Fall always feels too short living in Colorado. It seems like we go from the 90-degree days of summer to snow with maybe a week in between. (By the way, the earliest snowfall on record for Fort Collins, Colorado was September 8, 2020. Yes, yet another reason last year was so weird!) This year summer, in contrast, seems to be going on and on. I don't remember the last time we had 90-degree days the last week in September.
Still, even if fall's only a week, I really love it. I like trying new pumpkin-flavored baked goods and spicy chai lattes. (I even like trying some of the new apple cider spice items that seem to be everywhere this fall.) I enjoy wearing cardigan sweaters and cozy socks. I embrace the leaves changing colors and the cooler temperatures which enable me to spend more time outside.
But I honestly think the reason I look forward to this season is that I agree with Gretchen Rubin that September is the other January. It feels like a fresh start. I always feel like I'm bursting with ideas to try whether it's a new way to arrange the furniture in my house or trying a new art technique. I feel so energized that I try to take advantage of every second before winter hits and I want to just pile on the blankets and read all the time.
Here are some of the items I made to celebrate this very short season:
Fall Jewelry and Home Decor
I rarely make matching sets of jewelry, but since I had an odd number of tiny enamel pumpkins, I did make a matching pumpkin necklace on steel chain for the pumpkin earrings. The orange on these charms is not your traditional bright color but almost a terra cotta shade in certain light. I think the shade makes it fit better with a Thanksgiving palette than a Halloween one.
Woodland creatures like owls are supposed to be back in style this year according to Etsy's Fall 2021 trends, so I made both an owl necklace with a tassel and a pair of owl earrings with brass full moons.
Colorado's known for its yellow aspen leaves in the fall. (If you're visiting, there's always tons of sites like this one titled "Leaf Peeps, Fall Colors Are Coming" with suggestions of the best places to see them.) The aspens are stunning, but it's a very different fall look than the one in the east or Midwest where there's more of a mix of red, oranges, and yellows. This orange-and-brown ink design shows a pair of inked leaves on a serving tray and a set of coasters. These would work for fall dinner parties or Thanksgiving gatherings.
I also made a patterned maple leaf. I made cards with this design, as well as a sticker, T-shirt, and throw pillow.
Halloween Home Decor and Jewelry
I veer towards the cute, rather than scary, Halloween decorations, so I made a fun "Happy Halloween" design for tote bags for carrying loads of candy or quick costume changes. For the wall tapestry I tried a black background instead of a white one. On both the orange "Halloween" is patterned with different shades of orange ink. Very subtle!
In keeping with my un-scary Halloween theme, these Boo and Eek earrings can be made in the color(s) of your choice including the black sparkle shown here. The earrings are large, but lightweight.
As an experiment, I layered a spooky silhouette (bare trees, a tombstone, and a cat) on top of one of my acrylic abstract paintings. I was inspired by the idea of how as a kid you're waiting so impatiently for it to get dark so you can go trick-or-treating that instead of admiring a beautiful sunset, you ignore it. For easy Halloween decorating, I made this design into a poster, as well as a gigantic wall mural (8x8 feet!).
By the way, getting this image loaded onto the Society 6 website proved to me that AI systems will never be as smart as humans! The computer tool that does the initial automatic image resizing and cropping kept cutting out the cat! Luckily, I could still edit it because as any human knows, a cat in any piece of art, no matter how small, is automatically the most important thing in it!
Happy Fall! (Or possibly Happy Early Winter or Yes, It's Still Summer, if you're reading this in Colorado!)