Autumn in August...this Preppy's Wish-List for the Upcoming Fall Season

Autumn last year in Australia was incredibly lovely... I sooo loved it, ahh

Ah, Autumn....or August I guess though with all of the Fall Fashion Season merchandise coming into stores now, it is making this huge-fan-of-fall-months rather quite wistful lately.

To me, the first day that there's finally a crisp cool feeling in the air is super exciting. It takes a very long time down here in the south for that to actually happen but when it does, oh my!

Today I've had autumn on my mind as we were coordinating product placement around my department and seeing what-all came in on the truck earlier. Pretty, so pretty is everything...

Mentally I began to muse over an Autumn Wish-List as I drove home tonight and thought I'd share it here. I know that most of this is wishful-thinking this particular autumn season as we're still trying to move and are so tied-up within this process but you never ever know sometimes and, at the very least, I'll have a list to go on from this year forward so here 'tis a beginning:

• A fireplace again: how I absolutely miss a fireplace to sit beside enjoying a nice glass of port






• Strolling along some picturesque small town in New England when the leaves are turning






• A decadently-authentic German meal






• Strand of gold-tone pearls and stud earrings to match






• Returning to our ole' Park City to ski at Deer Valley with our Utah friends n' former neighbors






• Regular off-season meandering along the sand beach walks






• Heading back to school...the next round will be for the PhD pursuit






• Meeting-up with girlfriends for lunch and super-early Christmas shopping on main street






• A new pair of leather English riding boots






• Fly fishing the Davidson River once again with James and this time wearing my new waders






• Making over-sized with various-glazes n' toppings caramel apples






• Planting the winter garden and potting pansies, ivy and kale a' plenty






• Visiting art museums, galleries and so forth then having a hot chocolate in a cafe' nearby






• Exiting from an orchestra concert all bundled-up






• Exiting a jazz club not needing to be bundled-up because I'm plenty warm from lotsa' wine






• Having the perfect plum-toned lipstick






• The room is cold, wind and rain are outside the windows and I'm in bed reading a good book






• Beginning to collect a wardrobe of cashmere socks, ahh, so cozy indeed






• Finding, finally, the perfect chili: not too hot, not too heavy and not heartburn-inducing






• Hours and hours in an old bookstore with no spending-limit

Ah, yes...Autumn! Here's to cooler days and more layering and many more lovin-life-times...

Preppy Hunters and Bubba Hunters: a comparison and contrast frivolity

The Preppy Hunter's Sporting Stag: most likely featured on a family crest, a family crest ring or a family's generations-old hunting lodge's house stationary


With hunting season on the horizon...and autumn coming into store aisles if not into the air yet...





...I've been musing, with a lot of suppressed chuckling, about the differencing nuances between Southern Lowcountry Preppy Hunters and the Good Ole' Bubba-Boy n' Cracker-Chick Hunters.





Without much more ado, here's a humorous contrasting between these two very different lifestyles:







Preppy Hunters: serve their venison in medallions drizzled with a port and blackberry reduction

Bubba Hunters: servin' up venison burgers dripping with ketchup and splashed with beer




Preppy Hunters: ask which chilled wine or how much sweet iced tea you'd like with your meal

Bubba Hunters: throw you a canned beer




Preppy Hunters: climb up into a well-designed and well-rigged deer stand in the tree

Bubba Hunters: balance on some boards their grandpa nailed up years ago in a tree




Preppy Hunters: utilize top of the line suppliers and sporting goods purveyors

Bubba Hunters: Walmart's specials- where else? Oh yeah, there's the Feed n' Seed place too...




Preppy Hunters: have one mounted deer head up over their lake house's carved wood mantle

Bubba Hunters: have more than one room whose walls are covered with deer heads of seasons past




Preppy Hunters: stay warm with sips of amber liquid from their sterling flask tucked in a pocket

Bubba Hunters: stay warm with gulps of beer... from cans... one after another after another... oops




Preppy Hunters: one shot, one kill and usually one kill per single hunting session

Bubba Hunters: can go up to several shots and be several kills




Preppy Hunters: conserve their wearing of cammo-prints to actual hunting hours

Bubba Hunters: wear their cammo constantly




Preppy Hunters: drive back into hunting areas in old trucks which are farm and/or second vehicles

Bubba Hunters: drive back into hunting areas in old trucks




Preppy Hunters: look quite outdoorsey-sporty in their hunting togs and toting their hunting rifles

Bubba Hunters: look frankly quite Deliverance-disturbing at times in their attire n' guns




Preppy Hunters: house decor' style is traditional-elegant influenced with family antiques

Bubba Hunters: house's interior decorations are supplied by sporting goods housewares kitsch




and...so forth and so on! Hope you all got a laugh outta' this and feel free to post-reply some contrasts of your own: I'll put them up here as long as they're all in good clean fun.........

Preppies, Hunting, Family Farms and alla' that good-stuff...

Coming soon to a family-farm field n' woodscape somewhere in South Carolina...

...when this autumn's hunting season commences... a Preppy Hunter and...

...his wife who thinks she can hang-out in her Barbour coat and Burberry scarf...

...but is soon heavily-influenced to transform into the Hunter's Hunting-Pardner...

Just the other day I was informed by my always-keep-Lachlan-in-the-loop husband that, "hunting season is approaching."

Oh yes and oh my. Now we soon commence into the routine of if he's not working or commuting to work or in church on the Sundays he's home...he's...out hunting.

I may see James again on Christmas Day and then again at the end of HUNTING SEASON ;)

Lowcountry Southern Preppies hunt, yes sir and ye ma'am. The men, the women as well as the boys and the girls who are old enough to sit or move quietly and of course hoist a gun n' be a steady-shot.

It's a lifestyle and life-focus for many folks out there and though the non-Preppy crew definitely outnumbers the Preppies, you'll espy the Prepster decked-out in camouflage every now and then. I grew up within the realm of avid bird hunters but recently with living out here on an island heavily populated with deer, I've been a' sittin' in one of our deer stands with James each season. Our extra freezer is filled with venison and it IS a delight to eat knowing that our island's deer population is also being kept healthy and fairly population-controlled. We have a family-rule never to shoot young does, young does with fawns or young bucks. Part of being a Preppy is, "being sporting" about things and honoring what you are engaging with and within. It's the same way with our fly fishing: catch and release. We "release" many, many a deer from our gun sights and so far, at least for me... I've yet to have my first deer-kill... I've let many deer go on from my sights with absolutely no regrets. One day maybe I'll have "my first deer" but I am in no rush to do so. Just sitting up in the deer stand quietly with James is enough.

Being out on the island sitting up in a deer stand I do enjoy to a degree however... after hearing that James ran across not one but TWO rattlesnakes and seeing a picture he took of one a' them recently out on the family farm in mid-state SC well, needless to say, I'm not too keen on heading out to sit in the deer stand out there. Least not to move out there lock stock and barrel (double-entendre' here for a chuckle) to the farm completely. Nothing but acres n' acres of fields and more acres of fields with now definitely rattlesnakes in 'em?? Ah, hummm, yeah I'll "pass" on that, haha!

But I'm not sure if I'll get to pass completely on another hunting season coming around. I may be stuck again sitting for hours up in a deer stand on many of one-a'-my-days-off sporting camo and sitting really, really still. Well, there's worse things to be sure but sitting absolutely still and quiet is quite the Zen practice for me. Gosh, James sure seems to enjoy the total peace and quiet afforded in the setting of being out within nature alongside his deer stand in a tree sitting wife ;)

Black and White Preppy Stylin' for Men...Leave it to Ralph Lauren!

The absolute Black and White Preppy-stylin' for men by Ralph Lauren...

...always perfectly appropriate yet fun like this great button-down and...

...a mod for the modern man complete look like this is...wow...

...along with an alligator and sterling belt I'd sooo borrow big time! Ah...

...but I couldn't borrow these equally-great driving mocs unfortunately!

Decade after decade, Ralph Lauren has been a Preppy bastion of style direction for the modern Prep.

Ever appropriate, it's always a bit of cosmopolitan tweaking, a quirkier twist of layering or an unusual English-inspired combining of colors and textures that gives the Preppy in Ralph Lauren a never-dull or dated look.

What Kate Spade's doing for Black and White with women's clothing styling, Ralph Lauren's doing for men's attire.

The photos above highlight the great, very modern re-thinking of Black and White pieces and total looks available this late summer and early fall season which any male Preppy can easily add into his wardrobe and every Preppy female will no doubt want to borrow.....