Party Planning Part 2: Overview

Haunted Hotel Bones the Bellboy Costume (discontinued)

For those of you following along, this is where it begins. An overview of the master plan:

The Theme:

For this year's Halloween party we'll be working in a creepy, haunted mansion style theme. The idea is that the guests are being invited to The Manor on The Hollow, an old estate that's been converted to a hotel that sets on the grounds of a cemetery known as The Hollow.

In early October each guest will receive a packet from our fictitious attorney, Alfred E Beggley, ESQ. asking for their assistance in saving Master Smith's (the hubby's) youth. Included will be a letter from Beggley outlining the details, a The Manor on The Hollow visitor's brochure, their room key, The Grey Lady and Master Smith's calling cards and assorted clippings regarding the estate and the Fountain of Youth.

The Hunt:

We host a scavenger hunt with every Halloween party. In the past these have been pretty extensive (more on our hunts later) but I'm going to tone things down for this one. This year guests will have to do things like find where a specific prop is or figure out home many tombstones are in the cemetery. Once they've got the answers to all of those questions they will take those answers and use a key to locate the Fountain of Youth. One wrong answer from the hunt and they will fail to find the Fountain.

The Interior:

Since the scavenger hunt will be limited to just our property this year, our guests will be in nearly every room in our home. That means each room will need to be decked out to fit the theme. (What was I thinking?!)

The idea here is sheets over furniture and lots of webs, creepy cloth and gauze as a base and add props from there. We'll go room by room later.

The Exterior:

Not only is a cemetery theme my favorite, it's the easiest for me to accomplish. I have several (store bought) tombstones and skellies but there's plenty of things I want to add. The bulk of the construction list will be here so here's where you will see the most things that do not get finished. (Remember not everything will get done.)

And so it begins.

Mail Call!

Some fun project ideas have been hitting my inbox lately. If you're crafting like a madman for the Halloween season - beware - you might find more ideas in these links:

From HPs Creative Studio (includes some Martha Stewart creepy good things).

HGTVs Halloween Ideas is loaded with pumpkin carving templates, indoor and outdoor decorations and party ideas.

Still working on a costume idea? Check out Martha Stewart's Costume's Through The Years.

Haunt on!

FDU: Witchy Inspiration

Another Final Destination Unknown turned up this Witch on Wheels Skate Sculpture from PlasticLand ($49):

Poke around the site a bit to find other fun Victorian/Steampunk style goodies.

Haunt on!

Halloween At Big Lots

Another required stop on my list today was Big Lots. I was just sure that they'd have at least some of their Halloween out and I was right. Our store has a few naked shelves so I'm probably safe to assume that more is coming.

The selection so far was ok. Quite a bit of cutesy, glitter and such. They also seem to have a lot of light up signs and lights in general. I did manage to find a couple of things I thought I should have.

Of course I snapped a few pics for all you Ghoulies:

This sign (Ghoul's just want to have fun) fits me but I wasn't crazy about the graphics so I passed:

I did bring home the Haunted Hedge which is basically a set of sound activated creepy eyes that shakes and moans. I also grabbed a box of the Flickering String Lights. These are great and I think I can find several uses for them.

Haunt on!

The Market Shop

Well things are getting back to normal around here. Ok, as close to normal as we get anyway.

Thanks to everyone who sent prayers and well wishes for my mother's surgery. She can't do anything by the book and landed in the ICU for a few days, but she's home now and on the road to recovery.

Since today was my first day since the surgery that I had any time to do anything I wanted, I informed my family that today is officially "Don't Bother Me Day!". So far so good. I've been out and about checking in on what Halloween goodness has cropped up recently.

I spotted bits of Halloween a couple of weeks ago in the front windows of The Market Shop - one of my favorite stores.  Today I made sure to find time to drop in. Halloween had exploded in the shop. I snapped a few pics for former Ghoulie Girl, Tracy, so I thought I'd share a few with you:

I just could not say "no" to this Scaredy Cat Pillow:

I also snagged this pumpkin tray. I love an item that can pull me through the entire Autumn season:

Here's a few display shots from the store:

I love the saying on this pillow:

Haunt on!

Cracker Barrel Halloween Part II

Cracker Barrel Halloween Part I

Never wanting to pass up an opportunity to share the Halloween love - even on a mini get-away.

(Pardon my poor mobile blogging skills. )

What's In ZGallerie

ZGallerie is adding some glam to the Haunt season. Here are some of my favorite things:

Metallic Skeleton Hand - $20. Creepy bling - love it!

Glitter Silhouette Ornaments - $4/each. Love the vintage style of the design. Notice the nice, large, 8" size of these.

Silver Montebello Jars - $69.95-$89.95. Love how these would reflect the other gory goodies in the room. Great for year-round - and that "other" holiday.

Haunt on!

Lowes Halloween Low Down

I was in Lowe's last weekend with the hubby. I was on a mission to get a few things for house projects but was immediately distracted upon entering the store as they had begun setting their Halloween merchandise.

Is it just me or does Lowes almost exclusively carry Gemmy?

Anywho...there was a large airblown inflatable spider who's head moved from side to side, a cackling - but otherwise static - witch and assorted other things. I did snag one item, the Geo Strobe. I don't think it's new to the market but I didn't have one and God knows I really should have one of everything. Right??

Here's the scoop:

"Puts on a flashing light show. Uses 15 LEDs. Plays pre-programmed sequences or responds to sound activation. Requires 4 AA batteries."

It features red, green and blue LEDs. Cost $9.99. I thought it would be kind of fun even though I don't have any particular idea of exactly how I will use it.

One other thing I liked was the packaging. I'm a sucker for Halloween art and the package has kind of a vintage feel to it. Two-tone slime green with black graphics. See the ToTs running toward the haunted house? The "Trick Or Treat" font and the bat-esque graphic at the top are also cool.

I'm such a sucker for cool Halloween packaging graphics that you'll find these on display in my office:

The Flies and Brain Freeze were Target candy novelty packaging. The Witch Brew is an old beer can I happened upon and the Monster - well, it's Monster.

While the strobe may not be anything super unique at least Lowes is getting geared up for Fall. I am so ready!

Haunt on!

Getting a Little Bang Out of Your Halloween Buck

I took the opportunity to get out today to see how local retailers were coming along with their Halloween offerings. I'm sorry to report that, at least here anyway, things are slow going.

Dollar Tree had made a tiny bit of progress having added some very small crows. These little guys stand a tad over 4" tall and are approximately 7 1/2" long. Available in three poses, they have the standard wire coming out of the bases of the foot. Only the back and the top of the head has feathers. The rest of the body is a black material similar to a cheap, thin, scratchy velvet. (Sorry can't think of what to call it.) These will be getting a make-over but they are pretty good as they are when you factor in the price.

Next up I also snagged two lenticulars. The frames on these are crap. I'm not even sure you can call them frames. Thin, black plastic with silver (gold also available) accenting. The "frames" are 8"x10" so the lenticulars are about 5"x7". (Again, only a dollar each so I'm not really complaining. Really - I'm not!) I only grabbed them because they too are getting a make-over. Four styles to choose from - two with guys and two with girls. I didn't grab the girls because I really didn't care for either of those.

I also grabbed the bat silhouettes which I swear were not there on my previous visit. They had one package left. They will be put to good use as is.

I also popped into Dollar General. They had out Halloween candy but their seasonal aisles were still loaded with summer stuff.

And so, Ghoulies, the wait continues....

Haunt on!

Grandin Road - Halloween Haven Now Open

We've been waiting patiently but the wait is over! Grandin Road's Halloween Haven is now open! I assume more items will be on the website as the season nears as the current selection is a bit limited. Here are a few of my favorite things so far:

Zombie with Lights and Sound - $79.00

Witch Hand Serving Tray - $39.00

Animated Reaching Hand - $19.00 This can be found at several stores. I own this piece and it's really quite good.

Life-size Wicked Witch - $89.00 Not animated but I can imagine the horror ToT's would feel when her wicked soundtrack is triggered.

**UPDATE: Now the site has been fully loaded. LOTS to see and lots of items on my list so here's a few more...

Martha Stewart Welcome Mat - $59 (Martha has gotten over glitter mania)

Morphing Skull - $49.00

Mistress in Lace Dress - $79

Haunt on!

The Dollar Menu

Dropped in the Dollar Tree yesterday just to see how they were coming along with the Halloween merchandise. I was disappointed to see they were in the middle of unpacking fall foliage instead of haunted goodies. Bummer.

There was an end cap with some body parts, creepy cloth and their standard mini monsterish type busts. The neighboring end cap had some items of interest so I grabbed a few things.

First up are the cut-outs, die-cuts, whatever you want to call them. These come in a group of 15 and I believe that they had four different varieties. I grabbed the rats and crows.

These are on a lightweight paper (between printer paper and card stock) but I think it will be sturdy enough. Each cut-out is approximately 6"-7" long and there are three styles in each pack so you get 5 of each pose.

The rats are the right size but the crows could be bigger in my opinion. For a buck I won't complain. It does beat cutting these out by hand if you don't own a Cricut or Silhouette (which I don't but if you have a review on either I'd love to hear it as I'm in the market).

I also grabbed one of these Martha Stewart like candelabra silhouettes. Almost 13" tall so it's on the small side compared to Martha's and it's not super sturdy. There's a hint of glitter but just barely. Of course, that's easy to remedy.

I hope your Dollar Tree is unloading faster than mine. I'm getting kind of antsy!

Haunt on!

Creepy Things

Got parts? Need parts? Sure you do! Everyone needs a few creepy body parts in their haunt. Trust me on this.

Check out the lifelike hands and feet from Creepy Things. You'll see these hitting your local stores this season. Perfect for those dummy props in your display. I don't have pricing on these yet but I'll keep you posted.

Haunt on!

Halloween At Shindigz

The mail was rather uneventful today. Not even a bill but, hey, I'm not complaining. Oh, there was this one thing...the new Shindigz catalog. Apparently Shindigz is jumping into the Halloween season with an entire lineup of goodies in addition to their party decor.

I popped over to their Halloween bootique (as they call it) but some of the things in the catalog weren't online yet. No worries, I scanned a few for you.

I like the joints on this skeleton better than some I've seen. 5' tall - $69.99. The pumpkin head greeter in the back looks pretty sinister. He ought to be for $249.99.

Interesting 6' tall creepy tree, collapses for storage - $89.99

As if anyone needed an excuse to have a zombie themed Halloween party. Love these!!

Lighted skull standee. I can imagine this set deep into the yard casting an eerie scene. 5' high - $95.99.

Haunt on!