Plastic Pumpkin Problem

Last week Duet broke Una's plastic pumpkin bucket. You know the kind: the receptacle favored by children everywhere for collecting and storing their Halloween treats. I think we purchased ours for 99 cents a few years ago and I wasn't heartbroken when the handle broke. I threw it away, intending to buy 2 this year (one for Una, one for Duet). That of course was my pre-compact thought process.
This morning Una inquired about the broken pumpkin bucket. I told her I threw it out since it was broken and I stopped myself just before uttering "we'll go buy you a new one." Now I'm no expert on the difference between needs and wants, but at that moment I was certain that a plastic pumpkin bucket did not constitute a necessity. Remembering my compact I instead said "we'll make a special bag that you can take trick-or-treating." What exactly would making this "special bag" entail? I didn't really have any ideas. Una offered that it should be sturdy and hence, made out of wood. On second thought I had at least one idea: something made of cloth, not wood.
Together we went to the basement where I foraged through scraps of fabric to see if anything fit the bill.
Found: orange, green, and black fabric;
Found: orange thread;
Found: white ribbon from our stockpile of gift wrapping supplies;
Borrowed: green thread from my neighbor (thank you Jill).
Together Una and I picked out the fabric and cut the pieces. I then designed the layout and sewed them together using only my sheer ingenuity, my friends. Tilt your head to the left and witness the plastic pumpkin replacement:
Blogger annoyingly wouldn't let me rotate the image. But you get the idea.
I've never claimed to be Martha Stewart, but I'm pretty pleased with the final product (the photo doesn't capture all of the details. Imagine how great they look when they're facing the right way). Maybe I'm a little bit crafty after all. Who knew I had that latent talent? Although this took a lot longer than it would have to simply go and buy the plastic pumpkins at the store, I'm thrilled for several reasons:
1. I didn't spend any money and so I kept to the compact;
2. I made good use of fabric that had been sitting around for years;
3. I had fun coming up with a creative solution to the plastic pumpkin problem;
4. These cloth bags will take up way less storage space than those plastic pumpkins;
5. I feel like a Halloween crafting genius;
6. Una and I had a great experience making these that we would have missed out on if we'd just bought buckets at the store.

I'll just say it: I'm proud of myself today.