Halloween is creeping onto the store shelves!

Now that it's August, Halloween items are making an appearance! A few days ago, I photographed any traces of Halloween I could find at Marshalls, Ross, Kirkland's, and T.J. Maxx. That, or any items that could be construed as Halloween themed.

The first stop was Marshalls. If I'd realized at the time I was taking this picture that I was going to include it on my blog, I might have looked to see what this cat/pumpkin was attached to. I think there was a ghost under the pumpkin. It looks like something white anyway.

In further cute cat items, Marshalls had these towel sets. "Purranormal Cativity"

"Creepin' it Real"

They also had lots of shiny/glittery pumpkins.

These rustic wood or wood-like decorations seem to be pretty hot now. I can imagine something like this on a much larger scale outside a pumpkin patch.

This next item was in the beauty aisle. While not Halloween related, I still think it was the scariest thing in the store!

It kind of reminds me of that sassy stretched piece of skin that was on Doctor Who. It's listed as having gold mica powder in it. Another brand claims to have actual 24K gold in it! I wonder why gold would be in a facial mask? If you really want to get scared, look up gold facial masks on YouTube!

Next up was Ross, which had by far the best deals. Marshalls and T.J. Maxx had some of the same products that were in Ross, only for a dollar or two more!

Ross had awesome prices but no Halloween displays. Luckily, they did have lots of Betsy Johnson stuff and Betsy loves her skulls! So close enough. A turquoise Betsy towel:

Love the trim:

This Betsy blanket reminds me of candy. Bright little skull-shaped candies. Looking at this picture is making me want to go back and get the blanket.

The most creative/wacky skull design on a blanket came from the brand Berkshire Blanket. Yes, that's a skull-shaped pineapple wearing sunglasses. Those were all over the blanket. This is equally summer and Halloween to me.

The most fun surprise of the day came from Kirkland's. I didn't know that Kirkland's was a beautiful housewares store with professional looking displays. For some reason I had it in my head that it was an outdoors store that sold camping supplies!

Kirkland's was definitely in the fall mood. They went so far into fall that they shot right into Thanksgiving! And... they bypassed Halloween on their way there. Although, if you visit Kirkland's web site they have lots of Halloween stuff on it:

Kirkland's Halloween section

The store itself had some nice general autumn decorations and lots of pumpkins.

See those succulents in the pumpkins? I've been seeing a lot of those lately. I think I saw some pics online of a foam Dollar Tree pumpkin hollowed out and filled with some Dollar Tree succulents.

This was my favorite display in Kirkland's. I love this! It's like a little flower shop.

Closing in on a few favorite elements here... I love the way these little flowers are displayed. I took a pic of this mainly so I could replicate it. I think a row of glass vases with a different fall leaf in each would look cool too.

And how cute is this candle label?

I like basically any little wagon I see. Add in that this one is shaped like a pumpkin and it's a real winner! If you collect Halloween figures or dolls, imagine how fun they'd look "riding" along in this.

I like the way they tied the colors together in this display and I like everything on it. Isn't that pillow fun and retro?

I'm including this pic because I like the way the shadows fell on the pumpkin.

Aww...

T.J. Maxx was the last stop. There really wasn't any Halloween there. So I had to stretch things a bit. But either of these two could be a good addition to a Halloween display.

An adorable Betsy Johnson black cat backpack. I want that cat's glasses!

And a classic silver skull along with a matching silver origami cat. The cat is covering its mouth, so maybe it's the "speak no evil" cat in a set? Or it's shocked to see a giant skull in its path?

Are you guys seeing any Halloween stuff on the shelves yet? I'd appreciate any tips on what's out there! Target has previews of their Halloween collection up and that's worth checking out:

Target Halloween Preview 2018

I linked to the indoor decorations, because that's my favorite section. They have outdoor stuff, costumes, etc. on the site too.

Michaels and Marshalls are ready for Halloween!

I was thrilled to see how well stocked our local Michaels store was with Halloween goodies! I looked down the aisles and had that excited feeling I'm sure you all have when you see shelves fully stocked with Halloween goodies. Adrenaline rush!

I inspected the aisles and took some photos of my favorite items. Michaels had lots of skull/skeleton stuff and what I'd call a Victorian Gothic theme. There were also a few funny things, like this:

That tree has this expression like "What the heck happened to me?" It looks like he was sheet webbed. They went really heavy on the cotton/debris.

I bet you've all seen these pictures before. The ones that start off normally enough (although I think these two look pretty creepy to begin with).

Then as you walk past, the picture begins to change...

Boo!

This set of keys was surprisingly heavy. I guess I expected them to be made of foam or something. They'd work with a dungeon type theme.

I saw a few pumpkins I liked. This one had that kind of mercury glass thing going on. I just noticed a bunch of little me's reflected in it. Haha! It's like little, distorted funhouse mirrors.

What do you think of this as a pumpkin color? It's definitely nontraditional!

There were some ceramic pieces, ready to paint.

I was just reminded of something similar I saw on Tumblr recently. So that's where this is from - this one isn't my picture. Not sure who took this, actually. If someone reading this is the photographer, let me know and I'll give you credit!

Haha! Actually, there are a lot of cool Halloween wedding ideas out there. But I somehow doubt Michaels was suggesting people customize their weddings with these skulls.

OK, back to my photos. My favorite ceramic item on the shelf was this skull. I'm pretty sure it's the same as the ones someone else photographed above.

I'm not really sure what these are. Spiders suspended in a colorful gel? Cute little coffin boxes anyway.

Have any of you tried these candy corn lights? I've seen these the past few years in stores and wondered what they look like lit up. They have the potential to look pretty cool I think!

I love these cut wood decorations. I have a little haunted house like this that I painted last year.

My favorite cut out on the shelf was this coffin. It's so intricate. I assume these light up in many colors, the way my little haunted house does.

Lots of leaf garlands. I was looking at these, thinking how someone could be hiding behind the display. I was probably thinking that because of those people you see in those moss/leaf suits. Those Ghillie suits. Years back, some kid a town over got in trouble for sitting near people's porches at night, wearing a Ghillie suit. Can you imagine?

Check out that Poison bottle. Good to know it's organic and unfiltered. 😜

And those Bat Wings are "100% Pure" No additives in the Bat Wings.

I liked this spider ribbon. I assume it looks kind of transparent when you unwind it. The gold skulls are cool too.

Michaels had some Halloween candy out by the cash register. Cute little emoji Dracula suckers. 

Some really cool Sugar Skull tins, which I assume have little skull shaped candies inside. I might be on the lookout for these during my After Halloween Haul.

I was amused by how many displays had been messed with in this Michaels! Like this skeleton who I'm pretty sure wasn't hoola-hooping to begin with. I saw a little killer whale toy posed to eat a house in a Christmas village display too. There were a handful of funny things that made me think a kid had been left to entertain themselves. 😁

This is a nice lead in to the skull/skeleton section of this blog post. As you'll see, they had a nice selection!

How cute is this little guy? He went with one of the Halloween towns.

He'd probably just been to the "Reaper Motorcycle Company" here:

Another cool miniature was this hearse led by a skeleton horse.

A different take on the skeleton horse with a sugar skeleton driver.

I couldn't help making my own display! He looked good by the cemetery gates.

Haha!

Glamorous.

These dapper guys went with the Victorian type Halloween decorations.

More of that mercury glass look. This had more of a bright red glow than you can see here. It reminds me of some old medicine bottles.

Yoga skeletons. I like any figurine doing yoga.

This one has some attitude!

"Ladies..."

They had a few things with a velvety covering, like this mirror. This one reminded me of a cameo, probably because I have an actual necklace that has a skeleton lady cameo with a fancy frame.

A pretty cool skeleton hand mirror. This might be another Haul purchase. Writing this blog post is feeling like a way for me to bookmark some favorite items in my mind. You can see some little witches dancing in the reflection.

Conga line rats!

On their own, I'm not sure what's going on. Is a lone skeleton rat begging for something? What would a skeleton rat have to beg for? And those books would in scale have to be pretty tiny! I know I'm giving this some extra thought, but still! I need a little explanation here.

The perfect transition from skeletons to black cats...

Look at this cute, little goofball.

This one has a cat clock thing going on!

Here's a scurvy one!

He's fierce.

There were also some cat costumes for sale. Can you imagine a cat wearing this?

And not to be outdone...

My favorite cat of the day was at the Marshalls store next to the Michaels.

How cute is this!?

Marshalls had their own version of the crackled glass skull. I love the color!

And how cute is this? A "Spirits" and "Cheese" board! If your cheese cubes start moving around on this, you're in trouble. 😉

So, have you guys been seeing any cool Halloween stuff for sale? I didn't see any Halloween items out at Target the last time I was there, which was maybe a week ago. I'll keep my eyes on everyone's blogs, because I see some of you have been posting your Halloween finds.

P.S. ~ I was listening to this Halloween music mix while putting this blog post together. Thought you might enjoy it too!

13 Vintage Halloween Hop Songs from the 1950's, & 60's:

A link to the playlist: https://youtu.be/SisxwnlEiq0