Ragstock Vintage Halloween

After that virtual trip to Spirit Halloween, I'm going to share a little more of the mall with you guys. Do any of you have a Ragstock store nearby? These stores might just be a Wisconsin thing. Ragstock is actually a surprise for me to see in a mall, because it's a vintage clothing store. I don't recall us having a vintage store in the mall before this. I would have probably been here a lot back when I was looking for Halloween costumes at Goodwill. So, here's the entryway:

I took a few pics of the window displays too. The ladies side:

The gentlemen:

I love how they decorated the store this year! I don't remember this much effort being put in before. How great is that vintage looking sign? "All Weirdness Welcome" These decorations at the door remind me somewhat of the way I've seen dime stores decorated for Halloween in old photos. 

And the decorations don't stop inside! This is the table display you first see when entering the store. For the groovy alien. 👽

How about those boots! I think David Bowie would have worn those.

They have a lot of used leather jackets. I'm not sure how they end up with so many similar items, but sometimes there are racks of many of the same used thing. This looks like a good place to find some vintage motorcyclist pieces. Looking at this pic, high five to whoever managed to tack those cobwebs to that type of ceiling. Those ceiling pieces like to pop off if they're so much as touched. 

You could do a lot with these furry vests too. That first vest is pretty wild. Those almost look like little feathers all over it. 

OK, I love the names on these. "Tiger Mullet" "Celebrity Chef" "Groovin' Guy" and "80's Tinsel" Not that we can't figure out who these are! (Aside from 80s Tinsel) Oh man, look at the facial hair upon facial hair on Celebrity Chef! I wonder if that's all one piece? I can't stop laughing at Groovin' Guy, even now. I wonder if the beard is attached to the wig? I was actually watching an old episode of The Joy of Painting the other day, and heard Bob Ross say that he received some fan mail from a lady who told him he should get a different wig to match his beard! 

Lots of critter accessories:

Have you guys ever seen these whiskers attached to a little nose? I wonder how well that little button nose stays attached to your actual nose? I dressed as a cat for Halloween years ago and painted some whiskers on my face. I have a feeling I'd get annoyed by these, but they might be cute. 

Some of the neon 80s/90s section here looks similar to what I shared from Spirit Halloween. Check out that Viking helmet on the shelf!

No comment on this shirt. Haha! We're between the hippies and the Good/Evil section here.

The makings of a Tinker Bell or butterfly/fairy costume are on the left.

I have never seen a mask with this much going on above it. It looks like you could maybe spread out that "Laser Fringe" so it looks kind of feathery? This looks like a good Mardi Gras mask to me.

So there's Ragstock's Halloween selection this year! Although you could argue that anything in that store could be part of a Halloween costume. I enjoy seeing costumes that people have put together with vintage pieces. Do any of you have memories of thrifting for Halloween costumes? I used to have access to some really old clothes in vintage/antique stores. I never knew what I would find!

I also wanted to share some pics of the mall's train! We have a train that scoots around the mall carrying kids and any adults that can squish into the cars. There's a friendly conductor and everything. Depending on who is conducting, this train can get pretty wild. You hear that choo-choo and you better get out of the way! It's not like it's on a given track or anything. One time I had to jump into a store as the train zoomed up behind me. 

As you can see, this train is decked out for Halloween. Last Christmas, there were little trees, snowflakes, and lights on it. Here's an idea of how long it is. 

In keeping with the vintage theme, here are some books I picked up from the library last night. The girl at the bottom reminds me of Adele. 

I recently joined our town's historical society, which has involved looking at a lot of old photos. I've been seeing a number of different hairstyles in those photos. Those hairstyles got me thinking that it might be fun to try out some of those same looks or at least a modern variation of them. So, I looked through the library system to find some inspiration, and there was a lot of it! There were far more books than these!

How about the Beatnik's ponytail? I got a kick out of that. The book with the "Twenties... Then and Now" has a section for every decade in style from the 1920s to the 1980s. I can't wait to try some of these hair and makeup techniques!

If you are going for a vintage Halloween look this year, a trip to the thrift store and your local library would be a great start! 💄👠🎩

A Moonlit Walk Around Town

Are you guys ready for a night tour of the local village? The main street area is getting ready for Halloween. All of the decorations are pretty cute and homemade, but they take on a slightly spooky feel in the dark.

The Headless Scarecrow! He's wearing some merch from a company that plants flowers in the village. 🎃

This crow almost looks real in this lighting. I really like what's going on with the lighting here, between that nearly full moon, the twinkle lights, and that spotlight on the crow.

This dimly lit parking lot is probably the spookiest image I will have to offer here.

This spider has been busy, and with two types of web! 

You'll no doubt remember the whirligigs from the kite shop. I'm used to seeing this zombie, but I think the scarecrow was new.

I imagine this will look pretty cool when those lights are on.

There were a number of pumpkins out on haystacks. I had some choices as far as which ones to share. 

This old school desk was sitting in front of a store. There's something charming about a pumpkin on an old desk. How old do you think this desk/seat is? I don't think I've ever seen one with stripes of different colored wood. 

I think I'm seeing a hole in the top of the desk. Do you think that's for ink? I just looked up some pics of old desks, and I think that is actually a hole for an ink well! That definitely gives a clue as to how old this desk is.

I always like to photograph shop windows, especially when they feature autumn displays. This one has something different: A Christmas tree decorated with either fabric or paper pumpkins. I'm finding the flat little pancake pumpkins sort of sweet and homespun. 

Isn't this a beautiful window display? That forest scene is actually printed on fabric. As you can tell, this shop sells bird feeders and other bird-related items.

The string lights added a festive feel. There were more string lights up than ever.

I love how this one turned out! 

These street scenes were well lit by the nearly full moon. I'm glad I took a pic of it last night since tonight's actual full moon isn't visible. This looks pretty darn close to full!

You guys will probably be seeing more pics from the village soon, because the carved pumpkins will be on display again! Hopefully, people will carve me lots of good photo opportunities. 😉

A Beautiful Autumn Day

Today was a perfect autumn day with temps around 70° and sunny skies. It was a nice day to walk around and take some photos. The plan had been to check out the Farm Girl Antiques store. For some reason the store hours online did not match reality and the doors were locked. So I took a few pics through the windows.

I can't say it was a real torturous experience looking through the windows, as far as wishing I could get at all that Halloween stuff. That's because the only Halloween stuff they appeared to have was what you're seeing in this window display. It was weird. They did appear to have the Christmas displays started, though. So I guess this will be a place to revisit in December. 

"Rotten Pumpkin Juice - To get an orange complexion" 

There were some fun photo opportunities at a small fruit market on the way back. 

Nice stem!

Some neat things happened with the lighting here. The sun was just naturally spot lighting this little guy. I love mini pumpkins. 

The fruit market had out some wagons that I'm pretty sure were antique. This place has been in business a really long time, so these probably were original to the business. 

Pretty mums, hey?

These next ones were taken at home. 

The leaves are just barely starting to turn red.

I grew zinnias as I do every year from seed. This year I used only seeds from last year's crop. Last year's zinnias were very interesting. There were regular zinnias growing off the same plant as cactus zinnias! And there were different color flowers on the same plant! Every year it has become more interesting with cross pollination. 

So, I'd been interested to see what might happen with the seeds from last year's plants. Well, things happened alright. Check out this beautiful paint splatter effect on the petals.

And this takes the cake. A zinnia growing out of another zinnia! And it's an orange one growing out of a pink one. Wouldn't it be crazy if yet another flower grew out of the top of the orange one?

I love the contrast of these lemon yellow leaves against an intense blue sky.

A very autumn bird bath. I guess this doesn't look all that accessible for the birds but it does make for a pretty picture. 

I'm going to leave you guys with a YouTube video I ran across last night. You know those Christmas fireplace videos with the instrumental music and crackling sounds? Well, someone made one for Halloween. I don't hear crackling, but the music is beautiful. I have been enjoying watching the fire move too. The black cat andirons and tiny cauldron are a nice addition too. 

If you'd like to follow a link to the video on YouTube, here it is: 

Halloween Music Fireplace