IT'S OFFICIALLY ACCEPTABLE TO DRINK PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES!

happy fall 2009!
it's my all-time favorite season... where the leaves change colors and then tumble onto the ground to create a beautiful quilt of colors (fyi - palm trees and cacti don't seem to understand this concept). it's a time of shorter days & crisp fall breezes, warm & hearty home cooked meals, pumpkin patches and pumpkin pie (nom nom), silly costumes and candy corn, family gatherings and special traditions.

it's the one time of year when i feel the calmest... when routines have finally kicked in.

it's the time of year when i wished i lived somewhere other than this stinkin' desert. like in a small town in vermont. yep.

what i look forward to the most is "fall-ifying" the house. we don't really have visible seasonal changes here so i gotta make my own damn seasons. (we do finally get a break from the 115 degree temperatures, so there's that.) it may not look autumn-y outside, but it sure as heck will look like it inside. i'm hoping to begin the transformation in the coming week. i'll post some pics when it looks like a pumpkin patch in here! :)

i do have a little tradition of my own... every year on the first day of fall, i treat myself to a starbucks pumpkin spice latte and a pumpkin pastry of some sort (today, it's a pumpkin scone. delish.) not that i haven't been treating myself to those for the past 2 weeks now, but bygones.today is a special day. SO GO GET YOU ONE TOO! mmmmmmmm...

now onto some more exciting stuff...
this past weekend, we had an online SISLive event over at Scrap in Style TV that was chock full of games, tutorials & freebies, and the fashionistas did a FANTASTIC job coming up with fun and unique challenges. (i still plan on doing every single one before year's end. it will probably take me that long.)

for this week's Catwalk, we chose a layout from one of the challenges to feature and here's the one i chose:

this was created by Kimmy (lostinadream). i LOVE the color combination she used and the minimal use of embellishments but what she did use packed a powerful punch! the shiny sequins and those crystal tear drops hanging from the bow... *swoon*. CONGRATULATIONS, KIMMY!if you'd like to take a closer look at this fab LO, you will find it here.

we also thought it'd be fun to pay a little tribute and "lift" our chosen layouts because 1. they are all fantastic and 2. any excuse to art.
here's my take:

i must give a special shout out to wendi, carolyn, diana, & pat because they all contributed to this design. fabulous!

i did get a chance to participate in a challenge hosted by the uber cute jeannie lutz. this was the result:

the challenge was to lift one of the fashionistas and i chose this lovely layout by the amazing digi-goddess, divian conner . thanks for the inspiration, div! :)

and lastly... because i'm such a newbie to this whole blog business, i just recently discovered that i cannot reply to my comments via blogger (thanks for the heads up, julie!). i kinda wish i had know that before i sent out replies to everyone since the beginning of my blog. heh. if you've left a comment and haven't heard back from me, it's not because i'm ignoring you. i swear! i'm not that rude. ;)

HAVE A WONDERFUL FIRST DAY OF FALL!