Well, Halloween 2005 is in the books and I'm already looking forward to 2006.  I've learned alot from preparations for this year's haunt.  First of all, cats are mysteriously, magnetically attracted to any project involving glue or paint.  Second, homemade faux flame urns can be aggravating enough to make you want to turn them into ACTUAL flaming urns.  Third and finally, one can never have too many cool coloured flood lights or enough time to do everything you want to do.  I'm going to take the lessons from my first-ever themed haunt and apply them to 2006's "Phantom Pirate Shipwreck" theme!  I'm ready to start earlier and do things on a larger scale.  This year's great experience has me totally psyched for 2006.

Here are the best shots I have of this year's yard.  Bear with me...the camera is new and I didn't know how to take night shots with a digital.  I do know now (alot of good that did me this year), so I will have to practice in order to take better night shots next year.  Seeing all the beautiful long-exposure night shots that other people have taken of their haunts has me inspired. Click on the thumbnails to see a larger version of each picture.

Miss Salem supervises the decorating process...                                  

A pretty decent shot of the house from the driveway

Here there be dragons!

Another shot of the white dragon slithering out from under the porch to see what all the Hallowe'en hubbub is. Uh-oh...looks like we have a new addition to the menagerie!

The Goblet of Fire does its thing behind the protective barrier of the front porch railing.

Welcome to Hogwarts, home of the TriWizard Tournament!

Anybody smell a rat? There's that sneaky Scabbers AKA Peter Pettigrew!

Mao Yang confers with the owls who have come down from the owlery to visit on Hallowe'en night.                                  

Here's another shot of the front doorstep.

I've had my porch decorated with basic Fall/Hallowe'en for a couple of weeks now.  Here are a few pictures of the early progress.  Since these pictures were taken, I added a few real pumpkins to help fill things out.  I tried to keep things very "un-fussy" and classic this year.  We have a big party every Autumn and everyone is always so complimentary of my decorations. Our party this year was October 28th, which gave us the whole weekend to put the finishing touches on additional decorations/props to round out our Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire theme (more pics to be added later!). 

I'm really happy with the way this year's wreath turned out.  The owl is now accompanied by several other life-sized ones that I perched on the pumpkins and on the spooky branch.  The last picture is of my niece, Morgan the WonderMutt, Salem the Cute-and mischeivous-tailless-black-kitten, and myself enjoying the front porch.  The mums flanking the steps are HUGE--the picture does not do them justice!  I'll be taking more pictures of our Harry Potter-inspired props tonight and will get them posted ASAP along with some interior shots.

A long overdue, but quick update...  I've been gathering materials for one of my major props, the Goblet of Fire, which is basically going to be a fan-powered faux flame in a large garden urn.  Sylvain and baby Salem are shown here inspecting the suitability of the raw materials.  I finally found a fan that should be perfect and some silky blue material for the flame.  I hope to get this project done this week and will post some in-progress and finished-product pictures soon! 

Well, it's little ol' me here doin' the blog thing and it's totally new to me.  I'm planning on using this blog to document the progress (as well as the trials and tribulations) of my first ever Hallowe'en yard haunt.  I've always decorated my front porch and the inside of my house extensively for Hallowe'en, but this year will be my first foray into the wonderful world of yard haunting.  My theme this year is "Harry Potter" and I will be using several elements from the fourth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in anticipation of the next movie installment coming out this November. 

I've been taking pictures as my props progress and I will be posting them here soon.  I'll probably also post some pictures of my faithful crew of "assistants".  I'm the proud "mom" of four cats and a dog and they are determined to be underfoot and involved in most everything I am up to!   

Well, that's about it for openers.  Stay tuned...I'm sure there will be thrills, chills and plenty of laughs (blonde moments, knowing me!) leading up to October 31st.  Until next time, I am your ever devoted Mistress of Mischief...

...grapegrl