the lights in there.  Not completely what I wanted the finished product to be, but pretty close!

Then I pinned the feet of covered lights to my body - spiraled them up from my knee all the way up, and around, my torso.  Then I pinned the 6, yes you hear me 6, packs of 3 batteries each.  Its the price to pay for a great costume.  Then I painted my face white and my eyes black, with my blue hair, and here is the final result!

Skeleton Projector

I saw this great video of skeletons jumping out of doorways and climbing out of the ground, and I just had to have it!  I wanted it on my front lawn, so I built a screen.  Yes, I was shocked too.  I bought 2x4s in lengths of 6 feet and screwed them together to make a frame.  Then I painted the outside black (now I know the insides need to be black too because they are too visible when the video is on), and used a staple gun to attach a 6x6 square of tulle (leftovers!), which is essentially invisible in the dark.  The tricky part was getting it to stand up.  I used 1-foot planks on each side, but it still blew over in the wind since it's basically a giant sail.  I'll work on it for next year.  I didn't take pictures of the building, but someone (Melissa?) took pictures of the VERY COOL effect of the skeletons climbing out of my front lawn and scaring people!  I'll have to work out the kinks for next year!

Tilson Street

Halloween wouldn't be the same without the new tradition of going to Tilson Street in Romeo.    It's a few blocks of Halloween awesomeness.  Almost every house goes crazy with themes and decorations.  Ok, so I had lots of photos last year, but the new dead hockey rink this year really got my attention!  Here are some of the best shots of the night:

Halloween Night

As tradition goes, I invited friends and family to join me for Halloween night.  I love the energy in the air, and the trick or treaters that come to the door.  Thanks for joining me, Bri, Sea, Katy, Jason, and Jen!  I loved making lasagna, garlic bread, salad, drinks, and cupcakes!  A few pics (Seabrook scared the kids):

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

PEACE.  LOVE.  SERENE.

Blake's Cider Mill, Winery, and CiderHouse

Last night we visited Blake's Orchard & Cider Mill.  It's a great place that started as a small farm, then grew to a large farm, and now offers a "pick your own" orchard with dozens of types of apples & pears, and lots of other kinds of veggies and fruit.  They also have tons of squash and pumpkins to choose from.


They now offer 3 locations and have opened up the Blake's Winery & CiderHouse.  Yum!

I went with my friends Donna & Joe.  Donna got the flight of wine, which she said was way too sweet and wasn't impressed with (and this is coming from a woman who drinks Reisling!)  I ordered the flight of ciders. They didn't have the specialty ciders, and they told me the guest cider was just like the Gentleman's, so I basically had their 3 normal ciders.

The Semi-Sweet was pretty flavorless.  It tasted like a cross between a dry wine and sparkling water.  Seriously.

The Original Gold & Delicious was good, and reminded me of Woodchuck Original.  The sweeter of the 2 I had left.

The Gentleman's Dry was delicious.  It was perfectly crisp and apple-y, with just a hint of sweetness.  I had every intention of bringing home a 6-pack, but they only sold wine bottle sized for $12.99.  To be honest, while I love to support local businesses, it tasted just like Woodchuck Crisp, and I can get twice as much in a 6-pack for $10.99

To add to the Halloween fun, they also have Spookyland (not super spooky) with some great props that talk and sing, a petting zoo, corn maze, 3D house, tunnel of terror (warning: Vertigo), and some play lands.  For an extra price, there is also a 3-story haunted barn, haunted hayride, and Zombie Hunt (shoot live zombies with paintballs). 

If you are planning on going to any of these haunted attractions, let me give you some tips:  1) Blake's website says EVERYTHING closes at 6.  It does not.  The farms do, but the haunted activities don't go on SALE till 6.  Then I would make sure you are in the attraction line early.  They start at dark, which was about 7:30.  2)  There is an option to buy VIP, which is $15 extra and a separate line.  If you are going late, buy this.  For the zombie ride there were 20 people per cart.  They took 15 VIP and 5 regular tickets per cart.  If you can get in line early (we were first) - don't buy it.  It won't get you in that much faster. 3) If you are with kids, there is haunted stuff at both Armada locations, even though the first one told us that ALL of the haunted activities was at their barn.  But the second location only provided a kiddie haunted house.

This is me getting ready to shoot zombies:

And to top it off, on my way home late at night, I saw 2 lit jack-o-lanterns in my neighborhood.  It was the first I've seen and it made me very happy!  As soon as I have an hour, I am sooooo carving mine!

Petrified.  Lurking.  Spooky

(peace. love. serene)

2nd Halloween Event: Halloweekends @ Cedar Point

USUALLY one of my favorite days of the year.  Halloweekends at Cedar Point.

We ran into a bit of a glitch this year.  It was THE busiest day that some employees say in 3 years, all summer included.

We all still had fun.  We rented a great condo on the water with a view of the park - much improved from the utterly crappy hotels around there.  Seriously, if anyone from the Sandusky chamber of commerce ever comes across this post, you should be embarrassed.  The hotels are overpriced, and I've literally had roaches in my presence.

We had glasses for beer and wine before the park.  This was the only wine glass we could find ...

We got to the park a little bit late after having a great BBQ at the condo, and only ended up getting to go on 2 rides.  If anyone plans on going to Cedar Point EVER, you should buy a FAST LANE Pass.  You can skip the line on almost all of the rides.  It's $75 and very much worth it (on top of your regular ticket).  Oh, buy it online the day before because by the time we got there they were sold out.  They only sell a limited amount.  They also have a super pass that lets you into any ride for $95, and a FRIGHT LANE for all of the haunted houses for $70.  We've never been to one of the haunted houses there because the lines are so long.

Liz just made the height requirement for the mine right.  You heard right, folks, one of the two rides we got to go on was the mine ride!

Great decorations throughout the park.  This giant beast was animatronic, with a speaker.  The character was saying things like, "Don't make me get up."

Sea wasn't allowed to wear his hat on the mine ride.  His hair was HIGH.  This picture doesn't do it justice!

The guys thought the beer line was too long, so they sat down to order from a waitress.  Then they were told they had to order food.  They each had one bite before leaving.

Waited 2 hours in the parking lot before getting out.  It was ridiculous.  And this van figured out a great way to get their GIANT carnival bear home.

Back at the condo, Sea & Franny curled up under the princess blanket

It was a good day, with our much needed hidden flasks (did I mention that the front gate didn't even ask to look inside my very large backpack?  Is anyone else slightly disturbed by that?)  It was beautiful weather, and the CarnEVIL and FRIGHT ZONE walkthroughs are always great.

Peace.  Love.  Serene