Needle Felted Pumpkins

It is October! I love, love, LOVE October! Why? Well, of course you know the answer already-HALLOWEEN! What is it about Halloween that makes me fell all aglow inside? I'm not sure. I think it has something to do with memories of my childhood- pumpkin patches, corn mazes, crunching leaves on the ground and trick or treating with friends. There are also memories of hot mulled cider, apple picking and jumping in a mountain of leaves my grandfather raked into a pile.

Now I live far away from the American Halloween festivities that I grew up with as a child. In fact, it isn't even autumn here in Sydney. It is spring. The weather is lovely and I can't complain, but it just doesn't seem like Halloween with daffodils in bloom and my knit sweaters in the back of the closet.

This will be my fourth year in Australia. My oldest child is two years old and I decided it was a good year to bring back some of the Halloween festivities into our home. It isn't the easiest task in a country that doesn't really celebrate the holiday. It has started gaining some popularity. Many of the shops have begun to sell a few decorations. Trick or treators are a rarity, however and the two children in the last four years that we did have knock at our door just stared at me like deer in headlights. They didn't even know they were supposed to say, "trick or treat." Before you begin thinking, "those poor darlings!" you need not worry, I gave them a lesson on Halloween door knocking etiquette.

So I only have a couple weeks left now until Halloween. I've been a busy little beaver making decorations and creating games for all the little ones. I've also been having fun experimenting with various pumpkin recipes. Oh! Did I mention that my son's party is going to be a pumpkin party?! Yes, indeedy! Nothing scary. They are toddlers afterall (though I have been longing to do the ol' eyes and brains in the touch and feel bowls trick- have to safe that for another year or two...)

Now that I have revealed to you the theme of the party, it is pretty obvious I need pumpkins and a lot of them. All you fellow Americans are saying, easy peasey! Go to your local pumpkin patch you're thinking and fill a pickup full of pumpkins and gourds, huh? Not so fast. I WISH it was that simple. First off it is spring remember so pumpkins aren't in season so that is a bit tricky. We don't even grow the traditional orange round pumpkins here. If you search you can find them; imported and pricey. The first year I moved here my hubby and I splurged and bought one. It was only a medium sized pumpkin and it cost us 40 bucks. Crazy! I did however see a couple at our local supermarket for $3.99/KG so that is an improvement. However, I'm not going to spend that kind of money to create a pumpkin patch in my back yard for the party. I have to be a bit more frugal and resourceful.

I don't want to give away everything I'm making for the party because I want most of it to be a surprise for those attending. I will share though some little needle felted pumpkins I have been busy making. These can be used as little decorations, of course but I have something a little more fun in mind for these minis. My son has been obsessed lately with loading up his toy trucks with fruit pieces from his Hi-Ho Cherrio board came. Watching him gave me a great idea. Wouldn't it be fun for the kids to have a bunch of little pumpkins to load up in trucks? I think so! They are all toddler to preschool age so they are very much into that sort of play so I hope that they'll find it appealing. If anything they'll like the trucks and if the pumpkins get thrown to the side I'll just save them for deco :)