AUTUMN DAYS | apple picking, autumn baking, & trip prep

We are kicking off this vlog with one of my favorite fall bucket list items. We are going apple picking. We're gonna go get some apple cider doughnuts, check out the pumpkins, get some warm apple cider. I look forward to this day every year and Patrick and I decided to do it today as like a little spontaneous date. There's this local farm we love to go to. They have apple picking and they also have like fresh baked goods and a pumpkin area so we're just gonna make the most of today. It's a very gloomy and overcast day. It's still pretty warm so I'm trying to embrace some fall fashion but doing it in doses so I don't sweat while I'm trying to pick some apples. I thought this would be a really fun way to kick off this vlog. I'm very excited to do a bunch of fall things. Otherwise for this vlog I thought we could maybe get some fall baking done. I also want to kind of prep some outfits for an upcoming trip we have and just indulge in all the fun fall activities that we have going on this weekend. Very excited to take you along today and excited to kick it off with some apple picking. Apple cider donuts. Every year we get excited to have french toast with this pumpkin brioche twist bread from Trader Joe's. It's so good. You should definitely try it. Packing madness. I am really struggling to narrow down some outfits for this trip and I think it's because it's so cozy to dress in the fall that I want to make sure I have all the sweaters and all the things. This is my current pile of jackets and vests and I just feel like it's not realistic to bring all these so I need to narrow this down similarly with the sweaters. I'm in the midst of packing and it's a huge mess in here because I'm really struggling to narrow down a few outfits for this trip. I'm usually not the best at packing in general. I tend to overpack so this trip, since I have to bring so many warm weather clothes since where we're going is pretty chilly and it's fall so I want to dress in cute sweaters and jackets, I need to really narrow down some things if I want to make it fit in my suitcase. The only saving grace is that we are driving so it's not like I have a weight limit which is nice but I think what I might end up doing is trying on a few pieces and then literally writing in my phone app different outfit ideas so that I have kind of a general plan. I'm usually not this wild when it comes to... I feel like this is just truly the only way to make sure I'm packing outfits that I'll actually wear that I've tried on and liked and not just throwing a bunch of things in my suitcase and then putting it together when I get out there but I wanted to show a few newer pieces that I got for this trip that I'm really excited about. Okay well this isn't new but I got this sweater last year from Altered State. They have this kind of sweater look I've seen on so many different websites but it's this like multi-color knitted sweater. It's pretty chunky, a little nervous about packing this just because it's gonna take up quite a bit of room in my suitcase but it's definitely a must. I think these colors are just stunning for fall, so cute. I got this sweater from Grey Bandit. This is totally like a Pinterest sweater. I think I've actually seen this a few times on Pinterest but I thought this would be so cute and really fits the setting of fall and where we're going so I'm very excited to style that. On another sweater note, there's lots of sweaters. I decided to get a red crewneck sweater. It kind of gives crewneck vibes but also sweater-like. It kind of has like these balloon cuffed sleeves. It's just super cozy. I'm usually not a red girl but I feel like red in the fall is so sweet and it kind of pops especially with the contrast of the fall color. Then lastly, new sweater wise, I got this chunky yellow sweater. Yellow is my favorite color and this is a Cezanne dupe. Cezanne is a very high priced, high quality website. It's a French website and they make so many incredible sweaters that are more than I would be willing to spend so I found this on Amazon actually that is like a very similar look and I just thought the butter yellow would be really sweet in the fall as well. Also got this really cute overall dress thing from Lulu's. I think this would be so cute for the fall too. I'm not really sure how I want to style this yet though so we're gonna have to figure that out and these are all of the jackets which I know I can't pack all of these so I really need to narrow it down. I thrifted this a couple years ago but this definitely is giving fall orange, some pinks, some browns. I think I definitely need to pack this. It just seems like we have to. Similarly, I love this brown vest. I wore this apple picking and I think this is just like a nice little throw on. Kind of gives it a cozy touch in case it's not like super hot one day but I want some layer. I think this would be great to have and then I decided to it's a puffy oversized vest but I love this olive green. I got this on Amazon and I think this would look really great over some of the sweaters I'm planning to pack just because again if it's not like chilly enough for a coat but it's a little too chilly to just wear a sweater I think this would be the perfect overlay for it. This is a crew neck or fleece I've shared before. Got this earlier this year but I know this isn't like traditional fall colors but I do think like these kind of reds and pinks and browns would really pop with the fall contrast so I'm excited to pack this and it's honestly one of my favorite fleeces also because it's just incredibly warm so I want to make sure I have that for sure. This is where I don't know if we need these things. This is just like an olive jacket. I've posted this before. It's kind of like a free people I got off Amazon. I love it. I think the color is amazing and it's really great for like layering. It's not too hot or too cold and it doesn't leave you too cold but I don't know if it's needed for this trip given the other things I'm planning to pack. I have a fleece and I have that orange checkered coat and then this which I got a couple months ago from Happy Camper that I've been waiting to use for the colder weather. It's just this blue fleece and it kind of has blueberry details on the top which I think is really cute. I'm really highly considering packing this as well just because for the few hikes we're gonna do I feel like this would be just a light wear fleece fit. I don't know. I mean the fact that we're driving maybe I can justify just throwing a bunch of these coats and fleeces in the car and not having to worry about like putting it in a suitcase or flying with it but I don't know if that's just like over the top so I need to kind of plan out a few things but that is what we're working with. I have the only other newer thing I got for hikes and leisure wear. I got these from Aerie. They're offline trouser legging pants. I've had their leggings before but they were more of the flare leg but these are kind of more of a trouser so they're like wide leg. They are so comfortable and so flattering so I'm definitely excited to either travel in these or do a small hike in them because I feel like they actually would be super comfortable to move around and hike in and then we went to REI over the weekend a couple weeks ago and I got these trail made I think they're called trail made trail ready hiking pants and I thought this color was really fun for fall. So now we're just gonna go and plan out some outfits, see what we think, try some things on, and get to packing. So even when I try to be organized I am still an overpacker. I don't know what to do. I'm gonna have to go see if we have a larger suitcase somewhere. If not, worse comes to worse, I'm just going to pack like a smaller bag and put some of the extra stuff in just because I feel like I really narrowed down the outfits and it just is what it is at this point. The sweaters are taking up so much space because they're so bulky. I wish I knew a trick on how to fold these properly but they won't even fit in the packing cubes because they're so chunky. So this is what we're working with. I will update if I figure out another solution. All right we're taking a packing break to do some baking since we have so many good apples from yesterday but the problem is we can't decide what to bake. I'm between these apple crisp bars. I found this on Pinterest that looks really good. I don't know if we want to do an apple crumble because we also have an apple pie. I also thought about doing this cinnamon apple bread but then by looking at the recipe it looks like they don't really need that many apples so I feel like that's kind of silly because we want to try to use a lot of apples. What do you think of the apple crisp bars? Oh you're asking me? I'm sorry. He's the apple connoisseur. All right so big apple guy. Because it looks like they want you to use about four cups of apples or just like four to five apples. What are the options again? We have these apple crisp bars. They look like mini apple pies. Okay those look pretty good. And then we could of course classics do an apple crumble but we have an apple pie. Which goes good with everything. Yeah and then oh it was the apple bread but that didn't use many apples. It was like only an apple or two. Use the apple. Go back to those one slices. Yeah only one apple for the bread. The apple crumble slices. Yeah apple crisp bars. Yeah those look good. Okay let's go for those. This is what the product will hopefully look like. There we go. It's focusing. All right we're gonna get slicing and baking over here. All right so this looks a bit silly because the recipe calls for an 8x8 pan which we don't have. So I'm just putting it in a whatever size this is. But now that the dough is in the pan you have to bake it for about 12 minutes and then we'll work on the filling. That is the apple haul. We also have another bag. Not sure which apples to we need about four to five. Well we have six of these. These ones are notorious for baking. Empires. Empires. Okay let's do those. Okay they look like plums. That is a wrap on another cozy fall weekend here at home. I had so much fun going apple picking and making some apple treats. And it was definitely a relief to start the packing process for an upcoming trip that we have going on. I cannot wait to share and take you along on that trip. But for now thank you so much for watching and I'll see you soon. Bye!