Celebrating Creepmas 2021 Anyhoo!

Just because the original Creepmas creators got a case of the "Bah Humbugs" doesn't mean Creepmas is dead. We still intend to celebrate the Hallowdays in the weeks to come. And to kick that off, there's a new 2021 Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) holiday horror movie coming out on November 19th, called "Black Friday":

Prelude To Dracula's Throne 2022

We got the 2021 throne prop safely put away in our basement until next Halloween season and already started prepping for turning it into Dracula's Throne for next year's haunt. We have small wooden decorative scroll corbels that can be temporarily hung on the top sides of the throne's back side rails with small mounting screws. On top of these corbels we're going to mount decorative bat finials. These will all be painted in the same finish as the throne. We also have a vampire bat plaque that will replace the horned demon skull plaque on the throne. For the sitting mannequin we ordered a new pair of mens mannequin hands that we will simply paint the finger nails black on. We will also most likely swap out the one torso PVC pipe on the sitting mannequin with one an inch or two longer to make him better proportioned. We went with the Hammer film version of Dracula for our 2022 'Classic Monsters" theme because 1), we personally feel Christopher Lee was the quintessential Dracula, and 2), we just weren't liking the Bela Lugosi Dracula mask currently available.

Another Look: Halloween Haunt 2006

Back in the mid 2000's we were still running our own website for sharing our annual yard haunt photos and we would downsize the photos to a much more internet friendly upload file size. Our earliest yard haunt photos from the late 90's were taken with film cameras and the photo lab printed results were less than stellar. And even when we switched to digital photography soon after, we made the mistake of setting the image resolution on the cameras to resolutions of 600 x 800 (or worse) for the sake of being able to upload them easily, which at the time wasn't all that detrimental due to the computer screen resolutions available back then. But in 2006, we did shoot the photos using the full camera resolution available to us, we just didn't post them in their original format. So we decided to take another fresh look at all those 2006 yard haunt photos and share some of the best ones in their original resolution. Note: There are links on the upper right side column of this Blogger page that will take you to all our old and current yard haunt photo albums.

Looking Ahead To Halloween 2022

Already starting to slowly prep for our Halloween 2022 haunt. The theme is going to be "Classic Horror Movie Monsters". We started collecting the masks over the past year and will work on the mannequins in terms of hands, feet, costumes, etc. over the course of the next year. Already ordered some new steel prop foot pads from Spider Hill Prop Works because we intend to build some new mannequin stand bases that are better proportions and want to replace the PVC foot pads. We want to transform our front porch space into a "mini" Frankenstein's Lab and will need to build some display bookcase towers that will go on each side of our front door. The 2021 throne prop will get some new "add on" accessories and will become "Dracula's Throne". Also intend to build a new standing candelabra prop that can use LED pillar candles versus the one we built back in 2009 that could only hold 3 small LED tapered candles. We're also going to build 3 new ornate pedestals for our gargoyle statues, because the 2015 pedestals are rather small and were quickly thrown together that year. And the two tall pedestals that were originally our 2009 cemetery gate columns are going to be retired. The mini mausoleum will serve as the mummy's tomb (it may get a new paint color makeover). We're also thinking of giving the creepy cloth on the house a break for 2022 and will go with spider webs since we now have the cup hook infrastructure on the house to be able to stretch it down and hook it to other heavier props like the candle lantern posts, headstones, etc. We might even play with some glow in the dark props and the new outdoor LED black light flood lights we purchased recently.

The 2021 Jack-o-lantern Graveyard

The jack-o-lanterns are all in their final resting place to go back to the earth from which they came. Have to say they're holding up rather well considering they were carved about 12 days ago. This year we did wipe them down using warm water with a dash of liquid bleach in a spray bottle prior to cleaning them out. And after carving them we sprayed the cut outs and inside with a mixture of 10:1 water and apple cider vinegar. But we think the biggest reason they've held up this long is that we started getting frost overnight right after Halloween and it has been relatively dry out since Halloween.

The Return Of Pumpkinrot

Having given up all hope after Pumpkinrot was MIA for the past two and a half years, we just discovered he reappeared on October 31st, 2021!

http://pumpkinrot.blogspot.com/2021/10/samhain.html

It seems like he's back in stride with his Halloween blogging as well.

Looking Forward To Creepmas

The outside of the house always looks so sparse after the haunt is put away. All that's left to do is move the jack-o-lanterns to the back of the property to compost over the winter. Many people will often ask if we go all out decorating for Christmas outside after they see our Halloween haunt and the answer is "Nope!" Mr. Haunted Eve will swap out the Halloween themed red & orange LED C9 bulbs on the gutter stringers with Christmas colored ones and we'll get some garland and lights around the front door and we'll place the LED snowman prop we purchased last season in the far corner of the paver terrace, and that's as exciting as it gets. Mr. Haunted Eve is looking forward to The 13 Days Of Creepmas and what interesting daily Creepmas art challenges are in store.