Pumpkins with Personality: Jack O’Lantern’s

Carving pumpkins has been slow-going today. The best laid plans of mice and men. Our resident carver is also the chief technology officer around here, so he’s been trouble shooting internet problems all day. We had a power outage this morning, followed by two internet fails. The horrors!

After much research and a few choice words for Comcast, we are up and running…temporarily. He’s back to carving and I’m keyboarding as fast as I can before the internet connection hiccups again.

First up, Mike’s carving the outline of a Halloween greeting card, one we sent to family down south. He photocopied the die cut card, then enlarged it into a template. I don’t know where he gets the patience.
Mike Carving

templateHere’s an example of my carving skills. I’m afraid of sharp knives and I lack the patience. What I wanted to do was create a tiny fairy garden in the center of this pumpkin, but since it will rot in a few days, I settled for this corny little thing.  It’s back-lit with an upended, battery-operated tea light.  (Mike’s so clever).

pumpkin cat

A circle, a toothpick and a paper cat.

Enough said.

My younger son carved one of the leftover mini pumpkins from our weekend party. Isn’t it cute?
mini pumpkin

It’s 10:30 at night, so the rest of the carving will have to wait till tomorrow. How about you? Are you ready for Halloween?

flying witch pumpkin

Flight 1031

Halloween Countdown

snail hotel carved

Snail Hotel Pumpkin

I will be sad to say goodbye to the Snail Hotel. Those snails did an impressive job “carving” both the front and VIP entrance. They left town at the first sign of rain. Although the stem fell off when I brought it indoors, I was impressed with the way this pumpkin held together. These seeds are definitely going into the Seed Keeper for next year.

Snail Hotel: Hole in One

snail eating pumpkin

Belly up to the bar

A clever and voracious garden snail found a soft spot in one of our pumpkins.  He/she went on a pumpkin bender a few nights ago, slurping an impressive, though disappointing hole in one…pumpkin that is.

Now that they’ve breached the shell , decay will quickly set in. Add to that our spiking temperatures (yet again in the eighties!) and we’ll have a sloppy, slushy, pumpkin mess before week’s end. Taking inspiration from my friend Sheila, I converted the lost pumpkin into a snail hotel. I love my Sharpie’s! I love my pumpkins too, but the damage is done. In addition to counting down to Halloween, I’ll now be counting the days till the Snail Hotel is officially condemned.

pumpkin snail hotel

You can check in any time you like…

snail hotel closeup

Snail Hotel: Mollusks Welcome

Stay tuned!

Halloween Countdown

pirate pumpkin

Pirate Pumpkin
Shiver me Pumpkin Ribs