Michael's Candy Colored Halloween

I bet a lot of you have been to Michael's over the past few months. Yesterday was my first time there this season, so I have no idea what they had for Halloween before this! Well, maybe I had a slight clue because of the Michael's commercials on TV. Maybe you saw the one with those creepy twins. One twin bought all white decorations and the other bought all black decorations. I saw a bit of the ghostly white collection, but I'll get to that later.

I'll start with what I'll call the pink collection. I have always loved pink and black together. This skeleton was fuzzy to the touch.

Bubblegum pink is so cute for Halloween. I've seen some pastel Halloween stuff this year, but I prefer the bright pink. My grade school self would have been going wild for this collection. Actually, my grade school self would have been thrilled to see this much Halloween stuff in stores, period.

"Yikes"

How great is this retro font?

This feels retro too. It's probably a take on "Feelin' Groovy", especially with those flowers. 🌸

I think I can call these ombre, even though they're not the same color fading from light to dark. I have that rat, by the way, just in plain rat bone color. This rat is nearly the size of the cat next to him, so I guess he has nothing to worry about!

Even a buzzard looks cheerful in these colors.

I actually thought this was for Christmas, until I saw the bat on top. There are so many non-traditional colors for holidays now that it's hard to tell. And now there are trees for several holidays too.

A better look at the bat:

There was a matching wreath:

Michael's still had a number of bright Halloween wreaths left. See the little Beetlejuice spirals in this one?

Giant pompoms:

These were fuzzy decorative shapes with beaded ropes attached. It's hard to explain, unless you've seen them. You probably hang them off something. I just looked on the Michael's web site, and they're calling these "wall decor". So I guess what you hang them off of is the wall. I think they'd look good as part of a wreath.

OK, so back to what I was talking about before - The ghostly white collection. On first glance, this looks like Shabby Chic. If a person had a light Shabby Chic look going already, this could be a subtle Halloween addition to it. 

See what I mean? It looks like Shabby Chic until you get up close. I didn't catch what was going on in that cathedral window at first. 

It says "Welcome to our Haunted Manor" on that sign.

Michael's had a few nontraditional critters, like this scorpion. There were actually a few different scorpion decorations. They had Venus Fly Traps and just funky looking carnivorous plants. I wasn't fond of most of them because they looked too real. But cake anything in silver glitter and I will suddenly find it cool.

There was a little bit of traditional Halloween left. There were tons of spools of ribbon. Looking at this pic, I'm wanting to go back for all three of these. But what would I do with them? All I can ever think of for decorative ribbon is garlands and wreaths. And I don't need more garlands or wreaths! 

These tall signs seem to be everywhere this year, but I thought that one in the middle was a little different. 

This spooky cat eye is part of the magnifying glass.

I always seem to end my Halloween shopping posts with a Day of the Dead picture or two. My thinking is that the holiday comes just after Halloween so that's where the pics go! Isn't this a fun pillow? I have a feeling that Michael's had a lot of great Day of the Dead items but I missed them. 

So, did you guys buy any items from these collections? I may go back after Halloween and see what is left, although I suspect not much will be. I can always make an excuse to get more Halloween picks, because those can go anywhere. Some of those fuzzy beaded rope things could be worked in here and there and I love the colors. If I have an After Halloween Haul, you know I'll post it here!

After Halloween Target (and Michael's) Haul

It's that time of year again! Time to sweep in for the after Halloween deals like some kind of scavenger bargain shark! You might remember my previous after Halloween Target posts from 2011 and 2010. Looking back, I have to say those were some pretty great bargains. This year's shopping experience was no exception. Last time I was at Target, the Halloween stuff was marked down by 70% (not including candy) but it's probably marked down even more by now. The dollar section was 50% off.

Target had some really fun Halloween hand towels this year. I had been eyeing this Silver skull towel throughout October and planned to swoop in for it after Halloween. Nicely, there was just one left for me on a shelf between a lot of other things.



There were a few heavy plastic bowls and dishes left. It's hard to see the scale here, but the bowls are about cereal bowl sized. The dishes are pretty small, probably five inches in diameter.



There were a few Halloween craft items left. The "Beware" picks look like little pirate flags that should be good for sticking in cupcakes. I tried a little of the glitter and it's great. I'm not sure what project is in store for these metallic circles.



There were a few led candles left in the $1.00/$2.50 section near the front of the store. I think these ended up being $1.25. I hope they glow as much as those Walmart ones we had for the party!



Just some stripey witch socks...



This frame was $1.50 as I recall. The little green gourd was 50 cents in that half price dollar section. That's looking good with some Thanksgiving decorations now.



Here's a close up view of the frame, so you can see how sparkly it is. I'm not really sure why this was in with the Halloween stuff, but I think it will be a good fit for Christmas. It has that sparkly snow look to it.



These Halloween themed napkins were part of the haul. I know they aren't the most exciting find, but I'm sharing them because I like the spider on the packaging.



This coffin was probably the most exciting part of the haul, aside from the skull towel! It was labeled as a centerpiece, although I'm not sure how that would work. This is made of heavy cardboard and was $2.50.



There's that little skull that was on the towel.



Right now, I'm trying to decide which vampire should reside in it. There's Draculaura:



... and the more standard Muppet-like vampire:



I'm sure I'll have fun playing with that little coffin, no matter how it's used!

Michael's craft store had their Halloween merchandise marked down 80%! As you can see, there was an array of floral accessories and decorations left. It's hard not to just grab everything that's 80% off.



This little silver pumpkin was 50 cents. It's now a part of the Thanksgiving decorations.



These little black cats are part of floral picks, although I'm sure they'll be used for something else.



Some purple pumpkin floral picks.



Some curly picks:



Those are just a few of my favorites, but there were lots to choose from. This is a medium sized pumpkin - it's maybe 7 to 10 inches wide. The color is sort of a greenish grey, which is not really my thing. It might need to get sprayed a new color. It was only $2.50 which is great for a good looking fake pumpkin.



More floral picks that fit nicely with the Thanksgiving decor. You can see a few little foam skulls in the background.



Here's a closer view of the skulls. I think the "natural" ones were only 20 or 30 cents and the glittery orange one was 50 cents.



The orange skull has a glittery spider on its head and sits on a stick. I was planning to put the natural ones on sticks as sort of wands, but we'll see.



After Halloween shopping is fun, because it takes a little of the sadness away from Halloween being over. You get to drag out the holiday excitement just a little bit longer. Did any of you find any great after Halloween bargains? Any tips on places I should check out for some deals?