Pumpkin Carving Fool

As you may recall from my cell phone clean out post, I am not a pumpkin carver.  Or at least I wasn't.  Until there was a competition involved.  And a little boy who desperately wanted to carve a pumpkin.  So, over the weekend, we bought ourselves some pumpkins and got after it in the name and spirit of all things Halloween.

Before we got started, Justus got to use his new Mr. Potato head pumpkin decorating kit (thanks Fattig Family)!  He LOVES these things....and we love them too.  Simple. Fun. Clean.

We bought several pumpkins, in anticipation of errors and the need to start over--which never happened.  YAY!  Except now I have two uncarved pumpkins that are just asking to be carved...
So, Justus picked out a bat design that he wanted.  Daddy decapitated the pumpkin and we made Justus clean out the insides.  He was not too keen on this.  But, it's a pumpkin carving must, and if you want a pumpkin carved, you have to clean it.  Look what a good sport he's being!

Then I went to work.  Because, let's be honest, the 5-year-old who desperately wanted to carve a pumpkin does NOT have the patience to actually carve the pumpkin.  He watched some and played some and then appropriately ooohed and aaahed when it was done. He was ecstatic about his, especially once we turned off the lights and he saw it with the light inside.  It went immediately to live on our front porch with our other pumpkin decorations.

Our office is having a carving contest this week and if you wanted to participate, you were to just show up with the pumpkin already carved.  So, here's my entry.  It probably won't win any spectacular prizes, but I was very pleased with myself for doing it because my artistic skill, if I have any, is not in carving, drawing, coloring, sculpting, etc.  I'm more of a music girl.  So, this was a big accomplishment for me!

I'm pretty sure our little experiment made me an annual pumpkin carver!  Looking forward to doing this annually...especially when the kiddos can do their own too.  We may even save the seeds and toast them next time...

That's right, I can craft too.

I have a secret.  I have been crafty lately.  Well, sort of.   Crafty for me, I guess I should say.  Thanks to Pinterest, I have all these wonderful plans, and a FEW have finally been executed.  I just had to share.

This was a recent breakfast: Egg/Bacon/Cheese Ring  Yummy!

Not necessarily crafty, but still a Pinterest acquisition.  I make quite a few recipes from it, just happened to take a picture of one this time.  And it practically looks like a craft project, doesn't it?

This was Shanon's Graduation Gift. 
Can you guess what she's going to be when she grows up? 
Yes, I MADE this!  I thought it was so cute, I had to try for myself.

and this frame.

...and who doesn't have socks that get separated in eaten by the dryer?  I loved the idea of this.  Mine isn't nearly as cute as what was on Pinterest.  I would have loved to do the original, but I am well aware of my own limitations.

Notice how I don't post the "inspiration" photo so there's no excessive laughter at my version?

I have several more projects in mind, and will keep you posted on their progress.  But, for now, I'm pretty proud of myself and just had to share the fun results.

Craftastic turns craptastic

Late last week, I was all excited about the blog I would be able to do after my craftastic weekend!  Then, the weekend actually happened.  Don't get me wrong, it was a wonderful weekend, but we hit a few snafus.  I intended on making this cute Halloween decoration I saw on Pinterest (of course!), and a fall wreath for our front door.

Here's the Pinterst idea.  Cute, right?  Looks easy enough.

                                                         

I will say this picture is more the inspiration for ours, because due to my procrastination and therefore lack of available supplies creative differences, I made a some different selections.  And, we're off.  Supplies...check.

Eager helpers...

I said EAGER helpers...

Much better.  Check (even though the lighting is terrible).  Once we got started, after about 1 minute, Justus found a stick to play with and Delaney was high from the spraypaint fumes done being outside, so Kidd took her in. I persevered with the project adventure.

I got this far, and ran out of spraypaint.  That stuff did NOT go far.  The orange pumpkins don't look too bad because they were already orange.  It's just missing the glittery look, but the purple one intended to become black and the letters to be painted black didn't get very far.  And, of course it was Sunday, so I had a hard time locating additional supplies.
 

I did manage to find a tiny bit more of the black.

And, I went ahead and did my bows for between the pumpkins.  Yes, I actually made these bows!

Today or tomorrow, I will make another run to the HobLob for the remaining supplies and will be able to finish this...maybe before Halloween.  Once it is done, we are going to pull this thing out for Halloween every year until my kids fight over who is taking it for their own house when they grow up.  One simple project...or so I thought.

This, people, is why I dream of crafts, but never actually do them.  I don't know which is worse--the guilt of never having attempted said craft activity, or the disappointment in not being able to complete it.

Notice I didn't even get started on the "fun" fall wreath I had planned.

Stay tuned for the final result.  If I'm not too ashamed to share it.  Harumph!