Drilling Holes In Your Pumpkins Meant for Spooky Wood Snakes

Simply to be clear, that post title is meant to be said in a Dr. Dre-esque fashion like he does in this song (aw yeah, $herdog still rocks out to the clean version of this 1999 classic). And now that we have that out of the way, let us talk about something hardcore. Pumpkins, yo.

This year we got lumpy bumpy orangy-red ones instead of the usual smooth yellow-orange folks simply for kicks. The coolest thing about them is that they have stems on the bottom and top, which is kind of lively. Fairly much as soon as we got them home we got to work hollowing them out, and I directed John to make a face like a serial killer (am I the only one who types cereal killer and then has to backspace and correct myself every time?) and we got this stellar shot. In John’s defense, he does look awesomely creepy… so… mission accomplished.

Mmm, pumpkin seeds. Those were all eaten before these photos were even uploaded. What does that say about us? Either we are sadly slow bloggers or simply quite hungry for seasonal delicacies. I will go with the latter. And now, simply because I have been having lively with “___, there it is” lately…

Scoop, there it is.

Once we had both pumpkins hollowed out we got to break out the power tools. Yeah buddy. I told you these pumpkins were gonna be hardcore. We in fact came up with this crazy idea in bed a few days beforehand (wait, that sounds wrong, we were simply doing some horizontal brainstorming, wait that sounds wrong again – we were simply thinking about pumpkins before bed, ok?).

We were saying how it would be lively to do something wormy for our worm-loving Clara (like carving holes and then sticking gummy worms into all of them so they looked like they were creeping out) when we realized that we still had these wooden craft store snakes that I painted last year.

And since Clara loves these wiggly little snakes simply as much as worms, we realized we could combine them with pumpkins for a snake-tastic Halloween effect. And thus, the idea of using the more snake-sized bit on the drill to make the holes was born. I enjoyed how the drill made little ribbons of pumpkin as it went through.

Oh snap. Those are some bad a$$ pumpkins. Mixed in with some fairly sinister ceramic animals. You totally would not want to run into them in a dark alley, right? Let us get a little closer…

Aw yeah, there it is. A lumpy wart-ish double-stemmed pumpkin that has been infested with snakes! And then a ratty old crow came down and landed on it. That is some tough luck for Mr. Pumpkin, eh? Bummers for you dude.

Here is the other guy. All holed up and snaked out.

And I could not assist myself so I rearranged my printing block letters that spell ENJOY to say EVIL (I drew in the “I” on the back side of the O a few years back here) along with adding a few other you-should not-be-surprised things like…

… ceramic animals! Holla. Do not they look awesomely creep-tastic when they are grouped with a crow, some snakes, and two gnarled old pumpkins? I enjoy how the frog and the pumpkins both have warts.

I even grabbed our white ceramic rabbit from the deck because for some reason he seemed like he could be a little “rabidly scary” in the right setting. I think it works. Plus, if you were a ceramic bunny, would not it be a little bit thrilling to end up displayed with other tougher creatures like snakes and crows? It is like he gets to take a walk on the wild side for a hot second before ducking back over into cute fuzzy bunny territory the rest of the year.

I kinda wished I could paint “blood” in drippy red paint over the word “enjoy” in the art, but that would be permanent, so perhaps I will cut out the letters from red construction paper and delicately stick them on with poster putty or something. Or I will simply leave it and ignore the uplifting and glad quote above my spooky little table of Halloween goodness.

Oh and we still have to frame our skullified selves (made a few years back thanks to Photoshop) in the hallway frame wall. This baby comes out every year and we play the “slip it into a frame grouping and see who notices” game.

Speaking of ghosts of Halloweens past, we have nearly a dozen Halloween posts on our Holiday project page, complete with a bunch of creep-a-delic projects, tablescapes, and more – so if you are looking for puffy painted pumpkins, maniacal monograms, batty bid-ness, or bloody candles, we have you covered.

What are you folks doing to spook things up at home? Does it involved ceramic animals and a power drill? If it does not, $herdog strongly encourages you to reconsider. Ya heard? *mic drop*

Psst- John misses you folks and is sorry he has not blogged for a few days. He’s been working on our powerpoint presentation for our talk in Cincy this Saturday (I will pause while he mimes pushing his glasses up his nose and putting on his pocket protector) but he’ll be dropping in later and tomorrow with those posts for ya!