Hello everyone! You might remember me from a few of Belle's writing blogs, but today I am here to teach you how to do...a Fall pumpkin! Out of clay! (yay) For this craft, you'll need clay, a toothpick, a small paintbrush, paint, and optional glaze to finish them off!

First, we'll start with a ball - it can be any size, big or small!

Then we'll use the toothpick to make the grooves by rolling it against clay, working from top to bottom. You can make as many or few grooves as you would like! You can also add leaves or vines at this step, but for now, I'm keeping it simple!

Next, we'll use the end of the small paintbrush to make a small dip for the stem of the pumpkin right...here!

We'll get another smaller piece of clay for the stem and push it into the dip we just made.

Now, the last step before baking is to poke a small hole in the bottom - that way, you can hold up your finished pumpkin on a toothpick while you paint. It makes it so much easier!!

After they're baked, painted, and glazed (if you want), they're finished! You can have them as little decorations around the house or make them into earrings, too (if you do this, make sure to poke all the way through the pumpkin so that you can string jewelry wire through it!)

That's all for now! I hope that you enjoy making many happy Fall pumpkins this season!

Hello everyone! I'm Roy and you may recall me from Belle's posts about writing. I have been recently informed that I have been given permission to have my own series of posts about...music! For that reason, I will be handling this question - do you need to warm-up? The short answer is - 

Yes. Yes always.
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Warming up before playing your instrument is like stretching before you run - small or big, you're still using muscles and doing so will prevent injury! Now as far as how to warm up, I always suggest doing - 

This can mean a variety of things depending on your instrument, but here are a few examples!

That way, the rest of your practice can be focused on learning notes and rhythms as well as deeper elements like musicality!

That's all for now! I look forward to handling more musical questions - happy practicing!

It's been a while since my last post! This shark has been working! Another friend of mine helped with this tip - she's the most patient unicorn I know! She would also like to apologize for her horn covering up the 'a' between 'at' and 'later!' 

Why a post on sequels? Because I'm currently writing one! 

You never know where they might take you! 

Doing more pre-work can mean less post-work! 

Keeping coming up with those ideas! 

It can be so easy to get bogged down by that first draft! Keep going!!

My best friends and writing pals helped out with my intro today! It was very kind of them.