I woke to rain this morning– rain on the metal roof of our modern, boxy house. Yes, just like the Norah Jones song. It is a calm, constant sound that wants you to nestle back in against the pillows. I stayed in bed with my eyes closed for awhile and listened.

Then I came downstairs and thought about autumn — about leathery, warm things. I’ve been wanting them around me as harbingers of fall. It’s coming, and today it seems just on the brink. Here are the autumnal suggestions that I’m enjoying at home:

Above: my favorite leather jacket, an outdoor fireplace, and a view of Lake Tahoe earlier this summer. (Do you ever visit Tahoe? I love the patio at the Hyatt in Incline Village — and that it’s chilly enough in summer to reach for a jacket at night.)

I brought home this white leather biker jacket from Zara, South Coast Plaza. It was on sale, but their new biker jacket offerings are plentiful online. (Biker jacket: autumn must-have.) Also: unpacking leather jackets so they don’t become wrinkled messes — a Jaimee “Must Do.”

These collected books from my summertime wanderings suggest nestling by an indoor fireplace with cocoa and beautiful words. I brought Poems of the Sea home from the Hotel Del Coronado. The  vintage volume of Keats poems is from Powell’s Books in Portland, and the Webster’s Pictorial Dictionary was discovered during a fall trip to New York City with Marni.

School supplies: brass and horn-rimmed scissors from Lucca Great Finds in Seattle — an incredible Ballard-area shop that you have to visit if you’re ever in town. The gray-striped pencils are from the $1 bin at Michaels. The notebook is an old souvenir from Venice, Italy.

I discovered these vintage brass letters at Maison Luxe in Seattle — another destination shop. To me, the “IQ” suggests autumnal learning. It is also why I fell in love with Tyson, a smartypants anthropology major who wanted to read Emerson together on our second date.

Don’t you want to be going to college back east, in Connecticut, to a place where Ivy drapes off the columns of the library? Don’t you want to live in an episode of Gilmore Girls? Yes, me too.

Happy autumnal dreaming. What are you doing at home to celebrate the approach of the season? I really do love to hear your ideas.