October is here and so is, as many photographers deem, "busy season."
Despite the fact we do tend to ask for a little extra grace, it should be also noted this is also a season many of us feel the most alive.
Our schedules are packed, our hearts are filled and we feel the joy of our small businesses growing again.
Plus, it just feels so good to reunite with our friends from past seasons again.
Don't get me wrong, summer is fabulous. I love sitting outside on the front porch on Summer evenings and soaking in the warm sun.
But Fall. It's a time of awakening.
It's a time of the soul.
While I understand I'm certainly not the only basic b**ch who loves Fall, I feel like we should still gather the evidence.
What is it about Fall that's just so special to me?
Well for one, you can still find me watching Gilmore Girls reruns while editing beneath cozy blankets snuggled up in the office while editing. What is it about this show I love so much? It's wholesomeness? I know exactly how it will go and yet still find myself enjoying its lightness.
Practical Magic is definitely one of my favorite fall movies to date. But if the questionnaire asked, “What's your favorite movie?”, it's absolutely "While You Were Sleeping" as Mom and I can quote it from start to finish. To this day, we still can't help but sit at the Thanksgiving table with our heaping full plates quoting "These mashed potatoes are so creamy."
Which of course means, Sandra Bullock is without a doubt my favorite actress of all time. Did I just hope our share of brunette locks meant I would grow up to have her defined cheekbones? Of course. While I wasn't blessed with said facial structure, I still love her witty humor and wholesome movies.
And no matter how much you might like to disagree with me, 90s' Meg Ryan still has such a fall vibe. I can still hear that dial up tone of my past and shopgirls' vulnerable email being sent out to the void. You’ve Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless Seattle. You just can’t beat those classics.
I can even embarrassingly admit I finally learned what a "virgin" was thanks to Hocus Pocus, alongside a shell shocked mother and concerned best friend.
But all books and movies aside, I have so many more nostalgic fall memories from my youth.
I think we have to look back through my past at some of my favorite fall memories.
I was definitely still in elementary school when I took my first trip to Door County, Wisconsin with my family. A place we have continued to love so much that we still regularly order coffee from. Every time the late summer season comes to a close, my imprinted memory of bonfires and fish fries on Lake Michigan stands prominently at the forefront of my mind.
Back before Southpointe Mall even existed in South Lincoln, Nebraska, it was just a big farm field. Or what we considered our backyard. We certainly had fun in that cornfield. Shooting golf balls and playing hide and seek with the neighbors. Every Summer our garden was colorfully blossomed full of fresh vegetables that we tended to. For a few years, we even grew pumpkins. I think our biggest pumpkin was about 30 lbs and took three of us to carry to the front porch!
I grew up in the kind of suburban neighborhood where we trick-or -treated at each others' house with all of our neighborhood friends, often unsupervised. Sometimes Mom gave out soda pop and baked goods, and it was totally normal. Cell phones didn't exist and it was a simple time of life. We took photos on a camera of our Halloween outfits and still look back on our photo albums over the years to come. Those were the good ole days. I could ride my bicycle across the major streets of Southwest Lincoln to see a friend in elementary school and get away with things I would dread now if I had a child of my own. But I think one of my favorite memories of my childhood home was the cozy warmth feeling of fall.
As I've aged over the years, I still find myself creating new traditions and celebrating the welcoming of the season.
While I’m not super crazy about pumpkin everything, I absolutely love a home made pumpkin pie with more whipped topping then pie. At the start of every Autumn, my husband and I take our dogs to Nebraska City during the AppleJack Festival. We skip the apple picking and opt for wine tastings of apple pie wine, eating donuts and picking out pumpkins to decorate our porch. We typically find ourselves near Indian Cave State Park which is truly one of the most magical places to see fall foliage in Nebraska and go for a day hike. I still look forward to seeing the aisles full of school supplies each September and stock up on new notebooks to journal in throughout the winter. I long for those chilly Friday nights of watching my nephews play football and the sound of the Huskers playing from living room tv. I believe Slow Sundays are made for a therapeutic cleanse with the windows open and oven on as I baked some creative recipe while skipping the instructions. Seeing my front porch and studio fully decorated always just makes me smile a little bit more each morning. And of course, I love the excuse of chillier weather to finally break out some of my favorite wardrobe staples. If there's one thing about me, it's that I sure do love to shop.
So there it is.
I'll scream it from the rooftops.
But I love fall, most of all.
Be sure to enjoy some of these new phone wallpapers!
Have a beautiful October.
xx
Alyssa