Weekend Recap...Two Days Tardy

I had EVERY intention of getting this post up Monday so that it would be fresh off the weekend, and I would feel like I was kicking off the week right! And then...life happened. Mostly grad school life. You know the story: girl meets weekend, girl falls in love, girl neglects homework to spend quality time with her new love...it's a classic tale really, one full of adventure and inevitable procrastination. The kind of story that ends in staying up too late Sunday night to finish a paper, leaving not quite enough time to write a post or sort through photos for it. Oops. So as much as I really wanted to start the week off with a Monday post, I have accepted their impossibility in exchange for keeping my love affair with the weekend. So, I offer my apologies and vote we move swiftly along from my shortcomings to talking about said love affair. 

Gingham Flannel Shirt - Old Navy / Jeans - Old Navy / Booties - Old Navy

Vest - J.Crew Factory (option) (option) / Scarf - Zara  / Purse - Phillip Lim for Target (option)

Necklace - Mint Sugar Boutique (option) / Spike Bracelet - Urban Peach Boutique

Link Bracelet - c/o Hawthorne Collection (option)

Friday night I came home from work and it was gorgeous outside. My bf and I seized the opportunity to take some outfit photos for the blog. We were able to walk down to the park at the end of my street and snap some shots in the warm glow of the setting sun. Afterwards, we settled in to our normal Friday night of frozen pizza dinner while catching up on the DVR and watching movies. I even treated us to hard cider (him) and delicious pumpkin ale (me) for surviving an incredibly intense week of school and work.

Saturday was spent at Panera studying and homeworking for a good 4 hours. Timeout. Have I mentioned that my bf and I are in grad school together? We are. If you didn't figure that out already, you are probably really confused. My bad. So yes, I met my bf while going to school, which is another long story that maybe I will tell you about sometime ;-) We are in our last year of our program, working on our Masters of Science in Engineering, Architectural Engineering to be specific. He is studying boring mechanical systems engineering as his focus, and I am focused on the superior subject of electrical systems engineering, opposites attract, right? However, we are in all of the same classes. Thank God. Seriously, I could not get through this without him (and Him) by my side. So in addition to being my best friend and significant other, Kevin (yup that's his name, such a dramatic reveal, no?) is also my incredibly smart and patient study buddy. I think that is all you need to know to understand what the heck I am talking about for now. End timeout.

Okay. So, we spent most of Saturday like we do every Saturday, holed up in the Panera by my apartment. After sufficiently depleting our brains of energy, we hit the Old Navy across from Panera so that I could exchange some items. Although their huge sale was going on, I behaved and didn't purchase anything new. It's the little victories. We headed back to my place to read a few chapters of the book we needed to write for the aforementioned paper. I read one chapter before it bored me into a nap. Best. Nap. Ever. It was warm and sunny and breezy and awesome. I love afternoon naps. Kevin was a much better student then I and continued to read during my power nap. Around 6 pm he ended my nap, reminding me we had plans to go to my sister's for dinner.

My sister recently moved into a new apartment with her long term boyfriend. Timeout. Okay more sharing time. I have three younger sisters and I love them each to pieces. We are all a year and a half to two years part in age, which means we are all in our mid to late twenties. The two middle sisters are both teachers and used to live together until recently. Christina, the younger middle child, recently moved out and it was her new apartment we were going to see. My youngest sister lives with my mother and grandmother, very close to Christina and my other sister. Yay family tree! End timeout.

So, we headed out to spend the evening with my sister and her boyfriend. It was about a 20 minute drive, which we spent singing like lunatics (a normal occurrence for us). We arrived and entered. Their apartment was so cute! Seriously, it was impressive how everything had come together in such a short time, although, given my sister is an art teacher, has an impeccable eye, and is a gifted painter, it shouldn't have been such a surprise. After the short tour we ordered Chinese and settled in to a night of comfort food, Netflix, and Scrabble. It was a perfect evening; great food and company, relaxing and fun. If you are reading, thanks so much Christina!

Sunday morning rolled around and the gorgeous weather persisted so we decided to steal away a few hours from homework and go apple picking. It was sunny and in the 60's, the trees had started to turning a kaleidoscope of fall hues. Our drive out to the orchard was breath taking. It was the type of experience you take pause and want to remember for the rest of your life. At least it was for me, which is what I did along the drive. Mental snapshots. I couldn't help but feel so grateful for...well, everything, the sceneary driving out of the city is beyond majestic. After our drive, just shy of an hour, we arrived and were ready to fill our half bushel. Kevin was kind enough to snap a few pics of my outfit as we wandered through the rows of apple trees.

We were able to fill our bag quickly; the apples were large and shiny, such pretty glossy shades of red and green in the streaming sunlight. We then moved along to pick some raspberries and to select our pumpkins. After a little debate, we finally settled a large, a small pumpkin, and a few gourds. On our way out of the orchard we also stopped along the fields of fall crops, the vegetable plants were all full of pipe goodies, cabbage, broccoli, tomatoes, squash, peppers, and more, but we settled on just a few fresh peppers which we were able to pick ourselves!

Our last stop before heading home, was the cider mill at the front of the farm and orchard. After some cider, donuts, and apple goodness (piece of apple crumble pie for me, and hot apple dumping a la mode for Kev), we decided to call it a day and head back to finally finish homework. It was a perfect day and I am so lucky and blessed to have had it. This weekend was my little miracle weekend of the semester and I relished it. We spend the remainder of Sunday cooking dinner, cleaning up, and finishing homework. It truly was one of my favorite weekends in recent memory.

I absolutely love this outfit that I wore to the apple orchard, its the perfect combination of patterns and the layers were perfect for the temperature swings throughout a fall day. I am 100% head over heels for this plaid Zara blanket scarf and although I broke my #noshoptilnovember, it was totally worth it and I know it will be on major repeat this fall and winter. This Old Navy booties are also so comfy and fab, I would highly recommend them if you are in the market for affordable taupe booties. 

So this turned out to be quite a lengthy post. Thank-you so much for listening to my excessive rambling and I am very impressed that you made it to the end. I promise I will be more brief in the future =)

Do have favorite fall pieces?

Did you do something fun this weekend?

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day!