The Summer Kisses

Dress: Forever 21, remixed * Boots: Target * Nautie Godiva Vintage Necklace: won from Huzzah! Vintage * Belt: thrifted, remixed

It's officially Autumn*! (In my early morning delirium, I wrote "It's the first day of summer!" before I realized that no, actually it's not. Maybe I'm not ready for summer to be over after all...) One thing I've learned from living in Chicago is that autumn is phenomenal. Chicago is usually a land of extremes. Summer is sweltering, humid and sticky and oppressive. The winter wind makes you literally feel like your skin is freezing on your body and is about to crack off (unpleasant, I know, but that's the exact sensation that I feel on those mid-January mornings). Spring is, for lack of a better term, mud season. But autumn, autumn is beautiful

The gorgeous piece of awesomeness I won from Huzzah! Vintage's giveaway with Nautie Godiva Vintage

Autumn is that brief interlude, when you don't have your air conditioning on, but the radiators haven't kicked in yet. As the leaves die, you can hear them rustling in the trees, getting ready to fall. Autumn is when Halloween happens, and that smell of crispness is in the air. Autumn is chock-full of cliches, and I adore them all. Apple cider (or fresh orchard apples, which we've been munching on this week!), pumpkin pie (and I'm sorry everyone, pumpkin spice lattes are nice and all, but there are things that signal Autumn more than a delicious treat from Starbucks), Thanksgiving. Honestly, I think what signals Autumn most for me are the smells. That's pretty much the case with the beginning of any season, but especially with autumn. There's a marked difference in the way the world smells, and you only notice it for a few days before you're accustomed to it. Autumn smells so clean to me, like all the gunk from the summer air is being swept away.

While spinning, I flashed the crap out of the street. This is me, embarrassed, trying to literally keep my shit together.

Like most things in my life, Autumn is also about food. It's finally cool enough to crank up the stove and turn on the oven without wanting to die from heat exhaustion. One of my roommates brought home a bag of concord grapes this week. First of all, holy hell those are crazy! I'd never had them before, and they are seriously like biting into an orb of grape juice. Anyway, I'm making a concord grape pie tonight. Seems odd, perhaps, but I think it will be incredibly yummy, and totally in line with my autumnal thoughts. Do you have any beginning-of-the-season treats that you make, bake, or buy? Any tips? Have you ever had a concord grape? What signals Autumn for you?

*I call it Autumn, not "fall", for no real reason other than it feels slightly indulgent.

Title song: Frank Sinatra, "Autumn Leaves" (heads up that this one might be used multiple times this season. It was my grandmother's favorite song, and I adore it)