Rain, Rain- Go Away!

This week was a literal washout- rain off and on all week, so only limited work outside. The forecast for Saturday looked good, so I planned out my projects intending to accomplish them in one marathon session.

Nope.

Huge storm moving through the region- heavy rains all day today, accompanied by strong wind gusts. Forecast for Sunday doesn't look any better. So much for getting everything done. There were a couple of projects we had on the back burner, so I moved them up to the front. First thing was to soak a bunch of fabric in Rit Fabric Whitener, to give them a nice fluorescent capability. They'll be turned into some ghosts rising from behind the tombstones on the other side of the yard. We'll hit them with a blacklight for a nice glowing effect. The idea is to do something similar to the ghoulish figures in Fantasia:

The best part is when they first come up from the grave...

Next up was a continuation of the lighting for the front porch. The candelabras look great, but don't give us enough light for the trick or treaters. We either have to use an overhead light source, or add more candles.

More candles it is.

Through the use of LED tea candles, PVC pipe, and hot glue, we can create a large number of pillar candles quickly and cheaply. I was able to knock out about a dozen this afternoon in under 2 hours. We still need to add the hot glue and then paint them, but we can do that anytime, anyplace. Ideally, this will give us the necessary light level.

The next step is to drip hot glue down the sides to create a melted wax effect.
Then spray paint the entire thing a nice candle color and you're done!

We'll have to find some way of displaying all the candles
without it turning into another major building project.

The downside is turning on/off 50+ LEDs twice each night

But they look pretty cool...I guess it's worth it!

Next week we start setting everything up. I was hoping to have it all done, and not still building it during October, but as SpiderWitch pointed out, people like walking by and watching us set up the various parts of the haunt. So I guess if we still have to build a few things, it's not so bad. The hardest parts are finished at least.