Julia sent pictures of her pumpkin she made from folding the pages of a book… it looks wonderful! She spray painted it, added the twig stem, a few silk leaves, copper tendrils with beads and then tied it all together with a torn fabric bow.
I think you’ll like it! :o)
She said it was pretty large… 9″ x 15″ and was wondering where she’s going to store it… EEK!
Doesn’t it look wonderful nestled with her other cloth pumpkins and accents?
Thank you for sharing your talents Julia!
I used to do this with the Sears catalogs and make Christmas trees… did you?
Linda went on a short trip to Branson Missouri and visited Silver Dollar City… a wonderful place to walk around and look at things. I haven’t been there since I was in Bible College in Springfield, Missouri… Thank you for the super pictures, Linda.
Linda included something “dolly related!” She recently bought Melody’s piano and said it was made so well, not to hesitate if you see one and want it. She said it’s a great piece and Molly has it in her room… she must be starting piano lessons.
No, Linda, I don’t remember the Grand Palace… that was back in 1979-80…
My sisters are still here, so this is it for today! Have a wonderful Monday…
See you tomorrow!
Blessings, Jeanne
Julia’s book-pumpkin turned out nice! Wouldn’t have thought to do that with a book. But then, my minor is in Library Science, and I don’t let anyone turn down pages in OUR books!! LOL But, if it’s a throw-away book (for whatever reason), I guess that would be okay…..
I enjoyed Linda’s pictures of Silver Dollar City; interestingly, a friend and her family recently visited there and posted pictures also–and there were very few duplicates between the two of you!
Also, Linda, I love Molly’s bedroom–lucky girl, to have her own piano in there! Hm, I wonder if I can justify bringing another LARGE item into the house…and where I would put it! LOL
Monday and Tuesday our smocking guild has Vaughn Pierce (SAGA members may recognize her name) up here to teach two intensive days of classes, one day of embroidery, one day of smocking, so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have on the computer (while still awake, that is!) I will have, especially Monday night, as I also have ASG that night. I’ll still try to at least read the blog before I hit the hay.
Speaking of which….better get off the computer and head to bed pretty soon. I have to be up fairly early tomorrow, as I need to leave here about 9:15, and I still have to get the rest of my things together!
Oh wow, I loved Julia’s book pumpkin! I am at a loss as to how it stays connected at the center, mainly , because I don’t know how to make one! That must have taken ages to make, from the looks of it! Are the pages from books or magazines? I would think the book pages would be more sturdy. Love the way it is displayed with the chenille pumpkin and the very special home made turkey! What is the story of the turkey, Julia?
Oh, Jeanne, the Grand Palace was not there in the 70″s! In fact, we didn’t start going to Branson until 1995! It is right by Kringle’s, the BIG Christmas store, you can’t miss it, and in it’s heyday it put on the Radio City Rockettes show, which we got to see. The past several years have not been good to it and it sat vacant. Now, an aquarium is being built there!
Charlotte, the piano is not really that large! I myself had qualms about getting it, but when I saw the dimensions, it was easy to fit in Molly’s room. It is something I really enjoy looking at and it plays too! Yes, Jeanne, Molly IS going to start taking piano lessons, like I did at that age!
Thank you for showing my pictures, and you girls, have fun today!
Wow, I adore the pumpkin extravaganza.
Happy Monday Jeanne
Great pumpkins. I really like that kind of decoration. Linda’s piano is perfect for Molly and thanks for sharing the great pictures.
I’m on the way back from Cypress, Texas, after a ten day visit. So much going on with the children and extra activities and lessons. They love to stay active. Only exception is Riya would like to quit piano and already plays beautifully. Dad says that’s fine when you’re 18!
Love getting the blog but don’t know how you keep it going with all your responsibilities, Jeanne, but so glad you do. Thanks ‘
You have family in Cypress! My son and his family live nearly to there (North Fry Road) and my daughter-in-law’s grandparents live there. What a small world. Tell Riya she has been blessed with a gift and a wonderful opportunity to express it. She should stick with her piano at least until she’s older. She might find she loves it more than she thought. I had my first piano lesson at the ripe old age of 65. I wanted to play all my life but never had the opportunity. I sang because it didn’t cost my parents anything for me to do it. How I would have loved to combine the two.
Need some details here on the book pumpkin. Do you take the covers off? Hardback or paperback? Find a like able shape to trace? Use an exacto knife to cut through many pages at once? Love the pumpkin and the display.
What exquisite decorations at Silver Dollar City. So fun to see all of the great displays. Wonder how long it takes to prepare everything?
Thank you Jeanne for sharing Julia and Linda’s photos. So nice to see since at this point, there are no decorations around here. 🙁 Still thinking about how to dress up a few dollies. Maybe.
Thanks so much for sharing these wonderful pictures. I was blown away by the beautiful book pumpkin Julia made. Echoing Joy, we need details on how to do them. The turkey is the cutest!
The pictures of Silver Dollar City were amazing. I’ve only been to Branson once and it was in the summer. Hot and humid. I’ve been trying to get hubby interested in going back at Christmas but have not been successful so far. But I’m not giving up.
I still need to upload the pictures of the doll building at the Cedaredge museum so I can send a few to you. The building contains mostly antique dolls donated by the families of local women or in some case the women themselves. Very few modern day dolls, but there are some. On my to-do list.
We have a cold front coming in today. Should be here very soon. Fortunately we have not had the weather event Dallas had last night. My one stepdaughter and her family live there but not in the area of the damage thankfully. Friday a really cold front is due to arrive with lows in the 40s. Unusual for this time of year. I mowed Saturday to clean things up a bit. Hopefully for the last time for awhile. David usually sprays for weeds in fall because they don’t seem to die back over our usually mild winters. I noticed that this year they are already gone and my Four O’clocks are disappearing already. I swear something is underground pulling them back through because they just disappear, no stems or leaves visible just leaving behind seeds. It totally amazes me each year.
The book pumpkin was made from an outdated college text book. You can’t give those things away! Ordinarily I cringe when I see something made from a book. At least this craft is keeping it out of the landfill. These were my son’s. He recently was looking for a book and when I was searching for it, I was surprised how many we still were storing. When I asked him what he planned to do with these texts, Son said he’d probably just forget about them again! So tongue in cheek I replied, “I can just light them on fire?” He said, “Sure, go ahead.” Turns out when the book store wouldn’t buy back his last semester of books, he took them to a friends place and burned all of those in a fire pit! I did not know THAT.
The pumpkin is made from a soft cover book and both covers are torn off. I sketched a pumpkin about the size of the book I would use and cut it in half. That was my template. I folded the corners 3 times each to get the shape. It. Was. Tedious. I did it over a couple days, each time until I was ready to quit! It’s a half pumpkin. After the twig is glued to the spine, the spine is glued to cardboard roughly pumpkin shaped. There is another piece of cardboard glued under it. I didn’t want my stem painted so I coved it with newspaper. Then I gave it a couple coats of spray paint from many angles. Pinterest has many other ways to use a book for this. I started another one by cutting the pages in a pumpkin shape using a box cutter. I put that aside because it was making my fingers sore. Also, it was an even taller book!
The paper bag turkey is one that Son made in grade school. He’s now 30!
I love Molly’s new piano in her cute room! I keep going back to look at everyone’s doll vignettes.
The pumpkins and mums in Silver Dollar City are fabulous! So many great sights. Maybe we will go after Hubby retires.
I hope I answered all the questions. Maybe in more detail than you needed or wanted!
Thank you for the great pumpkin/book explanation. I get it. 🙂 And I especially like it done in gold. 🙂
Lolla has arrived!!! She came this morning and is too cute. She is still eyeless because I forgot to buy the stuff to put them in, but with her new wig and a borrowed dress and shoes from Sophie, she feels right at home. I have patterns for clothes for her but she arrived before I could get to it. I have a dress to do before I can make her an outfit, but having her here gets me motivated to get what I’m working on finished so I can get started on clothes for her.
I forgot to say how much I love the piano Linda found. Every time I look for a piano all I can find are the plastic keyboards. I’ve never seen one like Linda’s and I’ve been looking.
Congrats on Lolla! My Lolla is supposed to be delivered today too, but looks like our regular guy is out so no telling when she might arrive or if we’ll even be here to sign. Glad you reminded me about the eye wax. Must locate it and her wig. I bought it so long ago, I have no idea what happened to it.
Barbara, this is an American Girl piano that just came out recently. It is made for the doll Melody, hence it is called Melody’s Piano, but as you can see it is an upright, that can be used for many dolls. It is currently onAG’s website, and I heartily recommend it,
Thanks Linda. I will definitely go there.
Julia, thanks for the instructions for folding the pumpkin!
Silver dollar City looks amazing. That pumpkin/ squash tree is so beautiful !
Barbara look for Schoenhut pianos. They all look vintage and come in lots of sizes..so cute.
Hope your sister weekend was fun Jeanne🥰
Julia’s book pumpkin is wonderful and looks so nice with the rest of her display.
Your trip looks like a lot of fun, Linda. The pumpkin house is cute and I absolutely love the tree made of pumpkins, squash etc. That is amazing.
Molyy is so lucky to be able to take piano lessons. I hope she practices well. My mom’s Balwin piano that she received when she was four (yes, you read that right) still has pride of place in the living room.