(TCBTB)

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

basically some half-assed pumpkin projects.

I had some pretty sweet project ideas for this month. I mean, come on. I'm home every day with a project-hungry toddler! It's October! Halloween! Pumpkin spice lattes! Pumpkin spice bread! Pumpkin spice leggings!!!

But, you know. Life. (Also I just started watching the Walking Dead series, soooo there goes all my free time.) It's the last week of October, and I've only done about half the projects I thought of, and in an extremely half-assed manner.

Behold, my half-assery:

:: PROJECT IDEA: PUMPKIN PICKING AT LOCAL PUMPKIN PATCH
:: Project reality: The "pumpkin patch" at Kroger, where the pumpkins were already picked over and starting to rot. Buy one, get one free...even if that one to Rowan's left looks straight-up like a pumpkin version of a Walker.




She picked the tiniest one she saw and fell madly in love with it.

:: PROJECT IDEA: PUMPKIN WASHING
:: Project reality: Toddler swipes at a pumpkin with a washcloth, then dumps the water out on the driveway and splashes in it. Whatever; I'm still mostly in shock that it was warm enough in late October for outdoor water play.


A quick scrub of the tiny pumpkin, and then...
..."I goin' to da market, Mama." The market?!
Oh, well.

:: PROJECT IDEA: PUMPKIN DECORATING WITH MARKERS
:: Project reality: Five seconds of scribbling. I used to do this project with my preschoolers, and they would spend huge chunks of time coloring the pumpkins with washable markers, wiping them clean with paper towels, coloring again, washing again, etc. Rowan lasted a few minutes, tops. Maybe we'll try again sometime - and probably inside. Lately, whenever we're outside, all Rowan wants to do is ride her bike.






:: PROJECT IDEA: PUMPKIN PAINTING
:: Project reality: Nope. This one just plain didn't happen. She painted a (papier-maché) pumpkin at Grandma's house awhile back and had a blast (as evidenced below). I thought she'd love painting the small, slightly-rotted-but-beloved pumpkin she chose from the Kroger pumpkin patch, and that painting would be a more developmentally appropriate way to decorate her pumpkin than giving her a knife and letting her go nuts. I even planned to tape off patterns on the pumpkin with painter's tape to make it look extra awesome. And it probably would've been awesome...if I'd ever gotten around to getting the paint out. Ah, well. At least she had fun painting with Grandma!




:: PROJECT IDEA: PUMPKIN DECORATING WITH CRAFT SUPPLIES
:: Project reality: Accidentally outsourced this project to my mom group. Some mamas set up a pumpkin-decorating station at one of our recent get-togethers, and I was like, sweet! Decorating a pumpkin with craft supplies: check. Rowan worked very seriously for a long time on hers. 




:: PROJECT IDEA: PUMPKIN DECORATING WITH TISSUE PAPER
:: Project reality: At least we actually did do this...just half-assedly. I found the idea on Young House Love - use Mod Podge and tissue paper circles to decorate a pumpkin; perfect for toddler-sized hands - but I underestimated the importance of picking a white pumpkin (to help the tissue paper circles stand out). Also, I haven't quite gotten around to covering the finished product with a final layer of Mod Podge. Eh. Process, not product, right? This kept Rowan busy for almost an hour, and she seriously loved it.













:: PROJECT IDEA: BAKE AND DECORATE HALLOWEEN-THEMED COOKIES
:: Project reality: Yeah...I forgot that I purchased fifty-cent Halloween cookie cutters awhile ago, and so I never made any cookies. We did make some pumpkin spice oatmeal cups, though, which were pretty damn good. The recipe is here; I recommend adding white chocolate chips, since a friend also made these and said they were too bland. Ours were tasty with the white chocolate chips.




:: PROJECT IDEA: PUMPKIN NAIL & STRING ART
:: Project reality: Heyyy, success! One whole-assed project per month ain't bad. Granted, this wasn't a project that involved Rowan. Maybe that's why I was able to offer up my entire ass, versus half of it. If you want to try it, it's not hard - on a scale of one to ten (one being the pumpkin washing project featured above, ten being owning and tending to your own pumpkin farm), it's, like, a three. I bought a $5 plank of wood and some string from Michaels, printed out a pumpkin template from Google, hammered in some nails, and wove the string around the nails. I'm pretty pleased with the final product, although it's still missing something...maybe some pumpkin patch vines around the base? Oh, and a place to hang it in my house. Oops.






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So, there you have it. The jury's still out on whether we'll actually CARVE any pumpkins this year. Meh. I think I'll be too busy half-assing our Halloween costumes. Yay, October! Ushering in a holiday season of Pinterest fails for all!

(However, I am most certainly whole-assing my Walking Dead marathons. A hearty screw you to everyone who posted spoilers after this week's episode.)

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