Happy Halloween! Let's celebrate with a pumpkin party!

Happy Halloween everyone! I am going to share some photos from the carved pumpkin display in our village. There were quite a few pumpkins on display, which was a surprise to me. People were invited to carve pumpkins over the last few rainy nights. So I didn't know how many people would participate. The huge display wasn't the only surprise this year. This huge inflatable pumpkin was new.

Isn't this great? I was just reminded of a video I saw online years back: 

Watch giant inflatable pumpkin roll down the street

These next pics will give you an idea of how many pumpkins were in front of the gazebo.

In this next pic the gazebo looks like a giant spaceship ready to lift off the ground. You can see a bit of the Polka band in there. The band really added to the jolly atmosphere. 

Here are a few close-ups of my favorites. You can't see it much here, but someone carved ears and earrings into the side of this one.

Mr. Oogie Boogie:

See the tiny stick body under that smiley face? 😄

The lights in this pic came out kind of red for some reason. I like that neon glow.

How great is this? You can tell that someone scraped off layers of pumpkin instead of straight up carving it. I bet this one took some time.

The poop emoji I assume... Or maybe we can call this a ghost. 

This sinister little creeper reminds me of something. Does this remind you of a character from a movie? I'm trying to place this face.

I love taking pics from the tops of pumpkins! These pumpkins were lit with large old fashioned string lights, so there was a lot of glow going on.

And here's an inside look. You can get a good view of the guts and one of those light bulbs. These are always fun pics to take, but sometimes it's hard to find enough space to view inside the pumpkin. There was a fairly large square cut into the back of this one.

And here's a final shot taken on the way out of the park. I really liked the way the cornstalk frames this one. It's like the pumpkin is peeking around it. 

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this virtual trip to jack-o-lantern land. I always enjoy taking and sharing photos from events like this. It's fun to see the creativity on display. 🎃

Boo! 🦇

Halloween at Menards

I have some more Halloween store pics for you guys, this time from Menards. This will be a fairly quick blog post for me. I was going to combine it with my Marshalls Halloween pics, but I just realized how many pics I took at Marshalls! So I'm going to split up those two shopping trips.

Menards had a selection of Halloween items that I haven't seen anywhere else. This is the first Halloween thing I saw upon entering the store. How cool is this dragon? It has almost that traditional Chinese dragon look to it. There's something funny about the "Pet Supplies" sign underneath it.

I love these inflatables! I just noticed the baby pumpkin.

Doesn't the dad pumpkin have an almost Mr. Potato Head vibe? Or maybe a Mario Bros. vibe with that hat.

There was a pretty strong skeleton selection at this Menards, and they were for the most part new to me. It's amazing how people keep thinking up new animals to make skeletons of. I'm having trouble thinking of an animal that hasn't been made into a skeleton yet. So, first off is this skeleton pig:

Check out his curly tail:

This little T-Rex is adorable, especially at his size. It goes to show that anything is super cute when it's small. I can imagine this being used in a science class for kids.

This owl cracks me up for whatever reason. Maybe it's his serious attitude.

I saw some variation of this little dragon at a craft store this year. It's probably in a previous blog post.

This dragon is neat because you can move his little wings up and down. How about that creepy photobombing clown behind him?

And speaking of creepy...

I can imagine these being used in a yard display. I think they're about life size for an evil goat.

Now onto something cute! These will just make you say "Aww!" if you see them in person. This pumpkin person and ghost move their little arms up and down and wag their tongues while making cute noises and saying "Trick or Treat". At least that's what I remember them saying.

I just found a 30 second video of the little ghost doing his thing:

Funny Face Plush Ghost in Action

If you'd like to check out what Menards has up for Halloween on their web site, here's a link: Halloween section at Menards

They have a pretty cool looking Halloween section. Be sure and check out their inflatable page, because you'll see some good ones! 🎃

At Home Halloween

Do you guys have an At Home store? We got one recently and I think it's great! If you're not familiar with At Home, they carry mostly housewares. No matter what your decorating style is, I bet they carry it. They have stuff for people who are into rustic, country, modern, glitter, and glamour. They also have their Halloween stuff out! And strangely enough, Christmas. But we're not ready for Christmas yet, are we?

Nope.

Here are some photos of my favorite Halloween items from At Home...

The headless trick-or-treater? That's kind of weird when you think about it - "Just put the candy in my head". But this pumpkin pail reminds me of the one I used to trick-or-treat with.

Meow! This is my first time seeing a black skeleton critter. And how about that eye! I was considering maybe spray painting some of the (plastic) skeleton animals I've picked up lately. I don't think I'd go with black, though. They could even look cool in bright colors.

A close up of a cool spiderweb design on a lantern:

Creeping out of the ground!

A little floral design inspiration:

They had a lot of decorations with eyes. I thought that was pretty cool and mystical.

This eye has an Ancient Egyptian look to me. Like something on the wall of an Egyptian tomb. That's how I'm imagining it. And how cool is that spider hourglass next to it?

These eyes are on springs and stake into the ground. They'd be fun sticking out of the bushes or a large plant.

Cutesy pumpkins with eyes:

In further pastel pumpkins, donut pumpkins!

How about this creeper? Sometimes the simplest things are the most scary.

That's another creature's hand, by the way.

On a nearby shelf was this... ghost? doll? Whatever it was, it was walking the disturbing line for me. The more you stare at this, the more it stares back.

Here's something cute to clean that last one out of your brain:

More cuteness, in the form of vintage cat inspired trays:

I just noticed the heart-shaped eyes on this cat.

There was a sort of graveyard/party type display up. That's where I found these next three creatures. How cool are the hands on this pumpkin creature?

My favorite skulls, starting with an energized looking skull bust:

It might be hard to see what's going on here, but this is a skeleton spider with a pumpkin body, holding a monocle. How often do you see that?

A side view:

Not your average garden gnomes:

I love this pillow design!

They had several amazing pillows, like this one that looks inspired by a vintage postcard. I'm noticing now that it was postmarked as departing Transylvania on October 31.

And these pillows look like tickets to a haunted house, again on October 31. 😃

I'm going to end with the big inflatables. For the most part these were new to me. I had seen this Jaws last year, actually in someone's yard. You guys might remember the photos. This shark actually thrashes back and forth and his eyes glow red!

If you guys would like to see the At Home Halloween selection for yourselves, here's a link: If you've got it, haunt it

I have plenty of photos from Michaels to share next time!