Pumpkins, Porches, and Painting!

This past Sunday, after a very rainy Saturday, I woke up to a beautiful Fall day. I got out in the yard right away and about 4 hours of yard work later...and after balancing on two storage tubs while using a piece of drain pipe to clean cobwebs off the second level window...I'd had about enough work.  It was time for some "fall fun".

I'd received a HyVee mailer earlier in the morning that had really cool black, orange and white painted pumpkins throughout.  Great inspiration for a fun afternoon project. So off to Michael's I drove with the hope of finding some really great items to decorate with!

Found the Black Crocodile Round Mats at TJ Max for $3.00 for 12!

On the way I made a pit stop at the Antique store Daffidillys and Picked up this AWESOME 3 gallon Glass Jar. Similar ones sell at Crate and Barrel for WAY more then the $15.00 I paid so it was a real steal! After picking up some pumpkins and arranging them in colored rows...voila - a new dining room table center piece!

My pumpkins are outside waiting to be painted!

Alright $15.00 down and still on my way to Michael's. Once there I was reminded how much I can't stand busy stores, crazy shoppers, and everyone else REALLY EXCITED TO DECORATE FALL STUFF...however I was just as bad as the rest of them so I fit right in. Got a ton of Loot, probably too much...but with me too much is never enough! The purchase included feathers, rhinestones, glitter, metallic paints, tissue paper, ribbons, rubber stamps, push pins, pearls....the list goes on and on. Regrettably I spent almost $70.00 but that's what returns are for RIGHT?!

I think I got enough!

And I was off, grab bag of decorating goodies in hand. I drove over to Home Depot and selected the best of the best - for about $15.00 I got 5 medium sized pumpkins and a bag of small multi colored pumpkins for the Table display!

So much Orange!

Now it was time to get down to business. The Sun was starting to set and the fall breeze was picking up as I hurriedly got to work. I made sure to cover my work surface and started in on the first pumpkin! Bronze metallic paint it is with a white stem!

Turns out when it's about 50 degrees outside paint takes a little bit longer to dry then planned. I kept trying to mess with this thing, and then decided to go in and make some dinner while I waited. Once inside the dining room, I again was greeted with my mismatched table and benches....I bought these benches off Craigslist for $5 a piece (awesome!) but they have stayed black for about 5 months now...SIDE PROJECT.

 

 So to the porch I went and about 5 coats of antique white later, brushed over with a distressed finish, the benches were now a perfect set! It did however take till about 1am for them to dry on the front porch :). I'm not much of a plan ahead type!

Alright back to the pumpkin at hand. The bronze paint had dried and it was ready for the royal treatment. Pearl Warts! I took pearl tipped push pins "threaded" them through a pearl bead and then pushed them into the pumpkin on all sides.  After all the push pins were in place it was time for some Rhinestones.  Rhinestones don't like pumpkins...so thankfully I'd purchased a new glue gun! By this time is was 9pm and I was freezing! The other pumpkins will have to wait till later this week but see below for the first of 5! More to come!

Pearl Warts - So chic! :)

Creep'n outside my window to get the "neighbors view"