Something I didn't mention that made the last couple weeks even more annoying than I already mentioned is that our AC broke at the beginning of a heatwave! I kept trying to blow air past frozen cold packs and convincing myself it was making things better but it didn't. On Friday we got a new AC installed and now it feels like a proper Autumn outside. I don't even mind the irony because I love this weather so much!
I probably already mentioned that I wanted to make some tree trunks and that I bought some very bright fabric from Remainders to do so. They turned out pretty good! I made eight in total and tried three different techniques, and by the end I feel like I really had it figured out. They are pretty flimsy but between the 1x2 wooden armature, the glued-together curved cardboard, the spray-adhesived paper skins, and the sewn fabric sleeves, I think they'll last two weeks outdoors in LA. If they don't, I'll try something better next year.
Mid-way through building the trees I finally bought some electric scissors. It's like a rotary cutter but battery-powered, and it cuts clean straight lines through corrugated cardboard in no time with no effort. I weep for the hours and hours I spent ten years ago, crouched on the ground, carefully measuring and cutting strips of cardboard with a ruler and a box cutter. This thing was $30 at Harbor Freight. I should have bought it then! I am trying to be less frugal when it comes to tools and art supplies because I am making my life harder for no reason, but it's really hard. Even when I was making the trees, which are made entirely of scraps I already had (apart from the $6 of fabric I bought at Remainders), I was setting aside the "good" cardboard and wood for some theoretical future project. I gotta quit it!
Part of the frugal compulsion is that I keep everything. It's not quite hoarding, but it does mean there are half a dozen boxes in the garage full of things that I've never used and never will use. But sometimes I do use some of those things, you know? I ventured into the loft in the garage and pulled out all the pieces from past Halloweens that I couldn't bear to throw away, and there's a lot I didn't know I still had.
This is all going in the yard this year! Since I dropped my arbitary requirement that I start from scratch on a new installation every year this year, I have also given myself the freedom to mix things together. Some of these are very different art styles from each other but that probably doesn't matter! Let's fill the dang thing up and see what happens!
And so I've started setting up the yard for Halloween. I've given myself a few days to put things in place, rather than trying to transform the yard overnight for no reason. Currently, the backdrop supports and the batten-hung canvases are set up and weighed down, and all the extension cords and half the lights are in place. Tomorrow, the stretched canvases and the new trees go in place. Friday and Saturday I install all the critters and creatures and do some touch-up painting, and then we're live for the season!
Amy and I observed the reason for the season this week when we went to our friends' house and we spent some time carving pumpkins together. It was a lot of fun! I gave mine eyebrows.
This time next week, things will be up and running and I'll be hopefully a little more relaxed. I gave myself some grace on finishing the little musician guys, so I'm leaving room for them in the yard to be installed some time between Saturday and Halloween. More on them soon I sure hope!