A resting place for miniature villains

This year I finally got around to creating a mini cemetery! That's something I've been talking about doing for years. I think what kept me from starting was deciding on the materials to work with. I've seen some great little tombstones made from paper and wrapped around candles. That's maybe something to try in the future, but for now I decided to work with what you'd think would have been an obvious material: stones.

I found these little inspirations on a trip to the lake on my birthday. So that's a little over a month ago. Once the idea struck, I really got rolling with finding the perfect stones. Here they are, before being "inscribed".

So part one of picking a material was done. The next and very crucial part of this project was choosing the names that would go on these stones. Well, I thought it would be fun to choose some names from works of fiction. I thought about characters from my favorite old horror movies, like putting "The Wolfman" or "Dracula" on the stones, but something just wasn't clicking for me with that. Then I thought about some favorite books, but the names just seemed too unrelated for me. Then ZIP! I thought about that favorite old show of mine from back in the day: Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Well, that show provided me with instant and seemingly endless inspiration. I had more names than I did stones with that! Perfect. I thought of my favorite villains from the show and decided their names would make up my cemetery.

If you know the Brother Septimus character, you'll appreciate the eye on his stone and that piece of potpourri that very much resembles an eye in front of it. I tried to think of a symbol that was representative of these characters. Like the lips for the beautiful Ms. Valenti, who was very into her cosmetics.

Or the snake that is slithering across Jake "The Snake" Desmond's stone. I went really mossy and funky with Dr. Vink's stone, because he seemed like he could have moss growing on him! And I ripped some fuzzy plant stuff apart to put in front of his grave. Because I thought he'd have an overgrown sort of resting place.

For those of you who haven't watched Are You Afraid of the Dark? many of the episodes are online. So if you're curious, you could google some of these names and either see the characters or watch the episodes. Or you could check out this page where someone has organized all the Are You Afraid of the Dark? villains in alphabetical order:

Villains Wiki: Are You Afraid of the Dark Villains

If you click on a name, you can read about the character. Just a note, there are spoilers about the episodes here.

OK, so I had some stones and I had some names. Next I had to figure out a way to hold my little cemetery in place. I lucked out in finding the last of these signs at Dollar Tree.

Like with my Ofrenda project, this sweet family sign can be flipped to become the perfect size box to hold a cemetery! As you'll see in a bit, I painted the sides of it a dark green.

This floral foam from Dollar Tree was perfect for holding the stones in place.

I just squished them in there and they stayed put.

Although the foam was green, I wanted some plant-like material over the top of it. I ended up purchasing the last bag of this green potpourri from Dollar Tree. It was dyed a greenish color in parts, looked like spooky plants, and was labeled as  having a "fall leaves" scent.

Well, let me tell you, it smelled like... I don't even know. Overbearing cologne combined with Pine Sol? The funk was released as soon as I opened the bag. I should have smelled it in the store. At least I learned from this that dry potpourri can survive being washed. I washed it many times with vinegar and baking soda and watched that green dye wash away a good bit. After a couple days of it airing out on the porch, I didn't smell a thing.

Now that it's scentless, I like it a lot. There were all kinds of awesome shapes in the mix. My favorites:

I thought this one would look good holding a fake eye:

I happened to have some spare eyes that had fallen out of the center of some flowers, so in they went with the rest of the potpourri. Looks like a crazy moss monster, doesn't it?

Turns out they glow in the dark too!

So, back to the cemetery, I was then good to go! Here it is, pieced together.

From the top:

I took some photos of it at night, from inside a closet. I was trying to get that spooky lighting going with the candle.

I imagined this candle as a cemetery gate.

Try and imagine walking through this cemetery at night (of course being in scale to it yourself). Maybe you're carrying a lantern to cast this little bit of light over the stones. Crunch, crunch go the leaves underfoot.

I  like the way that snake shows up in the candlelight.

Remember those miniature pumpkins I got in the After Halloween Haul? Well, here's why I wanted them so much!

Aren't they just the perfect size? I already had a miniature truck full of pumpkins, so I was playing around with my miniature truck and gnomes. Maybe they're dropping off some little pumpkins at the cemetery? Or maybe they planted those pumpkins in there?

I've had this gnome standing in the cemetery because he's holding a shovel. I'd darkened the eyes on my gnomes and this one's eyes went goofy. I thought that expression made sense for a gnome working in a cemetery like this one.

Even though I made this cemetery and the characters are fictional, I actually spooked myself with the finished product. These names mean something to me and the thought of these characters together in a cemetery, even miniature, dead, and not real is pretty eerie to me.

Halloween decorations around town - Part 1

This has been a fun blog post to assemble. All through October, I've been on the lookout for local Halloween decorations. It became what I called an "adult trick-or-treat" because I was going around the neighborhood looking for Halloween surprises. There ended up being a whole lot of surprises! So many in fact, that I am going to split this blog post in two. This will be the daylight edition and in the next blog post, you'll see Halloween decorations at night.

I'm going to start with probably the most outstanding local yard.

I lucked into some wind on this day, which makes the little ghoulies fly around nicely.

Beyond the ghoulie tree, these decorators have created a whole cemetery scene.

There are lots of tombstones with clever sayings, and skeletons posed in all kinds of playful ways.

They built an arch made of what look like Dollar Tree skulls. I wonder how they're attached?

It looks like there's some sort of thick wire threaded between them. I had guessed it was pipe under there.

So, here we have a skeleton helping to lift another one up.

And I guess this one is giving his friend a ride, before putting him together again?

The skeleton dog walker:

He's fierce!

How adorable is this? Two little skellies sharing a bike.

There's one of those wooded witch silhouettes back there, although I know she's kind of hard to see. I just now noticed those giant hands holding up her cauldron.

This pic was my computer's wallpaper for a while.

Have you ever seen a red tombstone? This is a wicked one with the vampire teeth. I can't imagine anyone too great would be buried under this one!

Cool snake skull stone!

"Hue Morris" 😁 I thought this one had a real, weathered look to it. I think that's printed on some kind of paper or plastic and then stuck on foam? I'm not really sure.

You'll notice on the "Claire Voince" stone, that they have staked these down really well. This is the first time I've seen someone do that. It's a really smart idea. I've noticed less and less tombstones in another neighbor's display, with each gust of wind.

Hehe! A Simpsons shout-out: "Seymour Butz" I wonder if this person carved into the foam themselves to make a few of these.

On their front porch area was this awesome creation. This is like the pumpkin version of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.

And they also had a shrunken head scarecrow.

There's a shop in our downtown village area where you can always expect to see some cool displays. I've shared some photos of it from past Halloweens and Christmases. They carry antiques and newer items, and a lot of antiques that have been upcycled.

Check out this cool old baby carriage! I like the little round window in the side.

A stenciled pumpkin:

Nice contrast with the turquoise!

These pumpkins are probably the most this old chair seat could handle, and that orange one in front looks like it's in trouble!

I remember they used this old chest in their Halloween display last year.

If you look up near the entrance, you'll see these dramatic umbrellas.

This one is like a ladies hoop skirt upside down.

And this one is such a Tim Burton style umbrella!

A cute birdhouse that looks like it has a face:

I love the colors on this pumpkin! Anyone know the name of these?

There's a kite shop in the village with all kind of fun whirligigs. That's what I call these, anyway. Maybe they're called spinners? Whatever you call them, there were a bunch of Halloween ones.

I saw this witch in someone's yard this year.

This was the perfect day to photograph these, since there was a lot of wind. They were bound to move in some way that I liked.

This little guy might be my favorite of the bunch. I love a skeleton in a top hat.

Our skeleton friend is doing a bit of photobombing here.

I really like the look of old fences with holiday decorations, especially natural decorations.

The late afternoon light is perfect for photographing pumpkins.

Boo!

OK, now we're on to people's yards again. I love this one with the plant hair! What a little character they created.

A tiny pumpkin on a flower pot:

I was seeing these black cats everywhere this year! This is part of a yard that you're going to see more of, in both day and night. This guy did a lot as he always does for holidays. You ought to see his place at Christmas!

I just noticed that spooky lady's picture there. He has so much going on, that I was bound to miss something.

I spotted this clown first at night. That will be a story for the next blog post. Anyway, here he is in the daytime, still looking like a little creeper.

This pumpkin person really swings on that tree limb. Love those legs!

This pic is of a local business. You might remember this place, because they always dress up the stone lions out front. You'll have to trust me that these are lions this time! I got a kick out of the way that one is tied at the bottom. But again, we've had some very strong winds lately. It would be a shame if these sheets blew off into traffic.

I wrote the above part of this blog post before this afternoon, when I decided to go out and get a few last minute pictures. The trick-or-treaters came here in the evening, so I had a little time to search out more decorations before that.

I walked around an area I hadn't checked out this year and found some great decorations. How cool is this? Even the stem is colorful.

You might have seen these spiders before. They had these up on their shed last year.

A cute, vintage looking blow mold.

I spotted a few more of those whirligigs in the downtown village area.

We have a Norman Rockwell statue I've probably shared pics of before. How great is this mask someone put on him? It looks almost like there are real eyes back behind it.

A perfect pumpkin:

Back to people's yards here... This is sort of a skull jack-o-lantern, with the sides cut out.

One of those adorable Cinderella pumpkins:

These people went all out with the inflatables!

Speaking of inflatables, I felt like I found the motherload when I saw this!

The timing felt perfect for me to see this, after reading/watching Jaws recently.

That same yard had this cool haunted tree inflatable out too.

And also this row of pumpkins:

Look at that wicked little white one! The one next to it probably has the silhouette of the family dog carved into it?

Crazy spider tree!

And a spider with a hat. 😊

It's kind of hard to tell here, but one of those pumpkins was painted with some metallic paint.

So, this photo goes with a highlight of the day. I happened to be walking by this house as a man was lining these pumpkins out in a row. We struck up a conversation and he told me how these are all the result of last night's party! Each of his guests carved one. There were over 20 out there and they were all really well done!

He told me they were carving into the night, until 1:00 am! I asked him if I could take a few pics and he said "Go for it!" That one with the alien is so cute.

He told me that he was in the process of stringing lights into all of them from behind. I told him how I planned to be back in the neighborhood at night and would be sure to stop by. Wait till you see what these look like at night! That will be in the next blog post.

He lit them right after I got there, but that doesn't show up much in the afternoon light.

Talking to him was one of the highlights of my day, because that was the only time someone was in the process of decorating when I came over to take photos. It was just fun to talk and hear more about what was out there.

This was the last decoration I saw on my way to the car. What a great use for one of these vintage masks!

So, that's it for now. Next, I'll have some pics from after dark. You'll see a few of these same decorations again. Unfortunately, the people with the cemetery/skeleton display didn't light up their yard at night. I thought that was a missed opportunity! I've seen so many of your displays, with the tombstones nicely lit. Anyway, get ready for some spookier pics in the next post! 👻