apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I clean my windows, buy new sheets and I do the Fall Cure with AT!

Sigh. I miss fall. The leaves, the crisp air, the apple cider...

Here in Miami, fall means that the humidity of summer finally begins fade to away and it's pleasant to be outside again. So I get ready for fall by buying a new bathing suit!

I wear my scarfs!

I spend fall in total denial that summer is over. In New York I wear shorts until at least the last week of October.

hmm, im usually ready before the texas weather is. haha

hejiranyc--me too, totally. And in DC, summer isn't really over anyway, it just gets dark earlier, is less muggy, and it's pleasant summer weather, rather than searing.

Like cojaclynsy...I bring out my scarves!!! I'm a knitter so I have TONS!

I decorate for fall, finally start wearing cozy jackets and scarves and take in as much beauty around me as possible. Fall leaves are my favorite.

although I am a committed mocha drinker, I'll order something like a pumpkin spice latte and let that cozy smell take over! Knowing that it's almost scarf season makes me giddy!!

I bake pumpkin cranberry chocolate chip bread, make squash for dinner, and knit like crazy!

Pumpkins! Eat! Display! Fondle!

Here in LA, it won't be fall-ish for a little while longer :( But both my sister and I buy the yummiest pumkin spice candles we can find and burn them all through fall in the house. That smell is the signal of fall for me. Oh, and cook squash like mad!

Ahhh! We don't have a "fall" out here in California, which is uber lame. I remember having one when I got married out in North Carolina just before moving there for a short amount of time, and it was gorgeous!

We end up buying new sheets, we've actually bought curtains (because we had to) and we will start driving over 9 miles away to a tiny and sweet family owned Chinese food place that we absolutely love on cold nights. Then off to grab tea.

Yet the Barnes and Noble-Starbucks cafe has decided to stop carrying my favorite tea, "Yellow and Blue." Get it while you can peeps... it's sad sad thing for it to leave my life. lol

I'm somewhat of a local leaf-watcher. I really like bare trees in the winter silhouetted against the evening perfect blue night sky. The little buds come eventually. Then I see leaves. It's kind of cool to watch them day by day and week by week, peeking out a bit, growing, and unfolding. Suddenly, it seems they are so much deeper green than the yellow they were. This part goes on awhile. They dry out a little. Meteorologist starts telling us where the foliage is turning up to our north, and by then, I've noticed a local tree or two is turning a lot sooner than the rest. I love this weather, it's comfortable to me to be a little on the cool side. Soon all the trees will have turned, and then the streets and yards will be full of the leaves. It's a little too short for me. Summer and winter are very long and uncomfortable to me, while spring and autumn are perfect and don't last long enough.

As a native Californian, I've come of age w/o seasonal changes which is all right by me.

We do actually have trees throughout So Cal that change color in autumn and look beautiful. I also have a tree in my front yard that sheds like a mofo, so raking that up is enough mid west and east coast fall for me. I love that I can still surf in a spring suit for another month.

I have a list of things I look forward to doing every year.

1. Put the garden to bed
2. Make & freeze tomato sauce from heirloom tomatoes.
3. Polish my boots
4. Get my winter coat dry cleaned
5. Change the furnace filter
6. Change the H20 filter
7. Detach hoses from house and store
8. Put away the patio furniture
9. Make a list of indoor projects for the winter (paint bathroom, finishing knitting started last year, finish painting started last year, etc.)
10. Fluff the down comforter and stuff the duvet
11. Closet switcheroo from summer to winter wearables
12. Stock up on red wines
13. Buy theater tickets through February
14. Set a date for a holiday party
15. Plan something wonderful to do on thanksgiving and christmas so that I have my excuse for not spending the holidays attending annual family drama-sessions!

Fall? It is going to be 100 degrees today here in Phoenix. We might drop into the high 90's next week.... The leaves fall from the trees in December? January?

I love fall, but we have to travel to see and feel it. The mornings and evening here are now lovely, however. I am looking forward to late November when I can wear a sweater again. The only reason to wear one now is when you are sitting inside an air-conditioned movie theater because they are always so cold!

Faking it with pumpkin scented candles sometimes helps, but really, this is still a wonderful place to live!

*Make pumpkin waffles
*Put a blanket on my bed (it's too hot for them in the summer here)
*Plan a trip to a certain tiny mountain town to buy the best apples in the world
*Have my jacket cleaned

Window cleaning is on my list. And I just washed my scarves and sweaters that I was supposed to wash last spring before storing!

I grew up in Washington state, so even though I live in NYC now, I still think of seasons in terms of there being two: cold, and warm.
Since autumn is the start of "cold" season, I celebrate it by packing away any not-terribly beat up summer clothes and donating the rest that are remotely salvageable (I'm REALLY hard on summer clothes).
I take out my "cold" season clothes from last year and go through them to see what I want to keep and what goes in the Goodwill bag.
I then COMPLETELY empty my closet, going through all of my "year round" clothes, jeans, t-shirts, shoes, underwear, hosiery etc. and then reorganize the whole thing and dismantle any miscellaneous junk buildup.

I treat myself once this ruthless cull is over by buying a new coat or pair of boots and a couple hundred bucks worth seasonally appropriate clothing.

Change my dining chair slipcovers from white linen to dark grey tweed, put out some more "cozy" cable knit throw pillows, change the lampshade on my big living room lamp from white to a black and grey pattern. Just overall make my home feel more warm and cozy.

As far as the closet, I take out the boots and shoes I got cleaned and polished at the end of the season last year, dry clean my winter coat and put away all the summery things.

Go to the park more, enjoy watching the leaves change....fall in georgia is what makes the heat and humidity in the summer all worthwhile.

Then I get shopping for Christmas presents (never too early to find something perfect) and buy a few new decorations before they get bought up when the Christmas season actually begins.