Isn't he an aristocratic looking little bird? I also brought home nine of his friends. They will be playing the important role of place card holders at this year's Halloween party. I might decorate them with rhinestones, bows, or little hats and masks. I'm undecided on what they'll be wearing at this point, but they'll probably be holding little signs bearing each guest's name.
These birds were such a deal for one dollar each! I've seen similar ones being sold for six dollars at craft stores. Being that this was Dollar Tree, some picking and choosing needed to be done. Some birds had missing feathers or were funky in other ways. So, I would say that if you want some of these, you need to get to your local Dollar Store right away, while there are still good birds on hand.
Each of these birds has such a different character. Some of them have outstretched wings or are tilting their heads to the side.
I love how their little eyes are glowing in this photo!
Even though I know these birds aren't real, they still freak me out a little. Something about a bunch of birds, even fake ones, looking at me reminded me too much of a certain movie!
If I have any of these birds left over after the party, I can always cover myself with them and be Tippi Hedren's character in The Birds.
Isn't that an amazing photo? The silhouette of the bird and the shadows that fall across her face are beautiful.
For those of you who would like to dress as Tippi Hedren this Halloween, I found a good how-to article:
http://felinofelice.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-subject-of-costumes.html
So long as you can find an old green dress suit at Goodwill, you should be good to go!
Oh, and don't think I forgot about you guys. You can easily go as Rod Taylor's character:
Just find an old jacket and wear a dress shirt and tie. Then adhere the crows and there ya go! This could actually make a nice couples costume.
Speaking of costumes, I should have a package arriving in the mail soon! Hopefully, my next blog post will be a review of that costume.
Too gorgeous! You have your own little murder of crows!!
ReplyDeleteYou guys are so lucky with the Halloween bounty over there. I should probably do a post, with photographs, on the pitiful Halloween offerings available here. Haha.
Little Gothic Horrors ~ Yes, I guess I do! Isn't that a morbid little term? :) I think I learned about "murders" of crows during a documentary about them. There really is a lot to learn about these birds. They're so intelligent!
ReplyDeleteAww... So Halloween isn't celebrated so much in Australia? I think you mentioned that this is your Spring time. So that has to cramp the Autumn theme a bit. What kind of Halloween things are being sold in your stores? I suppose you do a lot of your Halloween shopping online. Come to think of it, are there any Dollar Stores in Australia?
Def a great score. I'm still waiting for stores to put out a decent amount of halloween stuff haven't really seen much yet.
ReplyDeleteSlowdeath77 ~ Yeah! I was pretty happy to find this many birds in good shape. Things go fast at Dollar Tree! Yeah, the department stores are slowly bringing out their Halloween Merchandise, but the craft stores have fully stocked their shelves! At least around here...
ReplyDeleteYes, definitely no Autumn theme! Halloween is acknowledged in Australia, but nothing like the U.S. Toys 'R' Us brings Halloween items in each year, and Dollar shops usually have stuff, too. Some people have parties, and there is Halloween themed candy in the Supermarkets... that's about it really. Trick or Treating is not very common, and is even frowned upon.
ReplyDeleteI have a small stash of things that I've collected over the last few years, and I usually carve a pumpkin (imported from America, and can cost up to $30.00!!!!). Oh well... where there's a will, there's a way, and I always have the will!
I love them. I have a small colletion of crows myself. we have a dollar tree close to here, I have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI always pick up a hand-full every year. Love them!
ReplyDeleteLittle Gothic Horrors ~ I would like to see which Halloween products you manage to get a hold of this year. A $30.00 pumpkin! Just when I thought we were getting overcharged. :) Maybe if you could get a hold of the foam re-carvable pumpkins, you could save a little money. Although, I understand wanting to have a real one.
ReplyDeleteTrick or Treating is frowned upon? Is that because of a safety concern? So I'm guessing that the kids don't have Halloween parties, either? I'm curious about what sparked your interest in Halloween, since you weren't really surrounded by Halloween things in Australia.
Vivienne ~ Thanks! So, do you have lots of different kinds of crows in your collection? Yeah, Dollar Tree is the place to go for budget crows. :)
Madame Jen ~ Cool! Whole handfuls, hey? You must have a whole house full of crows! They are really striking in a group. I actually don't remember seeing these at Dollar Tree before this year. So, it sounds like you've had access to these longer than I have!
I'll take some photos of whatever merchandise is available, as soon as it starts hitting the shops. Wouldn't it be great if the universe made a liar of me this year, and there were Halloween goodies galore! Haha!
ReplyDeleteLast year I snagged a pumpkin for $17.00 because it was a slightly wonky shape. I just carved the face on the good side and it was great. We do have lots of different varieties of (cheap) pumpkins here, just not they orange Halloween-type. The have to be imported.
Halloween is really still a novelty here, so many people don't want to be bothered with kids knocking on their doors. Safety is a concern, too. I always have plenty of candy ready, but I've never had one kid come to the door. Haha... how sad is that? My son benefits, however.
I grew up on American television, so I've always been besotted with the idea of Halloween. When I was about 9 years old, I coerced the neighbourhood kids into Trick or Treating one year. We all got dressed up and hit the homes of each of our families. We scored an impressive amount of loot from memory.
You can never be too early to start planning for Hallowe'en!! Your little murder of crows are adorable in a slightly macabre way! They look wonderfully disturbing all huddled together in those pictures!
ReplyDeleteI want one!
I was looking at taxidermy crows on eBay a couple of days ago.. they seem to be very popular and go for quite a bit! There was a couple of crows feet listed for use in pagan spells!
I can't wait for the Hallowe'en stuff to start popping up in shops here in England. I wish we celebrated Hallowe'en more in the style that your country does. I have always dreamed of visiting America at Hallowe'en!
Autumn is my favourite time of year, not just because of Hallowe'en but the whole feel of it with the cold days, orange leaves, pumpkins! I wish it could be Autumn all year round! I have also got Autumn picked as a baby name for the future, Pyf likes it too!
I'm looking forward to the unveiling of your Hallowe'en costume! xxx
Little Gothic Horrors ~
ReplyDeleteCool! Yeah, I look forward to seeing what you can find. Yes, I hope the universe has other plans for Halloween in Australia this year. :)
Wow! Imagine $17.00 being a bargain pumpkin. So, you guys just get white pumpkins, or green gourds growing near you? Hmmm... you could always get a can of orange spray paint and save a little money! ;)
Oh, I bet your son loves getting all that candy! He's quite lucky to have a Halloween loving mom! Actually, even here in America, I'm not getting too many trick-or-treaters. I dress up, play music, get the candy ready, etc. and wait on the porch for them. Then I see them skipping my house! The kids around here are so easily scared, it's bizarre. I still have a bucket load of candy from last year! (Don't tell anyone, but I give the year old stuff to the kids with bad attitudes who don't bother to dress up.)
That's so adorable that you and the neighborhood kids made your own trick-or-treat day! Good for you - I admire your spirit. Do you remember which American TV shows taught you about Halloween? I'm finding this conversation fascinating! Sometimes I forget that not everyone has our same cultural traditions.
Think I am going to head out and get a bag full today. They will look great in my weeping cherry tree once the leaves fall!
ReplyDeleteVain Glory Sinner ~
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yeah, the crows are just slightly creepy. I like them huddled together too. Since bringing them home, I've been thinking of endless ways to display them!
Maybe you can find these at your local dollar store, or 99p store. I think I learned about the British version of our dollar stores from your blog. Now I feel like I'm in the know. ;) I was actually looking at the 99p web site the other day, and you guys are getting better stuff than we are! No fair. I don't remember seeing any crows, though.
Wow, taxidermy crows. That's a bit far for me, and yeah probably expensive. When I think of taxidermied birds I unfortunately think of Norman Bates! I bet real taxidermy work could help make the creepiest of Halloween displays. I wonder how the birds would be used in spells?
I would love to know what kinds of Halloween things you get in your shops! Please take some pictures of any shop displays or purchases you make. Not like I need to ask, right? ;)
Yeah, I always had assumed that Europeans were getting the best Halloween stuff, but I've been learning that Halloween isn't celebrated so much there. I had a friend living in Germany and she told me not much is going on. Although, I know some older Germans who say a whole lot is going on (in smaller villages) that would make American Halloween look not so scary...It might not be called "Halloween" but there are many other festivals with spooky features. Let's put it this way, I'd be staying in the house on some of these festival nights!
Anyway, I'll try to do my best to share American Halloween with everyone this year. :)
Yeah, Autumn is my favorite time of the year too. The changing leaves are beautiful, and I like the crisp weather. It helps to be Halloween obsessed as well. :) I was thinking the other day how I'd be a little sad that summer was coming to a close, if I wasn't so into Halloween. I thought, wow it must be hard to be someone who isn't into the holiday. I would think those people are just depressed with winter coming!
Autumn is a very pretty name. A friend's sister named her daughter Autumn-May, which I always thought was a little nonsensical. They should have named her Autumn-October, although that doesn't have much of a ring to it.
I'm looking forward to just seeing my new costume! I expect there will be a lot of costume unveilings this year, since I like to wear several different costumes each Halloween season.
wicKED ~ Hey there! You must have left a comment just as I was leaving one. Thanks for following my blog! :)
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like an excellent idea. I hope you can find lots of birds! You can't see it in my photos, but they actually have little wires under their feet. You'd just have to take the cardboard stand off to see the wires. So they can easily be hooked onto your tree limbs. If you do this, be sure to take a picture. I'd love to see how that looks!
How funny- I've been eyeballing those Hitchcock blonde tutorials as well, just for an excuse to wear a Tippi Hedrin wig.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know I'm not the only one who throws on more than one costume come October...
Hi again! I've come over to your blog to respond to your comment on my blog... since we're already mid-stream over here. Haha. The paper bats - yes, I don't think they need to be 3D. They'd be just as effective with the flat, out-stretched wing span.
ReplyDeleteI do sometimes make my own Halloween bits and pieces. It's just fun finding something cool to buy. This will probably sound lame, considering the variety you guys have over there, but my prize buy was a life-size tombstone that I bought a couple of years ago. It's only styrofoam, but it really looks like weathered stone. It's quite beautiful - I really love old gothic cemeteries and all the stonework and statuary.
When my son was in kindergarten, and the kids were all making coloured paper chains, I got him to help me make one with alternating orange and black links. We made tons of it, and even though it's an incredibly simple thing to do, it looked amazingly cool hanging all over the living room.
I just have to say, at this point, that after I read your last repy, I nearly choked on my coffee, I was laughing so hard:
"I still have a bucket load of candy from last year! (Don't tell anyone, but I give the year old stuff to the kids with bad attitudes who don't bother to dress up.)"
That is the funniest thing I've heard in a long time!!!! Good for you! Bratty kids need to be taught a lesson!
I can't remember a time when I didn't know about Halloween. Obviously, "The Addams Family" had Halloween episodes (one could argue that the entire series was Halloween themed), but even Disney and Looney Tunes cartoons showed Halloween. I vaguely remember Donald Duck's nephews Trick or Treating. "Broomstick Bunny" is my favourite Halloween cartoon, because I just love the style of illustration.
And just wanted to add that taxidermy makes me think of Norman Bates, as well! As much as I LOVE "The Addams Family", I don't like taxidermy or animal bones. I just find them gross.
Ha, I love those Dollar Tree crows, even thought they always seem to look a little "windblown" - nothing a black marker can't fix if you don't like them to have that broken-in look. :-)
ReplyDeleteBTW, the Tippi Hedren costume pics you linked are great! Did you see the tutorial from Threadbanger for Birds-themed costume/decor? A decent Tippi Hedren costume and some rather delightfully gory bird props: http://theyearofhalloween.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/a-halloween-most-fowl/
What a hitchcockian fortune for you!!!
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how different dollar stores are. All I found at mine were packages of brains. I need to make another trip and see if they have any lovely birds in yet.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! But you stole my wife's idea for the "Birds" costume this year, haha. The pre-made costume is pretty nice but I can it can be made to look even better with these awesome finds from the dollar store!
ReplyDeleteOh my! Look at all these comments!
ReplyDeletePensive ~ Hey there! Welcome to my blog. :) I took a peek at your blog and am now following you. Yeah, the Tippi Hedren look is great. I have a lot of hair and it's not blonde, so I'm not interested in the wig situation!
Good to know I'm not alone with the costume changes. :)
Little Gothic Horrors ~ Yeah, any bat is a good bat. :) I'm thinking of writing a post with Halloween how-to's I've found. Now I'm especially wanting to post that for my blog friends outside of America! So where do you display your tombstone?
I'm sure the paper chain gave a cool, retro look to your room!
Haha! I'm glad you found my comment so funny! I was actually wondering if I should have written that. I posted that comment and then looked at it thinking, "Oh boy. People are going to think I'm evil." :) I remember the first time I did that! A friend was sitting on the porch with me and I had just been saying how I had this old stuff laying around. Well, this kid comes up in a sweatshirt and jeans, bad attitude, holding a giant pillow case, doesn't say trick-or-treat...and here I am as an adult woman wearing a pirate outfit giving candy to this kid! So I gave him the old stuff. He didn't say thank you either. I could barely control my laughter! My friend was yelling "I can't believe you did that!" Haha, and a tradition was born.
Yeah, one could say The Addams Family was Halloween themed. Morticia anyway. I remember a wonderful Disney Halloween special I saw as a kid. It was a combination of all the scary parts of the Disney movies with the villains. It was set to modern music (for the time anyway). I don't think I've seen the Looney Tunes Halloween specials. I'll have to google "Broomstick Bunny" because I don't know about that one.
Yeah, taxidermied animals (especially in groups) are pretty creepy. I always feel like they're going to come alive, or at the very least like they're looking at me!
Eva Halloween ~ Haha, yeah "windblown" is a good word. Some of the crows I saw looked like they'd been through a tornado!
ReplyDeleteI love Threadbanger, but I hadn't seen that one. Thanks so much for posting that link! I liked the idea of putting the birds on clips so they wouldn't damage your outfit. You'll never in a million years see me chopping the heads off my birds with a kitchen knife and gluing suction cups to their necks. Eww. I know it wasn't real, but eww.
Copyboy ~ Haha! "Hitchcockian" is right! Good word.
Jessica ~ Yeah, make another trip. The first few times I was at Dollar Tree last month, all they had was bloody feet and hands. Yuck. We didn't get any brains, though!
Halloween Man ~ Your wife is going as Tippi Hedren? So does this mean you'll be going as Rod Taylor's character? Or maybe you could go as a giant crow!
"Halloween how-to's" would make a great post!
ReplyDeleteThe tombstone goes in the living room... as a tombstone would, of course! Haha!
Well of course. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm working on a post with a collection of Halloween craft/decoration how-to's. There are so many great ideas out there!
I'm going to head over to Dollar Tree and see what I can find! It looks like you found a buy! Those crows look incredible, they definitely look like they're from The Birds. God, I love Halloween...it's the best time of the year. I can always find what my heart has been searching for in stores around this tim ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to see your costume!
Yeah, let me know if you find any good stuff at your Dollar Tree! I'm very happy with my find. :) I can't wait to decorate with these birds!
ReplyDeleteYes, Halloween is indeed the best time of the year. Now, I'm thinking of that "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" Christmas song! I suppose Christmas can be wonderful, and Halloween can be the best. ;)
I know what you mean! All the stuff I want to decorate with/craft with/wear comes out at this time! It's very exciting. I've been spending WAY too much time on ebay browsing Halloween stuff tonight.
Cool! I'm also excited to see my costume. It should be arriving in the mail soon...
OMG those crows are kickass!! im sooooo excited at how close halloween is but im still undecided as wat to dress up as :S i have so many ideas popping in my head that i just cant pick one lol but in anycase i can't wait to see how ur halloween costume :).
ReplyDeleteEven tho my dorm room aint that big im going to decorate the hell out of that space it jst would not feel ryt if i didnt :P
Hey Pixie! Thanks. :) Yeah, they're definitely a great Dollar Tree find. I found some cute Halloween stickers there too, but for the most part I wasn't too tempted to buy stuff.
ReplyDeleteYeah, well the solution would be for you to dress up in multiple costumes this year! I know what you mean about too many ideas swimming around in your head. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed!
I take it that you're not in China anymore if you're in a dorm room? Haha, if you have a roommate, I guess they're in for some Halloween decorations! Yeah, you have to put something up in your space. Maybe some Dollar Tree crows? ;)
You know i was thinking about going all out DEMONIC for halloween but i don't want to take too far and have my mom call all the priests in town to come over and form an exorcism on me, i can see my mom now screaming "SATAN LET GO OF MY BAAABBBBYYY!!!" lol the things that pop in my brain sometimes hihihi
ReplyDeleteActually i am going back to china like next week thats where i study and yes i do have a roomate who lacks alot when it comes to creativity i mean seriously she hasnt put up ANYTHING on her wall not even a sticker so when halloween comes i have a feeling she will move out out of fear i have gone to the dark side lol
Oh, how funny! How demonic are we talking here? Yeah, don't take this to the needing an exorcism level. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, well maybe you need to help your non-decorative roommate out a little! Just put up a bunch of Halloween stuff while she's out for the day! You'd either help make her more interesting or drive her out.
When I was in college, I had a roommate who covered our walls in Ralph Lauren perfume advertisements she cut out of magazines. That was sort of scary in a different way. She actually got mad at me when I wanted those off the wall. She was yelling "I thought you liked Ralph Lauren!" Who knows what was up with that...