Another productive day...

I managed to get 3 more dolls painted today and I also set up a makeshift painting area in our bonus room. It is definitely easier having a space to work in and having all my stuff in one place....maybe I will end up taking over the whole room? I'm going to need space anyway for my airbrush and I'm wanting to try out casting my own molds too. Lots of new things to do. Here is what I have right now.

Just a corner...for now.

My tree is in the garage because I don't want to have to carry it downstairs and through a doorway when it's finally done. As of right now, the base with roots and the middle of the trunk are formed with chicken wire and wrapped in tape. They are ready to start the paper maché but there is one problem, I don't have any paper. Looks like I will finally be getting that subscription to the Seattle Times.

This pic is just the chicken wire, no tape.

I don't know how much I will be getting done this weekend because I'm going to be attending the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup. I'm looking forward to learning lots of cool things and basically hanging out with a bunch of hippies! For now I will leave you with some pictures of the dolls that I have painted, I will probably be adding to some of them when I get my airbrush but for now they are just painted with brush and acrylic paint. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

It's never too early to plan for Halloween!

My husband has been waiting his entire life to finally have a house of his own that he can decorate for Halloween.  It took some time but after 11 years of marriage and moving all over the world he finally convinced me that Halloween is really where it's at as far as decorating is concerned. Last Halloween was our first Halloween in OUR house and it was amazing, all the years of talking about how when we had our own place we would build our own props and we could finally do it! We built a coffin like we had always wanted to do, we made a cage for our prisoner skeleton, some plywood tombstones and enlisted our neighbors to help us scare the crap out of the neighborhood kids. We had a blast! We had so much fun that only one picture was taken the whole night because we were too busy handing out candy and scaring people.

I did however, take some pictures of props as I finished them so here are a few.

 This was the house the morning of Halloween.

 This was our super simple cage for the skeleton.

This was a gravestone before I put the words on it.

Costumes are also important so here is my daughter in her costume and a picture of me with just my makeup on (I wore a santa suit and hat also).

This year those same neighbors are joining up with us to have the most epic Halloween ever. The plans have been made, the yard is mapped out and even though it's still only May construction starts now because we are even more ambitious this year. I have started on the huge 8 foot tree that will be in the front yard thanks to a great tutorial on Dead Spider. I have also started collecting dolls to paint, here is a preview:

Revamping the Old Blog

I haven't written on here in forever so I decided it was time for a total overhaul. If I have any old followers (which I doubt) this is not going to be anything like the old Friday Night Ambulance, I'm using this to document my Halloween prop-making obsession. I'm hoping to attract some like-minded followers to exchange ideas, possibly brainstorm or maybe even help people that are interested in making their own decorations as well. 

For the record: I am an amateur, I have no formal art schooling but I did take some advance courses in high school (which was way too long ago). I use Pinterest a lot for inspiration and I have found a few other blogs that I like too that I will be sure to link in the sidebar. 

Let the crazy adventure begin!

A Work In Progress

So, I know people have been wanting pictures of our house here but I was avoiding it until I was able to unpack everything. Once everything was unpacked I was still avoiding it because there are so many things I want to get before I show pictures. Well, with the possible government shut down of funds there is a possibility that we won't get paid. Needless to say, I'm being very frugal right now just in case so I'm not exactly running out to buy rugs and accent tables and vases and flowers and such. So, I decided to just give in and take the pictures, just know that this is unfinished but it'll give you an idea.

 This is the front of our house, it's hard to tell in this pic but our house is purple.

This is our parking spot, if we had two cars then we'd have to park the other out on the main street.

This is where we keep two of our 4 trash cans, they are really big into recycling here so we have separate containers for plastic, paper, bio (or biodegradable) and regular trash.

 This is my little shrub that surprisingly, I haven't killed...yet.

This is the coat area, I haven't found a spot for my vacuum yet so it's still sitting here. 

This is the powder room, it's to the left when you walk in the door.

To the right is the kitchen, yes, that is a teeny tiny oven.

 This is another view of the kitchen from the other side, this is basically from where the computer is.

This is our pantry, we used closet organizers to make shelves because it was essentially an empty closet and since they don't have closets in the bedrooms we would have ended up storing the closet organizers and buying shelves. I think it was pretty smart.

 This it the tiniest sink on the planet. I have to do dishes after every meal.

 This is our staircase, it goes all the way down into the basement...and it matches the front of our house.

 This is my bedroom, the skylights are wonderful in the daytime and at night they have blackout shades to keep out peeping neighbors.

 This is our "closet" Don't you just love the design on the mirror? (sarcasm)

 This is what the kids' closets look like, the opposite side is for hanging clothes.

 This is the balcony the kids share, it overlooks the backyard.

 This is Sophia's room...not much to see.

 Same goes for Nicholas' room, not much here.

 This is our upstairs bathroom, basically the one we all share and has no cabinets or closets.

 This is our shower, you'd think with all the space in this bathroom they would have put in a bigger shower....or some damn cabinets.

 This is our tiny little backyard, big enough to use but small enough to be a pain in the ass to mow.

 A view of the front door (with a towel on the floor).

 This is the dining area, as seen from the computer area.

 Another view of the stairs.

 This is the computer area, I'm still looking for a desk so this area is pretty much a disaster zone.

 This is the living room, it is directly across from the dining room.

The rest of these are from the basement, this is the guest room we have set up but I still need to figure out something for the walls, it looks like a prison.

This is the laundry area, this room is HUGE and there is plenty of room to store our junk. 

And last but not least, this is the kids' playroom, there isn't much there yet but we have big plans for this room.

So, that's it, I hope you enjoyed the tour and I'll try to update these pictures as I get more pieces.

This past weekend we headed downtown to the market square to pick up some fresh veggies for dinner, well, we didn't end up with any veggies but we did get some homemade jelly (which is delicious BTW). I love all the fresh fruits and veggies, flowers, eggs, jams and even honey they had. I actually had every intention of getting walking away with some fresh carrots and eggs but I decided to wait till after we walked around a little to buy them so the eggs wouldn't break. Well, as luck would have it we had to leave a little earlier than planned and I missed out. I'll try again on Tuesday though.

Right near where they set up the stalls for the market is the Rathaus (town hall) and I just had to take a picture to show you guys. This building was built in 1572. 

After walking around some more I decided to stop in to the liquor store, now not all liquor stores are like this one but this is definitely my favorite. They let you sample before you buy and they have tons of different kinds of liquors and wines. They have infused oils as well like rosemary infused olive oil, yum! You buy a bottle, there are many different sizes and shapes, some are plain and some are decorative. I bought a couple plain bottles a few weeks ago and when we finished the alcohol inside I just rinsed it out and then brought it back to fill up again. I went with Amaretto and Marzipan flavored liquor again, those seem to be my favorite but I've got my eye on an orange cream for next time. This is a picture of the wall of liquors.

I had to get a picture of the kids at the fountain, it was too pretty a day not to.

This is a pretty little water fountain near the market, it wasn't turned on but once it warms up I'll be sure to get another picture.

That was all the pictures from Saturday. I went to Bamberg last week but somehow I forgot my camera, I'm going to try to steal some pics from a friend to show you. I'm also going to Wurzburg in April so I won't forget my camera then.
Cheers!

A Couple More Pigs

 This is the McDonald's pig, as if you couldn't tell by the red and yellow and the burger on its stomach.

This is the pig in front of the mall.

I've actually seen a few more pigs but I didn't have my camera, we're probably going to go on an excursion real soon and try to get pics of the others I've seen and hopefully find some more. I did find out that there are like 157 pigs and the money earned from people that purchased the pigs goes to the kindergartens here, it's a great idea and I'm really glad they did it because it's fun trying to find them all.

Finding the pigs, part 1

So, here in Schweinfurt there are painted pigs all over town and before we left Oklahoma my neighbor and I found out about them. My mission while I'm here is to get pictures of all the Schweinfurt pigs for my neighbor. So, these are the ones we got on Saturday.




















I promise next time I'll be in the pictures but I was busy holding an alligator (more on that later).


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Location:Schweinfurt, DE