emsessentials: sightsee

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Fall Activities

Hi everyone, long time no see. School has been keeping me busy and I'm sure that is the same case for some of you as well!

I think that fall is such a great season. The leaves change amazing colors and the air is crisp and clean. This time of year it is so nice to be outside, it is a bit chillier out so it is perfect for wearing boots and sweaters. As well as it being the prime time for drinking tea, which I have recently umm, how should I say this... become more obsessed with. I drink it everyday now and definitely prefer it over coffee. I do like lattes and mochas though don't get me wrong, and being the common white girls that we are we know that fall also means certain Starbucks drinks too *wink, wink PSl*

In case you need any ideas for what to do to take advantage of this beautiful season I came up with a list of some ideas! I tried to break them down into categories as best as I could but some of them could fit into more then one since they overlap. I am also aware that I made up some words for the categories!

Outdoorsy:

Apple Picking

Pumpkin Picking

Make a whole day trip out of either of the two above and take advantage of the other things offered there like hayrides and the amazing apple cider and donuts I'm sure they make. Some orchards and farms even hard animals you can look at. Baby goats are very cute and the apple orchard my family goes to also has llamas and a donkey)

Go for a hike, a great way to get exercise and enjoy nature and the beauty of the trees and weather

Go canoeing or kayaking

Go camping

Take a drive through the country

Maybe this means you go out of your way on the drive to a restaurant or something in order to see the foliage. Or just go for a drive for the purpose of seeing the trees

Crafty:

Look up fall or Halloween Pinterest crafts and DIYs

Decorate your room or house for fall using decorations you already have or items you just DIYed

Decorate your room or house (inside and/or outside for Halloween)

You can decorate the pumpkin you picked by painting it or by other means (there are a lot of cute painted pumpkins on tumblr)

Foodsy:

Bake some yummy pumpkin stuff (again you can use Pinterest for inspiration)

Pumpkin pie

Pumpkin bread

For me what comes to mind for fall baked goods are things like banana bread, poppy seed bread, oatmeal cookies, things with crasins (possibly muffins), apple pie, apple donuts, goodies with cinnamon....now I'm getting hungry, I will definitely need to make some of these soon!

Halloweeny:

Go to a haunted house

Have a party

Make themed treats

Shoppy & City:

Outlet Shopping

Really nice to do in the fall since you would be walking outside from store to store

Go shopping in the city (same concept as for outlet shopping, plus the city is extra cute and tumblr-y in the fall)

Go for brunch in the city

Go to the park in the city or public garden to enjoy the day

Attend a festival or craft fair or seasonal parade if there are any

Last But Not Least, V.I.R. (Very Important Random):

Volunteer: do something nice for other people, maybe help at a food pantry or soup kitchen

Other Places You Can Find Me:

Instagram: http://instagram.com/emsessentials

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/emsessentials/

Bloglovin': https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/emsessentials-14361729

Outfit of a Day in Toronto

Hi everyone! This summer my family and were on a road trip for a few weeks and on of my favorites places we visited was Toronto! It was my first time to Canada and hopefully not my last! Have any of you ever been there? Toronto is a very diverse city and there was a lot going on. I highly suggest going there if you have the chance. But anyways now on to the rest of the post.
I thought I would share one of the outfits I wore while in Toronto with you guys. So here it is.

My sister and I pretending to hold the torch for the Pan-Am Games which were about to start

I love this outfit because it is very colorful and looks like I spent a lot of time on it when in fact I did not. When I think of outfits I always start with the piece that is either the boldest or the most colorful so in this case my pants! These pants are from H&M and I actually did not have them when we first started the trip. I got them a few days before this picture was taken. I had been wearing a jumpsuit which ripped on the leg seams and I was really sad about that because it was a piece I really liked. Luckily I had been near a mall and I went into H&M. It was really crowded and about to close but I didn't want to walk around wearing ripped clothes so I frantically looked for pants and I found the ones in the picture and they fit perfectly! (It was also lucky that I was wearing a tank top under my jumpsuit and I brought a sweater so I just wore them with the pants.)

Okay, enough babbling. Back to the day this picture was taken and the rest of what I was wearing. My black flowy top is from Marshalls and is actually multiple layers. The bottom one is shear and a bit longer than the one on top of it which is lace. I chose to wear a solid orange tank top under to emphasize the orange in the pattern on my pants. My purple three-quarter length sleeve sweater is from Old Navy. As for footwear I wore a pair of low top black Converse.
This was a great outfit for walking around the city because the pants were super comfy, and stretchy. I was able to move around and they are lightweight so they are perfect for summer. It is great to wear layers because if you do get hot you can take something off or throw something else on, such as the sweater. Shoes-wise, you want something that will not hurt your feet. The most important thing is comfort. You would definitely not enjoy the city or whatever you are doing if all you are thinking about is the pain your feet are feeling. That is why sneakers are one of the best choices. We still want to look put together though and don't want to have ugly shoes so that is another reason why converse are amazing. They are comfortable, practical, and the simple design makes them go with anything!

Here I am in the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. They had a section with some random shoes you could try on so I had to put on these silver sparkly platform shoes!

Barbara's shoes

This museum was very interesting and is definitely not what you would expect. They have shoes going back to ancient Egyptians, shoes that were worn in Asia when women had to bind their feet, and there were shoes from European kings and queens. A section on Native American footwear covered in beautiful beading and embellishment. They also had shoes from modern times including a pair of Barbara Streisand's, Elizabeth Taylor's, Marilyn Monroe's and more. It was basically like the history of human kind told through their footwear!

Marilyn's and Liz's heels

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think about these kind of snapshot travel recap posts.

-Emily