The past week’s weather prompted me to start decorating for “Falloween,” the period where it may feel a tad bit early to put out your scary Halloween decorations, but not too early to begin decorating with pumpkins, gourds, cornstalks, mums, and other goodies.

So I decided to go with the easy packaged Martha Stewart find called “pumpkin sleeves” discovered at a local Michaels craft store.  When I tried looking up instructions, because there really wasn’t any on the package, I could not locate this item on the Martha Stewart website.

Not a bother – because it was very easy.  Just slip it over and secure the ends.  At first I used small rubber bands to gather the ends on the bottom and top, but later discovered a draw string for the top end of the sleeve.  However, I still found the rubber band trick to secure it tightly worked better.

As I went to pimp my last pumpkin, I realized I didn’t have enough sleeves (only 3 per package), so I went to my drawer, found a pair of plain black nylon stockings, cut a portion off the foot end, and pulled it over. It is not as pretty because there isn’t a pattern on it, but I’m sure I could use a Sharpie permanent marker to create some images on it if I wanted to later.

My cat, Mini, came by to investigate my project – like most of my curious cats do when I’m outside dressing up areas for the season.

I also picked up some bling-bling from Michaels by Recollections.  It is rhinestone stickers, probably intended to stick on windows, but I attempted to apply them to my pumpkins and galvanized buckets.

Because the temperature of the pumpkin will get cold in the evenings and warm during the day, I added some additional clear glue under to help it stay adhered.  We will see if it hangs on for the rest of the month.

Both the sleeves and rhinestone stickers are a quick and easy fix to pimping your pumpkins.  And since there is no cutting involved, it will last much longer than a carved pumpkin.  Plus you can reuse the pumpkin sleeves every year.  For rhinestones, you could also investigate your unused jewelry beads, buttons, or small pieces to upcycle them for a look similar to the rhinestones.

That’s it!  Just a quick bit of inspiration – and right after, I went to my hammock and rested a bit to enjoy the beautiful blue skies of this past weekend.  It was absolutely gorgeous out – and the weatherman said it would be nice and warm all week.

Enjoy your week.

Written by Cathy Testa