Frog on the Pumpkin

have the time right now to do more research on abandoned amusement parks....you have to look at a LOT of photo galleries to find those :) (That is why you have had this trip down memory lane....just limping along through my busy season at work.) Anyway, since I was digging out old pictures...I found the ones I took over 20 years ago of the amusement park down the street from my house....don't get all excited, they call it an amusement park, and there has been one there for over 100 years, but it is more like a parking lot carnival without the scary carnies :D Anyway, here is the the Haunted Castle facade, the ride has been redone to be the Lewis and Clark Adventure ( local history lesson ) and I hear is quite interesting to behold. I am going to have to check it out. This area of the park has been torn down and is replaced with rides. From this facade looks like they had a fun house, there was no way to see inside....trust me I tried. But I do just LOVE the detail and lines on this...

people keep sending me these spider things!?!??! I thought you were my friends?! Courtesy of Max ShellHawk sent me this one http://www.maniacworld.com/big-spider-chases-lady.html And Johnny Thunder sent me this one..... http://www.livescience.com/animals/fear-of-spiders-100218.html Hummmmm....I think I need new blog friends! :D Seriously though, thanks everyone, nice to be loved....it is love right?

really scary? This is me about 6-10 years ago?....I must have warn that for work, because I do not know of anytime I wore a clown costume. And I cut my hair and remodeled my kitchen in over 6 years ago.....so sometime before that. I have a coworker in marketing that is terrified of clowns....maybe I should wear that to work this year :D

of the old haunt pictures....this are pictures of the construction of the of the haunt inside the garage. Looking back....I believe this coffin was something I convinced my dad to make for our haunt....see I was good at "persuading" people to help me even back then :)

the back of the pictures have a bit of a walk through....I still find it amazing that some haunters let people walk through their house!!!! That is all kinds of scary to me :D

well, only if your haunt is listed below :) Here is the list of all the haunts that won the 2009 Home Haunters DVD awards. Best Yard Haunt - Spencer & Debra in Broomfield, CO – Casa Fear Best Yard Haunt (Vanguard) - Guy Miller in Tualatin, OR – House Bloodthorn The Resurrection of Rose Best Indoor/walkthrough Haunt – Russ & Carol in San Diego, CA – McKamey Manor Asylum Best Indoor/walkthrough Haunt (Vanguard) – Baron & Baroness Reuwsaat in Medford, OR - Darkwing Manor Morgueorium Museum Best Static Prop – Craig in Simi Valley, CA – Haunted Tiki Island Burning Man Prop Best Static Prop (Vanguard) – Robert B. in Ann Arbor, MI - Brandywine Cemetery Masoleum Best Animated Prop – Paul Jameson in Dearborn Heights, MI – Monster Mouth Haunted House Best Animated Prop (Vanguard) - Brent Ross in San Jose, CA – DC Cemetery Best Party Haunt – Kellie Ann in Fond Du Lac, WI – Wirtz Party Haunt Best Video Production – Lynne & Shawn in Pensacola, FL – The Mitchell Cemetery Be...

well, it appears that way. We both say we will never have a walk through haunt because that is how we started.....we originally worked on this haunt with our friends. Over 20 years later, we still remember that we "don't want to do that ever again" :D We are lucky to have a real fence that keeps all the props in the yard safe from people. Not cats, though, Hal still has this thing for using tombstones or the front of the abbey facade as a scratching post.

I could not help posting this on both blogs :D

where we were? :D We were famouse even back them :D Look, they missed us :) I don't know if they missed us as people....or just as more helpers :D Here is a picture of the yard...lovely tombstones aren't they ;) And the other picture is of my sister (we look a lot alike...the big difference is she is younger and thinner and cuter and nicer than me...she is the good twin :D) ....she ditched them and headed up to Oregon a few years later...she was my partner in crime on the beginnings of the Davis Graveyard about 15 years ago. I believe she dreams of black paint in her sleep :)

Everyone starts somewhere.....and what is now the Davis Graveyard started in California about 23 years ago. At that time it was our friends house that we were haunting, and they lived on street called Oleander....and the Nightmare on Elm Street series was just getting started...so they called the haunt: Nightmare on Oleander On the about page of our website we give a quick history of how we started with some friends and then moved to Oregon, but they kept working on the haunt...here are some of the pictures that they sent us from the first Halloween we were gone. There are over 40 of them, so I won't share them all....but today we start a series of posts featuring some of the photos. I am including the notes they wrote on the back of each picture....just for fun. Warning: Vintage home haunt photos ahead!!! For those of you that don't want to see (and I can't say I blame you :D ). . . . you can take about a week off from my blog and then we should be back to Halloween 2010 ...

an LOLcat roll that is :) Here is one for all you slasher movie fans!

that I am going to post this picture. This is the yard circa 2001. There you have it the very first crypt/mausoleum that we ever made. Notice the accurate hand drawn grout lines (LOL!)...I don't remember, but it looks like I did that with a soldiering iron :) In case you miss this detail,..notice the very bad plastic skull above the entrance. I believe that was a skull I took off a fog machine - you know where the fog comes out his mouth :) I am happy to say that both the skull and the crappy fog machine are both long gone. :D I particularly like the solid gray columns with the different and ridiculously out of proportion skulls on them....and what is with that other column by the blucky? Was I bored and wanted to make another one? No dear haunters and haunt fans.....likely has to do with the frog queens inability to do math, I would guess I made one too many - there is a good reason I am in marketing and not accounting. Oh, and more store bought tombstones (yippee!!) there to the ...

in 2004 I think we made some improvements with our next attempt at a crypt, at least you can see something of a spark of what the yard is today.....this new crypt, which we affectionately called the "Guard Box", is actually still around in town somewhere....we sold it to a local family who then sold it again to someone else....some mistakes haunt you forever. (pun intended) :D Actually, the detail on this crypt is pretty nifty. We did try a bit of aging as you can see on the sides, and our attempt at a decaying slate roof is amusing, but the best part (which is barely visible in these photos) is the detail work that Toph did on the front entrance, he carved some strange glyphs and created the "legs" on the front. He also did some force perspective painting on the inside to make it look like there was a stairway down inside the crypt. This particular piece is a b*tch to set up. The pieces on the inside are all slanted to help the illusion of distance and the strip p...

and personal pictures of the graveyard circ 2002. See another lovely store bought tombstone...and look at the great paint work on my tombstones...that was before I discovered "aging". And notice over in the far right top corner...yes that is a blucky hanging in the tree. Notice also the midget mud monks that are less than 5 feet tall....not very scary. Now the moss glued on is not bad.....just needed a bit more painting "aging" on the columns. Oh and nice store bought plaque above the crypt.....and yes that is a dummy with a wedding dress in the crypt. Just stuffed the dress with paper and put a wig on a wig head :) Why am I only doing these two at a time? Because that is about all I can scan before my eyes start to burn :D

pictures of the Davis Graveyard, circa 2002.....see that lovely store bought tombstone to the left.....I am only saying that to distract you from the hideous coffin prop :D And there was a time we only had about a dozen tombstones...... Those were the days I could set the yard up by myself :D

the second LOLcat this week. Mostly because the next few days of my life will be consumed (who am I kidding.....that last week of my life has been) by a very big and cool wine auction . Gotta raise money for the kids! see more Lolcats and funny pictures BTW - Anyone that I have ever dissed for their taste in music can have revenge. When ever I am working on stuff for this event (which is for a local children's hospital ) and my co- conspirator on this project reminds me why we are doing all this? " We are doing it for the kids!" Every time she says it, this song runs through my head there, I did it....I admitted in public that I am a HUGE Robbie Williams fan. Not proud, but I am. :D

too long around here with out an LOLcat. (stop groaning....it is only one post! :D ) No matter how much I try, sorry ladies, pink will always be my least favorite color. see more Lolcats and funny pictures

does not look very dead at all :D Actually it looks very much alive...almost as if was crawling towards me.....(shudder) I ordered a few items from one of my favorite haunters and a very talented artist Angie at Dead Spider . They arrived nicely wrapped with this cool wax seal on the package. Very elegant, I like! I ordered some magnets for myself and some skull beads for my friend Pam who made me this cool bracelet last year .....I thought with all her crafty talent she could find a use for them. So in honor of my recent purchase I am trading out my Etsy link again to feature her creepy cool stuff . Check it out !

husbands favorite color....can you tell :D Here he is working on a mold to cast skulls .....next to the animated props, molding and casting is probably his favorite thing to do for the graveyard. We are having a weekend class on molding and casting . Join us the weekend of August 14th and 15th and we will teach you how.

Poor Propmaster! The first DVD in the Home Haunters DVD set has a sound problem. There appears to be no audio on most DVD players. Husband even tried to make a copy on our end to save Propmaster the trouble of having to send another one. But after three tries, he gave up. Prop asked anyone that has the DVDs to send him a 1 cent paypal payment so he could generate a shipping label. But we know that he is not making any money off these DVDs and that make and shipping a new disk is definitely more than 1 cent. We sent him some extra. If any of you haunters that have the DVDs and are getting a replacement can send more than the 1 cent he is asking for, I am sure he would appreciate it. I am being completely selfish here in asking this....because I don't want him to get too discourage about the videos and not do them next year!!! :D I don't mind handling the awards, but I do not relish the idea of making all those DVDs!!! Makes my head hurt. :) Thanks everyone....now back to prop ma...

but a very beautiful graveyard none the less. These are pictures of the graveyard behind Roslin Chapel (yes, the one from the book/movie) - The chapel itself is astounding, absolutely worth the trip, not just because of the movie but because there is nothing like it, the amount of carvings both inside and outside is astounding. Just for fun, when you are there if you have a few moments and you can fit through or over the locked gate (which I am not saying you should do :D) head on down the path behind the chapel and check out the graveyard. Definitely worth the trip! The statue of the angel almost buried in the laurel is my favorite.

happening at the graveyard. I thought I would start doing a Monday post that is a quick recap of the happenings at the graveyard. Some might (will likely) become blog posts, but just in case, here is the snapshot version: We are currently trying watch all of the Home Haunters DVD video. Amazing work you guys!! Awards are in and sitting on the kitchen table, ordered plaques to arrive this week. I worked in my garden, which is something I completely let slide last year in lieu of Halloween, but not this year. Jeff tried to mold me another votive holder for use in the yard. I picked too thin of a votive cup and the walls are not casting well. We would need a vacuum sealer to remove the bubbles from the resin....not going to happen right away, so he is making a new mold based on a new (thicker walled) votive holder. He finished his test skull mold for the molding and casting class this summer. He is trying to use the kit that comes from Smooth On as a teaching tool, so it is a bit differen...

cemetery, but definitely one of the few that I had been wanting to visit since my first trip to Scotland. This is Kilmuir Cemetery on the Isle of Skye . It is one of the islands in the Hebrides that I have always wanted to visit because of its history. The first couple of times I we were in Scotland the only way to get to island was by ferry or plane. And being that we were travel to Scotland in the off season, there were no planes from Edinburgh, so we never went. 1992 the finally built Skye Bridge which made it easier to get to in the off season, but it still a long drive from Edinburgh to make a day trip. So much to the total bewilderment of our friend and favorite tour guide Derek from Claymore Travels , he helped us arrange a 3 day trip to the island on our last visit. He found a bed and breakfast that opened just for us....and we headed up to visit. We stopped and visited a few landmarks and castles.....including the very famous and beautiful Eilean Donan castle. We learned wh...