Any creepy topic that doesn't fit the categories below.
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By nosferatu
#84054
Any disasters? I know some people were affected by tornadoes, high winds, heavy rain etc. The weather was good here which meant that we had more trick or treaters than we have ever had.
I was short on time this year and was forced to rush carving. Still enjoyed it apart from making a massive mistake carving Raven which led me to putting the poor bird out of its(and my) misery.

Inspired by displays and photos of other minions, I was determined to go the extra mile. With The Walking Dead being so popular I bought some second hand fish tanks as I planned on displaying the kins inside them with either a carving of The Governor sat on a wing back chair in front of them or myself sat there complete with eye patch or prosthetic. Sadly, it never came off. The tanks were damaged in transit so I went and bought some new ones. I was quite excited but when I tested it out, it looked rubbish. I could get the tanks lit how I wanted them but the pumpkins didn't work at all. Shame. I now have two four foot fish tanks sat in the middle of my conservatory floor. Guess I will be buying fish again.

Like I said, time was short so didn't have time to come up with anything else but I think I've decided what I want to do next year and need to actually do it next year. For the first time ever, we have neighbours who joined in the Halloween spirit so it bodes well for 2014
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By purple1worm
#84058
Sorry to hear your plans didn't work out! Sounds like a neat idea. Sound like you got a plan for next year! Can't wait to see it! :D
Here in Montreal Halloween day was looking pretty bleak. Raining cats and dogs all day. :(
Thankfully it died down around 5 pm. Just in time for us get a few decorations out, and trick or treaters to come around. We got a good amount of kids but less than usual. All in all a good night. :D Funny around 8:30 pm the rain started up again. The rain stopped just long enough for us enjoy our night. :wink:
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By Raven
#84074
Nos, that sounds like an awesome idea with the tanks! I hope you wont give up on the idea and experiment for the best photo ever for next year. I wasn't happy with my Bloody Mary pic. It just didn't come out how I imagined, yet everyone else seemed to love it. We are our own worst critics.

As for Halloween it went pretty well, except for being windy. I wasn't cold at least and the rain held off till long after ToTing was over. I think it was close to midnight when the tornado warnings started. Thankfully we didn't have any and there didn't seem to be any major damage anywhere.
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By amandap80
#84076
ToT here was postponed till November 1st, due to the tornadoes. I think everyone read about my Halloween in the basement. I had a few blunders along the way as well. I had 2 pumpkins stolen/smashed, I had to carve 2 VIP #2s since the first had her face sat on by a black cat. Very funny and appropriate if you ask me. I think he was trying to knock her over and smother her. Husband ran thru the wall of one of my Atlantic Giants with the pumpkin gutter (I salvaged it by carving flames in it for under my outdoor witch's cauldron, so husband is forgiven). I smashed my hand with a hammer, and burnt the opposite hand on the knife re-carving VIP #2. (Seriously, what is up with that hussy?) I fell face first across the straw bales in costume Halloween night taking pictures, much to the amusement of my parents. I had a Chauvet fog machine crap out on me too. But, all in all, fairly normal! :thumbsup:
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By pagemaster1993
#84108
It was rainy here. So I didn't put out my complete display. Still got 23 Trick Or Treats. Which is pretty good considering the weather wasn't that great.
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By Tkaraoke
#84113
Our weather here was kinda of chilly (rained like cats a and dogs the night before) but cleared up before noon the day of. We had a record number of ToT to the point I had only five pieces of candy left in my bowl and I decided to shut down. My biggest tragedy came when I accidentally scrapped a hole into my very first pumpkin's wall trying to thin it down. I was disheartened but that lead me to a flash of inspiration. I'll relate the rest of the story when I post my pumpkin pictures. Overall, it was one of my best years ever thanks to Ryan and Zombie Pumpkins.
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By amandap80
#84118
Tkaraoke wrote:Overall, it was one of my best years ever thanks to Ryan and Zombie Pumpkins.
I am so happy to read this, especially after your bummed out beginning this season. Yay!
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By amandap80
#84122
Hottie McNaughty wrote:Oh, and I dropped and broke two carved pumpkins. That's a new one for me.
Oh dear! It must have been a year for it. I broke 2 designs this year, I hardy ever do that. I broke the smile on the minion pumpkin of all things!
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By chuckwagon
#84144
No major disasters here to report other than one of the kids at a family friendly party I attended fell and scrapped his knee a little while running around on a sugar high after T.o.T. Weather was decent for us, and much love was given to a few of the ZP! patterns I selected for the party!!
By Ajax
#84156
I had a lot of ideas that didn't come together as well. I was going to do the horseman in front of a covered bridge but didn't even end up carving him and boglin I wanted to do in some kind of cage which I made an attempt at but didn't really turn out. My biggest idea was my prison shot which I thought came out okay but nothing groundbreaking. I always mess up my final carve of the season weeping angel this year but I changed up the nose a bit and still displayed it but don't think I took any pics of it. The wind was bad here and one of my favorite patterns Spock would not stay lit and sometimes a big gust of wind would take out half the candles on my display. My blowup reaper was down more then it was up and it rained around 8. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked and I burned myself with wax several times :arrowhead: .

Next year I'm not doing more then 10 pumpkins but will probably do multiple patterns on each to try to hit 20 at least. This has been my 4th year doing it and it started to feel like work. I like being able to take my time and relax and do my best on each kin but it's hard when you have time constraints.

Your fish tank shots sounded awesome and I'd love to see them even if they didn't turn out the way you wanted.
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By nosferatu
#84253
The problem with fish tanks is weight. I only filled one with water. They were supposed to go on top of one another but the support I had built would have broken instantly had I placed the other one on top and filled.

Also, it needs something built around it to make it look embedded into a wall otherwise it just looks like a couple of fish tanks. Maybe that was what put me off. I would need a much better camera to take a decent picture. In fact, I would need someone to take it who knows what they are doing. The project isn't dead as I still think it could work. Maybe I can get it working for watermelons? They might work better with the better contrast between light and dark surfaces?

I was really short on time this year so limited myself to thirteen kins. When I started rushing that's when I made mistakes. We say 10 only next year every year but it never happens. Too many great patterns.
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By nosferatu
#84254
What I might do next year is carve earlier in the month and carve themes. My daughter is nine now and more into Halloween and carving each year. I thought maybe next year we could invite a bunch of her friends round and watch a Nightmare Before Christmas and then afterwards a carving party with each one carving a different NBC character....or I might just carve them myself :P

Ajax, I would be slightly more sympathetic to your plight had you not revealed that you "were forced"to enlarge some of your patterns to 175%. I spat my coffee all over the iPad when I read that! I was really disappointed not to carve Jareth or Evil Ash but didn't have pumpkins big enough to take the patterns. That was my own fault, plenty of big ones about, just not organised.next year.......