Luv your display! I am a new Spooky Town collector and have been working on my display as well. I will post pics when i get it all together.

Thanks for sharing!!

Jamie - your Halloween decorations look great so far. I never saw a Spooky Town before - It must look wonderful lit up in the dark.

Your friends must be excited to attend your party every year - looks like you go to a lot of work to make everything just right. Isn't it amazing how much time it can take to get things just how we want them? When most people (except those on this forum) look at a pic of decor, they have no idea of the time and energy involved in perfecting our ideas. Good thing we enjoy doing it!

Looking forward to more pics from you!

DD

Wow! That is looking great so far. Where did you ever find the picture? I'm sure your friends really look forward to your parties and to seeing all your fun decor. Luvs

That Spooky Town is really neat. I haven't seen one before either. And I like the pirate ship a lot.
I think its so wonderful how you go all out for Halloween.
What a fun thing to do, tho a lot of work obviously.

hugs, Karen

Too Cool! My Son would love that!!
Betty

Your display is great, my fav is the ship too. When they are all lite up at night, I'll bet they really add to the atmosphere.

Thanks, all. :-) They really are neat all lit up and "in action". The Spooky Town series is Lemax - we get ours at Michaels. I was trying to talk hubby into getting another piece this year, but he's dragging his feet due to storage issues (his mom buys us the Dept. 56 Halloween town stuff, and gave us 3 new pieces this year). Silly man...doesn't he know I'll *find* a place for it all? ;-)

They do look cool all lit up - the pirate ship and Frankenstien lab are actually lit up in that picture above, just not showing real well. I'll try to get pictures of them "in action" later. We replace all light bulbs with red or blacklight for the party, so it's very dim all over the house - they stand out well for that.

We found the picture at Target - we shop after Halloween sales a lot (one year we got stuff for 90% off!). It's actually animated too - via push button at the bottom (for the moment) or motion sensor (party night). He says different pirate sayings (in a lovely pirate brogue, of course), and his eyes and tongue bulge out. Very fun.

This weekend I'm going to work more on the Captain's Quarters (TV room)...we have a large ottoman that will become the main treasure chest for the ship, and the ultimate hiding spot for our Treasure Hunt prizes. Hopefully we'll get more done with the Hall of Heads as well, between the Captain's Quarters and the Crew's Quarters (pool room).

Any ideas on turning a large rectangular ottoman (couch length) into a largish treasure chest that still allows it to open up lengthwise? I'll try to post a picture of the ottoman later...

I am green with envy!

I love holiday villages and had never seen a Halloween village.
Next month, I'll visit the stores here in the hope to find such great decorations !

Well, I cross my fingers as I am not sure that these villages passed the Atlantic ocean :-(

I am looking for a pattern for a fabric pumkin and what to stuff it with....thanks, N

Love your great Halloween collection. I dare not show this to DH, as he & I were looking at Spooky Town, the other day and they were doing sales at 40% off. That Pirate Ship is my favorite too and so different. That's all I need is for him to start with this collection, as he is crowding me out w/his Christmas Village.

Hi Nathalie47, welcome to the holiday forum. I think a couple of the gals on the Crafts forum have made the fabric pumpkins. I think it was a circle of fabric with a gathering stitch all around and then stuffed with batting and the gathering stitch pulled up tight and tied off. One used the paper twist ribbon for the stem, then wrapped string/thread at intervals around it and tied it for the sections. You might go over there and type "fabric pumpkins" in the search box so you can get more complete details. And please come back here and share your creations for the holiday with us--we love pics!

Now back to our original post on Jaime's great Halloween decor.

Luvs

Jamie, they're wonderful! Please keep posting more pics here, as I know how much decorating you still have left to throughout your home. It's fun to see all the ideas everyone has come up with!
Lynn

Jamie, you did a great job. I do love the ship and the picture is a nice touch.

Thanks! :-) I see all the really great harvest decorating going on around here, and it makes me want to do that! But I don't do Harvest until November...most of my harvest stuff is too "cute/nice" to go with my Halloween decor...

Anyways, I got a lot more done this weekend than I thought, but only a few things actually "finished", so I'll post the ones I finished today.

Our Pirate Captain (same room as the village above):

We bought that skeleton this weekend, as our other one was just too small. :-) The room isn't done - I need more spider webs to cover the treadmill to his left, but I spent most of the weekend putting webs & maps up all around the border of the room. Pics of that later when it's finished (the room is a wreck right now with my Halloween stuff strewn all over).

Here's the basket that hangs outside by my front door - I redecorate it for each holiday:

The mirror has a sensor in the top - it lights up, a face "appears" with some spooky saying, and then it screams (of course). I don't have that turned on yet - don't want to alienate the neighbors too quickly (though mine are super-nice). When it's off, it reflects several black rosebuds and spiders in the bottom of the basket (I couldn't get them in the picture, because if I stood in front *I* was in the mirror!). :-) The "heads" on the side are lights...I'll plug them in probably next weekend to come on at dusk for 6 hours or so.

I got started on the crew's quarters too, but it needs downlighting to make it "pop", so pictures of that later. I'll post the "No Quarter" hallway between those two rooms in a separate post - some might not care to look at the severed heads we have hanging (but if you do, check out the "Scary Halloween '08" decor post).

Wow, you have been so busy, I know what kind of effort that takes to do all of this, but I am sure your friends really appreciate it. (gosh, and I thought I had need for lots of storage! LOL)

Great going Jamie. I do know that it takes time to set everything up. You are doing a great job.

Both of those displays are terrific. Great job, Jaime. I love your pirate captain, and how fun that mirror will be for all your guests. Luvs

WOWZA, that's a lotsa' work!! I love the ship and am looking forward to seeing it all lit....some dark night when you have time to take pictures :^)
Thanks for showing us!

Double WOWZA! I just love Halloween. You go all out.
Now that my grandchildren are all nearly school age, I have a reason to go all out too (although a bit less gruesome because of their ages).
I like the outdoor basket with the black roses. Is the "rotting material" torn cheese cloth? It looks so cool.
Denise

Jamie, Triple WOWZA! When did you START decorating for Halloween? You do so much, you must work on it every spare minute! It is worthwhile though as you are doing a fantastic job. Really enjoying hearing and seeing your ideas. I will feel like a "virtual" guest at your party!

DD

The Pirate Captain is just way cool. Its such fun seeing your decor since I've never seen anything like this before.
I was in Michaels today to pick up some stuff and made a point to look at the Halloween village stuff. Amazing!!
I had no idea they had all that.
Keep posting those wonderful photos!

hugs, Karen

Denise, the material in the basket is actually dollar store creepy cloth. But cheesecloth works wonderfully - dyed or stained and torn...I had some cheesecloth last year that I dyed with fake blood - I wonder where that went? I could use that in the Autopsy room this year...

The black roses are leftover from last year's "Academy of the Undead Awards" theme...I still have more that I plan to use on "graves" in the yard. :-)

DD, we started on the 20th, I think. And there's way more to do. During the week, after work I'm working on invitations and "paper work", as well as gift bags both for the party and for trick-or-treaters. I work on the decorating weekends and days off - hubby and I take the week before our party off to get the yard done and finish everything up. I counted the other day - we have 12 days left to decorate with Columbus Day and our vacation week included. I'm going to work on the front window and door tomorrow night though - gotta do something to "ring in" October! :-)

Thanks Karen. The Captain's coat is a purple crushed velvet long coat that my mom bought herself as a teenager. She handed it down to me years ago, and while it doesn't fit at the moment, I keep it anyways. It fit perfectly for a pirate coat! We bought a cheap little kid's costume set that included the hat, a hook (which I'll use on another skeleton), a sword (which I'm adding to my own costume), an eyepatch and an earring (which hubby nabbed for his costume). Not bad, really...

Here are a few more pictures of what I was working on this weekend. Cobwebs everywhere!

Webs above our illustrious Captain - I need more, obviously, to completely cover the treadmill (a yearly thing, and something our guests find amusingly ironic):

And the map wall above the couch - I still need to fill the webs with "bugs", hang our dropping spider in the corner, and put "X's" on all the maps:

Then above the TV...again, needs bugs and spiders:

This was around 3-4 bags of cheap webbing that I keep reusing from year to year. So not terribly expensive for a lot of coverage. I have green webbing too, but that will go in the "spider stairwell" this year.

More later!

A few more photos of my efforts last night. I really need to practice taking photos in the dark. It was a lot easier with the film cameras...I'm starting from square one with the digital camera in the dark! I'll figure it out though, eventually...

Since it was Oct. 1st, I plugged in my outdoor basket lights:

And I decorated the front window. Here it is with the flash:

And without the flash (sharpened up a bit, but still blurry):

Why is it not straight on, you ask? Well, because I have a couple of huge rambling rose bushes in front of that window that I need to trim down. They're about 8ft. high, and I'm going to get the loppers out this weekend and trim a couple feet off so I can see my poor skeleton pirate better! I need to add some bloody hands to the window too...gotta figure out where I put those last year...

I put my pirate captain sheet on the door last night too, but it was around 11pm by then, and time to quit messing around with the camera. I might have a "sound conflict" with him and my basket mirror, since they're both sound triggered, and will trigger each other indefinately. *sigh* Maybe I'll just put an electric candle in front of the mirror to illuminate the center of the basket at night, and leave the original effect off this year. The pirate on the door is better for the theme (his eyes light up, and the sounds are pirate sayings and dock/ship sounds).

More pictures tomorrow...I'm taking the afternoon off today to clean, organize, and put invitations together for the party...

" I might have a "sound conflict" with him and my basket mirror, since they're both sound triggered, and will trigger each other indefinately. *sigh*"

Jamie, I have to say, that made me chuckle right out loud.

I am really enjoying your Halloween Decor Journal. Keep it coming.

I am worn out just reading what all you have done and have yet to do! Amazing! It shows when you are "into" something, you are willing to keep at it until you get it how you want it. So enjoying your posts & pics!

DD

Wow, just gorgeous! I love it all!!!

There are a lot of people in our town who "go all out" with decor on their front lawns, they really get into it, but most have no theme to them.

I love your pirate theme you carried throughout the entire house, inside & out! Your guests must love coming to your home!!

Thanks, yachter! But wait, there's more! ;-)

Good lord it's been a Monday today, but I finally broke free for a bit to post a few pictures, and look around at what's new over here.

Here's what we did this weekend that actually got finished.

Our invitations are in the mail - and I have just one blank one left "just in case":

And our "Spider Stairway", which will get a blacklight to make everything glow as soon as we get one that can be used in a ceiling fixture:

I do love my fuzzy spiders...

We also worked on the bar downstairs, the fireplace and mantle area upstairs, and the arch outside. I'll post pictures of those once they're finished.

Whew! We're about half done...half to go yet! :-)

You're only HALF WAY DONE??? I can't stand it!

I'm with OA....half done??? Send me a bottle with some of your energy in it, please.
Where do those huge, fuzzy spiders live the rest of the year? LOL. And I think I have storage problems.

hugs, Karen

Well, yes... :-)

Still on the "to do" list here:

- finish the crew's quarters
- finish the captain's quarters
- Finish the bar/snack area downstairs (ie, ship's hold)
- Do something with the laundry room/basement hallway
- Both bathrooms (up and downstairs)
- The dining room needs to turn into an island buffet
- finish the upstairs fireplace, and the living room
- Put up our cemetery in the front yard (last thing)

And of course I need to put together gift bags for the guests, and we'll get our treasure hunt all laid out and finished next weekend...

But it's all fun! :-)

Karen, the spiders are poseable - which means the rest of the year, their legs fold up rather neatly close to thier body, and they live in an orange and black storage tub in the storage room. Remind me to post a pic of the storage room after I get all this packed back away (not before, sorry, it's a wreck right now!).

I did tell hubby the other day I thought we should look at our attic for more storage... ;-)

Jamie, love your spider stairway! And your invites in a bottle...do you "mail" them that way or hand them out? You and your DH have terrific imaginations to come up with all of these ideas!

DD

Yeah, I'm with DD. I want to know more about those invitations. Glass or plastic bottle? Mailed in a box, or as is with address on them? What's inside exactly?

OA

Plastic bottle, unfortunately. Although glass would be harder to mail. I kind of have to divorice myself from my attempts to avoid plastic during Halloween, or I'd just go nuts with all the stuff we couldn't do. It is recyclable though...

There's about 1 tablespoon of sand inside (with a few drops of water, shaken up to keep it from sticking to the bottle), with 5 tiny seashells, and a little plastic sword. Then you roll and tie the invitation with ribbon that's long enough to stick between the cork and the bottle. The cork is pushed in really, really tightly, and they just go right through the mail like that! I put stamps on them...they are under 2 oz each, so they cost $1.34 each to mail.

Here's what the invitations read this year - printed on parchment paper, of course:
***********************
Get Shipwrecked on Treasure Island at our 5th Annual Halloween Bash!

Ahoy, Mateys!

Put on your best (or worst) pirate garb, and sail over to our haunted island on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 7:00pm for food, fun, and buried treasure. Follow the enclosed map to find our island  "X" marks the spot!

Pirates only  all others will be captured and forced to walk the plank! Ship assignments will begin at 8:00pm, the treasure hunt starts immediately after. Beware the spirits and monstersÂ

Follow the PirateÂs Code of Honor  call xxx-xxxx or email xxxx@xxxx.xxx to either reserve your spot on a ship, or to admit that youÂre too scared of Jolly Ol Roger to go after the booty for yourself. If we donÂt hear from you, youÂll be hearing from BlackbeardÂs GhostÂ

Costumes will be provided for those who "forget" them, as well as a hearty dinner and drinks to ward off that nasty scurvy!

Scare you thereÂif you dare!

Guests under 21 will be consigned to Davy Jones Locker.
**********************************

There's a map of the Carribean on the back, with the closest cross streets as "islands", and a big red "X" by our address.

I try to mail invitations when I can...not only is it fun for people to find different things in thier mail box, it also avoids potential hard feelings between those we invite from our offices and those we don't. We did coffin invitations 2 years ago though that couldn't be mailed - I looked everywhere to find small coffins that were cardboard, but had no luck. So we folded our own from paper patterns, and hand delivered those. Now of course there are little coffins everywhere... *sigh*

People often ask where we get our ideas - and really, hubby and I are normally wondering how people can *avoid* getting so many ideas! Everytime I look through a catalog or walk down a store isle of decorations, more ideas pop into my head, inspired by whatever I see or touch. It just sort of happens!

What a cool message and what a great way to send it.
I'll be there. Did you say 8 o'clock?
OA

You are so very creative Jamie, not only do I love all your Halloween decor, but that invitation is fantastic. I'm so glad you are sharing all this with us--it's almost as good as getting to come to the party! LOL

Luvs

I'm glad you're enjoying it all - I do love to share. I hope someone will let me know if I'm wearing out my welcome with all of these pictures! I really was determined to get better documentation this year though...

I was playing with low-light shots last night, and got a couple that are good enough to post (think I'm finally figuring out the whole "taking pictures in the dark" thing):

The fireplace mantle in our living room (fireplace shots later - the hearth is a mess):

I'm pretty proud of my hanging skeleton there with the changing LED light eyes - he cost me all of about $5 online this year. A friend gave us the pictures last year as "host gifts", so I wanted to showcase them this year.

And my fiber optic Avon village pieces on top of our entertainment center (also in the living room):

We bought an orange bulb for the lamp on a whim, and it really adds to the ambiance up there! You can't really tell from the picture, but the piece down in front is a carosel. When those three sense vibrations, the lights flash and the carosel turns round...they play music to, but I have lots of "sound conflicts" with my decor, so I just have the lights on for those.

No decorating tonight - it's my hubby's pool night, and I usually go along to hang out with the guys. Back at it on Thursday night though!

Jamie....wear out your welcome with PHOTOS ?????
LOL, not a chance. We love photos. We need photos. We crave photos.
So what's next for us to see?

hugs, Karen

Jamie, I had no idea the postal service would mail something like a "note in a bottle" - that's great and good idea for the invites! Love what you did with your fireplace mantel and the Avon pieces are terrific. It is nice to see the low-lights pics and get a feel for what it must look like at night.
Keep the pics coming!

DD