Furry-in-a-hurry chipmunks, do you know how hard this was? A month ago, I decided to run a little video blogging contest, asking readers to submit a 30-second video about their silliest guilty pleasures. I wasn’t sure anyone would want to play along, and was thrilled (T-H-R-I-L-L-E-D) when Darla immediately jumped on board, encouraging several others to make a vlog soon thereafter.

I loved all of the submissions, for completely different reasons. I had a prize in mind for each and every one of you. Everyone is a winner.

Except there’s only one winner. 

This winner stole my heart while broadcasting from inside her closet. I think we can all agree her submission is hilarious – it even got Peppermeister laughing (and he doesn’t like to admit the things I think are funny are actually funny, even though they totally always are). That’s right. The winner is…

Deb from The Monster in Your Closet!!!

And now, I present to Deb her highly sought-after, one-of-a-kind prize: A custom jack-o-lantern! 

It started this morning with a sketch – should I try to carve Deb’s guilty pleasure (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), I wondered, or go with an homage to her blog theme (The Monster in Your Closet)? Here’s what I chose:

That didn’t seem quite right. So, I thought about making the monster look like Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.:

Still not right. Finally, I decided to make the monster a vampire-monster, to get the best of both worlds. He’s friendly because Deb is so sweet:

Next came taping the drawing onto the pumpkin, with Uncle Jesse (my dog) looking on curiously:

I transfered the outline of the drawing by poking holes into the pumpkin:

After carving, it looked like this:

And at last, the final product (picture taken, I should note, from inside my own closet)!

Hi Deb! My, you're looking winny today.

Congratulations, Deb!! You too are a guilty pleasure goddess. I would like to leave you with some Buffy dialogue about winning:

WHILE PLAYING THE GAME OF LIFE:

Anya: Crap! Look at this. Now I’m burdened with a husband, and several tiny pink children, more cash than I can reasonably manage…

Xander: That means you’re winning.

Anya: Really?

Xander: Yes, cash equals good.

Anya: Ooh, I’m so pleased! Can I trade in the children for more cash?

P.S. – If I stop responding to comments, someone please check Renée’s basement. (On a related note, if you haven’t seen her vlog submission, you really should watch it here. It puts the treat in trick-or-treat.)