The big, baggy, knitted, jumpers are out again. The trees have a warm glow again. I love this time of year. Like a lot.

Everything has a bit more of a cosy feel to it. For example, sitting in coffee shops hiding from the rain. And there has been sooooo much rain:

It’s also becoming hot chocolate season which just adds to the cosiness (Side note: anyone know of a vegan hot chocolate I can try ? ). I’ve also found myself listening back to cringey guilty pleasure songs, there’s something comforting in them, I won’t publicly shame myself by telling you what they are! I’ve also been listening to a lot of acoustic background music which has been great to have on whilst reading.

I am incredibly grateful of Autumn as a season right now as it’s keeping me happy indoors and making me feel inspired to write. I am very pleased to say that I have started my first short story for my dissertation and I’m really excited with how its turning out. If this had been summer I don’t think I would’ve allowed myself the opportunities to sit down and write as much, so I need to take advantage of this creative energy Autumn is giving me.

I’m not normally one for arts and crafts either but I’ve been feeling a real urge to do something semi-artsy. I think perhaps Instagram and Pinterest might be feeding into this autumnal urge. I keep seeing the cutest pics of autumn baking, jumpers, decor and I just wish I could jump right into doing all of it.

Anyway, onto the actual topic of the blog: Autumnal activities. As you’ve probably guessed from my ramble I’ve been up to a fair amount of it so let’s get going on my Autumn train …

So to start of my autumnal activities that I have to show you, lets start with arts and crafts:

Ultimately I wish Autumn was a season (a bit like Christmas) where everyone decorates their house by filling it with candles and pine cones and autumnal coloured cushions and bunting of autumn leaves.

Anyone with me on this? cause I’ve been decorating

To make the bunting I just drew out a stencil of some leave shapes on some coloured paper. I then cut them out and sellotaped them onto some string and then masking-taped them to my wall. Very easy, and a nice break from dissertation research.

I’ve also since made some little paper pumpkins which are so cute and so easy to make:

Second is finding Autumn out and about:

When I went to visit a friend in Sheffield we went to the Peak district for a few hours and everything was so autumnal there. I even picked up a couple of conkers cause they were the first ones I has seen this year so they are no sat happily on my windowsill.

Even my view of Bristol on the bus had an autumnal feel to it as the trees were beginning to turn

Since coming back and trying to make the best use of my climbing membership I’ve been walking through Plymouth’s central park a lot – and I’ve been loving it

Where’s your favourtie autumnal spot? Let me know in the comments.

Next is homeyness (if that’s even a word):

I’ve been loving sitting all cosy in my room with candles and reading so much so my candles have been running a bit low so I treated myself to a couple new ones from Aldi. They were so cheap! I got a ‘Lime, Basil, and Mandarin’ and a ‘sugared cinnamon’ which smell AMAZEEEE

As you can see from the photo, I also bought some biscuit baking kits, intending to bake before the next couple of Bake Off episodes (another autumn favourite of mine) as it’ll be the semi final and final episodes! I thought these kits were too cute and seasonal to pass up on . I think the kits were about £1.50 each from Aldi. They were a very very exciting find. Good ol’ Aldi. BUT, I got carried away on Thursday evening and had to give one of them a try

Anyway the point I was trying to make was that the candles were for homeyness when reading:

I’ve started reading Harry Potter again as my ‘me time reading’. I find it’s difficult to read other books alongside an English degree because you have to prioritise your degree books meaning you tend to cast aside anything else you’re reading. BUT then when you want a nice read in the bath or before bed the last thing you want to do is read a course book, especially when it’s modernism, because then you’re technically working again – does that make sense? So the logic is, as I’ve read Harry Potter Many Many times (not even an exaggeration) if I have to cast it aside for a while that’s fine because I know at wherever I pick it up what has happened before that because I know it almost off by heart! Also the first Harry Potter book is the cosiest book you will ever find so it fits perfectly.

Finally outfits:

My wardrobe is basically Autumn all year round but this time of year I get to enjoy it! Before I came back to uni I treated myself to this beautiful jumper from Sainsbury’s which was only £14 and I have been pretty much wearing it nonstop with multiple things. Here’s 3 outfits that I’ve actually documented.

So that concludes my Autumn activities. I hope you enjoyed realising how absolutely nuts I am. Let me know if you’ve been enjoying the Autumn months too. Get out there and find some conkers.

See you next week with another blog post.

(If this weekend hasn’t been too rainy for me to get phone out for snapping some pics it’ll probably be of some bits on Dartmoor as I’m heading there Saturday to Sunday – I’m writing this on the Friday that’s just gone for you guys)

P.s. apologies there wasn’t a blog post last Sunday, I was too tired from my Sheffield trip to write anything up which was probably for the best because it means I’ve been able to include a few more things here:)