As I previously mentioned, B and I went on vacation to the Outer Banks this September, and the October issue of Martha Stewart Living was my reading material on our flight from Boston to Richmond, Virginia. I try to pick up the October issue every year because Martha (and her helper elves) usually come up with several inspirational crafts and ideas for Halloween.

This year had some good ones — glow in the dark displays, spooky owl and skeleton invitations — but the feature on pumpkins was the standout for me. I probably read the article three times and stared at the included pictures for so long that I barely finished going through the magazine by the time we landed in Virginia. Needless to say, I was completely and utterly obsessed with pumpkins by the end of the flight. Here are some of the gorgeous, gorgeous pictures, so you can become obsessed, too:

images from Martha Stewart Living, October 2008

The second leg of our journey took place in a rental car, and B and I were both hoping that we would find a nice farmer’s market on the way to our destination. Local peaches were on our minds as we parked at a large farmstand at the side of the road, and we found bags of juicy beauties waiting for us. But the big surprise, for me at least, was their pumpkin selection. Pumpkins everywhere, including many of the varieties that I’d just seen in the aforementioned article from Martha Stewart Living. What were the chances?! Well, probably pretty high since it was a farmstand in the fall, but the entire experience was still magical for me.

I wanted to take all of the pumpkins home with me, but I realized that I couldn’t realistically carry 100+ pumpkins with me on the return flight. Bummer. B encouraged me to pick up a small pumpkin, if only to decorate the beach house during the coming week, and I found a sweet orange and white striped variety that was only about four inches in diameter. He was perfect. And he did, indeed, decorate the beach house.

I managed to gently shove my sweet pumpkin into our suitcase before we left for the airport, and he’s now back at our apartment. However, he did cause a bit of a stir at the airport when he set off the alarms. It seems that the “danger seeking” machines and x-ray do-hickies thought that his stem was a knife, and our luggage had to be searched before we got the all clear. B and I both had a good laugh when we figured out what happened, and we now call our pumpkin Stabby.