Hint--it's a children's book. Are you interested in vintage (ahem) 1963 children's literature? Are you American or Canadian? Well, go to Basket of Kisses & enter this giveaway. (Basket of Kisses is GG's editor's favorite blog about Mad Men.) You have until 31 October (this Sunday). All you have to do is visit & say to whom you would read the book if you won. Easy peasy. (images via Basket of Kisses) 
GG's pumpkin design choice this year. Lots of good ideas & templates to download/print at Martha Stewart Halloween Central. How difficult can this be? We'll let you know. (We are still trying to sort out the website template & colors. Meanwhile, thanks for not making fun of us!)
It's that time of year. To get into the spirit, start with a quiz from Martha Stewart's Halloween Central. Do You Know America's Most Haunted Sites and Frights? GG's editor's score: 6 of 7 & the following: Are you sure you haven't been alive since 1775? You're practically an expert on the creepiest and most mysterious parts of America's past. Congratulations!
Autumn officially arrives tonight (at GG Central) at 11:09 Eastern Daylight Time. Herewith, a fun autumnal equinox article (with a pop quiz) from the CS Monitor. GG & her editor would feel much better if the weather would cooperate & knock it off. 90 degrees is not autumnal. Still, we know many people have entered the zone of cooler weather & might be looking for a good recipe. Try Nigella's Supper Onion Pie (for Tough Times)...we posted about it in 2008 before we understood how to regulate font sizes, etc. But follow the links to Nami-Nami food blog & Pille will guide you to a successful outcome (& some variations).
That's what Emily Dickinson said of herself & it applies to GG Central, too. We're preoccupied with gardens, lately/always. Tiger lilies were a favorite of Miss D. ( GG is a tiger lily). Here is the New York Times article Emily Dickinson's Garden at the New York Botanical Gardens. The exhibit runs through 12 June 2010. If you are near there (or will be), we hear it's fabulous. Since GG's editor ran a similar post on her blog, a veritable mountain of articles & stories has piled up & so we realize this is not news for many people. But you never know--one cannot follow everything. Judith Farr's The Gardens of Emily Dickinson (2005) was really the first book to combine the subject of the poet & her gardens & we salute her. Read it!
We're late! We have excuses! You don't care? OK, great. These brightly colored photographs are from last year's generous (& mysterious) waxOr. Hope you had a great time if you celebrated. We called friends in Louisiana & lived vicariously. Maybe next year we'll visit again. (And no, GG will definitely not be going to any Mardi Gras/Carnevale/Fasching festival. Never. Rome, si. London if they'd have her--fume. Strasbourg, oui. But not on a certain Tuesday in February. We must draw the line somewhere.) Buona sera, buona notte, bambini...
We could not resist these pretty photographs from Paul Moody of Vermont. It's still very green here but the yellowing of the leaves has begun. Orange & red are sure to follow. GG would love to ride a horse or a young cow--bareback (for which, she needs a pedicure!). Visit Paul's flickr stream, here.
A celestial wall carving with dome (qubba) in Marrakesh, by only alice. Gorgeous colors. It's been a long, long week. We hope you have a great weekend & maybe will take a little time to check in with the organizations in the right side-bar. Thanks!
Cats, orange cats, everywhere we look. We're already running late & like the idea of tossing the errand list & ambling around with this cat, through & past patterned tiled walls. Back later! ciao-salaam-meow/GGCM (photographs by the terrific only alice)
Orange. We love it but have little time to put in clever quotes, think of a poem, or anything else. For some wonderful images & a drawing, read Sunday's Small Expectations post "Because I love carrot cake." If you don't laugh out loud, you must need some chocolate (& a slice of carrot cake). Also, we've had some fun this weekend looking at How About Orange. 
With computer & schedule snags, weekdays-only for the abstract future (exceptions for the Inauguration, Darfur events, etc). Tom Grim's White Primrose reminds us that indoor primrose season is always a reason to celebrate.
We like flowers on windowsills, too, & have a fondness for doing just as seen above (even if friends & family rolled their eyes behind our back. They were just behind the design curve, that's all).We don't have the camera to show our windowsills so we leave that to the talented Christine Gill who does lovely work with her windows {& other subjects} here on flickr, & also on Imagekind. Also, a nice post on DesignSponge featuring Christine.
Charming bicycle-themed items from CircaCeramics on Etsy. Here's their February 2008 profile interview as a featured seller. For those of us who are without a bicycle, these can help. Take a look at this sweet bicycle notebook from violet.com [via A Cup of Jo's 2007 Gift Guide] GG is asleep in a sunbeam (an unholy cold wind blows today) after looking at these bicycle basket photos from Copenhagen Cycle Chic...she dreams of flying down a hill, in a flower-bedecked basket, her ears flattened back against her head.
This is our friend Toffee dressed up for Hallowe'en! She's a Franco-American chienne & we're just crazy about her. As a French girl, she knows that a little classic touch (note the hair bow) goes a long way. And she was worried that she didn't have a great costume! She knows just how to pose--touching her forepaw to a tiny autumn gourd. C'est adorable. Look at those cute baby pumpkins.
It's turned so windy & cold that we had to go hat shopping at home. We love this designer. GG would look best in the modish burnt orange. Her editor loves the side flip on the sleek, stylish ivory hat. These & many more charming chapeaux are at Tomokotahara shop on Etsy. The Japanese designer, Tomoko Tahara, lives in Vancouver, BC nowadays. Most important--to GG--TT loves cats & goes for walks just to visit the neighborhood felines. Tomoko is a featured seller on Etsy this month, though we've admired her work before now. Congratulations to her.
Well why ever not? Get moving. Friday will be here before you know it. And yes, this pin is a little weird, but until the election something will be posted every day & GG's editor is in a mad rush. As always, from democraticstuff.com. We expect our friends & family to send us photos of their trick or treaters. This means you! [It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will be on TV tomorrow evening in the U.S. Don't pretend you don't watch it.]