Mid October Weekending

Homecoming

Abigail came home for her fall break on Friday evening. Oh there is nothing in the world like that feeling when your little girl comes home from college for the first time. It's a filling of my heart like no other. And us all around the table once again since early September is the greatest! 

A mama can 'size her child up' in one look, if you're a mama you know. And she looked peaceful, calm, happy, and content. All was well in her heart and soul, I could tell in that one moment. 

Anna made a welcome home sign for her just like she used to make for Anna when Anna was coming home from college. 

Oh we had a lot of fall goodness coming in the next few days... our favorite time of year! 

Rising 

I love to get up really early on the weekends. It's quiet and I can finally finish a thought. I love the peacefulness of it all. 

I turn on the twinkle lights, open my Bible, and rest my heart and thoughts. 

About an hour later I start to watch the sun come up and paint the most beautiful picture in the sky. The whole house turns a light pink that I could never capture with my camera. 

I went for a long moring walk and had my tea with whole milk after. Lovely, lovely, lovely way to start the day. 

Picking

More on this later... because going to the pumpkin patch needs a post of its own for sure! But yes, this was Saturday afternoon and we look forward to it all year long! 

Feasting and Watching 

Every single year we watch The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown when our girls come home from college. And we feast on a 'board dinner'. It's basically cheeses (one we make in the shape of a pumpkin), crackers, homemade bread, chilli that cooked in the crockpot while we were at at the pumpkin patch, and so much more! 

Church~ing

The best Mass: the music, the songs chosen, the homily, all four of us together 

Celebrating 

Just celebrating us on a regular Sunday after church except that Abigail is home! We tried out this adorable restaurant for the first time. I had the most savory pumpkin spice pancake with a cream cheese whipped topping. Oh boy! 

And then we promply went home, changed and Scott and I went on a 2 mile FAST walk - felt so good! Until it didn't because on Saturday I got both the flu and covid vaccine and it hit me the second the 2 miles were up. So I spent the rest of Sunday cozy at home (ahhhh) in sweats, help Abigail sort though clothes to bring back to college, blogging all of the amazing pictures from this weekend, and feeling crappy. 

Autumn~ing

One last night with Abigail - we had to have an apple pie around the fire pit. 

The Country Living Fair, Rhinebeck, New York

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to go to this fall fair. Totally different from the typical fall fair around here. No livestock, no rides, no games.... just 

ANTIQUING! 

Can you even believe that?! A fall fair totally devoted to antiquing, talks, and coziness. It was all rolled into one and Scott and I loved it all! 

We left home on Friday late afternoon. As we drove closer and closer (headed north) we noticed the leaves beginning to change. 

We stopped about half way at a town we've been to before, called Millerton, NY. Charming, lovely, and home to the company Harney and Sons tea. 

Just look at the door to this restaurant! 

It had been a really long week for Scott and I at our schools and we were exhausted but it was so nice to get in that cozy spot and share what was going on in our classroom/school. 

After the best meal ever we headed about another hour to our hotel. Rested, slept, and got up right away! 

We had early bird tickets to the Country Living Fair!

The entrance was adorable and charming. The weather was perfection! 

I saw a quilt right away for a steal of deal and scooped it right up! There were so many wonderful antiques and things from makers to look at! I had a list on my phone of things I wanted to look out for so it made it less stressful and easy. 

We were there at 8:30 am and we had the whole place to ourselves, meandering through antiques and lovely booths. Just heaven! But of course when you are at a fall fair you must have things like apple crisp! 

One of my favorite parts was listening to talks from people that really know how to put a home together!

This person the right (Sean Scherer) was for 34 years the lead home decor, head of the company of Ralph Lauren!!! He invented the "Ralph Lauren Christmas" that we still talk about, but he did it 34 years ago. Working closely with Ralph Lauren himself, and head of operations, he had so much good advice.

We also heard from Alfredo Paredes (website here) 

Here are a few of the clips I took: 

It was such a fun way to celebrate that it is finally October again! Sunshine, cool temps, and antiquing... most of all a whole day with Scott dreaming of things we want to do to our home. ❤❤❤

Best weekend ever! 

A Little Bit of Twinkle in our Family Room

Oh how I love this time of year. September ending and October not a day past yet. I love the cooler temps and the bright sunshine days. I love the rainy cozy days. I love coming home from school and lighting a candle, turning on lamps and of course turning on some twinkle lights. 

We are in the middle of lots of home projects right now and I am surely excited about them. But this room (even though I didn't take pictures of all of it) is all cozy for autumn and I love it in here!