- construction & design of the bell tower is finished except for mounting the bell - non-glue dovetail "cornerstone" joints are a success - hooray! This means the bell tower can store flat! :)
- entire chapel is carved for this year (future plans are to enhance with more carving detail, stained glass windows, maybe a roof on the bell tower, we'll see)
- bell tower & chapel walls painted with tan base coat (still need to do the spray-paint aging technique!)
- chapel door cut from scrap fake wood paneling remodeling leftovers
- new archway door cut from scrap fake wood paneling remodeling leftovers
- Halloween accessories from inside the shed all cleaned up, hosed off, drying in the sun
- 4 dozen witches fingers cookies done
- 4 dozen gravestone cookies baked, royal icing setting, still need epitaphs
- 6.5 dozen pumpkin pasties are pre-made & frozen to be baked the morning of the party
- (still have double-batch crab puffs in the freezer, so I won't make more)
- 14 dozen Brittle Bone cookies done
- Awful Arachnids barely started, but at least royal icing is black & in the piping bag!
Other non-Halloween specific tasks but that really needed to be done before the party:
- finally planted jasmine vine out front, included moving another juniper bush
- mowed front lawn, including raking leaves & sweeping gutter & sidewalk
- finally planted both grapes & potato vines, one set on each white arbor
...still need to DECORATE!!!