Last weekend I went with friends to a baby shower in Maryland. Two days before the shower we all received an email with a You Tube link and the message “I know you girls can do this” from Tracy, who was hosting the shower for her daughter Chelsea.
Well, I watched the little video which gave a high overview of how to carve a watermelon to look like baby carriage filled with fruit salad. Granted, this little presentation makes it look super easy and it makes it look like it should not take more than a few minutes to whip this thing out.
Then I looked on Pinterest since this is where I figured Tracy got the idea from and I had probably seen it there myself. Yup, there are tons of examples of all kinds of cute and adorable baby carriages full of fruit salad and they range from the ornate to the slightly strange. I wondered if our skills would pass the test. Would we be able to do the watermelon justice and make something presentable for the shower? Who knew, we only were going to have one shot. And there are so many stories of Pinterest ideas gone wrong…the pressure was on.
That morning we got up and after a late breakfast, Tracy started carving the watermelon. She got the ball rolling so to speak and the next thing you know, Denise jumped in and took over carving, scooping and making watermelon balls.
Betsy had not seen the You Tube video and was not sure how we were to proceed, so she took a quick view while Denise continued making melon balls and scooping out the watermelon.
I was in charge of making the wheels. They did not take long and that allowed me to document the feat for posterity, pajamas, bed hair and all! This is real life, not some prettied up version that only shows the best of the best. This is how we roll!
June had her own project, making a wonderful ginger peach punch.
Betsy started on the cantaloupe and honey dew melons while Denise worked on the watermelon.
Then we started assembling the handle and wheels.
It’s important to have strong toothpicks or at least a lot of toothpicks in case you break them trying to get them into the watermelon. This one had a thick rind.
But we were successful in attaching everything needed. We didn’t get real fancy on our carriage, we kept is simple and basic, no ruffled edges or carved designs.
Betsy was a trooper. She made lots of melon balls that day. And there were lots of jokes about melon balls and lots of other things that morning.
As things started winding down the kitchen was starting to smell fantastic. June was grating fresh ginger, we had all those melons, freshly cut oranges and limes for the wheels and then we added blueberries and strawberries to our melon balls to start filling the carriage.
The last touch was to add a little baby head Tracy made from a nectarine (I think) and then we were done.
Here is one proud Denise showing off our finished product. You know, we did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. Thanks to Tracy we had a Pinterest success! And we had a lot of fun making it together.
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What Pinterest inspired ideas have you had success with?
Wow… now I’ve seen it all! A watermelon/melon ball baby buggy party… sorta like a Tupperware party!! Looks like a great time was had by all! I enjoyed the play by play photos. :-}} Love, Mom
Yes, it was fun. But it took all of us to pull it off! If I had to do it by myself it would take quite some time.