Give Thanks

To say this is my favorite time of year is an understatement. The stifling heat begins to break {although not nearly enough here in South Florida}, pumpkin spice lattes are back, butternut squash are abundant and spices like cinnamon make everything better!

It has been hard for me lately because I LOVE to create things and decorate, especially for the holidays. Unfortunately, my creativity is bigger than my wallet! Also, I don't really want to invest in decorations that work for our townhouse. I'd rather save it for our future home. It makes me smile just thinking about it. Of course, the biggest reason is I've been just a tad busy planning our WEDDING!!! Thirty.nine.days.to.go. I am SO excited to marry the greatest man I ever met ever and to see our hard work come together with our handmade details, personal touches and lots of love!

In the meantime, I was able to squeeze in a little holiday creativity yesterday evening. We had accomplished a nice chunk of wedding projects over the rest of the weekend {including FINISHING the table numbers, card box and making 33 of our delicious favors - are you curious? You should be!} So we took a break from wedding plans and went to a pumpkin patch.

{{Brian & I with one of our finds}}

It was just down the road from our place and it isn't very big but we found what we were looking for. I spent one October in Oregon {where my Dad & Co. live} and one thing I do miss is that there are things like corn mazes and tractor rides. I did a quick search and didn't find anything around here like that. Oh well, maybe next year.

{{The Goods + pictures from our cruise when we got engaged!}}

I had been thinking about what I wanted to do with the pumpkins which literally changed second by second as we got to the pumpkin patch. Ask Brian...he was so confused until he finally stopped me and said make up your mind and tell me the plan. What can I say, you can't control artistic thoughts. Sometimes they are far and few between but yesterday it was like the flood gates opened. I came to terms with the fact that I didn't need a $50 pumpkin for what I wanted to do so we set out for a medium-sized pumpkin with a face that sat up {does that make any sense? Please reference pictures. LOL} I decided I did not want to carve the pumpkin because last year I'm not even sure it lasted two days. Our place faces East/West which is horrible because both sides of the house bake every day. Plus, we are so close to Halloween that I really want to enjoy the pumpkin for as long as possible. I finally decided to paint it. I wanted to try my hand at freehand letters and what better opportunity.

{{In the process}}

I'm not going to lie, it took my a couple hours but luckily the pumpkin was forgiving. I could wipe off mistakes with water and a paper towel.

{{The finished product}} 

 I actually painted the palm tree canvas in the picture below in my Painting 1 class. I loved that class. Painting as a homework assignment > 30 page research paper LOL

I LOVE my "Give Thanks" pumpkin.

I'm super proud of my freehand painting too.

I have a fun idea for the two small orange pumpkins so stay tuned. I hope to work on those this weekend.

What decorations are you creating or just loving this season?

{{Ash}}