Halloween Decor 2021

 Okay, first things first. What happened to the recaps of The Witch's Diner? I'm exhausted, I've been playing Mass Effect 3, reading romcom novels and watching Monthly Magazine Home and The Witch's Diner for my own enjoyment. I was just too tired and preoccupied with other things to double the amount of time I spent watching the show so I could write about it. I did really enjoy it though (I do wish the characters were developed a bit more) and if you like K-dramas, or supernatural stories, or you're a fan of Song Ji Hyo, I think you would, too. And second things second, I was trying to post twice a week, which doesn't seem like a lot, but when I'm reading a book every week and taking a ton of notes and then trying to make those notes into a coherent blog post, in addition to whatever I'm doing for the second post, all while trying to work and do other things that I enjoy...It's a lot. I try to get ahead of schedule, and I was, all the posts for the past month and a half (for the most part) were scheduled in advance. So basically, for the entire month of July, I gave myself a break to play Mass Effect 3 and catch up on K-dramas, which means I'm no longer ahead of schedule now and I need to [maybe] slow down a bit so I can get ahead again. Anyway, Halloween decor!

Let me briefly describe my preferences when it comes to decor and whatnot. I have this Hello Kitty sheet mask (that I refuse to use because I love the packaging) that says "Horror & Cute" and that's my exact aesthetic.

There's a hint in here about a post that should hopefully be up at the end of September, assuming the world doesn't end before then.

Does my decor always go together? Nope. Do I care? Not really. My life is not together enough to match my bag to my coat or outfit, so why would I worry about my decor matching? I've never been one of those people, I wish I were, but I like whatever I like and I refuse to cut anything out because it may not go together.

I also really love anything that lights up. I like the mood it sets, if that makes sense. Basically, I'm a gremlin, I hate bright lights. I don't want to keep them on. I've been going to work this summer and leaving the lights in the office off and everyone who comes in is like, "You know you can turn those on, right?" I like dim light and candlelight and a lot of that comes from how I feel most comfortable reading. I want a really cozy space, so I'll turn on my fairy lights and burn a candle and read by that lighting rather than the bright overhead light. My point is, a lot of the Halloween decor I bought this year lights up. I also bought a lot of candles. I'm only going to talk about what I bought this year, not every Halloween decoration I own. There's really no point when some of them are no longer available, you know?

I went shopping at Bath & Body Works and Marshall's on July 30th, but I was holding off on making this post because I was waiting for some online orders to get here. I think I'll start with Marshall's since the majority of this post will be about Bath & Body Works. I actually considered splitting this into two posts since I bought so many things there, but I felt like I didn't buy enough Halloween decorations elsewhere to justify posting about the rest of those things on their own.

The first thing I bought from Marshall's were these Sleepy Hollow ghosts. I can't remember how much this costs...It was either $6 or $7. It's made of wood and it's cute and there's glitter on it. I know some people absolutely hate glitter, but I love it. I think this is something I may end up keeping out all year since it's not specifically for Halloween. I know there are ghosts, but if it doesn't say "Happy Halloween" or "Trick of Treat," that means it's totally acceptable to leave it out all year.

The only other thing I purchased from Marshall's is this iridescent pumpkin. (Another thing I kind of want to leave out all year.) It never even occurred to me that the pumpkin might light up. The only reason I checked was because I was watching Halloween decor videos on Youtube and someone showed a similar pumpkin and mentioned that it lights up. I believe this was $15.

Okay, I guess it's kind of not true that I only bought two things at Marshall's. There's some fall floral in this vase that I bought there for $15 or $16. But there's also these black glitter branches with LED lights and bats that I ordered from Target for $32. They are 4 feet tall, which is a good height. I have a love-hate thing with these branches. They're really nice and they look beautiful in person. The problem is that you can't really separate the branches because of the lights. The item description says there are 5 branches, but they're all stuck together so trying to arrange them nicely doesn't really work. The most I could do was try to fan them out a bit and stick them in the back of the vase.

When I was a kid, everyone in my family had one of these ceramic trees for Christmas and I always thought they were hideous. Now that I'm older, I appreciate them more. There are a bunch of versions of this tree in black and part of me wishes I had bought one of them instead, but I do really like the orange tree, too. I purchased this tree from Lakeside Collection and I kept wondering why this tree was only $17.99 when every other ceramic tree I've seen was double the price. I think I know now. First, I want to say this tree is adorable. It really is. However, it's extremely temperamental. I'm not sure if some of the wiring is loose or the batteries don't fit in securely enough, but the lights flicker on and off if you even look at it the wrong way. So that's kind of frustrating. I do like that it's battery operated and it doesn't plug into the wall. I can't even find a spare outlet to plug in my projector from Bath & Body Works (I'll get to that soon), so anything battery operated is saving me some trouble. But yeah, I'm a little disappointed that the tree is so sensitive.

Before I show this next thing, I want to talk about Cracker Barrel. They had a light up LED haunted house that makes noise and has a projector on it. I tried to order it from their website, but when I placed the order, it said there was an error and it didn't go through. However, there was a charge on my credit card. At that point, I couldn't even attempt to order the haunted house again because immediately after trying to place my order, it disappeared from their website. Now I was unsure if my order went through or not. There was a charge on my card, but no confirmation e-mail. No big deal, right? I could just contact their customer service. Wrong. Cracker Barrel, without a doubt, has the worst customer service I have ever experienced. And by that, I mean it might as well be nonexistent. I reached out to them by e-mail, over a month ago, and still have never received a response. I reached out to them on Twitter multiple times, they replied to other people, but continued to ignore me. And then finally I called them, which...If you know me is always a last resort. I have severe social anxiety, getting me to call anyone is almost impossible. So I called...And there was a wait. They don't tell you how long you'll have to hold either. AND. The thing that really put me over the edge is that the ENTIRE TIME, they blast country music in your ear. I was on hold for over an hour when I decided I couldn't take it anymore and hung up. It took about a week before I could actually get anyone over the phone to help me. I don't even know what the hell Cracker Barrel is, I only heard about them from Halloween decor videos on Youtube, but they are a nightmare and I will NEVER order from them again. Luckily, there's an almost identical version of that house that Big Lots released...

The only difference with this house is that there's no projector on it. Otherwise, it's exactly the same. And look at how cool it is.

If you are lucky enough to find this house at Big Lots, it's only $25 and I honestly think it's worth every cent, it's one of my favorite decorations ever. (My cat hates it, sadly.) Unfortunately, when I looked, Big Lots was sold out. And I just couldn't let this go, I really, really wanted this damn house. So I went on Poshmark and bought it for $50 ($62 after shipping/taxes) and while I'm happy to own it now, I am so frustrated by resellers. 

I have a post on here about Beetlejuice: The Musical, but I'm not sure if I mentioned that I don't like the movie. At all. I love the musical though, it's tied with Phantom of the Opera for my favorite Broadway show of all time. I saw it 4 times and I was supposed to see it a 5th time, but then Covid happened and the entire world shut down. I really wanted this sign from Spirit Halloween last year, but I hesitated to buy it and then it sold out. This year, my mom gave it to me as a birthday gift. (She always gives me a Halloween decoration for my birthday every year.) The sign is huge and I'm not sure where to put it long term (it's hanging in the hallway right now), but I'm so happy with it.

Now we're getting into Bath & Body Works. I just want to say, shopping on their website is a nightmare. I had to go to the actual store to get the projector, globe and hand sanitizer because, at that time, none of it was available online. And guess what? Even when they did eventually add those items to their website, it was an ordeal because they will leave items listed as available long after they've already sold out, but then when you go to place your order, it won't let you because something in your cart is no longer available, even though it doesn't tell you that. And in case you missed it, a lot of people received broken items in the mail (myself included and we're going to get to that) which is incredibly frustrating when it's hard enough to even obtain these items in the first place because of resellers buying all of them. A lot of people who received broken items (usually the witch hand) aren't able to get replacements because they're sold out. Bath & Body Works is doing a horrendous job of packaging people's orders securely so that they don't break in transit. If you're able to, I highly recommend shopping in store instead of online.

I'll get the worst thing out of the way first so I can talk about how much I love everything else.

You may be wondering why this item is on a paper towel. See that thin layer or bubble wrap? That's all this ceramic soap holder came wrapped in and as soon as I saw it, I could see it was completely shattered.

There's really no excuse for this. I contacted customer service and only received a refund because at that time, this was sold out. I was frustrated because, unlike some of the items I was able to get in person, this was an online exclusive. The day after this happened, I went back on the website and added it to my cart, fully believing my order wouldn't go through because Bath & Body Works is really bad about saying out of stock items are available when they really aren't. Imagine my surprise when my order went through. At this point I was like, "Okay, my order will probably get cancelled because this thing is out of stock," but I figured JUST IN CASE, let me contact customer service and ask if there's anything they can do to make sure this thing is packed more securely so that it doesn't shatter in transit again. They said they would add a note to my order.

They did package it with better bubble wrap this time, however, it was still just one layer and the bottom of the soap holder was completely exposed, so it could have shattered. They did better, but it wasn't great.

...And now that I have it in my possession, I think I was better off with the broken one. The paint job is awful. Everything else I bought from Bath & Body Works is so nice, but this thing is a monstrosity. I know kids who can color in the lines better than whoever painted this. Look at the pumpkins and the moth. Those FLOWERS. This is really poor quality compared to the rest of the Halloween line. There is a reason this soap holder is an online exclusive, because if you saw it close up in stores, no one would waste their money on it.

I bought three of the foaming hand soaps from the Halloween line. I love pumpkin and apple scents and I just really liked the packaging for Sugared Spell. I haven't started using these yet, I'm trying to finish up the soaps I bought for spring/summer.

Most of all, I really wanted these two PocketBac holders. The pumpkin spice latte holder is adorable and I already have it clipped to my bag. And clearly, I have the ghost kitty attached to my work lanyard. The cat holder is so cute, if you press on its forehead, it says "Trick or treat!" and then meows. It also glows in the dark. It is pretty heavy so I'm not sure I'll leave it on my lanyard. I may have to switch it to my bag and put the pumpkin holder on there instead. I also bought some hand sanitizer in the Halloween scents (I had another Wicked Apple, but I gave it away).

I ordered the bat soap holder online. I know some people think it's too cute, but I love it. Again, I really like cute things so I'm not bothered by it at all. I bought the haunted conservatory projector in store. I can't show a picture of it lit up because again, no free outlets, but it projects pink bats onto the wall. I like it, but I don't love it. I like the projector from last year better, it was creepier. Those flowers really aren't my thing, but there's a cute cat in the upstairs window and I like the pumpkins a lot. Also, just to put this out there, I don't use the Wallflower refills. I've read that they can be dangerous to cats. I bought the projector strictly as a decoration.

Here's another one of my favorite items this year, the water globe cemetery pedestal. The day I went to Bath & Body Works, I was out shopping with my neighbor and I went in there alone while she went into another store. And I didn't actually buy the globe. I saw it and loved it, but I was like...I'm not spending $70 on this. (Kind of like how I didn't buy the Beetlejuice sign last year, I talked myself out of it even though I really liked it.) So I bought a couple other things and left and then she decided she wanted to go in there after I met her in the other store...And I went back in and decided to buy it. My neighbor was like, "Maybe you should get one of the globes that's on so you know it actually works." That made sense, so I put the one I had in my hands down and she picked the other one up and said she was buying it for my birthday. I argued with her about that for a while, but she wouldn't back down and I am extremely grateful to her because I love this globe so much. I ended up picking up the Pumpkin Carving candle so I could sit it on top of the globe. This is another decoration that my cat hates. As soon as I turned it on, he ran and hid behind the door. The motor is so low I can barely hear it, but apparently it's enough to upset him, so I only turn it on when he's in another room.

Bath & Body Works recently had a sale on their 3 wick candles, so I took that as an opportunity to stock up on fall candles (and some extra hand sanitizer).

I guess this can't technically be considered Halloween decor, but fall and Halloween are the same thing to me, so I'm including them anyway. Basically, if it said pumpkin, apple, cinnamon, caramel or clove in the scent notes, I bought it. I never buy candles from anyone besides Candles by Victoria, but this year I've spent the same amount of money I always spend there, so I don't feel guilty branching out a little this year with Bath & Body Works and Etsy. Plus, again, they were on sale so it was more affordable to buy from Bath & Body Works this time. 

I'm bad at describing scents so I'm not even going to attempt it, but I will say OF ALL THE CANDLES I PURCHASED, Apple Weather is my favorite. I didn't expect it to be, but it's the best apple scent ever. And Crisp Morning Air isn't the kind of scent I typically like, but it will be perfect on a chilly, rainy fall day when I'm reading a book. (I seriously can't wait for those kind of days.) I was worried about Wicked Apple (I actually didn't even order it until I placed my third order during the sale) because so many people said it smells like celery. Now that it's here, I can say personally, I don't get celery from it at all. It just smells like caramel apple, I really like it. (After the sale, new candles were released and I placed an order for more 3 wicks: Honeycrisp Apple, Autumn and another Apple Weather because I loved it so much. They didn't arrive before I posted this and I didn't want to keep delaying this post.)

The reason I didn't buy that much this years is because between resellers buying everything and selling it for twice the price and my negative experience with Cracker Barrel, I was just kind of over it. Once I went to Bath & Body Works in person and got the rest of the items I had been looking for, I was happy and decided I didn't need anything else (but mostly, I didn't need or want the stress of having to constantly check websites to try to buy things before resellers got them all). I already dealt with the annoyance of buying a PS5, I was out of patience for this kind of thing. Also, have you seen the Halloween decorations this year? They're strange. Gnomes are still a thing for some reason. Joann and Michael's have a bunch of skeletons doing weird things, like yoga. So in addition to just kind of being over it because of resellers, I feel like the options this year weren't even that great. I do plan on going to CVS once they put their Halloween decorations out because sometimes they have really cute things there, like the two pumpkins in the picture above from last year. For now though, this it it and I'm happy with most of what I purchased.