Fabulous Fall Fridays #6: The Mumpkin

This is by far my favorite project yet.  Why?  It's just a Mum and a Pumpkin.  But together, you get the Mumpkin.  And since my daughter's nickname is Mum and we often call her our little Mumpkin, when I saw this for the first time over at the Circa Dee blog, I knew this HAD to make it into the Fabulous Fall Friday posts.  So...I give you...The Mumpkin.

(And yes, I know today isn't Friday...I really, really tried to have this up on Friday, but I couldn't find my fall ribbon and had to pick some up at Hobby Lobby today.)

Sorry there aren't a ton of pictures to go with this one since once you start cleaning out a pumpkin, your hands get pretty messy and you don't want to touch your camera.

Supplies:
Mum in a small pot
Medium sized pumpkin
Aluminum foil
Sharp knife
Spoon to scoop out pumpkin innards
Bleach water
Petroleum Jelly
Fall ribbon

Step 1: Cut off the stem of the pumpkin, then trace around your pot on top.

See the line?  I traced it with a pen.  

Step 2: Cut around your line.  Cut on the OUTSIDE, not the inside.  I cut as close as I could to the line and ended up having to trim a LOT.

This is NOT an easy task.  We don't do Halloween, so I haven't ever cut a pumpkin open to make a Jack-o-Lantern.  I was surprised at how much work this was!  

Step 3: Scoop out the slop and mess.  DON'T THROW THOSE SEEDS AWAY THOUGH!!!  I baked mine using the recipe found at Oh She Glows and they were perfect!  I. Love. Pumpkin. Seeds.  If you're planning to throw yours away, don't.  Send them to me instead.  :)

Step 4: "Preserve" your pumpkin first by spraying down all exposed areas (inside and around the top) with bleach water, letting that dry, and then wiping it all down with petroleum jelly.  I did this and mine is looking good a week later.  

Step 5: Wrap the bottom of your mum pot in aluminum foil.  If the water from watering your flowers drips down into the pumpkin, it can make it rot faster.  

Step 6: Place mum into pumpkin hole.  

Step 7: Make a pretty bow and tie it to a floral pick (or do what I did and break a plastic knife in half and hot glue the bow to it) and stick it into the pot.  H. picked out our ribbon.  Can you tell?  

And there it is!  Looking adorable on my front porch!  Our nights are getting chilly, so I'll be bringing it inside so it'll last longer and I'm hoping to pick up some Funkins at the end of this season to make one with next year that will last longer.  I love it though!  

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