I ended up not taking very many pictures of my yard set-up this year. Pretty much all of the shots I took were during the day, eliminating any spookiness factor. My kids were too inpatient to get trick-or-treating underway to allow dad to stand in the driveway photographing things.
It was very windy again, so no plastic jack-o-lanterns lit up with candles filled the trees this year either. The main piece of my yard decor was this skeleton horse with skeleton rider, a 10' tall (at least) 2-figure marrionette, which moved a bit with the wind which also moved the branches that some of the features were tied to, creating additioal movements. The twine holding everything together while very visible in these shots, is pretty invisible once it starts getting dark.
My 8' tall skeleton marrionette made his third appearance, this time in a new location to make room for the horse. Like the horse, the twine disappears from view after dark.
The two ghosts that I posted a DIY instructional on earlier in the month were also hung from the trees. The more aggresive looking one over our driveway, the other one towards the front of our yard where it would be seen first by kids coming from one end of our street. The wind creating some nice swooping action of the ghost with her arms held out in a grasping position. The wind didn't do the other ghost too many favors, flattening her out a bit so I'm sure someone wondered why I hung my dry cleaning from a tree.
As you can see, the maples in our front yard are not at all cooperative, still boasting a full set of GREEN leaves. This meant that I had to be careful where I hung things so that they would be visible and not hidden by the foliage.
A also recycled a couple of Dementors that I made for a book store display to commemerate the final Harry Potter book. they were in pretty bad shape, and will be going out with Monday's trash, but they did okay for tonight. One of them was hung up over our driveway just above where the trick-or-treaters turn to reach our front door. I have to admit that looking out our bedroom window and seeing that thing flitting about out there in the wind is pretty eerie.
The other dementor was positioned peeking from around a tree at the top of our driveway, sort of a surprise.
This is a wide shot that shows where most of the elements were in relation to one another. The ghost with her hands held infront of her, is off to the left of the skeleton marrionette. In the background, you can see my kids impatiently waiting to start their rounds. My daughter went as "one of the classics" she said, a witch. My son went as Boba Fett, which started as a storebought costume, but was given embellishments such as a holster, a feed line for the flame thrower, and the rocket launching backpack. Like the Kenner action figure of 1979 which broke the hearts of untold millions of boys, this missile could not be fired either.
The blobby ectoplasmic thing hovering over their heads is recycled Nearly Headless Nick, also originally built for the Harry Potter festivities. For some odd reason, I always neglect to photograph this thing even though I think it came out pretty well.
Jars containing lit votive candles created a path leading up from the jack o'lanterns bordering the entrance to our driveway, leading to our front door. The porchlight by the front door was covered with enlarged copies of the "Vampire Girl," "Gorilla," and "Shock Monster" art from the ads in Famous Monsters, which looked pretty good backlit, but were too bright to photograph.
So there you have it, another Halloween come and gone.
There will not be any activity at this blog for at least a week or two while I recover and catch up on some projects that need attending to. Again, thanks to everyone who stopped by and to the other participants in this year's Halloween Countdown. Come back next Fall for more tricks and treats, and please, stop by between now and then.
I sleep now.
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