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Making a pumpkin lantern for Samhain

By PaganismNo Comments

Samhain or Halloween, is very important to us pagans. In a previous post Pagan Festivals, I said this about Samhain (Halloween to most people):

Samhain – 31st October
The last harvest. When the vails between the worlds are thin. Seen as the pagan ‘New Year’. Also known as Halloween.
The goddess is now the crone. With age coming wisdom.
Colours: Black, orange, purpose, violet, white.
Themes: Ancestors, death, rebirth, banishing & bindings, spirit & guide communication, guidance.
(From: Pagan Festivals @antonysimpson.com, Last Accessed: 26th October 2010)

Rather than the elaborate rituals with lots of people, costumes, dancing, chanting like the previous years, this year I will celebrate it alone quietly as a time of reflection. I decided to get creative and make my own pumpkin lantern. I googled on how to and got this video:

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The video’s good, but the music is somewhat unbearable so heres my written guide to Making a pumpkin latern for Samhain.

What you will need

  • x1 pumpkin
  • A sharp knife
  • A pen (with ink that will wipe off) or pencil

    • Step 1 – Choose a side and draw the outline

    Choose a side of your pumpkin that’s best for the face. Ideally one that’s not got any scuffs on it. Draw an outline like below:

    Step 2 – Cut off the top and scrape out the insides
    Using your guide lines you’ve drawn on, cut carefully around the top off the head and pull it off. You’ll see the pumpkin insides and seeds which you need to scrape out (see photo below). Some of the cooking experts around may choose to keep the insides to make a pumpkin pie, which you can google for a recipe if you want.

    Step 3 – Turn your attention to the face
    Now you’ve scrapped out the insides. Go back to the outline of the face you drew and carefully cut out the eyes, nose and mouth. Once these pieces have been removed, take a tea light candle and place it inside lit. (Please never leave a lit candle unattended.) Replace the lid of your pumkin and switch off the light to admire your handy work. It should look like this:

    I have named him Jacko, I know how original. Hope you found this guide useful. Write soon,

    Antony

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    Wednesday 27 October 2010

    Back Home

    By Happiness & Joy, HomeNo Comments

    It’s took a while, but I’m finally back home! The tenant left my apartment in excellent condition, for which I am extremely grateful. It’s been my first weekend back home in the smaller second bedroom (see photos below) so that I can rent out the master bedroom with it’s en-suite for some extra income.


    (Where the work happens)


    (The wardrobe and door)


    (Where the magic happens, by that I mean sleep)

    So what have I done this weekend at home? I’ve been all domesticated, tidying up, cleaning and done plenty of home cooking using my slow cooker:

    But I’m most proud of my Shepard’s Pie with cheese:

    Think before I went to Benidorm I couldn’t cook, look at me now. Nothings better than a home cooked meal.

    Take care,

    Antony

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    Sunday 5 September 2010

    Back in the UK

    By Friends & Family, Home, Life, Love & Relationships3 Comments

    Sometimes in life things don’t work out how you want, dream or hope they will. The last month or so has been one of these times.

    Boyfriend-W and I split up, things just didn’t work out and I returned to the UK. We have remained good friends. I learn’t so much being in Benidorm and being with him, more than I could write here (see A new design and a new beginning). So since I’ve been back what’s new?

    New Car
    I have got a Citroen C1 Splash in electra blue, which I’ve named Sam. I need a car for work and will be paying for Sam for the next five years. See:

    New Work Image
    In these difficult times in the public sector I decided to smarten up. Image is very important, not to me but to other people. Gone are the days of baggy jeans and t-shirts, come the shirts, waist coats, skinny jeans and shoes. A smarter look.

    Cooking
    I bought a cook book and have cooked a few meals from it. They haven’t tasted half bad, if I do say so myself. I have got great satisfaction from actually cooking something myself rather than popping frozen boxed food in the freezer. It’s called The Classic 1000 Beginners’ Recipes by Carolyn Humphries and I highly recommend it if like me you can’t cook a thing. It’s simple step recipes are so easy to follow.

    Work
    I’ve gone back to work with a renewed enthusiasm and some life experience.

    So…What’s next?
    I am moving back in to my apartment (see The Move) at the end of the month and will be glad to be home. I would like to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to my family and friends, who have been a huge support to me. Especially to my mum and Simon who continue to house me until I move back to my apartment.

    Once I’ve moved back in to my apartment I intend to get a housemate to pay off some of my debts as well as continuing to try and live frugally (see Living Frugally).

    In the end of September I am going back to University (see Back to University, Six NOT Four, ———–Transcript————– and Promoting and Influencing Health module results) to do a further two modules, one on leadership and the second a dissertation module.

    October I am going seeing John Barrowman and have Samhain (see Pagan Festivals).

    The last month or so I have been having a quiet reflective time which has mean’t a lack of blog posts. Rest assured normal blogging will now resume, whatever normal is.

    Write soon,

    Antony

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    Monday 16 August 2010

    Geeky Post: Website Development

    By Technology, The Web3 Comments

    This is a Geeky post and in it I’m going to show you how my website has developed over the years.

    Version 1
    My first version was created in HTML and looked like this:

    It had sections to it: Personal, Carrer and Occult. It had Quick Links News on the home page.

    The Navigation was simplistic as was the site as a whole. This first version of the site was online when I was 16 years old and at that time I didn’t have the domain antonysimpson.com.

    Version 2

    Version 2 was designed with sidebar Navigation in order to allow me to populate the site with much more content. It again was designed in HTML using tables. It contained much more photos than Version 1 including a photo’s section.


    New features included a News page that had paragraphs of my news including Site Updates to let the visitors know what had been developed and updated. The Occult section of Version 1 became religion as I accepted Paganism as part of my religion. This version of the site was online around the time when I was 18 years old.

    Version 3

    Most significantly in Version 3 was the new blue design. I kept the sidebar navigation as I liked that it allowed me to populate the rest of the site with more content. The site used a combination of HTML and PHP, using Iframes. Removed the Site Updates but added on a Last Updated sentence on the home page so that people know when it was last updated.


    The news section (above) had a page per news entry and an archive like a blog.

    Version 4

    Kept the same blue colours design. Kept the last updated sentence on the home page. Moved the Navigation to the top of the page. The main feature of this site was a wordpress blog which unfortunately I deleted being unable to pull off the posts and saving them. This was probably the shortest version of the site ever online, really I only focused on the blog.

    Version 5

    Again I kept the blue design (look above). It was the most advanced coding I had done so far. I liked the photos and had more of them to use as technology developed. I kept the Last Updated sentence and added a hit counter.


    I created a windows-style little windows for the content. For the first time I had a guestbook.

    Version 6

    The major change in this design was the colours, using oranges and reds. The site design was the same, but I uploaded much more content.

    Version 7

    Easier on the eye colours were used. Advanced PHP coding used. Meta tags added so that I would appear in search results. For the first time I used an RSS feed. This was probably one of the longest sites online.

    Navigation returned the sidebar with little yellow star bullet points! I discovered photoshop and used it to make my own banners. Put news on the home page. Kept expanding the site adding new sections and pages.

    Also added Coming Soon – so that visitors would know what new content was to be added and Site Updates makes a return so visitors know what’s been recently updated.

    Version 8

    My friend Sye designed this site for me. I asked him to design it after seeing his cartoon artwork (see Funny cartoons from a friend and More funny cartoons from a friend). The idea was to create a noticeboard with a piece of paper pinned on to it. The Navigation was cartoon images that changed on mouse over at the top of the page.

    The site was designed in dreamweaver using tables in a blog style. I also had a cartoon logo designed by Sye. I decided to have a wordpress blog for the home page and made some minor changes to the design to accommodate this to the version you see today:

    So that’s how my sites developed over the years. Do you think I should make some changes to the current version or create a new version? Post a comment.

    Antony

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    Saturday 20 February 2010
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