Blog Awards!!!

I feel as though I should be walking down some dark red velvet carpet in a beautiful dress designed by Heavy Red. Getting prepared for some awesome speech. Blog awards? Very cool and so very thoughtful! I actually feel quite sad that I haven't been following up on my favorite bloggers in our most favorite time of the year. I have even neglected my own. :::insert frown:::

So on to the awards... Monday, I received notification from October Boy of The Deadwood Cemetery and he presented me with the Liebster Blog Award! Tuesday, I received notification from Lisa Maple Grove Cemetery wherein she gave me the Zombie Rabbit Award. October Boy and Lisa, you guys are awesome and thanks so much for thinking of me! I enjoy your blogs as much as you do mine. Forever grateful.

Now, I have to pay my respects and return the favor. Below are some of my faves who fall under the Liebster Blog Award Rules. So here we go.... Drum Roll....

Haunted Hot Sauce: Moans from Moonlit Hill Mortuary - I almost feel like this is my BFF in the blog world or a brother from another mother. His blog was one of the first blogs I started to follow. The Undertaker and I have great conversations, share creative tips and secrets, and he never ceases to amaze me with what he's got brewing up next.

2nd Street Cemetery - A home haunt I admire.

Creep Factory - What this guy creates is nothing, but CREEPY and I like it!

Justine's Halloween - I recently started following her this year. What I like about Justine is she talks halloween all the time! Down to fashion, art, home decor... she keeps the dark and the spooky alive throughout the year.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Another home haunt that I admire.

Now on to the Zombie Rabbit Awards!

The first two blogs posted on my list are from my "next blog" slider. The following 8 are just a few I really enjoy, right down to halloween props, spooky gardens, yummy halloween treats, home haunters, and great vintage finds.

 Howling Moons Blog

Pumpkin Hollow

Addicted to Halloween

Beautiful Halloween

Creepy Cupcakes

Grim Hollow Haunt

Scary Sounds of Halloween

The Haunted Gardens

Vintage Halloween Collector

The Devils Workshop

Again, thank you so much Lisa and The October Boy. Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween season, I will be posting some pictures from my season soon. Until then, stay spooky!

Love,

The Madame

F words - Food, Fence, Fall Festivals and Fun!

Things have been very, very good and quite busy around here. Past two Friday's on my days off, I had to run some errands and leisured into the local retail stores as they just began to put out their halloween goodies. Think about a child who still believes in santa and wakes up christmas morning to all the presents she asked for. That's my face and internal feeling as I see all the halloween displays starting to be set up.  Also, several weekends ago I finally remembered to write down some ingredients for some halloween inspired recipes. I made this "Witch's Cauldron Pasta with Breadstick Broomsticks". I am going to attempt to make a mummy calzone this week as well! Rewind back to last Sunday I started building more of my cemetery fence. I am just about finished painting them, and should be done by this evening.  Most exciting thing of all is, tomorrow's the big day I start my set up! Pulling out all the storage bins from the garage and creating my halloween wonderland, brings me all the joy in the world. Last, but not least, this month is going to be very busy for me due to my favorite time of year, as well as 2 fall festivals I'm attending as a vendor for my candle business this month. I will keep everyone updated as much as I can. Until then stay spooky and happy hauntings!

Love,

Madame Jen

Burning Tears Halloween Special!

So yeah, I have this little shop on Etsy called Burning Tears. Check it out...

Love,

The Madame

DragonCon 2011

So I hit up DragonCon twice this weekend. Seriously most amazing convention to come through Atlanta. As I arrive on Friday afternoon, I get to the Sheridan Hotel and blasting on the speakers is "This is Halloween" and as I consume everything around me and all the people in the most amazing costumes. I smiled and thought to myself... I am at the best place on earth right now!

I look forward to DragonCon every year. This is my 2nd year in attendance. Besides waiting on line for 2 hours for my ticket(s), and only catching the tail end of the parade, you learn something new every year. Note to self, pre-purchase my tickets online ahead of time.

The one thing I was looking forward to was possibly meeting Elvira. Unfortunately, Elvira was scheduled to come out at 8 p.m. on Saturday, at which time I was at the Erasure show. Hopefully she makes an appearance next year.

Other highlights included... Seeing my favorite fellow local haunter The Undertaker. Always a pleasure!

At the Netherworld booth I got some great photo ops with the guys. Even scored some coupons for this year. Netherworld is considered #1 haunt attraction in the US and it's right next door. How lucky am I?

This zombie was hard to resist. Quite the charmer.

Below are just some random shots. I only posted the monsters and left out the superheros. After all this blog is about halloween...

Final thoughts, if I plan correctly next year I would really like to get a 3 or 4 day pass, rent a room for a night or two, and go dressed as Vampira.

Love,

Madame Jen

Halloween Celebrations

As you are aware there are halloween inspired magazines out on the stands now. I haven't seen anyone post about this one yet and by far thought this was the best one out there. I have yet to get my fingers on Martha Stewart's.

Most halloween magazines are kind of cheesy. Opening up pages to find corney crafts and the same traditional treats year after year. I do get inspired by the table settings and even the decorating.

Here's the cover of Woman's Day Halloween Celebrations.

Inside there were some great decorating ideas and mentioned in a previous blog, I mentioned re-vamping my guestroom. I think these are some great ideas for that. A spooky halloween mirror using ornate frame, inserting a creepy looking picture. I've always admired this site -  The Ghoulish Gallery

Moving on to the Lace Spiderweb, using a wooden embroidery hoop.

Last but not least these delicious looking candy apples. I think it's the awesome sticks that make them better looking. Do you remember in the 70's when it was rumored you would find razor blades in your apples on halloween? 

There are more great finds in this magazine, I just wanted to show you a few of my faves. Also note even the advertising was good... With that said we've got just under 2 months till the big day. I had a nice 4 day weekend. Got to go to DragonCon and on Saturday night I went to see Erasure with my BFF, Mandi. 

Love,

Madame Jen

A "Couple" of Ground Breakers

I had such a GREAT weekend. I'll post more later about that, but most importantly... I finished my first project(s) of the year (so behind).

Last week I mentioned the beginning stage of "hacking" a certain store-bought ground breaker. These guys were super cheap, one was picked up from a store - after halloween sale, the other came from a lot-for-sale off of Craigstlist. What to do, what to do... so I searched the internet for inspiration. Came across this lady.

I mentioned before in a previous blog how I mangled the head here. I used the same technique. Took the head off the body, removed the hair, cut the styrofoam and used paper towels and carpet adhesive. (note: I used Bounty, should have used Viva - no bumps/designs in paper towels are best). Waited a good week for that to dry, then painted their faces with craft paint and used polyurethane to seal.

In the meantime while their heads were drying. I gathered up some of the extra red velvet I had from some curios I have been working on. I also grabbed some black cheese cloth, along with little items I had in my craft/sewing box (the black satin rose). No sewing required on my ghoul-friend, just hot glue and used my imagination. Went into my costume bin and grabbed an old witch wig. Asked my son if I could have his old suit tie which worked perfect for the guy-ghoul. I used water and craft paint to make the tie dirty and used a dull razor blade to give it a grungy effect. Added plenty of moss on the bottom of their torsos as well as sporadically on their body, hands, face and head. To give it that fresh ground breaker look.

I can not begin to tell you how happy I was after I finished her.

Below you can see start to finish photos.

Fall-ing into place

This weekend I took a much needed break for myself. Friday, I stepped into the garage and pulled out some halloween props, just to play with and grasp more inspiration. I took out the laptop and checked out every halloween inspired website. Came to this conclusion... I have no "dead" women in my cemetery. WHY??? Realizing that 99% of props are all men, if in fact they are not a witch. Crazy huh?

So, I have two identical ground breakers who will become husband and wife. I took off their heads and have started the process. Will keep you updated on my progression, right now they are dying or drying to be painted. *insert witch cackle*

68 more days till Halloween and 36 more days till set up.

Love,

The Madame

Inspiration Weekend

It's all coming together now. Finally getting into the swing of things and I can't be more excited. Friday started off like a bang. I felt as thought I was in a million places and had a zillion things to do. Two doctor appointments, kids school shopping, oh travel 30 miles for a big lot of halloween goodies a woman was getting rid of. One of the many great things she had was this candelabra. From the picture I thought it was plastic/prop. Nope total score, it's wrought iron! As I gazed at it, I got this great inspiration for redecorating my guestroom. Right now it's got a half retro, half idkwtf? All I can say is there's a human size birdcage in there. That will stay, but the retro shit has to go. I'm thinking dark victorian? New bed, linens, and wallpaper and I've got plenty of spooky nicknack's and creepy paintings. Goal 2012!

Next, is a ground breaker, I have several of these from prior after-halloween sales. Fun to place them in front of the graves. I usually throw a dark colored cheese cloth over them and some moss around their torsos. Blah, right? I was thinking what I can do to re-vamp them? So inspirations here I come!

So Saturday I cleaned my haunted mansion, making sure to leave every cob web in it's place. Sunday ohhhh Sunday, I got to the garage. With the help of my hubby who cleaned his half. We were both very enthusiastic the entire day. Nice breeze in the air, it was strange because I could actually feel "fall". Nice and tidy!

Desert is always last? On Wednesday I get home for work, we all have dinner and out comes a surprise desert from my daughter. She made these cookie/cupcake, I'm not really sure, but it was delicious! Using cookie dough and placing an oreo cookie on the bottom of it. Toping it with halloween colored sprinkles and cute ghosts. Best part was the tombstone shaped cinnamon toast crunch cereal.

This weekend I have some "free" time. No work, no side projects, just me and my 3 day weekend. I think I'll be able to get started on some halloween fun.

Happy Birthday Madonna

I know Madonna has nothing to do with halloween. So I hope I don't loose any of my fellow haunters for posting this, BUT I wanted to wish Madonna a very happy birthday today. 53 years young! She means the world to me. Hence the name of my blog "Live to Tell". I even named a candle "Lucky Star" after her.

I recall Halloween 1984, I was 9 years old. Just at that ripe age with an attitude "I'm independent" and I don't need no stinking plastic mask with the plastic outfit. Well, I got a fucking Care Bear costume. *insert sad face* I ditched the plastic mask, turned the plastic outfit inside out, got a belt, grabbed my gummy bracelets, teased up my hair, gathered up some lace and wa-la! I was Madonna for halloween that year. *turned that frown upside down*

Below are some pictures of Madonna on halloween. In the time allotted, I could only find these three...

Back to BOO!

Back to (BOO) School means the end of summer, jumping right into fall. My family and I just got back from our vacation, where my husband and I celebrated our 9th Anniversary. While we were both under the impression it was our 10th. Ha-ha! We enjoyed our stay in the North Georgia Mountains in a beautiful cabin, the front yard was the Coosawattee River. We had so much fun, yet it was incredibly relaxing. One morning my husband and I got up and took a walk. On the grounds of the property we were staying on was a pet cemetery, which I thought was kinda cool. Not a great picture but one of the stones were marked "our beloved pet".

During my vacation and on the actual day of my anniversary, the Boney Bunch went on sale. I have 6 pieces from past years. My mom gets me the wedding couple each year as an anniversary gift. So I woke up had my coffee and cig and ran to the computer. Low and behold on a bad boo note the one I wanted was sold out Boney Bunch Couple on a Boat. There isn't a Yankee Candle near where I was at, low and behold my fellow haunter/friend The Undertaker came through and picked it up for me. Saves the day! So grateful!

The other great thing about my stay was my finds at the local flea market and antique stores where I picked up the sign of the beast and the prince of darkness!!! All three original albums in mint condition for a total of $15. *Note Mr. Crowley is a picture disc.

How cool is cold medicine branded with the sign of the beast?

Retuning home from our trip I went grocery shopping and picked up this on the way out. I think I will make one "treat" each week from now through October. I always make spooktacular goodies for my party. This will give me good practice to come up with new stuff. PS the crafts are super corny in this book, always are every year.

Last but not least as summer ends, I am reminded of fall. Catching up on all my fellow haunters blogs with the latest and greatest halloween finds at stores. I see every one is busting their witch moles with their halloween projects. All of this is so inspiring! Which leaves me feeling so incredibly guilty! I have been so busy this year with all my other side projects/jobs/goals, I have spent no time whatsoever on my halloween props. I am making a promise to myself to get into that damn garage this weekend (after back to school shopping for my kidos) and begin to organize the monster mess. I REALLY want to work on finishing the corpses I did last year by mounting them into position. My husband and I built a fence last month so the scrap wood left over is going to come in handy. Not sure that I will get to re-doing my tombstones this year as originally planned. The madame's side project Burning Tears has to make candles for centerpieces and gifts for a November wedding in Miami, for a very special couple. 

In the meantime, I will do my best to keep you updated on the treats I make as well as mounting of the corpses.

82 more days!

Happy Haunts!!!!

Love,

The Madame

Trick or Treat?

This one was just a good trick! I was driving back to work from my lunch break, low and behold I see an animal in the road, so I proceed to stop. It's a RAT! I notice it doesn't move. Now let me tell you, I drive a 1963 Ford Fairlane 500 260-V8 engine. My car is NOT quite, you think it would have scurried away.

As I proceed to creep up to it, I realize the eyes are beaming red. I do a double take and actually blink my eyes to make sure I'm seeing this correctly. Totally realize it's FAKE!!! haaaaaaaaa

Such a great story I had to share.

Oh and this morning my husband asked, "when are you going to start working on your halloween stuff?" - This is a sign! I need to push some things aside from my very busy life and get crack'n. My goals this year were to make my tombstones sturdy and finish mounting my corpsed skeletons that I made last year. I've completed so many personal goals so far this year, I can make time for the fun ones.

I am a proud new owner of...

A baby pumpkin!!! Yesterday, I went out into the garden and started watering my plants. Every time I go to water my plants, I creep down into the pumpkin patch and look under the big pumpkin leaves. Low and behold the glory of what I discovered.

I can not express how happy I am. This weekends plans will be to guard this baby with my life!

My visit to the Haunted Mansion

More inspirational shots. One of my most favorite places on the planet, the HAUNTED MANSION in Disney World! Below is some new additions just made to the Haunted Mansion. My time there was wonderful. The weather was perfect, not crowded, zipped right through onto every ride. The only thing missing was my husband. The kids and I had a great time. Later that night (bonus) I went to see one of my favorite bands, Interpol.

Welcome you foolish mortals.... and excuse the black photos, no flash photography. Now begin to sing the Grim Grinning Ghosts...