If I liked coffee

these would be perfect. (I am more of a tea girl.)

Here is the perfect gift for the espresso lover in your life.

Spendy, but worth it.  Buy yours here.

Best wedding invitation ever

Courtesy of Manuel Morgado. Check out the WIP on his blog.

Remember this post?

The one that I wrote about how I hate creating logos and why I don't do it.  Obviously I don't listen to myself.

I was reminded on how true that was working on the final version of the logo for West Coast Haunters Convention.  (Thanks to Jody for all the help - could not have done this without you!)

But it is done, for better or for worse.....I hate it of course, and I am sure all the good designers would agree with me.....I could do better.

But not today - too busy.  Just going to have to live with it.

On the website....t-shirts.....printed materials.....oh, this is going to make my head hurt. What have I done!?!

Must think of cute kitties and puppies to keep the screaming in my head down.

Two whole people

have signed up for our all day class on Monday at HAuNTcon.  We are going to build a graveyard that you can win at the end of the class!  (cause we cannot get it on the plane :D)

There goes my theroey that no one was going to sign up for that!!!  Woohooo!

Now we just need 23 more people to attend :)

Click here to sign up!  (please! :D)

We have heard around the interwebs

that some haunters and haunt enthusiasts would really like a copy of the DVD collection, but money is tight.  In this economy we completely understand.  So we want to help.

We crunched the numbers on what we have brought in and at least one haunter added a few dollars more to their order so we have worked out a set number of DVD collections that we can give away to people in need.

We will ship anywhere, we budgeted for US shipping, but we will make up the difference to ship anywhere in the world, it is it the least we can do.

If you or a haunter or know a haunter that could use some help getting a Home Haunter DVD set, send them to this page.  We wish we could help everyone that asks, so please understand that we will do our best to get them to as many haunters as we can....but there are people that will ask and not get them.  I apologize in advance for that.  Trust me, it disappoints us too.

Thanks for your time everyone....now back to prop making!!  Or in my case finishing up the logo for West Coast Haunters Convention :)  I promise Ed, you will have it today!

I have to admit

that I am glad this project is over.  At 4:00pm on Friday husband headed off to the duplicator to pick up the DVD set that was supposed to be ready on Monday.  But like most things in life we ran into a little hicup and they were delayed :(

I got home as soon as I could and we finished packaging them and ran them out to the post office at the airport that is open 24/7 so that they would go out on Friday (do I know how to live it up on a Friday night or what?) and not have to wait until Saturday to go to our regular post office.

I heard one of the local haunters got their disks on Saturday!  Woohoo!!

So, they are on their way.  We ordered a few extras and I am glad we did as that we got 8 orders over the weekend!  We have a few left so if you have not picked yours up yet be sure to order soon before they sell out. LOL! Don't worry, we will order more :D

I know that when you pick

a random number that there is a chance you will get the two numbers in succession. Just never happened to me before, until this weekend.

I went to random.org to pick the winners for my give away and it picked 7 and then 8 - really, no kidding.

So congrats to both Stolloween and Mr. Chicken!   You both are winners!

Just send me an email at chris@davisgraveyard.com and I will get your prizes out to you.

Thanks everyone for entering!!

Well, that took longer

than we thought. But we just got done dropping the DVD collections off at the post office at the airport (they are open 24/7) so they are on their way to you lovely haunters!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Two very important things

I have be enormously busy and somethings just get ignored.  This blog is usually the first thing to suffer when I run out of time....but two things are timely - so I am popping in for a quick message.

First and most importantly. This was intended to be a grander and more engaging plea....but this will have to do.

Please, please, pleas, vote for the FRANKESTEINIA blog for the Rondo Awards. (The deadline is this Sunday, March 27)

This is purely selfish on my part....love Frankenstein and love the blog and would really love to see it win an award.  Definitely deserves it.

Just want to say it now, in case I forget later.  You blogger people are awesome, I am always surprised and heart-warmed at the support we give each other.  Really cool.  Thank you.

Oh, and this is the last day to enter my bizarre-UK-adventure-drawing.  You get the almost surely-by-now poison Cadbury Halloween candy and some interesting and sure to be entertaining Halloween treats from Tescos.  Just to let you bloggers know that I think of you even when I am on vacation.....

Just leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner tonight. (March 25)

Back to hacking at my to do list.....where did I leave my machete?

Look! It is ShellHawk!!!

What a lovely....and very nice lady!!! Go check it out!

I think husband described it best

when he said "I want to go crawl under a rock now, after I throw up."

???

On Monday the company we have duping the DVD collection called and said that the disks would not play on their DVD players.

WHAT!?!?!?

We tested them....we had several people test them....worked for them.  What happened?!

We both paniced - we were instant messaging back and forth for about 30 minutes when I said.  "Tell them to stop, we need to research this, I do not want to send these out, find out they do not work and then have to print them again and send them out...again."

That is when he said the bit about hiding under a rock. :)

We stopped the presses and had the discs checked again....they work fine.  It seems it that one DVD player it will not play on - weird.

Better safe than sorry.

Bad news is the discs that were shipping on Monday will now ship on Thursday - sorry everyone!  We will get them to you as soon as we can!!

Caught in the act

See!  I told you it was Dorie who put the spider in the sink.....evil kitty.  Cute, but evil.

I think she read my blog post because this is the only thing she has been playing with the last few days.

I have this theory

about our shop.

For anyone that has need our workshop it is two stories and lots of places to store things.  Or hide things, depending on how you look at it.

I don't think it is haunted.......

and I really don't go for the whole possession thing.....

but something, my blog friends, is up.

Or the FQ is crazy.....that has not completely been ruled out. (And is actually more likely, but not nearly as entertaining story as this will be....where was I?)

Here is why I say this......

I swear if husband and are in the house....which is no where near the shop - the shop is a good 75 feet away from the house, and we happen to say "I am going to go out to the shop and get insert prop or part name here" or if I say "I think insert prop or part name here is out in the shop."

It hears us.

Locates the prop.

And hides it.

I know, you think I am crazy......but wait, let me explain my theory.

I think the shop is lonely.  Lonely?  Yes, stay with me here.

Because we are not out there working every *(&*# waking hour like we will be in a few months.....I think it gets lonely and restless.

If it is restless for too long, I think it starts to get "playful"

....in that really annoying "if you are not going to pay me attention I am going to draw on the walls" way.

You know when the cat still wants to chase the red laser dot and you are so done.....but stupid cat continues to stare at the wall where it was and you feel bad after a couple of minutes and start playing with them again.....

...something like that.

So what does it do to "play".......it hides things.

Not just any "things" - specific things......

From the dinning room* it hears us talking about something......"I am going to go get the small caged skeleton out of the shop."  Normally we hang that prop in a specific place, have for years.  It should be there right now.Go out to get it after saying that and "poof" - gone.

No where to be found.

You can go searching for it....but that would just be silly.

Silly person, shop has hid it in another dimension and will not release until after you have spent an hour look for it, given up, gone back in the house, and forgotten about it.

But ah, here is where it gets you.....next time you go out in the shop it is there!!! Right there in plain sight.

How the heck????

We are currently looking for a prop....one that we really need.

Spent some serious time looking for it.

I bet if I go out there now......it is sitting on the table saw or something, or I will trip on it on the way in the door....cause the other thing the shop does when you are not paying it attention is hurt someone......the crew will back me up on that one.....

* Just want to clarify that I am not saying the shop has super hearing....the house could be in on the whole thing.  I have never trusted the house. (shhhhh, don't tell him I said that.)

It would be easier if you

just took my word for it and subscribed to Hauntcast :D

....or you can wait until you watch this promo....cause I know you were all waiting for me to endorse Hauntcast before you subscribed :D

Thanks for the mention Chris.....he called us a "premier home haunter"!! Really?!?!  Okay....that put no pressure on us at all....none....none at all.....

We are so proud

of our local Milwaukie High School Dance team, they took first place in their division this weekend at the state level dance competition!!  Way to go girls!  We are very proud of you!

For those that have no idea why the Frog Queen would post this, the Milwaukie High School Dance Team has been preforming a version of Thriller in our driveway every year for our open house and Halloween night for the last four years - it is a fundraiser for the team and great fun for the community.

Here are the videos for the past year performances, great to watch them evolve.

Congrats again ladies from the Davis Graveyard!!! We are so proud!

2007



2008


2009


2010

And for a while there

we thought no one was going to order these videos :)

We spend last night and this afternoon getting the packaging labeled and ready to go for getting the DVD collection when they arrive on Monday!

Is everyone as excited as we are?

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

If it is not dead

It better be plastic!

So I go into the kitchen to get a drink....it is Friday!!! I am pretty sure there is a bottle of wine around with my name on it.....first I need a drink of water......so I go to the sink to get my glass.

Not to drink the water from the tap.....that is scary, in the not good way!!! I have tasted the water in my city...it will kill you......or try too....

I was distracted for a moment, but here I am,

....back on track.....now. where is my wine opener?

Sorry, it has been a rough week in marketing...

...anyway....I see this!!

WTF!!!

Deep breath, seen this before.... cannot remember what evil (just in case any of you think I am singling you out...I think all of my followers are evil....in that good way I mean) blogger sent it to me...could be Shellhawk could be Dave at Shadowfarm.....they are both way too fond of sending me spiders. They are evil!!!  We all know I like evil...but.......

I hate them :D

JK...no really....both of you.....stop sending me spiders!!!

------- A quick message from the Davis Graveyard cats-----
Do not listen to the frog queen.....we love plastic spiders.....send lots....bags of them....PLEASE!!!
Swat!
........meoooooooow.......

........get away from my keyboard you furry minions!!

No more plastic spiders my blogger friends!!!   I tell you...no more spiders!!!

Cause they are Dor's favorite.

Normally I love my little gray kitty.  She is cute...

...when she is sleeping....

....when she is awake she finds plastic spider to bat around ....she loves the blogger "friends" that keep sending them to me......

...did I mention I hate you all :D

Anyway, I know it is her doing....two reasons:

One, it is a plastic spider - as I have mentioned.....her favorite toy.  She leaves the real spiders to her big brother...who does not kill them....he just corrals them in a corner for me to collect and take outside......little demon cat.  Actually at 18lbs.....big demon cat!!!

Second...she is the only cat in the house that is not afraid of the sink.  Seriously, she would probably jump in the tub with me....she is a freak...what kind of weird cat likes water?!??!?  She is crazy.....

....just like me.  I knew I liked her for a reason.....

anyway.....

......let us see if that reason, and the fact that she is really cute when she is sleeping, can keep her me killing her for scaring the h*ll out of me .....again....

She better be looking really sweet when I find her.......yes, REALLY sweet......

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

I had better give these away

before they go bad and I kill one of you.

That did not sound like I wanted it to.....let me explain.

While in Penzance (Cornwall) I was in the Tesco picking up supplies for the flat - by "supplies" I mean wine.

Someday I will explain "frog queen speak" to all of you, for now just try to keep up.

And I saw by this register a bunch of Halloween candy and stuff on sale, no surprise since it was mid-November.

Two things happened in my little brain at the the same time......one, COOL!  Halloween stuff in the UK (they are slowly starting to celebrate, but they have nothing on us crazy Americans) and two, I must get some of this for my blog friends!!!

Now, if husband had not been there I would have dumped the whole basket of candy and goodies into my cart. Cause I really did not want to have the "Are you really buying that stuff for your blog friends" conversation....again.

So I grabbed a handfull of stuff - thinking I can get away with the chocolate and red wine combination is why I just threw 3 bags of candy into the cart.

He is too smart for me. "You are getting that to giveaway on your blog aren't you?"

I have been found out.  Damn, I am not as clever or mysterious as I thought....hum.  That is a problem for another day.

A few days later we are back at Tescos.....and there is still more stuff left, so I grab some more.

That is when I notice under the candy that there are glow in the dark witch fingers and handcuffs.....

....handcuffs?  Really?

Okay, you can take this two ways.  One....wow, they are really getting into the adult side of Halloween, cause who does not celebrate (after the ToTs are gone) Halloween later that evening without handcuffs?  I mean you are already wearing the policeman costume? :D

Or....more likely, the UK is still grappling with the whole Halloween thing and thinks that kids would want plastic handcuffs as a Halloween treat.  Now, I remember being a kid and plastic handcuffs were cool - especially being the oldest of four kids....these were great to torture your siblings with!  Loved them....just did not think of them as a Halloween thing.

And it looks like I am not the only person that found this amusing....this local blog made this clever post.

Despite these two things going on in my head......I grabbed them!  I mean they are Halloween items from far away....someone at home is going to think they are cool!  I cannot be the only crazy one? Right?

Husband rolls his eyes, grabs the handcuffs, looks at me and them puts them back in the cart and walks away.  I don't think he wanted to be at the register with me when I was checking out :)

But when I left there were still a few things in the sale basket....they haunted me (pun intended) I voved to just grab the lot on my next trip....who was I kidding picking up a few things at a time.  Silly frog queen.

Sadly, on the next trip the sale basket was empty - part of me wanted to ask the staff if maybe they just had them in the back ready to throw out.....but with my American accent, I have to admit I chickened out.

Admitting that this part of my journey had come to an end I packed all my goodies in the box of stuff we shipped home.  What I got would have to do.

So, after taking two months to get here,and sitting in my office for almost another two months, I have decided that I really should give these away before the candy goes bad and I posion one of my blogger friends.

So, this giveaway comes with a warning, although husband and I have both eaten these candies (really, does chocolate every really go bad :D) and lived.....you do so at your own risk.

I have two sets for two winners.

Each winner will get:

Notice I took the picture in front of the map of the area we bought the stuff....silly me.

A bag of Cadbury "Dead Head" candies.  They are "mini milk chocolate heads with red caramel centers" - yum!
A set of Tesco glow in the dark witch fingers
A set of Tesco glow in the dark handcuffs

So, anyone that leaves a comment on this post will be entered to win.  I will draw two winners on March 25th.  I will ship anywhere, Canada, New Zealand....I will even send them back to the UK again - that would be a laugh. 

Love helping out my fellow bloggers

And one of my favorite bloggers, someone who has followed my weirdness and been a great blog buddy since the beginning has been my friend Max over at The Drunken Severed Head blog.

He is funny and clever and always has something interesting to say...all the things that I want to be. :)

Anyway, he asked me if I would do him a favor.  It involves a  blog called FRANKENSTEINIA.

It is a great blog - I would say the best blog on the subject, not that I profess to follow them all, but I follow many, and this is my favorite.

If you love Frankenstein, you need to follow this blog, it is like a little bit of heaven....ah, just makes me warm and fuzzy thinking about it :)

I particularly love his post on the Frankenstein skeleton.  That graveyard is the bar on which I hold the Davis Graveyard to.  In my mind I want my yard to look like that.....now if I could just get husband to let me dye the grass and the trees gray! :D

A favor for a friend that involves a blog about Frankenstein is really not a favor.  Anyone that knows me knows that Frankenstein - the original film - is my favorite movie and a huge influence on my yard display.

So I ask you my lovely and talented blogger friends to vote for his blog in the Rondo Awards.  (and start following his blog!!)

For those of you that do not know the Rondo Awards, check this site. (Really have you been living under a rock or something? :D)

They are great awards the recognize the best of the horror community.  Very coveted and very cool!

So if you have not already voted, please click here and vote for FRANKENSTEINIA as the best blog.

Thanks again everyone!  Now back to prop building!

There is always a downside

to almost everything....I guess that is perspective really. Blogger is free, so I should not be complaining.

Okay - I had to un-follow bunch of people because Blogger will only let you follow 300 people. Now you can get around this by just pressing the follow button on the blog you want to follow and it will allow you to go over.

But when I want to follow someone that is not on Blogger. let's say, the equally lovely WordPress, I have to add them manually to the system....which Blogger will let you do, provided you are not over 300 people.

I have been very slack about visiting some of my "other" blogger friends because I had them in a file with all the links....that unfortunately I did not check as often as I should.

Man, I don't think I will undo that catholic guilt thing ever.....

So what happened was I had to un-follow a bunch of people so I could add some non-Blogger people to my blog roll. Sucks. So I wrote you all down and I am going go back to following you as soon as I can visit all your blogs and hit the follow button again.

Okay, Blogger.....raise the limit please, I don't want to have to do that again!

Thanks for understanding everyone!!

We really appreciate

all the support of the Home Haunter DVD collection!

I know that many of you have helped us out with blog and Vblog posts...thanks to all of you.

No, I am not going to mention the names, cause I will forget someone and get myself in trouble! :D

But I want to make a special mention to that latest one from dEdmontonTV. If you have not seen their show, check it out. I first found it because one of my favorite haunters and good friend Grant lives there.....here I thought he lived in the middle of no where.

Well, it is the middle of nowhere with really cool haunters! Awesome.

Just want to say thanks to them for mentioning the DVD collection on their latest show. Thank you, thank you!!!

This is why I don't go to Transworld anymore.....I see all these cool pictures and just weep for the fact that I cannot possess all the shinny things.....or even make all the shinny things I see.  My current Davis Graveyard to-do list already goes out for years......if I keep seeing these pictures, I am going to have to live to 150 in order to make all this stuff!!!!

The woman in the picture frame prop is my favorite so far.  I must make one of these for our party....or to just leave up in my office all year :)  It is about 17 seconds into this video:



Thanks everyone for sharing.  For those that want a good run down, one of my favorite links this year is from Jeff over at Mr. Skeleton (nice guy!) - he went around and interviewed many of the vendors and got lots of footage.  Thanks Jeff, see you at HAuNTcon!

Guess which project

these are for? 40 2x4 pieces of white foam core......

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Dear......

My good friend at work sent me this - not really "halloween" related.  But very funny.....and the last one if perfect for the frog queen :D

Dear Twilight fans,
Please realize that because vampires are dead and have no blood pumping through them, they can never get an erection. Enjoy fantasizing about that.
Sincerely,
Logic

Dear J.K. Rowling,
Your books are entirely unrealistic.. I mean, a ginger kid with two friends?
Sincerely,
Anonymous

Dear America,
You produced Miley Cyrus. Bieber is your punishment.
Sincerely,
Canada

Dear Yahoo,
I've never heard anyone say, "I don't know, let's Yahoo! it..." just saying...
Sincerely,
Google

Dear Nickleback,
That's enough.
Sincerely, 

The World

Dear iPhone, Please stop spellchecking all of my rude words into nice words. You piece of shut.
Sincerely,
Every iPhone User

My personal fav


Dear Giant Spider on the Wall,
Please die. Please die. Please die. Please die. CRAP! Where did you go?
Sincerely,
Terrified (aka - the frog queen.)

Doing something for ourselves

After days and days of working on projects for our other haunt friends, we finally spent some time working on our website and sending out an email to our subscribers.

If you visit Davisgraveyard.com you will see that we have added a Facebook link, YouTube and a button to sign up for our newsletters.

We also updated many of the pages including adding new photos to the 2010 gallery.

Our email system had a little problem with removing spaces from the latest email we sent out, but besides that....all seems to be going well.  More to do, but I feel we are making progress.

Hope everyone who is at Transworld is having a great time.  Wish I could be there!! Take lots of pictures for us please!!

All is better now

We got this comment on my first blog post about the Faux Panel mix up.  It is from Steve, the CEO. I knew not everyone would check the old post....so I reprinted it here.

Hello folks

I'm the CEO of FauxPanels.com. I am terribly sorry for our mistake!! We donated red brick to that build AS WELL. Here's what we donated...

http://www.fauxpanels.com/faux-brick-panels/brick-styles.php?color=64

It was delegated to my web team to post the red brick pictures that we donated to our website. My web team mistook your brick product with ours. It was an honest mistake. I am embarrassed and so sincerely sorry for this!! I can see how it would cause aggravation. As soon as I heard about this news I delegated to my web team to take it down. and they took it right away.

As my company has grown quite a bit and it's hard to keep track of everything that goes on. I cant double check everything my employee do like I used to.

Again very sorry for any aggravation this caused you!

Apology accepted and much appreciated.  Thank you Steve.

All is well in the Frog Queen realm.....now back to working on HAuNTcon and West Coast Haunters Convention stuff!!!!  Oh, and the prop building....gotta start that some day soon!!!

Because I am a ......

...a b*tch, or more clearly, because I am feeling b*tchy :D

Let me start by stating this as my stand on the whole Faux Panels mess.

We heard through someone else (we have never been contacted by them directly) that they messed up and they apologize.

Okay - I guess I could see how that can happen.  I am sure that the marketing department (or what ever department created the pieces on their site) did not know exactly what had been donated to the Nightmare Factory build.

I mean if you check them out they have donated to many Extreme Home Makeover projects.  Be it charity or marketing.....still a kind thing for them to do no matter the motivation.  I completely respect that.

And I a fine with how things are going.  They removed the pictures from their website.  Thanks.

But the video - which does not feature any of their product....is still up.  Granted could be another department, maybe no one knows how to remove it....I don't work there, I don't know.  I am sure they will sort it out in due course.  Again.....no one is perfect, I am sure they plan to take it down as soon as possible.

This is going to be the last time I address this on this blog* - unless it is something positive.  Like they sent us flowers or something :D

But, before I bury the hatchet.  Husband and I (I am such a bad influence on him) made our version of the video they used to show their product in the Nightmare Factory.  We got the same promo disk they did :)

Faux Panels version
http://www.fauxpanels.com/osd-tour.php

Our version


This is meant to be funny....and I know that sense of humor is subjective, I am not sure how long I will keep it on our site - so check it out now....I might delete it by the end of the day :D

If you ever wondered

If you could use a cookie cutter to cut pizza? You can. Pumpkin shaped slice of Trader Joes Mushroom Truffle Oil pizza. Yum!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Learning about frogs

So, there are a couple scary frog movies...well, I say scary loosely :D

So after some research I find out that indeed truth is stranger than fiction.  My I present the Hairy Frog.

Now if his looks are not creepy enough, the tadpoles have several rows of horned teeth when they are born.....it gets better........what he can do is ((shudder)) just creepy.

From Wikipedia:


The hairy frog is also notable in possessing retractable "claws" (though unlike true claws, they are made of bone, not keratin), which it may project through the skin, apparently by intentionally breaking the bones of the toe. In addition, the researchers found a small bony nodule nestled in the tissue just beyond the frog's fingertip. When sheathed, each claw is anchored to the nodule with tough strands of collagen, but, as Gerald Durrell discovered firsthand, when the frog is grabbed or attacked, the frog breaks the nodule connection and forces its sharpened bones through the skin.

I gotta lie down now :)

I used to like frogs......I might be looking for a different blog name.

On a lighter note

We sent the final-final version of the Haunters DVD collection out to be proofed by a few people that have not been watching them over and over for the past three weeks.  Once we get back the last of the changes we will get a master set to the duplicator, hopefully on Friday.

I will keep you posted of the shipping date....but we are almost there.  You are going to love the set and I and Husband are going to love having our life back :D  It was great fun, thanks everyone that submitted - this could not have happened without you.

On the awards side.  Husband has found us five past winners that have graciously agreed to judge the videos for the 2010 Home Haunter Video Awards.   We normally order the awards from Mike at Ghost Ride who gives us a great price (thanks Mike) and I am sure when he gets back from Transworld he will get out order started :)

We hope to be able to announce the winners at HAuNTcon!

Good luck everyone....I don't envy the judges....there are just too many good videos out there to choose from!!!

I don't think so

By the way Faux Panels.com

Walls created by the Davis Graveyard....no matter what anyone else says.

You in fact did NOT make the panels that you claim to on your website.

You were supposed to, but you declined at the last minute and left Alex at Extreme Home Makeover in a terrible mess that she asked us to help with.  We worked on finding the 160 needed panels of pink foam and got crew together to create them all over the weekend so they could be picked up and installed during the week prior to the build.....which we were at and made most of the brick paneled walls that you are claiming you provided.

Seems these guys are taking credit for our work on the hallway and boiler room brick walls.

http://www.fauxpanels.com/osd-pictures.php

  

along with a video

http://www.fauxpanels.com/osd-tour.php

http://www.fauxpanels.com/home-makeover-products.php

They did in fact donate the brick panels in the prom photo op room. 

But they are saying that all the brick work is their panels. 

:(

I would like to say I am a better person that I am and that I am not upset.  But I am.  Our crew worked really, really had to create those walls......I hate to see them written off by a company that easily.

Proof we did the work.  Just in case there is any doubt. :)

I can guarantee I will never purchase from them, or recommend them ......ever, even if I own a haunt.....never.

Have a nice day and back to prop building.

Okay, I have either one or three

more boring blog posts about our vacation to the UK.

I know that I have bored you all to tears with my silly vacation follies....so now I am going to let you take control of the content of this blog.

....or the first and LAST time......

...we discovered Castle Combe and Lacock.........the where B-R-l-I-L-L-A-N-T-!  

Since my St. Just pictures failed....could be the crappy photographer.......I think I might bore you with photographs rather than a slide show.....for those that skippped it.......your loss :D

So....do you want one post of all the pictures from the day.....

.......or do you (Neil Gaiman) Stardust fans want me to break it into two differnet blog posts?

BTW.....I have the best and most UK story to tell you about Lacock and them filming Harry Potter....if the those of you that follow this blog from the UK know the stories...can you just duck out for a bit....I want to tell it :D

Let me know.

One long post?  Or three creative "frog queen" posts?  I promise to be at the top of my game on these!!

:D

Ha....like you have a choice!!!!!

Back to something important....ME!!!

Okay - I lied.  I took pictures of the cemetery in Lacock's....not on the tour...in fact, almost missed the bus back....that is getting blog post if you like it or not!!

:D

You really need to come with the Frog Queen on her next tour....really, I have such sights to show you.

(Clive Barker rip off I know....but I am a fan...so forgive me!!)

You like us, you really, really like us

Just want to say a big thank you back at Grimlock Manor for the very flattering blog post.

Really appreciate the mention and the attention.

Great blog that for some reason I have missed.  I have rectified that situation and you should too :)

Back to prop making!

Best wedding cake

topper - EVER.  E-V-E-R!



see more My Food Looks Funny

Okay, I am not above

begging for people to order the Home Haunter DVD collection.  We are at about 30 orders, we could really use 50....that would be good.  It is a great set.....it has over 60 haunts on it.

Husband and I created this really clever and cool intro video that is loosely based on the Pixar studios intro.  We created a new menu screen and animated intro to each haunt....just in case not seeing all the cool haunts was enough of an enticement.

Here is the very lame logo that I came up with for the set.   I will get it on the site soon. Yes, I know it sucks, but it is all I could come up with at 2:00am -  and not in a drawing mood.  But it is better than that skull picture.....I am sooooo tired of that. :D

Anyway, have a great weekend prop building!!

Every year we "debate"

about our Davis Graveyard video.  I could bore you with the details but I think I have done enough of that already.... :)

Anyway, after much debate and concessions on both sides, we have it done and uploaded on YouTube.



To see a clearer and larger version of it in your own living room, be sure to order a set of the Home Haunter DVD collection.  I mean there are other haunts there too....but that is just icing on the cake!

I crack myself up.

Thanks and back to prop building!!!

The DVDs are for sale!

We are just about done compiling the Home Haunters DVD set, so we are starting to take orders.

Big thanks to all the haunters that turned in videos.  This whole thing would not be possible without you!!!

$25.00 for five fantastic haunt filled DVDs
$18.75 (for those of you that submitted a video)

There is a $3.50 charge for shipping and handling.

Click here for a complete list of all the videos in the set.

Click here to order.  Please buy a set...if we can sell just 50 sets I will not have to go seriously into debt to make these things......I have big bar tabs coming at HAuNTcon for the crew.  I have to save my money! :D

Okay, I mean I had to post

this one...really, I had to :D

My answer from now on is

"No.  I would love to help you but, no."

This is mostly to let you all know to help me, if I do something stupid like volunteer to do a logo or anything like that for you....remind me of the above statement.

Between now and the end of July, this is my life.  Just in case you were wondering what the Davis Graveyard looks like from behind the scences.

Day Job
For my work I have our Annual Meeting (my favorite event in the whole wide world) and an very large, fancy (black tie and ball gown) and high stress Wine Auction for a local children's hospital.

Home Haunters DVD collection
We (mostly husband) have been collecting all the haunts - editing and creating some of the videos - then fitting them all on the DVDs - mastering the DVDs (we are eating through a whole lot of DVDs burning and watching, correcting and then repeat) - checking for spelling and all that good stuff.  I am going to apologize in advance to those of you that I am going to mess up spelling on - no matter how many times we proof it, something is going to be wrong.   We created new intro screens and all kinds of fancy stuff....yes, we are over achievers.  Get the cover designed and ready to go.

Then we can start selling them to raise money to actually have them made.  After that, send them off to be mastered and created and then packaged and mailed out.

I really wanted to get the website updated on this one....but that is going to have to wait. (Thanks to Pumpkinbrain for offering to help, I will be in touch)

Home Haunters Video Awards
Finding judges (thank you, thank you to all of them) for the awards.  Collecting that information and talling up the winners.  Ordering the awards and getting the plaques made.  Then mailing them out to the winners.  Posting the winners on the forums and website.  Congrats in advance to every one....there can only be a few winners, but you all did a great job.

Spiderfest 2010
I did not forget about this....I know that my actions would say otherwise.  I have been working on the photos for all the fantastic people that sent me a spider.  Thanks, I think :)  I am going to get them printed and framed and then take a tally of shirt sizes and get everyone out a shirt.  My original plan was to pass this off to another haunter this year - and keep doing that year after year.  So I need to get that moving and see if anyone is interested in taking up the mantle.  Watch the Spiderfest blog for details.

HAuNTcon
We are heading up the Take N' Make section of the event (with a lot of help from the fabulous Karen) - so outside of our two classes we have to get all the information from the people making the class for the website and the program.  Then we have to make sure all the materials are there for all the classes,which includes printing the handouts.  We will arrive a day early to Hauntcon to go supply shopping and get the room ready.

Teaching a Davis Graveyard Tombstone class.  I have to design the tombstone, create a handout, print the epitaphs and get accents ready.    Tombstone classes normally don't do well I am told - we are telling them that our tombstones are differnent and we fill up classes at our house every year......I hope we are right.

Teaching how to create the stack of books with a skull and an candle on top.  This is the companion piece to my HP Lovecraft tombstone.  I love it.  One of my favorite follies.  We have to pour skulls, get the handout and supplies ready.  Like I said I love this prop, lets hope others do too.

I wake up in the middle of the night terrified that we are going to do all this stuff for Hauntcon and no one is going to sign up for our stuff and Leonard never talks to us again......really, not kidding.

Demonstration Seminar
Foam texturing techniques.  We are basically going to try to fill the gap left by Bad Boys at Hauntcon (they will not be there this year.)  We need to create an outline and a PowerPoint presentation.  Now this one freaks me out.  These are huge shoes to fill.  They are were we learned most of our stuff from......how can we even possibly hope to pull this off.  I just hope we do not suck too much.  We are riding on the coat tails of working on the Extreme Home Makeover project.....lets see if all that work we did to use that logo pays off. :D

Printing & Marketing
I am handling the a postcard mailing to both vendors and attendees, including extras to handout at Transworld.  I am creating a media kit and getting the Wikipedia site online.  I am then creating the full color program for the event.

Making a Graveyard - The Davis Graveyard Way
We are going to spend all day on Monday making a small version of our graveyard.  We figure after we practically killed ourselves on the Nightmare Factory, we should be able to pull this off.  Let us hope we are right.  To try to make this more intersting....we are going raffle off the whole set up to one lucky attendee.

West Coast Haunters Convention
Helping with by creating a program and any other printed materials he needs.  I have really been slacking on this one, I have much more I need to do.  Got to get moving.

Tombstone Workshop
Teaching our famous tombstone class.  Hope people show up :)

Foam Carving Seminar
Same seminar that we will have done at Hauntcon a few weeks earlier....this will be a piece of cake.  Right? :D


Where I live 
Husband is chairman of the arts committee...there is always something interesting going on there :D
I just started a Facebook Page for the Neighborhood Association and told everyone I would "keep it up" :)
We have a community garden terrace thing that needs weeding and tending to, and we need to get on that sooner than later.

We are going to have a wedding in my garden in July.....and last week part of the garden fence collapsed and needs to be replaced :D

I am supposed to be redecorating my office......I got the lath and plaster ceiling fixed yesterday and the blinds ordered.....that is a start.  And there is a long list of around the house projects that need to be done.

And we still have not cleaned the shop from Halloween!!

I did plan on creating some stuff and getting it on Etsy....Ha!

So what am I doing now.....off to google "how to clone a person"!!!

Davis Graveyard takes over Hauntcon

Well, it is official.....we are invading Hauntcon!  Yes, this time we are taking the fantastically talented crew with us so we can show them how we do it Davis Graveyard style.

You will get to meet the Frog Queen (Chris), husband (Jeff), Dan, Elyssa, Toph and Dawn.  If we are not in a class, you will likely find us in the bar :D

We are starting by heading up the Make and Take section of the event.  Cross fingers it all goes well.  And with that we are teaching two classes:

#1 Davis Graveyard Tombstone Class ($25)

#2 Making a stack of books with a skull and candle prop (made from foam) ($20)

Both those classes have a materials charge

Then we are teaching a foam texturing seminar.  We are going to go over some of the many techniques we have learned (thanks to Bad Boys Scenic Design) that we used to make over the Nightmare Factory for Extreme Home Makeover.

That  demonstration seminar is free (included in the show cost)

Then on Monday we are teaching an all day class- if anyone signs up for it :D  We are going to make a starter graveyard, based on many of the props we have in our display.  The plan so far is: (the descriptions link to pictures of the individual props from our display.)

Dozen tombstones
Sleeping Beauty style tomb (same top, larger full size above ground tomb)
Nevermore monument
Farewell monument
Houdini monument
Faux wood coffin (cat not included)
Book with skulls and light

Deocrative treatments (moss and webs)
We will also show you how we use mini spotlights to light the cemetery

(That is the plan so far)  We are going to make this all in one day.  You can watch us make the props and ask us questions about how we make them and the tools we use.

The best part?  We will have a raffle at the end of the day and one lucky winner will go home with the whole lot....props, lights and all.  You could potentially get a Davis Graveyard for $150!!!  Seriously, that is one amazing deal :)

We hope to see you there.  If you fellow bloggers can help me get the word out that we are at Hauntcon and help us get support for our classes I would be forever in your debt. :)

Be sure to check the Hauntcon page to see all the other cool classes and seminars.