Happy (Late) Halloween!

Hey, sorry for being so quiet around here!  At any rate, I thought it'd be fun to share my pumpkins I carved for Halloween this year.  I decided to go with the theme of two of my favorite Disney rides.  First, of course, was the Tower of Terror (Florida version):

Unlit

With the candle inside

Unfortunately, this one rotted before Halloween.  This is how it looked about October 29th, only two days after carving:

Technically, I think this is a Mission Breakout jack o' lantern

Thankfully I was able to find another pumpkin last minute...and a rather large one at that!  It was a bit weirdly shaped, but luckily had one good side to carve.  And even though it's technically off-topic for here, I'm really proud of the result.  Here's Rock n' Roller Coaster!:

Freshly carved and unlit

With the candle inside

I'm really, really proud of how this one turned out.  There was a lot of fine detail to carve, and it was difficult finding a pumpkin large enough to fit the design on such short notice.  Also, thankfully, for some reason this pumpkin lasted much longer and I actually kept it displayed a few days into November.

If you're wondering how I did these, they're actually pretty easy to do.  All you need is a printed template of your planned design and one of those 5-tool carving kits you find at places like Walmart around Halloween (Pumpkin Masters being the most common brand I've seen).  These particular designs I've had for a while, and I think I downloaded them from one of Disney's own Oh My Disney posts about a year ago.  The best tips I can give are to be patient and give yourself enough time to carefully do the fine details.  Thoroughly scraping down the inside of the pumpkin with the scooper so that there are minimal "strings" left also makes carving a lot easier.

Also, yes, this is late, but HAPPY HALLOWEEN!