Recently in pumpkins Category

It appears, after careful searching (read: not that careful), that I never blogged our pumpkin effort from last year. Odds are it was because we were stuck in Minneapolis due to Superstorm Sandy, but it could be just because I'm lazy (quiet, you.)

So, after a really nice effort this year, I've decided on a MEGAPOST of both years' accomplishments!

Without further ado, we'll start with 2012's editions:

Ellen's Dr. Who "Fezzes are cool":

Katie's "Nyan Pumpkin"

Chris's "Celtic Pride" unlit and lit








And my "Super Mario" unlit and lit.








Linda did not participate in the 2012 festivities, preferring to take a more advisory post. However, she did a wonderful job with her "Jack Skellington" head this year:





Katie followed up her lovely Nyan cat with an even geekier effort, the robots from Portal 2 "high fiving".

Chris outdid himself with the Psycho from Borderlands 2. I'm posting a picture from their website this is based on, and his freehand pumpkin version.

I did the 10th Doctor, David Tennant, looking angry.

It's time again for da carving to commence. This year, we did all our carving on sunday after I was away at the Sea Witch Festival, in Rehoboth Beach, DE. For the first time in years, I dressed up for halloween. When I get some of the good pictures from others, I'll post a few.

However, this post is all about pumpkins! We sort of went into this year with vague ideas at best. Ellen and I planned a Portal pumpkin, which i envisioned as a 3D thing with cutout sides. She did almost all the actual work--I just designed it. I thought it came out pretty well, as you can see below (unlit and lit versions):

Katie did everything herself. She found a Yatsuba picture of the girl holding her hands over her head and yelling. Unfortunately, the hands are indistinct, so it's hard to see them as hands, but I still liked it. She did do the entire thing herself, though, so she gets lots of credit for that (lit only):

Finally, I wasn't actually sure I'd do a pumpkin this year, but discussing an idea with Katie made me want to try to do a completely carved out, bas-relief pumpkin. Essentially, letting the shape of the thing come out from the pumpkin. I'm not sure it really worked, but it came out reasonably well anyway (and didn't take the 8-hours the Matrix one did last year...)

So, my entry this year, Katie had named "Identity Crisis", which I loved (several angles of unlit, and one lit):

So, there's this years crop. Hope you enjoy!

This year's installment of the annual Meyerson pumpkin extravaganza yielded some interesting results. We had planned on 2 pumpkins--I was going to just help the girls do theirs--but decided to add a third with me taking over the one Ellen was going to do. Good thing, too, as it took more than 5 hours...*rolls eyes*

To be honest, though, I think Katie's pumpkin came out best of the three, but you can be the judge.

Ellen's was the simplest, and only took a short time, but came out pretty cool. You have to know the video game Portal and the geeky comic it's based on from Penny Arcade, but anyone who does will instantly recognize it.

Katie also chose a video game theme, the Big Daddy from one of her favorite games ever, Bioshock. She did an amazing job on this one, and did everything herself. All I did was tape the pattern down and cut the top open.

I'm not sure people will recognize my entry, but I'll leave you with a clue...

Here's a slightly darker picture of mine. I couldn't decide which one I liked better.

Welcome back, loyal readers, to this year's Halloween edition of It Happened One Life. This year, we have a bit of a reversal. Usually, MY pumpkin is the most complex and the kids do simpler pumpkins. This year, with how busy we've all been, we literally didn't decide on pumpkin patterns until yesterday, and we carved them today, ON Halloween. The nice part of this was that everything was very fresh when put outside. That's the bonus of Halloween on a Saturday.

Also, this year, the kids did the pumpkins completely on their own, even when they had some trouble. Both of their pumpkins came out very impressive, especially when you consider that the transfer of the patterns to their pumpkins mostly didn't work and they both had to freehand the majority of their pumpkins. They did a great job!

First, my pumpkin, appropriate to the game 3 of the Yankees/Phillies World Series:

Next, Katie's terrific puppy dog:

Finally, Ellen decided to do Edgar Allen Poe, and when we looked at it after she was done, it looked...well, terrible. But, as is the wont of pumpkin carvings, the proof is in the lighting, and I think it came out really well:

All in all, another successful year of pumkining!

Another year, another batch of those short-lived art forms that are carved pumpkins. This year, much to my delight, the kids did theirs almost entirely on their own. We also tried something new that worked pretty well--Saral Transfer paper. This stuff goes right on the pumpkin, then the design gets put on top of that and you trace the design. When the tracing is done, you peel the whole thing off and have a nice clear copy of your design right on the pumpkin. This worked much better than the hole-punch-through-paper method because 1, the paper would get soggy and messed up half-way through the carving, and 2, there was no real way to determine what needed to be scraped, and what was supposed to be cut without checking the pattern anyway. So, this new way takes some time, but worked pretty well.

The kids picked their patterns and have finished theirs already, so I'll post pictures. Mine will be done tomorrow, and I'll post then--If the complexity of the one I chose doesn't kill me...

Katie chose the great Ang from a show they love called "Avatar." Here's the original Ang:

and her version--and remember, at 8 years old, this is all her doing:

Ellen, ever the activist, did what we hope to be our next president, Barak Obama:

Very nice job by both of them, showing tremendous patience with seriously advanced pumpkin carving.

So, updating now with my pumpkin, I chose a pretty ambitious project and after 2 hours tracing and a full 6 hours carving, I'm only somewhat happy with it. I think I just didn't quite scrape deeply enough where it's scraped, or maybe the pumpkin is just too thick. I'm hoping it will pop a bit more when it has a chance to dry and therefore thin, but it's not bad. I hope you at least recognize Van Gogh's Starry Night.