Fall, head first.

I'm kinda resisting the change of seasons. Which is crazy because I LOVE fall. The season of layering and multi-coloured tights and crunchy leaves and pumpkin spice lattes. Oh, and Halloween! Seriously? The best.

But I've been purposely wearing sandals and leaving my coat at home and wearing white after Labour Day (gasp). The weather is making it too easy. Do I just have a rebellion-lust this year? Am I  stumbling upon uncharacteristic pessimism? "All good things must come to an end"? 

I don't really believe that. But this summer was pretty magical and also highly indulgent (read: unsustainable). It's OK, the new budget and food restrictions have been good for a girl like me who gets caught up so easily. Healthy. But I guess it's making me associate fall with the end of a good ride. The optimist's perspective: it's still a ride, but we're rolling up the windows. Just a little.

Truthfully, renewal (September is the new January) is exactly what I need. And in the way that you'll crave Hot Rods (yes, even as a vegetarian) when your body really just needs protein, my subconscious is already jumping in piles of leaves and sprinkling nutmeg with fervor. It's trying to tell me something. How do I know? My Etsy faves are suspiciously seasonal. 

 { a surprisingly subdued colour palette for this gal: soft black, goldenrod, slate blue... and sometimes a dash of cinnamon }

Of course, because of my ongoing shopping ban, I can't actually purchase any of these Etsy covets. Minor detail.

When I'm allowed to spend again at the end of this month, the weather will be less forgiving. Sandals are out of the question. It will be a great time to finally embrace the fact that time charges forward. My summer of excess will be but a sweet memory and cluster of Instagram captures. I will buy some pretty cardis (3/4-sleeved to show off my new tattoo!) and tall boots and maybe even give up being a quasi-blonde. 

Oh, look. All this talk is getting me excited. Finally. 

My dream fall, in things, inspired by Etsy:

I referred to something as "half Mad Men, half Girls Gone Wild" yesterday and my friend Dawn said it totally described me "200%". Oh boy. Probably I should lean towards the Mad Men side a little more, yeah? These should do just the trick. Vintage barware $23

I'm a bells-and-whistles kinda girl (tassels! snaps! fringe!) but occasionally, I find awesomeness in simplicity. This bag is perfection. Leather tote by Rib & Hull  $290

I'm kind of obsessed with burlap. Like the way it makes you cough a little when you breathe it in. I just made pillows for our living room out of some old coffee sacks we picked up in Perth last summer. This Etsy shop makes darling things out of the scratchy stuff. Burlap pillows $45

Simple, graphic, lovely.  Chevron print, $36

 

I had a long-term love-thing with peppermint. It was monogamous. Peppermint everything. But a little lip balm I picked up in Montreal turned me onto cinnamon again (in my post-candy-hearts adult life), and maybe I have two loves now. Scandal. Cinnamon soap $6.50

 

 I have great underthings. Surely they deserve a little show & tell. Kidding? But please, tell me this isn't the greatest dress you've ever seen. Stunning. I'd do fantastic things in this dress, I'm sure. Vintage sheer dress $145

In my fantasy life, as a Parisian boutique owner (slash model, slash journaliste), my baking needs would be stored in vintage enamel canisters in the kitchen of my petit loft apartment. Trés chic, n'est pas? $145

This hat! $40

Not gonna lie: as soon as this shopping ban is lifted, these are the very first things I'm buying. High-waisted? Metallic? Animal print? You're speaking my language. Snake print leggings $45

OK, maybe there is actually something wrong with me. I just really, really want you to look at my underwear, obvi. Lace racerback $95

My childhood typewriter is still in the possession of my parents. I tried to reclaim it when they forced me to absorb the rest of my junk trying to exercise squatters' rights in their storage closet. But apparently dad uses it to type up the labels for their juke box. Dedication to authenticity? I just want to look at it because it's pretty? OK, I guess he wins. Typewriter $80

I call her "Red"

OH-EM-GEE. So, remember when Jordan Catalano wrote that song called "Red" in that big warehouse where he rehearsed with his band Frozen Embryos and Angela thought it was about HER but it turned out it was really about his CAR?!

Didn't you just DIE?!

I still do, every time. 'Cause YEAH I own the whole series on DVD. Obvi.

 [ girl crush! boy crush! CRUSH! ]

The last time I dyed my hair that colour, it happened to coincide with Angela Chase's own awakening as a faux redhead. She was me, I was her. The show was for-sure-for-sure written just for me. Then I found out that every girl born between 1977 and 1984 believed the very same thing (they are WRONG, I tell you!). I am prone to delusions.

I guess my inner transformations need to be marked by some sort of external metamorphisis. An indication, a badge of sorts. Like: "Hey, look at me, my brain and my heart are acting super sketchy right now but you can't see it so I'll just dye my hair to match so that you know you're supposed to pay attention to me!" 

Spotlight-whore for life.

Oversharing to the moooon!

Anyway, I did it. See? I'm not just a big mouth.This totally happened. It's fading like crazy already - who knows if I'll be diligent enough to handle the upkeep? It may be short-lived. In the meantime, it's kinda fun, yeah?

Red.

Oh yeah, we're doing this. Talking about hair again.

To be fair, my hair restlessness has been on hold for quite a while. Haven't blogged/whined about it in a good few months (hallelujah!). That constant urge to chop it all off or be blonde or get a wave-perm? Gone. I had successfully grown out my angled bob (the short bangs are now past my chin!) and dyed out years of bad drug-store colouring. I tried out the (almost) au naturel thing for a while. And I liked it.

But the only way I can continue to be a normal human every day is to shake things up every so often. Hair is easy. I can feel like a new/different person without, say, quitting my job and buying an Airstream or VW bus and living out the rest of my days on the road selling jams and macramé flower pots and not paying taxes. This.

Things need a shake.

Let's think about hair colour, though, and how we/society/whatever attribute certain personality traits to specific hair colours. These are entirely ridiculous and stereotypical, and no one really believes them, but just entertain me, OK? So blondes have more fun (and/or are dumb) and redheads are wild (and/or evil) and dark hair is mysterious and "exotic". Then there's me. I always felt that, thinking in these terms, my mousy/dusty brown hair didn't quite reflect my personality. I'm fun and wild and sometimes evil, yeah? (Say yes.) So I dyed it. From the age of 13. Red, blonde, black. Hard facts: I look best (probably) in something closer to the real thing. But I've been rocking this "me only better" brown for a while. Ho-hum.

My mother is a redhead. A real one. And she's pretty textbook, if you go for the stereotype-thang. I felt cheated. Strangely my parents - red and black-haired as they are - managed to spawn 2 brunettes and a blonde. Milkman?

 (w/my mom, 1980. oh god. she was so YOUNG.)

Aside from a few (bad) early attempts at becoming a ginger myself (anyone remember "Flirt"? That "temporary" hair colour that never washed out? I have actual photo evidence but I'm way too lazy to use our scanner) I haven't given red - done right, by a pro - a real chance, like, ever. Is it time? Yes folks, I believe it is.

What does my "likes me the way I am" husband have to say about it?

This fortuitous combination of lighting and Instagram filters in this photo did wonders in convincing him that I wasn't just acting rash. He's on board too. Not that I wouldn't just do it anyway, but it's nice not to make him grumpy.

(oh, and that's Superbowl face paint. I became weirdly attached to it. Tattoo time, obvi.)

So red. Yes. Once I stop chickening out. I might need some cocktails first. Who's in for some sloppy pre-salon pep-talk drinkin'?

---

Check out my Pinterest board, "Hairs" for more ginger inspiration! (Gingspiration? No.)