Fall Is Up And Running

I put up the general fall decorations this morning. (The Halloween decorations will go up in about two weeks or so.) I taped all the leaf pictures on the windows in tilted angles that make them look like they're falling. Three large pictures of pumpkins and acorns were taped to empty spots on walls. I had a hard time keeping one up; it seems to be ok now. The display on the bookshelf in my room now has Autumn, the fall "sister" of the five decorative dolls I bought from the thrift shop last year, along with a dollar-store scarecrow and various tiny fake pumpkins and squash. (I'll buy the real versions from the farm market this Saturday.) There's another scarecrow on the dining area table, and a third that Mom made for me hanging on my bedroom door. The felt folk-art pillow from AC Moore is on the door to the back room. There's another little dollar-store folk-art find, a wire with two painted leaves and an acorn, on my bedroom door.

I also watched Samantha: An American Girl Holiday this morning. Not bad for what was basically the six Samantha books and one of her short stories mashed together. Some characters were dropped (notably Nellie's mother; here, she only has a father). Others were changed considerably. (Jessie was originally the seamstress, not a maid.)

There were a lot of things I did like, though. The casting of the kids was great, particularly bratty Eddie Ryskind. (I swear, obnoxious pre-teen boys haven't changed in over 100 years.) The Victorian costumes were lovely. I felt like I was in Cape May during the October Victorian Festival. The girls in the boat house was a sweet touch. There's only one book in Samantha's entire series where she talks about her parents, so it was nice to hear more about them and see Sam's houseful of treasures.

On the other hand, the cutting down of a six book (and short story) series into one movie showed. Some things just seemed to rush into one another, and things happened so fast I can't blame Sam for complaining about it!

I did enjoy it enough to seek out the other two American Girl movies. I'll look for Molly's next. She's my third favorite after Kit (whose movie is coming out next year) and Sam. I'll eventually catch the Felicity movie as well, but I'm more into World War II history than I am Colonial history and would rather do Molly first.

Work was steady-to-dead today, thanks to gorgeous (if somewhat warmer) weather. Between the weather and being between holidays, I'd expected this. It probably won't pick up again outside of Football Sundays until Columbus Day.