It's beginning to look a lot like autumn---pumpkins in every store! My new boots look really swell. I bought a new coat as well...a woolly one that wouldn't mind some snow!

Okay, I'll stop with my song! You get the point! I love fall! The changing colors of the leaves, the crispness in the air, layers upon layers of sweaters and flannels,  the smell of bonfires and warming spices...I love it all! Fall is simply my most favorite time of year!

Some of you may love pumpkin spice lattes and football. Others of you may be all about the holidays of this season, counting down until Halloween and then Thanksgiving. My most favorite fall thing is decorating my front porch, and by decorating, I mean covering every square inch with colorful mums, gnarly gourds and pumpkins of all sizes! And oh, how I love pumpkins!

I went to the grocery store the other day on a mission. My sister needed me to run into the store to grab a few things to make dinner, so she told me to not get distracted by the pumpkins while I was in there. She knows the effect pumpkins have on me, so she told me in her teacher voice, "Just go in there and get what we need. Don't stop for the pumpkins. Don't even look at them. Don't get distracted. Come right back. Do that, and I'll let you get pumpkins later on this weekend!"

I tried to be good, but those pumpkins get me every time. I walked into the store, bought the groceries, and I was just about in the crosswalk in front of the store when it happened. I saw a flash of the most beautiful fall colors, and I whipped around. Surely Courtney won't see. I pulled out my phone and snapped a quick photo:

She saw. "What'd I tell you?!" she yelled from the window of the car. "You got distracted! No pumpkins for you!"

Maybe no pumpkins for me that weekend, but I did get some pumpkins and mums later on! There's no keeping an autumn loving gal away from her precious pumpkins!

What's your favorite thing about fall?

This past weekend, I time-traveled to the 1800s. Just south of Jonesboro, Arkansas is a recreated nineteenth century town called the Parker Homestead. Every October, the Parker family opens the Homestead to the public to showcase their collection of restored buildings and artifacts from long ago as part of the Parker Homestead Pioneer Festival. All throughout the year, the Homestead hosts school groups, weddings and events, but it's during this harvest festival that the Homestead really comes alive.

There are countless old tractors, from Farmalls to John Deere, surrounding the Homestead. Chickens roam freely among the festival goers, sometimes even running into the cabins for a quick look around. (I'm absolutely terrified of birds, but these fluffy babies didn't scare me one bit as they pecked at the ground for spilled corn!) Speaking of corn, visitors can even try their hand at milling corn and pick up a bag of freshly ground cornmeal to take home! Wagon rides, volunteers in period clothing, sideshow illusionists, and the smell of bubbling sorghum and popping kettle corn all add to the experience.

Here are some of the awesome sights I saw:

If you'd like to go back in time to the "good ol' days," check out the Parker Homestead Festival this Saturday, October 15 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., or Sunday, October 16 from noon-5 p.m. Admission is $7 per person, and children 6 and younger get in free.

Outfit details: Livy Lu "Arkansas Native" tee-shirt and Thread Supply flannel (both from The Refinery), Old Navy jeans, Minnetonka moccasins, Modcloth "Since You Been Hexagon" earrings in rose gold

Freebie Fun Fact: Arkansas is the diamond state. Crater of Diamonds State Park, located in Murfreesboro, Arkansas is home to the world's only diamond-bearing site accessible to the public. Arkansas is also the first place outside South Africa where diamonds were found at their original volcanic source! Isn't that fancy?