We are going to start at the end

Monday - May 2nd - Crowne Plaza Hotel - Louisville KY

8:00 am we arrive downstairs and are told that we are not supposed to have the room we are scheduled to do our class in - we are going to have to move it.

Easier said than done - we have to cover all floor and tables.

Then we are told - we can stay - but we have to be quiet about it.  Long story - but we caused some commotion earlier in the convention in one of our classes :)   Basically this means we will be doing a lot of work outside....in the rain. Because we were nice enough to bring the rain with us.

We are thoughtful that way

Then we are told that there is a room upstairs that has access to the balcony!  We won't have to haul pieces of foam up and down the hallway!  Woohoo!  Upstairs we go!

Good - we gotta move now because we need to cover the floors and tables.

We rush up there and get going....we are ready for our students.

All four of them.

Yep, only four students - we had the least attended class of the convention :(

So we get started with tombstones while Jeff gets working on cutting foam for the bigger pieces.

We do the best we can - we lose crew members to unforeseen circumstances throughout the day which puts us a bit father behind....but we keep working.

We start the mud pieces as soon as the bases are made so they can start drying.....we really could have used a dry sunny day for this....would have saved us loads of drying time......

We spend a good part of the day drying monster mud and paint with the heat gun!

Thank goodness for heat guns!!! 

Oh...and thank goodness that room services will deliver pizza to a conference room!!

Once we found we only had four students and less crew we scaled down the original display a bit.  Which was a good idea because we didn't even finish what we cut the list down to.

All in all the students had a great time, asked lots of questions, helped carve and paint and anything we asked....could not have had a better group to work with!  

We did our best in our rush to show them the different techniques we use to create props. So they can go home and create this for themselves.....that was the purpose of the class.

And as we are getting closer to being done, we notice that many of our students are from out of town....so we mention:

"Does anyone want to take this home?  Cause we cannot fit this stuff on the plane!"

No one is local.

Crap!

One of the students that drove was talking with his dad about renting a U-Haul and towing the car! :D

But in the end they just grabbed Nevermore and most of the tombstones that would fit in the car.

So here we are with most of a graveyard and no takers.

:(

Dawn and I both said we would cry if we had to throw this all in the dumpster!

So we call one of the local home haunters and ask her if she wanted it...it and all the supplies :)

She was thrilled - she sent her husband on his way home to pick it up...we packed as much as we could in the van and sent it to its new home.

I got a text from the lucky haunter and I have to say it could not have gone to a nicer person :)

5:30 pm - Here is a picture of most of it....one of the tombstones is missing, the coffin is unfinished, and under the table, the obelisk is off being painted and the skeleton never even made it out of the box....... (and that is not our best paint work...by any means.)

Looking at it now - does not seem like a lot.....but believe me it was a lot of work. 

And for all those that came up to us and asked us to this class again next year because they could not attend.....sorry, we are not going to do that again (four students did not even cover the cost of supplies)....at least not for a long time....or a LOT more money.

But it was a fun and tiring day - great memories..and a new experience...I always love sharing how we make things with other haunters :)

BIG thanks to the crew - you guys are the best - could not have done it without you.  The Frog Queen has the best friends!!!  Like I say, you can steal any prop in the yard.....but keep your paws off my crew....unless they ask you to paw them, then that is okay.  They kinda like that :D

Gotta go get ready for the West Coast Haunters Convention this weekend!!  See you there if your are heading our way!