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 Bright and Beautiful Day at Stein's

It's time for this year's Stein's post! What a beautiful day to take photos. The sky was a bright blue and cloudless. That blue always looks good with the orange pumpkins and decorations.  After this many years taking photos there, I know the weather conditions that look best with the displays!

Many of the ceramic pumpkins I've shared in the past were there, but there were some slight variations. 

The fence they always have up looks fitting with the Halloween decorations. 

I think this jack-o-lantern was new. He's on a stand, and my guess is that's for fire hazard reasons. Maybe you could have live flames in this more safely with it off the ground.

You might remember these ceramic jack-o-lantern pots too.

It's been so hot here that I felt lucky to photograph the pumpkins before they rotted away. They were getting near rotty as it was. I took these pics at the end of September, by the way. So it's hard to say how much longer some of these gourds lasted. It would be no problem as far as the temps being too hot right now! 

Pie pumpkins: 

Check out those stems! 

This pic was my computer wallpaper for awhile.  

Little ghost pumpkin. I think the slightly larger, fully round ones are Caspers.

There were many pretty mums as expected, but I feel like there were more colors out this year.

And some were in these pots you might remember. Every year I say I want to DIY these, but I'm not sure where I'd find the basic pots.

These flowers were new to me. They are Osteospermum. I've seen photos of Osteospermum online, but they were all light purple. This is the first time I'd seen these flowers in person and the first time I'd seen them in yellow in any way. They're called "Blue Eyed Beauty".  The very center is blue. I know at first it looks like they should be called Purple Eyed Beauty. 

They had beautiful straw flowers out! This one was my wallpaper before the yellow and orange pumpkins.

It's always fun to see the autumn floral arrangements with the decorative cabbage and peppers. These peppers look like crazy carrots or fingers to me. 

Aren't seasonal window displays fun? 

They added some new decorations this year, like this scarecrow.

So, venturing in the store here... Look who was there greeting us at the entrance! I think they named him Willy the Werewolf. 

His eyes came alive, I think in some motion sensor way. They look like maybe LED?

This is a ghost. It may be hard to tell because it has a lot of angles. It changed colors and I think it would be really pretty in the dark. 

The flasher...

Boo!

How cute are these? I like candy corn decorations so much more than the actual candy.

This towel was maybe my favorite item in the store. It reminds me of a design off a vintage candy bag. You know those little paper bags for Halloween treats?

And how great is this! Stein's had a Merry Christmas one of these out last year. Just picture it in neon red and green. These signs are pretty large and I imagine they'd look great on the side of a house or building. 

So there we have it! Another fun trip to Stein's for Halloween. My next blog post will be about all the Halloween decorations I've seen around town. I've been impressed with how DIY they've been. It's entertaining for me to see all that creativity. And it's fun to be surprised with unpredictable displays. 🦇