From Bad To Good

As easy as your first step.

Dasher

Last Christmas, niece Devin's belief in Santa Claus was wavering. In her annual letter to him, she asked for a picture of one of his reindeer. Her parents suspected she wanted proof he exists.

Well, sure enough, on Christmas morning, Devin found a framed photo of Dasher under the tree, with a letter from old St. Nick himself that read

Dear Devin

Thank you for writing. You asked me for a picture of one of my reindeer, although they are very shy and dislike being photographed, I do have one photo of old Dasher as a young buck many years ago that I can give you.

When Dasher was still learning to fly, he would "dash" off in all directions, often landing in odd places. That's how he got his name. In this picture taken by Mrs. Claus, he landed on the workshop roof one day. It's always been one of my favorites. I hope you like it.

Merry Christmas and have a wonderful New Year.
-Santa

Connecticut

Rooftop Reindeer

Home & Family producers wanted holiday decor on the roof of our house set location. I pitched this prop concept for the chimney. They liked it. Progress photos and a "making of" soon.

The Awful Blogger

I know I've been a lame blogger these past weeks. Worse though, not taking time to publish the comments many of you have been leaving lately. That's just rude on my part when you took the time to write one. I apologize.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get back to it fairly regularly. And resurrect my long dormant web comic Para-Abnormal soon.

Christmas Decorating

I'm hoping to find time and decorate the front yard tree by turning it into a toy making Elf's cottage.

Insta-Zombie-Gramed

So I decided it was time to replace my old cell phone from 2006 with this new fangeled device called the IPhone. Have you heard of it? It's pretty neat.

One of the first apps I downloaded was Instagram. I was curious to try it seeing so many friends using on Facebook. My Halloween lawn zombies were fun first photo subjects.

Halloween 2012- Haunted Hosts

Haunted portraits I created for the Home & Family Halloween show set of hosts Mark Steines and Paige Davis.

And here's how they looked on the wall (photo courtesy of prep chef Hayley)

The 2012 Halloween Yard Portfolio

Although this year's display had no new props, and far less time spent on it than any other season before, it turned out better than I expected.

One change that worked out great, and will definitely do again next year, was the longer path winding through the front yard for Trick or Treaters. Not only did it make the display more interactive, but gave it a sense of depth it never had.

Halloween 2012: The Awful Blogger

My apologies to all for being an awful blogger this October. The month went by in a blur of orange and black spending countless 12 -16 hour days at work. I do have many good stories to tell though, and will share in a post I'm working on recapping all the Halloween highlights.

Until then, in brief, Halloween night was scaretastic. We had somewhere around 300 trick or treaters meet Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. This doesn't count the many who where afraid to walk up, and ones scared off by Jason lurking around the yard and sidewalk.

The fiancee put together a video of a few scares she managed to capture on her camera this year. It's dark, but that's my fault, I hate bright lights. Kudos and thanks to my brother Ted for another outstanding performance as Dr. Frankenstein entertaining kids and parents all night long.

4 Days 'til Halloween: Set Decorating

A note passed to me by a senior producer at work in regards to decorating the Home and Family set for the Halloween show on the 31st.

They've released the kraken!

7 Days 'til Halloween: Goblin Brain

We had the family over for dinner on Sunday. Niece Devin arrived holding something clutched to her chest, hidden by her arms wrapped tightly around it. It was a belated birthday present for me.

"I have a story to tell you" she said.

Apparently, her softball team had an away game that day. In Russia. While there, they visited a national park. The park ranger showed them were an ancient tree once stood, before it mysteriously burned down. It was said to have a goblin living in it. In the ashes, something was found.

Her tale told, Devin handed her old uncle his gift, a custom prop, she made herself.

No cabinet of curiosities, anywhere in the world, has an oddity as wonderful and special as this one is to me.

15 Days 'til Halloween: Meeting Doodles

Work may be keeping me from spending the time I'd like to on my Halloween display, but it can't keep me from doodling Halloween during a long meeting.

Sketching in blue ball point always feels like I'm in High School again.

17 Days 'til Halloween: The 2000 Yard Display

For the fun of it, here are old (and lousy) pics of my 2000 Halloween display. That year, because I was living in an apartment, my parents let me decorate their yard not far away. Honestly, this might actually be 2001. I'm not sure. It was a long time ago. I remember decorating their place in both '00 and '01 before they moved. Now that I think about it, both displays didn't look very different from each other, so these pics work for either year.

18 Days 'til Halloween: New Yard Walk -Thu Test

I think I mentioned this in a post awhile back, but I'm trying out a new layout to the lawn this year that will create a winding path through the display for Trick or Treaters. Last weekend, as my brother Ted and I debated if where we placed the guillotine would work, niece Devin said...

"Well, let's see!"

Then she did an impromptu test walk-thru, that cracked both of us up.