It was November 5th, and a thick, dense fog had set into my brain. I had just managed to put every last extension cord, costume, light, bin and prop back in its proper storing place and I was done. Drained empty. After an especially grueling 3 months of constant planning, late night building and hurried set-up for the big night, burnout had taken a firm hold of me. I had experienced it in years prior, but never to this extent. I barely wanted to think about Halloween. I knew what I had to do…
I had to put it all on the shelf. Leave it and not touch it for a while. Turn off the light and walk away. Besides, I still had a full Disney family vacation plus the yearly grind of the upcoming holiday season to get ready for. It would be nonstop, all the way through the end of the year.
Fast forward another 3 months. I made it through the vacation and the holidays with relative ease. I’ve also had time to focus on other hobbies and projects while clearing the mental clutter. This has allowed me the time to fully recharge my Halloween storage tank. A much-needed readjustment period.
So after the short, but vitally-important break, the craving to reimmerse myself into all things Halloween has returned. That spark of creativity that had dwindled to a flicker has been reignited.
I’m back, baby!
I hope everyone has had a nice, post-Halloween holiday season and is just as ready to dive back in as I am (if you haven’t already started!). To kick things off, I wanted to go over a couple of updates for Highbury Cemetery, 2017.
First, a few updates to the blog. The new icon is up on the menu to the right that will take you to the 2016 Halloween photos. Some decent pics of all the new props that were out on display.
Second, the text menu at the very top has (finally) changed. You can now go directly to the Highbury Cemetery YouTube Channel. There are a few videos up, but I have made it a priority to get more quality videos up in 2017, starting with my delayed 2016 haunt video. Truth be told, I wasn’t very happy with the photos or the video that were shot, so I ended up shelving the whole project (no Dead With Dave Home Haunter Awards for me this year!). I will be revisiting it in the coming weeks and will piece something together. I also hope to share some more videos of the novelty Halloween record and tape collection that I have amassed over the years. I currently have one up and it has received a lot of views and positive feedback.
And you will also notice a brand new link in the menu above. If you haven’t seen it on Pumpkinrot’s blog yet, I’m happy to announce my brand new Highbury Cemetery Instagram page. I’m pulling the best of the best of my Halloween-related photos and sharing them all in one spot. With the rich photo controls in Instagram, I can really create some wonderfully atmospheric Halloween images. Sorry, no lifeless selfies here…
Plus, with a new year comes new haunt ideas. I’m currently brainstorming a slew of new prop ideas as well as the cemetery-standard tombstones which I hope to churn out over the next 9 months. I’ll be documenting each new prop as it gets completed, as well as going back and giving a proper, thorough how-to on 2016’s enormous prop, the Walk-In Crypt.
And finally, I hope to be hitting the road a bit more in 2017. The Midwest Haunters Convention is a given, but I’m actually toying with the idea of getting to Transworld for the first time in March. Not much time to make a decision! Also, I hope to get out and visit more haunted attractions this fall. I hope to cross of the Dent Schoolhouse in Cincinnati, Erebus Haunted House in Pontiac, Michigan, and Hundred Acres Manor and The Scarehouse in Pittsburgh off of my Haunt Bucket List this year. I also hope to check out my local haunted house, the Haunted Schoolhouse and Laboratory, which will be starting it's 43rd season under new ownership. Ambitious, I know, but the Halloween spirit has been reawakened.
And it feels good to be back.
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