Let us learn from the glass pumpkin while we enjoy a bowl of pumpkin tiramisu

I'm nothing if not a patron of the arts. For instance, this understated painting of myself hangs above my dining room table.

This weekend, 80,000 people will show up in my neighborhood for the Fort Worth Arts Goggle. This year's, Goggle, though is more than a Goggle. It is also a Boggle.

The Near Southside determined one day is not enough to celebrate the marriage of art, liquor and ice cream in this part of the city. While volunteers dutifully set up 21 blocks for 800 local artists tonight, the rest of us will enjoy a variety of specials at local bars and restaurants.

Melt Ice Cream, for instance, will introduce us to flavors we can expect during "Cookie Week." These flavors include Maple Pecan Sticky Bun, described as "maple brown sugar ice cream loaded with sticky bun chunks and cinnamon pecan prailine pieces."

If your preference for a nutritious breakfast leans more toward a cinnamon roll than sticky bun, they also have cinnamon ice cream with pieces of cinnamon rolls and cream cheese frosting.

Dark chocolate hazelnut is hazelnut ice cream with dark chocolate stracciatella mixed in. "Stracciatella" is Italian for "using chocolate in a way that leads to people discussing 'mouthfeel.'"

Or you can try Cookie Butter, "creamy toffee ice cream dotted with chunks of housemade cookie butter cookies and cookie butter cookie crumbles." Cookie butter has stormed the scene similar to pumpkin spice a few years ago. Loyal Scaiaholics will recall I would eventually learn pumpkin spice doesn't actually taste like pumpkin, but I suspect, given the liberal usage of the terms "cookie" and "butter," Melt's Cookie Butter Ice Cream stays true to the source.

Of course, we can still argue about pumpkins and spices thanks to Melt's Pumpkin Tiramisu, "pumpkin spiced marscapone ice cream with housemade pumpkin tiramisu chunks and rich and rich espresso caramel swirls throughout."

Maybe pumpkins are just showing us we can become anything we put our minds to.

A couple blocks away, SiNaCa studios shows us will have a pumpkin patch featuring gourds made of glass.

Their artistic director, Clifton Crofford, says they see a lot of novice artists and use the Goggle to introduce people to different types of media. They work with a lot of UT Arlington students and also have businesses rent out their studio.

Crofford says businesses can use glass art to help people learn to work collaboratively. They can also reintroduce adults, perhaps who have become stuck in a routine and more risk-averse, to the excitement of trying something new.

Crofford explains they tell people working with glass for the first time it doesn't have to be perfect. A wobble or a line that's crooked make a piece unique. Maybe instead of trying to make something that'll hang in a gallery, it's something unique and truly your own creation.

That creation can also capture a moment in time. You might show your figurine to someone a few years from now and remember the day you sculpted it.

At a time when so many people see their own metaphorical glass as half empty, the artists on Magnolia this weekend can encourage you to craft your own glass which is half full.

Meantime, the bars on Magnolia will be working to keep your glass completely full, of course.