Jack’s Lament

Halloween was a great one this year. I pulled out all the tombstones from last year and I made another one with a gargoyle on it. But the best part was this tree limb that I found.

Back in September we had this crazy windstorm, we got hit with 80 mph winds for about 8 hours, aparrently it was a leftover from Hurricane Ike (can you believe that?). Well after the storm i saw thing gnarly tree limb that had been blown off a humongous birch tree sitting on the side of the road. And I immediately knew what to do with it.

I recruited my father-in-law to help me hoist it up onto the top of his truck and them after I got it home I stipped off all the leaves and small twigs then stained it black. I put it out in our front yard and got it to stand up by running a piece of rebar through it an into the ground. I then tied some skeletons and bats and those blinking “Creepy eyes” on it. Wicked!

Then of course I had to dress up, and who else could I be in my Halloweentown? None other than Jack Skellington of course!

I’m a master of fright, and a demon of light
And I’ll scare you right out of your pants
To a guy in Kentucky, I’m Mister Unlucky
And I’m known throughout England and France

And since I am dead, I can take off my head
To recite Shakespearean quotations
No animal nor man can scream like I can
With the fury of my recitations

† Excerpt: Jack’s Lament from Tim Burton’s fantastic animated movie The Nightmare Before Christmas

Linky to the photos

Posted in Ackerly Antics, Friends, Halloween | No Comments »

Halloween 2007

As holidays go I always really liked Halloween. It is one where you can really cut loose and act as goofy as you want to and no one really cares. Costumes are always hard to choose for me because I really try to come up with something interesting and somewhat contemporaneous. For instance about nine years ago I went as Monical Lewinski – big black wig, stained blue dress, kneepads with the presidential seal, etc. Most people didnt get it, but the ones that did really got it and thought it was funny.

Then we had kids and it was more about them, the cutsie witch and fairy costumes and whatnot. It is fun to see them dressed up too. Well, this year we have a great yard and I decided to do it up a bit. I made some tombstones with sayings like “OOPS” and “Get Me Outta Here”. Samantha had the best though – one that had 100 tiny mirrors at the top and said “Disco” (get it, the mirrors = disco balls). OK, I also stopped into a Halloween shop and splurged a bit – I got a great Frankenstein mask. I put on a black suit, white turtlneck and donned the mask. I was a total hit in the neighborhood and a lot of fun going to neighbors demanding “BEER!”

Samantha had the best costume though – Paris Hilton! No one got it, but that was not a surprise. Here are a couple pictures.

Posted in Ackerly Antics, Halloween | No Comments »