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Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

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Bedazzled Pumpkins

This time of year I think about how I am going to decorate my porch for Halloween. Halloween is my favorite holiday, but lately I have been taking it easy compared to the massive parties I used to have. I'm chilling this Halloween, too.

My porch, for the trick-or-treaters, is still a priority. I have done the elaborate pumpkin carving in the past. I am over that. The last few years I went back to basic jack-o-lanterns (carved out fresh pumpkins) but I am now looking forward to alternatives. In the Midwest (and in the big city of Chicago) it is hard to keep a carved pumpkin lit. I wanted alternatives.

I'm here to declare I have one. I totally stole this original idea from Good Housekeeping magazine. I love their cover with the studded pumpkins turned into flower vases. I just took it a step further.

My idea isn't less expensive and it's not less time consuming but it sure is fun. I'm not as crafty as I used to be but this is worth the time. It's almost Zen in the approach. I took three pumpkins and decorated them three different ways to inspire you. I also have some technique elements to give you ideas for your own creations.

Take a peek at the pictures.

 

It's amazing what you can do with tacks. They give your pumpkins bling! There are all kinds of tacks and push pins available but the cheapest and easiest are the regular old-fashioned ones. There are designer tacks now too. Take a look at these by Nate Berkus. Using a lot of these would make one expensive pumpkin but it would be really jazzy. You could even just run a ring of these tacks around the top of a small pumpkin and call it a project.

The easiest design option is to do vertical lines. If you are into easy, do that. I actually love it. That is also the cheapest option depending on how far you keep the lines of tacks apart. Eight vertical lines will look great on any pumpkin. Do four quarters and then divide those in half.

The older or bigger the pumpkin the easier to press in the tacks. The small pie pumpkins have pretty hard flesh. You really have to work to get the tacks into that kind. In this case I used push pins to go with a black and white theme.

In the first version I took an antique broach and stuck that in to give it sort of a finial look. I also took regular wrapping paper ribbon ideas to give the top a gift flair. That was a favorite.

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Steve Kelley Curtis David Horsey Ed Wexler Michael Ramirez Heathcliff