the art of happiness: Happy October and Montage the Third

It's hard to believe it's October already, but fall and all that comes with it is greatly welcomed around our house! We've finally reached the time of year when the temperature doesn't get above 85 in the afternoons...and for us that's really nice!! In celebration of the beautiful weather we drove to a vineyard and winery we recently discovered not far from our house (about a twent minute drive, I'd say). It's called Enoch's Stomp (you should read their story if you plan to visit) and it was really beautiful out there. And the wine was good too! Wine tasting times are on their website. They're also going to start having monthly events there. Here are a couple of pictures of the vineyard:

Second in the montage is a picture of a collection I recently finished (I do acknowledge that not all collections are ones which can be "completed", but in this case, I was limited by space to only needing a dozen). It's a collection of vintage jello molds! I kept running into them on my thrifting escapades and one day it clicked that these might be great wall art for the space above my breakfast room windows! Ta-da! I love them! I set a rule of no more than a dollar apiece. Though I think the fish one was almost $2, there were others that were 25 cents or 50 cents so it all evens out. A $12 collection!

In my kitchen this week: Chili with hot water cornbread and pumpkin cookies:

And, of course, since it's officially October, the pumpkin people are out in full force. I've still got a box of Halloween stuff not yet displayed...but I think this may be the extent of my decorating this year!

This is yet another tea-towel from Anthropologie...a souvenir from the Cincinnati trip. I just love it...food, crepes, french...the trifecta! :) These (I have three in this style now) have inspired me to try some applique on my own. We'll see how that goes...

And, finally, I included this picture Josh took of this albino lizard that lives on our front porch because he's just so unusual looking and I'd never seen one like him. He's out every night.