Made It: Painted Pumpkins

Hello! A stroll through our farmer's market yesterday took me past a vendor whose stand featured dozens of hand-painted pumpkins. Many of the painted designs featured logos of locally or regionally popular sports teams. 

Between my husband and myself, there were two teams to cheer for yesterday, both of which were represented by some of the painted pumpkins. However, since I have plenty of acrylic craft paint at home, I decided to buy some unpainted pumpkins and do the decorating myself. I was a little anxious about one of the games, so I figured painting a pumpkin to support the team would help pass the time until kickoff. 

Pumpkin #1:

Our "good luck" pumpkin, painted to support our alma mater, Michigan State University. Serious intrastate bragging rights were on the line yesterday, with the Spartans traveling to U-M's home turf for the football game. I had no way of knowing it at the time, but the game would end with one of the most bizarre finishes in recent college football history. Happily, the result was a victory for the never-say-die Spartans, so bragging rights were secured for another year!

Pumpkin #2:

My husband, a native Chicagoan, is a Cubs fan, and that team is playing the New York Mets to decide which one will move on to play in the World Series. This is a big deal for the Cubs, who haven't been in a World Series since 1945, and haven't won one since 1908. They lost last night, but the series with the Mets is four-out-of-seven, so there's a lot of baseball yet to be played. 

I painted the Spartan "S" freehand, but drew around small bowls to get the circular shapes for the Cubs logo. I should have made that "C" a little wider, but my husband said it was fine as it was. 

Although the farmer's market stand had painted pumpkins of various sizes, I used two small pumpkins so it'd be quicker to paint my designs. I only needed one coat of paint per design, so it didn't take too long to do this project. 

And as you can see, I added a matching ribbon to each pumpkin stem, just for fun. 

Speaking of fun, this is a fun activity to do with kids. I used to paint small pumpkins with our daughter when she was a kid, only we did funny faces then. 

Painting funny faces was fine, but sometimes you just have to support your teams. Go Green! Go White! Go Cubs!