The Morning I Shot My Chic White Pumpkins

Painting pumpkins makes me giddy… and shooting them even more so. 

I found that out this week.

I’ve never painted pumpkins before, at least not a solid color.

White pumpkins have been a decorating trend for years, but I had only admired them on other people’s stoops, straining my neck as I drove by.

You know the homes I mean…. the ones that have it…

...major autumn curb appeal.

The ones with gorgeous mums and big wreaths on their front door and a scattering of pumpkins positioned just so.

Maybe your home is one of those and you’ve mastered it at your house…

…I’d love to see. I’m sure it’s beautiful.

Or maybe, like me, you want to work on it this season…

…make more of an effort… think outside of the box.

I decided this would be my year for white pumpkins, too…

I could barely wait to get to the corner market where orange pumpkins abound.

I bought only a few mini ones —  just in case I wasn’t good at painting pumpkins. I thought I would start small and go from there.

When I got them home I quickly taped off their stems and ignored the bits of dry, crusty mud on their bottoms.

I shook an old can of paint as I walked out of the garage…

My taped and ready-to-paint pumpkins sat perched on a scrap table in the backyard. I couldn’t remember if the directions I once read on the can said to shake it or not, but figured a little mixing of sedentary paint wouldn’t hurt.

Then I aimed, pressed and sprayed.

And right before my eyes… those little orange pumpkins transformed into beautiful white pumpkin swans.

They were chic.

I loved them and left them there to dry.

And, like most evenings… life got busy.

Dinner needed to be made, kids needed picked up, laundry needed folding and… before long the day turned into the next morning.

As I stood gazing out the kitchen window in my fluffy animal print robe, cup of coffee in hand, I saw something glisten.

I craned my neck to catch a glimpse…

My freshly painted white pumpkins were sitting right where I had left them the day before.

They had slipped my mind.

Within seconds I stood over them along with the sparkling morning dew.

I was relieved to see their fresh coat of paint hadn’t slid off in the night.  In fact, the water drops that clung to them made them luminous.

And, so I had to shoot them.

In the bright morning sun, while still in my leopard print robe, wearing flip-flops, I took my camera out to the backyard.

I hovered, knelt, stretched my neck and I shot them…

…over and over and over again.

I couldn’t stop.

They were beautiful…effortlessly so…

And creative in an outside of the box kind of way.

They had… It.