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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Halloween Weathervanes

Might you like a witch or gargoyle on your rooftop? Try these weathervanes instead, they weigh less. Prices and sources appear below.





Witch $50 from mailboxixchange
Bats $64.95 from Windandweather
Jack o' Lantern $39.95 from Swen Weathervanes
Single Bat $239 from Weathervanes Only (my personal favorite, as it looks like the one on the Haunted Mansion in Florida. If only I could weld!)
Witch with moon $39.95 from Swen Weathervanes
Guarding gargoyle $150 from capecodweathervanes 
Gargoyle with arms around knees $1,795 from westcoastweathervanes

Gargoyle Sundial

Even the folks at the venerable Hallowed Haunting Grounds liked this Gargoyle Sundial enough to include it in their front yard. Painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, it became an eerie atmospheric piece in their haunt.

Glow-in-the-dark paint can be found at Michael's craft stores in small bottles for about $3.00, or in spray-paint form at a big-box hardware store like Lowe's for a bit more. Since the paint is intended for indoor use only, touching-up is recommended when used on outdoor pieces like this.

The gargoyle sundial is 11.5 inches wide and 8 inches high, comes in many finishes and sells for $59.00 plus shipping from Zhkis.com.  I would like to warn you, dear readers, of one thing: the coloring. I ordered one and selected the finish option of "As Shown". Upon receiving the sundial, I was disappointed to find that this apparently means fiberglass in "Gothic Stone" coloring, which is actually YELLOW instead of the grayish-beige cement color I was expecting. In color, it more closely resembles the  gargoyle lamp found here. If I had to do it again, I might try fiberstone in White Moss coloring to obtain the look I wanted.

I do love it when my Halloween props are versatile enough to stay in the garden all year long and blend in.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Haunted Mansion Pet Cemetery- the home version

Fellow haunter Kris G. showed me his version of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion pet cemetery last weekend, and a very nice version it is, too, putting my own to great shame. (I have vowed not to show mine to anyone until the plants fill in more. You'd think after 4 years my dwarf mondo grass would have grown a little, but I swear it hasn't changed one iota in all that time.) The kicker is that Kris got most of the statue bases free from a neighbor who just had them scattered about in his garden, was moving, and no longer wanted them.
I'd say Kris was a very lucky man that day.