Autumn in Chicago: guest post by Paiges [of] Books

I love Chicago.

I love autumn.

I love the real people I know who blog.

So I combined all of these things to create a lovely series of real, Chicago, falltime celebration happiness!

My treat for you today comes from Paige. She is a good friend, one of those women you can't help but laugh and smile and let loose around. I love all of her ideas, this post included ...

Autumn has been and always will be my favorite season. It is a season of trust. The trees let go of their leaves and prepare for winter, trusting that they will survive the cold and be renewed come springtime. Autumn in the country is grand, with its brilliant palette of colors fashioning the trees between September and November. I used to believe that during the harvest months the men were drawn to the field just as Ulysses’ men were drawn to the sirens. They are gone sun up to sun down, and sometimes later. Shelling corn and beans is a tireless job. When I was younger it was always a treat to take lunch to my grandfather in his John Deere combine, and even at the age of twenty-four I still hope he will offer to let me ride with him for a while through the field, following the rows of corn as if we were carefully cutting with scissors along the lines of our artwork. The dry corn is my grandfather’s masterpiece, each year a different piece of work, each with its own difficulties. Autumn in the city took some getting used to. I could no longer keep track of the passing days by the disappearing fields of dry corn. The chill in the air catches my attention and makes me take hold of my sweaters, the sun sets earlier and my commute home from work slowly grows darker. The harvest ales and pumpkin flavored everything celebrate the change in season. Instead of hearing flip-flops I will soon hear crunching leaves. I will have to remember to grab a jacket, and scarves will once again become my favorite accessory. I love the college football games, the small town parades, the marching bands, the bon-fires, the caramel apples, the haunted hayrides, and the anticipation of Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday). One of my favorite autumn traditions is taking a walk with a dear friend from college. This year will mark our fifth Halloween walk – we first would walk around our college town photographing the changing trees, finding our favorite homes, and kicking through piles of leaves. Now we are miles apart, but we still make an effort to grab our phones and cameras and take a walk while catching up. I can’t wait to see what photos we’ll end up with this fall! I definitely encourage you to take a late afternoon walk and see how the autumn sunset makes everything gold.

Autumn in Chicago: guest post by All This Grace and Charm

I love Chicago.

I love autumn.

I love the real people I know who blog.

So I combined all of these things to create a lovely series of real, Chicago, falltime celebration happiness!

I found Carly Anne's blog when she posted a tour of Chicago elsewhere. Since then we've connected on similar views of city life and even the same alma mater. Her ideas for experiencing fall in Chicago are almost as bold as she is ...

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Fall is easily my favorite season in Chicago.

My autumn allegiance, I'd say, is partially in response to a hipster affinity for the nostalgic and too many years spent in vintage apartments so charmingly in tact that their wiring systems allowed for nary a window air conditioner. 

Anyway, among the fall activities that I enjoy most is the Nettelhorst French Market, held each Saturday through November first at Broadway and Melrose.

I used to attend as a single gal, when I lived directly across the street. And, while I can't recommend that single gals--especially of the neurotic variety--visit, less they be rushed into an ohmygosh I'm going to die alone kind of panic at the site of married folks picking out bunches of flawless chrysanthemums and jugs of organic apple cider, I can confidently say that the whole scene is charming and allows one to purchase loads of fall produce without breaking the bank. 

I highly recommend. 

Autumn in Chicago: guest post by Burned Memories

I love Chicago.
I love autumn.
I love the real people I know who blog.
So I combined all of these things to create a lovely series of real, Chicago, falltime celebration happiness!


This first post is by a friend I know through InterVarsity. She was technically a student of mine, but I've learned so much from her myself. I find  Rachel  to be darling, sophisticated and wonderfully goofy, and I'm sure you will too ...

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Taylor asked me to write something for her near the end of August, I was honored that she considered my blog substantial enough to be on the list of people to be asked to contribute.  Hopefully the fact that I'm writing this now, a week and a half after the due date, about 4 days even after the extended due date that she gave me doesn't demerit this thought.

So, here I am, late as has a constant (and troublesome) theme throughout my life, writing about what I'm excited about for fall.  And in all honesty I will explain why I was late in writing this: I didn't know what to say.  Of all the wonderful, new things to do in the fall I couldn't come up with one to write about.  Everything I came up with was either too far away to be feasible, not Chicago-y enough, or too expensive for me to do.  So instead, I bring you a list of the little things that make me exuberantly excited that fall is finally here.

1. Dressing in layers.  I am currently wearing a three-quarter length shirt, a tee shirt, a sweater, and jeans.  Upon going outside (a daily requirement for me), I will add a jacket, a scarf, a mocasins.  I love the millions of options that you get with the opportunity to layer clothes on top of each other.  It brings a mix of textures, fabrics and weights.  It also builds up to me wearing my new winter jacket purchased this past summer (long story).
2. Apples and apple flavored things.  This is sort of a summer into fall kind of thing, but dosen't apple pie and apple cider just scream of autumn?  If you're into pumpkin (I'm not), then this is also the perfect season for that.  The species like cinnamon and nutmeg bring the perfect amount of warmth to go with the chill in the air.
3. Tea.  I've become absolutely obsessed with tea.  And fall is when I make the switch back to hot tea from all the iced tea I've been drinking all summer.  I was also just introduced to Argo Tea, a starbucks-like tea cafe near my apartment.  They have cold tea drinks and hot tea drinks and loose leaf tea to be poured from those canisters that you find in grocery stores or candy stores where you press down on the lever to fill a bag with dry tea to be purchased by the pound.
4. School starting again.  If life were Harry Potter I would be a Ravenclaw (still waiting to register for Pottermore to confirm that one).  I love school and honestly I'm not sure what I'm going to do in the fall between graduating collage and (one day) having kids.  It will become a very awkward time of year.
5. Packing lunches again.  School starting again means that at least twice a week I pack myself lunch or dinner to eat on campus.  Having learned from my Mom's fantastic homemade lunches I pack a lot of food and always have something in a thermos.  I've got two, one for a hot main dish and one for tea (!!) with a “cafe top”.  Omnomnomnom.
6. The juxtaposition of the new things sprouting up, and the weather dying out.  This one's a little more thematic and less physical.  I love the growth that I see through people in school, though the new ideas and new opportunities that continue to pop up throughout the season, I especially love how this is all happening amidst the “death” if you will that fall is.  As much as I think this is the most beautiful season, the only reason that the leaves change colors and the season turns is because of the death that is happening in nature around us.  It's  a beautiful death, but a death nonetheless.
7. The colors!  This death doesn't make me stop appreciating the beautiful colors.  The leaves change into glorious reds, oranges, and yellows that I have the privilege of getting to see on my walk to class every morning.  I love the chance to see the season change which I feel can be harder to see in other season transitions.
8. Being back in Chicago!  For me Fall means moving back to Chicago to start school.  During the summer and pretty much any time I'm not in Chicago I live in San Francisco.  I love the change of scenery and the different setting of Chicago.  Back home I live in a nearly suburban neighborhood whereas here in Chicago I am in the heart of the city.  It's a great change of pace and I'm always happy to be in this wonderful city.
9. The perfect biking weather.  I don't know what more to say about this.  Fall in Chicago bring the perfect biking weather, hands down.  The perfect amount of chill in the air so I don't boil, but not so much that I freeze.

There we have it, all the reasons that Fall in Chicago is amazing.  A part of me wants to think of something else so that there can be an even ten, but nine is my favorite number, so I think I'll leave it at that.

A Friday

This is the last one. And my face is in this one.

Sometimes I drink coffee for too long and forget to eat breakfast! I know it's awful. This morning I had a mediocre "breakfast" before running out to lunch on campus.


Then it was downtown for me, for the next 9 hours.


Drug deal:


Me looking all important at incarnation:


Staff meeting after our event, at Millers Pub:


We got home after 1 am!
I am not going to even tell you how late I slept in the next day.

A Thursday

After a few 12-13 hour days, I usually am able to slow things down by Thursday. I took this morning easy. Can you believe that lovely tree out my new window?


I got to do a lot of walking this day. To work on campus, running some errands in the neighborhood, and back home.


Finally Jake and I both had an evening home. He usually cooks, thankfully! I try to be a good cheerleader and not snitch bites of food. We catch up on our days (sometimes weeks) over the stove. I loved this steam coming off our corn.


Then we took some time to almost finish hanging photos in our living room.


Like I said, a peaceful, slow day.
I was home by 5 pm.

A Wednesday

This was a very early morning. I have to be on campus at 8 am this semester. It was a rainy day for coffee and neutral sweaters. Good thing I like where I work and who I work with.


(I came home and had some fast-paced office hours to regroup before taking off again.)

Waiting for the bus. There have been a lot of sirens lately.


Working on the bus.


Enjoy our "Patio" while it's warm ... I love finding funny uses of quotation marks. I guess this patio is proverbial?


Usually on Wednesdays I spend a few hours caring for this little one and her sister.



Then since I was in the neighborhood I stopped by a second-hand store. Remember why? And for probably the third time I tried on a shirt just like this. I love them but they make me feel like a 50-year-old art teacher and I just don't know if I'm ready for that.

I got home around 8 pm and

I ate this:


Upon reflection, this Wednesday was so very vanilla. And that's exactly what I wanted to capture in this project.

A Tuesday

What I remember about this morning is being exhausted. A fast three weeks were starting to catch up to me. The noise of the jackhammer outside my window was vibrating in my full sinuses and I had soggy brain syndrome. (When I'm really tired my brain feels like a solid loaf of bread stuck in a bowl of water overnight. No lie.)

One of the best things about our current situation though, is that Jake gets to come home for a lunch hour at least once or twice a week. I love it!

He doesn't look happy here, but I promise he loves it too.



(Insert a few unphotogenic hours of office work here.)

Then Jake and I were both on to a meeting for the arts ministry we're a part of. I love that Jake volunteers with us.



Meeting meeting meeting AND THEN a drive to another meeting/dinner. This was a particularly good one. One of our supervisors welcomed all the young staff over to her house to talk about money. We had a delicious dinner and got to ask all of our questions about credit cards, tithing and investing. Again, I am so thankful to share many of these experiences with Jake. He is my number one supporter and his presence means a lot to me.



We ended our evening having a very serious conversation. Something along the lines of taking care of things before they become an even bigger deal than they are. Suddenly three fire engines pulled up, roaring sirens, but the fighters were walking slowly. I asked one if there was a fire and he said, "We don't know yet." It was the perfect message to me. Some things, like fire, or relationships, deserve a lot of attention, just in case.


We got home just before 11 pm.