Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween!

This one wasn't by either of us, fyi :P

So, if you haven't been following me on Google Plus, this month (and why haven't you??) you didn't see my month long tribute to the fun and spookiness of Halloween. I featured a lot about the old Universal Monster movies, some neat craft ideas, and....well....lots about old Universal Monster movies.

Ahem.

O.k, so you really didn't miss all that much, but I also revealed the results of our Sometimes Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest. We missed last year, hence the "sometimes annual".

Anyway, what we do is get a bunch of snacks, pop in some Halloween themed movies and go about carving pumpkins. Since it's just the two of us, the "contest" portion of the night really isn't all that "contesty"...but it's still loads of fun.

We did two, separate, sets of pumpkins as the first started to rot after only a couple of days. I had read where, if you smear Vaseline inside as well as in the cut out holes, the pumpkin will last longer and, now, I can confirm that. After about a week, the second set of pumpkins we carved still look brand new.

On the first Carving Night we loaded up on all kinds of stuff that's not good for us, like egg rolls, mini pizzas, mozzarella sticks, and pie....pumpkin, naturally. We each picked two movies...my wife went with Halloween Town 1 and 2 and I chose The Wolfman and Mad Monster Party.

A before shot.

Another 'before'

Our "supervisor"... Spooky

The (tasty) innards

Tracing the pattern

S.H.I.E.L.D..of course I'd do something comic booky

My wife tried a shaving technique to make a smiling face/graveyard


The finished products.

As I mentioned above, due to the fact that the pumpkins started to dry up and rot a couple of days later...and my wife wasn't satisfied with her experimental shaving offering....we decided to carve up a couple more unsuspecting pumpkins.

This time we just went "old school"...my wife using our cat, Jasmine, as a model for hers while I just went with some generic creepiness. These didn't turn out half bad, I have to say.

For the movies, this time, I picked Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (which my wife had never seen...but loved...) and my wife chose Hocus Pocus.

These pumpkins were much smaller (by design) and it didn't take us nearly as long to carve them up (again, by design).





While I'm sure neither of us will ever make the National Pumpkin Carving Tour (is there such a thing?), we had a ton of fun and, after all, isn't that what Halloween is all about?

Here's wishing you all a very safe and happy Halloween and watch out for all the little creatures if you happen to be driving tonight!



14 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

You might not win, but that S.H.I.E.L.D. pumpkin is awesome!!

klahanie said...

Greetings human, Mark,

The problem we find with Google+ is that it can become a magical mystery tour. And with our old computer, Google+ takes an eternity to load.

You should start up a National Pumpkin Carving blogfest. You have some impressive pumpkins happening there.

Oh and Happy Howloween!

Penny the Jack Russell dog and modest internet superstar! :)

Melissa said...

Cool pumpkins. :)

Mark Means said...

@Alex: Heh, thank you! Of course my wife always wins...I have to vote for her, too :D

@Penny: Trust me, I understand...but I still have to get my plug in :) Thank you and hope you had a great Halloween, too.

@Melissa: Thank you!

Sheena-kay Graham said...

S.H.I.E.L.D.?! I love you man! Happy Halloween.

Lisa said...

How fun! I love it that you do it together and watch films at the same time. Sounds like my kind of event! I agree with the above comments, you should do a pumpkin blog (hop/fest?) next October!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

They look great all a-glow.

We used to carve pumpkins but it was sad they never lasted. Now we just paint them. This year I got Steve the Minion pumpkin.

Laura Clipson said...

I did a cat pumpkin too, but your wife's is better! I think I need to start doing pumpkin carving contests with people, it sounds like fun!

Tyrean Martinson said...

Love your pumpkins and your yearly tradition - it sounds like the kind of fun that I love on Halloween! :) That's a great tip about putting Vaseline inside the pumpkins too.

BTW - I have your interview up at my blog. http://tyreanswritingspot.blogspot.com/2013/11/1-word-interview-with-mark-means.html

Tara Tyler said...

those are so awesome!
i'm bummed we didn't even do pumpkins this year =( and the rain kept us from trick or treating...

oh well!
btw, I sent you an email with my guest post for Monday - let me know if you got it =)
thanks!

Robin said...

Your first pumpkins were pretty darn awesome. I was partial to the SHIELD one, but I liked your wife's pumpkin too. The second ones were more generic, but successful with the Spooky Factor. Cool trick about vaseline keeping them longer!!!

Julie Flanders said...

How fun! I love pumpkins but I suck at carving them. It's kind of sad the mess I make LOL. These are awesome.

Al Diaz said...

Those are really nice pumpkins. I dig the S.H.I.E.L.D logo! You still have an invitation to confirm at the cave. It will not be a party without you.

Unknown said...

My son's an engineer and always does fairly elaborate carvings. I'm a simple woman-- just carve the sucker and roast the seeds. :)

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