Leftover Pumpkins and more
There is so much you can do with left over pumpkins.
From recipes to wildlife to kid’s crafts, floristry and nails of course
You may only buy them once a year to cut, carve and stick a candle in.
Of course, there are more reasons to buy apart from Halloween decoration and many other ways to use the discard your handwork.
The colours and feelings they always evoke in me are warm drinks, I love a spiced chai latte. Wrapping up warm and toasty, great new nail polish shades for the season. So many varying hues of orange and browns its hard to choose. Plus getting creative, the latter are thoughts (I’ve not an artistic bone in my body) but I love to look and share and just wish for a creative spark.
Polish colours don’t seem to be following typical seasonal shades this year. Instead, it’s quite a mixed bag if you look over the magazine articles.
Dark shades of blues and greens, a bit of shimmer in the deeper reds and the nudes are still in the limelight with hints of grey.
So, whichever shade or brand you go for you’ll be looking good!
My fav brand has always been Mavala. I love the tiny 5ml bottles and the brush is easy to control. They are stocked in all good high street stores, so much easier to gauge the true colour.
With a neat little tidy up with your glass nail file, you’ll be able to create some fab nails.
So many uses for your left over pumpkins rather than discard to the rubbish (compost heap hopefully).
The first reason is they are a great source of:
- vitamin A.
- vitamin B2.
- vitamin C.
- vitamin E.
- Iron
- Copper
- Potassium
Which of course are all great to help nails grow healthy. Of course, various recipes to show you so many different ways to cook and eat. Personally, I love to chop into chunks and roast them with garlic, and other veg with a drizzle of olive oil. There are some great recipes on The BBC Good Food website https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/pumpkin-recipes
You’ll never be stuck for ideas.
Feed the wildlife
If you’re not keen to eat it yourself, then chop it up and leave it out for the wildlife.
Squirrels, foxes, badgers, birds all love a munch on them. Wildlife always needs a helping hand as the weather gets colder.
If you don’t have a garden place them in your local park or woodland green space area by some trees, they’ll make a great snack.
Kids craft ideas
They can of course help feed the wildlife with the leftovers.
There are indoor activities too.
Cut out shapes and use them as stamps for painting artwork.
Now, this is a nice little hack for firework night, especially for toddlers.
Cut your pumpkin into thick oblong chunks, so a child can hold it comfortably.
You can carve patterns into it too, so it’s more magical wand looking.
Then when firework night arrives you can insert the end of the sparkler into the pumpkin wand to keep it further away from the child’s face and hands. Or use the empty pumpkin to put the used sparklers in to cool down.
Find your inner florist
This idea I saw on a Sunday morning TV programme (Alan Titchmarsh), and it looked amazing.
Different size pumpkins and squashes were used as the flower container rather than a vase. Make sure the inside of the pumpkin is cleaned out and fill with some eco-friendly type of oasis or moss.
Then let your creative juices flow. Just watching the floristry skills of Simon Lycett work his magic was so relaxing.
Why not give it a go?
They made great table displays and creative pieces to place around the home for a couple of weeks.
Whatever you choose to do with your pumpkins this year, please don’t just throw them in the waste bin. Give them a second life and be more eco-friendly too. Please let me know if you do any special with your left over pumpkins
Have a safe Halloween.
and remember to look after your nails with these products https://freshtherapies.com/nail-products/
