Inspiring Yard Creations in Bayview

As I mentioned in my last blog post, there were some amazing yard decorations in the neighborhood around the Pumpkin Pavilion. For those familiar with the Milwaukee area, that neighborhood was Bayview. 

I have been looking forward to sharing these photos with you guys, because it's fun to show pics of something people probably haven't seen before. So many of these are DIY creations, so you won't have seen them in stores. You may have seen some parts in stores, like the skeletons, but the displays are pretty original.

Isn't it amazing how something so simple as a mask with the right lighting can have such an effect? I think simplicity is sometimes the scariest.

Those masks were hanging on the door of this house.

This decorator knew how to work with pink and red lights! I have a feeling that every angle was tried with the lights until it was just so. 

This little pirate spook was on a fence around the backyard of the next place you're going to see. 

Boo! How great is this? This pumpkin man was super tall and on a bit of a hill, so most people would feel like they're looking up at him.

See the floating candles above the door?

Here's the entire front of this very well-lit house. 

I love the friendly ambience with the string lights and pumpkin pail, but the figure was unnerving. I really couldn't tell if he was a real guy or not.

Even as I got closer to take this pic, I was thinking "Please don't move. Please don't move." I'm 99% sure he was a prop. I am noticing a lot of beer can accessories on figures and props this year. In this case, the can was what was making me unsure about his liveliness. 

I've probably shared pics of this house in the past. I think this will be the only display you've possibly seen on here before. But I will keep sharing it every time I visit it! How can I not? I don't think I'd captured how tall the house is before, though. You can see that small upper story window lit up. Look for the "Beware of House" sign.

That part of their porch that juts out really adds to this unhinged jaw look. I love everything about this.

I feel like a little kid when I look at this porch. This is an intimidating set of stairs to climb on Trick or Treat night!

I can't decide if this porch is welcoming or not! It looks like the skeletons are having a conversation. Check out that wreath.

There were some unique inflatables out that night. I have never seen any of the following inflatables in any other yard. The Sandworm from Beetlejuice: 

Here's the full view so you can see him coiled on the ground. There are so many little parts on this one.

The Reaper:

Yes, he's holding a heart.

This one is so well lit. I'm sure this is the most vibrant red I've seen from an inflatable. 

Those are spiders crawling on the skull. And you may be able to tell that there is a big purple spider in the background.

This is a good one for "Squirrel View" as I call it. :) Lately, I've gotten some more interesting photo angles by crouching down to the ground.

I don't know how to describe what this cool tree decoration is made of. It's some type of hard, transparent material you can see lights through. I remember seeing a lot more of this style of decoration right before inflatables became the thing. I'm sure this takes less upkeep while outside, although it takes more storage space since it doesn't deflate. 

Do you see the doll face emerging from the corner? They even set up some candles inside the window. I'm not sure if that was supposed to be part of the decorations we saw from outside, but they add something being behind that skull.

I thought I'd save this guy until last because it looks like he's waving goodbye as we leave the neighborhood. This skeleton looks metallic, at least in this light. I'm pretty sure he would look gold in the daylight. Wouldn't he be perfect in a pirate display?

On the way to the car, we passed this church. I had to include these pics because even though they're not of Halloween decorations, they are still pretty dramatic and spooky.

This door looks like it could be featured in a Hammer movie.

This is a pretty great area to explore when looking for Halloween decorations. Browsing up and down these streets was actually as fun for me as the Pumpkin Pavilion. I think there was an equal amount to see! 

I love it when a whole neighborhood gets into decorating for the holidays. Surprisingly, there have been some pretty solidly decorated streets closer to home this year. Pics from those streets will be coming soon.

Digging deep into history and the store shelves

I've been looking forward to assembling this blog post! This is in a way Part 2 of the Michaels Halloween posts, but this time I wanted to illustrate a topic with my photos. I'm going to tell you about a TV show involving skeletons, so I thought "Why not separate out all the skeleton photos I took at Michaels for this post?" It turns out that a good half of the photos I took at Michaels were skeleton related.

I'll describe a few photos first, then describe the show a bit, then get back to the store skeletons.

Starting off, we have some yoga skeletons! I wish I had the flexibility to do what that skeleton on the left is doing, without being in pain anyway. Yee-ouch! OK, I actually just tried it, and my back leg was not having any of that. Haha!

I believe this is a little dragon skeleton. It's like someone pieced together my little rat skeleton and my little crow skeleton. And maybe the body is a bit like a chihuahua? It's cute.

This one makes me laugh for whatever reason.

Now to the TV show. Have any of you seen the show History Cold Case? It appears to be a European show and one that came out about a decade ago. But to me, it's new. I love YouTube for that. Every day, you can find a new show.

History Cold Case is an awesome show for anyone who is into history and cold cases. I suppose you could say any cold case is related to history, but it's usually the more recent history you'd see on say, an episode of Dateline. These are reeeaaally cold cases, like frozen cases. We're talking hundreds of years old here. But it's the same basic concept of scientists doing detective work. It's a forensics show, but kind of like CSI investigating medieval times.

So I'm using these skeleton photos to help illustrate the point that the shows begin with skeletal evidence. A skeleton has been found somewhere and the forensic artists, scientists, and detectives are trying to figure out who this skeleton once was and how they died. The coolest part to me, other than solving those mysteries, is when the forensic artists recreate what the person's face looked like.

So the first episode I watched was about "The Stirling Man", so named for the "Stirling Castle" he was found buried in. I learned a lot about medieval history from this episode! It's hard for me to not get into detail here because I want to discuss the discovery of who this guy was. But I won't spoil it for you guys. Let's just say, you'll get a really detailed view of a medieval occupation and a surprise as to why this man's body was found buried in a castle. Oh, and it's really worth seeing his reconstructed face. I think some of the forensics women had a minor crush on him. I know that's funny, saying they had a crush on the recreation of a face that's based off a hundreds of years old skull, but that's how it appears. 😊

The Stirling Man episode:

And for those of you who get this by email, a link: The Stirling Man

The second and only other episode of History Cold Case I watched was about "The Ipswich Man". Here's the video:

And here's a link: The Ipswich Man

I'm not spoiling much by saying that this episode involves an African man's remains that are mysteriously found within the Greyfriars monastery cemetery in Ipswich, Suffolk. It was really surprising that a man from Africa would be buried there some time between 1258 and 1300. I just wouldn't think about people getting around that much back then. And the monastery part seems random until you get to the end of the episode. Again, I learned a lot from this one! But to be honest, I was still left with a few questions.

I'm anxious to watch more History Cold Case episodes! There seem to be a lot of them on YouTube. It would appear that this was/is a pretty popular show.

So back to the Michaels descriptions. We'll continue with this awkward display:

I didn't realize there was a skeleton couple taking a selfie on that second shelf until now.

The yoga skeletons seem really hot this year, which is fine by me. I'm in that yoga doing, skeleton loving demographic.  A close-up of the pillow:

A tiny unicorn skeleton!

Only 1976? I'm used to Halloween labels saying something along the lines of 1692.

A very cool pillow:

Skeleton keys:

One of those paintable skulls:

This was one of my favorite skeleton items - a series of X-Rays. There was a pelvis down there, but I could only hold this so well while taking a picture with my other hand. There's something about the way that this is hanging that makes me feel like this person has a reeeaaaally long neck.

This one reminds me of me. These skeletons are so relatable.

This one is a retro looking pick, which appears far larger here than it is in reality.

Michaels has some pretty strong skeleton stuff this year, hey? I think the yoga skellies and the skeleton dragon would be the most fun to sit around. The X-Ray is up near the top of my list too because it's so unique.