Halloween 2013

This year we wanted to celebrate Halloween a little different than previous years. We had the idea to invite a lot of people to have a look at our creations and to enjoy my homemade pumpkin soup. One day Petra, photographer at a local news site called MooiMaasdriel.nl, came by because she was interested to take a look at our preparations. She made some photo’s and wanted to give some attention to our Halloween plans on their website. In the article we invited people to come over for Halloween. The article is only in Dutch, but you can have a look at her photo’s here. You can find our blog about the preparations here.

On Halloween we were ready to greet people a little later than planned.

Outside the pumpkin soup was already simmering and I’m glad to say everyone enjoyed it. Out of the 18 liters I made, 10 liters were eaten. 

The pumpkins of which I used the scooped out flesh to make the soup could be admired outside. As an extra treat we had hot wine, which people also really enjoyed. :-)

On Halloween people in the so called white quarter in Hedel organise a trick-or-treat evening for children every year and we told the organisation that people could visit our place after the trick-or-treating if they wanted. If you’re interested in seeing more about this trick-or-treat evening, click here. The article is only in Dutch, but you can have a look at the photo’s. Because of the trick-or-treat invitation we had candy for the children. Except for dressed up children, a couple of ghost horses visited us also:

Not only the children dressed up, other visitors also came in style. We loved it!

Petra of MooiMaasdriel.nl visited us again on this evening and they also gave attention to this evening on their website. The article is in Dutch again, but you can find more photo's here. 

It was kind of an explosive evening: a lot of people showed up at once so the garden was full of people and the house was packed, so unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to talk to everyone. Luckily my mother-in-law was there to help us with handing out pumpkin soup and candy. We meant to do that ourselves, but we were very busy so we couldn’t find the time. Despite the fact that the evening didn’t go as planned, it was a really fun evening. The weather was nice too. It was cold, but not as cold as could be expected for this time of year and more important: it didn’t rain at all!

On behalf of vampires and victim: a big thank you to everyone who was there!

Halloween: the pre-fun.

As most of you must know, 31 October 2013 it was that time of year again: Halloween. Although it's not formally celebrated here in the Netherlands, we'd like to dress up the house and the garden. Albert's parents lived in America for a few years, his mother fell in love with Halloween en thus she brought it here. :-) For us it's THE moment of the year to horrify the garden and house. Because it involves quite some work, we start getting our stuff out of the attic at the beginning of October. The pumpkin in front of our window tells the neighbourhood it's spooky time again. :-D

Previous years we've been using our uncovered garden and drive for our Halloween decorations. Last year we used a white party tent to put our horror scene in, but we decided it should it different this year. Because a white party tent on your drive doesn't exactly set the right mood, we decided to use our garden house. That would be a lot more fitting for this year's theme: Dracula. You be the judge: is a party tent the right place for a vampire cave? :-) Well, we didn't think so. Besides, everything is better protected from the weather (which was really needed with all the wind and rain we had) and it's easy to lock up. Slowly but surely the garden house became a vampire cave.

With a cosy vampire lodging as a result: 

Until the day of Halloween itself details are adjusted. The thing we wait a little longer with is the carving of the pumpkins. They go bad so quickly after carving. Unfortunately we haven't found a way to preserve the carved pumpkins, so if you have any ideas, let us know. Albert always carves the pumpkins: 

this year assisted by our friend Femke, who you can see below with her first carved pumpkin ever: 

They have the patience that Marga lacks. But everyone has their talents and Marga's talent is making pumpkin soup: 

For this soup, the flesh that is scooped out of the pumpkins is used. It's a waste to throw it away. Last year was the first year we handed out pumpkin soup to the interested people who came to see our creations on Halloween. That went really well because the soup was all done quickly, so for this year we made 18 liters just in case. :-D  

Of course the house was Halloweened too:

That thing that will stay a while longer is Spooky Town because we also use that as our Christmas village. We can enjoy it for 3 months. :-)

Our next blog will be about Halloween itself.

Merry Christmas and a ghoulish 2013!

True horror bears, not for the faint-hearted!

Every once in a while you google the words 'horror bears' and you stumble upon something unique and horrific: QuiET RoOM BeARs. These mutilated spawn of the mentally insane give you chills all over and aren't exactly huggable, yet they are too fascinating not to want one. They are truly horror bears! 

Behind the bears, there's this legend (which is a quote from the Etsy store of their spiritual father, Lee Howard):

"Somewhere out there, in an unknown location, there exists a mental institution that has long since been shut down, but while fully operational, was a place where nightmares were born. When the patients would get 'out of sorts' they were placed into the Quiet Room. Nobody knows exactly what happens in that room, but when (or IF) the patients come out, they come out with a missing body parts (hair, teeth, fingers), and less of a soul. With them comes a new Quiet Room Bear. Some think it's the room itself that instructs the designs of these small nightmares, but nobody is certain. Each 'session' in the Quiet Room produces a new bear."

All of the bears are one of a kind, so you always have a unique bear. The best part is that the artist takes special requests and some people have even sent him items to put into the bear. This way you can statisfy your own twisted mind. So if you really want a genuine horror bear, forget Teddy Scares and have a look into the QuiET RoOM if you dare! If you're interested in seeing more of these bears, look at the Facebook page (they have great giveaways!) or the Etsy shop and find them on Twitter. You can also find an interview with Lee Howard here.

Halloween: cupcakes

As I said in my last blog, my wife doesn't really love carving pumpkins but she does some creatives things though: making cupcakes. It's a hobby she recently picked up and tries to expand. Her first go at the cupcakes was this:

Everything was bought in the supermarket so if she didn't like decorating them, this would be it. But she loved making them and wanted to try more. Her second chance came when we had a family fishing trip and the next day was my birthday. She decided to make special cupcakes for everyone so a trip to the cake shop in town it was. :-) This was the result:

With Halloween coming up, a trip to the cake shop was needed for new molds and stuff. Everything's home made: the buttercream, the decorations are made with the molds and painted on with edible markers and chocolat was melted and poored into a mold to make the chocolate bats. Here's the result:

Again, if you want to see more click here. You'll even see the ghost visiting Spooky Town. :-) Have fun!

Halloween: pumpkins and garden

Halloween is a while ago, but we were busy with all kinds of things, so I only had time to blog about Halloween now.

This year we were late with everything. Normally, we start Halloweening the house at 1 October, but now work and time got in the way. I don't know about you, but man, time's flying lately! Then, the local newspaper called: they wanted an interview. Twitter actually works :-) because we followed the local newspaper on Twitter and then they contacted us for an interview. So now we had to speed things up to get everything ready. Maybe for the better because who knows what we made of Halloween otherwise.

First thing we did is build up Spooky Town after a little shopping for new figurines of course. :-) I have to get better pictures though, so I'll upload them in a few days.

Then it was time to cover the parking place next to our house with sods. Someone was so generous as to donate them to us, so many thanks go out to them!

Then it was time to turn it into a graveyard:

All of the stones were made by me (Albert) a few years ago for an event. Of course it's a shame to only use it one weekend, so we decided to use it again now. We made it more realistic with fallen leaves:

Of course it's more creepy in the evening:

What's a Halloween garden without carved pumpkins? My wife thinks they're a pain in the ass LOL, but for me it's relaxing to do and I love how I can make the pumpkins look. My wife loves how they look and thinks they're really beautiful, but she's just not into making them. Here are the ones I'm most proud of:

It was a really bad pumpkin year this year. We had to go through a lot of trouble to get big ones and then we had to find out the pumpkins were going bad the day after we carved them. We never had so much trouble with them and so I had to carve more pumpkins to change them and have beautiful pumpkins untill Halloween. Usually the pumpkins begin to rot after a week, so it was really bad. Hopefully next year will be a lot better.

If you'd like to see more of our Halloween 2011 click here. There's even a little movie which shows some grave stones actually move! :-)

Halloween

It’s the creepy month of Halloween again and we’re preparing ourselves. We’re not only Halloweening the house, but also making preparations for Halloween @ Kasteel van Gaasbeek in Belgium. It’s going to be a freaky one this year since the theme is Victorian Freak Circus.

We’re very honoured to assist House of Wax this year by being a part of their freaks, but that’s not all. The lovely Viona asked us to put up a market stall, which of course we’ll gladly do! For this we get the help of two lovely ladies who will (wo-)man the market stall.
If you would like to come and see the freakshow it’s advisable to get presale tickets to make sure you can enter. It’s going to be very busy and the castle is working with time slots to let people in. Hopefully we’ll see you in Belgium!