Katie Pumpkinhead’s Pumpkin Patch

 It’s time for another random review of something I didn’t expect to resonate with me! The other day I was having a nostalgia moment (something that happens a lot to me, if you couldn’t tell), and started thinking about one of my favorite book series to read when I was much, much younger. I’m sure most people, especially those who grew up in the 90s like yours ghoully, are aware of  The Babysitters Club. I’ve actually seen it go through many different incarnations in my lifetime, from the original book series, to a short-lived HBO series, to a few spinoff book series, to a movie, to the current Netflix series and graphic novels. It’s something that’s pretty universal. However, my favorite thing to come out of the BSC franchise when I was a child was actually the spinoff book series about BSC founder and president Kristy Thomas’s younger stepsister, Karen Brewer: Babysitters Little Sister. I’m not sure how popular the Little Sister series was, but in my youth, I preferred it to...

Two years ago today, my life was very different. I was on the brink of a major life transition, and very little made me smile at the time. When Spirit Halloween’s sneak peeks were announced that year, I wasn’t sure how I would feel. I wanted to feel something, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to buy much, having no real idea where my life was headed. At the time, I was worried that my Halloween collecting days might even be over. But, amidst a sea of uncertainty, there was a glimmer of hope that came in the form of an animatronic pumpkin known as the  Pumpkin Patch Prowler .  As I’ve mentioned before, prior to the last couple of years of collecting, I didn’t really have a particular aesthetic goal when it came to what I bought, but one thing I’ve always been certain of, above all else, is that I love pumpkin people. And when I watched the video linked to above, it was like I was looking at a character from one of my best dreams.  I didn’t dare even consider the fact that I c...

Have you ever wondered why I refer to my room, my blog, basically the entire little universe I’ve created, as The Pumpkin Patch? Well, as you can probably imagine, I have a very long, very happy, very emotional history with pumpkins. I dressed as a pumpkin the first year I trick-or-treated. The first autumn event I remember experiencing outside of Halloween night itself was a class pumpkin picking trip in kindergarten, and painting the pumpkins afterward. The Great Pumpkin visited me for most of my childhood. And, for as long as I can remember, the Halloween decor displays I would set up in my childhood home (I was always the one in charge of the Halloween decorations; Halloween was not my parents’ thing.) were always referred to as “The Pumpkin Patch”. My childhood displays consisted of more than pumpkins, of course. I would line up every Halloween item I could find, from pumpkin pails, to tiny raffia scarecrows, to ghosts made of cheesecloth, to anthropomorphic chi...