There are two stories on this page -Halloween Fans Go All Out to Decorate Their Haunts
and These Days, "Eek" is Chic. Be sure to scroll down for the second one!
Halloween Fans Go All Out to Decorate Their Haunts
Saturday, October 22, 2005
by Nicole tsong - Seattle Times staff reporter
Oh, the horror in West Seattle
Dawn Murin and Dana Knutson always have loved Halloween. If Murin could, she would keep more Halloween decorations up in her West Seattle home throughout the year. "It's our favorite holiday, because it's ghosts and witches and spiders and vampires," she said. "All the things I like are more socially acceptable this time of year. If I had my druthers, I'd leave the crow and witches and the alien up year-round."
Murin, 39, an art director for Wizards of the Coast, and Knutson, 54, have a collection of Halloween decorations accumulated over the years.
One of the finds this year was an old Bela Lugosi Dracula poster that Knutson ordered from a magazine as a child. The Dracula, his fangs dripping blood, hypnotizes people from behind a curtain in the dining area.
Their home also benefits from Knutson's love of movie props. A corner in the spare bedroom is taken up by a promotional life-size alien from the first "Alien" in 1979. A mask of horror actor Tor Johnson placed atop black robes and draped with flickering green lights provides a thrill in the front entryway.
They also doctored a promotional cut-out of a vampire for the book "I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire" from the Ravenloft series, adding glowing red eyes and draping it with chiffon.
Murin, who until last year was the art director for the game Dungeons and Dragons, always has loved monsters and horror films.
"I guess it was natural I ended up in this job," she said.
Towering terrors in Redmond
Redmond resident Scott Axworthy was probably 5 years old when he entered his first haunted house. His older brother was fond of rigging a haunted house in the garage and tested low-tech contraptions like a ghost bursting out of a trunk on his younger brother. "It terrified me, but I loved it," said Axworthy, 45.
Axworthy has turned his childhood thrills into a full-time passion.
For years, he created stunning devices on the side that gave his yard a demonic tilt, and now he is working on a Halloween theme-park concept. His yard is a sort of testing ground.
A 9-foot-tall formal scarecrow in a tux with an orange cummerbund and carved pumpkin head greets visitors in the yard, raising its arms as fog shoots skyward for a ghostly aura.
A creepy blue-lighted graveyard under a tree features ivy crawling around headstones and a skull.
A ghost, its bony fingers outstretched and tattered shreds streaming behind it, flies around the house on an invisible wire just above your head.
The latest addition is a 13-foot scarecrow made of woven twigs inspired by sculptor Patrick Dougherty and lighted by spotlights. The looming scarecrow is draped with a distressed canvas and cobwebs, its head a papier-mโch้ pumpkin.
As visitors dare to walk up into the yard, organ music plays in the background and red and blue spotlights highlight his inventions.
Fog streams across the yard every few minutes.
Axworthy, who studied electrical engineering in college, loves creating innovative Halloween creatures.
"My thing is setting the mood," he said. "You set the mood, and people's imaginations go."
Wicked bliss in Queen Anne
Chad Waddle and Cami Petrie love Halloween so much, they're planning a Halloween-themed wedding next year. They have yet to decide what they will wear for the ceremony, but they'll be in costume and their guests will be expected to come in disguise, too.
"I love the dressing-up aspect (of Halloween)," Petrie, 27, said. "You get to be something funky or creative."
The Queen Anne couple starts thinking about Halloween in August. Decorations, including a vast Halloween village from collectibles-wholesale company Department 56 that takes up three tables in their living room, are in place by the end of September every year.
They also try to attract trick-or-treaters to their home with decorations out front, including a flying witch hanging off the porch; an inflatable giant purple and black spider; and a coffin, new this year.
Waddle, 26, doesn't love costumes as much as his fianc้ does, but he still is passionate about Halloween.
"I like the spooky side freaky movies and going to haunted houses," he said. "Fall gets you in the mood."
A vintage figure of Bela Lugosi emerges from one of the decorated mirrors at Dawn Murin's home.
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A corner in the West Seattle home of Dawn Murin shows a festive Halloween decor.
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A miniature Halloween village in the living room of the Queen Anne home of Chad Waddle and Camie Petrie.
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A 9-foot-tall scarecrow, complete with moving arms and blowing smoke, comes to life every few minutes in the Axworthys' front yard. A 13-foot-tall scarecrow also haunts the grounds.
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Diane Axworthy spooks up a portrait of her great, great-grandfather as part of her Halloween decor. | 
A mock cemetery, lighted with fluorescent lights, helps set the mood for visitors at the Redmond home of Scott and Diane Axworthy.
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These days, "Eeek!" is chic
Saturday, October 22, 2005
By Nicole Tsong - Seattle Times staff reporter
Are you cursed with an addiction to Halloween? Has your house been decked out since mid-September? Do you obsessively add to your collection each year, plotting the goriest set-up?
With plenty of fellow Halloween junkies out there and seemingly more joining their ranks each season, stores have responded in force.
Halloween has ballooned into the second-biggest decorating holiday of the year, after Christmas.
Whether you choose friendly or frightful, here are some outdoor options to make trick-or-treaters scream, and some indoor ideas to make your home as ghoulishly haunted as possible.
Decorating prep
Dry ice. Buy enough to last for an evening; it goes fast. Danielle Lynch of Allied Ice in Seattle suggests buying 5 to 15 pounds, but for a steady, abundant flow of smoke, she recommends up to 15 pounds an hour.
Allied Ice sells blocks for $1 a pound and nuggets for $1.25 a pound.
About half will dissipate overnight, so most people buy the day they need it. Handle dry ice only when wearing thick, insulated gloves. (See page 14 for safety tips.)
Buy your decorations now. Lots of the best stuff sells out quickly. EBay is another option for next year.
Make sure you have lots of extension cords, both indoor and outdoor, for ghostly lighting. Try blue or red light bulbs.
Ensure outdoor decorations are rainproof before setting them out.
Easy party suggestions
Cover the walls of a room with black trash bags, then tack on creepy masks, plastic bugs or baby dolls. Use a blacklight for the best effect.
Serve "brain-hemorrhage" drinks, suggests Barbi Stowell, event coordinator for Michaels in Bellevue. Layer a shot of Bailey's Irish Cream and another of Kahlua and top it with red grenadine syrup that drips down the dark layers for a bloody effect.
Make your own cheap and easy ghosts with white balloons and cheesecloth, Stowell suggests. Use glow-in-the-dark paint for faces, then drape the cheesecloth over balloons. If you use helium, you can tie the ghosts down. If you're not using helium, hang the ghosts from the ceiling. Illuminate them with a blacklight for a dramatic touch.
Go for a gruesome punchbowl standard. Fill a rubber glove with water and freeze it. Peel the glove off, then put the hand in the punch.
Do something different with pumpkins. Instead of carving, try painting a whole pumpkin a glittery purple or hot pink, suggests the magazine Halloween Tricks and Treats by Better Homes and Gardens. Spray-paint an artificial carvable pumpkin, and paint the stems black with black acrylic paint. Spray surfaces of the pumpkins with a matte finish.
