Halloween 2013 prep has begun!!

Yes! I have begun preparations for Halloween 2013 decorations! Yay!!!

In Austin, there is a Goodwill outlet type place you can go to and get anything that would normally be at a Goodwill, only even cheaper! They have clothes, housewares, luggage, shoes, toys, books, furniture... the only catch is that it's not hung up or on shelves or neatly laid out, not really:

Yup! You are indeed seeing that right! Everything is just in big blue bins! They dump out the items in these bins and wheel them out to the floor in rows. It's a little interesting because they guard a new row of bins and don't let anyone near them until the whole row has been wheeled out and the employees I think have been able to get out of the way.

I'd heard and seen reviews of other people going and freaking out at the people that practically swarm on the bins once you're allowed and how crazy and scary it is.... I didn't think it was too bad. I wasn't too interested in getting first pick on what was being put out and so I kept my distance, going through the housewares and toy bins mostly, so it didn't bother me how other people were behaving. In fact, all in all, I had a pretty fantastic time. So much so in fact, and this is mostly due to being with my friend Adeana (the one who told me about this place and got me excited to go in the first place), we were there for almost 3 hours by the time we checked out and decided to head out of there!!

Now, you're wondering what I went for, right? Well, like I've shown in my "looking forward to Halloween post", I went mainly looking for cheap, ratty dolls I wouldn't feel bad about defiling and painting to look gross, gory, dead, etc! And boy howdy, I  made out like a freaking PACK RAT!!!

Full doll haul

In the above picture, I had piled most of the Barbie-type dolls in a case. Below, they're all laid out nice and neat (ish) to give you a better idea of exactly how many there are. I believe when I counted, there's about 35 full and partial dolls?

I love the fact I found just a head, and its hair was nearly entirely chopped off! I had to have this shot with one bigger baby holding it like "it's ok... shhh...." and the one next to him going "holy crap!!"

Anyone else recognize this case?? I may still have mine in a box or closet somewhere, but I definitely had one of these growing up to keep my Barbies in!! Adeana suggested I dirty it up, tear it a little and make some sort of zombie doll case somehow.... we'll see how I manage that one lol.

Here we have my big baby dolls!! I believe about 20 total of these pictured here and...

here:

Are they creepy enough?? ;) No? ok, how about this...

I seeeee youuuuuuuuuuu

I was so loved and played with, I have holes in my body!! :(

Glamour shots...

Mommy liked putting makeup on me...only, it wasn't really makeup, and I can't get it off now.. I feel like such a dirty whore..... :'( *sniff sniff*

You're going to do WHAT to us?!?! Noooooooooooooooooooo................

Not sure why, but I think it's weird that most of the dolls I've seen and got have blue eyes... Either way, their vacant stares are a little creepy sometimes and the ones with holes in their mouths for pacifiers...I am trying to figure out what I can do to utilize that and make it creepy...

One of usssss.........

I have no idea about this doll... This 'thing' was around its neck and I was able to just about wrap it inside like I was coddling it? Trying to think if I could use that or not...

This little girl is interesting. Not only is she frowning and looks sad, but she has one green and one blue eye! not sure if that's just age or if she came that way...the sad thing really weirds me out though, don't think I've ever seen that.

Yeahhh..... this is a hair clip hair extension... thing. I couldn't resist getting it, but now have to figure out how to use it!

Next, we have a lamp I was EXTREMELY excited to have found!!

Insert creepy old guy type slow laugh here ;)

The lamp shade is sufficiently dirty, grungy and worn. This will need little work to get creepy-fied!!

Not many non-doll items I got, but the lamp and these things are the only Halloween non-dolls stuff I got. That's 4 packages of webbing, unopened, a black roll of crepe paper, a posable spider, bag of plastic pumpkin votive holders or whatever, a plastic/styrofoamy skull that has a battery slot in the bottom and not sure what it does.. and then another mask, of course!

Past the Halloween stuff, I found 2 sewing machines that they priced at $10 a piece!! I took a gamble and chose only one but am so excited I got home, plugged it in (yes! the pedal/plug was with it!!) and IT WORKS!!! The light bulb is good and the pedal moves the needle!!! I can't wait to get this to Airon after we figure out how to thread the darn thing.... lol

Most of what Adeana got was clothes and a bit of Christmas decorations (we found an entire popcorn tin full of red plastic ball ornaments, 3 or 4 patterns on them!!) . She did however find something that well, excited her because she knew what it was or could be,.. I had to be told :p

Yup! She found an honest to goodness Hermes scarf!! It was in pretty good condition too! I maybe found one tiny little red kool-aid type of stain, but I think that may have been it!

See, the especially cool thing about Blue Hanger is that they only price certain things (like the sewing machine and furniture, anything that's over about 7 or so pounds) and the rest is priced BY THE POUND!!

That's right! Because of this, my entire haul was only $60!!!! $50 was about my limit for Halloween related supplies/props so I did perfect!

We were so pleased with ourselves and our finds and so excited, we decided to hit up a local place called Red's Porch for a couple of cold, delicious beers and some grub. I got a sort of egg, bacon and salsa burrito and Adeana got some chicken and waffles, the waffles were especially DELISH!!

That was definitely a good day to hang with a friend, to find some awesome deals and especially for a good bite and cold beer. I can't wait to get started on dirtying up and creepifying these dolls for ya'll to see. I think I may have even decided on doing a main theme for my house decorations as well as ideas to do for it!

Craft ya laters!!