Day 92 - JACKO Lantern

In honor of his new movie and remembering a great Halloween hit, Thriller, we celebrate our favorite holiday with our JACKO lantern of Michael Jackson! I chose to create a portrait as I remember him best, during his days of Beat It and Thriller. I miss those days and I'm sure you do too. As an artist, I appreciate all that he contributed to the art world. Love him or hate him, he was pretty amazing!

Happy Halloween to all those here and in Spirit!

Day 91 - Babies First Boo!

It's Zip and Zoomies first Halloween, so of course we had to give them their first baby-size pumpkins! As always, little gray and white Zip was bold and brave, and even started nibbling his pumpkin's stem. Little Zoomie didn't know what to think! She backed up and just pawed the air...she never did get up the courage to touch it! We'll try again tomorrow...think she'll be brave enough then?

Day 90 - High Flyers

It's no secret - cats are my favorite inspiration when designing pumpkin carving patterns! And from the volume of email and Facebook posts, they're yours too! So you should really love today's blog about another free kitty pattern!

Three little cats are flying against the moon in a giant pumpkin hot air balloon in the pattern "High Flyers." And our Pumpkin Lady Facebook Fans may download it for FREE until 8PM EST tonight! After that, we'll place it for sale on www.pumpkinlady.com. Hurry! It's adorable!

Tell your friends!

Happy Carving!

Day 89 - And The Winner Is...

Congratulations! We have TWO winners in our Name the Kittens contest at www.pumpkinlady.com, AND BOTH will each receive 25 free pumpkin carving patterns of their choice from our site! And it was a close race! WE LOVED the names Belly and Button, Cheebles, Cosmo, Misto and Machiatto, Bonnie and Clyde, Trick or Treat and so many more. This was such a difficult decision to make! But then, on the last evening of the contest,

Melody Tucker entered the name "Zoomies." Loved it!

A little while later,

Katie Harris added on to Melody's suggestion, and added "Zip"! Awesome!

So, there you have it, after days and days of debating:

The little black calico? ZOOMIES

The little gray and white boy? ZIP

Please help us in welcoming them to our herd!

And everyone can be a winner by becoming a Pumpkin Lady Facebook Fan tonight and downloading our new free pattern: "High Flyers" Three little cats flying in a pumpkin hot air balloon! It's available free to our Facebook Fans until 6pm EST tomorrow, Thursday Oct 29, 2009.

Thanks to all who sent in names for the contest and made these little ones feel welcomed!

Happy Carving!

Day 88 - Too Much Sugar?

What do you get when you eat too many Laffy Taffy's and the cat walks by? Catsafarian! Someday maybe Paintball and CVP will forgive me! Yes, I'm wired on sugar and white mochas trying to keep ahead of Halloween craziness! What the cats don't know is that I bought them a little pirate costume today! And a witch's hat! Hmmmm I wonder if the kittens can fit them yet? We'll see!

Day 87 - Missed Them?

In case you missed them as Facebook Freebies, these five new patterns are now available at www.pumpkinlady.com...and don't forget that we also added another nine free patterns on The Pumpkin Lady website as well!

Notice all the cats? Of course I'm thinking of our two new little kittens when I'm designing these days! We've been trying out our favorite names from our Name the Kittens contest. It's soooo hard to decide! I thought that the suggestions would make things easier. Boy was I wrong! (shhhhh don't tell my husband I said that! He's supposed to think I'm right all the time!)

Facebook Freebies!

As a special thanks for reaching the goal of 1000 Facebook Fans, we're giving away five new pumpkin carving patterns on our Facebook Pumpkin Lady Fan site! The five free patterns will be available until 10PM EST on Monday, Oct. 26 2009. After that, they will be available for sale at www.pumpkinlady.com.

Don't you just love free things?

Day 86 - As Promised!

As promised, there are now seven more free weekly patterns in the Pattern Categories at www.pumpkinlady.com, and there are two more coming in just a few minutes! Are you a Facebook Fan of The Pumpkin Lady? They receive special free patterns each week...and a few more free patterns might show up on Facebook later tonight in honor of our passing the 1000 fan mark!

Facebook is free to join, and there's another opportunity to win 25 free patterns in our Name the Kittens contest. We need names for our two new little mascots! Submit names as a comment under their Facebook photo...BUT HURRY! The Name the Kittens contest ends at Midnight TONIGHT EST! We'll announce the winner at 10pm est. this Wed. Oct. 28, 2009.

Get those names in!

Day 85 - Free is Good!

Time for some more weekly free patterns! There's two more in our Patterns Categories at www.pumpkinlady.com. Now, I know that is not enough! So tomorrow we'll be uploading several more! Until then, enjoy Twisted and Nick, and look for Shakespeare and several more tomorrow!

Happy Carving!

Day 84 - Edgar Allan Pumpkin

2009 is Edgar Allan Poe's Bicentennial Year. Richmond's Poe Museum has been celebrating all year, topping it off this week with Poe's Pumpkin Patch and Unhappy Hour (love that name!). I thought they'd like a special appearance by Edgar for their events! This is also one of my all time favorites...he's so wonderfully morose isn't he?

Day 83 - Ben

Of all the pumpkins I've ever carved, this portrait of Ben Franklin is one of my all time favorites. I especially love the ruffles and folds of his shirt and collar. There's a serene confidence in his gaze. His smile reminds me of the Mona Lisa's subtle smile. I just love the way this portrait turned out!

Day 82 - Presidential Pumpkin

I created this presidential pumpkin portrait of now President Obama last year when he was running for office. It was created for a segment on FOX News Network. It made it on air, along with a portrait of McCain, however they never let us set up the shot! I literally walked into the studio (with a cart of eight more pumpkins for the campaign segment) and they said, "You're on in 8....7...6.."!!!!! We were supposed to have an hour to set up! My friend Literally threw the two nominee portraits across the room! I plunked them on the table .5 seconds before the anchor started the interview... with their light cords dangling by my toes! They never got lit! Instead of seeing Presidential Hopefuls you got an eyeful of Frankensteins - portrait pumpkins always look like Frankenstein unlit! Yeah... you can bet I wasn't happy and they never made up for it. I couldn't wait to show off these portraits...but ended up insulting the candidates since the pumpkins never were shown lit.

Oh well. At least you can see President Obama's pumpkin now! And if there's anyone reading this that knows him, please tell him I'd be happy to give it to him...in person!

Day 81 - A Bewitching Little Carousel

Last Fall I appeared on Martha Stewart Living for a special pumpkin carving show. In front of an audience of 300 people and 4 million cameras and lights, I showed Martha how to carve this amazing little carousel pumpkin out of an artificial pumpkin...all in EIGHT MINUTES! It was like pumpkin carving on crack! But it was soooo much fun and her staff was great to work with. When I die I hope that heaven is Martha's show workroom....all the glitter and art supplies I've ever dreamed of in one place! And it was spotless! The art rooms look just like a picture from her magazines! If I ever stop being The Pumpkin Lady I'm moving to NYC to work for Martha!

If you'd like to watch the show segment, you may still watch it online:

Pumpkin Lady Carve's With Martha

However, tomorrow morning I'll be on Martha Stewart Living Radio. Hosts Kim and Betsy will be interviewing me about all things pumpkin...it should be a lot of fun! Tune in on Sirius Satellite Radio - XM Channel 112.

Day 80 - Free Pattern!

In honor of our new kitten friends we're giving away this kitten pumpkin carving pattern to all of our Pumpkin Lady Facebook Fans. You may download it for free until 8pm EST tonight! Not a fan yet? Go to www.pumpkinlady.com and click on the tombstone that says "Be A Facebook Fan." You may then become a member of Facebook for free! Just browse through the message wall and find "Our New Baby" to download your free pattern.

Happy Carving!

Day 79 - Name the Kitten Contest!

Last week my husband and son found to four week old kittens at a nearby Shell gas station. Cold and starving, we brought them home where they are now becoming fat and happy! But there's only one problem...we don't know what to call them!

That's where you come in. We found the kittens, but we need you to find their names! Become a Pumpkin Lady Facebook Fan (it's free to do!) and submit a Pair of names under the kittens' photo in our Name The Kitten Photo Album. You have from now until midnight on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009. We will choose our favorite pair of names by 10pm, Wed., Oct. 28th. The person who submits the winning pair of names receives 25 free pumpkin carving patterns from www.pumpkinlady.com - their choice!

Now here's a little info about the kittens themselves. The black and orange calico is a tiny little girl. She plays much more gently than her brother but when there's food involved, watch out! She becomes a little Tiger. But as soon as she eats...poof! She passes out within minutes...food acts like a sleeping potion on her! The gray and white kitten is her big brother. He loves to play rough and curiosity just kills him...he has to know everything about everything! And he LOVES to tackle his little sister when she sleeps...which he'll do for hours And yes, they've both discovered that despite their scrawny little bodies, they have a BIG PURR!

And by the way...we'll choose their names according to two things: how well the names fit their personalities, and we honestly just like names that are clever and fun. (names of our other cats in the past? Spinner, Bobber, Fusser, Happy, Little Bit, Paintball, CVP - Cat Voice Phenomena and our favorite: Sock Monkey!)

Keep it fun....and polite! These names have to last a lifetime!

Remember, submit your choice of names under their photo in the Name the Kitten Album on our Pumpkin Lady Facebook Fan Site.

Day 78 - Look What I Can Do!

"Look what I can do!" Is the mantra of four year olds the world over. True, some are not ready to carve yet, but they are ready to help you! Each year I work with countless numbers of children under seven that help me carve pumpkins. Even the youngest ones can take part in the process. They help me choose a pattern and then tape it onto the pumpkin. Then they help to poke the pattern onto the pumpkin. If they're really little, I hold the poking tool at the bottom, and their little fingers hold the top and help to push it in while I guide them. Once the pattern's on, they help rub in the flour to make the pattern stand out. The older ones can usually saw on their own, but for those that are unsteady or too little, again I'll hold the tool at the base, and they'll hold the top of it and help me saw in and out while I guide the saw. Yes, they go "off line" and a little crooked. So what! It always turns out well. And of course, they LOVE turning on the light and placing it in the pumpkin.

As their parent, YOU have to judge whether or not you're child is old enough to carve a pumpkin, no matter what the age printed on the carving saw kit says. But there's still a lot little ones can do to "help" you with the process and feel like they're part of the fun. However, what if you don't want them to carve at all? You could print out an extra pattern, and you may carve while they color. You could let them paint their pumpkin with non toxic paints. And the big hit at the Virginia Living Museum? We brought pumpkins painted all over with chalkboard paint, as well as giant pieces of sidewalk chalk. Big sis helped me carve while little sis colored her chalk pumpkin. It was a huge hit! Great with the preschool set!

Get creative, relax, and just have fun...if you do those three things it will be a success!

Happy Carving...or Coloring!

VA Living Museum

We had an amazing time carving pumpkins at the Virginia Living Museum tonight! Hundreds of families came out despite the cold and misty rain. Creepy crawlies, candy, and kids...what a combination! This was our eleventh year volunteering our carving skills for the event...which goes on tomorrow night from 6-9pm as well. Why do we drive four hours there and back for a three hour event? Because of the museum staff themselves! You couldn't find a nicer, more dedicated bunch! The museum is a beautiful place to visit with animals galore and they do so much to serve Virginia's children - creating a safe educational environment to teach them about the natural world around them. And the event is soooo much fun for families with small children. It's all Happy Halloween - all the candy and fun WITHOUT the fear factor. That's my kind of party! So for all those who missed it, hopefully we'll see you there later today!

Day 77 - Free Pattern!

We've hit the 500 mark! There are over 500 Pumpkin Lady Fans that have signed onto the Facebook Fan site. To celebrate, we're giving away this free pumpkin carving pattern, Trick or Treat, until 12am tonight. Not signed on? Click here to join and get even more free patterns!

Happy Carving!

Day 76 - Messy Situation

Yesterday, while creating Jack Stack, a new project for www.pumpkinlady.com and the theme of my segment of Virginia This Morning, I run back into my house to grab my camera. I had no sooner shut the door when I hear a crash and three huge thumps on my back deck. Dashing through the screen door, I see three pumpkins rolling down the steps and a big aluminum bowl spinning on its side! Not good! Not to mention that pumpkin guts are now sprayed all over the deck.

Sigh.

No wonder the squirrels love my yard so much!

Day 75 - Trick or Treat?

God works in mysterious ways. In Feb. and March of this year, we lost two of our sweet cats, Spinner and Happy, to kidney failure. I must say that I'm still not over that loss...I love my pets dearly and miss them deeply. Earlier today my husband and I searched the online adoption site, www.petfinder.com, to search for two more baby kittens to add to our furry herd. We both felt it was time. We had no idea how right we were....

Jack took our son to play practice across town tonight. A few miles from home he stopped at the Shell station for gas. And then called me. He'd found a mama cat and two wee baby kittens. I was soon on my way with two cat carriers and several cans of food. Jack went off to try and catch mama while Ty and I literally beat the bushes and found two sopping wet, starving, terrified little baby kittens. I had to grab each one with my coat sleeves because although they were tiny, they were horrified and bit and scratched my coat in fear. It was only in the upper 40's temperature wise...and raining...so they shivered from fear and cold. They're nothing but skin and bones!

Try as he might, Jack couldn't catch the mama. The employees of the store said there's a third kitten that crawled in the back of another employee's trunk and went home with her! So, tomorrow I will go back with a cat trap and try and catch mama....the nice people at the station are contacting the other employee to see if we can find out what happened to the third kitten.

We are guessing that the kittens are at most four weeks old. We will try to get the mama and see what we can do for her as well. We'll foster her and try to find her a home soon, and we'll do what we can to find the third kitten.

As for these two?

Welcome Home.

Day 74 - Not Just Another Pretty Face

Jack, my techno wonder of a husband, has just uploaded ELEVEN more patterns to www.pumpkinlady.com. Just check out the Pretty Face category on our Patterns Page. And no, I'm not done uploading patterns onto the website! There's plenty more to come if I can just find two spare seconds in the day. HA! Funny! But I'll keep trying if you'll keep checking. And remember, we'll give away several free patterns to our Facebook Fans if we reach our goal of 1000 Pumpkin Lady Fans by midnight this Sunday, Oct. 18th. We're at 444 now...I think we can do it! Sign up, tell your friends, and get free stuff! Free is my favorite flavor!

Day 73 - Smiley

Wow! So even though we didn't break 1000 Pumpkin Lady Facebook Fans, I was still excited that we jumped to 300...but tonight we jumped to 398 and it's not midnight yet! Wahoo! So, the goal is still there, we've just moved it so we'll hopefully reach at least that number by this coming Sun. Oct. 18th. If so, I'll have a bunch of free patterns ready to go to our Fans on Monday.

Now, even though we were a bit shy, as a thanks our Facebook Fans were able to download Smiley, a cheerful little pumpkin pattern, for free until 8pm tonight. Smiley's now available for sale at www.pumpkinlady.com in the Numbskulls Category, but don't worry Facebook Fans, we'll offer another surprise or two soon...be on the lookout!

Day 72 - Far Out!

Isn't this little guy Far Out? Nothing like a happy alien to put a smile on your face - or on your pumpkin! We've added Far Out to our pattern list, and several easy friendly faces - Silas, Carl, Chuck, Fred, Miloh!, and Andy. (and yes, I was watching the Office and named this pumpkin after the character from the show!) And if you haven't checked out this week's free patterns, click through the Pattern Categories and you'll find seven new free patterns, all different than the week before. Just look for our little Spider, Freebie, and he'll show you the way!

Fans growing!

We've reached 264 Facebook followers out of our goal of 1000 by Sunday midnight est. If we reach 1000 by then, we'll give out several free patterns and a little bonus to our Facebook Fans! Pass the word!

Dream Big

One of the goals of our website is to provide easy tips and design ideas that families may use to have fun together...and what better way than to teach the tradition of pumpkin carving? So, we want to reach as many people as we can and we're using social media to do it. Let's face the truth - it's one of the easiest ways to reach a lot of people at one time! But we can't do it alone.

We are shamelessly asking you to spread the word among Facebook friends and Tweet your Tweeples. Our big time Facebook goal is to reach one million fans. But our short term goal is to reach one thousand. However, we realize there's no such thing as a free lunch! If we reach 1000 Facebook Fans by midnight tomorrow (Sun. Oct. 11th at 12am est) we are going to give away some more free patterns to just our Facebook Fans! And there will be another little bonus too!

hmmm think we can do the same of Twitter as well?

Day 71 - Halloween Hunt

Time for a little Halloween hunt! We've just added seven different free pumpkin carving patterns to the website! But you have to find them! Check out the categories on our Patterns page...when you spot our little Spider, whom we've decided to name Freebie, you'll find the free patterns. Happy hunting!

Day 70 - Welcome to the Funhouse

Want to know what I find to be the most scariest thing at Halloween? Clowns.They totally creep me out! Even my own pattern freaks me out a little. But that's what makes it perfect for Halloween! If you want to spook your friends by carving this pattern, become a Pumpkin Lady Facebook Fan and you may download this scary clown pattern for FREE until 9PM tonight (EST). After that it will be available for sale at www.pumpkinlady.com under the Misfits Category.

Happy Carving!

Day 69 - More Pattern Goodness

We've added five new patterns to the site tonight: EEK! is my favorite so I've made that my Halloween theme for today. There's also Scarred Stupid, PHHTT!, Chomp, and Cackle. But there's so much more to come! I have more patterns than I can count that will be added between now and Halloween...not to mention all the free patterns and specials just for our Facebook Fans. I also finished editing Sweet Stack today, so the video and directions will be available for free in the Project Gallery by tomorrow afternoon. This weekend we'll add more patterns, projects, and a few other products, too. Where are Santa's elves when I need them?

Day 68 - Free is My Favorite Flavor

Don't you just love getting things for free? I do! Today we've restyled the Patterns Page to make downloading waaaaayyyy faster for everyone. Just click on a Category to find your favorite pattern. But there's a bonus! Each week we add seven ALL NEW free patterns to the website. But you'll have to click on the categories to find them! And for all you Pumpkin Lady Facebook Fans, keep on the lookout for new Free Patterns that will be available for a limited time only for you...and yes, for all my UK buddies, we'll make sure you're awake when we post the next one!

Stretching

It's a quiet morning here...my guys are off to work and school, and I'm sipping coffee (yes, with white mocha added) while looking out over the lake, rain falling softly through the leaves. I'm grateful to be living where I am because it is peaceful. A place where I can step back from life's craziness and focus. Redesigning www.pumpkinlady.com has been a wonderful challenge but a difficult process. My husband and I do this all ourselves...so if we don't know how to do something, we have to find a way to learn, which makes every day an exercise in stretching ourselves beyond our limits!

We make a good combination, his computer skills with my artistic ones...but one thing I've learned in all of this is that we have so much more to learn! I am soooo not a tech person. So learning to use a digital camera, loading to my computer, editing and manipulating images in three different programs...I think climbing Everest would have been easier for me. To create yesterday's slideshow took a book, the IPhoto's help section, six hours, and my husband's innate knowhow of a program he's never seen. And that was just to get the most basic things learned! My brain hurts just thinking about it again. And the whole afternoon was spent styling the pumpkins and trying to get my digital camera to work just right...then editing the photos forever. Ahhh one small step for mankind, one giant leap for me!

And it's not just learning the photo and editing programs. I've had to learn Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger, and not just to leave messages but learning how to edit and set pages up. I know, you're probably laughing yourself silly at me right now...but that's okay! For a Techless Wonder like myself this has been a Huge task to learn within a matter of weeks. And I promise you that I will get better! Not sure how soon...but I will get better! Besides, I'm living off of white mocha coffees at the moment...don't they make everything better?

And one last note: The Pumpkin Lady's husband, Jack, is the best guy ever. None of this would have ever been possible without him.

Thanks, Honey!

Day 67 - Chalkboard Pumpkins

Chalkboard Pumpkins - our first Project on www.pumpkinlady.com! It's been a long time coming but the Project Gallery is finally up and running. I first designed this project for Woman's Day, and you can see a variation of it in Woman's Day Halloween Celebrations magazine, on sale now. But I've created a new version for our Project Gallery and not only can you download the instructions for FREE, we've created a video to walk you through the steps! And the best part? This is only the first project, with many more to come!

Day 66 - Monstrous Milkdud

I don't know which is scarier. The image of this monstrous little Milk Dud or the idea of how much I play with my food. I think I need help.

Day 65 - A Grizzly Sight

Until 10pm tonight, Pumpkin Lady Facebook Fans can download this pumpkin carving pattern, Snarl, for free! After 10pm, you can find it on The Pumpkin Lady's Pattern Pages in the category "Au Natural." This guy's particularly fierce by candlelight! He's not the easiest pattern to carve, I'd say medium for a difficulty level, but he looks awesome when finished! Try it!

Day 64 - Facebook Freebies!

Meet Scaredy Cat, a very special pattern that we are offering free to our Facebook Fans! Each week, we will be offering seven more free patterns on the pumpkinlady.com site, all different from the week before. However, as a thanks to all of our Facebook Fans, we will be offering more free patterns from time to time, but only for a limited time! Scaredy Cat may be downloaded for free until midnight tonight...after that you'll find him for sale on our Patterns page. Tell all your friends!

Day 63- Stack'em High

Here's another snapshot of fun things to come for www.pumpkinlady.com. In the past, the "Gallery" has shown photos of some of my work. Well, there will still be photos, but of projects that you can do at home. My past work will still be able to be seen on The Pumpkin Lady Facebook Fan site. Instead of an Art Gallery, the page will become the Project Gallery. Way more fun! And if you have any ideas you'd like to share, send them in and we'll post them in the gallery as well. 

And, yes, our little pumpkin person will be one of the first projects we post! I think I'll call him Kevin.

Day 62 - Ribbon Reminder

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In honor of all those that have been affected by this disease, we have created this pumpkin carving pattern so that everyone may show their support this season. The pattern shown is carved all the way through the pumpkin, although we also have an etched version of the pattern available...for free! Please let everyone you know that the pattern is available so that every porch will shine the light this Halloween and beyond.