10.12.2014

Updates // DIY Painted Pumpkins // Ramblings

Hey peeps.

   Okay, seriously people, I owe you the biggest apology.  I'm behind in everything.  Posting, updating, the PINK Celebration/Challenge, it has just fallen apart.  While I will note that my mom has been down for 2+ weeks, and I'm trying to put some overtime into school, and I'm handling the household stuff, and we have been super busy, I've also wasted a lot of time.  Doing...nothing.  So, anyway, I think I apologize way more on here than I should, but I do want you to know that I am sorry.  So, to show my gratitude for ya'll, I'm going to....ramble!  Yah!    \(^-^)/  ;)

  Well, for two Fridays in a row now, we have left the house about 9:00am and come home about 8:30pm.  Can you guess how much school I got done? ;)  We had art class, then lunch, then library, then a chiropractor appointment for my mom, the a store, then a birthday party, then a one and a half hour drive home.  When I got home I talked to two of my very good friends!  First, a girl who choose to remain anonymous sense I'm not supposed to tell that she talked to me ;)  She hasn't talked on the phone in literally years.  But, after knowing her for a year, I finally heard her voice.  Her sweet wonderful voice.  It was adorable.  After that I talked to a beautiful, familiar voice of my very best friend.  I had called and left a voice mail to her the day before in tears, and so she spend all of Friday trying to get ahold of me.  I love her so much. <3  Ah, so very very much.  Both of my peeps.  My friends.  My crutches and the people who have to put up with me the most.  Virtually, none the less.  I'm surprised they haven't thrown me off a cliff yet. ;)

  At the party they were carving pumpkins, and there was one extra so the older sister and me carved one.  We just did the normal jack o' latern.  We did a double sided one; she did one side, I did the other.  =D

Her side.  Beautiful =D ;)


My very first (that I can remember at this moment) carved pumpkin.

  So, this past Friday, we went to Trader Joe's.  Okay, this place.  Seriously.  I love Trader Joe's. It's...amazing.  Awesome.  Adorable.  I know I'm not the only one who loves Trader Joe's, please refer to Ella's post HERE!! So, yeah, I basically love Trader Joe's.  And on Ella's post, if you look in the picture you can see where the package says "Trader Joe contemplates Inner Peas."  Puns.  Everywhere.  They're awesome.  And then my mom found THESE:

DUDE......THESE THINGS!!!

Anyway...

Remember how I said that I wanted to decorate pumpkins?  Well, I'd been on the lookout for some, but hadn't found any.  Well, I found these ADORABLE mini pumpkins at TJ's.  So so cute, and so so what I wanted.  Perfect.  So, I had a photo shoot with my pumpkins.  See below ;)

Aren't they the cutest?

It looks yellow in this picture, but trust me, this is the PERFECT little pumpkin.  As you'll see later, I didn't even decorate this one.  The color, the size, the stem.  Ahh...

This is the biggest one, and only slightly bigger than my palm.


Ignore the shadows around the picture =P

This is my personal favorite picture =)

Julia staged this.  She is a magician. ;)




Well, so now come the DYI part. ;)  I didn't have the shades of paint I wanted, so I ended up using nail polish!  It worked awesome!

So, I started by covering my white pumpkin in some creamy-almost clear polish.  I wanted to bring out the white color; make it more pure, without the crystal-white from just white polish.

My workstation.  Ignore the high school football players head, I didn't realize how evident in these photos it was until I uploaded them lol XD



I did use a paint brush for this, but then the paintbrush started hardening, but sense it is my sisters, I didn't want to ruin it, so I switched later.

See how it's glossier?


The end result.  Isn't it gorgeous?

  Next pumpkin I did was Polka Dots! <3


Pretty self-explanatory lol


And then I took my biggest one and tried to make it look realistic, but more colorful.  I realize now I didn't take much pictures of this one, I missed a step. lol

I drew with a nail marker down the lines to bring out the orange =)

Then I put clear nail polish on it to bring out the gloss.  You can also see in this picture where I put green sparkley glitter polish on the stem.


Here you can see the orange lines. =)

 And...I went a little crazy with the last one....





So now please enjoy photo shoot #2 with the painted pumpkins! lol









Ahhh....Well, that's about it I suppose.  This was a super long post, I'm very sorry.  Thank you all so much for sticking with me and this blog though our not-so-good times.  I can't promise that I'll be improving with my posting, but I'll try.  Thank you Abigail for doing the PINK Challenge!  You are my hero! =D <3

Well, toodles.  Love ya.

~jess

ps.  The Q&A video.  Thankfully for you all a friend sent me a message over Goodreads, like, "Hey, how's the video coming?"  And my jaw hit the floor. Guess who c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y  forgot!  So, I'm going to film that.  Like, tonight. 

14 comments:

  1. All the pumpkins are amazing! I paint my little pumpkins with nail polish too! :) I'm really looking forward to your Q&A video! By the way, your photos are amazing! Would you mind telling me what type of camera you use? Lovely post, Jessica. <3

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    1. Wow, thank you so much for commenting, Eve! I'm glad I'm not the only one! Lol ;) Wow, thank you! I use a Nixon D50, with a 18-55mm lense. It is a hand me down, my grandmother loves cameras and hands them off to us. Lol Thank you so much! =) <3

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  2. Hahaa, I was going to ask you too! :D I really liked the polkadot pumpkin! It is my total fav! That was a really cute idea. Pinterest? ;) lol!

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    1. Lol, you can see the above answer then! Lol ;) thank you!! That is my mom's favorite too!! Actually I didn't really get any inspiration from Pinterest! Besides the chevron pumpkins I posted about, and u didn't even end up doing those. =D I was creative!!! ;D

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  3. High five for Trader Joes. I still go there with my mom for the *cough cough* free samples. ;)

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    1. I didn't know Trader Joe's gave away free samples! I love shopping there. :-)
      ~Katie@ liliesofgrace.blogspot.com

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    2. Yes!! Trader Joe's samples are The.Best! ;) Haha Katie, they are always in a corner of the store, in ours it's by the produce. They usually have at least a food and a drink. Yum! =D

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  4. Aww..those pumpkins are cute! :-) I really like the one you naturally painted, with the Orange stripes and sparkly green stem. That one's my favourite.
    P.S I'm looking forward to your Q&A video! ;-)
    ~Katie@ liliesofgrace.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you, Katie! I think I like that one the best too! Or at least second best. ;) Haha, thanks. I'm going to get right on it. lol

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  5. Thank you for the update Jessica, I always love hearing whats going on in your life! =D I bet your friend loves you, I know from experience, she probably wouldn't have done that for anyone else. You must be spechel. =) I love how you decorated your pumpkins! There so cute! =D Julia really is a magician, tell her I want her to come to my house, I've got some books I need a place for. ;D I might have to make some myself. =) Oh my goodness!! *Bangs head on table* I am so sorry Jessica, I completly forgot about the Pink Challenge! I will get to that today I promise!
    -Mikayla-

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    1. Awh, I love hearing about your life too!! Haha, thanks. Not that you would know who they were. I'm swore to secrecy. Maybe she'll spill if you ask her, though. ;) Haha! =D You should make some!! Do they have Trader Joe's in Texas? Haha, no worries. But you do know that the Challenge post didn't post, right? It came up in my list, but then it said "Page Does Not Exist" when I clicked on it =/

      Love ya!

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    2. You have such a cute style with art. =) Yea, maybe, she would. ;) I should, maybe I can pick some pumpkins and nail polish up on Saturday and make them up. =D I'm really not sure, I've never been to a Trader Joe's but the name sounds familiar so we might. =) Sorry about that, I fixed it. =P
      Love you to!
      -Mikayla-

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