Pumpkin Carving

Last year I never got to carve any pumpkins. I love pumpkin carving. Especially since the invention of these stencil kits! So last year I picked up my stencil kit at 50% off and saved it until this year. I had 3 pumpkins to carve. Two big orange ones and 1 white "ghost" pumpkin. Which if you remember the last time I carved a white pumpkin-Bella ate a huge chunk out of it!

I got through the white "ghost" pumpkin first. I carved an Old English "D" for the Tigers on it. It was tough but I managed. I accidentally cut the entire "D" out of the pumpkin so I had to fit it back in with the assistance with some toothpicks. While I was working on my second pumpkin I broke my first carving saw. Two came with the package so I moved on with the second one. And then the second one broke. So there went my grand idea of carving some cute black cat or scary haunted house on a pumpkin. Kitchen knifes just don't 'hack' it. LOL And by the way, does anyone have some good tips for how to get the stencil onto the pumpkin? They give you this tiny roller thing that's supposed to punch holes into the pumpkin but it gives ya a hand cramp. You can see it at the very bottom of this photo..

After my saw debacle and texting Bob a few times to see if he'd get the hint and buy me a new one at Meijer on his way home from the bar, I decided to use the kitchen knife/knives. So I found a stencil of a "P" at BHG.com and downloaded it. Then I traced over the stencil with a permanent marker. Which let me see where I was cutting. Here's what I ended up with..

I put battery operated tea lights in them and I thought they turned out better than I expected. I put the white pumpkin as far away from the door as possible so Bella wouldn't help herself to a snack!But still I wish I could have carved a cute black cat or a scary haunted house!