A vintage image filled alphabet of fall favourites

My excitement over the fact that we are now, really and truly, into my favourite month of the entire year cannot be contained. I'm buzzing with more energy than if I just ate a semi-trailer truck's worth of the very sweetest Halloween candy (alas, I haven't had a single piece...yet!).

If you've been following my blog for a while now, a.) thank you immensely and b.) chances are you're well acquainted with how much I go utterly wild for all of autumn. Naturally including the gorgeous month of October, and its crowing glory, All Hallows' Eve, which will greet us again in about four weeks time.

To celebrate the start of the 10th month of the year - one of, if not often "the" busiest for our family, thanks to numerous events such as Canadian Thanksgiving, multiple family birthdays (including my sister and maternal grandma's), our wedding anniversary (Tony and I will be toasting twelve awesome years together on the 14th), and of course Halloween itself - I recently had the fun idea of listing some of my very favourite elements of the season.

I wanted to put a different spin on such however, to distinguish it from similar fall/Halloween centered lists, such as this one from 2013, and like a bolt of stormy fall time lightning, the idea struck me recently to do so by presenting such in the form of an alphabet.

This, in and of itself, tying into the start of the school year last month and the general air of all this academic that fills the early weeks of this season.

As it's Sunday and most of us are busy enjoying these final days of mild sunshine and accompanying warmth while they're still here, I didn't want this post to be a huge one by any means and have thus opted to list each entry - which speaks for itself, I feel - simply with with its name, a few further words at most, and an accompanying vintage image.

There are truly countless things to love about fall and this selection of twenty-six entries is the mere tip of the iceberg, but they're some of my perpetual favourites and one that I know are near and dear to many of hearts as well. So without further ado, may I present an alphabetical look at some of the best elements of fall.
 
1. Apples (especially candy and caramel ones!) 


2.Bats



3. Costume parties



4. Dinner, Thanksgiving (yum-yum!!!)


5. Eeriness (as in the general sense of mystery that fills the air as Halloween draws near) 


6. Fall leaves, in all their jewel toned splendor



7. Goblins, ghosts, and ghouls of every sort!



8. Harvest time



9. (The) Invisible Man



10. Jack-o-lanterns



11. Knits - sweaters, scarves, gloves, you name it!



12. Lighting candles on the nights grow longer once more



13. (The) Moon - crescent, harvest, full, any stage of this gorgeous heavenly element is all the more at home during autumn time



14. Nuts - very much including the seasonal gem that is acorns



15. (The colour) Orange



16. Popcorn being transformed into all kinds of sweet and savoury treats (very much including caramel corn and popcorn balls)



17. Queuing up on the first day back to school



18. (Hay) Rides in the crisp autumn air



19. Scarecrows



20. Trick-or-treating



21. (Carrying) UNICEF boxes to collect for charity on Halloween night



22. Vampires (and vampire movies)




23. Werewolves (and, likewise werewolf movies)

24. (The e)Xcitement of Halloween!




25. Yellow, orange and white - the traditional colours of that sweet fall time treat, candy corn!



26. Zombies

{To learn more about a specific image used in today's post, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.}

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Which of these autumnal favourites strikes a particular chord with you as well? Are there others that would have take top billing on a list like this of your own? (And, naturally, if you do want to follow my lead and create your own fall favourites alphabet, please, by all means go for it - I'd adore reading your selection as well anytime!)

In a way, I want to say that this week is like the calm before the storm of epic activity that will unfold throughout the month, but in reality, it's already hopping with excitement, full days, and plenty of festive happenings - and you know, I really wouldn't have it any other way.

From my earliest childhood memories onward, October has been a busy, exhilarating time of the year and as someone who really loves to focus on family, tradition, and holidays, this month and its festive happenings brings me an endless amount of happiness.

I hope that it does the same for you as well, no matter what's on your (slice-of-Halloween-cake topped) plate this month, and that you enjoyed this fun alphabet post.

It's a charming way to roundup some of the elements that one treasures the most about a given season and I'm now, quite literally as I type these very words, wondering if perhaps I should give one a go for winter/Christmastime, too. Definitely let me know in the comments below if you'd be keen to see such here as well.

My sweet and wonderful friends, from my heart to yours, I wish you each a gorgeous, thrilling and very merry month of October - which I can hardly wait to celebrate again with you from start to spooky costume clad finish!

Happiest Halloween Greetings!!!

Yes, that is a triple exclamation mark worthy title, because my excitement levels are pretty much off the charts right now, let me tell you!!! At long, long last the day that I have waited patiently through 364 others for has returned once more and I'm as giddy as hummingbird that got into a Halloween candy factory about it!

Soon costumes will donned, any last minute seasonal decor placed out, candles lit and put inside of jack-o-lanterns, the pitter-patter of equally exuberant children will echo through the bitingly crisp hair and crunchy maple leaf clad streets, and I will transform into my chosen character for the night (which I'll be sharing with you all here next week in a festive Halloween costume outfit post).

{Adorable antique Halloween postcard image via Suzee Que}

I know how busy many of us today and thus this isn't going to be a long post in the slightest. I just wanted to take a moment on my favourite holiday to wish you each, from the very bottom of my hearts, a marvelously merry, safe, fun filled, spooktastically awesome All Hallows Eve!

As you may have noticed being the last day of October and this entry appearing in place of it, I'm forgoing the usual end-of-the-month Vintage Link Love post because I know most us have way too much on the go to read through a bunch of links right now. I'll make sure to find some especially terrific ones next month to make up for skipping this one.

Speaking of skipping, I need to hop merrily along and get on with this thrilling, uber fun filled day, my dear friends. I will be posting again in a couple of days, as usual, and will officially be announcing (and inviting people to take part in) 2015's Vintage Secret Santa gift exchange next week, which I'm immensely excited about as well.

Right now though, it's time to slip into orange and black, whip up some more festive treats, and countdown the nanoseconds until tonight!

Joyfully fantastic Halloween wishes, everyone!!!

Halloween 2015 Edition of Flickr Favourites

{Lighting the Jack O' Lantern ~ Paul Malon}






{Burlington Hosiery, September 1959 ~ The Bee's Knees Daily}  


{Moon & Ominous Clouds ~ Lost My Headache}



{Halloween decorations ~ Kath in the Cupboard}



{Vintage Halloween Postcard ~ Susan Criser}



{Closed factory chemistry lab detail ~ Pedro Domingos}



{2010 Halloween Honeys ~ Missy}

{Vintage Halloween Parties ~ Old Halloween}

 

{Halloween kitten ~ Marie's Shots}



{Vintage Halloween Postcard ~ Rip The Skull}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

♥ ♥ ♥


Oohhh, how I've eagerly come to look forward to penning the Halloween edition of Flickr Favourites each year! There are so many marvelously festive images to be had on that huge communal photo (and illustration) sharing site and this year's crop of All Hallows Eve ones is amongst my favourites highlighted in this post to date.

Halloween is always incredibly special to me - and many others the world over, too - but when it falls on Saturday, as it does this year, I can't help but adore it even more, because I'm reminded of the unbridled fun of my youth, when a Saturday Halloween meant that you could spend every moment of the day from dawn to midnight focused on the big day night itself - and without having to think about school the next day to boot!

It's been a long, long time since I was last a student, but I still get every bit as giddy about Halloween. The classroom parties of yore are a distant memory, but not the celebrations I (we) host every October 31st at our house for loved ones.

Costumes, scrumptious foods complete with more sugar than you shake an autumn leaf covered stick at all, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, watching festive movies (camping, not scary, for me, please and thank you!) very much including my all-time favourite Halloween flick, Disney's Hocus Pocus, and listing to festive music all in a house decorated in no shortage of seasonal accoutrements, are all still the same sorts of things as back when I was little and I know that these treasured elements of Halloween will never change for me.

They are to that day as presents, turkey, and Christmas carols are to December 25th, which - wow - come to think of it, is precisely two months away. Fabulous as that season is unto itself, I'm in no hurry to get there yet. At least not until November 1st, when the Halloween decorations come down the Christmas season plans and decorating start in earnest shortly thereafter.

Nope, right here, right now, it's all about the cobwebs and scarecrows, candy apples and merriment of this fabulously festive autumn celebration. These playfully eerie elements will always, no matter if I live to be a hundred years old, bring out the kid in me and make me delight, in much as the same way as I did when I was knee high to pumpkin, over the spooky fun that All Hallows Eve!

What are you looking forward to this Halloween, my sweet dears?

5 things about Halloween that make me disproportionately happy

This past summer, my dear online friend - and fellow vintage blogger - Lindsay, from the wonderful site Ms. Lindsay Lane - shared an entry called 5 Things That Make Me Disproportionately Happy This Week. As someone who is a huge fan of happiness and making a conscious effort to take stock of the things in life that bring us joy, this post spoke deeply to me and I knew instantly that I wanted to write one (or more) of my own along the same vein.

I had a lot of posts in the works at the time, so I tucked the idea away for a rainy day, and as it has been pouring kitties and puppies (speaking of which, if I a fabulously cute vintage Vera novelty print scarf in shop right now with that very expression at the heart of its theme) for much of the past week, now seemed like an ideal time.

If you've been following my blog for very long, then chances are you know that I am wildly, head-over-heals, completely in love with Halloween. I have been for as far back as I have memories and know that I absolutely always will. It's my very favourite holiday and second favourite day of the year, trumped only by my wedding anniversary (which, intentionally, falls in the same month).

There is a certain sort of giddy glee that fills my heart come autumn that is unlike any other I've ever experienced. I start decorating in September, baking festive treats come October, watch my favourite spooky (and frighteningly cute) movies and TV shows weeks in advance, throw parties and/or family shindigs that celebrate All Hallows Eve, and usually (this year has been a rare exception for me on that front) have my costume picked out months in advance.

If it was up to me, I could happily leave my October holiday decor out all year round, but perhaps - as I was saying here just the other day - a fair bit of its magic lies in the fact that decking the halls and oneself for Halloween only happens once a year.

There's no shortage of things about Halloween that bring me bliss, but today on this slate grey, heavily windy autumn morn, a mere six days before the big night arrives, I thought it would be great to follow Lindsay's post theme lead and share an entry about five things in particular about Halloween that always, without fail, make me disproportionately happy.

It's fun without a worry!

{Unlike most of the big holidays, Halloween doesn't usually come with the need to cook an epic meal, have a house full of out-of-town guests, spend lavishly on gifts, worry about your decor looking like it's worthy of a spread in Better Homes and Gardens, or having some of the other stresses and pressures that go along with, say, Christmas or Easter. Sure, you can get just as swept up in Halloween and some certainly do, but for many - myself included - it's a massively welcome break from the formality and work of many holidays and a time to kick back, go to town on sweet treats, decorate how I please, don a costume, and let my inner child out for a night of good, old-fashioned spooky fun!}

Listening to campy mid-century Halloween songs

{One of the sharpest Halloween memories from my childhood involves getting picked up from school, dressed to the nines in my costume after a day of celebratory classroom fun, the thrill of the evening's events ahead of me, and hearing The Monster Mash and Purple People Eater on the radio as we drove home, the crisp, beautiful end-of-October golden light filling the car and shimmering on the tumbling leaves that whipped up on the road as we sped along. My folks always played all of the classic Halloween songs at home for us, too, be they campy, scary or just plain fun! These included those two mid-century greats mentioned above the Ghostbusters theme song, Thriller, Witchy Woman, Runnin' With the Devil, (Don't Fear) The Reaper, and numerous other hair raisingly awesome Halloween tunes that I still keep in heavy rotation each October to this very day.

Watching (and re-watching) It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

{While there is no shortage of festive TV shows and movies that I absolutely MUST watch without fail each October, the two that are the very nearest and dearest to my heart are Disney's 1990s classic, Hocus Pocus staring Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker, and the 1966 gem that is the animated TV special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I've seen far more times than I have years to my name and pretty much know it verbatim at this point, which just makes me adore it all the more. After all, who amongst us won't always secretly hope that the Great Pumpkin really did show up for Linus the very next year - or that we'd see him ourselves if we spent the eerie evening in a pumpkin patch?}

Going out trick-o-treating

{Though it's been 14 years now since I last donned a costume and went door-to-door in the name of gathering a pillow case full of candy, this beloved annual tradition still remains one of my very favourite elements of Halloween. I love to say, kiddingly of course, that between my young sounding voice and short stature (barely 5'2”), I could easily dress up and prance around the neighborhood in the name of mini chocolate bars and lollipops, if so desired. It is desired, I won't lie, but I haven't to date and will probably hold off there - tempting as it is - until I have wee ones of my own or nieces/nephews to take out for sweets on All Hallows Eve. Until then, I'll derive just as much joy from handing out candy, while in costume, to all the little ones that come to our festively decorated door each October 31st. }

The spooky, electric feeling in, and unmistakable scent of, the air

{There should be a specific word just for the way the air seems to be alive with...the dead?...well, at least a mixture of fun and fear, frivolity and fabulousness come Halloween night. Objectively, it's a blend of chilly mid-autumn temperatures, the scent of countless thousands of fallen leaves, usually a bit of earthy dampness, the smell of candles burning in jack-o-lanterns near and far, and, I swear, just a hint of sugary caramel. It's magical, it's unmistakable of a kind, and it will always be one of the elements of this hauntingly marvelous day that makes me over-the-harvest-moon happy about the very last day of October.}

{To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.}

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This is but a mere drop in the bucket (or would that be "in the cauldron") of things that relating to Halloween that make me off-the-charts happy, and it was tricky (trick-or-treaty?) to stop here. Perhaps this will have to be a post I repeat in future autumns to come as well!

With these last few days ticking away, my happiness and excitement levels are reaching their zenith. Soon, in just six more sleeps, I'll be able to slip into my costume, celebrate with Tony and my folks, hand out candy, re-watch some of my favourite festive flicks, and revel in the fun fright night activities and merriment that make Halloween the sensationally awesome day that it is!

On the one hand, I can hardly wait, and on the other, I want to savour and enjoy each of these last few days as much as I possibly can! Tell me, my dear boos and ghouls, what are some things about Halloween (or if you don't observe/celebrate it, mid-autumn in general) that likewise make you as exuberantly happy as a ghost at a buy one, get one free creaky chain sale? :)

The winner of the $75 Etsy CV store credit, I've got the flu, our 10th wedding anniversary, and other recent going ons

...And now that I've written a title that's long enough to be a post unto itself. :D

First and foremost (despite the hefty title size), this post is not going to be a particularly lengthy one (by my standards). I'm literally writing it with just one eye open only half the way to try and block out the effect that light radiating from my laptop screen is on the pulsating migraine that I have right now, brought on by a rather unpleasant flu (not that there’s any sort that I'd dub "pleasant"!) that came on in the blink of an eye on Monday and is still very much going strong four days in.

{Image source}

Thankfully, in the world of flues, this is not one of the most severe I've had, but nevertheless, it's taking its toil and putting me pretty much completely out of commission at the moment (especially since, like - without fail - all colds, flues and the like that I get, it has caused serious flare-ups with some of my medical conditions). While I'm not very pleased about that, I am grateful at least that this virus was so "kind" as to spare attacking me at the end of the month. With a bit of luck, lots of rest, and drinking gallons of liquids, I should hopefully be on my feet again come Halloween (fingers crossed!).

Okay, onto more enjoyable topics! For starters, though I was asleep with a 103F fever for nearly all of it, Tuesday was Tony and mine's 10th wedding anniversary. Over the years here, I've talked about our relationship and its beginnings (such as in this post last May) and the profound, unshakable love that we have for one another (such as here), so many of you may already know a bit about our story.

For those that do not however, in the tiniest of nutshells, we met online in March of 2004 (at the time I was living right here in Penticton and Tony was on the other side of the Atlantic ocean in Ireland), in person for the first time in June, were engaged in July, and married in a super small civil ceremony with just a few close family members in attendance in October of that same year. It was, in no uncertain terms, a whirlwind romance, but we both know in the furthest recesses of our hearts that we had found "the one" and that there was no sense in waiting years to do something we knew within weeks that we were destined to have happen (marry one another, that is).

{Image source}

We were young by modern standards when we tied the knot - I was 20, Tony was 24 - and yet both came to relationship with absolutely no shortage of life history under our respective belts. In the past decade we have lived in two countries, two (Canadian) provinces, and multiple cities. We've faced staggering adversity on many front, become pet "parents" to Stella (our darling tabby cat) and Annie (our sweet, endless energetic American Bullador), cried, laughed, celebrated, and worked incredibly hard together. Tony and I have grown up and grown incredibly close over the course these last ten years and it was with no small amount joy that we celebrated this milestone anniversary this week (which will be properly observed, festive feast and all, once I'm over the flu). I love my husband with every fiber of my being and am so grateful that we get to share our lives and our futures together, continuing to built on the life, dreams and hopes of the past decade, while keeping our eyes on tomorrow and never forgetting to savour today in the process.

In other news, last month I posted a new Chronically Vintage reader and customer survey and invited all those who completed it to leave a comment for the chance to win a $75.00 Etsy store credit. The deadline to do so wrapped up last night and this morning I'm thrilled to announce the winner (who was selected using a random number generator). Drum roll, please...

Huge and very happy congratulations to Abigail from the immensely lovely blog Sweeter Gets The Journey, you've won a $75.00 Chronically Vintage store credit which you can put towards the cost of anything in the shop. I will be contacting you by email ASAP with further details and sincerely want to thank you - and absolutely everyone who took part in this survey and giveaway (your impute is hugely appreciated and will certainly play a roll in shaping my blog and Etsy shop in the future).

{The lucky winner, Abigail, in one of my favourite photographs of her from her gorgeous, image filled blog.}

Between some health issues in the later part of the summer and our wonderful recent travels to Victoria, plus the flu (et al) this week, I am well aware that I haven't posted a new YouTube video for some time now. When I initially launched my channel, I'd - in true, overly optimistic Jessica fashion - envisioned posting there once a week on average. A few videos in and my feet were soon back on the ground again and that notion had flown out the window. That said, I adore making videos and do plan to continue posting them periodically, always (massively) welcoming your ideas for topics to cover in the process.

And last, but not least, in this "bits and bobs" sort of update post, I'm still very much on the hunt for my Halloween costume this year. Maybe it's because I usually know months in advance what I plan to go as, but this year, for the 30th All Hallows Eve of my life, my costume remains one big question mark (not literally - though that could be a fun disguise unto itself :) ). With just two weeks left until the fabulously fun and splendidly spooky night to go, I truly must - once this flu lets up a bit - get to it and come up with something interesting to wear.

{Image source}

That's it for today, sweet dears. I'm off to get some more healing shut eye. I hope that you're doing splendidly, are flu free, and are enjoying an absolutely beautiful October!