Cauldron Update

So amidst getting ready for the party/Halloween, I decided to make sure that the fog machine for the cauldron was going to work alright (I know, I know, probably should have tested it earlier. *shrug*)  And found that not only was there not really enough uuumph to get the smoke through the hose properly, the machine was REALLY loud.  Especially in such a small contained space.  Nuh-uh.  So for the party I switched to dry ice and fortunately the lights were submersible lights that could go underwater.  It looked pretty cool and spooky, but the maintenance on it was pretty high.  Hot water like every 15 minutes at least.  I was not looking forward to this for Halloween.  So during a shower thought (always the best place for inspiration) I had the idea to just make a larger version of the small cauldron I've got on the witch table with some batting.  After a little trial and error, I was able to fashion something that looks like a cauldron bubbling, but without the labor intensiveness of keeping dry ice freshly bubbling over.  BUT, and this is the important bit, I think it'll still be intimidating to have kids reach their hand into the cauldron.  I have a garbage can that holds up the bowl of candy.  I taped the three lights onto the bottom of the wire wreath, then put the wire wreath over the bowl of candy.  And on top of everything, I put a large piece of white felt that I lightly tacked down some batting bunches on top.  There's also a large x cut in the middle of the batting that reaches down into the bowl of treats.  But between the felt and the fluff, it's not immediately apparent where you're putting your hand.  Now to decided if it should be green...or do a rainbow of colors.  Hmmm....

Carving Night 2019

This year's carving night went down well--some new faces as well as the usual suspects:)  Our pumpkin carving contest was neck and neck for quite a while, but Melissa pulled through with a seriously well executed pumpkin pattern.  The two batches of chili got devoured pretty quickly, and Mom and Sam's booooook brownies were scarfed down. A fun time all around. 

2nd carvings of 2019

Night 2 of pumpkin carving.  I wrapped up the hocus pocus theme with Mary and Winnifred Sanderson. The mouths were tricky on both of them, and at first I thought they turned out terrible but I think they're just more difficult patterns.  The curly hair on Winnifred especially was difficult,  lots of twists and turns. I had to spend a lot of extra time going back over the hair on both of them. 

Audio drama

One of the things I inevitably end up struggling with each year is all the music for the party as well as during Halloween.  While it's fine to play it all from my phone on Halloween night, sometimes the speaker misbehaves and insists that I be RIGHT NEXT TO IT and will start to cut out if I move even five extra feet away.  This year is tricky because I have some audio files rather than streaming that I want to play on the speaker in the front yard--the farthest my phone will probably ever get.  Add to that that I'd like quietly classical spooky music in the living room, and slightly more customized/boistrous music in the backyard. Now technically amazon music has an option if you want to play music through your alexas simultaneously.  But it also involves buying a family plan.  I don't need it all the time--just for this one night.  So I've fiddled around and found on Pandora there is an acceptable classical halloween station/playlist.  And I've created a routine on my alexa so that when I say 'spooky music' to it, it starts playing that station at a low volume.  I've created another routine when I say 'scary music' it starts playing my customized Halloween party playlist from Spotify.  And for the front yard?  That was trickier.  I have an old fire tablet that I got years ago on black friday.  But it has wifi and bluetooth, which is what I need to connect to the speaker bulb out there.  I transferred the audio files on my phone via dropbox, and tested it out so that my fire can play a shuffle playlist of 7 songs over and over.  It really doesn't like being far from the bulb, but I think I can fit the fire into the weatherproof box for the lights, which is under 6 feet away.  Shoooould work?  I'm hoping, as this would solve a few problems, namely being able to have different music at 3 different locations.  Here's hoping.

First carvings of 2019

Last night I did the first two carvings: Billy Butcherson and Sarah Sanderson.  Oddly enough, Sarah Sanderson's pattern was a little more difficult--all those long flowing locks meant that the overall stability of the pumpkin was much more precarious.  Tonight I'll attempt to get Winnie and Mary done, though they may end up being tomorrow if I get tired.

Black flame candle

I made this little prop a while ago but never posted it.  So I needed a classic black flame candle from the movie--the catalyst that sets the whole plot in motion.  Now while I can't quite accomplish the actual flame being black, I wanted to have a candle that was semi similar to the original.  There's not a whoooole lot on the internet, but there was someone who had made an approximation of it and had a few pictures of the sides.  So I took those and made a piece that was the dimensions of a battery candle that had slightly melted in the sun and was expendable.  I printed it out and trimmed it to fit with a little extra to spare.  I mod podged it on over the candle.  Once that dried and I turned it on, it looked pretty good, but a lot of the markings were a little too faint for my taste.  So I went over them with a red sharpie.  I like the finished product....even if it doesn't have actual black flames.

Hocus Pocus playlist

For how long Hocus Pocus has been around, it has been surprisingly difficult to find a soundtrack on an actual cd or playlist.  I had to resort to youtube clips and use my voice recorder to get the songs into an mp3 format.  So I've got a bit of a playlist, buy oye, seems like it should have been a little easier to obtain. I also tried out my old faithful speaker light.  This thing is great--all the colors, different modes for different effects.  And the sound quality is pretty good.  I found a blue that is similar to what I was putting up anyways, so I can switch out the bulbs.  It's verra creepy.  I need to wait until I get Sam to record a video, because every time I go to take one, it stops the music I'm playing.  Which makes sense...but is still annoying.  But on the upside, everything is looking pretty set for the party/Halloween.  Next up is to test my fog machine in the cauldron.  *crossed fingers*

Winnie's Jewelry

A side piece for the Winnifred costume.  I have an odd assortment of beads from old projects and then also just randomly picking up cheap ones.  This generally serves me well and it DEFINITELY came through for me when I went to try to assemble a necklace for my Winnifred costume.  The construction is fairly straightforward--there's a gold ring with a black bead suspended between it, then various shades of gold, red, etc.  I went with some wood beads that I've had forever but that I've never actually had a project for--they reminded me of the markings of the black flame candle, so I went with them as the filler beads.  The circle of gold I had to get a little creative--I didn't have the right gauge of gold wire without using copious amounts, but I did have a clip ring that was black...and some gold paint.  So after a little painting, I had a gold ring that I wired up with a black bead.  It's not exactly how the necklace looks, but it's definitely close enough for me.  Now I just have to figure out some suitable earrings...hmm...

Cages

This project I'm hoping doesn't look too sad.  Partly because the materials were basically cardboard and duct tape.  I wanted to have a little photo op from the scene with the guys in the cages.  And I had the idea of making a faux half of a cage that kids/adults could get behind it and pretend they were in the cage.  I thought of a couple of different mediums to use--I had started to price pvc joints when Sarah suggested that cardboard would actually get me the shape I wanted and much cheaper/easier/faster.  So I got 2 large boxes from Home Depot. One of them I cut up into strips and began making a facimile of the cages in the movie--there are large sections rather than close together bars.  The idea with this is to have fake legs hanging out over the edges, which the person providing the upper part of the body.  So I've covered it now in shiny duct tape--I realize the cages are a rustic creakiness, but there's only so much work I'm willing to extend in the name of authenticity.  And tonight I taped the cage onto the 2nd cardboard box that I've then cut a half circle in so that they can 'step into' the cage.  The final step will be to get some pants at the di (or my closet if possible) and set up some fake legs hanging out of the cage.  It'll go on the driveway on Halloween.  I've also rigged up a spotlight so that the scene setter will get some light and hopefully people will use it to take some pictures.  The spotlight also adds some light around the area where people will be coming and going near the steps--never a bad idea.

Sanderson sign

I got this way apropos sign from Spirit Halloween--the perfect addition to my Sanderson cottage/museum.  But I realized that when darkness hit, there was no light that was really hitting it enough to even be seen at all, let alone read.  As a solution I obtained a book light with a clip and fixed it onto the edge--the advantage being that the book light has a bendable neck that can be manipulated so that the light hits exactly where I want.  It also had 3 light modes of brightness, so I got some options there.

First carvings of the seasons

Joanns is the devil.  I mean...their notifications are.  The point is, I was greeted at the start of the day by a notification that ALL of their Halloween stuff was 70% off...just today.  So my day got a wee bit hijacked.  The main cool thing I got was actually something I had been eyeing over past trips--but not for $40 each--carvable pumpkins in black and white.  The black ones weren't ones I've seen before.  And then my Zombie Pumpkins guy came out with these gorgeous pair of skeleton silhouettes and it all brought it together.  So I spent this evening firing up the wood burner kit after putting in a brand new blade and carving them up.  I always forget that with the foam pumpkins I have to use the old fashioned transfer paper.  But fortunately I had been using it recently with the graves so the supplies were handy and the skill wasn't (too) rusty.  I like how they turned out--and how they complement my witch kitchen. 

Doorway to hell

I got the archway up!  Yay!  I made it last year for Stranger Things, but omg it was sooo nice to have an actual doorway--cut down on the wind quite a bit.  And it has the added bonus of presenting quite an intimidating entryway for potential trick or treaters and closes off the porch a bit for looky loo children.  They have to be pretty bold to come up the driveway and then actually go through the curtain I have set up.  Now on the archway, past Jess was looking out for future Jess and installed some LED strip lights on the archway--but with the RGB color wheel so that I could adjust them for any color/theme.  This is turning out to be perfect, because this year I'm all over the place with lighting--I've thought I wanted one scheme, then decide it's too much or too dark/light/gloomy/cheerful and then have to change everything.  So I definitely appreciate the ability to change color schemes with the touch of a button instead of changing out the bulbs.  But a slight hitch--while I had found the cord that connects to the lighting, I was having trouble finding the remote--nooooo!  Fortunately, Amazon had a replacement remote/sensor which turned out to be exactly what I needed, for like $6.  Sold.  Just tested it out, and the new sensor/remote works fabulously.  I set it to red, but I may be reassessing tonight once it gets dark.  In the meantime, I have a house to clean, and projects to wrap up!  Bzzzzz...

Mandrake root

Just a quick little diy prop. I was looking for a few different things to put in the Sanderson cottage,  aka the witch kitchen and looked for some inspiration a la Google images.  Very helpful. One of the big ones is potion ingredients. Like root vegetable looking things and herbs. The herbs I've got covered but as I'm putting together a little work table, I wanted a prop.  So I found an old half torn apart fake floral bouquet-- flowers mostly gone,  but leaves still mostly all there.  I switched the orientation the leaves so that I could bend down the stems top something smaller.  I had some brown twine and took a loooong piece that I wrapped around and around the body.  I cut done much smaller pieces to tie around the body at various points. Then I unraveled the twine so that it was all frayed.  Very messy  business.

Witch Kitchen

The interior of the Sanderson house has been fun to decorate so far.  I'm basically rummaging around trying to find a bunch of stuff from the house that looks like it could go in a witch kitchen.   Probably not that surprisingly--I'm finding quite a bit.  Once some magnetic hooks come (hopefully tomorrow), I'll be hanging up bunches of herbs/plants--some real, some fake--that I strung on old marshmallow roasting sticks (unused) to give the look of a real herb witch kitchen.  I've also got some skeletons of random animals that I've borrowed from mom that I'll be able to place everywhere.  And the doorway, once it's up, should close it off a bit and I'll get a bit more of a cozy feel to the place.  I'm also planning on pulling in some spell pages and tacking them about.  I'll see what I can find that's reasonable to print out/modify.

**UPDATE**
A few more things put up in the witch kitchen.  A work table, some things for the walls, and some herbs drying from racks up above.

**UPDATE**

Some night shots