Our Pumpkin Carving in 2012

Yesterday, my husband and I made Jack-o'-lantern. I bought a pretty big sized pumpkin with bright orange color at Trader Joe's on the day before yesterday. I searched a free pumpkin carving stencil pattern on the Internet. There were many attractive stencil patterns such as classical Jack-o'-lantern, Disney characters, cartoon characters, movie characters, cat, wolf, spider, witch, Frankenstein monster, president Obama, Gumnaam style, which is very popular Korean song that's in trend right now, and some Halloween wards. Some of them seemed very difficult to carve. I was going to challenge myself with a difficult one, but I realized that I only had simple carving tools and it was impossible to make them. Haha! I ended up choosing an adorable ghost design and printed it out. First, I cut a hole on the bottom of my pumpkin with a carving saw.Then I dug out all of the guts and seeds with a large tablespoon. I seriously thought the guts and seeds smelled like rotten fish. I was not happy about that. Haha... In addition, digging them out was really strenuous work. Then I taped my stencil pattern onto my pumpkin. Then I poked holes to outline the pattern with the smallest fork. Then I removed the pattern and tape from my pumpkin. Then I began cutting right on the dots starting from the smallest area. That was the most enjoyable part! After finishing, I washed my pumpkin with running water, and wiped it with paper towel. Finally, I placed the pumpkin with a candle inside on the table, and lit the candle.

I thought I had chosen an easier pattern this year, but it turned out that it was much more difficult than last year's design. Specifically, carving the smallest areas such as eyes and hands was the biggest hurdle for me. However, I think I was able to make it pretty well. Don't you think? :)

My husband made owl Jack-o'-lantern. I think he also made it pretty well!

He told me that the most difficult part was carving to make the eyes and the branch which the owl was sitting on. The branch supports the entire weight of the owl, so that I thought it was difficult to be stabilized. He did a good job!

We enjoyed making Jack-o'-lantern just as much as we did last year. I will definitely make one again next year. :)



My Pumpkin Carving 2011 is here.


      My entries related to Halloween can be seen here.
http://itisapieceofcake2011.blogspot.com/search/label/Halloween

     These are my entries sharing my Halloween pumpkins.
 Our Halloween Pumpkins 2015

 Our Halloween Pumpkins 2014

 Our Halloween Pumpkins 2013

 Our Halloween Pumpkins 2012

 Our Halloween Pumpkins 2011




   Today's Vocabulary
・ stencil : noun / ステンシル、型抜き染め
     ex) cut paper stencil 型紙
     ex) metal stencil 金属ステンシル
・ dig out : phrasal verb / 掘り出す、掘って救い出す
・ rotten fish : 腐った魚
・ strenuous : adjective / 大変な努力が必要な、非常に骨が折れる
     ex) strenuous activity 活発な［激しい］運動
     ex) strenuous efforts 多大な努力、たゆまざる努力
     ex) strenuous work 激しい労働［作業・運動］
・ poke : verb / 突くこと
     ex) poke a little hole つついて小さな穴を開ける
・ the biggest hurdle : 最大の難関