If you couldn’t tell from the abundance of PSLs, Ugg boots, and “I’m so glad I live in a world with Octobers” Instagram posts, it’s fall in New England. Yay! (No, I don’t care for pumpkin spice, despite the fact that I am a semi-basic white girl after all.)

It’s a little challenging to get into the autumn spirit when you live in a.) a place where fall temperatures keep fluctuating between balmy and frigid, and b.) a studio apartment with very few areas to fill with tiny gourds.

But that didn’t stop us from trying! This weekend, we ventured to Bartlett’s Farm in search of some fall fun, because pumpkins and pumpkin adjacent vegetables were 50% off, and you know girlfriend can’t resist a sale.

Okay, I may have gone a little gourd-crazy, but I kept finding so many cute ones of all sorts of shapes and sizes, and I couldn’t resist. But like I said, CLEARANCE! Also they were running this promotion and Steve and I each got one of ours free for correctly guessing the weight of our pumpkins. It legitimately felt like I had won on the slot machines at Foxwoods. There was shouting, high fives – I think I speak for the three people that were shopping there at that time that it was quite the experience to be a part of.

I ended up with about fifteen pumpkins total, partially because they were so darn cute but also because I have a legit but undiagnosed shopping problem. Again these are to be displayed in one room.

A few of my friends and I were talking about how much money we’ve spent lately traveling, going out, you know, all of the things Nantucketers suddenly have time for now that our schedules have plateaued a bit. Plus Saturday’s weather was a downright nasty woman and it seemed a wise decision to stay inside. We decided to do a little dinner and decorating to entertain ourselves, free of charge (minus you know, the hords of gourds).

Molly made these gorgeous apple florets and brought over some of Nantucket Vineyards hard apple cider. #applesonapplesonapples

Unfortunately, none of us gave these plans more than one hour of thought, and we quickly realized we had no supplies. I’m talking no paint, brushes, glitter – nothing. And Nantucket’s not exactly one of those places you can run out to a craft store at 6 PM on a Saturday night. I mean, I had scoured Pinterest and found the most amazing pumpkin decorating ideas, only to find we had nothing to execute any of them (my particular favorites are these ones, this, and also this… you know, you might as well check out the whole board here). Once again, Steve to the rescue. He cut up sponges and DIYd brushes out of skewers, and found all of our paint samples from however many accent walls we’ve experimented with in our various apartments. We were in business!

Did I mention that all of this effort was just to satisfy my personal pumpkin decorating thirst? Everyone else wanted to carve… even Steve, with his oddly shaped gourd. Me? I hate any activity that requires me to get gunk under my fingernails. I’ll stick with my intensely thick latex wall paint, thank you very much.

Um, Steve also made us dinner. He’s a keeper, I KNOW. You don’t have to keep telling me so on Snapchat, I am very much aware of his talents.

I clearly didn’t have any letters or stencils to work with, but I had found these awesome “pun-kins” from Studio DIY last year, and I encouraged the other girls that weren’t obsessed with painting the perfect pumpkin as I was to utilize some of these witty Halloween sayings.

Sometimes, all a girl needs is some red wine and a Sharpie.

I had no part in these. But aren’t they awesome? I think my favorite is Molly’s “sassy” cat on the left. She’s really serving up some Beyonce style realness with that pose over there.

I still haven’t photographed my pumpkins yet, due to my ambitious double coats of paint that required a full twenty-four hours for them to not smudge, because you know, it’s meant to go on drywall. Also my home isn’t exactly Pinterest-ready right now for me to artfully arrange my gourds.

Overall, I’m super happy with my final designs, although I would love to know my true pumpkin painting capabilities when equipped with the appropriate tools. Like GLITTER.

Anyone else do anything crafty this year? Personally I’m loving all the different shades of pumpkins that seem to be everywhere now. Orange never really was my color.

Stay scary friends,

~L