Halloween

More images put together. This is the fireplace for 2010. Some of these items might be familiar from previous years. More images posted below.

At shows, people often assume my entire house is decorated with my artwork. Truth is, with the exception of large creatures I make for various themes, none of my pieces make it out of my office. And even if I took them out, they wouldn't take up much space.

I have a strict rule about my pieces: I'm allowed to keep one or two of a series. If I want a new one from the same series, I have to trade it out with one already on the shelf. It keeps my personal collection rather small.

There's one or two of you out there who actually own more pieces than I do.

Besides, I like the idea of having someone else's decorations up, especially when they have a vintage flair (I don't have a knack for that vintage style. At least, not at the moment. Maybe one day).

The plan for this Halloween was to go on a haunt crawl with a group, head downtown for a little martini or two, and then get home for the premiere of the Walking Dead on AMC.

Halloween morning showed the first signs of roadblocks. My cold, which has just been a nuisance up to this point, teamed up with a migraine (I blame the brief snowfall we had in the city) and knocked me out for 2 hours.

When I awoke, the migraine was better, but I was goopy. Coughing. Sniffling. A bit dizzy.

I was going nowhere.

A friend of mine came by to visit around 5, and left just as the sun was setting.

I called to Yetch who was relaxing after staying up drinking with friends at a party Saturday night (until 7 am). He'd gone past relaxing and into sleeping.

I tried to gently wake him a couple times but to no avail. I was on my own (insert awwwwwws here).

So I carved myself a companion who didn't care that I was sick and didn't mind staying in with me while I sneezed and coughed.

The doorbell only rang twice for trick or treaters (insert another awwwww here). I even bundled up at one point, shuffled out to the porch, and prominently displayed the pumpkin. But even though children pointed, parents weren't interested in crossing the street for the only house with a light on.

So my little jack o'lantern and I went back inside. I put on a movie during which we had a photo shoot (he posed on the table, I took most of the pictures below from my spot on the couch).

I've complained in the past about how my street is void of Halloween spirit, but this past week I've been unnerved by a disturbing sight.

Last year the people across the street from me hung a full skeleton on their front porch, much to my delight. But this year another white figure has appeared.

At first he was up against the railing, looking through the bars like a prisoner. Perhaps he's waiting to be picked up, I thought.

But this morning he's sitting comfortably in a chair. I tell myself he might have arthritis and just needs to sit since he's been waiting for his ride for so long. I fear I am deluding myself.

I have my morning coffee out on the porch each day, and with each cup I get more agitated by his stupid smile. What is he doing? Should I call the police? He's an unwanted intruder who needs to be removed.

You know. Sally Brown: Charlie's little sister. I had a Sally Brown moment.

While in Vegas, my spirits were lifted when I saw an advertisement for Freemont's Oktober FrightFest. Freemont is old Las Vegas, and FrightFest made promises of Halloween decorations - a full street transformation, to be specific, with shows and maybe even a parade. Hooray, I thought, I get to play Halloween after all!

We took the 30 minute bus ride to the north side of town, and I was sure to keep the list of events I'd noted in my back pocket, just to make sure I wouldn't miss a thing.

The main strip is canopied from one side of the street to another. Each hour they project videos to various musical artists. We arrived just as "Time of the Season" by the Zombies (nice) started to play. I must admit, it is a spectacle to behold - psychedelic imagery pouring over the roof as the rest of the flashing lights on the street go dim.

Then there was the obligatory "Time Warp" (of course) with lots of pumpkins and skeletons. Really cute.

Once the show was over, I turned my eyes to the rest of the street. Bring on the Halloween decorations! Keep in mind this is day 4 of my trip, and with the exception of the pumpkins at the Bellagio, I had not caught a glimpse of Halloween - or fall - at all.

My mini pumpkins and little hooters were a big hit last year. Many people bought them, and even more people loved them. I had to wonder what would have turned the loving admirers into buyers.

One thing that seemed to perplex people was where they would put it or how to display such a tiny figure. My immediate solution was to turn some of my little hooters into Christmas ornaments. This worked well.

But it didn't solve the problem for people who would have bought multiple figures if - again - they knew how to display them once they got them home (more than one person - some clearly joking, some half-serious - wanted to take home part of my display for the table).

Thus the Halloween Hutch was born. I've made two so far, experimenting with how they should look.

Each one stands just under 5 1/2 inches. All the items with the exception of the little hooter are secured in place on their shelf. The drawers don't slide very well, but if someone wanted to keep rings or other items in the drawer, they could easily take out the moss.