Vegetable Carving

Last night (and into this morning) E and I engaged in some old-age, ritualistic pumpkin carving. It was E's first time without the tried and true jack o'lantern style, and my first time with... I'm not sure what you call it. Both pumpkins were smashing successes. There will pictures at the end of this, for you good boys and girls who keep reading, and for you clever boys and girls who simply scroll down.


The ceremony began with the bathing of sacrificial vegetables, the preparing of the surgical instruments, and the choosing of the new appearence. E chose to give her pumpkin a lovely witch-and-grinning-pumpkin motif, and I chose the little mermaid, because nothing says "fish" like "pumpkin". E finished way before I did. She had time to mix up a batch of pumpkin bread, bake it, and let it cool between her finishing time and mine. Then there was a giant photo op.


E spent a long time commenting on the plastic surgery I was giving Ariel, and we bemoaned a few slip-ups here and there. By and large, a fun time was had by all. And those weird Islanders (AM and K) wanted to just eat the "squash" without having fun. Some day, we'll get it through to them that it's fun to waste food for recreation.


Here's E's pumpkin. I actually only have a few photos of this one on my camera, so there will only be two here:


With the lights off:



And with a really cool reddish glow and nicely positioned candlelit grin:



Then we have the merpumpkin, found below. I fully acknowledge the oddly glowing eyes and the slightly demonic cast those peepers take on at night. If you look and see the kind of space I'm working on, though, I think you'll understand my fear that, by working on her more, I'll destroy her.


Here's Ariel with the light on her:



Here she is with less light on her and more light in her:



And here she is with still less light in the room: