Tag Archives: fall

Weekend Wanderings

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Hello, Vixens!!!  Have my fellow East Coasters thawed yet from the sub-zero temperatures we had this weekend??? Brrrrrrrrrr!!!  But I must admit I do find the frigid air a little exhilarating (in very small doses), plus it is great cuddling weather so it is not all bad, right?!?!

Despite how cold it was, I went out and about.  Unfortunately, not to any estate sales as there still are not any in my area, so I checked out a few thrift stores and Goodwill.  Nothing really spoke to me, but I did enjoy looking.  I miss that.

Then I did my usual exploring around the back roads of CT.  During my travels, I came across what looked like an old airplane in a make shift hangar, sitting at the end of a farm. I thought it was a pretty neat discovery.

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I also went down a country road that has become one of my favorite routes.  In the fall, I came across this beautiful tree, and thought I would take a picture of it in winter to document the whole different seasons, different views thing.

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Kind of cool, right?  Got to love nature and the seasons 🙂

Saturday night I was introduced to a great place to eat, the White Horse Pub & Restaurant.  What a fantastic place with delicious food!!!  I had the Pear and Blue Cheese Salad and a heaping bowl of French Onion Soup with Gruyere Cheese.  Sensational.  I took pictures but they barely came out do to the low lighting in the place (it was the night before Valentine’s Day, after all).  This is just my humble opinion and not a sponsored post.  I am just sharing a great find with you, since you may be new to the area like me so referrals are quite helpful!!!

Sunday was all about some chores, a few errands and a quick trip to the library.  A friend recommended a book to me:  “The Forgetting Time” by Sharon Guskin.  I picked that up and will begin reading that and my book club selection this week.  I love to snuggle under the covers and immerse myself in good reads when it is this cold.  And in great movies, too.  TCM showed “Adam’s Rib“*** and “Now, Voyager“*** yesterday-two of my all time favorites.  Tracy and Hepburn are my most beloved on screen pair EVER, and Bette Davis was so beautiful and glamorous in “Voyager” it is almost hard to believe she was the same actress who played Jane in another one of my most adored flicks, “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?“***

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Davis in a still from “Now, Voyager” (1942)
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Davis in a still from “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?” (1962)

I also discovered two things that made me extremely happy, and I want to share them with you.  The first is I just heard (I know, where have I been???  LOL) that “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” is coming out next month with the original cast.  I watched the trailer and it looks as funny, if not more, than the original.  Yay!!!

The second is that Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is being released in September.  I do not know how the fact that he was writing a book got by me, but now that I know I have no idea how I will make it until the fall to read it!!!  Do you think he will finally reveal that his greatest sadness in life was not marrying me???  One can hope and be delusional, can’t one 🙂 ???

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Source:  BruceSpringsteen.net

Oh, and speaking of the Boss, I was supposed to see him in concert this week in Hartford, but I swapped tickets with one of my friends who lives in MD and had tickets for his show there in April.  She completely forgot she will be away on a cruise the night of the concert, so being the good friend I am I thought I would add MD to one of the states I travel to for my Boss obsession.  However, I must admit when she told me he sang “Because The Night”, “Cover Me”, “Loose Ends”, “Bobby Jean” AND “Rosalita”, all of which are in my top 10 favorite songs by him, my heart went into an arrhythmia it has yet to recover from.

I mean, I was glad to help her out and I will still get to see Bruce on “The River” tour, but if he does not perform those five songs the night I go I am afraid I might end up throwing myself on the stage kicking and screaming.  Maybe then he will rethink the set list???  LOL  But he will be singing “Fade Away” since that is from the album, and that may make up for everything since I ADORE that song, too!!!  I always thought it would make a great duet, especially if he sang it with me!!!  SAAAAAA-WOOOOON!!!  Here is Bruce meeting with some Veterans before his show in DC last month.  I love that he is such a staunch supporter of the men & women who served (and continue to serve) our country!!!

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Source:  BruceSpringsteen.net/Pete Souza/The River Tour in DC-Jan 2016

Please note that the starred links*** are my affiliate links. I only share what I love and am grateful for the support 🙂

So, how did you spend your weekend?  And if you are lucky enough to be off tomorrow (unlike me 😦 ), enjoy it!!!  Happy President’s Day!!!

Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy digging!!!

 

“I’m So Glad I Live In A World Where There Are Octobers…..”

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Do you spend this entire month quoting that wonderful line from “Anne of Green Gables” like I do?  🙂

Happy October, Vixens!!!  Thirty-one days to enjoy this glorious time of the season!!!  Fall finally feels official although it is still quite warm here on the east coast.  The most wonderful month of the year is here!!!

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I have broken out-rather, unpacked-my slow cooker in anticipation of the comfort foods it will hold this season:  soups, roasts, hot apple cider and my favorite, baked apples.  Thanks to Pinterest, I have several pumpkin bread recipes I want to try out, in addition to baking the pie of the season-apple.  Candy corn, apple cider donuts and hot chocolate are now my go to snacks whenever my sweet tooth gets a craving.  My sweaters, ankle boots and warm socks are all clean and ready to wear.  I am ready for the season-almost.

Where I am stuck is in my decorating.  I usually have a very natural approach this time of year thanks to the bounty of nature.  But the leaves have not started changing yet due to the warm climate, and the white pumpkins and gourds are in rare supply for now.  I try not to buy too many fake ones because one, I prefer the real ones and two, I would rather not store any more items than I have to.  But I do have a few ceramic ones.

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I am still figuring out my new place as this is the first time I am decorating it for a season.  I realized I have more orange pumpkins (fabric & ceramic) than I thought, and I really like them despite my desire for a neutral palette.  However, I have more pink than I expected thanks to a small trunk I am now using as a coffee table & a pink wash bin that I am turning into a buffet for my dining area.  I guess it is the pink and orange I am having a problem with.

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So as I still figure that out and where to pepper in the Halloween decorations as well, here are a few pictures of the progress I have made so far.  If we are spared the remnants of  Hurricane Joaquin (great name, right?!) this weekend, I will be hitting some local farm stands and pumpkin farms to start this month off right!!!

Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy digging & happy October!!!

Etsy Treasures

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It is still fairly warm here in Connecticut so fall still feels far off, despite October starting later this week.  However, the supermarkets and nurseries are looking more like the season every day.  Here is a display I found the other day when I went grocery shopping:

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As I gathered my fall items to start decorating, I realized I did not have a lot of Halloween items.  I was just about to go out and hit some thrift stores when an Etsy order I placed several weeks ago arrived with this little beauty:

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Isn’t she just lovely?!  I love the neutral palette, the little cat and the fact that she looks like a good witch 🙂

The shop owner was also kind enough to send me a free gift with my purchase that will fit in with my natural & rustic way of decorating:

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I love it and cannot wait to frame it and add it to my decor.  But the piece I love the most is a custom order I placed for my mantra.  As I told you in my previous post, Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” is one of my all time favorite songs and contains a line I live my life by.  So, I finally made it a part of my home with this custom plaque:

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I cannot tell you how happy I am to see these words in front of me every day.  I am not sure where it will end up permanently, but for now it is in my bedroom so it is the first thing I see in the morning & the last thing I see at night.

I love how both pieces I ordered came out.  I want to give a very big thank you to the Etsy store that created these treasures for me, deSignsofExpressions.  This is a great shop to deal with.  The owner is kind, talented and very professional.  She is also a very good communicator and offered me a discount at the beginning for buying multiple items.  If you are in need of a rustic custom piece or gift, definitely check out this shop.  I have not been sponsored for this post and all opinions, including the Springsteen worship, are my own.

I will be back soon with some pictures of my home decorated for fall and Halloween.  In the meantime, I am really enjoying the tours of so many of the bloggers out there.  It is inspiring to see so much creativity!!!

Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy digging!!!

Fall Memories of & Happy Birthday Bruce Springsteen!!!

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Like so many of you, fellow Vixens, fall is my favorite time of year.  It has been that way my whole life.  The cooler temperatures, the leaves changing colors, the crunch of the fallen ones underfoot or jumping in a freshly raked pile of them, pumpkins, Halloween, fall festivals, apple picking and the smell of wood burning in fireplaces…..need I go on?

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It started when I was a kid planning my costume and dreaming about how much yummy candy I would get on All Hallow’s Eve.  I would also wonder how big that year’s pumpkin would be and how sweet it would smell with a candle in it to light up the carved face.  Then when I was older I used to walk home from school in the fall after field hockey practice.  At the beginning of the season, it was still hot thanks to Indian Summer so the mile I had to walk home in the heat was excruciating.  But once October arrived, it not only got cooler but it would start to get dark by the time I was halfway home.  Then the walk was glorious.

I smelled the fireplaces that were needed to get the chill out of houses.  I listened to the leaves crunching under my feet.  I admired the many different carved pumpkins on display on front porches or in big picture windows.  I adored the way the cool crisp air touched my cheeks like sweet tender caresses.  I studied the changing hues of the sky as the sun set and the moon emerged. And I marveled at the beauty and wonder of this spectacular time of year.  

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As I walked towards the door of my house, I could see the warmth of the lights welcoming home.  As sad as I was that my evening reverie was over, I was happy to be home.  Things were far from perfect, but I could count on several things:  that a hearty plate of dinner was waiting for me in the oven, courtesy of my dear sweet  grandmother; that I would get to kiss, hug, cuddle and play with my little brother; that after I ate and did my chores, I could listen to my Bruce Springsteen records and that my dad would watch TV with us every night.

A lot of life has happened to me in the fall, some good, some bad and some heartbreaking.  But through all of it, autumn is simply astonishing in its loveliness year after year.

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The first day of fall is also special to me because it is Bruce Springsteen’s birthday.  The first time I bought one of his records  (Born To Run) was in the fall following the worst summer of my life-the one in which my mother died leaving her 12 year old daughter and the rest of her family behind.  The world had become so dark I forgot what light was like.  But one listen to Springsteen’s album and suddenly all that changed.

In that moment, fall had a new color.  It was so exquisite and bright I never quite saw things the same way again.  That color gave me back a glimpse of hope that maybe I could look forward to a future, one where happily ever after did not end in a horribly final way…..where I did not end up like my father and lose the love of my life at the age of 36.  

I love Bruce Springsteen for many things, but giving me back my hope is the biggest reason why.  It is a debt I will never be able to repay.  The mantra of my life, even after all these years, is from “Thunder Road”:  ” What else can we do now except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair.”.  Those words carry me through my life.

Thank you, Boss Man.  Happy Birthday & Happy Fall.

Until next time, fellow Vixens, happy digging and Happy Fall!!! 

Some Seasonal Shopping

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Last weekend I was rained out on Saturday (and there were no indoor sales that I was aware of) so Sunday was my only day to hit the local sales.  I went to five of them-yes, FIVE-and did not find ANYTHING!!!  It was not that any of them were junk, they just had things I was not in the market for:  newer items, toys, children’s items, clothes and large furniture (tables and chairs, etc).

It was nice to be at it again in the crisp weather-it was 70 degrees here on Sunday-so the outcome was by no means a complaint.  But the cooler air always puts me in the mood to hit some of my favorite stores to see what is new for the season.  I do not purchase a lot, maybe a few pieces here and there to mix in with my vintage items, and I shop at stores where I get the most bang for my buck.

While most of my decorating this time of year is with real pumpkins and other finds from nature (read:  acorns and leaves), a few store-bought items peppered in seem to complete the look I am going for.

Some of my favorite places to visit are the Christmas Tree Shops, the Dollar Tree and Michaels.

At the Christmas Tree Shop I found some burlap pumpkins and seasonal pot holders.

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At the Dollar Tree I found a witches sign (and some bungee cords for those big treasures I find that need to be secured in my car).

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At Michaels I found another seasonal sign and some burlap ribbon that I plan to use on my Christmas tree.

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I am still in the throes of organizing and decorating my apartment, but soon I will show you how I incorporate these purchases in my space.

Until next time, fellow vixens, happy digging!!!