And just like that {insert snapping of fingers} October is here. And, with it, the return of A Month of Pumpkin.
To get us started, here’s a little taste of the season. Come back soon to check out some ways to use PPS!
A Month of Pumpkin Returns
You Can Always Go Home
Tonight is homecoming in Ravenna. I imagine the stands at Citizen’s Field filled with a sea of blue and white clothed fans. Probably the only rival to the chants of the cheerleaders is the loud, hollow tink tink tink of cowbells being rung excitedly.
Right now it’s just about the end of the fourth quarter and the Dogs are huddled on the field listening intently to the quarterback plan out the final push to take the lead. The marching band in the stands is playing “Louie Louie.” Little kids, oblivious to the rivalry of high school football and much more into not catching cooties from the opposite sex, are weaving in, out, and around the underside of the bleachers.
The Senior Class dominates the top rows of the student section. They take in all that is around them, knowing that this is their moment. Their time to shine. Their last time to stomp these stands, clap their hands, shout at the tops of their lungs from the Senior section. The excitement is filling them up and draining them at the same time. Their voices are hoarse. Cheeks flushed and cold.
The cheerleaders run, jump, holler, chant. They have tears in their eyes each time their coach’s farewell banner comes into view. One last Herkie of their high school cheerleading career and a basket toss to finalize the season.
And then it’s over. The stands empty. Victory chants linger as the last fan exits the gates.
In what seems like the blink of an eye, it’s eighteen years later and I am eight hundred miles away from Citizen’s field. Eight hundred miles away from the town I called home for twenty six years.
I wish I had known then that I would not remember every single second of those moments. I wish I had known that the memories would float in and out; that recollection doesn’t always appear when summoned.
I wish I’d taken more photographs. I wish the camera that is now an extension of my fingertips and the keeper of my memories had been with me then.
But, most of all, I wish that I hadn’t wished so hard to be all grown up. Maybe if I hadn’t always been looking to the future, I’d have preserved those moments better in my mind. I’d have lived in the moment more and let the experiences permeate my being with such deepness that there’s no way I’d ever have forgotten.
I Heart Fall 2011
There’s a hundred and one things I should have been doing this afternoon while I was stuck at home alone {Thom took the car for some new (to us) tires}. Seriously. I have a list of things I’ve been meaning to tackle this week, yet I’ve had no motivation to get them completed.
Instead, I played in the driveway, celebrating the first day of fall. In the spirit of attempting to get in more photographs, thus documenting my experience here on Earth, I tried my hand at self-portraiture by lying on down on the sloped driveway. It’s a good thing there isn’t much traffic in these parts. I’m sure I looked ridiculous. Turns out, there weren’t any decent pictures, save, one.
When I was finished with self-portrait silliness, I moved on to making some pine needle art. Meet Lucy.
I kind of {love} her hair.
After that got boring I found this guy to stalk:
Finally, I finished up with an adventurous search for more of these guys to gather. I thought I’d bring a little of the outside indoors for some fall decorating {Mom called yesterday practically in tears about how I don’t do much decorating anymore}.
Apparently the squirrels have beat me to the gathering of all the local acorns as this was the only one I found. Since food supply trumps decorating needs, I guess I don’t mind so much. {I might also mention that, for the life of me, I could not remember what this was called. Pine nut came to mind…and so that’s what I called this guy until Thom looked at me funny and corrected me.
Maybe one more attempt at a selfie:
Happy Fall, friends!
Reason #2 to be up at 7 am…
…on a day that’s meant for me to be sleeping in:
Gorgeous light.
Just Walk Away…
It’s funny how things come to me…how an idea suddenly appears when the pressure is off and my mind isn’t trying so hard to create.
I’ve had this series of photos-adorable pictures of my niece- that I printed out and scrapped way back in 2007. The pictures are in place and only a few spots of journaling remain to be written. I’ve struggled with the album cover though. It was just a plain red Martha Stewart accordion book. I knew that I wanted the cover to be scrapped and that I wanted it to reflect both a boyish nature but with a girly side, too. I looked at this thing forever and just couldn’t come up with anything.
.
And so, I set it aside and walked away; for four years {that’s a lot of walkin’…actually I walked 800 miles away because I moved to Arkansas during that time!}.
“It” {inspiration} came to me out of nowhere. I was just waking from a nap and the album popped into my mind. I hadn’t seen it for a while….months…maybe even a year. It’s been packed away in a drawer in the craft room under scraps of felt and other unfinished, uninspired projects. But there it was; an idea both boyish and girly. A rocket layered upon a paper doily. With a star spangled pennant banner. And, a cover was born.
I can’t wait to send this album off to a certain little girl who won’t even remember the day the pictures were taken. I have a only a few more spots to fill in with the details of the day and of the people who loved her so much in those moments.
Sometimes it’s just as good to just walk away as it is to plow through.