🍂🍁 Autumn Colors

I am usually quite the pastel princess, ’tis true, but I have absolutely fallen back in love with the autumnal color palettes in my wardrobe this year! All the warm browns, reds, creams, and even their cooler greens and teals. They have brought a real spark of joy to my soul this autumn, and I am glorying in the cozier side of my clothing — long skirts, cardigans, knit stockings, boots, etc. It’s like rediscovering a whole new category of fashion/style for myself. I still feel comfy, pretty, and glorious, and the added coziness is just comfort in fabric form. It gives me the sense that I am embodying the soft hygge and gentle change of the season in my outward appearance. There can be an unlooked-for grace in change, a permission for us to shift ourselves into something a bit softer, more reflective as the whirlwind of the Holidays approaches. Wrapping myself in fall colors feels like that permission made manifest. I hope it does the same for you.

🍂🍁Perfect Weather

This autumn has been our most perfect in recent memory! The weather has cooperated so lovingly, allowing us bright, cool days, just the needed rain to urge the trees into their fall colors, and breezes that tease and give us rationale for favorite warmer wear. The sky has shown off its most brilliant blues so that the trees’ colors pop even more. Fallen leaves have tumbled and gathered along sidewalks and trails in the most charming way, and everyone has been out and about to take advantage of the comfortable beauty of the season. My walks have been long and luxurious, with the gold and red canopy of the crown-shy trees arching above me. We have yet to have a bonfire with the Backyard Family (neighbors), but I am still greatly looking forward to it while this beautiful weather lasts.

Autumn has become a later-in-life love for me, and I will be loath to give her up, may that day never come.

🍂🍁New Experiences

As autumn is a season of change, I am finding it perfect for exposing myself to new experiences! In October, I attended my very first k-pop concert — Monsta X — with a dear friend and had an absolutely life-changing blast of a time! The lines were of zero concern because I was among like-hearted people! Fellow fans from all walks of life, the most welcoming and generous hearts you could imagine, were kind, friendly, enthusiastic, and absolutely loaded me down with lovingly-made concert freebies! My bag was stuffed to the brim and my heart even more so! I got to enjoy not only a great show but also the energy of a simply, splendidly stellar crowd.

This month, I am doing it all again. This past weekend, I hit the Stray Kids Run It World Tour Tokyo Concert theatre broadcast (an amazing time!). This coming weekend, I am attending an Ateez comeback release event for Golden Hour: Part 6, and then an 82 Major concert right after Thanksgiving. The people I am meeting through these events are the sorts of folks that I try to hold space for as a teacher — those who are passionate about something that the people around them may not understand. I have a heart for the strange and unusual, “for I, too, am strange and unusual”. And it is so life-giving to find kindred hearts that joy in what you joy in.

🍂🍁Hoodies, Sweatshirts, & Sweaters

Keeping with the cozy, I love that it is finally cool enough again to indulge in my comfy hoodies, pretty sweatshirts, and warm sweaters. I actually had a student see me in my Calcifer “May all your bacon burn!” hoodie from Howl’s Moving Castle, and they commented, “You look so cozy! I want to be cozy, too!” It was very cute and made me smile.

Having lived my youth in a tropical climate, hoodies and sweatshirts were just not a thing. Too hot, too humid for that. But now, with half of the year in cooler/cold weather, I have grown my hoodie collection exponentially, indulging in the fun, funny, and pretty as I have chosen each one. Now it is a delightful task to choose my hoodie for the day, whether the goal is to match my outfit, my mood, or show off whatever fandom strikes my fancy that day. Again, it feels as though I am embodying all the coziness of autumn–that I carry inside at all times–in my outerwear. Like I am carrying its hygge with me everywhere. And there really aren’t words for what a comfort that can be!