Pumpkin Guts

Saturday Chelsea & I went to get supplies for our Halloween Extravaganza in a couple weeks, and we got a costume for me (hooray for the Goodwill!) and some pumpkins to carve! Here are a couple pictures taken by Chase documenting our pumpkin carving:



And here's one I took of my pumpkin all lit up:


We were inspired by an email forward of carved pumpkins to use the stems as noses. I think it's pretty cool, but it did make it more awkward to get the guts and seeds out. Oh well, I'm pretty satisfied with the finished project.

Décor

You probably would have thought that we would have gotten rid of our pumpkin by the time we put up our Christmas tree. I’m here to tell you that you would have thought wrong. Jack (the pumpkin) is as moldy as ever, but now he has collapsed in on himself. I’m not sure how we (and by we I do mean Chase) are going to move Jack, but eventually he’ll be tossed into the ravine.

I’m actually quite surprised that he’s lasted on our porch as long as he has. A while ago, I was pretty sure someone was going to smash him like some other pumpkins were in the street. There are two possible reasons why he has not been smashed: (1) He is the coolest and was, therefore, left alone or (2) he is moldy and nasty and not easily picked up to smash. Even in his nasty moldy state, I still think he looks pretty cool.

So, Christmas decorations! I put up the tree on Monday while Chase was at band practice. I tried a new way of putting on the lights. Last year, I saw Martha Stewart on some morning show talking about the best way to light a tree. She said instead of wrapping the lights around the tree, you should make zigzags going up and down the tree. This not only makes it easier to put the lights on, but it also makes it super easy to take them off!

Speaking of lights, Chase and I have different preferences on how Christmas lights should be. He prefers white lights that don’t flash, blink or run. Also, he likes for all the ornaments on the tree to match. His mom’s tree is always decorated with red and white ornaments and white lights. But I prefer multicolored lights that flash, blink and run and aren’t necessarily in sync. I also like the tree to be decorated with ornaments that have no rhyme, reason or theme. My mom’s tree has the flashing out of sync lights and all kinds of ornaments. I guess we just prefer what we grew up with. I used to tell Chase that if we have white lights inside, we’ll have colored lights outside or vice versa. So far in our married Christmases we haven’t put lights up outside. Our compromise for the time being is to have a tree with white lights and multicolored ornaments, but most of the ornaments are glass ball-types (that came from my parents’ garage).

The best ornament we have is this one. Why is it the best? It’s a Skyline ornament! Skyline is only the greatest chili ever! Skyline is actually a restaurant that serves Cincinnati-style chili, and I must say that it is the best thing about Cincinnati. Lucky for us, we’ve been able to find Skyline in the can at our local Kroger’s.

Moldy pumpkins and chili, appetizing, no?

Moldy Jack

As you can see, my pumpkin is pretty moldy. Maybe one of these days we'll throw it out. Last year Chase and I let the pumpkin get to the point to where it just about fell apart when he picked it up. We actually made a short movie about that pumpkin... Well, we haven't actually edited the movie, but we did shoot it. Maybe someday it'll be premiered on YouTube.

I guess I haven't really updated in a little while because nothing particularly update-worthy has been going on. I've mostly been in my regular weekday routine.

Oh, here's something: I contributed to a paint-by-numbers in the bathroom of an art gallery. Saturday, I went to Paducah, KY with Keli. She had to go to a gallery to do a paper about a photography exhibit. While we were at one gallery, the artist told us to visit this other gallery where you can contribute to a paint-by-numbers in the bathroom, so of course we did.

After doing some bathroom art (that just doesn't sound right...), we went to the mall and ate at Pasta House. I also purchased Christmas present number one. One down, and I'm not sure how many to go!

I don't think I have anything else to type about, so here are some more moldy pumpkin pictures for your enjoyment!

Halloween Hoopla

I was starting to feel sad that I hadn't gotten to do anything really Halloweenish, but this week I got to do two fun Halloween activities. On Wednesday, Keli and I picked out some pumpkins and carved them.

I carved Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Keli carved a tulip.

Last night Chase took me to a haunted house. Well, it was actually a haunted school supposedly built on a graveyard. While I don't think it was quite worth the admission, it was one of the more fun haunted houses that I've been to. Plus, part of Teen Girl Squad was behind us screaming, so we waited to go through with them and watch them be scared. They held on to me for a while when we went through this pitch black maze.

So, I think I've satisfied my Halloween fun cravings. I'm still a bit sad that I don't have a costume (or a place to wear a costume to, for that matter), and this will be my first year in existence not having a Halloween costume. But I'm pretty sure the world will not come to an end as I know it.