Monday, November 14, 2011

Painted white GRATITUDE pumpkins

As Thanksgiving is closely approaching, and the spirit of Christmas has already hit me (falling snow and pandora's Christmas station have helped with that:) ), I have been feeling especially grateful and thankful these past few weeks for the MANY blessings I have in my life. When I first started this 'pumpkin craft', it was just a simple attempt to cutesy up two boring, clearenced out pumpkins. After 2 weeks of being stuck in a creative funk I came out the other side with a project that holds SO much meaning to me. Love that!


Buuuuut, lets not get ahead of ourselves! We should start at the beginning...with these two orange pumpkins I picked up for .50 each at Walmart last year after Thanksgiving.


Although I'm ALL about the traditional colors for Thanksgiving/Fall, this year I'm really loving the simplicity and elegance of white pumpkins and have been wanting to add some to my decorations but didn't want to have to pay the $15+ dollars the stores were asking for them so I knew right away that I wanted to paint them white.


I gave them 2 generous coats of Rustoleum's Heirloom white.


I was hesitant to spray paint them for fear of getting drip streaks down them, so I was pleasantly SURPRISED when there were NO drips-yay for no re-painting!


They sat like that out on my counter for over a week because I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with them. I debated on leaving them as is, just simple, white and subtle but that just didn't feel right! I was just stuck.
I looked online for some white pumpkin decorating ideas and nothing really fit what I was looking for so they just sat. Pretty and undisturbed. And then while walking around Michelas I saw some rhinestone bling and my creative mind started to thunk and my crafty heart started to beat. Disturbia was coming these punkins way. First I added some white rhinestone stickers on top around the stem. (They come as one large sticker-from Micheals-so I just cut the one up to make enough to go around the top)


I loved my pretty cinderella pumpkins (at this point they reminded me of cinderella's carriage :) ), but it still didn't feel 100% finished. I love decorating with words/quotes/sayings that mean something to me and can remind myself and my family of what's truly important, so I decided to add some simple words to them.
I searched online for a short, simple quote that would involve the word gratitude, for the season. I used my cricut to cut the quote out of brown vinyl and just stuck it right onto the pumpkin. (if you don't have a cutting machine you could use scrapbook stickers!!)


As soon as I read this quote I immediately started to tear up. (This quote has been all over blogland since it was featured on TT&J but I'm pretty proud to say I found it -NOT on pinterest :)-AND printed it before it was popular!...I'm proud of this because I'm always behind on the trends!!!)

{Gratitude}
Turns what we have
into
{Enough}



The past 3 years for our family have been challenging, trying, exhausting and FULL of happiness and blessings. My husband is in his final year of school (can I get a halleluiah?!) so between school, work, having and raising 2 kids, moving from apartment to apartment, fulfilling church responsibilities, and just LIFE ups and downs, we have had some financial strains, housing strains, and BIG emotional strains :), but we always come out of our struggles
TOGETHER
and
BETTER for having gone through them.
Always.
We have always had a roof over our heads (sometimes a moldy, falling through roof, but always a roof :) ), food on the table, clothes on our backs, one car that gets us everywhere we need to go, and LOTS of laughs, hugs, and arms to bear one another up. And it was always enough.


Mr. Sweet Love's been a student for longer than 3 years, but it's the past 3 that have been especially hard. Gratitude and counting our blessings is what has pulled us through. Every. Single. Time.


At the end of the day, as we kneel down and pray as a family together we always, always have a list of things we can thank our Father in Heaven for. That Gratitude turns what we have into enough. And we have been truly happy.


I think I was touched so much when I first read it because it was like these 7 words summed up everything I've been feeling, thinking, and trying to explain for SO many years. Every fall as I pull out these pumpkins, no matter how monetarily rich or poor we are that year, I will KNOW it's enough and even more importantly, I will remember this time period in our lives and how blessed we were.


Even if you have to start by giving thanks out of obligation, or force yourself to make a list and be happy for what you have...it works! It really does make you genuinely happy!!!

{source}
Thanks for bearing with me through that looooong post and sharing a little bit of my personal life with me today! I'll be back tomorrow to share my newest felt wreath! ;)

24 comments:

Simply AJ said...

Angela... what a beautiful way to express Gratitude! Oh how we all need to remember this simple phrase. Thanks for sharing so honestly and for reminding us to be always be grateful. AJ@queenofmynest

Jaime Lyn at Crafty Scrappy Happy said...

oh my goodness these are beautiful and ohhhhh I love love that quote. wonderful!!!
Jaime

Michele P said...

Love these! I hope I have time to make some before Thanksgiving!
http://sewinspirations.blogspot.com/

Katie said...

Love these pumpkins and printable! :)

Sarah said...

Love it all! Thanks for sharing!

cnelson said...

Looooooove these sooooo much!!!

Megan said...

I really really like the craft project, and how pretty you made it look, but I especially LOVE the message! An attitude of gratitude truly does make ALL the difference!

Jessica :) said...

Yes, you can get a halleluiah! I'd be singing to the rafters, too. We were lucky in that I married a man who graduated a year after we got married {he had to put up with me going to school, though} - I'm sure it's very challenging. The quote you shared is so very powerful and so true. I love it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on gratitude. I've been thinking a lot about that lately and I've noticed that whenever I am in a little funk, the moment I think of even one thing I'm grateful for, my spirits lift. It's truly an amazing blessing.
Also, I love the way the pumpkins look. I think the mod podged pumpkins {which also look fabulous, btw} paired with these & the other small ones really complete a nice look. Great job! :)

cre8ivesky said...

Thanks for linking to my printable, Angela! I'm excited to have found your blog :) LOVE the saying you used on these pumpkins!

Chris said...

Hi Angela, what a beautiful blog and the pumpkins are gorgeous too. Thanks for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris

Laura @ digiartcafe.com said...

Angela, I love these pumpkins and all your ideas! You are so creative!

Eclectically Vintage said...

Love anything with a bit of bling!

Liz @ Here's to Handy Andy said...

Absolutely beautiful! I'm a new follower!

Lindsey @MakeandTakes said...

Those pumpkins are stunning! I'd really love for you to submit this to the Make and Takes spotlight page. (http://www.makeandtakes.com)

Ruth said...

Your pumpkins are gorgeous. I love white pumpkins and these are amazing. These times are so difficult on so many of us and we cannot forget to give thanks.

Ruth

Becky@Beyond The Picket Fence said...

I love this saying and what a beautiful and fun way to share it.

Unknown said...

Angela, I love your bedazzled grateful pumpkins! I love this because I still have real pumpkins laying around the house that I can do this too before they go bad! You've got your creative mojo back now! I would love for you to share this at my party(now through Mon.)!

Heather said...

What an elegant way to display such a lovely quote..believe it or not, I haven't seen this one, so yep...I'm gonna pin it. Thanks for sharing such a nice story, too!

Michelle Johnnie said...

BEautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!!! Those are gorgeous. I am featuring later today at somedaycrafts.blogspot.com. Grab my "featured" button. (I haven't seen you around town lately:(

Karen@MSEnthusiast said...

WOW! I'm speechless! This is beyond cool. I am so going to tweet this. I like that you can keep it and it doesn't have to get pitched like a regular pumpkin.

Brit said...

These are so awesome! Everything about them is perfect, and loved your post too! Love it so much I better feature it on our blog on Friday! ;) Stop on over and check it out.
xoxo
Britney
www.jandmseyecandy.blogspot.com

Whit said...

Beautiful. It is amazing how white spray paint can make those look so pretty. Grwat job. love them. Thank you so much for linking up to last weeks show and share. Make sure to come back and link up this week with your latest project.

A mommy's life...with a touch of yellow
tyandwhitneyulrich.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Oooooh, I love those! Great saying...a good reminder! I always think it's so ironic that right after we take time to be thankful for our blessings, so many people run out to the stores {at midnight now!} to buy so much more. I'm so glad you shared this at Shine On Fridays! Hope to see you again!

Jacque said...

This is such an adorable idea! I have never seen anyone do this before! I'm definitely gonna have to try this one out, for sure! Thanks for sharing over at the Sundae Shake Up!