Hello from Minnesota

**kathymn** · 09-21-2010,07:55 AM

I never knew this was here! I've been doing up Halloween big time for years, and always thought I was doing it for the kids. Turns out, I realize I have more fun with it than they do! I'm coming to this forum to share my ideas and hopefully gain some new ones for myself. I love the creativity of decorating my house both inside and out, but don't have much technical expertise - actually, none at all. So I have an AMAZING cemetery, but when the fogger goes on the fritz or my lighting won't work, I'm at a loss.

For the past 5 years I have thrown 2 big Halloween bashes for both my kids' entire grades. I start decorating after labor day and completely transform my house. The furniture on the main floor gets stored in the garage and basement. Everything gets transformed from the chandeliers, sconces and pictures, to the paint color on the walls. Last year the screened porch was a spider's nest that also had a photo booth; the living room was silver, purple and black and lit with candle light and the glow of white and black jack-o-lanterns for a skeleton's New Year's Eve ball, with disco ball spinning from the ceiling that was draped with black tulle to skeletons in tuxedos and ball gowns and tiaras. This is where the chocolate fountain was. The library was Dracula's chamber with walls lined in scarlet satin and a full size black coffin lined in red satin - with a live (or should I say dead) Dracula inside. The Family room was the kids' dance room with a DJ and another disco ball and dance lighting. The walls were lined from floor to celing with the flying ghost scene setters, to which I added hundreds of blinking L.E.D. lights to the ghosts' eyes. And then the mudroom was transformed into my fortune teller's room - it was just big enough for a small table and two chairs and was decked out in floor to ceiling billowy satin with silver stars and candle light. The dining room was the "happy pumpkin room" for all the food, with orange walls, a gallery of changing portraits, lots of garland and sparkly things, and tables with orange and black sparkly table skirts and fun dept 56 type decorations. And this is where my life size head tremoring maid and butler serve up the food. The mummies hang out in the powder room...and at the end of the hall I made a fake wall with scene setter masking it, where I placed a two-way mirror and put a creepy guy on the other side to scare the girls when they stopped to check their makeup! (that got old as soon as word spread though) And I forgot about the front foyer and hall that was lined with the spooky tree scene setter that I enhanced with real dead trees and a 5' witch cackling over a bubbling cauldron...and lots of spooky eyes peeking out from the trees.

I would love to do it all again this year, but I just don't have the budget for it this year. Plus the DJ said my family room can't take the punishment of 150 teenagers jumping up and down on it for 4 hours straight two nights in a row. And I can't keep disassembling my house like that! But I would love to have a smaller scale party...and maybe even one for us adults as well! I'm not sure I know how to do anything in moderation though! Any suggestions would be welcome. I just thought I would share, because I know I am on a forum with people who won't think I'm crazy! haha Can you tell that I would love to do this for a living?! I think I shoulda gone to work for Disney!

Probably one of the best Halloween memories I have was the year we took the kids to Salem, MA for the holiday. That was pretty cool. I highly recommend it.

By the way.... Anyone know where I can find a full size faux horse skeleton?