Pumpkins + Blue and White = Perfect Fall Decor

I took this image, among others, of the Fall touches I was adding around my home to share with @auctionninja

I was so honored that they invited me to write an article about my love of blue and white and how I like to add touches of seasonal decor to my existing collections. 

The link to the article is here.

They also created a fun Instagram Reel that you can watch here.

They have a great blog full of informational posts about all types of vintage, how to source it and the how to be sure you are getting great vintage for your home. Be sure to follow along on their IG and website.

 

...And Coming in at Number Three!!!!

The air has been clear and crisp in Atlanta the last few days.

A change from our humid, Summer days

 (which I love and I'm not ready for Summer to go)

but everyone else  is excited for Pumpkins Spice lattes and

 Pinterest is one big Pumpkinfest!!

This blog post about this stack of pumpkins from a few years ago

 is my third most popular post of all time!!

If this seems a bit too large or involved then

 you can always make these - a much smaller scale!

But if you are into bigger and better than I "mustache" you to make this guy!!

or you can keep it simple and squishy fun

and just make these with the kiddos!!

Linking up:
at Zevy Joy's Fall Inspiration!
and  White Spray Paint Blog!



Happy Halloween!! or Pin It For Next Year*!!

I went on a little road trip through ...

...land of cotton...

... snowy fields everywhere...

...then I crossed a beautiful bridge...

...and ended up in the land of salt marshes and pluff mud...

... and the next morning I crossed over the dunes...

... and there was the amazing beach and blue skies...

... then I wandered over to a beach of eerily beautiful, huge driftwood trees...
... but what I was truly supposed to be doing was
teaching at a conference on Jekyll Island, Georgia.
Lucky me.
Hands down the best place for a conference is the beach!!
I planned a little make and take for all the teachers 
who gave up their Saturday to come to a conference 
(even if it was at the beach!) 
and since it was the Saturday before Halloween 
I decided that we would make a variation  
of this super popular project/post, the snowman in a baggie, 
which has been viewed and pinned zillions of times.
So, gather up a baggie
 some red and yellow food coloring
 hair gel, hand sanitizer 
or mix up a batch of unflavored gelatin if you are worried about young children,
scraps of black peel and stick fun foam, plain black fun foam, white peel and stick fun foam and pumpkin seeds.
You can make this for pennies.

Using the black peel and stick fun foam, cut out eyes and a mouth. Stick on the outside of the baggie. Add teeth, if you want, cut from white peel and stick foam.
 ( They look like Chicklets gum to me!!)

Then squeeze some hair gel into the baggie and a drop or two of  red and yellow food coloring. Drop in a nose shape cut from foam that isn't sticky back.
This can be a lesson on color mixing and shapes!!!
Then just squish the baggie around until the hair gel is completely orange.
The object of this fun activity is to squish the nose shape that is inside the baggie into it's proper place in the pumpkin face. They can squish it around over and over again!! Great motor skill activity and it's relaxing as well.  
If you teach really young children you can put the activity together and then tape the baggie down to the play table and they can manipulate it on the flat surface - easier for little ones or in a special needs class.  Everyone loves this squishy project!!
And for added authenticity you can drop a few pumpkin seeds in the baggie and your pumpkin has seeds in the goopey inside just like the real deal!!

 

 

He'ssquishy, gooey fun!!
* I tried to post this sooner but I had some technical difficulties so you can pin it for next year and be ahead on Halloween activity planning !!!

The Great Pumpkin....

... with a 'stache!!!
This was the pumpkin I made for our "Trunk or Treat"* two weeks ago. He has been hanging out by my office door and one of the kiddos told me last week that he was "her dream pumpkin!"  :)

He'll only be around one more day and then I get to figure out where to store him until next year. I keep making huge decorations and then, reality.... where to put them??? :)

I'll worry about that on November 1st!!!!

Happy Halloween!!



* a  pic from Trunk or Treat. Everyone decorates their trunks or dresses up and the children go from trunk to trunk getting lots of goodies. It was so crazy and fun - about 450 showed up - that I didn't get many pictures!! ( this is my gig so I was busy, busy and not a good photographer!!)

College Girl came home for the event - she can't stand to miss this event. She's been at Trunk or Treat since she was little, then she started driving and decorated a trunk and now she comes back to hang out at my trunk. You can see the great big pumpkin behind them. A friend helped me make the photo booth mustaches so every child could have one!!! Kids of all ages wanted them. They were so much fun!!

Showtime!!!

One day down and one day to go !

Here is my little booth. I was worried about having enough stuff to fill it but it worked out. Most of my "art" is made from recycled and found items, scraps of paper, fabric and ribbon, etc. so I decided my display would be the same. I gathered up all my galvanized items from the house and porch and a galvanized ladder from the backyard. The "filler" around the base of the trees is shredded newspaper and the tags are paint strips - may I say that I have used paint strips for art and gift tags since before anyone even thought up Pinterest :)



This was first thing in the morning!

 

 By late afternoon all the pumpkin stakes except one lonely guy were gone along with the snowman and gingerbread ones !

 

I sold most of these long signs and took some orders, too.

 and people started to ask : Are you going home to paint some more tonight??

I decided to be wise and go out to dinner with a friend instead!

I was pooped - Craft Shows are fun but they are work!!!!

I'm off to the show... have a great day!


Linking up:



Things I do when I need to be painting...

I've been busy at work, busy at home, busy with College Girl (which was a ton of fun!), busy getting ready for the craft show, you know... busy like everyone else.

And I need to be painting but instead I have been...

arranging my spray paint in spectrum ( rainbow) order. That's how my scrapbook paper and recycled plastic lids are organized... for some it's alphabetical but for me, it's by color! Is that weird?

... and unloading pumpkins at the church. I love these "white" pumpkins.

 

 

... and I have been getting ready for the craft show. I made a ton of ornaments and canvases but time is short now and some of my ideas will have to be saved for another day,

I'll be sure to take some pictures at the craft show and let you know what creative and clever things were there!!

Pumpkins from Paint Can Lids...

Remember this post ?

Here are a few of the finished product ready for the soon-to-be-here craft show.

 You can poke them in the ground coming up your walkway or in a nice, big Fall mum. I have been painting like crazy so I  have not bought a single mum yet.
So I stuck it in my neglected, unpruned boxwood. Yep. And if you look carefully you can see all the dead leaves that need to be raked. :)

 

Linking Up:

Pumpkins and Snowmen and Spiders, Oh My!!!

... or another title might be " What's on the Work Table Right Now!" 

I asked a while back if you were started on Halloween or Christmas Crafts yet??

Well, I had to get started this week because I signed up for the WWIT Craft Show.

It's not really called the WWIT Craft Show. I just call it the  " What Was I Thinking" Craft Show. It has a much nicer name and it is a lovely weekend planned by the ladies at church.

 
I call it that because, well, what was I thinking?? I signed up back in February or March and it seemed so far away :) I saw a little boy in a t-shirt once that said, " It seemed like a good idea at the time"  I think that I need that shirt. 

I haven't done a craft show in probably a decade.
 I am enjoying getting started on all these ornaments and doodling ideas for the rest of my "creations."  But what was I thinking??

 

And if your work table is all tidy and organized ( unlike this one ) when you create please don't share that little tidbit with me!

I'll keep you posted on how it's going... at least I have until October :)

 

 

Linking Up:

"It's a Pumpkin Totem Pole!!"

That's what my friend Carrie said when she saw these guys!! Too funny. The stacks of pumpkins - I told you I was painting pumpkins like crazy- are for the silent auction at our  church craft show  this weekend. They are a spin off of the the large flower I made this Spring.

They are painted on old burner covers, metal platters from the dollar store and pizza pans. I had some of  these on hand but they sell the burner covers, metal platters and pizza pans at the Dollar Tree so even if you buy new - $3.00 for the pumpkins. A spritz of metal primer and then just paint them orange and put some super cute faces on them. The bucket was a dollar at Michael's. I added the polka dots with craft paint.

I used some quick set cement to secure a 1x2 in the bucket. It's 4 feet tall and painted green. The 1x2 cost 98 cents and it made two totems! The 50 lb. bag of quick set cement was about $6.00 at Home Depot and I have enough left to do 2 or 3 more and I made 3 already. So a good deal. You could use Plaster of Paris if you were keeping the totem inside but the cement makes it ok to put outside

 on a protected porch.

I put some crinkly Easter Grass in the bucket to cover the cement.

I tied ribbon and strips of torn fabric and tulle around the 1x2.

 The pumpkin faces are just screwed to the 1x2 post.

 

I put these guys outside my office door where the flower was all Summer. The kids noticed it right away this morning and loved it!! It's pumpkin time and it actually feels like Fall this week in Atlanta!!

Linking up @:


Also linking up @ http://www.itsybitsypaperblog.com/  Be sure to check out her great Halloween ideas linky!!

Linking up at http://www.southernlovely.blogspot.com/