Painted Pumpkin Pics

Found items turn Livonia garden into artful sanctuary

What: The 22nd annual walk features five gardens at private homes, along with gardens at historic Greenmead
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 25
Details: In addition to the gardens, artists from Visual Arts Association of Livonia will be on hand demonstrating their work
Tickets: $9 before the walk, available at all Livonia libraries and the Greenmead gift shop; $10 the day of the walk, available at Hill House at Greenmead, located at Newburgh and Eight Mile, and Civic Center Library, 32777 Five Mile.

by Sharon Dargay

O&E STAFF WRITER

Sue Poster and Terry Poster's back yard is in bloom with bowling balls.

Glittery strands of beads hang from tree limbs near a trellis and greenery sprouts from old toy trucks, an empty suitcase, and a wagon.

“I have a lot of tchotchkes in the yard and things that mean a lot to me. I pick up found objects,” said Sue Poster, who moved from a larger lot in Northville to a postage stamp-sized yard in Livonia six years ago.

The backyard had “nothing but grass” when the couple moved in. Poster, who has attended garden walks in the past, vowed to create a memorable space that also reduced the amount of time her husband would spend behind a lawn mower.

Visitors on the annual Livonia Greenmead Garden Walk will get a chance to see the result when they browse the backyard, a certified wildlife habitat, on Saturday, June 25. The Posters' property is among five gardens featured on the tour.

Poster, a pastry chef at The Suburban Collection in Novi, gardens organically, which is one requirement of backyard habitat certification.

“We love homegrown organic vegetables. They taste good. My grandson loves to make pickles, so we have to grow cukes,” she said. “In Northville we had just a few tomatoes and herbs.”

She turned an old dog run into a “children's garden” where she grows broccoli, squash, pumpkin, garlic, horseradish, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and celery in Livonia.

Vines sprout from a tire that was used as a swing, but now rests on its side.

“I have my son's old Tonka trucks that I use as planters and a little wagon with flowers in it,” said Poster, who describes her mix of flowers and family artifacts as “a memory garden.” It includes an old milk bucket, with an intact label, that came from her great-grandmother's farm.

Painted Pumpkins to Celebrate Halloween | ExtraIncomeBoosters.com

Painted Pumpkins to Celebrate Halloween

Posted by gcot in Extra Income Ideas | 0 comments

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Everyone loves a great jack-o-lantern to celebrate Halloween. If you can paint, go with painting fantastic images on pumpkins and sell them – right from your home! You can charge anywhere from $3-$50 per painted pumpkin. Use your imagination and come up with many designs!

Halloween is a festival that all children and adults look forward too. Children love dressing up as ghosts, witches, Draculas, in fact anything their imagination permits. Then carrying their lanterns made of pumpkin, they start collecting money while singing songs. So this is where you can lend your expertise by starting a service of painting various fantastic images on pumpkins, and selling them.

Families usually carve a frightening or comical face on the pumpkin, to be placed on their doorsteps. Therefore, instead of having pumpkins carved with the same faces, you could offer some variety by painting something different on pumpkins. All you need is some imagination and you are bound to come up with different designs. It is of no use charging too much for this service, as you will not get any customers then. Instead, charge something reasonable, between $3 – $50, depending on the size of the pumpkin and the amount of work put into painting or carving it.

The carving of the jack-o-lantern is not that difficult. The first thing that has to be done is to have its top and stem carved off wherein the interior is removed to leave a hollow shell. Then the section of a side is carved out to create an attractive face, or any other required design. It is always better to get a whole set of tools to start your job of painting pumpkins. This is because with differing tools, it is possible to make thicker and thinner cuts on the pumpkin, which can create realistic designs. To give better effects to the jack-o-lantern, it would be better to have them painted appropriate colors. For children’s sake, it is better to use non-toxic paint pot strips for painting purposes. Once you paint the pumpkin, it will look a whole lot spookier or comical whichever way you want it!

Instead of catering only to families, you could also consider catering to farm markets and other retailers needing a jack-o-lantern. With this, more people will know your skills, and you get greater business. Of course adding a discount to the bulk orders will attract more customers to you! Whatever orders you get, it is important that you take photos of your pumpkins to create a portfolio of the work you can do. This is even more important for those exquisite pieces you do! This way, prospective customers will be aware of the kind of work you can do and can decide on the best design.

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