A great weather day for Stein’s

Hey everyone! It's time for the yearly trip to Stein's! On the day we went, the sky kept changing. Within minutes, the sky would change from sunny and bright blue to looking like it would rain. Some of those dark clouds were very dramatic and I liked the way they looked behind the pumpkins. I also liked how the bright sunniness lit up the garden area. It was like at least two different weather days in one!

I'm not sure what these pumpkins are called, but they look like giant marshmallows to me.

This photo is the background on my phone right now. I love the look of weathered wood with pumpkins.

This is one of my favorite sky pics. It looks like I caught the sky mid-change and those ghosts look like they have a spotlight on them.

Stein's had some wonderful mums out this year. And how great do they look with the pumpkins?

This picture! I love the ombre. This one was the background on my phone until I decided to change to pumpkins. I was ready for something more Halloweeny, but it was still hard for me to change from this picture!

I don't think I've ever seen such vibrant purple mums. I've seen them in dark purply pink, but nothing like this. I didn't bump up the contrast on this picture. They were seriously this intense. 

I don't think I've seen these cute little flowers before. Do any of you know what these are?

I like when all those decorative cabbages come out in fall, usually along with some small peppers.

These containers were new this year. They look similar to those kind of straw pumpkin pots, but these were made of metal.

There was a small selection of mini pumpkins and an even smaller selection of mini gourds. I tried my best to make it look like there was a full container here, but I couldn't even attempt that with the gourds! Someone must have bought up a ton of mini gourds for a display.

Yup, this is all you're going to see of the mini gourds: a close-up of two of them.

Oh, the drama! We never were rained on, by the way.

Check out those little stripes on the corn kernels. I love cameras for the help they give in seeing details like this.

These next two were new this year. Looks like a ghost cat and a ghost balancing a pumpkin on its head.

Here's one of those straw-like containers you probably remember. 

I'm sharing two photos of this next decoration because I like both pics so much. I'm not sure if they've displayed these ceramics in with flowers before, but I like it. This gives an idea of what could be done with these pumpkin towers. They're cool, but I usually look at them and wonder where they could go.

So here's a bit of the front of the store, with those dramatic clouds reflected in the windows. 

A closer look at the window displays... 

Yes, this one is also a window display. It might look like something else in this photo. How cool is that backdrop? And I love that crow. I'd like to have one of those crows! It looks like it's probably made from cardboard.

This guy greets you by the front door. He's actually pretty menacing. I've seen a lot of large props by now, so it takes something special for me to say that. There's something about the way he looms over you and slowly moves around.

He has those led light-up eyes like some of the giant skeletons you may have seen. His eyes move around and blink as he growls. This prop would be so effective in the woods at night! I'm creeping myself out just thinking about it.

Stein's has a nice gift section and a pretty sizable floral section.

Little monsters with air plants for brains. Have any of you tried growing air plants? I guess you don't really "grow" them although they have to start from somewhere. They seem easy to care for.

This cat yard decoration is made of metal. She's so adorable!

I like that garland. It's kind of Christmasy and vintage looking. This picture reminds me that I want to decorate a Halloween tree, but I haven't seen one I like yet. I'd like to find one that is bright orange.

I think this vintage cuteness was on a dishtowel. 

I like this new material the ghosts are made of. I saw some cool reindeer made from this iridescent plastic at Menards. I'm sure those reindeer would look pretty shimmering in the snow.

Of course you can't tell from this still picture, but this tree waved its limbs around like it was alive.

So there we have this year's trip to Stein's! Looking these pictures over, I'm seeing some things to be on the lookout for after Halloween. My favorite is probably that witchy black cat yard decoration. 😸

Halloween at Home Depot

It would appear that yet another blogworthy Halloween store section has emerged! Home Depot really impressed me with their selection. I saw stuff there the other day that I haven't seen in other stores.

This fish made a glub-glub-glub sound when set off, like you're hearing bubbles. I think a chomp-chomp-chomp sound could work too! The full piranha:

It's quite the feat for a store to show me a new skeleton critter at this point. I just noticed his little skeletal fin. I'm pretty sure that "skeletal webbing" is not anatomically correct, but it's cute.

Now here's an inflatable I bet you haven't seen yet! I sure hadn't. Remember the Sandworms in Beetlejuice?

How about that photobombing ghost? :)

Looking at that Sandworm, I'm thinking how cool it would be to do a Beetlejuice themed yard display. How about if someone dressed up as Beetlejuice to hand out treats and had this in his yard? That would be pretty cool.

A random pumpkin dude, who I think was one of those hanging ghoulie type decorations:

For those of you who are into skeleton pirates and ghost ships, which I would think would be everyone, you're going to love this:

I just noticed that Figurehead:

And check out the crew!

It's like they took some props from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

If any of you are looking for some large scale outdoor Halloween decorations, it's looking like Home Depot is the place to go! I was impressed with the amount of life-sized (or I would assume so) creatures. This werewolf was incredibly cool. This was the one I thought would be scariest out of the store. Imagine if someone set this up in the woods and you happened to walk past it at night.

This guy was tall. I would guess 7 ft. He was looming over me. Several of these characters or displays were towering above me, so I can only imagine how much they would spook little trick-or-treaters.

Oh, and when you set it off, its mouth opens as it growls and it lights up like this:

This guy was quite the character. Kind of a mischievous sorcerer type.

It was hard to catch the complete spirit of some of these figures because of the intense store lighting. I'm sure this skeleton knight would look a lot scarier in the dark! He said something about a battle, as I'm remembering it. I mean, these creatures say vaguely threatening things. I was standing in front of it, hoping the sword wouldn't swing (it doesn't).

This was probably my favorite of the large, moving, light up figures. I have always liked the Headless Horseman story, so that may have been part of why I liked this so much. But it really was very cool.

Look at that rotting corpse of a horse! I was so impressed with the way its head moved and its legs moved up and down in a slow gallop. You can see that sort of fabric part around the neck. That's where the head had some flexibility.

Many of these figures had that little button in front of them that you tap with your foot to get them moving and making noise. So in a way, their Halloween section was a lot like Halloween Express.

How cool is the skeleton-driven hearse!? I wish I could have gotten a closer view of it, but it was way up over my head on a shelf. Can you see his red, glowing eyes?

Home Depot had a few classic skeleton floral arrangements out. This one is inspiring me to do something floral-wise. I do have enough little skulls around, as well as fake roses. Hmm...

The matching wreath:

I'll end with a pic of some of the pie pumpkins that were outside the store. I liked the way these looked with the greens behind them. That looks like ornamental chard.

So have you guys been to Home Depot yet? I suggest going and just having a good time in the Halloween section! Make the rounds and set off some of those figures. Watch them light up and listen to what they have to say. I think you'll have a fun time! 🎃