If you haven't seen my blog post from last week, I recently got back from visiting Salem, MA. I stayed in a quaint little B&B called Morning Glory, and though it rained during majority of my stay I learned so much and got to see so many new things. I'm itching to be able to return!
A lot of sites and spots in Salem close before or around 6pm, being the calm and quiet town it is, so we spent most of our afternoons browsing different shops. I probably should've anticipating this happening, but I simply wasn't able to keep to my personally set budget. I definitely spent more than I should have, but came home with items I'll be able to keep and treasure forever to remind me of my stay. I managed to pick up a few touristy items, a few cutesy items, as well as a few witchcraft related items—I mean, how could I not? We were in "witch city" after all.
I've been dying to get my haul up since publishing my last post, so without further ado, here are the items I collected during my stay in Salem!
Who would I be if I didn't pick up a few books? Not that I've got room on my shelves for anymore, but I'll manage. I picked up the first three that caught my eye, though I definitely could've gone batshit throwing my money towards all of the reads I would've liked to have grabbed. The three I brought home with me are "Ghosts of Salem: Haunts of The Witch City" by Sam Baltrusis, "The Good Cat Spell Book" by Gillian Kemp, and "Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem" by Rosalyn Schanzer. I've yet to have time to actually pick either up since coming home as I've been swamped with work, but I can't wait to have free time to take a bath and start reading!
These next few items are actually things that I've been looking into buying for a while, and just happened to stumble across them or something similar while in Salem. The first being a little bat, preserved in clear acrylic. I'm pretty convinced that at some point I'm just going to have a small family of preserved bats. I actually found him in a shop that was recommended to me to visit, because the owner is a special FX makeup artist whom I was able to have lovely conversation with!
Though I don't talk about it a lot openly, because to a large degree it's something I merely do for myself and my own bettering and direction, I'm really into tarot. I have a couple of decks that I use frequently but happened to be in the market to try out a new one. I kept seeing this one all over the place in Salem—"The Halloween Tarot". The art is a little silly but really draws me in and seemed like a fitting deck to purchase while in the Halloween capital of the world. I'll be excited to use this deck for the first time and see if I'm able to connect with it as quickly as I've been able to my other decks.
At the same shop I picked up my tarot deck, I came across a rose quarts red oak wand. Wands are something I've been looking into getting for quite some time to help me focus during my practices but was never able to find one that I found suitable. This one's really simple in appearance compared to those you may find in other places but I picked this up immediately and had to bring her home with me.
That cute little hand-made witch is a very last minute purchase I made while checking out of our bed and breakfast. As I was paying my part (we both put down money towards the room), I turned around while waiting for the innkeeper to print the receipt and saw about five or six of these cuties sitting on a small table behind us in the kitchen. As soon as I saw them, I fell in love. I fell even more in love when I saw this one, with purple details, my favorite color! Now that I think about it, I wish I had bought all of them and given them to people, but my bank account didn't allow it at that point. Turns out they were made by the innkeepers mom! I hope he'll have more sitting there the next time I visit, because I'll definitely want to get them for my loved ones.
If you look in my room you'll notice that I have a small collection of different cups and mugs. I'm not sure when this collection started but it's slowly but surely growing. My boyfriend purchased this one in particular but it's the most perfect spooky witch mug I've ever seen!
Though it was "historically confirmed"—for lack of better phrasing—the site of the witch trials hangings to be at Proctor's Ledge rather than Gallows Hill like it's been assumed for so long, there's a superstitious belief that keeping a bit of Gallows Hill soil with you is good luck and has been effective material for witches in their craft. A little touristy for me to simply buy a bottle from a shop, I'll admit. But it's a cute souvenir! Maybe next time I go I'll carry my own vial or something and gather my own Gallows Hill soil.
There are a lot of family owned witchcraft shops in Salem, and we made sure to visit as many as possible. We discovered one, "The Coven's Cottage", that I'd easily call my favorite. I would've given them all of my money if I could, just because of all the materials you can conveniently pick up there. Instead I stuck to buying a handful of things that I'm simply not able to find any place local to me. Pictured above is a goat's horn, coyote jaw, coyote vertebrae, deer antler, bit of wolf hair, and a pheasant wing.
I guess I picked up my parent's tradition of having to purchase legitimate tourist souvenirs when I visit a new place, because I found myself buying two really cute postcards as well as a collectable spoon. I won't lie, I own a few from my childhood. I just never expected to spend my own money on any myself in my adult years. It has a witch at the handle!
Admittedly this one was an impulse buy, as I can't imagine any practical use I'll get out of it. It's not like I've got a pen pal or any important letters to send or anything. I saw a small display of wax seal stamps in a shop, as well as some melting wax to pair. Saw one with my first initial on it, grabbed it, and quickly went to check out. I'm not sure what I'll be using it for, but until I find a purpose for it, it does look awfully cute in my display cabinet. It was sad though when I saw these, I instantly thought of my best friend Hailey (yo check out her blog) and initially looked to buy her one. They just didn't have an H :(.
Last, but not least, how could I possibly visit Salem without bringing home a few Salem related articles of clothing? I didn't get the best picture of them, but maybe you'll catch me in some of them in a future instagram post or story. Hoodies are one of my favorite clothing types, so I bought two. One of them is gray with burgundy details, "Salem" in large lettering with a witch on the front. The other is a hoodie dress with the moon phases on it, saying "Salem, MA" at the bottom. That one has holes in the end of the sleeves for your thumbs and I'd be lying if I said that wasn't what sold me on it. The last clothing item I got is a long sleeve black shirt saying "Witch City Salem" all the way across the back.
Once again, visiting Salem was one of the most eye opening and enjoyable trips I've ever taken. I'm pretty pleased with the haul I was able to bring back with me and glad I'll have these things in remembrance until I'm able to return again!
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