Saturday, October 30, 2010

Fun with a sharp knife

Every Halloween we decorate our front step with carved pumpkins. When I say 'we', I really mean DH. I buy the pumpkins, but he's always the one that carves them. He does such a good job it has never occurred to me to help other than by helping to remove the guts from the pumpkins. I rarely even make suggestions about what the pumpkin face should look like, for fear of asking for something too difficult to execute.

Something got into me tonight though - guilt perhaps, that DH always does all the work carving the pumpkins? Or simply some enthusiasm for attacking something with a sharp knife? (It's been a long, busy, and stressful week!) DH was asking the children what kind of designs they would like on their pumpkins this year, and I decided to look for some inspiration online.  I found lots of pictures of spectacular pumpkins, but decided that for my first attempt at pumpkin carving perhaps I'd better stick to something simple.

After looking at some simpler designs though, I came to the conclusion that they were really rather boring. We have a neighbor across the street who puts out a dozen or so very nicely carved pumpkins every year, and I don't want to lower the standards in the neighborhood! Thinking I'd probably bitten off more than I could chew, I finally got started. DD gave me a felt pen, and I drew a rough outline of what I wanted. I'm really not a very artistic person, and I knew that the contours of the pumpkin were going to distort my image somewhat, so I really thought as I got started that the pumpkin was more likely to end up in the compost pile than back out on the front step.

After I got done, and went on to carve the design DD had drawn on her pumpkin, DH decided that the carving will be my job from now on. I'm thinking maybe we should have more pumpkins next year . . .

My owl

DD's spider

DH's ghost


DS's pumpkin

15 comments:

nappy valley girl said...

Wow, those are wonderful.
All we managed so far is one jack o'lantern - and two of our pumpkins have been decimated by squirrels!

Iota said...

What do you mean, you're not artistic? You're VERY artistic!

Stella Jones said...

I think they all look wonderful but my favourite is the owl one. Congratulations. You don't say how you did it exactly, but it looks like you didn't pierce right through, just to the inner skin?
Blessings, Star

Rachel said...

What great jack-o-lanterns! I love them!

Almost American said...

Thanks for the compliments, but truly I'm not artistic - all I did was copy other people's designs!
Star - I did cut right through - I'll post some pics of the pumpkins in daylight so you can see. I made the spider's eyes bigger this morning as I thought they looked too small.

skirts and wellies said...

They are fantastic! You did a great job on those.

Anonymous said...

Very cool! Wish there were more of the Halloween fun here... We had a very quiet night. 2 big bags of chocolate treats, and 0 trick or treaters. :)

Almost American said...

We had 55 trick-or-treaters - a relatively low turnout for our neighborhood I think.

Beth said...

The jack o' lanterns are great! I particularly like the owl, and I hope I remember to try something similar next year. Or maybe I'll just carve one for Guy Fawkes's night? Not as grand as a bonfire, I know, but there's a substantially lower risk that I'd set the flat on fire...

Daffodilly said...

Well done Britain is proud!

Relax Max said...

I agree you are VERY artistic. No need to be modest. :) Amazing actually - you should see mine!

The pale observer said...

Those are some seriously artsy pumpkins!! Well done :)

The Witch said...

Those Pumpkins look great! It can really overtake you once you get the carving bug.
The owl is my favorite because I just love Owls.

Danielle said...

Cool! We love pumpkin carving - for a few years we had a household competition. We'd do about 4 each and a neighbor would decide. My DD always won - she's great at them, and would do super detailed ones.
Didn't do them this year but back to it next!

LOL maybe we can do an expat Blog Pumpkin Carving Contest or display or something. Woot, something we get to do in America that they don't do back home :)

MarmiteFluff said...

Great stuff! I dread pumpkin carving time, having twice gone through the sicky stage of pregnancy in October -- the mess of string and seeds still reminds me of it. Artificial pumpkins from Michael's next time, I think :)

Thanks for the comment on my other page, by the way! And you are tagged in my latest post. Sorry.

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