diy a quick and easy centerpiece

I had this idea for a string art pumpkin back when we lived in L.A. but I never got to it. I almost did not get to it this year either but today I got the crafty bug and got to it! All you need is a pumpkin, dressmaker pins, and embroidery floss.

My wee white pumpkins have since yellowed in our warm, warm autumn. To create your base for design, push a pin into your pumpkin and continue until you are ready for string. I really like the way they look without string too so left one of them all pin happy. Knot one end of floss to a pin and get to wrapping. Tie off at end and trim. Make sure not to push your pins all the way into the pumpkin as you will need some wiggle room for your floss. If your pumpkin has super firm flesh, make sure to have a pair of pliers nearby to remove pins if you need to fix your design.

sweet november: wrap some string around it

My, my, my...the best laid plans, right? I have to be honest and tell you I had time to work on the project I originally had planned today but I frittered that time away. I could blame the heat as it has been anything but fall-like here on the central coast or mayhaps I will blame my brain for skipping out on November and leaping to December. See, last night I tried to go to bed at a decent hour, I'm a bit of sleep monger and generally am not prone to being up late these days but last night it was hot...H O T. Icky hot and my brain began a love affair with ideas for both Christmas and Hanukkah and lest I lose those pretty ideas I had to slip into the living room to write things down and then I decided I was awake, awake, awake and so I put together lunch for the mister, read a few chapters from two library books, perused pinterest, maybe played a game of marble lines and eventually crawled back into bed a smidge before 2am which one could say was really 3am what with the time change and all. 

Before I knew it, mister was heading out the door and  I was awake, awake, awake at 5:45 and so I did the dishes and read another few chapters and distracted myself to hit the Goodwill outlet because  surely I needed a few more supplies for all those nifty ideas I wrote down, right? Not that I found much for those ideas but I did score a pretty and ragged croquet set (sans the balls) for all of $3 and then at he market I discovered carmel flavored vodka and new ideas drifted through the noggin and after a Michael's run, I headed home where I enjoyed a lovely phone call with this lovely lady, ran a load of laundry, remembered to eat lunch and prepped dinner for the evening...and then I noticed the time and the fading light and jumped up all crazy-like to sort through supplies to make my project for the day and that is when I decided that THAT project kinda sucked and so I ditched it and grabbed a handful of trusty embroidery floss and went to work.

When in doubt, wrap some string around it, right? I admit this project is on the close side of ridiculous but truly I am delighted with how it looks. I believe these bits of happy pumpkin would look delightful hanging around yer happy casa for a bit of Autumnal flair, don't you?

I began with about a yard of each color and knotted the whole bit of happy around the base of each stem. After untangling the happy mess I proceeded to wrap one color at a time around it all using the basic friendship bracelet knot. 

 

If your stem is super curvy it may take a bit of wrapping and knotting before the happy mess looks like much of anything. I love the way the floss looks on the stem of the blue ballet. Kinda like a messy web of sorts. 

A yard of each color is probably more than enough, when you get to a point where you want to stop, tie off that bit of floss with another color and trim if you like. I like the wispy bits dangling about.

Happy Day five of sweet november. I hope you enjoyed this bit of ridiculous whimsy! If you like, wander on over to Tara's to see her take on a hostess gift.