Fright night festivities - part 1

Oh dear.  I barrelled into October with the best of blogging intentions, but failed (miserably).  With the start of the new academic year and the rhythm of a new routine, there hasn't been much time for 'me.'  October's Studio Calico kit is sitting enticingly on the kitchen table, unopened and unused...and I have 1000+ unread items in my Google Reader (gulp).  So, bear with me as I drink copious cups of tea and settle down to catch up on what I've missed...and be prepared for a barrage of comments over the next few days!

One autumn tradition that I couldn't bring myself to forgo this month is a trip to Secretts Farm Shop.  In the run-up to Halloween, the Farm Shop is full of fresh, festive produce, all beautifully and thoughtfully displayed.  It is one of my very favourite places to visit...and it has become something of a tradition for my mum and I at this time of year.  In fact, I love it so much that I had a *little* bit of trouble narrowing down the photos to post...so apologies in advance :)  Here we go....

...on the way there, we spotted an almost perfect toadstool by the side of the road! 

 

This was just the start of the pumpkins....I love that they keep so much of the stalk in tact.  

Oh my goodness...for a Londoner whose local supermarket is a teeny tiny Tesco Express, this was almost too much to bear. 

Not the best photo in the world, but this little cart was too cute not to share :)

We both loved this floral display...that's some pretty impressive pumpkin carving!

More pumpkins in pretty much every shape and size imaginable. 

 I bought a couple of munchkins....

....and tried very hard to resist buying some of the more weird and wonderful squash.

I also had a lot of trouble resisting one of those blue squash, but in the end the £8 price tag and the 4kg weight made the decision for me...there was no way I could take it back up to London on the train :(

Enormous quantities of Halloween candy.

This is impossibly hard to buy in the UK, but the Farm Shop had cans and cans of it!  I'm looking forward to making some more pumpkin cupcakes soon...yum. 

If you made it this far, thank you for sticking with me!  I'll be back with part 2 over the next couple of days, but in the meantime, have a wonderful weekend! 

Drawing inspiration from fall fashion

Now that Autumn is officially (and finally) here, it's time to start thinking about my Autumn/Winter wardrobe!  To be honest, there's only so much that you can achieve when you're a student on a very tight budget, but it's nice to dream...and I have had lots of eye candy drop through my letterbox recently, which only enables me further :) Two of my favourite catalogues so far are from Toast, which is beautifully photographed and full of autumnal goodness...and Jack Wills, featured in the layout above.  I knew I wanted to create some sort of autumnal mood board after flicking through my ever-increasing pile of catalogues, but when I read this week's challenge on the Studio Calico blog, I thought it would be fun to do a layout, too!   

Cardigan & Slippers

The challenge this week is to create a layout or project inspired by fall fashion.  I already knew what I wanted the layout to be about, so I drew inspiration from two of my most recent purchases for the layout itself.  The stripes in the cardigan really appealed to me, so I decided to go for a linear design.  And when I saw these slippers in Accessorize, it was the chain of hearts that swayed me...so I recreated the same effect using my heart punch and the B side of one of the Sassafrass papers from Studio Calico's September kit (love those little hearts!).  This was my first Back 40 layout and I'm loving the kit so far...it was definitely worth the wait!  To finish off the layout, I chose my five favourite outfits from a duplicate Jack Wills catalogue that I had lying around.  Those boots?  They are at the very top of my wish list.  

Source

Also on my wish list...the Sewing Basket Apron from Anthropologie (you can also buy a matching pot holder) and the Continental Hello Wallet, also from Anthro.  This is actually a Hobo International  Lauren Clutch...they were so popular when I was in high school and I've been trying to track them down in the UK ever since so that I can replace my very worn out original.  I practically blew out Jamie's ear drum when I saw them in the store last week!  They're a little pricey, but I'm wondering whether I should splurge anyway...or maybe I should sleep on it.  *Ahem* 

What's on your wish list at the moment?    

And just like that...

...It's October.  Mother Nature clearly got the memo - it's been pouring with rain since early this afternoon, with plenty of wind thrown in for good measure.  I joined the ranks of disgruntled and disillusioned Londoners battling with their umbrellas as I my made way to the gym, but I made a quick stop to take this picture because blustery conditions aside...I love October.  This is my absolute favourite month of the year (although April and December are close contenders)...the leaves are turning, the air is crisper...and then, of course, there's Halloween.  

But there's also a lot to look forward to this month: I'm starting the final year of my Masters (insert a resounding hallelujah here), the annual Topshop student lock-in takes place, there are plenty of Halloween decorations to be bought and made...and we're lucky enough to have tickets for the NFL at Wembley, too.  I have a good feeling about this month...here's hoping it lasts :)

Have a wonderful weekend!