Metallic Painted Pumpkins Project

I had a wonderful time this evening decorating a selection of mini pumpkins with a variety of metallic paints. This project was fun and simple and I love the way my pumpkins turned out.



Last year I had a lot of fun decorating a bunch of mini pumpkins with twine, washi tape, and glitter which you can read about by in my post from last year. I love the way they turned out, and it was probably the most fun I had ever had decorating pumpkins. Decorating pumpkins without carving them can be a nice alternative.

So this year I decided I would have fun again decorating a selection of mini pumpkins, but instead of washi tape, glitter, and twine, I decided to do a metallic paint theme. I am loving mixing different metallic colors in my decor this year, so I thought it would be fun to buy a selection of metallic paint and paint my mini pumpkins with different designs. 

I found a nice selection of Martha Stewart Metallic paint at the craft store, there were so many different colors. I was really hoping to find a rose gold, which I couldn't find, but I did find a rose chrome color that I really liked. I found multiple shades of copper, gold, chrome, silver, and more. Craft paint like this is fairly inexpensive, and they are useful for multiple projects, so it is nice to add new colors to my paint box. I also picked up some inexpensive brushes just in case painting pumpkins was hard on the brush. I also got a couple circle sponge applicators so I could make polka dots easily. I found a nice selection of mini orange pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, and all the little white ones I used were from my own garden. 

I always like to use a paper plate or some other disposable tray to hold my paint, which makes cleaning up easier.

I painted all of the pumpkin's stems in coordinating paints, I painted one pumpkin with a stripe design, some I painted the top half, others I painted the bottom half. I painted two pumpkins with polka dots using my sponge applicator, which was a very easy method. I also did blended paint designs with a couple of the pumpkins. I set them out to dry on wax paper. The one that I painted the bottom half of I balanced upside down in a little cup so the bottom would dry. This project took around an hour, and I am leaving them out to dry over night.

Here is how they all turned out, each one is different, and I love the way all of the pumpkins look together, as well as on display with my metallic centerpiece on my table for Halloween. I also intend to use these little pumpkins in my Thanksgiving decor, I think they will look nice on my Thanksgiving table and sideboard.

This was a really fun and easy project, and I really love the look. I have a feeling I will enjoy using my new metallic paints for upcoming holiday projects as well! :)

Tonight after my pumpkin project, I made our traditional Halloween Layered Nachos with a sour cream spider web topping. This year I found really fun Halloween shaped tortilla chips, which definitely added a nice Halloween touch. We all spent the evening together watching Halloween shows. 

I am really looking forward to Halloween tomorrow. I will be serving a bunch of yummy appetizers and passing out lots of candy to all the trick or treaters, as well as spending time with my family. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Halloween! :)

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Fall Family Days - Halloweentown, Pumpkin Patch, Halloween S'mores

October is such a fun time for family outings, we have had a fun past couple of weekends doing different seasonal activities, I thought I would share what we've been up to.

Last month I read an article about the Disney movie Halloweentown. Halloweentown is a movie that my kids grew up watching and has always been a favorite of ours. Well, it turns out, that it was filmed in St. Helens, Oregon, and St. Helens decorates the town square just like Halloweentown for October every year. You can take pictures at the historic City Hall building as well as with a similar looking Halloweentown pumpkin. So we decided to take a little road trip to the town of St. Helens.

The drive is about an hour an a half from where we live, about half an hour north of Portland. I love seeing some of Portland's bridges. The weather was perfect for a drive.

When we arrived we were all excited to see the Halloweentown pumpkin as well as the historic city hall building. Although the pumpkin in the movie was bigger, it really was very similar looking and was really cool to see. We had just watched the movie the night before so it would be fresh in our minds, and it was so cool to see the location.

We all had fun taking pictures.

They had a cute picture station for the bus stop to Halloweentown as well.

We all took turns taking pictures on the steps of the city hall building.

The town of St. Helens Oregon was a cool small town, we walked around a it and checked out some of the old historic buildings. I can see why the town was chosen for the filming location, the City Hall building was definitely a perfect looking iconic City Hall building, perfect for filming.

Our trip to St. Helens was very memorable, and it will be even more fun to watch Halloweentown every Halloween season! The drive home was nice, we stopped off at Dairy Queen on the way home, for lunch and some ice cream. All around it was a great day. If you live nearby, it is definitely a fun day trip for October.

Here is a short little video I made of our outing to St. Helens, Oregon all decorated as Halloweentown.

Last week we also had fun with an impromptu fire pit night. We love fire pit evenings, sitting around a little fire, making s'mores and chatting. Since the weather was so dry this past summer we were unable to light a backyard fire, so it was especially nice to finally be able to have a little cookout. I made a batch of grilled onions for our bratwurst. I love grilled onions, sauerkraut, mayo, grainy mustard, relish and Ketchup on my brats. The fire was so relaxing to sit around, the sky was clear and the stars were beautiful.

After dinner, I brought out fixin's for s'mores, but instead of regular marshmallows I found jumbo pumpkin shaped orange colored marshmallows, which was extra fun.

S'mores are always yummy, and I loved these pumpkin marshmallows.

To keep going with all of the October fun, last weekend we made a trip to the pumpkin patch at Fir Point Farms. We had a fun time going on a hay ride around the farm, we got to see their bees hard at work. Then we picked out a bunch of different pumpkins for all of our different projects, with all of us hunting for different pumpkins for all of our various ideas, we ended up with quite a large collection! There were quite a few varieties to choose from which was really fun.

I got a great picture of Sarah and Joe on this old tractor, I think it is a wonderful brother and sister picture! :)

My son and his girlfriend Lorene also got a bunch of cute pictures together.

Just like last year we decided to go through the corn maze, it was a little more tricky this year, and definitely a fun challenge.

Also like last year I took fun, creepy "Children of the Corn" style pictures of the kids.

Then I had a little fun with some spooky editing. :) You can check out our 2014 Fir Point Farms trip here to see last year's pictures.

Here is another nice brother and sister photo I took in the corn maze.

There are also a bunch of farm animals to pet and feed at the farm. This year I made sure to bring plenty of quarters to put in the animal food coin machines. We fed goats and mini horses, you can feed some of the other animals as well. The mini horses were my favorite to feed, they were so sweet. Sarah really enjoyed the goats.

There was a really fun feeding contraption set up for the goats, you could put the food in a little cup on a pulley and pull the food to the top of a tree house that the goats could access by climbing up ramps.

There are so many neat things to see, it has a nice country feel, I loved this log cabin building.

One of my favorite things about Fir Point Farm is their delicious apple cider donuts. We got some to eat fresh and hot, as well as some to bring home. The fresh pressed hot cider was also delicious.

The day was very enjoyable, I would definitely recommend Fir Point Farms for any one who lives locally, it has a  really a great family atmosphere and is perfect for an October outing.

Fall is definitely my favorite time of year, the weather is so nice, not too cold or too hot, and I always love our fall family outings. I am looking forward to the rest of the season!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Halloween 2015 Home Tour

I love decorating for Halloween and this year was no exception. I found a bunch of really fun new decor, mostly at Target this year. Target always has such fun stuff for the holidays. Last weekend I got started decorating and finished this past week. So I thought I would share some pictures of all of our Halloween decor this year.

Here is the entryway, I put out some of my Yankee Candle Boney Bunch candy dishes and the center mirror is a spooky mirror that has a scary image and a spooky voice. At the end of this post I will include a link to the video I posted on my YouTube channel of my Halloween home tour and you can see all of the animated decor and how they work.

The dining room is one of my favorite rooms to decorate. My dining room is also our library, so I tuck decor into all of the book shelves as well as put out a big basket of our Halloween books.

Here are some of the different decorations I put out on all of the bookshelves, some you will recognize from previous Halloween posts if you saw my home tour posts in the past. :)

I found some really fun new folk art style Halloween dolls, as well as this fun new book and raven candle holder. I only use battery operated tealights in the decor throughout my home, that way I can still have candle light but a lot safer! :)

I had a lot of fun with all of the discount decor I found at Target this year, they had so many different wooden signs and fun sparkly pumpkins!

I found this funky spiked out golden pumpkin, and although it is not normally my style I thought it would be fun to mix with some of my different metal decor. I love the way it turned out as the centerpiece on my dining table. I love to mix metals and wood.

My favorite spot this year is a table under my dining room window. I was going for an old fashioned spooky library look, perhaps the study of a mad scientist! I love the old timey radio I found at Target, it lights up and plays Halloween radio sounds. I also bought some spooky looking succulents and set them around along with a tiny purple orchid, it added to the spooky vibe of the table. I really love how it turned out!

I love decorating the main bathroom, I added some soap and candles from Bath & Body Works, as well as some of my decor pieces and some cute new towels I found at Target.

My living room is largely decorated with my growing Yankee Candle Boney Bunch collection, some of the decor like the train, is in the same space as years before, I love my Boney Bunch Train under my train print, it matches nicely. :)

Here are more of my Boney Bunch figures as well as my Nightmare Before Christmas Tsum Tsums and Halloween Micky and Minnie.

Here is a glance at some of my other living room decor. I love my little chevron pumpkin!

Above the fireplace I put my new metal BOO light up sign, I love the vibrant orange color, I was happy to have found it, it really adds a nice pop of light and color to the living room.

Outside we put up orange lights, and stuck with a pumpkin theme. It was so cute, when we were putting up decorations, the neighbor kids were riding around on bikes and checking up on our progress, when we finished and got everything lit up, they called out and told us that they loved our decorations. It was cute, and made me happy, that is why I decorate the house, it is fun to see the neighborhood become festive! :)

When the decor was all done, I decided to celebrate by surprising the family with yummy Halloween doughnuts. I love how colorful they all are! Krispy Kreme also has a Salted Caramel doughnut this fall which is especially yummy!

We also decided to try out Burger King's Black Whopper. I avoid seeds, so I don't eat sesame seed buns, and I am also prone to many food allergies and I was leery about all that black food color. The boys however were brave enough to try one. They both agreed that they tasted like a normal whopper, but it was odd eating a black bun. Definitely not something I would suggest all of the time, but trying one was pretty fun, and I know my son really got a kick out of it. :) I liked the crowns myself! :) 

So that is what we have been up to. Definitely time for lots more fall cooking, and family spooky movie nights. I am hoping to have some more Halloween fun this weekend!

Here is my Halloween Home Tour video if you would like to see some of our decor in action. :)

Thanks for stopping by, hope everyone is having a nice October weekend! :)

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