How to Get the Most Out of Your Fall Pumpkins

This week I've been helping my kiddos paint their pumpkins.  It's a yearly tradition that we do instead of carving them, partly because we don't really celebrate Halloween so carving them into scary faces is kind of pointless.  We like to do happier and more creative things with them.  But also because the pumpkins last a whole lot longer this way.  Once they're carved they start rotting and only last a few days and that seems like a waste of money to me.  Keeping them whole makes them last quite a long time.

So, I got to thinking about what we did with ours last year and how I got my money's worth out of them and I decided some of you might like these ideas, too.

So here's what we did last year.

Sometime in October we have a family night and we break out the paints and brushes and go to town creating faces (or in the case of the 3 year old's pumpkin, lots of random colors mixed everywhere).  : ) The kids loved my Mike Wyzowski pumpkin and that inspired them to want to do a whole set of Despicable Me characters this year.

Three out of the 4 pumpkins were still good by Thanksgiving time in November so I spray painted one of them white and we toted it along on our trip to visit family.

I took a permanent marker and set it up in my mom's living room and it became our "thankful pumpkin."  Throughout the day everyone wrote something they were thankful for and signed their name.  It was really fun to turn it around and around and read what everyone added.  I made sure to take a picture of each side to help us remember.

By December we were down to 2 pumpkins that were still good so I let the kids paint them again and this time they turned them into "snowmen."

The 3 year old's looked a little more like a melting snowman, lol!  : )

If we had enough pumpkins that were still good we may have tried this stacked snowman from Sweet Pepper Rose.  Isn't he adorable?

Here's another cute Christmas pumpkin idea from Club Chica Circle that I like. 

 (They also have a cute idea in that same post about using "snow" paint to do a snowman pumpkin.  We might try that one this year.)

You could even do the ornaments first for December and if your pumpkins are still going strong you could do the snowmen for January.  

So there ya have it.  Just a quick post to give you some ideas on how to get the most out of your fall pumpkins.  Not only are you getting your money's worth out of them, but it makes the fun last that much longer, too.  

Do you guys have any additional creative ideas on how to repurpose your fall pumpkins?  

I'd love to hear about it!

                                                               

Farmhouse Fall Decor

Well, I figured it was about time I got around to sharing my fall decor with y'all.  If I don't do it now it'll be time for Christmas decor before I ever get it around to it.  

I didn't spend nearly as much time on it this year as I normally do.  Usually my method is to open up my tubs of decor and spread it all around to see what I have and then I work on it bit by bit over the course of an entire week trying to get it just right.  But this year was different.  For starters I now only have one tub of stuff versus the three I used to have.  Before we moved from Ohio I did a major purge and consolidated it down to only one large Rubbermaid tub.  So I didn't have as much to work with, but also I just didn't feel like agonizing over it for a whole week.  I pretty well just reused some of the same ideas I've done in the past, just changing them slightly, and didn't bother with a whole lot of second guessing myself and I had it done in 2 days.  Like it or lump it, but it's finished.  : )

Another Sharpie Mug Project

I just wanted to pop in and share a quick post of something I've been up to this week.

If you've been around my blog for awhile then you might remember the BFF Sharpie mug project I did last year for my friend in Ohio. 

That tutorial post became quite popular and it's still my top viewed post every week with well over 100,000 views total.  

But that was the only one I had ever made....until this week. 

 One of the teen girls at church had a birthday this week and I wanted to do something special for her without having to spend money we didn't really have.  Then it dawned on me I had some plain white Corelle mugs I had bought at the thrift store for .25 each just waiting for such an occasion.  I used the same technique as I did with the last one, printing out the design, shading the back, and then tracing it onto the mug (more detailed directions here).  Then I painted over the design with an oil based Sharpie paint pen.  Once the black paint was dry I came back and used white paint to do the polka dots.  It looked kind of gray, so once they were dry I put a second coat of white on them.  Then I baked it at 425 just like I did the last time.

Fun Friday Finds #26

Welcome back to Fun Friday Finds!!

A friend from church and I went yard sale-ing yesterday so I have some fun finds to share with you.  We didn't find very many sales, they're kind of sporadic on Fridays around here anyways, but it had also been rainy all week so I think that may have scared a lot of people off.  We drove through three different towns in our search.  One place was like going 'round Robin Hood's barn trying to find it as the arrows on the signs pointed in opposite directions.  Then once we finally found it, after following some other randomly placed arrows, we had to be careful where we stepped so as not to fall through the floor of the poor 'ol trailer.  I think the bike they had that my friend wanted (that was NOT for sale) was nicer than the entire home and its contents combined.  Yikes!

We finally saw another sign in the 3rd town and I almost didn't even go to it because the sign was in a not so nice part of town.  But my friend convinced me to forge on ahead because it said the sale was 4 miles down the road and she said there were nicer homes further on down.  So on we went.  And boy am I glad we did!!  It was the vintage jackpot!  And they were making some serious deals.  I probably could have bought and resold everything they had if I had been so inclined.  Well, all except for the vintage Playboy magazines that is.

I got these license plates for $1 each, one even still has an old reverse light still attached!  I've been wanting a few more to put in my son's room, but they're usually around $10 each most places I've seen them.

Construction Themed 4th Birthday Party

This past weekend was my son's 4th birthday party.  We alternate each year on which child gets the big party and this year was his turn.  I'm all about doing up cute parties, but within reason.  They still have to fit into our one income budget.  Thankfully, I had a few Etsy sales beforehand so I had a little bit extra to spend.

Months ago I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he and I perused Pinterest for ideas and when he saw this one from Fredillicious that was it, that was the one he wanted!  He had that exact same backhoe already so this was "his" cake!

(source)

So that's how we came up with our construction theme. 

We found this cute set of plates at Hobby Lobby and that's what I based everything around.

100 Sales Giveaway!

** The winner is......PJ Harrison!!  Thank you so much to all of you who entered the giveaway, it made it so much fun for me.  And congratulations to Pamela!  I've sent out an email to you so if you could get back to me with your address right away I can get your vintage prize pack sent out this week. **

So I've been promising a giveaway to celebrate when I reached 100 sales in my Etsy shop.  100 sales came (woot woot!!)....and went... and I kept promising, but life got busy and I just couldn't manage to fit it all in.  But never fear, I got it together and it's finally giveaway time once again!

Up for grabs is a vintage prize pack that includes: 1 cute little jelly jar & lid, 10 vintage wooden clothespins, and a vintage tea towel with sweet red stitching around the edges.

The giveaway will start at midnight tonight and end on Sunday the 14th.  Just leave me a comment on this post telling me how you would incorporate these items into your decor if you were to win.  And that's it!  I kept it simple, there's only one way to enter. Make sure you go back and click on the Rafflecopter widget where it says "I commented!" so that you'll be entered.  Also, be sure to leave me an email address so that I can contact you should you win.  A winner will be announced on Monday morning, September 15th.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
                                 
                                                              

Fun Friday Finds #25

I wasn't even planning on going to any yard sales today.  I have family coming in tonight and I had lots to do to get ready for them coming and the kids and I were just going into town to get groceries.  Believe it or not, yard sales hadn't even crossed my mind.  BUT...on the way to the store we passed a yard sale sign and I whipped out a u-ey right quick.  Before the kids even realized what had happened we were pulling in the driveway and they were saying "Oh mom!" :D

It turned out to be more of an indoor estate sale.  I found a couple of things and dickered back and forth with the guy on the price and finally settled.  I dug out my $1's and scrounged for quarters and paid him.  As we were walking out I noticed the table and chairs.  I figured he would be asking at least $150 for the set, but out of curiosity I asked him how much.  "Wellll...my wife was really wantin' $65 for 'em, but she ain't here so I guess I could take $50."  "For the whole set?!?"  "Yap."  I poked and prodded and checked for wobbles, I looked for a brand (found an original paper tag under one chair) and decided this was a really good price.  And it just so happened that I had exactly $50 cash left.  I almost never have that much cash on me that isn't already designated for something else, but there was some left from a check I had cashed from one of Hubby's side jobs.  I figured he wouldn't mind.  :)