Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Tonight is my favorite night of the year! I'm out trick or treating with my son and lo and behold I see my patterns gleaming from front porches everywhere. I'm amazed by the talent I see! And honored that families would choose my work to become part of their holiday memories. I'm truly blessed by all the wonderful people I've met. I LOVE getting your emails...esp. when I hear that it's your first time carving and that in some way we've helped you create your first masterpiece...

This year was a celebration of ten years of The Pumpkin Lady - but don't think we're going to sit back now! Next year will be bigger and better than ever and we're already setting things in motion!

Cheers to another ten years!

Happy Carving,

Lisa Berberette
The Pumpkin Lady

You Tube How To's

We did it! Thanks to the wonderful help of Kyle Echols of Echols Photography, we were able to produce our first series of You Tube How To videos on the basics of pumpkin carving. What fun! I'm now addicted to the magic of You Tube. Though these videos may be the first, they won't be the last. Eventually we'll add more tips and tricks on pumpkin carving, plus a series of videos on holiday crafts and entertaining.

Now, people ask me, "What do you do the REST of the year?" Well, besides being a full time mom and full time college student, we plan as we can for fall. Spring is magazine time, that's when the magazines shoot their fall layouts, so I create designs in Feb. and March for that. Occasionally I may be contacted to do several pumpkins for a large display, like the portraits of the Presidents, and that in itself can take the remainder of the year. During the summer I design the pattern books for the website, and I start taking orders for personal carvings. Unfortunately, many people wait to ask me in October, when my work is already planned out, so I need to clone myself if I ever want to get it all done! Honestly, in October I'm usually in media mode, doing tv segments on shows like Martha, Fox, and The Food Network. (By the way, did you see the Food Challenge Outrageous Pumpkins episode? Catch it between now and Halloween and see yours truly as one of the judges...I was really impressed!)I'm also trying to answer as many emails as I can...hence the need for the videos! I'm often asked the same questions again and again, so, to saving my fingers for carving rather than typing, we created the videos. I can't imagine how fun it would be to have one's own show and get to do things like that every day....

hey Martha, ya need an assistant? besides carving pumpkins, I have a mean set of glittering skills I can show ya! Call me!

Are You Aware?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In honor of this amazing cause and all those who have been touched by this disease we've created two new patterns for the website....free! You can download a ribbon that can be carved out of the pumpkin, or a ribbon that you shave into the pumpkin's surface. Technically, the ribbons will glow yellow, however you could use a red battery powered light to change the color or pin some colored cellophane (or maybe even try plastic wrap) inside the pumpkin to change the color.

I realize that the ribbon stands as a symbol for many different causes depending on the color. I hope that you will use this pattern for your own personal testimony and have your pumpkins glowing from front porches for all to see this Halloween.

To download these free patterns, go to http://www.pumpkinlady.com/pattern.htm and then scroll down until you see the ribbon patterns.

Happy Carving!

Lisa Berberette
The Pumpkin Lady

Give a Little, Get a Lot

Each year for the last eight years - and always on the third weekend of October - my family and I volunteer our pumpkin carving skills at the Virginia Living Museum's Night of the Living Museum event in Newport News, VA. We literally schedule our season around it! (Yes, even appearances on tv shows get scheduled around it!)If you've never been, you should! It's a wonderful evening for families with itty bitties...kids under ten that are looking for a nonscary Halloween event. Families can come, in costume, and trick or treat in this incredible museum, complete with hands-on exhibits, live animals, and a planetarium!

On Friday and Saturday night(Oct. 17 & 18) from 6-9pm you can come learn how to carve pumpkins with my family (and get a dozen free patterns as our treat to you!) but I'm not the only one you should see. You can visit the Storytelling witch, the Spider Lady, the Jamestowne Bucaneers, the VLM Wizard, take a night trail walk, meet the animals up close and personal, observe stars, make crafts and get lots of treats...plus a whole lot more! Is it any wonder why we love this place?

And the other reason why we love the VLM? You won't meet nicer people anywhere else on earth. The VLM staff do a wonderful job of preserving Virginia's natural heritage and teaching children all over the state to understand and care about the world around them. For more info about the museum, go to: http://www.thevlm.org . Hope to see you there this weekend!

It's Party Time!

Every year, as an alternative to Halloween parties and trick or treating, churches everywhere hold their own parties. Hallelujah parties, Faith festivals, Fall festivals...they go by all different names but the basis is the same...Faith and Fall Fun. However, these gatherings require special patterns of their own, patterns that aren't Halloween related...and trying to find those types of patterns is like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack! So, as we aim to please, we've developed a whole NEW book called Faith Patterns, where you'll find Christian themed patterns to use at your Fall Festival. You asked, we delivered!

And this brings us to another question....What do you like? Patterns are created according to the requests we receive. If we don't create an entire pattern book, we'll at least try to make it one of the free patterns on the site. Email us and let us know...

We're listening!

Lights, Camera, Action! Oh my!

My time flies when you're going insane! It felt like I blogged yesterday...and it's been weeks. Oh my! Can you guess why I've been so busy, besides the obvious time of the year? If not, here's a little update for you...this isn't just pumpkin season, but media season. Yes, we all know what day Halloween falls on, but the news media doesn't prepare for it until the very LAST second which means I'm jumping through hoops at the last second! The last few weeks before the Big Day are nuts! I've just received an email that, for the second year in a row, I've been invited to appear on Fox News Weekend Live. Of course, they want political pumpkins, which I just happen to have a new pattern book of on the site. Naturally, they want a little something special, too...so you'll just have to watch Oct. 25th to see whose portraits I roll out!

And that's not all. One of my favorite shows is on the Food Network. Anyone else but me LOVE the Food Challenge, where these amazing culinary experts compete to make the world's most insane creations? This year, on Oct. 26th, you'll get to see Extreme Pumpkins, where expert pumpkin carvers go head to head! Yes, yours truly will be on the show...but not as a carver! I'm part of their expert panel of judges.I had a BLAST on the show. Wanna know who wins? Sorry, you'll have to watch Oct. 26th and see!

And now for my latest craziness...I've just come back from NYC after taping a segment for.......(drum roll please).....Martha Stewart! Watch The Martha Stewart Show on Oct. 27th on the Fine Living Network to see yours truly in action. Plus, there's more than one amazing carver on the show that you DON'T want to miss!

And yes, there will be a few more appearances along the way which I'll tell you more about later this week because right now, I've got to get carving!