A fun day at The Elegant Farmer

Yesterday, Mom and I took our annual trip to The Elegant Farmer. It was sunny off and on and that worked great for photos. But get this - We wore winter coats! Yeah, the cold weather has officially hit Wisconsin.

So starting with something yummy...

This one is mine. The girl who was dipping these was mid-slice while asking me if I wanted my apple sliced. When I said I didn't, she said in a surprised way "Oh! A bold move!" So that tells you how many people eat these on a stick.

Mmm... reflective caramel!

Mom had hers sliced:

This is the doorway we walked under to get to these treats. I think it could also work as a good doorway to a haunted house, because I felt like we were walking through a big mouth.

While waiting to get through this giant mouth door, I took some pics of the pumpkins next to me.

Check out this stem!

Of course I have to share a pic of the smilin' barn! This is where you can do some shopping for all kinds of food. There was a super long line just to get in and shop, so we didn't do that.

More shopping could be done in a little building next to the barn. This is the area where I took pics of the chainsaw sculptor doing his thing before. He wasn't there yesterday, but I did find these wagons outside the building.

It's cool to look at three different versions of a red wagon. For those of you who like the rusty and crusty:

There was also an old sled out front:

There are some train tracks behind the barn that you guys will probably remember from past years.

This is possibly my favorite picture of the day. It looked like a ghost train coming toward me in the mist. This is about as close as I'm willing to get to an oncoming train.

A little closer...

I can almost hear the rattling.

I took a few photos of... let's call them train accessories because I don't know what the purpose of the next few are. Maybe you guys can fill me in?

When I got closer, I thought this looked like a creature with a big, open mouth. I'm even seeing an eye now!

Some kind of signal?

Coming around the bend...

To the "Elegant Farmer Station"

A few details on the side of the train:

This shape reminds me of a piece of candy.

I took a few pics on the drive there and back. I'm pretty pleased and surprised with how this one turned out, given that I couldn't see what I was taking a photo of. I was just leaning my arm out the window and taking photos of whatever was behind me. See the little horse?

A few trees were changing.

I'm not entirely sure what this is, but we see it every year on the drive. It's some kind of equipment that's been painted to look like a jack-o-lantern. I'm pleased when I can manage to get a pic of it from the car window.

After the Elegant Farmer, we went to Target and Michaels. I've taken a lot of pics at both those stores this season, but there are a couple more things to share.

I hadn't seen this cool arch at the two previous Targets I'd been to this season.

Mom spotted this whole situation. A terrifying new creature! The Gorilla Spider!

Michaels had a pretty clever mini Halloween town on display. This little building reminded me of something out of the show Grimm. This is the "Monster Hunting Supplies" shop. There are a lot of little details to read on this one.

Hehe. This is one of those things that's funny to me and I'm not really sure why. There's just something silly about bloodsucking gnomes that are only about an inch tall. Note the tombstone: "Gnome Sweet Gnome"

The "Symphony of Screams" was in a little bandstand. Cool bat/skull at the top!

Having a glass of "Full Moon Moonshine"

Skeletons in the well!

Sassy cat napkins giving the side-eye to some cat plates:

Those cat napkins might have to be a part of the After Halloween Haul this year...

So there's yesterday! It was a pretty fun day, wandering from place to place. 🍏

Halloween at Target and lots of it!

Get ready to see lots of photos! After going to two different Target stores over the past few days, I have a lot to share. Target has some different "collections" of decorations this year. They have a classy black and metallic purple collection, a traditional orange and black collection, and a pretty impressive Day of the Dead collection! And there were lots of fun toy-like items that moved and lit up.

Starting with some nostalgia... I love this mask because it reminds me of my childhood. Do you guys remember those super bright Halloween decorations printed on kind of a cardstock material? These would be from the '80s. I remember a bright green full body skeleton decoration like that and some faces. Well, those are immediately what I thought of when I saw this:

Ah ha! I found a picture of one of those 80s skulls:

Skull pic on Halloween Wizard's blog

There are a lot of skulls on that page, but I'm talking about the first one.

I didn't try to light up these masks, but I'd like to see one in action. It appears they are sensitive to sound. I think this butterfly mask looks like something made to go with a blacklight. Now we're getting into 90s nostalgia!

This a cute new prop: the haunted fishbowl. If you press a button, all these different lights come on and the little skeleton fish move around.

Masquerade birds

These pumpkin pillows were so soft! Like a nice, fluffy blanket. How do you like that Simpsons looking bat?

I LOVE this skull and crossbones. This is the first time I've seen fake skulls go in that piratey direction.

In other new skull news, check out this dragon skull! It said on the tag that it lights up and I think I can see a lightbulb in there.

That red wire or cord looks almost like thin neon rope lighting.

The Wheel of Fate! I like where the hand is pointing now (Treats will be yours), but they're not all good spins.

This thing was massive! We can see that it lights up in purple but I'm not sure if it lights up in other colors.

I liked all the metallic purple accents I was seeing. They had a lot of metallic purple on black stuff.

Check out this Day of the Dead section! I like that they're going in a direction where some of this could actually be used on an altar. The candles and candleholders, for instance.

This wreath was one of my favorite items there. I'm feeling inspired to make something like this.

Some of those little birds Target carries:

Sugar skull dachshunds!

This reminds me of the classic blow molds, only super tiny.

This poison bottle is kind of an old-school liquor jug/bowling pin.

Obviously this spider's legs can be bent down. They look pretty funny like this.

I think these spiders have pretty adorable faces. Their hairdos are adding to the cuteness.

Check out these wicked old school devices! Those specimens in what looks like a mad scientist's lab equipment actually startled me, because they made so much noise. I think the others are pretty fun designs. The boombox brings me back. You can't see in this pic, but if you peel apart that purple center in the phone, there's a big eye.

Here we go:

If you get a chance, give this phone a listen. I think you'll agree with me that it sounds like a close relative to Cookie Monster. The alarm clock opens and rings really loudly. That one was a little much for me. It'll make you jump.

Here's a close-up of that nostalgic boombox. This one wasn't like that crazy alarm clock. It was surprisingly low key in the noise department.

And the specimens! This reminds me of something. A kid's show? I don't know. Somebody help me out here. Do these eyes and teeth remind you of something?

Some big, juicy eyes! I assume these are for sticking on a pumpkin?

More eyes! These were in the party favors section:

One more eye! I can't remember if this does anything aside from glancing around. It reminds me a little of that eye on the spellbook in Hocus Pocus.

I think there's something creepy about a bunch of mascot heads on shelves. I'm reminded of a local costume shop that I don't think exists anymore. It was creepier than this because it wasn't well lit in there. There were rows after rows Easter Bunny suits in there.

I think the cow is kind of cute.

I'm pretty sure I saw this chicken head worn with a full fluffy chicken suit years back, something close to it anyway. A person was doing something like "The Funky Chicken" in this at a street festival. 😁

Funky, tribal pumpkins:

Pretty cute

This one might be on the After Halloween Haul list:

Tiny punk planters! At least I see those plants as hair. I'm now noticing those creeping hand candleholders behind them. They had some of those hands in black too.

A close-up of another punk item: the spiky pumpkin

I'm ending with this Ouija Board tray because it fittingly says "GOOD BYE".  I  can see this tray as holding a number of candles. I think the metallic gold on this tray would look really cool by candlelight.

Do your Target stores have this same general selection? The two I visited varied a bit. One seemed to have more of the traditional orange and black decorations.

I should also mention that now is a good time to visit Target for some discount school supplies/organizers. I ended up with some pretty large plastic magazine or binder holders for only 58¢ each!