Jack-O-Lantern 2013

Over the last few years I have found how fun it is to carve Jack-)-Lanterns.  This year I decided to do something fairly easy, since I still haven't found my Dremel tool, nor bought a new one, and didn't want to spend all day carving.  So, here it is!

It's pretty cute, but not too fancy.  Since I just did it with a sharp paring knife, it only took me about an hour to carve.

I had seen a Pin telling how to preserve your pumpkin carving so it would last longer.  It states to spray a mixture of bleach and water on the inside and outside of the pumpkin daily to prevent mold.  It also suggested petroleum jelly to prevent dehydration.  I didn't do that part.

I didn't have a spray bottle available, so instead just used a sponge, wet it with a mixture of bleach and water (I did about half and half, since I was just using a little bit), and just wet the pumpkin inside and out with the sponge.  I did it almost every day, just missing the very first day I carved it and one in the middle somewhere. 

Here's what my pumpkin looks like now after 10 days:

You can see it has dehydrated a little bit, but I actually think it looks pretty cool!  The lines between the shoes and in the broom can be seen quite nicely during the day, and not just when it's dark and lit up.  The bat is getting quite small, though. :-)

I had planned on just keeping this up every day to see how long it would last, but I'm kind of tired of it, so will now be stopping my daily sponging.  I believe it did show that the bleach water helps a lot, and that means that next year I can carve my pumpkin earlier, and not have to wait until right before Halloween to have it look good on Halloween!

Here are some pumpkins from the last few years (didn't do one in 2011.):

2010 pumpkin

 

 

2012 pumpkin, haunted house