Plaid, Pumpkins and The Julian

This was our first weekend with real fall weather, the air was crisp and cool, the sunlight shimmered through the trees which meant it was finally time to start celebrating the fall with a visit to a few of our favorite little nearby spots and getting our front porch ready for the season.

This plaid tiered dress is from LOFT last season. Having a plaid dress or two to style in a variety of different ways throughout the fall and winter seasons is always so much fun. While you can pair this dress with neutral boots or booties as I did last year, I went with my favorite pair of chocolate brownie tall boots and one of my new fall hats, The Julian from the San Diego Hat Company’s Julie Inn Collection.

The Julian comes in four colorways; black, brown, grey, and beige. All of them are beautiful color options, but since I like to pair a lot of brown with my looks during the fall, I absolutely went with the right color choice for me. If you’re looking for a more neutral look, I’d suggest the beige in this particular style.

The hat is made from 100% Wool and has an adjustable band in every colorway with the exception of the brown. Thankfully it fit me perfectly!

What I love about the San Diego Hat Company hats, including the ones from this year’s FW21 collection, is the quality of the hats. If you love hats as much as I do, having a hat that you know will last you from year to year is definitely a worthwhile investment.

Since the dress and the hat are the statement pieces for this look, I’d suggest going with simple jewelry, such as a gold post or French huggie earring and a gold locket (which is my constant choice for any everyday necklace.)

Getting our home ready for fall meant a lot of late-night planting after a full day in the office, and last-minute runs to the garden center for pansies, ornamental cabbages, and mums to go in our various planters on the front porch and back deck. We also found the most amazing pumpkin selection at our local garden center this year which included heirloom orange, white and green pumpkins.

We gave our fall wreath an added touch of sparkle with twinkle lights. It’s one of our favorite things to add to our wreathes during both the fall and winter seasons, and I love the special touch they added to this already beautiful wreath.

This year we had a special reason for getting our home decorated for fall. A special weekend visit with my sister and my two nieces. This was little Miss Charlotte’s very first visit to our home, and she spent the entire weekend with her Auntie C!

— Fall Activities for the Littles —

Visit a pumpkin patch and let your littles decorate their own pumpkins with washable markers.

Bake cookies together. Every year we make up a batch of these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. So delicious.

Ghoulish handprints (I found this particular craft via Pinterest.)