February with its pink hearts and red roses is just around the corner.  I don’t mind the cheerful colors, we’re in the middle of a wet winter here, but I don’t really like modern Valentines.  Thankfully there are so many beautiful options these days!

Message in a bottle letter service by Miniature Rhino

Miniature Rhino offers an adorable Message in a Bottle Letter Service. Your message is typed on to vintage paper using a vintage typewriter.  The little note is sealed with red wax and the final touch is a twine tied copper key hand stamped with a custom monogram. I love this!

Regency Valentine with Swallows by Hello Handmade

Hello Handmade has created the most beautiful Valentines I’ve seen in ages! These are perfect for the Jane Austen romantic in your life. Each valentine features swallows-which have been off – set printed and then watercolored by hand in persimmon and a gorgeously subtle silver – as well as a personalized, customizable note penned with jet-black sumi ink in uniquely romantic calligraphy. Lovely!

Hints of fall are everywhere today, the scent of wood smoke and an almost chilly breeze on our morning walk, a few prematurely crispy leaves dancing on the sidewalk, a rainbow of mums showing up at hardware stores.  In my opinion, fall can’t come soon enough!  It’s my absolute favorite time of the year!

The lovely print on the left is from Rosie Music & the lovely photo on the right is from the wonderful world of Book Lovers Never Go To Bed Alone

On our walk this morning, Joel and I started listing all of our favorite things about fall. Reading and drinking coffee on cold afternoons is at the top for both of us. This October I’m going to read through all of Jane Austen’s completed novels, that’s roughly a novel a week.  It will be a glorious experiment and I can’t wait to start!

I love, love, love wrapping presents!  It’s even more wonderful when you have pretty wrappings like this beautiful new line from The Purl Bee:

gorgeous packaging by the purl bee

I’d love to hear your pretty, present wrapping tricks!

We have been dying to see (500) Days of Summer since forever, it seems, and last night we were finally able to! It’s wonderful, beautiful, devastating, and moving.

I adore this!

This is one of the most charming films I’ve seen in a long time. The acting is perfect, the music lovely, and the aesthetic beautiful. My goodness, you should go see it! Joel wrote a wonderful review of it, here’s a little excerpt:

We’re warned at the start that this is not a love story. And it certainly isn’t. Witty to melancholy, hilarity to downright despair, (500) Days of Summer puts the viewer in the middle of the thrilling uncertainty that comes with infatuation. And it does so with such exacting precision that you feel each elated moment and every painful word.

We talked about the film the whole ride home.  I just love hearing his take on things.

I saw this over at Modish and just had to post it here!

Divining Light by Erika Somogyi

It’s kind of perfect for this weekend, no?