autumn bliss.

Fall this year seemed to blow by in a breeze. I wish I could rewind a couple weeks and freeze time. Autumn is gorgeous around here. The leaves are changing, the air is crisp, things just smell differently. I only wish I could share it with you. I have taken photos over the past couple weeks, but I need a card reader for my camera before I can upload and share. I especially can't wait to share photos from the hubby's birthday this past weekend. We had a blast! I even made a Yankee cake celebrating the Yankee's making it to the World Series (I can say this now since Sunday was the determining game). We carved pumpkins, drank mulled cider, ate cheese and crackers with cherry chutney, and of course, drank some beer. I will try my best to get photos up next week.

{ ode to the classics }

Is it wrong to buy a book because of it's cover? Does it count if it is a Penguin classic? This is the first set of the cloth-bound series designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. The 10 book set was released in November of last year, but exclusively for Waterstones in the UK. Now, almost a year later 8 of the 10 titles from last year will soon be available at Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Amazon.com. I have already placed my pre-order on Amazon.com for a few of my favorites. A second set, again exclusive to Waterstones, was just released on October 5th. Unfortunately I don't really want to pay International shipping fees and Foreign Exchange rates so I might just have to wait until next year if they decide to sell them here. I especially love the designs for Oliver Twist, Emma, and Alice in Wonderland. Adorable. They will look lovely next to my vintage typewriter, don't you think?

busy bees this weekend

After about a month of taking a break from work on the house, we got back into it. In fact, this weekend was fairly productive. Steve fixed our bathroom fan and installed new fresh white outlets. Our old ones were a dingy beige.




While out scouting for a large area rug to pair with our sofa, I finally found a door mat for our front porch. And today, I weeded the garden and trimmed back some of our flowering plants. You can never have enough fresh flowers in your home, so I made sure to snip a few buds to scatter around.



Next weekend we plan to finally start decorating since we should be receiving our sofa on Friday! I also have it on my list to pick out ground cover and some fall flowering plants to fill blank spots around the perimeter of our front yard.

vintage typewriters

One of the great things about owning an older home is finding hidden treasures. In our attic, we were more than pleased to find a vintage typewriter. Correction: we were ecstatic to find it. I would love to have a home that displays many vintage finds. Here he is:


And here is some inspiration for how I plan to display him! 

sofa shoppin

For the past month or so, I have had some major angst over one major purchase...the sofa. We had some criteria to fill, which I struggled with continually throughout the process: 1) A relatively small and narrow room that has to function as a dining area as well :: It must not be too large or dark because it will overwhelm the space 2) A dark furred dog that loves to snuggle on the sofa :: It must be easy to clean and hide daily grime well 3) A 6' tall husband who needs a place to put his feet up after long days :: It must have a seat that is at least 72" long (and deep enough for us to both lay on comfortably) 4) A wife (me) who wants the entry of the home to look good :: It must not be generic and/or ugly So after dragging the huz to shop after shop and looking at numerous retail websites, we finally (and I mean finally) settled on one. Meet Rachel...


She may look boring now, but take a look at what I am envisioning... actually I have two options...

Option A:


Option B:


Thoughts? Opinions? Concerns? Do you have a favorite? Please oh please...do tell!