Halloween Season

It's begun!

My husband and I went to a haunt in NYC, Blood Manor. It's a popular event, with a line on which we waited nearly two and a half hours. In the drizzle. And chill.

The event planners, sponsored by Club Planet, tried to keep us entertained, with wandering actors and some fairly sick entertainment. Some of the creatures were very well done,

Some, not so much so.

There were also some rather truly gruesome "attractions" happening in the street, photos of which I will not post. Suffice it to say, the men who were having dollar bills stapled to their skin were not the worst of it. This event is not for kids.

Inside, the walls were covered in UV-reactive paintings on black canvas, with blacklights lighting the way. The paintings were terrific.

All of the elements of the haunt inside were great - the actors, the costumes, the makeup, the props (I want those props for my house!), the various room themes, the use of UV-reactive paint and 3D glasses, the inventiveness of some of the themes. It was all the more odd to me, then, that I wasn't scared. I'm an easy audience, too. I'm very easily startled, and I do scare. I'll be afraid of a dark street or driving alone after watching The Grudge. So the lack of fright with this event was disappointing. My husband thinks it's based on the speed at which we were herded through, though I understand that the tour couldn't be too long or the line outside would be even less bearable.

I'm not sorry we went, though. I did enjoy the various pieces of it all, and appreciated the work and expense that obviously went into it.

On Sunday, I painted with my friend Emilie at the Bergen County Cabbage Night Festival at the McFaul Environmental Center, in Wyckoff. If you were there, I was the chick with the colorful hair streaks.

We had a beautiful day for it, the first real weekend day in October with no rain and a reasonable temperature. The colors of the autumn leaves made for a terrific backdrop. We were working like speed demons, so I had time for very few photos. I managed a few, though.

This young man was getting in gear for Saturday, with a request for a vampire. He was very happy with my rendition...

And this one loved the result of his request for "just webs and spiders on his cheeks."

I had to get a photo of this next girl. I've done many rainbow butterflies in my day, but when I showed her the mirror, she looked and exclaimed, "Oh, I'm beautiful!" I told her, of course, that she already had been.

This cutie let me be the first person ever to paint her, and let me match the colors of her outfit. I love when I get to do that.

And I thought this pumpkin face was a cute request from this little girl.

I love this event. The county hosts it every year, free to the public. In addition to our face painting, there's pumpkin painting, hot dogs & cider, music at a bandstand, colonial reenactment, and pony and hayrides. If you didn't make it this year, bring the kids on over next year, for sure!