Fancy pumpkins and fall.

I didn't get to visit any of the pumpkin patches in Half Moon Bay when I was there so I had to make sure I fit in a trip to one before Halloween. I'd been really wanting to find some unusual pumpkins this year to pile on the porch and keep around the house, so I took a trip to Borchard Farms in Castroville last saturday. In addition to the typical orange pumpkins they have every kind you could possibly imagine! White ones, black ones, green, pink, speckled, spotted, you name it! They also had tons of gourds and various squashes. I didn't take many pictures because I was distracted by the awesome selection, but here are a few.

Here's our haul. They had little flat bed carts that you can pull around the patch. I had a painting project in mind for the white-ish one in the front. That spotted green on in the bottom right is my favorite, but a close second and third are the pink one and the black (!) on in the top left. So cool!

Papercuts.

Since my first attempt at papercutting I've been absolutely hooked! There's something about the graphic contrast that the finish product has, the challenge to make sure I don't cut a key item out (or myself!), and the satisfaction of turning a plain piece of paper into a little piece of art. Here are a few of my finished pieces.

 

Half Moon Bay in October.

My boyfriend and I made the trek up to Half Moon Bay this past Saturday to check out the Annual Pumpkin Festival. I call it a trek not because it is far away (only about 46 minutes) but because it took us over 2 hours to get there due to festival traffic. Apparently it's a popular event!  Once we got there we had a great time browsing the many arts and crafts booths, checking out the giant pumpkins, and smelling/eating all of the pumpkin foods available! One of the highlights of the event for me was the giant pumpkin carving demonstration. The pro carver on staff, Farmer Mike sculpted this 1300 lb pumpkin into this snarling face in about 5 and a half hours. He utilized the thick rind of this Atlantic Giant to really give the it dimension.

This get a better idea of the pumpkin's massive scale with this photo.

Just as things were wrapping up for the evening, I grabbed a warm pumpkin churro (so amazing) and we walked to the beach to watch the fog roll in. I spotted these dried flower seed heads and thought they looked cool up against the view of the water. It was a nice end to the day (and we out-smarted the exit traffic by taking an alternate route home).

Ventinove.

That's Italian for 29, and that's how old I am as of today! Today is my birthday! The past couple of weeks I've really been working hard to get my Etsy inventory built up and ready for the holiday rush, but today I took the day off to relax, do some shopping, and a little bit of baking (banana bread, mmm). It's been wonderful! My boyfriend and I have planned a little birthday trip up to Half Moon Bay this coming weekend for the Pumpkin Festival! I'm really excited to check it out and pick out a few pumpkins so I get started decorating them. I have a few ideas I want to try out. And speaking of pumpkins, my sister gave me this little guy for my birthday.

Isn't that the coolest thing? It's a tiny velvet pumpkin! It's made buy a company called Hot Skwash that makes all sorts of beautiful velvet pumpkins using real pumpkin stems. They even make velvet mushrooms. Check out the Hot Skwash website to see where you can find a retailer near you.

Succulent extravaganza!

Last saturday I had the pleasure of attending the Succulent Extravaganza at Succulent Gardens in Castroville. Succulent Gardens is a supplier to shops like Flora Grubb in SF, DIG gardens in Santa Cruz, and Half Moon Bay Nursery. The entire growing grounds were open for viewing and it seemed like practically everything was for sale. Greenhouse after greenhouse of exotic and unusual succulents and cacti. I was in heaven! I took tons of photos, so here are a few in no particular order.

Deep maroon mound, so pretty!

Cool planter.

Stacked stone wall. Can you see the clusters of echeveria in the gaps?

I loved this little guy.

Flower pods.

Vegetated swale.

Nice, bright green rosettes.

I came home with one of these! It fades from pink to orange, to green to purple. Aloe marlothii

Ruffles!

Vertical gardening display

Along with the Aloe marlothii, I also came home with this:

Look at this purple beauty! Graptopetalum amysthystenum

I don't know what this one is called, but isn't it cute?!

Take a look at their website if you are looking for retailers in the bay area or to hear more about their events!