Growing up, one of the things my family and I never really participated in was Halloween.  Missing are the childhood memories of carving out a pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern. Most people don’t believe me when told that I have never made one.  I’m 31 at present.

Last Halloween got me thinking that it’s about time I try it for the first time.  By the time it came to mind, Halloween had come and gone and making my first ever Jack-O-Lantern in the middle of November just wouldn’t have made sense.  So here I am, one year later.  While it may not be completely original (I’ve seen pictures online), I decided that it would be best to keep with the tradition of being an old-school geek and make a Super Mario face.

Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me the day it was made, and having never done a Jack-O-Lantern before I had no idea how quickly it would start to collapse and decay. Fortunately I was able to take this picture before it completely caved in on itself, host the image with SevenL, and put it on display for everyone to see and for me to look back on.

$6 for the pumpkin, 1 hour to draw Mario onto it and just under 4 hours of carving… I gotta say it was fun! Next year… Learn to cut a hole at the top big enough the first time for my hand to fit in and figure out a better way of cleaning it out. Oh, and better soap to rid my hands of the smell of pumpkin.

Glowing Super Mario Jack-O-Lantern