I have an announcement. Sunday night, I finally watched The Fault in Our Stars. Am I the last (girl) person to see it? Probably so… Although I read the book months ago, the movie is haunting me. I’ve been thinking about the Shakespearean quote that inspired the title.

Since it’s pumpkin carving time at my house, I decided to do something a bit non-traditional. Instead of carving the typical bright orange pumpkin, I carved one of my gray-green pumpkins. I adore these peculiar pumpkins. They seem moody and broody, and if they could talk I’m certain they would say things like “whatever” while rolling their hollowed out eyes.

These are the teenagers of pumpkins, obnoxious yet with personality plus.

When I saw this star design pumpkin from Reader’s Digest, I knew exactly what I wanted to do—carve the night sky into my green pumpkin. I’d call it The Fault in Our Stars Pumpkin.

I gathered up all my pumpkin carving tools including a few nails, screws and screwdrivers. These would be used to make the star pinpoints.

First step of course was to clean it out. I wasn’t expecting this pale pumpkin to have such a rich, fragrant interior. It smelled more like a watermelon or cantaloupe than pumpkin.

This was truly an experiment in pumpkin carving. I made different sized holes to give the impression of star distances. And I avoided spacing the stars evenly because nature is random.

I extended rays from a few of the larger stars using a knife.

There was a hammer involved too.

The Fault in Our Stars pumpkin isn’t perfect. Like the quote infers, it isn’t meant to be.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Ed Sheeren – All Of The Stars