Halloween Addict

"Hi, my name is Wendy and I'm an addict.....a Halloween Addict!"

Oh Happy Day! Today is a happy day and do you know why? Because all 4 local HomeGoods stores have begun putting out their Halloween merchandise. I know there's still a lot more to arrive over the coming weeks of course, but I FINALLY got my fix.

So I did pick up a few things like a cool ceramic Jack O'Lantern for starters. They have a lot of really neat Venetian Halloween Masks made in Italy. Pier 1 had some nice ones last year and I got a great Witch one that hangs permanently on my mirror over my dresser. And I just picked up a pretty purple hand-held Crescent Moon Mask tonight! I also ran into a Michael's with 4 minutes til' close and they had a full section of Halloween stuff finally. However I was accosted by a sinister snarling mad-man mean store clerk, who came by and tried to shoo me out the door claiming they were closed. Of course I argued with him that I still had 4 minutes to look, (which I did dang it), but he belligerently insisted that they were closed. So I cursed him under my breath, or put a little curse on him, I forget which.....and quickly tried to scan the inventory really fast. However, I couldn't ascertain if there was anything that I hadn't seen before or couldn't live without. I must now go back.

I can also report on 2 more items. I did check out the Cracker Barrel and they were stocked up with lots of Halloween/Fall goodies. Thank you to Jennifer at All That Glitters for the 411 on that! I also found the 1st Fall magazine...'Celebrate Fall with Phyllis Hoffman'. This was the first seasonal mag I found last year too, and I really liked it. So when I saw the crisp new stack of them on the shelf, I grabbed it excitedly and was going to buy it sight unseen. But at the last second, I decided to take a little sneak peek inside and found that I didn't like it at all. I was so disappointed. Boo Hiss! There was nothing Halloween related in it at all, and it was mostly food and recipes. I think her operating budget must have dwindled since last year. So I did not even buy it. I must now wait for Martha Stewart, Country Home and the Fall Somerset mags to arrive. Of course what I would really love to get my slimy lil' hands on are these wonderful vintage 'Dennison Party Magazine and Bogie Books'. Don't you just totally dig those vintage Halloween graphics? But sadly these go for a lot of $$$ nowadays and are hard to come by unless you want to pay a fortune for them on E-bay. For some background info on these swell books, check out Mr. Macabre's post on the Dennison books.

Oh....and I also should mention that I received my 'Fall Sneak Peek Victorian Trading Co.' catalog in the mail and there are lots of spooktacular items in there. And they are far superior to what I've seen thus far in the stores. So if you don't already subscribe to this catalog, I would if I were you! I may have to do most of my purchasing on-line and through catalogs this year if things keep going the way they are. Or maybe I've just been around enough Halloweens by now that it's hard to impress me anymore...not sure. But if you have HomeGoods stores in your area...go check them out! And I hope everyone has a great weekend.