Stephen King's The Stand (Useless chatter of my mind)

I love to read. I enjoy it very much. I can usually read 200 pages in an in two hours or less. However, for some ungodly reason I can not get into this book yet. Its a good book so far but I can't read it like I usually do.

If anyone out there in the world wide web has read this book and would care to comment on it please do, don't worry I don't mind about spoilers. I also haven't seen the movie, even though my husband says the movie and the book are both awesome.
For once I have found a book that my husband has read and I have not. That is a rarity around here as my husband is NOT a big reader at all. I, on the other hand, am.

I've been swapping between reading, prop building and keeping my house clean here lately. I'm job hunting at the moment, which totally sucks right now.


Ah, well back to reading.

Pyramid Head...my new friend.

****The following photos ARE NOT MINE, they are reference photos for my creation, which I have yet to post...thought I would include this :)***



I'm going to be doing a new prop soon. It is Pyramid head. He is from the Silent Hill movie. He also from the Silent Hill games which I didn't know existed LOL.  Anyways, I thought I would post some of the research photos so you can see what I'm going to attempt to make.
This prop will be made from foam sheeting, at least that's the idea I'm rattling around in my brain. Then I'm going to make some faux metal parts and embellish the pieces with. I'm hoping to be able to make this with a see through portion so the person who will be wearing it can see out of it, haha, It would probably be a bit dangerous otherwise. I've been asked to do this head piece as well as the sword to see if I can do it.

If there are any items you would like to see me make, please feel free to email me suggestions at

taysmache@hotmail.com

I really like this version. I'm not sure where I found this photo. Sorry that I can' t give the props but this is JUST AWESOME. If you see your photo on here PLEASE tag yourself in the comments. Sorry for stealing the photos :/

********Update 3/17/2011**********

Ok so I have the templates made for the headpiece and the sword (see photos below). Shout out to Dax79 from Youtube.com for a jumping point with dimensions.http://www.youtube.com/user/Dax79#p/u/1/bRmLrCJzBdQ . His pyramid head piece is made from cardboard. Mine will be made from Foam Instulation sheathing and a few other bits and pieces.

Saw's Reverse Bear Trap Beginning Paint Process

Here we are folks, the beginning stages of the painting process of my version of the Saw Reverse Bear Trap. I will be doing a rusting technique via hauntproject.com as soon as I have some spare cash to head down to lowe's for some supplies.
I am currently making a second RBT to finish up the holes in the how-to process.

I am selling these RBT's if anyone is interested.

Disaster

My computer is fried. :( I'm currently using my best friend laptop to make this posting. We aren't sure what is wrong with our computer but I am hoping that sooner rather than later I will either have mine repaired or a new one come tax season.

Absalom..Where ARRRrrrre You?

Here you are, oh, Absalom. With your second coating of paper mache clay. Hands are being sculpted and details too. Now you need to be sanded and smoothed and extra details added.

 This hand (above) is missing because this will be the hand that will hold his hookah. I have yet to build it so I'm leaving this hand off until I have it built so I can sculpt it around the hookah piece.

 If anyone is wondering why there are no feet on this side, its cause this side is going to be where the tubes for the fog machine will go, so no one will see this side.

No Caterpillar WHO ARE YOU!?

In the previous post, I stated that I was going to have a caterpillar in my haunt/party for 2011.  Here he is, well the start of him. He is still in his raw form. Currently, he is positioned on his side in front of my drying fans, getting a cool down  of the layers of paper mache clay that I applied to him last night. As many people have asked me on my Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=687955330  Why does he have a PVC pipe in his mouth area? Well, to answer this question, he is going to have a fog machine hooked up to his mouth to blow smoke. I'm going to attempt to put the fog machine on a timer so that he just blows puffs of smoke...we will see how that goes. In order for this to happen, he had to have a PVC tube inserted inside him so the smoke can come out. :)

Mr. Caterpillar will also have a hookah sitting beside him on his giant mushroom. 

The mushroom will be made from chicken wire and paper mache as well. 

His body is made out of different sized balloons that had paper mache applied to them in about 4 layers and then allowed to partly dry. While they were still somewhat soft but not completely hard, I popped the balloons inside and began shaping the balloons to form the sections of the caterpillar. The arms and legs are just balls of newspaper wadded up and taped to the body.

Here are some   of the photos that I am basing my design on. Of course its not exact because I don't want it to be. This is my creation after all. He will have hands as well that I'm going to mold and apply but since I have no created the hookah yet, I'm going to wait on the hands so that one of them will hold the hookah parts. 

The Beginnings of My Twisted Tales

So we have decided upon our theme for our 2011 haunt/halloween party. It will consist of twisted fairy tales and nursery rhymes...with some alice in wonderland and wizard of oz. Basically a world of dreams....but gone HORRIBLY wrong.
 Mwahahahahaha.

You like that laugh? Yeah, its evil. That's right, whipping out the evil laugh for this one. This haunt/party will be a BIG production. It will be a walk through with mini scenes after entering a giant mirror entrance. The guest will then follow a broken yellow brick road through the scenes around my front yard, down the side of my house and then around my back yard to the other side of my house where there is a big opening and our party will be held.
Scenes planned thus far are as follows:

• Entrance: Through the Looking Glass- A Giant archway that will be made to resemble a mirror stick half cocked in the ground. 

Once the guest walks through this archway, there will be a yellow Brick Road with some signs that point and say various things.

•  Munchkins hanging from a tree...no longer a myth in the movie but REAL in my haunt. 
• The Scarecrow being burnt alive by the Wicked Witch, laughing. Going to make faux fire using some fans, lights, sound and other items. 
• Little Miss Muffet will be my spider victim this year. 
• The front of my house and walk way will be decorated like a gingerbread house. Hansel and Gretel will be in the windows banging to be let out. Going to use a neat special effect right here. Already have my actors lined up. Working on designing the costumes for them. :)
• Snow white dead on her grave stone (see grimms complete fairy tales with illustrations) and she will be surrounded by the sever dwarfs who are cannibals/zombies (still debating on set up) and they will have torn some of snow whites body parts off and eating them. A large bloody mess :)
• Rapunzel    and her tower. Her body will be hanging out of the window of her tower and down below will be a mass of hair and her severed head lying atop, having been ripped off by the prince in his attempt to climb her hair. Debating making a prince being wrapped in a thorny bush...clearly the bush is alive. 
• The tin man will be chopping up Pinnochio. A bloody site indeed. 
• The big bad wolf will be roasting the 3 little pigs and in the background will be a red riding coat with bones that have been chewed on.
• All of this will lead up to the MAIN party zone which is The Mad Hater's Tea Party. My husband is going to be the Hater and I am to be a twisted Alice. The tea party scene is going to be in black light and color lights. We are going to paint a giant Cheshire cat that will be glow in the dark on some fabric panels and then our Caterpillar will be on top of a giant mushroom and he will have a fog machine hooked up to him. Everything in the tea party will be in psychedelic them. White roses dripping with blood will be the centerpiece of the giant tea party table and there will be tea cups, pots and saucers all over the table with different kinds of chairs for seating. We are designing our own costumes and are looking into glow in the dark contacts as well. 

I'm really hoping everything can go as planned for my new tradition and obsession :)