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...