DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

    Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient people hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows.  In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits and illness.    In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 and 22, and is call the winter solstice.  Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and the winter came every year because the sun god has become sick and weak.  They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well.  Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.    The ancient Egyptians worshipped a god called Ra, who had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a blazing disk in his crown.  At the solstice, when Ra beg...

       People have been making jack o'lanterns  at Halloween for ages and ages.  The practice started from an old Irish myth about a man named "Stingy Jack".  According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him.  True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy the drinks.  Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul.   The next year Jack tricked the Devil into climbing a tree to pick a piece of fruit.  While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down unti...

THIS IN ONE IN A SERIES BY UPDIKE AND GOREY I  came across this book just by accident while looking for some Halloween and Christmas stuff.  I thought the title was very amusing.   This is one in a series of books written by John Updike and the drawings done by Edward Gorey.  (What a name for an illustrator).  I am going to give you short exerpts of  the TWELVE TERRORS OF CHRISTMAS. Santa:  The man.  Describes his loose-fitting beard, his alcoholic smell, and compares him to one of Steven King's clowns. Santa: The concept.  Questions why anyone would live at the North Pole. Santa's Helpers.  Asks why anyone would work in sweatshop conditions without getting something out of it. O Tannenbaum.  What happens if the tree  falls over? Tiny Reindeer.  The hooves cut through the shingles on the roof and their fur could be full of bugs. Electrocution.  Not only do you have to watch out for the lights, but ...

     All of these guys were the very first things to inhabit my front yard. Them and about 3 different tombstones.  The heads were styrofoam skulls that I cut the jaw so their mouths would open, the bodies are all the cheap blucky skeletons, and the hands were made with with wire, masking tape and cardboard.  To stiffen up the bodies they have pvc to stiffen them up.  Different string and rope thicknesses were used to give them the veins.  The outside skin was carpet rubber glue and paper towels.  Then after they were done drying I diluted some brown latex paint and rubbed dirt into them.  The center pvc that ran up their spines and the one I put leg bones on were held up with a piece of rebar hammered into the grass.

      I found this great website that sells vintage and reproductions of different stuff.  My favorites were the different Halloween and Christmas decorations and the cards and stickers that I remember as a kid going to the  5 and dime store and getting.  They also has a large number of  The Day Of The Dead stuff.  For those that don't know of the day of the dead, it's a Mexican  and Latin American holiday that focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died.  It occurs on November 1 and 2, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls' Day (Nov2). I like all of the older types of decorations, especially the paper ones.  They even have alot of vintage, real old cards, tickets and decorations from the 50's, 60's and 70's.  If you have a chance and want to look at some cool stuff  head on over to http://www.silvercrowcreati...

WEBBING ON THE SKULLHEADED SPIDERS SOME MORE WEBING AND AN EGG SACK GROUPINGS OF CANDLE AROUND SOME TOMBSTONES A CLOSEUP OF THE WEBBING These are a few of the pictures of the different how-to projects I will be giving instructions on for those who have not done these things before, and for those people that have done them I will give may give you a couple new hints or ways I have done them and and have worked out for me.  The first, from the pictures of the spiders with skulls and the egg sacks, will be of how to make webs with a glue gun.  You're probably thinking, I know how to do these! This has been done before!  It may have been done before but I have found an easier way of doing it without having a compressor.  I ran across this way of making webs of of Instructables and in no way taking credit for it.    There will also be one on making candles for your own haunt.  Some of the info may seem the same but I will give you some ...

MY SECOND GROUNDBREAKER WILL VACANCY GRAVESTONE ONE OF MY FIRST PROJECTS MADE OF STYROFOAM GROUND BREAKER COFFIN BASED ON HEADSTONE IN 1800'S CEMETERY IN MY TOWN  ANOTHER BASED ON 1800'S CEMETERY GRAVESTONES MY FIRST TRY ON AN OBELISK MAY LOOK LIKE IT'S LEANING BUT BY FRONT YARD IS ON A SLANT        MY TAKE ON A CROSS  Over the past 4 or 5 years on my haunt I have used alot of styrofoam.  carry the white insulating foam. I like it and sometimes it can get messy.  My tools that I usually use when I'm working with it is a rechargeable circular saw (usually when I'm cutting straight lines).  I also have a Ginsu knife that I'll use when I don't have to cut something of great length.  My other favorites when it comes to curves, cracks and carving texture ( take a look at my to coffins), are the set of foam cutting tools ( I would call them more like foam melting tools) that I got from the Hot Wire F...