Best Overall Pumpkin!

We had a pumkin carving contest today at work.

And I won Best Overall!

Sally

My Sally Pumpkin.
If you don't know, she's a character from the movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas.

My pumpkin was mostly painted with carved details.
I cut grooves around the pumpkin and poked holes with a metal skewer. And I literally sewed up my pumpkin.

The whole project took twice as long as I thought it would. And it was getting pretty late.
And I just couldn't sew anymore. But I remembered in the movie, Sally had to sew herself back up a number of times. So I left part of it unfinished, and stuck the needle in the top of the pumpkin.
I had cut a hole in the back of the pumpkin to clean it out. I didn't just want to leave a hole where you could see my loose threads. So I took the circle that I had cut out, whittled and carved, and grabbed a few toothpicks.
And I had a Peek-a-boo Jack!

Some of the other entries

As I dropped of my pumpkin off early, I only got to see a few of the other entries.
I heard there were quite a few.

I don't know who the other winners were.
But some of the other catagories were
Funniest and Scariest
We had a Headless Horseman





















A group reproduced a Mickey VinalAnimation
















A Pumpkin King

















And Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter

Another project

Lots a little hats! These cute ornaments went on sale. A lady bought about a dozen of them and wanted them all personalized.

I set my pen next to them so you can get an idea of the scale. The ears are about the size of a quarter. So longer names can be a real challenge

Latest projects.

Just a few projects that I have done in the past few months.

The white ornament was from the other day. My guest wanted a ghost face on one side, and the date on the other. I have fun with the spider webs too.

The frame was from this past week. I did all the lettering and the decoration around it.

The pink ornament was a bit of a challenge. It had some yellow blotches on it. My manager thought I might be able to clean it up. So I wrote "First Christmas", and used lots of magic pixie dust and hearts to cover up the rest.

And politics aside, The Obama photo was an interesting project. This couple bought it at the American Adventure at Epcot. They wanted their names on it along with Walt Disney World. Interesting souvenir

The Chili Cook-off

On Monday, at work, we had a chili cook-off. I entered using my twist on my Mom's recipe. I didn't win anything, but I had a great time.

The judges were Vivian, Chelsea and Tim.

Vivianne is a resturant manager who attended Le Cordon Bleu (sp?) in Orlando.

Chelsea is a store manager who really doesn't really like chili.

And Tim is a college student, who, well, he's a college student.

The winners

Earl won first prize. His chili was made with smoked chipotle. I loved the smokey flavor and it had a serious kick. "It's making my gums recede." was a comment from an attendee.

M.J. won second prize.

And Annie won third prize.

I don't have a photo of Philip. He won "Cast Favorite". That was really cool. Philip is from Belgium. And his chili was only the second one he has ever made. He got the recipe from Food Network. It was really good.

The Awards

The awards were Mickey Vinylmation figurines hand-painted by Jorge. There is a fork and spoon on the ears. It might be hard to see, but there's chili stains on the fingers.

Beth sponsored our contest.