Burelloween 2011 - A Pirates Odyssey - The Pilgrimage
It is the beginning of September and everyone is starting to get the Burelloween bug, including my daughter who put together this original sketch for the blog this week.
As the commercialization of Christmas and a weakend economy encourages stores to try to exploit the consumers earlier in the year, the halloween season seems to get shorter and the selection at the traditional discount stores has become more generic and uninspired. Up until about 3 years ago, we were able to find great selections at the typical big box stores like Walmart, Target, and K-Mart, and the prices were low enough to actually be able to buy good props and decorations without breaking the bank.
In an effort to maximize our halloween budget and find interesting pieces to add to our decor, we have found some places to get great deals if you hit them at the right times, thus inspiring a new family tradition for Burelloween. The annual Burelloween pilgrimmage includes a full day of shopping with a route that includes to some places one wouldnt think of for Halloween decor.
The pilgrimmage usually starts with getting the family up early and loaded into the 4runner and a quick stop through a drive through and Starbucks to make sure everyone is fueled up for the trip. The next stop is a 25 mile drive from Temecula, to the Dollar Tree in Vista, Ca.
As you can see the booty we obtained from this years pilgrimage was quite bountiful.with a couple of choice pieces to add to the collection!
In an effort to maximize our halloween budget and find interesting pieces to add to our decor, we have found some places to get great deals if you hit them at the right times, thus inspiring a new family tradition for Burelloween. The annual Burelloween pilgrimmage includes a full day of shopping with a route that includes to some places one wouldnt think of for Halloween decor.
The pilgrimmage usually starts with getting the family up early and loaded into the 4runner and a quick stop through a drive through and Starbucks to make sure everyone is fueled up for the trip. The next stop is a 25 mile drive from Temecula, to the Dollar Tree in Vista, Ca.
Yes thats right Dollar Tree! Believe it or not this discount store carries new stuff every year, and while it doesnt carry fancy latex masks and such, it has a lot of great decoration items, skulls, bones, and other pieces and parts to help enhance the environment. In addition, I tend to use a lot of household items like tape, string, zip ties, etc in the builds and with nothing over a buck, I can get all I need, cheap.
One may ask "why drive 25 miles to the Dollar Tree in Vista, Ca when there is one only 5 miles away in Murrietta?" . While the Dollar Tree in Murrietta is also good spot, the answer lies in the fact that this is only the first stop in the route. Located in the same strip mall as the Dollar Tree, is a rather large Goodwill Store. We have found great pieces of clothing and other decorative odds and ends. On this trip in particular, since the theme is pirate odessy, we were able to find some great eclectic pieces for the piles of treasure.
After the Goodwill store, we continued into San Marcos and had lunch at probably the most authentic place to get Philly Cheesesteaks in San Diego County, Philly Franks! If you have ever eaten there, your mouth starts to water in anticipation, just pulling into the parking lot. Yes. it is that good.
Once our bellys were full, we noticed a new Spirit Halloween store just opening near the restaurant and decided to check out the new goods. I think they had just opened that day, since the shelves were barely stocked and the displays weren't even up yet. Lots of great new props, most a bit out of range for what I wanted to pay, but we did get some ideas and I did find a really good looking pirate hat (under $10 surprisingly!) and some other inexpensive accessories for the costumes and decor. In previous years, the next stop in the route would be to go to Frys Electronics in San Marcos, CA and gawk at all the cool electronics and to pick up more electronic components for my many unsuccessful attempts at animatronics... Ok really it was just an excuse to go to Frys Electronics and walk out with some tool that I absolutely couldnt live without. This year, however, due to the scale of the props, I decided to abandon the visions of animatronics and keep it simple. And to keep from being tempted at Frys, we moved on to the next stop in the pilgrimmage, which is almost as bad.... Harbor Freight Tools!
While I believe I could have convinced my wife that we needed to buy a new generator, I decided better of it and kept the focus on the task at hand.
As you can see the booty we obtained from this years pilgrimage was quite bountiful.with a couple of choice pieces to add to the collection!