Happy Valentine's Day

 

Happy Valentine's Day! May you get to spend it with your forever...

 

Highbury Cemetery, 2021

Where to begin on the 2021 version of my display? After the success of last year's haunt, I felt confident in setting up my display a week before the big night. Only after setting up most of my display, I immediately took most of it back down due to 7 straight days of measurable rain. The frustration became my biggest barrier. The unpredictability of Ohio weather has always been the one issue that I cannot control and has always been the one issue to infuriate me the most. What can you do??

I thought I had caught an incredible break with the clouds finally parting on Halloween morning and peeks of sun beginning to break through. I got up early and quickly put everything back up in anticipation of the night's trick-or-treat festivities. The props had all been placed and the display was looking great.

And then the winds whipped up. It ended up blowing my large scarecrow centerpiece over, snapping the base completely off. And then we saw a tombstone go blowing across the yard, hitting a retaining wall and breaking the skull that had been attached to the stone's face. After a few (okay, more than a few) F-bombs, we jumped into action, trying to fix the broken props as quickly as possible. We were able to get both props repaired and put back into place, but it put us way behind schedule for the rest of the set up.

We were somehow able to get all of the props in place, run all lighting and electricity, lit all of the jack-o-lanterns, and got into costumes just as the first trick-or-treaters arrived at the driveway.

In all honesty, I wasn't completely happy with this year's display. Having the rain kept me from getting a few nights to really dial in my lighting and I could tell. And having the winds damage my props really took me out of my groove. Overall, I ended up feeling rushed and I personally think this year's display reflected it. But I hope I'm the only one who notices...

But even with all of that, I will admit that this year was still a lot of fun. We hit a new trick-or-treater attendance record on our third year at our new location, we had the usual group of friends and family helping put the show on, and for the first time ever, we ended up having a Halloween party along side the display. So we had people all over the place, laughing, enjoying themselves, and enjoying the display. It added a fun new dynamic to the evening that will hopefully become a new tradition on the big night.

And even though I wasn't totally happy with this year's display, I had a lot of fun chasing my son's friends down the street as I was dressed in my plague doctor character. And my new props all worked great throughout the night. And we received a ton of compliments from everyone who came to check us out. It was our third year at the new location and word is getting out about the "spooky house." And that definitely gives me motivation to do this all again next year. Regardless of the damn weather.

As always, a humongous thank you goes out to everyone who helped out (and endured my F-bomb tirade) with this year's display. The annual Highbury Cemetery thank you shirts go out to Sharon, Karen, Laurie, Mrs. Highbury, Stacey and Vince, and my son's friends Mason, Bryce and Kyle, who came over to trick-or-treat with my son AND work the haunt for their first time!! I love nothing more that passing this crazy, unnerving, yet unbelievably fun tradition on to the next generation.

And an added thank you to everyone else who showed up for the party. I hope you all had a great time and I hope you'll all come back next year!

So ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, without further ado I present Highbury Cemetery for 2021. Enjoy!

The Harvester of Brine. A little damaged and missing a few detail pieces, but he still looks great as the centerpiece of the display. He will be repaired with a few minor upgrades for next year.

Even after TEN years, Little Dustin Horner, my static trick-or-treater prop, STILL gets people stopping to see if he was a real boy...

This was a bit of a last minute prop idea. I ended up making a laser vortex up the walkway where the trick-or-treaters went to get their candy. Unfortunately, it didn't really work well until it got dark. And once the winds died down, I was able to get some really great effects! Definitely going to improve this one for next year!

240 total trick-or-treaters, parents, neighbors, friends, and curious onlookers visited Highbury Cemetery this year. Our biggest total yet at our new location. Not bad for 2 hours. The word is slowly getting out.

We'll see you all again next year. Be ready...

   

The Day After...

The Harvester of Brine

Please consider this my belated "Happy Halloween!" post that I never got to yesterday! It was on my schedule, but things went a bit sideways yesterday.

I got up early to get a head start on final set up of my display. I wanted to make sure that I had time to spare before the night's trick-or-treat festivities. Props went up quickly and I was making great time. The rains from the past 7 days were FINALLY moving out and the sun started to peek through.

And then the winds kicked up...

My scarecrow, the main in prop in my display, became the first victim. The wind literally blew the whole thing over, snapping the base. And then we saw my Pratt tombstone go blowing across the front yard, landing against a small stone retainer wall, breaking the skull from the tombstone's facade...

So I went from having plenty of time to spare to total freak out in seconds (apologies to everyone helping out who got to witness my barrage of F-bombs!). I was repairing and gluing until the last possible second.

Somehow, I was able to get everything fixed and put back into place as the first trick-or-treaters were coming up the street. I was completely frazzled and exhausted and I was completely out of my Halloween groove.

But then something unexpected happened. The winds totally died down. The fog machines pumped out glorious billows of fog across the yard, allowing my new laser vortex walkway to work well (especially when it got dark). Trick-or-treaters showed up at the house in waves. My props worked flawlessly all night (well, all but my talking skeleton who just stopped working halfway through the night - but he still looked good as a standing reaper at the end of the driveway). And as it got darker, the display looked incredible in the glow of my lighting. 

And my mojo came back. I got back into my character and interacted with trick-or-treaters, parents, friends, neighbors, and curious onlookers.

And everyone who came over to help work the display or to hang out at our first Halloween night party had a blast. It wasn't easy this year, but it sure was fun.

I hope everyone else was able to celebrate Halloween in their own way and do what you do to make the big night extra special! I'm going through last night's photos and I can't wait to share them.

I have a bunch of posts still to get through, so Halloween may be over, but this party still has a little left in the tank. Come back and let's keep it going for a bit, shall we?

 

Highbury Cemetery Logo, 2021

Welcome. Here we are again. October 1st...

IT'S OFFICIALLY HALLOWEEN SEASON! And it's time to start the annual Countdown to Halloween! An orange-and-black blitz of 31 posts in 31 days, all leading up to our high holiday of All Hallows Eve!! This is our 11th year celebrating all things creepy and cool with the Countdown to Halloween blog party, and we are still going strong. Can you feel that crisp, electric excitement in the air!!??

We've got a long list of blog posts all lined up and ready to go. A full month stuffed with tricks and treats, so be sure to check back daily because this party is going nonstop straight through the 31st! And you don't want to miss out on the good candy, do you??

So let's get this thing started, shall we!?

Each October, I like to start the festivities with the unveiling of my yard haunt logo for the year. It's a great way to set the tone for the spooky season, and it gets me motivated to finish all the planned projects for the year's haunt.

Since 2003, I have created an increasingly defined and prominent Highbury Cemetery haunt logo for the season. The logo is used on posters, stickers, and a very small batch of t-shirts. Each year, the t-shirts are hand printed here at the Cemetery and then given out as a thank you to everyone who helps put on the yard haunt on Halloween night.

So ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, I proudly present the ghastly and gruesome logo for Highbury Cemetery, 2021:

As an added bonus, I'm bringing back my unofficial official banner art for the Countdown to Halloween! PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GRAB IT AND SHARE IT WITH EVERYONE! It's yours to spread far and wide, to help celebrate the greatest month of all!

And I won't stop there! Be sure to come back daily for more spooky fun, as I'll be bringing back the Freebie Fridays segments where I share more vintage gold from my ever-increasing collection of classic novelty Halloween "spooky sounds" records, tapes and CDs! Kick back and share a toast to the pumpkin gods as we sample an array of new pumpkin beers and rate them on our dreaded Drunken Jackos pumpkin beer rating scale! And of course, I'll have tons more daily Halloween hijinks to carry us closer to that big night! So settle in, take a deep breath, and let's get this pumpkin party started!!

And if you're REALLY in the festive mood, why not sign up at the Countdown to Halloween page and throw your own party!? I'll be sure to stop by and I'll bring the snacks!