Sunflares and a goodbye to summer

Well, I thought I was on a roll with this back to blogging thing, but apparently I have some work to do. I took these photos a few weeks ago now (a day or two after I took the photos for my previous post) when it was still warm enough to wear shorts without tights and the leaves were just starting to tint yellow. Since then the seasons have officially changed and the hills are teeming in bright color.

It's been a nice season so far, as Autumn usually is, and I've spent the last few days scheming up and researching new recipes to try. Most of them include pumpkin in some way. In fact, there's one I plan on jotting down as soon as I finish this post with the hopes of making sometime this week. Maybe I'll share it here, too. A few years back I wanted to try incorporating recipes more on this blog, but it never amounted to much. Maybe one here, maybe one there. Let's see what these cooler months bring.

Looking back, this may just be my favorite outfit from the summer. I had it dreamed up in my head for a while, but unfortunately only wore it once. I think I picked a pretty good day for it, though. I don't know, as shallow and trivial as it sounds some days and some outfits just don't mix well. Anyway, this blouse is, without contest, my favorite purchase all year. I love the pintucks (which I didn't manage to get a clear glimpse of in any of these photos) and all the little lace details. I'm hoping to get another few wears out of it before it goes into closet hibernation...

Back in the saddle, or something like that

Since in the past this has been a sometimes-personal-style-blog, I thought I'd give the ol' self-timed outfit shoot thing another go. I'll admit that it felt a little odd running back and forth from the camera again after not having done it for about 5 months. On the other hand, I did seem to enjoy it (in a loose sense of the word) and was pleased that it didn't take me too long to get a few decent photos.

Right. So, this ensemble is a variation on my go-to summer outfit theme: a nice shirt/blouse paired with shorts. For whatever reason I couldn't be bothered with skirts or even the simplest of sundresses much this summer. Or, at least not more than once or twice a week, if that. They just seemed too fussy (which is odd, I know, especially since many consider them fuss-free!). Maybe it's because I wish that spring would run into autumn bypassing sticky-humid-summer all together. Alas, I dream in layers ;)

Big City Afternoon

Last Wednesday, my friend Erin and I spent a long, but fun-filled day in New York City. I took the train downstate the day prior to meet up with her and from there we embarked on our adventure.

Light fixture in Grand Central Terminal
 

We didn't journey to the city to sight-see (though we did a little, of course. It's inevitable!) or to shop (again, inevitable, especially if one counts window shopping), but rather to see the Broadway production of Once.

Having been fans of the film for quite a few years now, we were eager to see how the story would be adapted for the stage. The production was still filled with the beautiful, raw, and honest songs fans of the film know and love (and also included a few new ones). I felt the writer did a fine job at re-telling the story and enhancing the plot with scenes and dialogue the film only leaves to imagination. We left the theater wishing we could see it again!

Clearly, I was entranced by light fixtures that day! The interior of this particular theater was really lovely.

After Broadway, our excursion also included a little meandering through Central Park and a stop at Ladurée on Madison Avenue for some scrumptious macarons.

L- R: vanilla, dark chocolate, lemon, and salted caramel. 

Consumed quickly and therefore not photographed: rose, violet, and coffee ;)

At dusk, we said our goodbyes to the city, caught a train that would take us to the family home we were staying in, and sleepily chatted while munching on veggie wraps and samosas.