Earlier in the week, one of my friends, Joyce, had invited me to a pumpkin carving party at one of her friends' places. I'm not going to lie- I hesitated before accepting the invite. I mean, I know, I know- what could be more fall perfection than a pumpkin carving party of all things? But I've never carved a pumpkin before and, quite frankly, it seemed like it was going to be HARD. WORK.
I was so wrong. Last night's party turned out to be one of the best events I've attended in QUITE some time!! It sure did add to the whole "love of the grandest season of alllll, Fallll" element, let me tell YOU.
I knew that it was going to be a great shindig when I get to the apartment and the hosts greeted me with... mulled wine/cider. Have you guys ever had this stuff? I've had it before and l-o-v-e it. It's so dangerous because it really does just taste like apple cider! And last night's mulled wine was no joke... so fresh, so tasty, so... well, deliciousness in a mug, if you will.
As folks kept on coming, the pumpkin pile kept on growing.
And that was just a portion of the pumpkins present! These hosts clearly knew what they were doing- the turnout was IM-pressive! Who would've thought? Once everyone had arrived, we got right down to business.
And by right down to business, I mean the experts in the room were quickly made clear. One girl went right to town while another person whipped out... an electric drill.
Umm. As soon as we saw THAT, Joyce and I just looked at each other with... well, not going to lie. A slight look of terror. Considering neither of us had ever carved a pumpkin in our lives, we decided to share one to... well, blame one another if it ended up looking awful, let's be honest here. Trust me, I was not holding out much hope.
It turned out to be so FUN though! We got started by cutting a hole at the pumpkin stem...
And cleaning that puppy OUT!
One of the experts at the party had offhandedly mentioned that the cleaner the insides of the pumpkin, the better it was going to look once carved. So we kind of took that to heart and proceeded to spend much longer than necessary cleaning the pumpkin out. So much longer, in fact, that by the time we were ready to copy our design template onto the pumpkin, others were already in FULL CARVING MODE.
This should have been our first clue that we were going to fall quickly behind, but... well, we had so much to catch up on! Bear in mind, Joyce is like my twin. So you can imagine how quickly we can get distracted by our gossip/catch up session when we're doing something as mindless as cleaning out that pumpkin. You know what? OH WELL- the people sitting around us were clearly entertained by our stories. And, well, it's all about the company and stuff, right? Right.
Alright, so once we had cleaned that pumpkin out so well you could eat straight off of it, we embarked on the whole tracing the template we'd picked out and starting the carving process. Dude, this was HARD! I happily delegated the tracing of the template to Joyce (after all, she'd picked the pumpkin!)... let's face it, I would have ruined it. I. Am. Not. Crafty.
Once the template was traced onto the pumpkin, I was delegated the task of carving. Lord have mercy. Since I don't have patience nor that whole attention to detail quality, I was all ready and set to just use a knife to start the carving process. It seemed like it would go a WHOLE lot faster than the miniscule little tools the pumpkin carving kit came with. But... well, using a knife was a little scary! I feel like it's HARD to carve a pumpkin with a knife- you have seemingly little control over how that knife is going to cut!
So... after just a fleeting few minutes of using the knife, I resorted back to... well, those miniscule pumpkin carving kit tools. And wow- what. a. difference. I mean, I'm not type A by any means, but there is something OH so rewarding about being able to cut at the EXACT points you've traced onto your pumpkin. It was actually quite a delightful experience!
Well... it was delightful until the experience took a turn for the stressful. I guess it turns out that Joyce and I were so busy chit-chatting during our whole pumpkin cleaning spectacle that, by the time we had started the carving process, people were already done! God, we were totally like the remedial students in pumpkin carving class.
It's amazing how quickly we can switch gears though. If we'd known each other in school, I think we would have totally been best friends. Because as SOON as we realized how behind we were, we ceased pretty much ALL forms of communication and went to TOWN carving that pumpkin- Joyce took one half, I took the other. All in the name of... well, not looking like complete failures during our first pumpkin carving experience.
It's amazing how quickly it all came together though! I guess that's what can happen when two of the chattiest girls alive just shut it and FOCUS. Hahaha. Alright, so maybe the party had to slightly delay the whole jack-o-lantern picture taking experience, because they were waiting on us to finish but hey! They didn't have to wait ALL that much longer!
And check out the result! Amaze!!
Joyce and I were SO PROUD OF OURSELVES!! Can you tell?
So proud, in fact, that we lugged that thing out to Old Town Social (a neighborhood bar) afterwards. That's right. Shameless, that we are. But look at this thing!
If it's just not the most adorable jack-o-lantern you've ever laid eyes on, I just don't know what is.
Sigh. All future pumpkin carving parties... sign me UP! Best. Idea. Ever.
