Sarah Belle's 95 Theses Against Winter

OK, so maybe I don't have a list of 95 reasons why Winter is the worst.  But, I did think of 30 in about three minutes.

As I get older (and grumpier) I hate Winter more.  I've lived with winter for 37 years, and it's time to move out.  We are not great roommates. 

Here follows a list of grievances I have against Winter.  (I reserve the right to add items as I see fit.)

A Season Of Paradoxes

1. Sweezing: The magical feeling of being both sweaty and freezing at the same time.  You won't be able to understand this if you haven't shoveled snow.  And if you haven't: congrats.  I hate you.

2. Slick Sand Nose: A nose that is either running like a faucet, needing constant tissue attention, OR is dry as the Sahara.  The kind of dry wherein your boogers crackle, one side of your nose gets pasted to the other from the inside, and where it bleeds most days.

Physical Problems

3. Hunch Neck: A neck that is in constant pain from hunching against the cold at all times.  This can even occur in sleep, if your bedroom is too cold.

4. Layer Mummy: In order to maintain a reasonable body core temperature, you must wear so many layers, movement becomes restricted. (see also: Randy - "I can't put my arms down!")

5. Layer Mummy Tantrum: When you tear off all your layers in a blind rage and sit naked and shivering because you just cannot.  Hopefully this happens when you are at home.

6. Layer Mummy Inability: The inability to get dressed because you cannot face the amount of layers you'll have to put on in order to keep warm.

7. Freezing. 32 degrees Fahrenheit   Anything below this is when the air hurts.  It physically hurts your skin, your lungs, and your eyes. Any exposed body part hurts when the air touches it.  This should alert you that the area you are in is not fit for human life.

8. Claustrophobic Feet. Remember wearing sandals with no socks?  Or flip flops?  Or little ballet flats?  No?  Me either.  You'll be wearing two pairs of socks and snow boots (not fashion boots - I'm talking E.M.S. boots rated for sub zero weather, here) for six months.  Feet are not meant to be seen.

9. Wet. Some part of your outfit is always wet. Cleaning the snow off of your car gets you wet.  Slogging through a snowy parking lot gets you wet. Washing your hands gets your sleeves wet because you are dressed as a Layer Mummy and can't push them back properly.  And when you are wet, and it's sub zero, it's really really nice.  That feels great. I love it.

10. Can't Breathe. Sometimes the air is so cold that it becomes hard to breathe. Also, when there is an evil wind whipping and it's just the right amount of degrees below zero, the breath gets stolen from you.  It's hard to describe, but it's like the wind is whisking the air away from you before you can get any. You stand there, on the street, or in a parking lot, gasping for air and squinting against the cold. It's a gd delight.

11. Shocking. Static electricity has a damn heyday in winter.  Every time you get out of the car, every piece of metal you touch, you get shocked.  And we aren't talking a cute little zap.  We are talking, light up a city block.

12. Chapstick Addict.  If you leave your chapstick at home, that's it.  Forget it. You might as well just die.  Because, your lips will be a dry, flaky, bloody, crackled mess by the time you get home.  Nobody is going to want to get near them.

13. Fat. Ever heard someone say that they are "carrying winter weight"?  Yeah. That's real. Because you never want to move.  It's too damn cold.  And too damn dark. And your body fights you the whole way.

It's Gross

14. Snow Isn't Pure. Do not ever say "pure as the newly fallen snow" or anything of that nature.  Snow is grossly dirty, and only gets more so the longer it stays. It's a vehicle for dirt. And it will make your vehicle dirty. Stock up on windshield washer fluid, cuz ya gonna need it.

15. Salt Scum: Roads, driveways, and walkways, they all get salted to keep ice buildup at bay and people from dying in various horrible, slippery ways.  Salt forms a film on boots, shovels, cars, doors, buildings, etc.  While you are dressed as a Layer Mummy it is hard to tell where you are in relation to these things and you will brush up against them and transfer that salt scum to your clothes.  Every damn day.

Sad Ass

16. No Jewelry. When you are dressed as a Layer Mummy you cannot wear bracelets or necklaces.  They get hidden and tangled in the multiple layers.  Plus, you do not want metal against your skin. Shit will freeze.

17. No Sunshine. Vitamin D deficiency is no joke around here.  People are popping vitamins like street drugs. You can also lay in a light coffin for short periods of time if you need to remember what sun and warmth feel like.

18. Wardrobe. At least half of your wardrobe is useless in the winter. You'll be wearing your thickest wool sweaters, socks, and underwear over and over and over again.  Eventually, you'll give up caring what you look like altogether.  You'll just roll out of bed, put on your one warm outfit, and slog out the door.

19. No Outside. If you are crazy enough to love outdoor activities in the winter, good for you.  You are certifiably nuts.  When being outdoors comes with it's own set of protective gear, the likes of which are used on the moon by astronauts, I'm out.  You can't go to the park, can't walk on a greenway, can't take a stroll around the block, can't go for a run, can't visit an open air market.  The entirety of the outdoors is basically off limits.

20. No Gumption.  It's so dark outside all the time, and so cold pretty much everywhere, that your body just wants to stay in bed.  It thinks it's night time, all the time. It doesn't want to go to the gym.  It doesn't want to do yoga.  It wants to sit under many blankets and sleep or maybe watch a movie and fall asleep halfway through.

21. 50 Shades of Ugly. Everything is varying degrees of gray.  "What about evergreens?", you might wonder in childlike innocence. They get covered with snow, too.  It's like being in a sepia old timey photo.  For six months.

22. Too Real.  When your town has the delightful nickname: Hothchester.

23. Ice Cream.  Ice cream is one of my all time most favorite things in the world.  Ice cream makes for instant happy.  We have an ice cream place within walking distance of our house.  Soft serve (custard) is my favorite.  But winter is too damn cold to enjoy ice cream.  I'll never forgive it for that.

24. Porch Life. This year my little family had really settled in to the porch life.  We ate meals out there, and did a lot of sitting and looking.  We have an enclosed porch surrounded by windows, so it was easy to get a nice breeze and some sunshine while still retaining a bit of privacy.  My pup loved porch life the best.  He had his own entrance via a set of doggy stairs and a window.  He loves being on neighborhood watch patrol, and the porch brought him one step closer to being within reach of villains. When it was time to leave the porch in October, he didn't want to.  He'd sit out there shivering and refuse to come back inside.  I'd have to put a sweater and a wool blanket on him so he wouldn't freeze to death.  We miss porch.

Hassle

25. Diaper Bag. Dealing with winter comes with a lot of accoutrements. It's basically like lugging around a baby diaper bag all the time, every day.  Gloves, hats, coats, sweaters, a change of freaking shoes.  It's like being prepared to go to the gym all the time.  The amount of stuff you have to have with you in order to just survive is ridiculous and exhausting.

26. You Have To Put It Places. Snow has to be moved. No matter where it is, it's in the freaking way.  It's on your car.  It's blocking the doorway.  Can't get in the garage.  The dog can't go to the bathroom in the back yard.  The sidewalk may as well not exist. Roads?  What roads?

27. Can't Just Leave. Just run out the door and hop in the car and go, right?  Wrong.  The car has to be turned on, the ice has to be scraped or melted, the snow must be brushed.  You have to get yourself ready and then you have to get your car ready.  You car has a longer morning routine than you do.

28. Travel Time Doubles. People will drive like idiots.  There will be accidents.  And even if there aren't accidents, you just can't go that fast in the snow.  You crawl along, with all the other fools, on days when you should be at home in bed, to arrive at work an hour or more late.  Taking your life into your hands basically every day.  What a thrill.

29. Humidifier. In order to combat Slick Sand Nose you must run a humidifier.  And you have to fill it every damn night.

30. Snow Tires.  Know what doesn't work well in the winter?  Tires.  Regular tires.  If you want to survive driving in the snow, you have to get snow tires.  They cost more, and it also costs money to have them put on and taken off. And you also have to store them over the summer, and lug them into your car when it's time to get them put back on. Joy, joy, joy. 

I feel a bit better now.

Is it a wonder I'm obsessed with having a tiki bedroom?  Check out all these great flamingo items I scored at one sale two weeks ago!  The bag is big enough to use as carry on luggage.  Just concentrate on these cheerful pink beauties until the sun comes back.  I know I will!

'Tis The Season

'Tis the season to not have enough hours in the day, not enough days in the week. 'Tis the season to be busy as shit and cranky as crap.  'Tis the season to start a drinking habit. 

And, 'Tis the season to grab any little minute for yourself - including hitting an Estate Sale or two!

'Tis the season to buy everything vintage for yourself, and nothing for everyone else and feel really good about it!

This is how @magicsummervintage and I do Black Friday shopping!  Standing in line, out in our nemesis (the cold), waiting to paw through someone else's old stuff.

Paw, we did!  And rewarded, we were!  (Honestly not trying to sound like Yoda on purpose...)  I went to the basement first, which is where the vintage holiday was being stashed.  There were only a few other people down there, and I had my pick of so much great stuff!  The best part was that most of it was a quarter per item!

I just adore these little mice ornaments.  I have rescued a whole family of them now, one skinny, stripe-y kid at a time.  I'm so stoked about the white plastic tree. They were made in a host of different colors, but I've never crossed paths with one...until now.  I don't collect Gurley candles, but I do want a select few of them.  Very specific designs.  The candle was on the list.  Red and green, delicious Christmas combo!  The tiny deer is flocked with glitter antlers.  I mean, come on.  I almost never see the small brittle cardboard glitter houses.  I have three of them now.  The pack of vintage Hallmark party matchbooks has never been opened.  I hate/love when I find something that has never been opened. All the agonizing over whether to open or not! 

This ceramic Santa dude used to be a bell, but is now missing the clanger. I love that he is carrying a present on a weird string, for some reason.  I've only ever found ONE of the plastic lantern ornaments to date.  I love all things lantern!  I plan to put them on a tropical themed tree that I'll have in the future.  Hold on to your seats, people!  VINTAGE HONEYCOMB!  And it had never been opened!!

Well, I guess you can see that I didn't agonize over this one for too long.  I got to pop out all the pieces and put this Christmas sweetness together for the first time in it's life!  It was such a treat!  My goodness.  The love of honeycomb hit hard and fast this year.

There was a little table of Easter decor in the basement, too! I chose these vintage flocked floral picks.  So cute and tres pastel!

From the basement I ventured to the first floor, where the dining room was covered in jewelry.  An entire room full of jewelry!  It was nuts!  Not much of it was vintage, but most of the items seemed to have never been worn, many still sported their original price tags. This was the one pair I found.  Vintage lucite with white and silver confetti.  Clip ons.  I also actually found a pair of earrings made from shell, carved into the shape of a shell, but I lost one between the sale and my house.  I don't really want to talk about it.

The third floor held treasure, too!  Treasure, let me add, that @magicsummervintage did not pick up for me, but knew I'd want.  She just let the treasure sit there for whomever to snatch up, even though I was toting around an entire armload of dresses in the basement, just so she could have first pick.  Just so we're clear.

Vintage Halloween masks!  I find like one of these a year, so it seemed like striking gold to find two at the same sale.  For way cheap.  Way. I said that I thought the one on the right looked similar to Inspector Gadget.  The husband said no.  He looks like "someone playing cards."  So there you have it.  The "Spooky Kooky Jewelry - Dracula" set is Ben Cooper, and will be displayed in the package, of course!  I wonder if there were other sets?

I also went to a few other sales and picked up some goodies.  I like vintage hankies, but only when they aren't poinsettia themed.  They always seem to be poinsettia themed.  I was so happy to find this pine and holly specimen! The glitter bird is paper mache, and the mushroom ornament is blown glass.  I do love a toadstool!

A lovely jadeite and white linen tablecloth, a Hallmark Merry Miniatures Santa, two Santa mugs with lenticular eyes (!), another and different candy striped Santa pencil - this one with dangling balls...erm....bells, an embroidered vintage hankie with the likeness of a Christmas tree, rhinestone clip-on earrings that go up your earlobe, a chunky faux pearl wrap bracelet, and my favorite: lucite earrings with (red glitter and gold star) confetti.  Lots of happy!

In my travels I found something from my All Time Want list!  This crazy flickering faux candle. He's a Halloween decoration from Hallmark, though he isn't marked as such on the bottom and the base looks a bit different than the others I've seen online.  It still lights up! Don't miss his spooky flame face!  The egg cup was a great deal and will, of course, be displayed in the spring.  And check out the teensy bunny and flamingo!  I love small things!

If you need a dose of vintage yourself, check out my Etsy shop!

Until next time, happy hunting!

Distraction

It's probably what most of us need right now. I mean, I hate politics, from top to bottom, from left to right.  I'm registered as an independent because I'm not one to throw my lot entirely in one court or the other. I like thinking my own thoughts and making my own, rational choices. I'm not a very trusting person on the whole, and politicians generally inhabit the lowest echelon of those deserving of trust, in my mind.  It's one of those jobs you should only be allowed to have if you don't want it, because the lure of power and status generally attracts the wrong type of people.

But, even though it feels as though we've entered the Darkest Timeline, we must remember that 4 years is a relatively short amount of time.  And hopefully by that time, we'll have learned our lesson well.  Because, aside from all of the disgusting things that guy has said about women, and world religions, and non-white people, he is at best, a reality TV star. We've elected a reality TV personality to be president. (Yes, I understand that Regan was a film star.  But a reality TV star is a long ass way from being an "actor".) "Hello. This is our president.  And this is his hair..."  What next? Snookie for Supreme Court?

Distraction.  Let's have some, shall we?

Last week I went to an estate sale at a mansion.  They had a three car garage with chauffeur's quarters above it, which is larger than my house.  By quite a bit. The carpet in this place was so plush you'd think the padding was made of three inches of marshmallows. There was a grand, sweeping staircase up and down...to the basement! The odd part is that, while the house itself was huge, it was cut up into crazy shaped spaces.  Tiny rooms, lots of small hallways, and a hidden closet!

There were rooms with hallways off of just them, to another room you could only get to from the first room and it's hallway.  It's hard to understand.  It was even harder to navigate.

Ann: Dude, where are you going?

Me: I don't know! I'm just trying to find the stairs down to the first floor!

One of the cool parts was this, hidden closet! I apologize for the terrible photos.

The whole room had this paneling.  There is no handle on this hidden door.  Here, you can see it's open.

This is what is inside the hidden room. It has bowed wall because it butts up against the grand staircase. Behind the door, It's just a tiny closet.  There were board games in there, which was kind of a let down.  No hookers, or blackjack.

Christmas corsages!  Some mercury glass floral picks, and a weird set of plastic balloons that is made to attach to a package, but which will in reality become an easter decoration in my house. The metal jadeite colored wall sconce was $5 and came with a broken cord.  My mister will be able to fix it right up.  But, not until I find a spot to put it, which is the real trick.

The honeycomb (!) bunny is Dennison and the terrier is a Dream Pet that I'm keeping for myself.  We love a terrier at the Snug Bungalow. The tiny Hallmark honeycomb owl was my most desired item from the mansion sale. I saw him in the photos of the sale online and wished with all my might that he'd still be there on day two, when I could come rescue him.  AND HE WAS! <3 So many happies! He was on my all time want list.

@magicsummervintage and I hit up two sales today.  These are the only things that I got.  But, it was worth it! Plus, they cost me a whopping 54 cents! Tiny peppermint ornaments! I already have a plan for them, since we are smack dab in the middle of Christmas decorating here at the Snug Bungalow. Judge all you like.  It takes WEEKS to put up all my decorations and I'll be derned if I'm going to leave it up for a few weeks and then take it all back down again. I want TWO MONTHS of Christmas joy!

Now for: 

New In My Shop

(Click on a photo to be taken to the item listing in my Etsy shop.)

Vintage Alf Baseball Puppet

Gordon Shumway does sports. A very cool premium from Burger King, back in the 80s.  Alf plays for the Orbitors. See what they did, there? He still has his cute little baseball glove (...mitt?  I'm not great with the sports terms.  Do the stuff with the balls! Win the points!)

Disney Alice In Wonderland Shoe Figurine

Remember the tiny figural shoe craze? All the different tiny shoes?  You can bet Disney hopped on that bandwagon, right quick.  This came from the Disney Store, back when that was still a thing. It's incredibly detailed and hand painted. The colors are gorgeous. 

Until next time, happy hunting!

Little Bits

It snowed today.  I'm not ready for that crap.

Also, estate sales have been slim pickin's around here lately.  I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it. I haven't had a big hit in over a month, and I'm starting to get the shakes.

I have found a few little odds and ends here and there to help me keep my sanity.

At the Blessed Sacrament sale I scored a box full of nice, thick, Christmas garland for $1 and a tiny bottle brush wreath for a dime.

At the notorious Ronald McDonald House Charities sale, I got some great things.  But that was weeks ago! I found a small Kermit with a weirdy face for a buck, an awesome cream colored shell planter with aqua on the inside, and a gorgeous vintage print of Bok Tower in Tampa, FL that has palm trees and flamingoes!  It was two whole dollars!

I found a small ceramic ice cream...box?  The top comes off and you can store things inside, I suppose. The husband thinks it looks like doody. I nearly screamed when I found the unopened package of Miss Piggy napkins!  It was in a grab bag of random party supplies. The tiny plastic bunnies were 50 cents and so was the wired candy corn.  I love candy corn! (To eat and to look at!)

At the beginning of the summer I passed up the chance to buy a shelf just like this for $3.  I wasn't sure what I would do with it and I thought it would be hard to display things in it with all the pillars and tiny cubbies.  I was describing it to the hubs and he said, "It sounds like the arches in the opening scene of the Muppet Show when they play the theme song."  DAMMIT!

From then on I've been chasing these shelves from one end of the county to the other.  They are always too expensive, or someone else gets them before me.  While I was at the RMD sale, I walked past one, stopped dead in my tracks, backed up and grabbed that sucker, quick!  It was $20, which I can handle.  Because...just imagine it all painted up!

It will be perfect as a display shelf for the Muppet Collection!  I'm so excited!

I also found this Buffalo Snow, which I've never used, but seems to be a thing, and these two cute ceramic Easter chicks for 50 cents.

I could use a real hit, tell ya what.

Now it's time for: 

New In My Etsy Shop

(As always, click the photo to be taken to that listing in my Etsy shop!)

Vintage Strawberry Shortcake Apple Dumplin' Rag Doll

This girl is so adorable! She's in great condition and makes me wish I collected SSC dolls!

Vintage Peanuts Hallmark Christmas Ornament

I have tons of vintage Christmas goodies in my shop right now. 

Snoopy and Woodstock are singing the 12 Days of Christmas! So cute!

Vintage Charmkins Whippoorwill Flower Mill

I had two or three Charmkins, and I thought they were terribly special.  I've always loved tiny things, and these cuties were so detailed and so adorable, plus, they were scented!  This playset is just as intricate and comes with so many great accessories.  The little bluebird can sit in a little nest and its a ring you can wear, people! It's just enchanting!

Until next time, happy hunting!

The One Wherein I Have Crazy Ass Dreams

I've always had very detailed dreams. I used to regale my (Poor, dear) mother with tales of my nightly, unconscious escapades on the daily. I've kept dream journals at different times in my life as well.  Sometimes your brain makes up the weirdest, or coolest thing, and it needs to be remembered.

Last night's dream was such a tale.

I dreamed that I was in the newest Star Wars movie!

Cue John Williams. 

In this newest space jaunt, I play an intergalactic collector.  Of course.  My character searches the galaxy for old and rare treasure.  And I'm guessing, porcelain figurines.  Because everyone loves those.

The lead in the film is being played by Tigger.  Yes.  Tigger.  Of the "T-I-Double-Guh-Err" variety.

Oh, also, Miss Piggy is in the film.  And she's PISSED that she doesn't have a larger part.  As per usual.

She keeps inserting her own, angry lines of dialog, to make her part bigger.

In the scene we are rehearsing, I walk into Tigger's Tavern (Who better to run an interstellar bar, I ask you?) and a pair of bark cloth curtains catches my eye.  I must have them. (This may or may not be something that could happen in my real life, any day of the week.)

I swipe the curtains off the window and slam them down on a table.  I tell Tigger I'll pay any price for them. When he just stares at me in flummoxed silence (Because let's be honest. If he isn't singing a song about counting, or how to spell his own name, he doesn't really have a lot to offer in the acting arena.) I add ... "And a date."  As if a date with me would sweeten the deal.

At this point Piggy has heard enough and grabs the curtains saying, "Moi thinks these curtains must be something extra spec-ee-ale! (Not in the script)

I look helplessly at the director and then my dog starts scratching his ear like it's his job, and wakes me up.

Thanks for playing along kids, you've been a great audience.

The One Where I Move To Miami

It's no secret that I love the Golden Girls.  My only regret is that I didn't find those sassy ladies sooner in life.  I consider their work ground breaking.  A show about women over 50 living vibrant, meaningful lives? Yeah. Ground breaking.  Even for today.  

They confront real issues that women face: menstruation, pregnancy, menopause, harassment, sexism, divorce, artificial insemination, and more!  Can you imagine someone writing a script wherein the stars of the show, five women ranging in age from 55-80, talk candidly about their first period?  Or the first time they had sex?  Without being zany or getting interrupted by a man who had more important things for them to do? No. You can't. And that's something more than tragic.

Plus, they live in Florida.  I mean, come on. To quote the show "Miami, Miami, you've got style - blue skies, sunshine, white sand by the mile!"

Sophia is my favorite.  A tiny little Italian fireball who would spit in your eye just as fast as ask you to dinner. Suspicious and streetwise, that lady has everyone's number.  One of the details I love the most is that she carries her purse everywhere.  When she gets a midnight snack in her own home, she's got her purse on her arm. I begin to wonder what's in the bag that is so important.  I always assumed it was a hand gun. 

I've been on the lookout for a Sophia-like purse for a while now.  Last week the Estate Sale gods smiled on me. I scored this plastic wicker number for $1.50!  I can't wait to take it to the beach or wear it with a vintage sarong dress! 

I also scored this barkcloth curtain panel for $2 at the thrift. It's for a long window, short in height.  I do not have such a window. And I do not care.  I will make it work. It's the stuff of dreams with it's tropical foliage and pink flowers!

The funky plastic stack of oranges is a bottle.  One of the leaves on top is a lid that flips open.  So weird.  So tacky.  So cool.  It's really trying to insist that I paint an Orange Bird face on it, but I'm not sure that I will.  It would also make a sensational lamp base.

Can you even take how gorgeous this gold glitter purse is? Friggin' amazing. And if you zoom in a bit you can see the black and gold earrings and matching necklace pendant that I scored.  Palm trees and flamingos, people!  The orange plastic girl face is a hand mirror. Can you see that her hair is the handle?  So sweet!

See how well equipped I am for the Florida life? It would feel like a dream living so close to so many beaches.  The Snug Bungalow residents love a beach.

We are also slowly starting to refurbish our second floor.  It's a tiny place with short ceilings. Right now I'm tearing out all the old, disgusting carpet. (carpet is the worst) We will paint and put down new flooring and move our bedroom upstairs.  I have tropical plans for that room and have been gathering things to help make it so for a few years, a bit at a time.

One of the real draws of refurbishing our second floor into an area that we'll actually use, is being able to decorate that space for holidays!

With things like this! I'm planning to use this new "vintage style" box to hold one of my table top trees.  I'll put bits and bobs in the box to fill it in around the tree, of course.

The ceramic Easter egg is painted so nicely.  Looks real and delicious!

It's now time for:

New In My Etsy Shop!

(Click on a photo to be taken to the listing in my Etsy shop.)

Vintage Ideal Rubber Face Baby Doll

Truthfully, these things terrify me.  I feel like most toys from this time period were based on some kind of a dare. Hideous faces pulled into contorted expressions of sadness or joy or...pure evil.  Rubber faces and fuzzy bodies! What the hell kind of sadistic toy manufacturers did they have in the 50s anyway?  But there are many people who love and collect these guys.  These are the kinds of people who have a hard time defining the line between creepy and cute.  You know who you are.

Vintage My Little Pony Baby Bottles

I vividly remember the Christmas when I received my first Baby Pony.  Baby Moon Dancer. She came in a large box, filled with accessories!  There was a necklace, a ducky pull-toy, a rocker, and a bottle!

Vintage Rainbow Brite Doll

This girl is a ray of sunshine! (which hits water droplets and refracts...) She's here to spread color to the whole world. Yarn hair always confused me a little bit as a kid, I mean, we'd all seen how awesome Barbie/My Little Pony hair was...right??  I mean, even Cabbage Patch kids got in to it after a while with Cornsilk and all that.  But, Rainbow Brite is really rocking the yarn look.  And the puffy space dress.

Until next time, happy hunting!

Fall Decorations 2016

Going to weekly estate sales is not good for the space issues we have in this house.  Tiny house.  One closet.  Many collections. You do the math.  Or don't, actually.  Math is terrible and there are a lot of better ways to spend your time.  Like looking at vintage fall and Halloween decorations, for instance.

Like that segue?

I like to collect all manner of vintage holiday paraphernalia. For fall I really love a black cat, skeleton, bat, crow, and vintage mask.  I'm not huge on monsters, gore, or horror.  Gotta keep it cute.  I also have a love affair with black glitter.

I absolutely love to find a vintage plastic Halloween mask.  But, in all my days of hunting,  I've only ever come across a handful.  They are in short supply around here. One day when I was browsing Etsy, like ya do, I saw an amazing idea.  Someone had made a very fun garland with printed out photos of vintage masks.  I copied that idea like a total turd. Then I hung my string of masks on a fun Halloween candy garland I already had.  The wimpiest craft ever, but I like the results. You can buy the one I saw on Etsy here, for a very reasonable price.

This baker's rack is from the Kmart Martha Stewart line, way back when. It shockingly belonged to the hubs before we lived together. All that wire rack is amazing for display options! 

I keep seeing drink stations on Instagram, and this is my little version.  I haven't moved the coffee maker, though.  It's ugly and would ruin the cute vibe I've got going on. The adult beverages are stored underneath, and this is where we do the mixing. A bar cart of sorts.  

Shelfie! This is where I display some of my black cat items. I don't mind mixing old and new. We've got some vintage, some Michael's, and some Target up there. I'm very excited about my fall leaf tin serving trays. I've recently seen that they come in green, yellow, and cream!  I'm coming for you, trays!  Be warned!  I got the hand carved wooden skull mask at One World Goods, a store much beloved to me.  They always have a nice variety of masks.

This is my dining room display. It gets a bit more full and a bit ...taller...? every year. Up to the heavens! 

This is what's behind door number 1. Some old, some new, and a lot of bright orange.  It does look pretty great with the jadeite. But then, let's be honest, what doesn't??

Door number 2.

And door number 3.

Close up of the jadeite cake plate and the surrounding merriment. The trees are Dept. 56 and were a steal!  I'd love to find more.  I've got my tiny Magpie Ethel skele-dude back there.  What a cutie!

I love smalls! This is my shadowbox done up for fall / Halloween.  Tiny things make me so happy!

The monster wreath I made from an idea I found on Pinterest. Learn to make one here.

This shelf lives in my bedroom. It's waaaay up near the ceiling.  I tried to fill it in a bit more this year.  It gets all the leftover bits that aren't fitting anywhere else in the house. The skellys on the right are called Boo Baby, and Boo Baby's Baby Boo Baby.  We are very normal up in the Snug Bungalow.

If you follow me on Instagram (@thesnugbungalow) you know that this is my garbage shelf. It's overcome it's meager roots and is all done up in fall finery.  Lots of lovely dvds showcasing a host of fall colors and themes. The collections of my husband and I married into one lovely display.

This is my fireplace mantel.  I do it up very similarly ever year.  Hey, when you find something that works, there is no shame in sticking with it! Especially when you are putting out this many decorations.  Easy is good. This is where the crows hang out.  It looks very sparkly and mysterious by night.

I like to tuck in natural bits like the orange paper lantern plants and real bird's nests.

I love the tiny autumn corsage on the left.  It's the only one I've ever seen.

This is my Haunted Mansion setup.  It used to be my graveyard, but with the additions of the actual Haunted Mansion tombstones I got at Disney World and the amazing halloween puzzle, it's straight up Haunted Mansion now.  I just found these and these and will be sure to print them off and make them up to complete the scene!

Thanks for taking a tour of my Halloween house!

Until next time, happy haunting!

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