My Mumpkins

So these are called mumpkins...I guess.

 Mums + pumpkins...get it?

I've seen them on Pinterest before.  I think they're kind of fun...pretty for fall.

I had some gift giving occasions coming up and so I thought I would experiment a little.

Wal Mart had some small mums for $2 and these little pie pumpkins for $3...the perfect size.

I was a bit apprehensive as I thought about the possible outcomes of this project so I also bought some loaves of Great Harvest bread (the BEST! in my opinion btw) as a 'just in case'.

They ended up being quite easy and fast...

It's quite self explanatory but I'll briefly walk you through the steps anyway.

Start by cutting off the top of your cute pumpkins.

Dig your hands in and clean out the insides...just as if you were doing a jack-o-lantern.

Then make bowling balls out of them...

just kidding...that's just what I think of when I look at this picture.

You want some holes in the bottom so the water can drain out when you hydrate your plants.

I just used the tip of my knife to bore the holes in.

Next, take your mum and pull it out of it's container and stuff it into the pumpkin.

They were a bit tight...I had to press quite firmly down on the soil to get it below the rim of the pumpkin but in the end it was just perfect!

Now, tie a cute bow around their middles and you are ready to display them.

I've never been very good at tying bows.  They always end up inside out and upside down...so hopefully yours look a bit better than mine.

 

 I made six and gave most of them away so as soon as I dropped the last one off at it's new home I headed straight back to Wal Mart to get more to make for myself.  Ha!

See?  Easy as {pumpkin} pie.  Needless to say, my family is enjoying the G.H. bread...I really want to put a smiley face here...have you noticed the lack thereof in this post...and the lack of that question mark that was supposed to be right there...and here.

Well, the far right quadrant of my keyboard is not working.  This post has taken much longer than it should since each time I need to type the letter p I have to literally pound on the key several times and then after much force, three or four appear at once.  There are a few keys like this and then others such as the colon, parentheses and question mark that just don't work no matter how hard or long I pound.

Sorry, long explanation...

So there ya go...Mumpkins!

p.s.  I'm a bit concerned about how long they will last.  I'm hoping they won't get mushy and moldy too soon.  I think I saw somewhere to spread vaseline on the inside of pumpkins to make them last longer...or something like that.  If anyone has any tricks or hints or suggestions in this department, please send them my way.