my history with pumpkin carving.

Twitter and the blogosphere have been buzzing with Halloween-type activities, including the ever-popular pumpkin picking and carving. As I scrolled through posts and clicked on picture links that had been tweeted, I realized the number of times I actually laid hands on (or in) a pumpkin was very small. In fact, after some careful research – flipping through old photo albums – I came up with an exact number: two.

1993, 6 years old.
This one barely even counts, since my dad probably did 99.99% of the work.
(Also? Matching haircuts! That my dad did! And I cried! /hate)

Yes, there have only been two times in my life (at least that I can remember and/or have been documented) that we carved pumpkins in this house. And, as far as I know, I’ve never set foot in an actual pumpkin patch. The closest thing I’ve done is gone on a haunted hayride.

1997, 10 years old.
I can safely say that the only reason I carved this one was because it was a Girl Scout or Boy Scout project.
(To clarify, the reason it could also be a Boy Scout project is because my mom was den mother, so I got to take part in all the cool craft projects).

Needless to say, for the past few years I kept meaning to at least go over to Shoprite and pick up a pumpkin, but it never happened. I even bought a kit that I thought was cool – it wasn’t to carve the pumpkin, but instead turn it into a Light Brite-type display. After passing over the kit for at least three years now, I decided it was time. I picked up a medium-sized pumpkin to use with the kit and three baby ones to decorate with my yet-to-be-used Martha Stewart glitter set.

My camera died right as I was getting started, so I there aren't any 'before' pictures or ones of me pulling the insides out of the pumpkin. To summarize the experience, I didn't realize how hard it is to cut through the pumpkin, had fun gutting the pumpkin, was unsure of how good the end result was going to luck, and completely forgot that the light that comes with the kit I bought changes colors. Here are the results.

My bat, which was the only decent-looking stencil from the kit.


My fiber-optic pumpkin in action!


Glitter pumpkin!


Spotty glitter pumpkin!

Overall I'm very pleased (read: extremely giddy). Any craft project that includes glitter is automatically amazing in my book, and the fiber-optic-type kit that I used ended up being really cool!

I'll be back on Sunday with a picture of me in my costume, but until then, have a fabulous Halloween-y weekend!