A few weeks ago, I got an invitation to my VERY FIRST Pumpkin Carving Party!
Yes, I am 30-ish years old, and I really can’t EVER remember carving a pumpkin. When I was little, I was too young to use the knife to cut the pumpkins. And, believe it or not, this girl’s childhood pumpkin carving adventures came way before they started putting out all these fancy childsafe kits. We may have carved some in college at some fraternity mixer of sorts…. but I’m sure I let the guys carve.
When LaDawn invited me to come over for Pumpkin Carving, I was immediately excited! Reading the invite… I got a little concerned when I saw the very last line.
No Kits?? What the heck!
For an amateur like myself, I wasn’t really sure how I would do carving freestyle. So, I did what any girl would do… I hit PINTEREST! Thankfully, I found a few things… and quickly decided that I would DECORATE instead of carve my pumpkin.
How cute was this one, afterall?
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And, this one I thought was so fun… definitely wanted to do this!
(Source)
So, I emailed my party hosts and cleared my “decorating” idea… and headed to the store to get supplies. I thought I’d get supplies for both and just get creative.
The party began with a beautiful lunch at noon. Such delicious treats they made for us, barbecue sliders, a delicious pear and blue cheese salad, jalapeno poppers, and homemade cupcakes! Yum-O!
She even found a lovely selection of wines that fit the Halloween theme: Spellbound Cabernet, Vampire Pinot Noir, and Hob Nob Cab. PERFECT!
This was my first time visiting LaDawn’s home, and there was something I was looking forward to even more than the Halloween cupcakes: Her newly renovated CLOSET ROOM!!!!
LaDawn just recently worked with Closet Factory to transform one of her spare bedrooms into a CLOSET. Oh, yes…. You heard me right. She has a room that is now a closet (a la Carrie Bradshaw.)
I told LaDawn today that I REALLY want to have a room like this one day… and that I will. I think though to convert my guest room today might frighten away potential suitors… and I just can’t have that! Very quickly they’ll understand that I NEED this, but let’s not scare them off too soon….
After our fabulous lunch and after I drooled (twice) over the amazing closet room, it was pumpkin carving time!
Everyone brought their own pumpkins, and mine is pictured at about 11 o’clock in the picture. It was without stem. Not sure why, but it had the best shape at the store… just no stem.
We all set up our stations and the carving/decorating began!
I started off by taping off my pumpkin… harder than it looks!
LaDawn dug right in… and was awfully smiley with knife in hand!
Deb was also carving, and I caught her scooping out the guts!
While everyone was busily carving, I spent my time taping off the pumpkin’s chevron stripes and painting. Now, I was PRETTY sure there was going to be some paint seepage. You can just tell. Still, I didn’t let it concern me….
When I pulled off the tape, it looked a little like a hot mess…. but I had a secret weapon in my bag.
So, I used the gold thumbtacks to cover where the paint bled under the tape! BRILLIANT! Dana joked that I was bedazzling my pumpkin… and it kind of looked like I did in the end!
In the end, we had some gorgeous pumpkins… here’s a few of my favorites!
The Cyclops
The Angry Robot Pumpkin
The Husker Pumpkin
The Pink Pumpkin
(Pink Pumpkins are very hard to carve, FYI)
And, last but not least…. the Chevron-Thumbtack Pumpkin!
Pictured with my Third Place Trophy… a bottle of Vampire Pinot Noir!
If you are looking for fun decorating ideas, definitely check out Pinterest (and the links I included above.) There are so many clever people out there doing AWESOME pumpkins…
Are you getting into the Halloween Spirit this year? How did you carve your pumpkin?