Season's Greetings

Happy Halloween from the Merrill family.

Do You Want To Be Scared?

My oldest son just brought me this picture.  That is why he is my favorite... for now.  I just love the idea behind the picture.  I think it would be great to overhear the exchange.  Someone comes across a reanimated corpse or some other nightmare creature.  The creature asks, "Do you want to be scared?"  To which, the person replies, "Not really, no."  Rather disappointedly, the creature would say, "Alright, perhaps some other time then." And shuffles off in another direction.  It sounds like some kind of Monty Python Halloween bit.  Great stuff.  It really made my day.

Who Stole The Cookie From the Cookie Jar?

Picked this guy up at Target over the weekend.  I finally made some cookies tonight and broke him in.

First Build of the Season

Spent all day Saturday working on props and nearly got finished with my masoleum and flying crank ghost, or as my kids call it the ghost house.  The best part about the whole thing is that the only part on the whole project that I paid full price for was the fishing line holding up my ghost puppet.

Dreams

Not far from my house is an old run-down sugar factory.  I drive by it every day going to and from work.  I have always thought that it would make the neatest haunted attraction.  There are so many things that could be done with an industrial theme.  This has become one of my favorite daydream subjects.  I have decided that I will start keeping a notebook of all my ideas.  I will post them as I get a chance.

It's official. I love the D.I.!

Any prop-builder can tell you that thrift stores are a great asset. Whether you are poor or just plain cheap, thrift stores are the place to go to find "stuff".  Deseret Industries dominates the thrift store market in Northern Utah.  On my last visit to the D.I. or as John Whitten; an old wharehouse manager of mine and e-bay guru likes to call it "Opportunity Villiage", I made out like a bandit.

I picked up this rotisserie motor.  It actually works great!  Can anyone say flying crank ghost?

I also found these two high-temperature glue guns.  Now I can build myself a web gun that actually works.  My first attempt was a miserable failure; and I actually paid for a new glue gun.  Alas!

Copper tubing.  Just what I need to finish my fog chiller.

All in all a very profitable day for me.  If my last visit to the D.I. was one of those corny credit card commercials, it would sound something like this:

One used Kenmore rotisserie motor...$3.00.

One used high-tempurature glue gun...$3.00.

One used coil of copper tubing...$5.00.

Adding three new projects to your build this year...priceless.

Another Melon-O-Lantern

I have become a big fan of melon-o-lanterns. They are quicker, easier, have less seeds, and are much tastier than their gourd counterparts. This was my first honeydew melon-o-lantern. Notice the light spots where I got too close to the rind with the melon-baller.

New For 2009

I decided that I wanted a darker, creepier ambiance in this year's haunt than could be achieved with floodlights. I kind of ripped this idea off from PUMPKINROT's blog. I finished most of them tonight and wanted to post some pictures. I will put together a kind-of how-to later in the week as I deviated from PUMPKINROT's method a little.