Halloween Antiques ~ Mostly friendly and a few that look haunted

I'm happy to be blogging about a recent trip to Farm Girl Antiques! I was wondering how different this year's trip would be, or if there would even be an open store to visit. Things seem up in the air for a lot of shops. But Farm Girl was doing well and was decorated festively for both the Halloween and Christmas seasons. Of course, I'm only going to be sharing the Halloween stuff with you guys. You'll probably remember this store from blog posts past, but every year there is different.   

I can't remember if I've ever shared what the outside of the store looks like. If I have, it probably didn't look as spooky as it does in this view. I don't know why the store was looking a little darker than usual; it could have been because it was an overcast day. This place really does look perfect to hold Halloween antiques, doesn't it?

I like the shapes in these windows. It appears there's some kind of book storage going on in the upper floors of this building.

So here we are at the front door where things are looking a little more friendly.

It's fun how even the most simple things can make a display. Our minds can fill in the blanks. It looks like this scarecrow has been doing some drinking...

This is a view into one of the front windows. You probably remember that this place has large old display windows. You can walk into these spaces from inside the store too.

How cool is this bat violin case? I feel like a short story could be written around this.

Same thing with this little rotter!

These look like printed copies of vintage treat bags. I'm not sure if this is a large piece of art paper, but I think it would be cool for scrapbooking or wrapping presents. 

I assume this felt party hat is vintage. Some of the items in this store are modern artistic creations, but this looks vintage or very vintage inspired to me. I was just searching the words "Felt Vintage Halloween Hat" online and saw some similar examples from the 1920s.

I like that chipping wall in the background. At least with Halloween decorations, it really adds something. 

This looks like a Bethany Lowe to me.

Oh, I'm now noticing that the "chipping wall" I mentioned is actually an old door. I can see where the knob would have been. And I'm guessing this is an old window frame that has been made into a sort of bulletin board? 

And how about this little ghoulie? I had been exclaiming how cool he was to my mom who I didn't realize was looking elsewhere. As it happened, one of the people running the shop walked past as I was saying that and said "Yeah!" So that was one of those funny, startling moments where I at least got an answer. :)

This looks like a decorated shelf that is actually in someone's house. I like that grumpy cupcake witch.

I didn't notice that kitty cat cupcake topper on her hat until seeing this picture at home. The brim of the hat reminds me of a flattened cupcake wrapper. I feel like this doll should be scary, but I think she's pretty. Wait, I'm looking at this and wondering if those are mossy spider legs attached to her?

Crepe paper decorations:

Some crunched cat lanterns:

This looks like one of those decorations where you wrap the paper fan type thing around the picture. I'm looking at these pics and appreciating the various shades of blue and green that are in the background. It looks good against the orange!

I ended up finding this paper skull ornament kind of buried under some other decorations. I took him out and made my own little display. Do you guys ever do that in stores? I mean, take various parts and put them together into a display and then leave it like that? 

OK, this was maybe the freakiest thing I saw that day. What even is this? My mom thought it was a mask. I don't know. It looks kind of small for that. But if it isn't a mask... ? 

Yeah, we're getting into the creepy stuff at this point. I think that doll face is far creepier without a wig, hat, or body attached to it. That bowl at the top of the pic was pretty cool. I liked the way the colors were going together on that.

And woo! This is maybe a little too real looking. And I feel like it's looking at me.

I noticed that this head reads "Debra Manikin" by Burmax. I googled that and saw that you can buy her at Sally Beauty. :) She's $62.99 there for a new one. OK, this has just led me down a rabbit hole of looking at cosmetology heads. 

This photo gives a nice view of the ceiling, which as you can tell is chipping. It looks like painted tin, which is now returning to tin. Again, another perfect background for Halloween photos.

This one feels full of life. Even though this mask is clearly empty, I feel like it is looking at me. 

How fun is this handle? The metal leaf is a nice touch too. 

I love this book cover. The Hardy Boys finding The Clue in the Embers. I don't think I've ever seen such a scratched up, textured book cover. And you see who is down there next to them? "Aunty Gravity".

Now onto what I'm going to call "The Owl Section".

This is a sweet one.

So funny I had to include him twice.

I took this last pic while standing in one of those display windows. The building you're looking at is now for rent, but was once used by the Milwaukee Ballet and before that it was the Schlitz South Side Palm Garden. Here's some fairly detailed history of the building and a few old photos you might enjoy:

Urban Spelunking: Milwaukee Ballet/Schlitz Tivoli Palm Garden

It always amazes me to see such an empty building that was once so full of life. Maybe there are still some beer garden ghosts hanging out in there.

Crafting my mini Ofrenda

Halloween transitioned pretty nicely into Day of the Dead over here. I've had a craft project going for a week or two, and I'm excited to have it ready to share! So, here it is - my little Day of the Dead Ofrenda:

And I do mean little, because that box is only 6x6" in size! I am pretty proud of myself for working this tiny, because sometimes working with tiny details can drive me nuts. But I stayed patient and am really happy with the results. So happy, that I took about a million photos of the little guy. :)

But I tried to limit myself with how many I'm sharing here. I cut apart silk flowers and glued them to the top of my little scene.

And that papel picado is made from tiny squares I cut from a heart-shaped doily. I read that there is actual, real-life size papel picado in metallic sheets that you can buy now and that some people do that for special occasions. I've never seen it, personally.

You can see the little altar is set with mini breads, empanatas, and tiny sugar skulls. I made a little plate out of cardstock and the napkins under it are squares of washi tape. The skull in the frame is from a piece of washi tape too. I made the little sugar skulls from some Crayola modeling clay I got at Dollar Tree. A good deal of this project is from Dollar Tree.

I painted the sides of my box with flowers and got a chance to use a tool that's made for nail art on this. That worked great to make the tiny dots. For those interested, this is the tool I used:

Nail Art Dotting Tool

That tool is seriously a good use of a dollar. I don't know how I would have gotten some of these tiny details done without it.

So, as you can see, I set up a whole altar space around my mini altar.

This is the way I feel it is meant to be seen, at night with candles.

I love this photo! That big, peeking skull sign is a Dollar Tree purchase from a few years ago.

These sugar skulls were once plain white skulls I bought at Michaels years ago.

I love how they look by candlelight.

There's something about glitter and candles!

To give you guys a quick background of this craft, it started with one of these boxes from Dollar Tree.

See, when you flip these decorative boxes over, you get a nice little niche to build a scene in.

The piece of furniture is also from Dollar Tree and can be found in the toy aisle. It's meant as dollhouse furniture. You can get little chairs, tables, and beds there too. I thought to take a pic of this after I began painting it, but you get the idea.

I took a few in-process shots, like this one of the side. Those pink pearls are again, from Dollar Tree. They come in sheets that are pre-glued. They stay in lines, but you can cut the material between them if you only want to use just a pearl or two.

I painted a little plant design on the side of the furniture and placed more pearls on it.

This penny will give you an idea of the scale I was working in.

This snappy skeleton was another piece of washi tape. The roll has a pattern of plain skeletons on it. I added the accessories.

You may have noticed the sugar skulls around my altar space. These came as a plain wood garland, I believe from JoAnn's last year. I spray painted them white (because who would want to get into those grooves with a paintbrush?) And then used some puffy paint and glitter on them.

I think they turned out like cute little cookies. I am yet to string them on a rope. In part, because I'm not sure how to do that without them all sliding into one another. Any ideas? Maybe beads between them?

These really would be cute as cookie designs.

You may have also noticed this piece of art I had sitting under the altar. It's from (drumroll please) Dollar Tree. I saw this the other day and thought it was a Polish design, but when I got it home it said on the receipt that it was Mexican. So that's a good fit for this. I just love it.

And I have to share these two books that I got for inspiration from the library. They are really worth checking out, if you can. There are so many craft ideas in these.

Book by Paula Pascual ~ Beautiful photos in this one

Authors are at the bottom of that book cover. Amazing craft ideas! 

In related news, my mom and I visited a café I'd been wanting to check out, called La Finca. Here it is, looking good with those beautiful autumn shrubs outside.

La Finca is in St. Francis, for those of you who are familiar with Wisconsin. I'd been really wanting to get over there recently because I read that they had some Day of the Dead decorations out. And they did! This is above the entryway:

How cute is this sugar skull dog?

We had a seat right next to this community Ofrenda.

This close-up is my computer wallpaper now.

I kept seeing this little chocolate skull peeking over at me.

This guy was hanging across from me.

We both had Mexican hot chocolate and it was amazing. There were some good, hot spices in that and the whipped cream was a nice addition. The people working at La Finca were super nice and it was just a good atmosphere. So I'm sure we'll be back.

P.S. ~ I have another skeleton to share with you guys. Remember "Sidekick" the little lizard from the Meier store? He's good to go in lime green now: