Beautiful Fall

The winter is almost upon us, and all things Fall we came to treasure and admire - flame-colored leaves and quivering reflections in the puddles, flocks of birds dotting the sky and scents of harvest during street fairs - must give way to new sights and sensations. One season locks itself away like a coffer, while another opens up spilling forth its bounty.

Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from the Fall:

Making steaming, heart-warming drinks:
fresh apple cider and hot chocolate and mulled wine...

baking mouth-watering pumpkin pies...

and all sorts of sweet and savory treats, until the whole house smells like SPICES,
and feels like we live inside a bakery!

 

Watching the changing patterns in the puddles;
it is hypnotizing and very, very pretty...

Pumpkins
I'm halfway convinced pumpkins are magical!
A handful of them transforms a simple porch into a gateway to festivities, good mood
and expectations of wonderful.
You can carve them, paint them, decorate with them
or simply... eat them.
MAGICAL!

 

Playing in the leaves...
Also the way they crunch when you walk on them!

Gorgeous Colors
It is in the Fall that I find myself most drawn to my old painting studio,
to the smells of oil paints and wet branches tangled over the windows,
to the feel of cool, gilded light sluicing over my skin like spidersilk...

On the crisp, sunny days or the foggy, lazy days
or the quiet, rainy days

the latent painter in me wakes up with a ravenous need to create...

 

The world is dripping with color,
and subconsciously I want to save it for the pale winter months,to preserve a small part of it
 the same way
I preserve sweet, fragrant plums or lovely, sunny cherries to savor later,
when the trees are dark and bare and cold.

Watching Critters Forage in the Woods

 

 

Getting Cozy with a Good Book and a Mug of Hot Coffee

Lighting the Fire

All images via Pinterest

Give These Parents a Standing Ovation! (and a Cookie)

 

Susan and Refe Tuma dedicate the month of November every year to making their children believe their toy dinosaurs come to life at night. 

When I saw these photos I giggled like a little kid. The world is still full of magic, and when you come across it, it brings a huge smile to your face and restores your faith in humanity. Really. It does. Everyone MUST LOOK at the naughty dinosaurs!

It all started harmlessly... with a little cereal...

  

...which led to a fruit feast...

...which made hungry, hungry dinos hanker for some eggs...

...spices...

...and tea!

The food made the critters creative!

 

...and playful.

via Reve Tuma's Blog 

And finally a quote from Susan and Reve that beautifully explains the birth of Dinovember:

Why do we do this? Because in the age of iPads and Netflix, we don’t want our kids to lose their sense of wonder and imagination. In a time when the answers to all the world’s questions are a web-search away, we want our kids to experience a little mystery. All it takes is some time and energy, creativity, and a few plastic dinosaurs.

Childhood is fleeting, so let’s make sure it’s fun while it lasts.

This is what being an awesome parent is all about. Inspiring your children's imagination. Nurturing their sense of wonder. Making fantasy a reality.

You can start your own Dinotradition and post pics at  #Dinovember.

Comic-Con: Be Your Own Superhero!

Last Friday, Troy and I attended our very first San Diego Comic-Con and had the best, most amazing time, while surrounded by all sorts of boisterous, good-natured craziness! And when I say "craziness", I mean serious, honest-to-Gods-and-Monsters, no-facepaint-barred insanity!

In addition to attending the convention's many panels (and there were MANY: anything from the discussions titled Steampunk 101 and U.S. Pop Culture Abroad, to lectures focusing on the Comic Theory, to seminars on designing beautiful covers for graphic novels, to workshops on proper pitching etiquette or creating your own super hero, to the two seriously awesome show-and-tell panels by Maxwell Alexander Drake, who treated his audience to the detailed anatomy of a guts-gore-and-adrenaline fight scene!), in addition to marveling at the busting creativity of the artists' alley or drooling/swooning at the equally creative setup of the vendors' booths (I see, therefore I want!), Comic-Con is all about people-watching.

People-watching, or rather people-gawking was the most satisfying, fun-filled experience the event offered. I mean, where else would you find thousands upon thousands of grown ups dressed in spandex jumpsuits and steampunk goggles, outfitted in futuristic helmets and laced up in elaborate Victorian corsets, sporting deadly crossbows and flouncy, lacey petticoats, sometimes all of these simultaneously? Where else would you see noble elves and scythe-wielding demons, sleek, silver-faced robots and scowling comic book villains, gorgeous warrior maidens and desiccated, battered zombies strolling side by side, all equally dazed by the sheer amount of things to see? Where else people can dress as their favorite superheroes, beloved video game characters, action movie heroes, literary inspirations, or crime-fighting alter-egos, and not only look perfectly sane, but actually fit in?

The event was great fun! A colorful playground for the lovers of comic books, anime, fantasy, science-fiction, video-games, horror, cartoons and everything in-between. Everyone joined in the spirit. Everyone dressed up! We saw Mad Hatters and Wonder Women, biker bulldog and Storm Troopers of varying ages and genders, Jules Vernian divas and auburn-furred wolves, we even found Waldo!

Here are some of the amazing, creative costumes, Troy and I had spied in the hallways, on the pavilions' floors and by the streetside teaming with creatures!

Yeah, that's a real, working mini-bike ridden by one tough, cool-as-a-cucumber dog-dude!

 

Love this couple holding hands! So sweet...

Aren't these costumes absolutely ingenious!

Ooh, the eyes!

Meanwhile outside...

 

all photos taken by Katya Dove