Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Happy Hallows! 2017 Edition

Today's the day, tonight the night of nights!

For all my haunter fiends, may your rain drift away hours before the trick-or-treaters come.
May your fog lie low and no breeze disturb it.
May the scares be filled with laughter and fun, and the candy flow like water.
May "that darn prop" finally work the way it was supposed to, all along.
And may you and yours have a most blessed Samhain.

Happy New Year, my finest of friends! Click on the penny dreadful for a lengthy Halloween playlist.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

A Swingin' Hallowe'en

When you're a Hallowe'en devotee, there's almost nothing sweeter than a trip down the old, spider-webbed corridors of seasonal music.

What's wonderful is discovering the oldies and recognizing the roots of tunes which were re-recorded generation after generation and saying, "Hey! I know that song!"

Click on the pic for a lovely playlist of old Hallowe'en tunes!

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Cat Box Ghost

Via Oh My Disney.

Monday, October 23, 2017

Backwoods Maze

On Saturday night, my friends stole me away from my house for dinner and a haunt. Since we're in Burbank, they took me to the wonderful and incredibly detailed Backwoods Maze. All I can say is, "WOW!"
I think one of the benefits of living in Burbank at this time of year is that there are many, many talented people in this town who love Halloween and scaring people.
Waiting in the queue line...
 I only got a very few pictures, but they were pretty good and should give you a good idea of the quality of the haunt.
They did gorgeous work on the alien eggs, by the way. Really creepy and atmospheric while still providing some light so you don't kill yourself as you walk through.
This guy here reminded me of John Carpenter's The Thing in the very best of ways...
 If you are in the area and want to stop by this wonderful maze, hit up The Backwoods Maze on Facebook!

Happy haunting!

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

The Backwater Gospel

A creepy little story about how when you want revenge, you better dig two graves...

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

The Legend of the Scarecrow - A ShellHawk's Nest Tradition

Click on the pic for a charming story about a lonely scarecrow who just wanted some friends...

This is truly one of my favorite seasonal cartoons. I hope you enjoy it!

Monday, October 16, 2017

Something Familiar

The whimsical art of Peter de Seve.

I would totally take that kitten home!

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Halloween at High Noon - The Descendant

Every year, I eagerly await the newest musical offering from Halloween at High Noon, and I'm so glad their new album is out!

The Descendant, now available on Amazon for download.

You can listen to the interview they did on Hauntcast last year if you click here.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

ShellHawk's Resources for Hallowe'en Goodness!

Looking for Hallowe'en anything?

I know a guy...

Well, I do! And if I don't personally know a guy, I can find out where you can get a thing! And I've put it into a Pinterest board for you, too!

If you're looking to own the best Hallowe'en sounds, click here for recordings you can purchase. Vintage songs, spooky soundtracks and sound effects for the big night abound here!

If you're looking to stock up on horror movies, my Oh, the Horror! Pinterest board won't fail to satisfy. Old films and new, they won't fail to satisfy!

Check out my Jack-o'-lanterns board for ideas to carve yourself a spectacular pumpkin pal to ward off evil spirits on Hallowe'en night!

Curling up by a Fall bonfire with a good book will be easier with a selection from My Scary Bookshelf. It features stories, collections of short stories, DIY and so much inspiration, it's just spooky!

Eleventh hour prop building people need this prop-building library as a permanent home resource, so when you start building next Spring, you'll be rarin' to go! (This is an especially great resource if you have kids in drama class and you help with set design, building, and decorating.)

Lastly, but not least, This is Halloween will fulfill all of your Hallowe'en hunger. These are random things I've collected over the years which inspire me at this most spectacular time of the year.

Have fun, kiddies!

Friday, October 6, 2017

Final Details

If you're one of those crazy people like me, who loves to put detail into every little thing in your Halloween decorations, you might think about putting a small cabinet of curiosities together, or perhaps just a little apothecary display in a handy front window.

I did this a few years back and threw in a Madame Leota effect, and it turned out pretty well!

What you need to do is either cruise through your local second-hand store or just save bottles and jars of different shapes and sizes that you were going to throw out, anyway. Fill up your sink or a bucket and put your bottles and jars in there to soak the labels off completely. After a few hours, most of them will just separate easily from the glass.

If you're handy with Photoshop, you can create your own labels. But if you're like me, the person who keeps saying you're going to learn Photoshop, but somehow never gets around to it, you can search around for cool labels to download. There are plenty of creepy labels available on Etsy, but you can also find free downloads, like this one, from Catch My Party.
At this point, all you really need is a pair of scissors and a glue stick, and you're in business! Fill up the bottles with tonic water and position a black light where it can't be seen, but it will shine down on the bottles, and you've got spooky, glowing bottles! (Tonic water is black light reactive.)

If you're really ambitious, throw on a pair of disposable gloves and take apart some fresh highlighter pens of different colors. Take the ink cartridge and squeeze it into the tonic water for different colored "potions." Throw in some plastic eyeballs, spiders, or whatever you want, to give yourself some variation in your contents. You can even drip some wax on the lids, or use a glue gun to glue down some sisal twine and then drip wax on it for a real, homemade look.
Most of all, just have fun with it, and let your imagination roam!

Happy making!

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Quick Project

Before I left Folsom, another friend was prepping to move at the same time. We were both getting rid of "stuff," as one does when prepping for a move, and one of the things she was getting rid of, was the lantern pictured above. She gave it to me a few days before I left, and I took it out of storage last week to see what kind of refurbishing I could manage.
I liked the bones of it, but not the color. Since I plan to put this up at Hallowe'en, I figured black would do just fine.
 I sanded all the paint off of it, down to the bare wood, after taking off all the hardware. When that was done, I hit it with some Kilz, left over from re-painting my room.
 My dad and I made a quick trip to the hardware store for a few other things, so while I was there, I got myself a can of Rust-Oleum Hammered metal spray paint, in black. I hung up both of the parts of the lantern so I could easily turn them while painting.
 A couple of coats of that paint, and ta-da! 
I think it's going to look really nice on the porch on Hallowe'en night, don't you?

Sunday, October 1, 2017

In the Know: A ShellHawk's Nest October Tradition

Has Hallowe'en become over commercialized?

Click the pic to find out.

Happy October, y'all!