I LOVE the fall.  I Love the beautiful autumn leaves, and the nip in the air.  I also LOVE the harvest: First, corn and berries, then peaches, cherries, and apples and then… FINALLY. The pumpkins. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies and bread…. I’ll take one or all of those anytime.  HOWEVER, with that said I will mention that I have a little love/hate relationship with the beloved Halloween punkin’.  All that searching through fields, or bin digging and grocery store aisle seeking, looking for the perfect pumpkins.  Picking them out and lugging them home for the carving.  The kids love it.  Music playing, happy chatter, smiles and laughing. Newspaper covers the table as you dive into the stringy insides and remove the seeds. Very Norman Rockwell.  Next, you put your pumpkins on your porch with the a pride that could only be grander if you had raised your pumpkin from a seedling.  Creativity was on steroids as everyone carved away at their masterpiece.  And so you arrange a magazine worthy photo-op on your porch. Everything is perfect. Halloween can begin…..but then 5 unseasonably warm days later, that beautiful front porch of yours is making fruit flies and organic baby food all over your steps. OR somebody kicks one, rolls it a bit and you’ve got the snow shovel out for the wrong reason.  No thanks.

This year why not try something new and fun?  Your pumpkins will last longer with no mold. It’s Easy Peasy.  Think Mr. Potato Head with cooler, scarier parts. All you need is a glue gun, thumb tacks (small or large) eyeballs, spiders, little mice, fangs or bats. Anything fun you can think of. Simply glue the objects to the thumbtacks and poke them in. Your pumpkins won’t go moldy, and you can change them around and reuse them every year, adding fun new finds. If you’re in charge of the class party, this is easy and very inexpensive. The Dollar stores and party stores will have tons of items and you can use whatever you can find. Go after Halloween and buy the clearance to keep for next year. Happy Halloween! Make it a “tacky” one this year!  They’re bootiful!