Try, try again

I'll admit, last year's Halloween party was less than a success. But I've decided to give the idea one more shot. I'm scaling back a bit this year, and inviting a small group of friends to watch a couple horror flicks. Should be fun! I've included some prototype invites for y'all to see (I just blacked out some personal info). I put all the pages in order. Tell me what you think!

My First Halloween Party

Wow, that was a lot of fun! I just got done taking down most of the decor from last night's party. What a fricken' BLAST!!!! Now I've gotta say, there were some drawbacks from the party. First, only three out of 18 people invited showed up, and those who didn't only let me know the day before the party. Gee, thanks guys (sarcasm). So there was a lot of last minute scrambling to change some of the stuff for the party, making it more or less a chance for me and three good friends to hang, watch horror movies, eat pizza, and jam to Rob Zombie. It was fun. But would I try it again? Probably not. I know at least one person invited ditched my party to go to some other party with his little brother. So that's a good indicator people weren't interested. Oh well. I had fun, and so did my guests, who I'm glad to say, all came in costume.

Oh, and how could forget the decor!?! It was as elaborate as many of my haunts, if not more so! I made guests walk around the side of my house through some gravestones, cornstalks, and luminaries to get to my back door, where I had a strobe light. Sadly, my fog machine went bust, so I wasn't able to show off my laser vortex. But the real treat was inside the house. Candles galore, and masks, static Trick-or-Treater props, severed fingers and rubber roaches floating in the soda barrel, green and blue LEDs illuminating things, and the spider's lair-themed foyer. Peoples jaws hit the floor. There was plenty of food, and we all had a good time. It was fun showing my friends Trick 'r Treat for the first time, and watching them scream and jump. After Trick 'r Treat, we watched The Hangover, and listened to more music.

One of the best things to come from the evening was that I may have a future assistant haunter for next year. I'm considering moving the haunt back here to my dad's house in Ohio, and going the extra mile for a really special something. One of my friends, named Grace, expressed interest in helping out next year with props and costumes. Personally, I can't wait. She seems to really enjoy Halloween, and has a lot of potential. Well, folks this is HalloweeNut saying Stay Scary!!!

Party was Success!

More coming soon!!!

Back to Work

Well, my summer vacation's over, and I just finished my first day of 10th grade today. I'll just say this: It's gonna be a long year.

On the other hand, Halloween is getting closer! I can't wait to hand out the invites to my party!

Shopping at Michael's!

Hey, everyone! Just got back from a trip to Michael's looking for some stuff to use in the haunt. Ended up getting some really neat stuff for the party and the sideshow haunt at my mom's house!

Some of the stuff I got included an orange candle, and a black candle (they smell like candy corn and black licorice, respectively). Also got a mini foam skull, pack of pumpkin treat holders that I'll put lights in, and a changing portrait! It changes from a medieval noble to a Grim Reaper. Some of the props are going to be working over time, at both the party and the sideshow. I'm gonna turn the mini skull into a paper-mache shrunken head, currently in progress, and I'll display the portrait as a "Demonically-possessed Painting" in the sideshow, and at the party he'll just be another decoration. I've included some pics (sorry if there not great quality, they were taken on a cell phone).

Oh, before I go, I'd like to give a scream-out to my two new followers, Shawn, and Dio. Glad to have you both aboard this terror train!

Next post: a scream-out to Shellhawk, and some photos of the wicked-cool stuff I won from her!

Yes, I know...

I've had a bunch of different haunt and party ideas this year. And It wasn't very fun. I mean, thinking about the different themes was fun, but towards the end I started feeling confused and uncertain about the haunt this year. But Halloween is only 99 days away and I decided to buckle down and decide on my Halloween plans. So here is the final, absolute, super-duper plan of the HalloweeNut (I promise):

Party:
This is my first Halloween party. I mean, EVER. So, I'm gonna keep it simple - no theme, Pizza, chips 'n' dip, music, scary movie. I figure I kinda have to show a scary movie that most people probably won't have seen, but still ties into the season. So I'm gonna show one of my all time favorites: TRICK 'R TREAT! The music will be a mix of Scary Rock/Metal (Rob Zombie, Creature Feature, Powerman 5000) and dark ambient (Midnight Syndicate, Nox Arcana). I've got all kinds of cool of ideas for decorations, and my costume will be the same costume for my haunt. Which leads me to announce the actual theme of my haunt this year....

Haunt:
Well, I've truly come full circle with this year's theme. I've gone from carnival to taking a year off, and I decided to buckle my @$$ down and choose a theme, and start building! So I'm going to go with original theme - Troupe Macabre Haunted Sideshow. I'm changing it from a "carnival" theme to a "sideshow" theme. The front porch will be transformed into a Freak Museum, and the front sidewalk will be the "Midway". Once again, plenty of cool ideas, but there's a lot hard work ahead. But I'll try to take some time to blog. I've got tons of cool circus/sideshow stuff to show you all. But that will have to wait; I've got props to build. Stay Scary!

OK, for those that didn't know already...

I'm quite indecisive when it comes to my haunt. My plan for this year was to take the year "off" (so to speak) and let my stepdad take over the haunt in PA, while I prepared for a walk-thru party haunt in 2011. Well, it didn't work out exactly as planned. Not that I got distracted by another theme, but I got overwhelmed by the size, scale, and EXPENSE of the walk-thru project. Remember, I'm only in high school, so I don't have a huge budget! So I've made a slight change of plans: my Stepdad will still run the porch haunt in PA this year, and I'll be focusing my energy and personal budget on a Halloween party for my friends. This one doesn't have a theme (unless "general Halloween stuff" counts as a theme). But it should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

PS: the above image is one of many cool pics from the Love Manor Flickr page