Some Pumpkin Fun!

Saturday, late afternoon, the three of us went to check out the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence. My BFF had been before and STRONGLY suggested we go. She now lives in Texas so she missed it. We went and we loved it!

With my BFF's advice of "go early", we tail-gated in the parking lot at 5:00 with a light dinner - mostly for Amelia so she wouldn't be starving. Chris, I think, thought I was crazy to want to go so early but we did and when we left.... he was REALLY happy we went early! The line of people to buy tickets at 7:30 p.m. snaked through the parking lot and the amount of cars trying to get IN was insane.

While we were waiting in line for the sun to go down, we bumped into Snow White and Prince Charming. They were nice enough to have their picture taken with Punkie.

The rest of the pictures are of pumpkins so there will not be much commentary from me. It really is awesome to see. The pumpkins are painted with bits and pieces carved out of them. Totally cool.

Ready?

I thought this montage of pumpkins was cool. All of the more famous celebrities we lost this year...

And of course, the Kennedys.

I have lots more pictures. This was just a snippit of pumpkins. They had Sesame Street ones and more cartoon ones... literary ones (Headless Horseman and the like).... more music ones.... fantasy and Brothers Grimm. It was a nice evening out as a family and we will do it again.

If you live in the area, I HIGHLY recommend going and I HIGHLY recommend grabbing a pizza or something quick and eating in the parking lot at 5:00. Trust me on that one!

One more plug for my giveaway... tomorrow is the last day to collect comments if you're interested in my 'secret' Halloween celebration giveaway! Please post a comment on the giveaway post if you want to be included.

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)

Trophy Winner!

Every year the ceramics studio I go to competes in the Pioneer Valley Ceramics Association's (PVCA) ceramics competition. I have been doing ceramics for about 7 years now. My friend Julie has been doing ceramics at the same studio for over 20 years. I wanted to do the craft back in high school but Julie refused to tell me where she was going... but that's a story for another day. LOL. Once we got back in touch as adults, she invited me to join her and I've been going ever since.

My very first piece won a blue ribbon and I've been winning blue ribbons ever since but I've never won a trophy. This year, I entered 5 pieces in the competition. One of them being my glazed pumpkin. I was really hoping I would get high marks for the pumpkin because I just love it and I glazed it really well. I won a first place blue ribbon. Not bad. I was hoping for a high blue ribbon or a trophy but I'll take first place. My ceramics teacher then presents me with a box. In the box is a TROPHY! I won the "Judge's Award" which means regardless of my marks and the ribbon placement the piece did, the judges felt the piece was trophy worthy. I was so excited.

Ready to see my pumpkin??

It's glazed with a special pottery coat glaze - several different coats and then a white cobblestone glaze is put on top before it is fired to get that crackled look. Or as my friend Julie would say - the moldy look.

Here's a pic with my very first trophy...
Amelia and I painted some pumpkins over the weekend as well. She enjoyed it. Here are a couple of pictures.

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)