Happy Friday the 13th!

And don't forget to check out tonight's Honey Moon!

 

The First MnT of 2012 And Other Madness...

Well, a week later and I'm finally able to document the incredible time Scrapes and I had at the Northern Ohio Haunters' first Make & Take of 2012...

As a quick recap, the Make & Take was held at Forsaken Haunted House, which was by far the most perfect venue to hold a gathering of home haunt loonies like us. A HUGE thank you to Brian and Diana for allowing us to come in and use their space and especially for giving us a full tour of the haunt. Scrapes and I will definitely be making the trip back up in October to get the full effect (and for anyone else thinking about going - hold on in the Decontamination Room!).

A talking skull routine welcomed you to the haunt, complete with a hidden hose that pumped out a buttered popcorn scent. Yum!

After the guided tour, we got down to the business at hand. For this Make & Take, we were carving foam tombstones (which was nice because all of the tombstone epitaphs in our Cemetery haunt thus far were painted). Eric and Tracee gave a detailed how-to and we were off to carve...

Scrapes gets busy with the x-acto blade in between bites of his Sloppy Joe...

Eric brought an amazing sample from his tombstone collection...

Stacey got to try out a hot wire foam cutter (but her daughter took off when she saw me bust out the camera)...

And Randy showed off his incredibly detailed tombstone. Wow...

The time flew by and we soon headed home. Scrapes and I talked about the direction we wanted to go with our (his) new tombstone and decided to go a little bit more subtle. Instead of adding "Jason" to the Voorhees name, we decided instead to add the roman numeral for "13." (Get it? Friday the THIRTEENTH??) Scrapes was so pumped, he went home and continued to carve that night, firing off a new photo the next morning. I'd say he's got it!!

I can't wait to get some paint on this thing. The subtle reference is spot on and I think we've decided that the only other thing that we are going to do is to hang a hockey mask off of the corner. This thing is going to look incredible sitting amongst the other tombstones in our Cemetery this year. We'll definitely post more photos as we continue to progress on it...

In other news, our GoE friend Stacey sent us a link, saying she thought of us when she saw it. I wonder why??

HGTV - Calling All Extreme Halloween Fans!

Is Halloween the most important holiday of the year for you? Do you spend a days, weeks, even months turning your house into the scariest place on the block? Then you could be a part of an HGTV Halloween special!

We're searching the country for home decorators, designers and pumpkin carvers who go all-out and over-the-top getting their house, yard, pumpkin patch or corn maze ready for the scariest day of the year.

Does this sound like you or someone you know? If so we'd love to hear from you! Please send us an email to halloween@stvcasting.com. Be sure to include the following:

• Your name, address and contact information (please include email address and cell phone number)
• A brief description about yourself and why you love decorating for Halloween
• Pictures and/or video of you and your Halloween decorations and creations

 

Thanks, Stacey, but I know a whole slew of fellow haunters that can be included on this!! Hmm... An entire segment focusing on the Northern Ohio Haunters??? Let's make it happen!!

And finally, anyone who frequents our blog knows what a big fan I am of the Swedish band, Ghost. In October, I was pumped to see them play in Columbus, only to have them cancel the entire tour because of visa trouble. Currently, they are on their rescheduled tour, but aren't playing any city remotely close to me (Chicago being the closest, a mere 6 hour drive away...). So imagine my joy when they announced another tour starting in April. And this time, I'm making the drive to see them in Pittsburgh on April 15th. For anyone else who might be at the show, (they are opening for Opeth and Mastadon), I'll be the dork up front with the camera and the perma-grin at the start of the show...

For anyone who hasn't heard of them yet, simply feast your eyes on this...

So there you have it for this installment. We'll be back soon with more updates as we complete more projects for Halloween, 2012. Only 262 more days, which means, as always, we need to get moving!!!

Welcome, 2012!

Happy New Year! Okay group, after a few weeks' hiatus, we have returned! We staggered through the holidays and now we're ready to hit the ground running and get our plans for 2012 underway. And this year, we're going even bigger!

So to start, I'm really excited because the mailman finally delivered the goods:

Today I unwrapped my brand new copy of The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel Houses, by Paul Koudounaris. (To see some of the photos from this amazing book, head over to my wonderfully witty Dear Santa post). Apparently Santa got my list too late, so I had to order it myself...

Anyway, this book is absolutely incredible. Beautiful pictures throughout, and with each page I flipped came a new idea for this year's home haunt (which by my count, is down to only 292 days!). I can't wait to sit down and carefully read all of the information contained within. I was pleasantly surprised by the size, fit and finish of this book. It is the new crown jewel in my small collection. This is the perfect photo reference for all of my upcoming "corpsifications"...

Also, for anyone in the Northeast Ohio area (and beyond), the word has gone out that the Northern Ohio Haunters group will be getting together for their first Make & Take of the year. And this one is going to be special. Be sure to clear your calendar on Saturday, February 4, because the first M&T of 2012 is going to be held at Forsaken Haunted House in Mentor, Ohio. Sweet! I can't wait to get a behind-the-scenes tour of a pro haunt. I will be taking copious notes and photos and will report back as soon as I can. The wheels are really starting to turn for Halloween, 2012!!

Moving right along, Scrapes and I have both been monkeying around with a cool, new iPhone app called Instagram. We've taken some of our old photos and imported them into this program, complete with different photo exposure textures and borders. Tons of users posting up tons of beautiful photos. I'm there representing the home haunters!!

And finally, I can't close this post without realizing the date on today's calendar. So for all of you horror fans, I present the single greatest scene from any of the Friday The 13th film franchise...

Friday the 13th

Happy Friday the 13th everybody!