Small Things Bright and Beautiful: Pumpkin Painting Party

After the success of last year's experimentation I wanted to have painted pumpkins again for Halloween. While I had a good time painting them last fall, I thought this was truly an activity best enjoyed in good company. So on Monday I invited some friends over some pumping painting. The five of us had a great time creating colorful fall art.

The weather here in Hawaii is still crazy hot. We had a hurricane (named Ana) pass by over the weekend, but luckily because of its distance from the islands, all we got was rain. Lots and lots of rain. Even without hurricanes, the humidity is not kind to gourds here: as soon as we carve them they start to rot, and collapse within a day or two.

The only thing more depressing than a collapsed moldy gourd at your home is a bunch of collapsed moldy gourds. Been there, done that. No more pumpkin carving for me. Painted pumpkins seem to hold up much better in the muggy weather. Besides, painting is really easy, and you are a lot less likely to cut off a finger, poke out an eye while doing it.

So I encourage you to host your own pumpkin painting party. Here is what you will need:
- pumpkins, large and small
- acrylic paint in any color you like
- brushes in different sizes
- a plastic table cloth to protect the work surface
- wine.

Note the wine bottles in the middle of the table.

Now the wine is of course optional, but I find that wine makes all my parties more fun and as such is an indispensable ingredient to any event. We also had some cheese, olives and crusty bread to munch on while sipping wine.

Purple paint + red wine= a good time.

While we each did our own creative designs, most of us started by painting the pumpkins a solid color. This year I picked two different purples, silver, gold, white and black for my color scheme. (For last year's colors, click here.) The black was actually added by my friend Melanie, who brought a cool sparkly black paint. Check out how her pumpkin turned out:

After the initial coat of color, I used secondary colors to blend and embellish. Everyone created different stuff. Last year I painted some patterns, this time I just added and blended different colors.