The Reason for the Season

It's officially fall, which calls for every seasonal cliché we all know and love. Chunky knits, golden foliage, and pumpkin-spice-every-damn-thing takes over life. One of my personal favorite fall traditions is my annual "Inappropriate Pumpkin Painting" party. My girlfriends and I get together to paint and carve pumpkins, drink too much wine and have borderline obscene conversations. Ya know, ~girl talk~. This is the fourth or fifth year we've done it (not sure exactly how long, I told you we drink a lot of wine) and I think I've gotten it down to an easy-to-replicate formula. And it's especially great because it's one of those get togethers you can throw that looks impressive but is easy and pretty inexpensive to pull off.*

*It's always a good idea to dedicate at least one pumpkin to Beyoncé

What you'll need + where to get it:

1-2 pumpkins for each person. I usually have everyone bring one and then I have extra.
A disposable table cover - I used a festive orange one that's sold out but this lovely black one is still festive
Paint and paintbrushes or pumpkin decorating kits - I love these
Cups of water for brush cleaning because we're elegant pumpkin artists - these Day of the Dead ones are a little hipper than the standard Halloween options
Good wine
Good food - I made Jimmy Fallon's crock pot chili and it was pretty divine
Good music - here's my "Get Spooky" Spotify playlist

I like to have the whole setup ready and waiting. That way we can just start pour the wine, eat some chili and get to painting.

Make sure the pumpkins are nice and clean. Shine those babies up. Pro tip: I found Trader Joe's had the best pumpkin deals this year. YAS TJ!

I like to arrange all of the materials in the middle. You don't really need a full-blown centerpiece but I like to add lanterns for a little ~fall flicker~. For supplies, I use painting kits but I also get extra paint and brushes. We need those after a little wine when we start to freestyle our designs and things get inappropriate. I also use a disposable table cover that can handle paint spills. It also makes for easy cleanup.

I love these kits that come with everything you need to decorate a pumpkin. It's nice to avoid buying gems, pipe cleaners, and other things you'll buy too much of and never use again. They're technically for kids but that probably is best for my crew. And a nice little bonus is that they're only $5 each. Praise the Halloween gods.