I just do not

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 old building.

So why do you

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?

Wanna see something

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

This is the last

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 :)

Since we not there

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

Your a winner!

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

Best How to- Noah Fentz in Maywood, NJ – Katzper’s Haunt

And special announcement, the winner of the annual Propmaster Award given to a "home haunter that has contributed greatly to the home haunt community" We are proud to announce the winner is:

Lynne & Shawn Mitchell - How to Haunt Your House Volume 1

I will be working on getting these awards out later this week!

Congratulations everyone. And a special thanks to all the haunter judges that picked the winners this year....we really appreciate all your help!

And very special thanks to John at Haunted Attraction Magazine for helping us sponsor the awards this year as well as Mike at Ghost Ride Productions for making the awards for us super cheap!!!

And as always...thanks to Propmaster for collecting all the videos and making the DVDs - we could not do this without you!!!

And most of all.....to all you haunters that submit your videos for the DVD collection. We love seeing what other haunts are doing....you are in inspiration to us all.

We started in reverse

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 myself....

I could not help posting this on both blogs :D

Someone was asking

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 :)

So how did we get here?

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 :D See you next Friday!

Wait...some of you are still here? Wow, don't say I didn't warn you!!!

I am on a roll

an LOLcat roll that is :)

Here is one for all you slasher movie fans!

I cannot believe

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 right...The left one looks handmade though, and it is one of the good versions..... hum......I have been making tombstones longer than I thought!

And what was I thinking by not removing the silver backing on the foam (inside the crypt)!!! Seriously, frog queen must have been drinking the paint thinner!! Was I thinking it would reflect the lighting that I did not have up??!? Maybe reflect the streetlight?!?! I can tell you now I have no idea why I missed that detail...((hangs head in shame))

And how about my last minute idea of something to put in the crypt. I believe that is a short ladder with black fabric draped over it and if I remember right, those are the original plaster of Paris skulls that my brother made that we later used for candle holders.....until the famous and educational fire. :)

This is the oldest picture I can find......so I believe this is as bad as the torture will get....that is unless I find the witches. Oh yes, the witches.....they were dreadful.....so very, very dreadful.

Look! Two years later

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 pieces on the corners on the outside are are Velcroed to the foam (which by the way is a BAD idea - live and learn) The roof is awkward to set up and is very "kite like" on a windy day, lots of bits of wire shaped like a "U" are pressed in the foam to hold it to the structure.

We learned a LOT from this piece. Mainly, crypt building was getting old....this being our third attempt....we really did not want to build one again for a long time. So a lot of planning went into our fourth and current crypt.

The light bulb also went off in my head that I have this very fancy fence around my whole yard, adding another large fence around was distracting and just took up space (not to mention hard to set up on our sloping yard.)

So I ditched the idea...for now. :)

I am sure you are asking yourself why this trip down memory lane? :) Just another Frog Queen folly!



Current Davis Graveyard Mausoleum circa 2008

Up close

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

Yes, those are

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

Take two they are small

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

I think it has been

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

Actually that spider

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!

Blue actually is

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.

Oh no!

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 making!!

Still not my favorite

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.

There is always something

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 different than what we have done before. Glad we tried it ahead of time, cause we need to make a few adjustments.
• Jeff is making molds for skulls, I believe he has three molds in progress right now.
• Speaking of skulls.....you know that cool ruby skull face? He is casting it in black right now!!! They should be dry tonight! I promise to post pictures!

That is wrap up for last week at the Davis Graveyard

Still not my favorite

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 why this is not a popular place in November, not only did he have to find a bed and breakfast that would open for us (they all close mid-October) but one day it was so windy that we could not drive along the coast line.....and for a small island like Skye that is most of the island! :)

But one day we did get to Kilmuir Cemetery....besides just loving old cemeteries, this one is most famous for being the resting place of Flora McDonald. She helped Charles the III (Bonny Prince Charlie) escape to France after the failed battle of Culloden (the last major defeat of the Scottish against the English). This story is famously told in the classic "Skye Boat Song". Click and of the links above for more information.

Anyway, here are some pictures of this very old and interesting cemetery. The tall Celtic cross (last picture) is Flora McDonalds grave.