It’s October now and it feels like it; the leaves are golden against a sky that alternates between crystal clear blue and stormy greys. When the wind blows, it often has a chill in it, and colourful leaves crunch underfoot as you walk.
The season is short, but it’s my favourite time of year!
Every corner you turn has another spectacular view. This is a small ravine close to where we live. It’s gorgeous at this time of year.
Even abandoned buildings have a romantic look to them.
And despite the signs of decay, there is beauty to be seen in the blooms and seedheads.
The trees are dropping their leaves…and their seeds! We will plant some and see if they grow.
We’ve been so busy harvesting the garden and have a pantry stuffed full of bounty from our tomatoes, cucumbers, plums, choke-cherries and apples. There are delicious treats ahead this winter!
In the meantime, it’s still the perfect time to go outside and explore; soon we will be spending most of our time indoors!
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
The leaves are going quickly. Only days ago this row of trees in our backyard were covered in bright golden colours and by today they are mostly gone. Bare branches are left in stark contrast to the pale azure autumn skies. The bright yellow leaves are slowly deepening in colour, and the days are cool and crisp. I love this time of year and, like Anne, I am glad I live in a place where I get to fully enjoy Octobers.
I am also happy that my sister was able to get these photos for me when she did, since I think this is the last time I’ll be pulling out this linen wrap skirt for this year. It’s time to reach for the tights and woollens and scarves!
This is the patchwork purse I mentioned that I was making. It took quite a while to finish, since I decided to hand stitch it to give more control over some of the very tiny pieces of fabric. I’m not a skilled quilter, and since I didn’t follow any pattern (each piece was fitted in place as I sewed) it ended up quite quirky! I think it gives it a rather authentic 1970’s feel though, don’t you?
After I finished the quilt, I then appliquéd it onto a canvas backing and then lined the entire thing to give it some strength, especially since the last one I made came apart. I was able to use so many unique pieces of fabric that I’ve saved over the years- you can even see in the picture above that I used a piece of the fabric from this skirt! Well, at least I know that this bag will coordinate with almost everything in my wardrobe…
Friendship necklaces used to be such a “thing” when I was a kid, but they kind of went out of favour, didn’t they? A few years ago I found this friendship necklace; the heart cut out of the centre of this piece forms the other necklace! I like that it’s so delicate and minimal.
Why is it so hard to find brown shoes? Have you ever noticed that? Since deciding that brown is my “neutral” I have had the hardest time finding nice shoes that aren’t black. I was so glad to be able to find these from Vionic. I think it’s about time to put them away for the season, though. They are perforated, which is lovely for warm days, but a bit chilly for autumn!
I hope you are faring well and enjoying your October, whatever it’s looking like for you!
Happy October! Even though it’s a short season I love fall. I can’t believe that it’s already the beginning of October and the leaves are starting to fade!
Yesterday I snapped these photos of the beautiful golden light shining through the trees…and today is a cold and blustery day which has left almost all of the trees bare. We’ve had a beautiful long fall this year though, with so many sunny warm days. I love seeing the contrast of golden yellow leaves against a crisp blue sky.
Today is a quiet day spent inside with a book and a cup of tea. I got a couple of novels from the library yesterday, and have already finished one of them! (Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce and moving onto Longbourn by Jo Baker next)
I finished my patchwork sewing project a while ago. I made a new purse to go on these vintage wooden handles from my Mom. The bag that was originally on them was coming apart, so it was time for a refresh. I was able to use up a bunch of beautiful scraps I’ve been saving for years. I’ll have an outfit post with this purse up soon!
Another quick and easy project recently, was making some new pillowcases. I sewed them out of a couple of damaged vintage sheets I had and they go perfectly with my pillow shams and quilt. I used to have 50 different patterned throw pillows and white pillowcases, but I was starting to get tired of how busy it was when paired with my quilt. So, instead of changing out the throw pillows for new ones, I decided to update with floral pillowcases and keep my shams and throw pillow all white lace. It was the perfect solution and I love the look!
One final item of note for today is that I added a couple of new card designs, as well as phone cases etc. to my Society 6 shop. I added these ages ago, actually, but never posted them!
How is your Fall going? What are your plans for October?
I am excitedly looking forward to Christmas (seriously only 2 weeks away?!?) and have been wanting to share some photos of the decorating I did this year, and even some winter outfits, but before I can get into Christmas/Winter mode…I really need to post the last of my Fall photos! Again, I don’t know why I haven’t posted these photos yet, but here I am today with another very belated Fall fashion post.
These photos were taken in one of my favourite country lanes back in October when the leaves were golden, and my hair was still pink. This was one of the few beautiful Fall days we had, the lighting was perfect and so my sister and I jumped into the car, came over to this perfect leafy background and quickly grabbed these photos! I like how they turned out, so I really don’t know why I waited so long to share them…
I found this plaid skirt at the thrift store last year, and have been wearing it on repeat all through the cold months. I wasn’t able to get a photo of it last Winter, so I was so excited to be able to pull it out again! It is a half circle skirt, with pleats pressed into it; I wasn’t sure how I would like the shape, but I like it so much that I am planning to sew myself one like it. When I bought it, the waistband was stretched out of shape and it was too large for me. I took the waistband off, added some narrow darts to the skirt so it would fit, and then put the waistband back on. I think that this skirt had been put through the washing machine, as the pleats (and fabric) were a big mess, but I took it to the dry cleaners for a steam pressing and it came back looking much better! It’s amazing what a good pressing can do for your clothes, and sometimes it really is worth it to take certain garments for a professional press job. If you look closely at the fabric (a polyester and wool blend) you can see that it is in not the best condition, but who’s looking that closely?
I’ve been wearing this skirt a lot lately, either pairing it with my favourite green cardigan and a black shell, or a drapey rayon blouse for work. The colours are quite versatile and it’s so nice to have pieces you can grab that go with so many other things in your wardrobe!
Another piece I’ve been wearing on repeat, is this dull pink coloured beret. I love my berets and wear them almost every day in the fall and winter! When I got this one, I didn’t know if it would be a good colour for the existing pieces in my wardrobe, but it has been actually a really great addition.
My favourite fall fashion always has a kind of bookish feel to it, and this outfit makes me think of a 1940’s college girl, what do you think? What are some of your favourite things to wear come Fall?
Well, now that I’ve posted these images, I can move on to Christmas and Winter stuff! Stay tuned for some photos of the (minimal) holiday decorating that I did this year. Hope you are all doing well, Dear Readers, and having as much fun looking forward to Christmas as I am! Talk to you soon….
Now that it’s almost winter, all the leaves are long gone, and these photos are woefully out of season, I suppose it’s about time to post them.
I’ve had these pictures sitting on my desktop for ages, and for some reason I just never posted them. I think it’s because I don’t really have anything to say about them in particular, and I just can’t seem to get a blog post composed.
It’s not that I don’t want to blog anymore; I do. But, I’ve been doing other things with my time lately…and so blogging gets put to the side. I don’t want to be redundant and keep saying, “I’m going to get back to it” and then not follow through, but I do really want to get back into it. Blogging is such a great creative outlet for me, and I’m sad that I’ve let it get pushed to the side. So, maybe a near-end-of-year resolution is to make time for blogging again? And find some topics to talk about too, so I won’t have trouble composing useful and interesting posts! But, I haven’t thought of anything useful or interesting to say today… so for now here will have to be the world’s most boring post instead…
