I have three pumpkings sitting on my front porch awaiting the gentle touch of a sharp knife. (I’d have bought them even if I never carved, because I’m addicted to homemade roasted pumpkin seeds. I leave a lot of the stringy orange bits on them, which caramelize ever-so-deliciously in the toaster oven.) What design should I do this year? Anyone seen any cool ideas? I often do a repeating semi-abstract pattern (like leaves around the whole thing) instead of a face of some kind, but I’m open to suggestions!
Wanna brag about your cool design? (Pics, or it didn’t happen!) Anyone ever do a Cecil face?
Mods … is this a Cafe Society thing? I couldn’t decide.
We grew some big pumpkins this year for carving. Got 3 of them (gave away two others). Its generally husband’s job to carve (I have 0 artistic ability and it shows). I scoop out the guts (I like to participate) and then he generally figures out a way to make them angry/scary.
This year, he has some bizarre idea of suspending one of them from the ceiling of the porch, and attaching a stuffed body to the bottom of it. I’m not at all sure how he thinks he’s going to pull it off, but it will be interesting!
Previous years, the Pi symbol carved into it recieved a favorable response. So did the pumpkin puking out guts and seeds…but we had less seeds to roast. My son did one a little early and it started to rot and blacken around the edges. That one looked pretty good too, oddly eough.
The jack-o-lantern eating a stuffed squirrel didn’t go over so well. Maybe it was too dark to see.
When the boy was in town this past weekend, we picked up a couple of pumpkins and carved them geekily. I haven’t made a jack o’ lantern in a loooong time–well over a decade, I’m sure.
The boy looked up the Homestar Runner stencils for ideas and made one with a Strong Mad face. In honor of the latest Hark! A Vagrant, I put Fat Pony on mine. Would you believe that I googled for a stencil and couldn’t find one? What is wrong with people! I had to design my own. There are a few things I’d change if I could do it over, but I think it turned out pretty well!
It’s a Star Wars theme this year thanks to our 6 year old son, who is going as a Jedi. So we have 4 medium sized pumpkins already that will be characters like Yoda, Storm Trooper, and fighters etc. depending on what he picks. Then we have one giant pumpkin from my sister’s garden that we are going to attempt to carve into the Death Star: http://www.fantasypumpkins.com/carving-the-deathstar.htm.
Wish us luck on that one. If it turns out I will post pics.
Nice
I have a similar Yoda template that I am doing tonight. So far I have made an X-wing and my husband has drawn up a bunch of the Death Star. It is a little tough because our big pumpkin is kind of misshapen, I think we will have to cut off part of the bottom to make it level.
This unseasonably warm weather has caused my pumpkins to pretty much melt. The high winds yesterday flipped over the top on Strong Mad, who now looks more like Helpless Crotchety, and the underside is all green.
Yeah, we put off the carving later than usual because I noticed all the neighbors’ pumpkins are looking pretty sad already. But I never put ours outside until Halloween night anyway because the squirrels feast on them. We have a big picture window to display them until then.
Some group in my neighborhood had been distributing plastic pumpkin buckets. I’ve gotten three so far, since I have yet to hang one off of my mailbox like everyone else. This thread has given me some ideas though…I think I have some black paint in the garage, maybe I can paint a design on one of them!
Unfortunately I didn’t really have that option–the point of carving the pumpkins was that it was something fun the boy and I could do together, and he wasn’t going to be back here until Thanksgiving (and I won’t be out there 'til the week after Halloween).
This is one of the benefits of living on the fourth floor: squirrels can’t reach my balcony. Of course, this also means that I pretty much just face the pumpkins in toward my living room, since nobody could really see them from the street anyway.
We usually carve the weekend before whatever day Halloween falls on, and I am able to put my pumpkins out that night and leave them out. But, last year my Animal & The Count rotted too quickly and ended up looking like shit on Halloween night.
This year I waited until last night to put them out. The weather got colder and it stopped raining.
One thing I’ve tried in the past and have done again this year is to put Vasoline on all of exposed carved edges. I guess it keeps the pumpkin from drying out. So far they both look ok today but it’s hard to tell if it’s the Vasoline working or the weather.
Shot From Guns I’d actually be excited to be able to put my pumpkins on my balcony like that where I could see them! It sort of makes me sad that all I really get to see each year are the pictures I take, while the pumpkins themselves rot outside…alone.
The high winds yesterday flipped over the top on Strong Mad, who now looks more like Helpless Crotchety, and the underside is all green.
This thread has given me some ideas though…I think I have some black paint in the garage, maybe I can paint a design on one of them!
Of course, this also means that I pretty much just face the pumpkins in toward my living room, since nobody could really see them from the street anyway.
