We’re back from the beach. I did laundry last night, but some of the shirts still smell like sunscreen, and I think they always will — that familiar Coppertone smell is in there for good now. Soon they’ll be pushed to the back of the drawer to make room for sweaters and henleys. I wonder whether they’ll still smell like Coppertone next May. And whether I’ll toss them anyway for fresh new summer tees.
I get so excited at the change of any season, but summer to fall gets me every time. It has always felt like more of a fresh start than the dead of winter and its New Year’s resolutions. Fall holds such promise.
It always starts with a simple refresh in the house. New fall candles. Crisp kitchen towels in a maroon plaid. A cozy throw, and maybe some new artwork.
And then, on one of the first days that starts with a chill and the air smells different, I make everyone’s favorite apple crisp.
It was always an after-school thing. The kids never knew which day it would happen. They’d just walk in, smell the cinnamon, and their faces would light up. Even through high school it was a revered day.
No one is walking in the door at three o’clock this year.
But it’s still happening. I’ll bring it over to my parents and we’ll have it with afternoon tea, and I’ll probably make it again when the sophomore is home for Thanksgiving break.
Because there is so much I love about fall. Our wedding anniversary. The colors, in the trees and in the closet. Hikes in our favorite state parks. And the annual rewatch of the fall movies and the Gilmore Girls episodes — which now means my daughter calling from her apartment in the city, or from a hotel on a business trip, and the two of us watching together while texting about our favorite parts.
The traditions don’t end. They just change shape.
So pull up a chair. I’ll put the kettle on.
The Cozy Kitchen
The kitchen is where fall actually starts in this house, so it’s where the refresh starts too. Everything below is something I use, want, or have been staring at for three weeks.
What’s on the stove
My kettle — the kettle this whole thing is named after, and I love it.
Sauté pan — beautiful cream and brass. An Oprah pick, and she knows her stuff.
Amber glass simmer pot — a fall trick: simmer the following and the whole house smells like October. Orange peel, apple slices, cinnamon sticks, a few cloves, a shake of pumpkin pie spice, and water to cover. That’s the entire recipe.
For baking, and for leaving out
Sage green bakeware set — bakeware I will absolutely leave out on the counter.
Kitchen timer — because I don’t trust myself with the oven and a book.
On the counter
Marble bowl — one marble bowl and suddenly the counter looks styled.
Brass pepper mill — a mill that will outlive the kitchen it’s in.
Onyx salt cellar and Maldon sea salt — the cellar and the flaky salt I swear by.
Glass pumpkin jar and candy corn — a glass pumpkin, filled. Candy corn not optional.
How to cozy up your kitchen
“How lucky are we” print — not everything on the counter has to be a kitchen thing. A small print, a little lamp.
And the one I keep looking at
A fun MacKenzie-Childs kettle — I have the kettle I love. I keep looking at this one anyway. Talk me into it.
What’s your first sign of fall? Mine is the day the sunscreen smelling t-shirts move to the back of the drawer. Tell me yours.