Ghouling, on a Sunday Afternoon

When I started out, I had just the cape and the old shower caddy. I bought the skull on Wednesday. As is my usual modus operandi, I had absolutely no plan, just a concept. This is also the way I cook. Saturday I had some chicken tenders and no plan and realized my husband had bought some brie, so I got on the internet and typed in "chicken brie recipe" and actually found something good. Of course I put my own spin on it because I am genetically predisposed to refuse to follow any recipe to the letter.

Okay, back to my monster making: I decided I could use some chicken wire and some black cloth. Oh yeah, I did buy some black cloth when I bought the skull although I was thinking to line the porch with it. I had to send My Sweetie out for the chicken wire, which by the way, to be politically correct, is now called Poultry Cloth. Yeah, I know, what the hay is that all about?

Saturday afternoon while My Sweetie was out (for the chicken wire and to do some work) I got a crazy hair and decided to go into the attic. This may sound perfectly normal but I do NOT go into the attic. I have a horrid fear of falling. Not of heights, but of falling. They are two different things. I can stand pressed against the window of the 46th floor of a building all day, but I do not like to be up on anything where there is nothing between me and the ground but air. Like the big hole between the attic and the garage. And the creaky funky pull-down laddery thing. But I just knew there were some old wigs up there. And there were.

I found two good ones. They were quite ratty but I washed them and decided my little skull needed one, so today I put it on him:

( Is it just me or does that kinda look like Farah Fawcett?) I also shaped and formed chicken wire (I am so NOT going to call it poultry cloth!) to make a shoulder-like form.

I started playing around with the extra black cloth to dress the guy - I probably should name him - and realized I was going to have a problem with the neck area. I started thinking "What do I have that looks like spine?" It's not a thought I have every day, so I had to think a bit, but then I went to my old reliable: packing peanuts. These weren't the s-shaped ones though. I used these "figure 8" ones. I took four popsicle sticks, put them two and two and threaded six packing peanuts over them. I then put some old (yellow) bias tape between the sets of two and then glued the hell out of everything. The popsicle sticks sticking out to the sides in the picture are just to hold the whole thing off of the newspaper. Glue can get sticky, ya know.

So after that "neck bone thing" finally dried, I tried to paint it to match the skull and I think it came out pretty good. I'm saving the whole picture for Halloween. But here's some of it:

I'm looking forward to doing my "porch" on Wednesday. I say it like that because we do not have a porch. We have a tiny slab of aggregate between two brick walls leading up to our door. It's actually good in that it makes for a spooky claustrophobic space on Halloween. Another good thing is I've learned to keep to a theme. For Halloween it's skully things, for Christmas, it's candy canes. Oh NO! That sort of rhymed and is making me do a CRAZY poem:

-

For Halloween it's skully things;

For Christmas it is candy canes,

And ne'er the twain shall meet.

Unless you are Tim Burton:

Because he can be certain,

To combine disparate themes into a treat.