Apetoes

Our 2011 Halloween Setup

apetoes — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:48:23 +0000

I will have more photos coming soon but wanted to share these night shots courtesy of STOLLOWEEN. It was great to see everyone that stopped by. Already looking forward to next year, and I think I will be calling an electrician to put in a couple extra breakers.

And then there was 13

apetoes — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 01:11:17 +0000

Today the last remaining zombies were completed and placed out on the yard. Thirteen zombies have invaded our yard and are ready for Halloween.

Three more yard zombies

apetoes — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 21:59:20 +0000

I was able to finish three more zombies for the yard today and have five that should be done for tomorrow.

I’ve got a lovely bunch of zombies dee-da-lee-dee

apetoes — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:12:12 +0000

A little more progress on the yard zombies. Four more zombies were placed out in the yard. Since I wanted to be a good neighbor, I also put out a zombie crossing sign. Still more zombies to come after I get some more plastic bags from Midland Recyclers.

Two more yard zombies

apetoes — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:36:18 +0000

Tonight I worked on two more zombies for the yard. They still need hands and shoes. Hopefully I will be able to get these guys out in front of the house tomorrow before dark. I am really surprised how much plastic bag stuffing is needed just to fill up the torso on each of these.

Pumpkin Class Finale

apetoes — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 01:31:32 +0000

Here are the photos of all of the pumpkins from the pumpkin class taught by STOLLOWEEN offered at Legacy Art Gallery and Studio.

Pumpkin Class

apetoes — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:08:31 +0000

Tonight was the third installment of a paper mache pumpkin class offered by STOLLOWEEN at Legacy Art Studio and Gallery. The class is great with lots of fun people. This coming Thursday is the final class session so there are more photos to come!

Zombie Progress Update

apetoes — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 01:20:00 +0000

Work is progressing on the zombie horde that will be invading our yard throughout October.

Starting with a loose fit on the PVC frame, I threw on the clothes to make sure I liked the way it all looked pre-stuffing and wiring.

These zombies will be out the in yard all month so I needed something to help hold the pose in place. I found out last year that even tight fitting pvc will still slip and slide. I have a few options, I could drill holes in the joints and run wire through or use traditional pvc glue. I opted to use wire instead of glue since I wanted to have the pose be semi-permanent. With the wire I can still disassemble the zombies for easier storage and travel.

With the joints all fixed into place, the zombie is ready to stuff. I ran by Midland Recyclers to pick up a bunch of plastic grocery bags. These should work great as they are easy to work with and won’t mold or rot out over time. From the test run of the clothing I found I only really needed to bulk up the torso. The legs look fine empty and all I did for the arms was to tie a few bags on to get a more consistent fill.

Five of the zombies have been fixed into place by drilling holes at key joints and inserting wire to keep them from moving. Five more zombies have been cut and are ready for assembly and posing with the heat gun. One zombie has been stuffed and dressed and placed in the yard. I hope to make a little progress every night and will add them to the yard bit by bit.

Fly the freak flag

apetoes — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 23:56:30 +0000

It’s that time of year again! October is here and the Halloween flag is out in the yard.

Antique Festival

apetoes — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:41:15 +0000

Here is a shot of the tombstones we made for the antique festival in Midland. Midlamd Recyclers will be here all weekend so stop by and say Hello!

Graver Grabber Prototype

apetoes — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:18:01 +0000

After watching a bunch of you-tube videos on grave grabbers I decided to make my own. This is just a prototype to see if I understood the concept. In preparations for this build I ordered some reindeer motors a few weeks ago. It uses a basic four-bar linkage to get the movement down. The prototype only took about 15 minutes to create and works fairly well. I think I will be make 2-3 of these guys to go along with the other zombies.

Zombies

apetoes — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 23:17:45 +0000

For this Halloween I wanted to have a bunch of life-size zombies. On the docket are working 10 – 6 foot tall zombies to place in our yard display. I used the zombietronix biped calculator to get the right proportions. Since the pumpkin watchers from last year turned out to be a bit wobbly, I opted for 1 inch PVC pipe for more strength as opposed to 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch. A heat gun was used to bend the PVC to the desired angle for the arms, hips, shoulders, and spine. More pictures to come as things progress. I had Kelly and Evan pose for one of the shots to give the scale of the zombies. So far 5 of the PVC bodies have been cut and assembled posed with the heat gun.

Tombstone Central

apetoes — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 17:07:50 +0000

Worked on making a small army of tombstones at Midland Recyclers. They will be on sale at the antique festival in Midland the weekend of September 25th. The tombstones are made out of recycled bead board and blue foam. We also made a lot of do-dads that can be attached to give each one a unique look.

Star Trek Onsies

apetoes — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:19:27 +0000

Funny how a little bit of Rit dye, a onsie, and some printable iron-on transfers can boldy take a baby where no baby has gone before. I made 2 of each type of uniform, 0-3 mo and 3-6 mo sizes. For the command uniform, I used Rit golden yellow, Science is Rit royal blue, and operations is Rit scarlet red. Now we just need baby to arrive to see how they look! I think the colors turned out to be right on. I used the stove top method and cooked the onsies for 30 min as per the instructions.

Milk Jug Raft Race – The Huck Finn

apetoes — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:43:07 +0000

Completed work on my entry for the milk jug raft race at Riverday in Midland. Come check out the race on 7/16 at 3:00! Also check out the smoke stack test video.

Zombie Crossing Sign

apetoes — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 21:28:06 +0000

One of the many great make and takes at great lakes fright fest.

My GLFF haunt setup

apetoes — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:56:32 +0000

Here are a few daytime shots of my campsite at great lakes fright fest 2011

Another Onesie

apetoes — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 01:58:27 +0000

Over the weekend I took some time to create another onesie. This one is Krang from the teenage mutant ninja turtles cartoon.

Coming out of creative hibernation

apetoes — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 01:02:29 +0000

It’s been a long time since I have been able to let the creative juices flow… maybe the winter blues, lack of free time, who knows. But that all ended this evening! Tonight I grabbed a onesie and some fabric markers and made a sea monster outfit for our soon to be little monster.

What a great night.

apetoes — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 02:09:07 +0000

Had a blast scarring the trick-or-treaters this evening. Already looking forward to next year. In all the excitement I almost forgot to share a photo of our pumpkins and peppers.