Halloween 2010 has come and gone. It was a great night in our new digs. Over the last couple of weeks most of the neighbors would walk by and stare at the goings on. But they would do so quietly. Waiting… Watching… If I dare say, there was a level of uncertainty and a bit of morbid curiosity seasoned with a bit of apprehension as to what was about to be unleashed into their small quiet community. But the night came and sure enough once it was dark the trick-or-treaters arrived. It wasn’t a steady stream but small groups arriving at intervals. Almost as if they were each awaiting the safe return of the previous group before venturing out.

I refuse to compare it to our previous location. It was just a different experience all together. For our first year we nearly hit one hundred visitors (rough estimate based on remaining candy). And while we packed in nearly three times that many at our old location what we got here was much better.

Things slowed down around 8:00-8:30 most likely due to being a school night. But in retrospect I liked it that way. Usually around nine we would get the older teens looking for a free hand out not even wearing a costume. But again, not here. Guess the old saying holds true… Quality over quantity!

While all went well during the evening, we did hit some bumps during setup. The wind was pretty bad and I was hesitant to put the gargoyles up on the columns in fear they’d go flying off in a big gust sending some poor soul to the hospital. However the biggest trouble was with our new addition The Soul Reaver Pumpkin Scarecrow. No matter how I weighted the base it just could stand the winds. It eventually toppled over. In the end I had to move it closer to the line of trees along the side of the house and secure him to the tree with some rope. While he withstood the rest of the evening and through the night and into the morning, the beating it had taken from the wind earlier in the day light hours was too much. After removing him from his tether he just gave up and fell over.

I’ll just have to reinforce the base and rebuild the support frame, he’ll be good as new.

Anyways, we’re all looking forward to next year with great delight. I’ve got a couple early ideas of the direction I want to go so well… It’s gonna be fun!

I have plenty of pics from the evening over at Faegoria.com, click on the image below and head over to check em out.

The old Olympus Stylus 820 was on it’s last legs so we replaced it today with a Panasonic DMC-ZS5 and I must say so far I’m SUPER impressed with the quality of the pictures taken in low light. I only played around with the presets and Starry Sky with the shutter set to 15secs got some amazing shots. Gonna have to dig in and start programming some custom ones because 15 seconds might be too long and I also want to play with aperture settings as well. I noticed that shots with a lot of red got overexposed with some parts showing white.  But then again the camera was around $250 so I think I’m getting a pretty good amount of bang for those bucks. Check out some of the shots of the current yard setup below.

The first two darker pics of Harry the Scarecrow were taken in Night Scenery mode, the rest in Starry Sky. Need to find a happy medium between the two.

The countdown has started and only 30 short more days till Halloween. Per our annual tradition, Harry the Scarecrow went on display this afternoon. It was raining but tradition must go on. This is not his official position but alas this is where he’ll be most of October until the major stuff starts going out. Usually we try to put at least one thing out a day with more and more added the closer it gets. We might have to take it slow this year being a new house and the lawn care company has one more visit. I don’t want any of the extension cords or stones getting damaged.

The witch jars are nearly done. I was able to grab some shots of several of the intermediate steps so you folks can see how it’s done.  Like I’ve stated before, I can’t take full credit for these as they were inspired by Pumpkinrot who’s the real mastermind behind them.

So lets start with what you’ll need:

Mason Jar, black and red acrylic paint, some twine, Elmers Glue, a couple brushes, some bendable hemp wire, a tea light, and optionally some dyed cheese cloth.

I started with an empty mason jar (Michaels has various sizes, however the larger of the two complete ones above is an empty pepper jar). I then took some red acrylic craft paint and loaded a small brush. First painted the bottom of the jar then with a loaded brush jiggled it around the inside (try to avoid touching the sides directly and go mostly for splash). I then used black paint for the inside of top where the lid would screw on.

When that was all done I coated the outside in elmers glue for a glaze effect (a decent glaze will work just as well).

I then took the dyed cheese cloth and glued it to jar.

Next I took a wire hemp and bent it for the handle. I partially looped each end and taped it to the jar with black electrical tape.

Then I just wrapped twine around the lip covering the hook until I was satisfied then brushed on a heavy coat of elmers glue so the rope would stay. After it dried I bent the loops the rest of the way up.

After everything dried I went back and touched up the hemp string by dry brushing with black paint using the smaller brush.

Pretty much it.

The lights are the little battery powered tea lights. I like the six piece sets that come from CVS as the plastic cover can be removed without having to cut it off.

Thanks again to Pumpkinrot for the wonderful inspiration.