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Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of having Halloween as a hobby, is the ability to remain motivated and inspired to create new things for it.

It’s a slow part of the year right now. Kids out of school, family going to the pool, yardwork to do, places to go while it’s good weather…

It’s this time of year it can be easy to forget all about Halloween for a time. Yet, it is also the time of year that little things creep into the back of your mind and give you that little spark.

Kyle’s pile of returned homework sat on the counter. And, there were all the books he had written. I recalled how his teacher had told me in the conference how Kyle always loved to be involved whenever they did the story time.

Many lay half written. But, it was hard not to notice this particular one, and have it put a smile on your face.

Why does the Grim Reaper need revenge? Who knows? Who cares? Go GET EM, Grim Reaper! Nice little Halloween booster there.

If that weren’t enough, our house now must eminate a permanent attachment to Halloween in the neighborhood children’s minds. Out doing yardwork. Tending to my precious little grasses, a girl goes riding by in a wagon pulled by her sister, eyeing me suspiciously.

As they pull away, I hear her remark. “I can’t wait until halloween time. I’m NOT going to be scared of that house this time.”

We’ll have to see about that, now, won’t we?

Gore.

Blood and guts.

To most, these are synonymous with Halloween.

There was once a time I attempted to recreate realistic gory creations. They told me to come to work in costume back when I worked at Burger King. Laughed, and put me at the register when I showed up, then asked me to go remove the bullet hole from the middle of my forehead after the third complaint from costumers saying the sight of it made them sick.

And they love to put me in charge of makeup on mock disasters at work, just to give folks something to be squeamish about.

Maybe it was witnessing one too many amputation in the heavy machinery while being a first responder at a former job. Maybe it was saving a guy who tried to blow off his leg when booze, firearms, and homemade fireworks mixed one 4th of July season in the field across from our old home.

For whatever reason, as I sat down to figure what we were doing for Halloween, gore ceased having a place in it some time ago. I’ve never quite understood why some people think gore is ‘scary’ to begin with. Besides, none of the makeup stuff, or even movies, ever gets what’s bothersome down right anyway: the smell.

I’ve never really done much in the gore department at this house. I’ve always preferred the Edgar Allen Poe method of leaving the impressions and allowing people to come up with their own details.

So, I happened to be talking to some local kids the other day. Showing a bit of how the new mask is coming along, and describing some of the new things we’re working on.

And, they went off on how I could add all this blood and stuff to here or there because it would make it so cool, ‘like last year’.

Confused a bit, I commented how I don’t do blood or gore.

I was greeted by some confused looks, some quiet discussions, and then a bewildered remark.

“You really don’t, do you? I never noticed.”

Which, in the end, I suppose, is the entire point.

Damn weather.

I should be out corpsing the bucky by now. Nooo, we had to go get several inches of snow.

So, it was taking Kyle off to look for a suitable model for his school project.

While finding that model proved fruitless, we did come home with a cute little skeleton onesy for Talia, and a pool umbrella frame.

Yes, just the frame. I’ll leave you to guess what possibly for, for the moment.

And, to top it off, I got 3 new skulls made last night.

Will have pics of the onesy as soon as she wears it, and pics of the 2 major projects once weather clears to a point we can actually start DOING something on them. Till then, it’s makin skulls, and waiting for supplies to show up in the mail for the shrunken heads and Kyle’s school project.