Ghosts From Birds and Beaks Designs

Birds and Beaks Rescue and Rehab has an Etsy shop for helping raise money for their bird rescue and rehab organization and are selling really cute 3D printed Ghosts and Turkeys!

Ghostly Lighting

We already had to repair the 10+ year old hanging skeleton bride and groom prop we forgot all about and never used before. After barely a week it was found lying on the ground. The hanging strings mounted inside the skulls snapped after exposure to a few days of rain and wind. The glued on groom's "top hat" also became detached. A classic example as to one of the reasons we don't set up the "real" Halloween haunt until just before Halloween in these parts. We installed some eye screws and attached some new hanging strings. We also ditched the "witchy" looking top hat. One of the things that we are very happy about is how the custom color palette of LED C9 bulbs on the house created a nice multitone lighting of the prop down below. While the C9 bulbs don't fit the more authentic/realistic "haunted house/yard haunt" aesthetic, it does create softer and more realistic ambient lighting of the props below. We are able to use less flood and spot lights on the ground actually creating a spookier atmosphere at eye/ground level. The C9 bulbs on the house also serve as a beacon on Halloween night to let trick-or-treaters know there's something of interest to be seen down the street. We have several party pooper houses on our street that turn off their lights on Halloween night, so we upped the ante and doubled down so to speak.

Getting Ready For Setting Up Our Haunt

We put these two props out today for a very good reason. Both the ground stake and hanging bride and groom skeleton props were purchased right after Halloween 2013 on sale for our 2014 Dia De Los Muertos themed haunt. The ground stake bride and groom skeletons were used for our altar prop. The hanging bride and groom skeleton prop? Totally forgot we had purchased it and it sat tucked away in a storage tote in our basement for many, many years before we rediscovered the prop. Oops! These props will work as little accent pieces for our Haunted Mansion inspired ghost themed haunt this Halloween and we wanted to put them out now before we forget all about them again!

Halloween Candy Starting To Show Up On Store Shelves

Saw these bags of mini boxes of Ghost Dots in a big Halloween candy display at the front of our local grocery store and we pretty much cleared out what they had on display. They'll make a nice yard haunt theme matching "bonus" candy treat to go along side the full size candy bars this Halloween.

Victorian Madam Morticia Plaque

We got this plaque this past December for only $26 on Amazon in anticipation of this year's Haunted Mansion inspired ghost themed yard haunt. We weren't sure if we were going to display it in the bookcase prop on our front porch for Halloween, but it really pops on our aedicula prop! It may have been the last one available because it's currently unavailable on Amazon. We have learned over the years that if you see something special or unique for Halloween snag it ASAP because a lot of Halloween decorations, props, masks, etc. are produced in limited run batches and you may never see such items available ever again.

"Good Enough" Stamp!

Decided to not bother with adding a skeletal hand holding a candle lantern on the ground breaker "Hat Ghost" prop. We're either going to place a candle lantern with a blue or green LED flame light on the ground next to it, or we'll use a small LED colored spot light like we did with the jack-o-lantern monster ground breaker last Halloween. Good enough!

Apparitions 2024

Making some progress on the standing mannequins for our 2024 haunt. The Chiller and The Duchess props are new for this year's haunt. Thought the blue light candle lantern for The Chiller made for an interesting prop accessory. The blue apparitions' hands are also a new addition this year.

2019 Haunt Photo

For our 2024 Halloween yard haunt we're revisiting our 2019 ghost theme. We have to work out a better system for mounting the digital projection screen in our front window this year. In 2019 we used 3M removable double sided adhesive mounting dots to mount the screen fabric to our vinyl window frames, but the adhesive couldn't keep the screen fabric taught for the entire duration of the haunt. We started to get visible wrinkles and creases in the fabric due to the flexible/stretchy nature of the dots. This summer we're going to test out 3M Command Velcro strips on the window frames paired up with sew on Velcro strips on the edges of the screen fabric. The hope is that the Velcro strips can keep the screen fabric taught or at least allow for quick adjustments.

2024 Duchess Prop Completed

Added a "granny shawl" and brooch. Done stamp for 2024!

2024 "Duchess Ghost" Prop

Another prop for 2024 that's almost ready to go. The "Duchess" just needs a matching "Granny Shawl" over her shoulders and arms to help balance out her proportions and she's ready to go for Halloween 2024!

2024 "Top Hat Ghost" Groundbreaker Prop

Mr. Haunted Eve can't help himself and is already in the "laboratory" making monsters for the Halloween 2024 "Haunted Mansion" ghost themed yard haunt. This "Top Hat Ghost" groundbreaker prop is an amalgamation of parts and pieces we've collected from over the years. The brown suede top hot was purchased on sale from Spirit Halloween after Halloween many years ago and has never been used (tag is still on the back of the hat). The black demi cape is from one of our 2017 mannequin props. The mask is from one of our 2018 mannequin props. And the lantern is from our 2011 Spirit Halloween Gate Keeper prop. Not yet on the ground beaker prop is the white shirt used on the 2017 mannequin prop that also wore the demi cape along with the skeleton hands used on our 2022 mummy prop. We think it's a good repurposing of items we already have as well as putting our own spin on the inspiration for this haunt theme.

Halloween 2024 Already In The Works

Halloween 2024 is going to be a "Haunted Mansion" theme. The 3 ghost props we ordered on sale from Halloween Express arrived today. Very happy that there is a volume dial on them that can be turned down to "no sound" so that just their blue light up eyes can be used. Not sure exactly where we're going to use them next year, but most likely they will be "Ghost on a Post" props along our walkway.