Saturday, September 14, 2024

Meet Elemental!

Okay, peeps.

We have a new Halloween buddy this year, as part of our overhaul from cutesy to spooksy, and his name is…Elemental!





He’s a 12.5- foot tall, deadwood skeleton, with a freaking awesomesaucer LED chest cavity, face and eyes (that move and blink in such a realistic, creepy way!).

He’s SO. FUN.



We purchased him about six weeks ago, because I’m one of those crazy people who lurvs to start planning for Halloween just as soon as 4th of July has come and gone. (Sorry, not sorry.)

Last year, we absolutely lived our best Halloween life, as usual, but something about the decorations just didn’t speak to me in the same way they always had. Eventually, I realized it’s because we’ve definitely aged up and morphed as a family, and it was time for our decor to reflect that transition! Inflatables have been our longtime friend, but I think we’re ready to expand our horizons.

And on that front…

I’d recently become a fan of those viral, 12 foot skeletons that are available through The Home Depot. After some research, I was despondent to realize there had been a halfway-to-Halloween reveal and sale, back in April, and the skeletons were all sold out.

But I was persistent, and regularly checked (read: stalked) the website, and…lo and behold, they released additional skeletons, along with some other amped up, oversized items like Elemental at the start of August! 

We snagged him, immediately, before he could sell out, and I’ve never squealed so much while completing an online order (with the exception of the night we got Taylor Swift tickets after eight hours in the online queue, ha).

And then, just a couple weeks ago, the hubby gifted me a buddy for Elemental (a similar version, but with a pumpkin head) as my birthday present this year, and I’ve never loved him more (the hubby, and the decoration). The buddy was accidentally shipped to Washington state, so he’ll make it here to Texas this week, and by next weekend, we’ll have two of these obnoxiously amazing guys on our property.

Joy of all joys!
 
Since we’d had such a lovely, low key Saturday (soooooo needed), we decided to let the kiddos jump in the pool for a swim (there won’t be too many more days for it), while we started to assemble Elemental in the backyard.





Only problem: we quickly realized it was going to be really hard to transfer Elemental to his home in the front yard if he was fully assembled. So…we switched to the front (much less picturesque, with way more heat and glaring sunshine).





I gotta say…it was fairly straightforward to assemble this bad boy. The instructions said it would take a couple of adults a couple of hours, and that was pretty spot on. Though I think we’ll move a bit quicker with the second one, now that we know what we’re doing.



Honestly, the hardest part was getting him in just the right spot, after he was assembled. This particular mulch bed has a slight incline, and we had to try Elemental in a few spots to get him exactly right.



He looked really great here, but it was too sloped…



In the end, we secured him right where we originally planned: right by the sidewalk for optimum impact.

Hysterically, a neighbor friend of mine had driven by during the early stages of our assembly, and then happened to return just as we plugged in Elemental and surveyed our masterpiece. She said our faces were priceless as we looked up at our creation with glee, ha.







His chest and face cycles among all sorts of fun colors, and, of course, you can select just one.



But the eyes. Oh, goodness, the eyes are the coolest part. So realistic, with these fun, creepy blinks and bits of movement. I. LOVE.



I’m so grateful for this really amazing addition to our Halloween decor. We’ll obviously be adding the buddy and a few other really fantastic items over the next week or two, as we have time.





I love, love, love this time of year. When Fall and alllll the holidays are stretched out ahead of us.

It’s a joy.

And, despite some really, really busy days, it’s wonderful to take some time to live these moments and seasons up right. :)

Happy Saturday, peeps!

Over and out. 

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