The shop features a “stalker’s maize” with a reference to Children of the Corn (a requirement to keep my Gen-X card) and a pumpkin patch formed from tiny painted Sculpey pumpkins with creeping Jenny vines. Instead of tending the cash register, Jolene is out for a swim in the “pond.” (No rules against repurposing–it was a pool from last year’s Columbo scene.)

Inside, “Plantasia” spins on the turntable, with Shonen Knife’s “Burning Farm” queued up next. Years ago I found a big set of Japanese plastic dollhouse furniture at an estate sale, and the record player and speakers from that set appear in multiple pumpkins.

I often build components and assemble the pumpkin inside. I modeled the roof after our house’s barn-shaped (gambrel) roof. I clipped some lantana, rosemary, and coleus to make “house plants” in the sink and toilet. When I attempted to move the pumpkin to the front porch, I dropped the whole thing on the floor and had to reconstruct it. Miraculously, nothing was damaged.