The pumpkin carving is definitely a favorite of mine- from picking one to choosing (or making!) patterns to setting them out on the front porch and lighting candles inside, I just love doing it. And this year, as we have for the past several years, we waited until the day before Halloween to secure our pumpkins, which turned out to be great (again!) since the farmer's market we usually get them at had marked them down quite a bit. In fact, we got two giant, heavy white pumpkins for a mere $5 each!
Darren always starts off by cutting out the tops...
...while I get "pumpkin gut" duty. And, yeah, I wear geeky t-shirts constantly when not at work. :) I also made sure to scrape down the inside of the face that I'd be carving to thin it out a bit- I learned my lesson after last year's near-debacle with the really thick white pumpkins!!
This year I knew that October would be nuts, so I made the decision early on to go with pre-printed patterns instead of trying to design my own. Luckily Target had Star Wars carving kits this year that included a few great patterns like this Clone Trooper helmet.
Darren chose a decidedly more intricate Darth Maul design (overachiever!!), and then we both got to work punching holes around the pattern outlines.
Carving happens after the pattern is punched and removed, and about halfway through Darren commented that he almost went with a Dremel carving kit this year. Well, duh!! Of course that would make life easier, and I very nearly dropped everything right then and there to head to Home Depot to pick up a new tool set. The only thing that stopped me was the impending arrival of the first wave of trick-or-treaters in approximately an hour...no way I woud have have time to get to the store, get back, and finish my pumpkin. But next year? Oh, yeah!
Looking at Darren's pattern, it's no wonder he wanted the Dremel kit. He's definitely the master carver of the two- I always pick the super easy patterns.
We finished up the pumpkins and got them to the front porch just as the first wave of trick-or-treaters arrived. There was still quite a bit of daylight around, but later that night...
I slipped back out to take some proper photos.
Darren had to leave to teach lab at the university not long after that, so I spent the majority of Halloween alone, working on the Christmas Scrapbook Paper Roundup when I wasn't handing out candy.
All in all, it was another lovely, calm Halloween!