Autumn Letters — the journal

She’s the Goose

The Edit

Nothing is listed here unless it has earned a place in my own home — used, kept, and quietly returned to. No brand pays to appear.

Looking down a long table set for autumn: green leaf-pattern plates on hammered gold chargers and cream placemats, linen napkins in leather rings, gold flatware, crystal glasses, and a runner of sunflowers, hydrangea and lit white tapers down the middle.

The long table in October. Green plates on gold chargers, linen napkins in leather rings, and the tapers down the middle.

The Table

What the table is actually set with. All of it is in the photographs on this site.

MacKenzie-Childs Navy Check placemats, tied with the maker’s ribbon, on a wooden table with eucalyptus.

Navy Check Placemats

Woven navy-and-white check, sold in sets of four. There is a Flax Check in taupe as well.

Where to find it · MacKenzie-Childs

Gold Petal Charger Plates

Gold Petal Charger Plates

The piece that anchors every setting without competing with what’s on top.

Vegan Leather Placemats

Vegan Leather Placemats

Round, warm-toned, and effortless beneath anything.

Hyoola Taper Candles

Hyoola Taper Candles

Tall, clean, unscented. The candles I keep restocking.

Where to find it · Hyoola

Silk Tulip Arrangement

Silk Tulip Arrangement

Mixed with fresh stems, no one knows the difference.

The Dinamica and the dark roast — two entries on this list, photographed where they live.

The De’Longhi Dinamica, bean to cup in under a minute, and Fabula’s organic dark roast — photographed where they live.

The Kitchen

The tools that cook everything photographed here, all in daily use.

HexClad Damascus Steel Knife Set

HexClad Damascus Steel Knife Set

67 layers of Japanese Damascus steel.

Where to find it · HexClad

An autumn cheese board with figs, grapes, pears, salami and walnuts, a checked-handle cheese knife and a gold spreader resting on it.

Cheese Knives

The checked handle is the one you notice on a board.

Where to find it · MacKenzie-Childs

A console table under a framed print of two horses, with a linen lamp, a glass pumpkin candle and a green vase of autumn hydrangea.

The console in October. The horse print is from The Rustic Barn in Killingworth, the green vase from The Madison Flower Shop and Garden Center, and the glass pumpkin is a Capri Blue candle.

The Home

What makes the house feel like someone lives in it.

Three framed botanical engravings of artichokes and a sunflower in distressed black-and-gold frames, hung in a row on a pale wall.

Botanical Prints

An artichoke, a sunflower, and artichokes again, in black frames worn back to the gold.

Where to find it · The Rustic Barn, Killingworth, CT

A faux olive tree in the corner of a room in afternoon light, its leaf shadows thrown across the wall and ceiling.

Faux Olive Tree

One I’ve had for years. In the afternoon it throws its shadow across the ceiling.

A framed painting of a single sunflower going over, in amber and brown, with berries and dried leaves.

Sunflower Painting

A single sunflower going over, in amber and brown. It hangs in our hallway.

Where to find it · Kendrick Home

A framed painting of loose white wildflowers in blush, taupe and slate, hung above a marble console between a glass lamp and a cream stone vase.

Wildflower Painting

Loose white wildflowers in blush, taupe and slate, painted in quick strokes.

Where to find it · Kendrick Home

The novel Theo of Golden by Allen Levi in a woven basket on a fringed throw, with eucalyptus.

Theo of Golden, Allen Levi

What I’m reading this fall.

Where to find it · Any bookshop

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