fun pumpkin

 

I'm loving this little pumpkin cutie...

and kind of wishing I could go home

to carve a few for our stairs!

*via

pumpkin cuteness

Check out these tasty little
cuties...Pumpkin Pie Bites!

The recipe looks pretty easy,
and I'm thinking they could be a
yummy addition to any fun fall parties...
or my appetizer party that I
still haven't forgotten about.  :)

Let me know if you try them!


*via

more summer, please

 Mornings and evenings are rapidly

adopting that undeniably crisp feeling of

fall, but I'm still not quite ready to let

go of summer.  I still want to grill a few

more fabulous meals, have a couple more

lazy naps in the sunshine, and I still want

to make this easy ice cream cake!

How about you?  Are you clinging to 

summertime like me, or are you ready

to embrace fall in all it's glory?  :)

*recipe here

upside down

This morning as I walked into the

office through a dense cloud of fog, it was 

like the sun was shining up at me from 

the sidewalk under my feet. 

The carpet of yellow maples leaves

made my walk beautiful and was 

a very cheerful way to start an 

otherwise slightly gray day! 

seasons change...

 

 

I love this picture.  

It somehow captures the

change from summer to fall - 

the really early part where nearly

everything is still green, but 

you can't help but notice all the 

subtle little signs of impending autumn.

Plus - let's be real -  I'm just

a sucker for any photo with 

lots of pretty bokah action.

oh fall

 

I struggle to like fall.

There, I said it.

I know everyone in New England

just loves this season - with it's 

cool evenings, crunchy leaves,crisp apples

and generally beautiful things.

I'm such a summer girl, 

that it's really hard for me to embrace fall

and all it's glory, but I'm trying.

Last weekend, I noticed the queen anne's lace

on our evening walk with my parents - 

and couldn't help but think that it's one of 

the most lovely looking dying things you'll ever see.

 

I think that totally counts as me

learning to love fall, right?

*image

monday thoughts...

This morning the sunrise was beautiful over my city. It's supposed to be kind of dark and rainy today, so it was such a wonderful surprise to see the vibrant oranges and pinks peeking out over the skyline.

As I drove to the gym, I was so struck by how beautiful God's creation is - and how loudly it proclaims His glory. I think Psalm 19 sums it up perfectly:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.



On the theme of God's creation, I feel the need to give one more nod to the beauty of fall before jumping headlong into this Christmas season. (Totally listened to Christmas carols yesterday and loved every second of it!!)

Since it's been so warm and fallish these last few days, I feel justified in sharing this post with you, which blew me away with the gorgeous colors and shapes.



Speaking of holidays, Thanksgiving was fabulous. I spent a couple of great days at home with my extended family (and got to play with my sweet little cousin!) and then spent the rest of the weekend at my place with my immediate family.

We had a couple of small projects to do together around my apartment, but for the most part just enjoyed spending time together. I feel so blessed to be able to just soak up their company and have fun with them. There was lots of laughing and chatting, and it was wonderful.

Now I am counting down until I get to see them all again for Christmas...only a few weeks!



Hope your Monday is lovely and that you're still enjoying all the Thanksgiving leftovers - I know I am!


*images via GoogleImages, A Life More Fabulous, Sister, GoogleImages

fall color!

Some delicious & cheerful color for your Tuesday...

And, let's please note the adorable shoes in the top left corner!


*image via delight by design

trick or treat!

My family was never a huge Halloween family - we lived out in the middle of rural Maine and never really had the neighborhood trick or treating experience. My mom was super creative and resourceful so we always had cool costumes & decorated pumpkins, but we really just showed them off to Grammy & Grampy who lived next door, then drove to a few of the houses on our road to get some candy.

(I'm pretty sure Halloween was the only day a year we saw most of those neighbors, now that I think about it. Weird.)

I do enjoy the fall decorations that seem to culminate at Halloween though. I found these images last week and had a moment where all I wanted to do was go home and carve a pumpkin. Or paint a pumpkin - how cute are those little guys?




And how cool is this pumpkin cooler idea?

It makes me want to throw a fall themed party just so that I can try it!!



And finally, check out these fabulous candy shots...after all, it's not Halloween without the candy!

(Except for those weird health food nuts who give out apples and granola - I always felt so bad for their kids, didn't you?)


If Halloween is your thing, I hope you have a lot of fun!


*design images via a life's design, candy images via pine to the pacific

apples!

This past weekend I went apple picking with a group of my favorites. It was a glorious fall day, and the colors were perfect all around us.

Plus the wind was crisp and cool, making it the ideal temperature to wrap up in a scarf and drink hot cider!


About half way through the afternoon it was fun to observe about half of the people diligently looking up into the trees for perfect apples, while the other half were studying the ground for the perfect rotten apples to use as ammunition.

We keep each other balanced.



The lovely Miss Kate (on the right) was back for a quick visit, having recently moved to another part of the country, and it was fun having her with us for the afternoon.

And, I'll have you know, that most of those girls making funny faces together contributed really wonderful things to the apple bake-off on Sunday night. Really wonderful things...



Now just to get to work on all the apples in the fridge...

I think I see an apple pie or coffee cake in our near future!

weekend end...

So not only is fall here, but it's gorgeous this year.

These colors make my heart sing - aren't they beautiful?


Fall is also a good excuse to bring back the warm, cozy foods...like pea soup!

Definitely made a huge pot of it this weekend, and it was so yummy.

(Thanks, A.K., for lending me your wonderfully roomy kitchen to cook in!)



Twin and I hung out with these goobers on Saturday night. They were fun as always.

(There's nothing like a dog who just wants to cuddle up next to you...)

And fairly patient models - I have probably another twenty pictures like the one below before she got completely aggravated and demanded that I pet her.


And finally, I powered through this book over the course of Sunday.

It was a fun read, and I think the wonderful Miss Abby sums it up best:

"It's like cupcakes - really fun but with no nutritional value."



Ps - only 2 days before we leave for this!!!

the fair is the fair...

The fair was a perfect ending to a long weekend...and involved little to no planning or strategy, which couldn't have been nicer after planning and executing two very involved events for church.

(both of which went very well, in case you were wondering, thank you very much.)




We ate our way around the fair, consuming a variety of wonderfully bad-for-you food.

The list is actually pretty impressive, and ranges from typical fair food to the definitely not so typical: blooming onions, funnel cakes, fried dough, apple crisp, french fries, candied apple, ostrich burger, elk burger





The animals were a big draw, and we spent a ton of time just hanging over stalls and chatting.

This sheep chatted back, in a very loud sort of way.

I am coming to the conclusion that sheep might not really like me.





Then there was this little pig pile, which was all kinds of adorable.

Most of the little guys were sleeping pros, but there were a few that kept things interesting - climbing over the others and wandering around like little drunken sailors.




Watching the kids show their steers was pretty impressive.

This one little guy was my favorite, but it might have had something to do with the fact that he wore suspenders and walked like an old farmer.

We didn't think the boys would be overly interested, but they were pretty intent on all the action.



It was a lovely, colorful day, with everything perfectly set against a brilliant blue sky.

As much as I hate to say this, I think fall is here.

And it's actually pretty wonderful.