Before the leaves settle

How to plan for seasons so you don’t miss the magic (Autumn Edition) 🍂

I wrote this poem back in 2019, and I read it every year because, well, it haunts me. Fall is my favorite season, but I get this creeping anxiety when I hear the first tremblings of influencer’s classic line: “I know it’s only September, but I just couldn’t wait for pumpkin spice _____“.

To combat this unease, I’ve made it my mission each season not to “miss” what it has in store for my little life. I’ll keep this simple so that you can also apply this for yourself too, but fair warning… once you do this once you’ll feel utter dread if you skip a season from here on out.

I use 4 pillars: OUTINGS, STYLE, LEARNING, & HOBBIES. I recommend keeping a note on your phone with these as subtitles, so it can be an ongoing list whenever ideas come your way! Here are a few of my out-of-pocket ideas for this fall, and how I’d recommend you start planning…

Outings 🚶🏻‍♀️

The thing that cuts the deepest for me is realizing I never went to a pumpkin patch for the chilled apple cider, never dressed up for Halloween, or forgot about the annual jack-o-lantern walk in the woods by our house.

Now that I have a baby, I want to make every moment of his childhood magical, even if he won’t remember it. What he will do one day is ask to see the pictures of his first Halloween in 2025 (maybe?).

Here’s how I plan our seasonal activities out:

1. Look at our city calendar for events!

If you are in Lexington, KY (where I live), here’s what I reference along with their insta account. Then I make sure to add the events I’m interested in IN MY CALENDAR

2. Think back to activities I’ve done that were memorable in year’s past.

Going through my photos helps when I just type in “October 2023,””2020,” and so on. Here are some ideas I’m cooking up this fall that might sound a bit basic at first, but I’ve added a twist:

• Pumpkin patch + then bring them home and do a pumpkin painting party outside with friends while sipping hot apple cider from the orchard. Want to adultify the activity? Do it at night by candlelight with a moody playlist.

• Watch a cozy classic movie + light a fire if you have a fireplace, bake a fall desert beforehand, and make sure the movie is set during the season (When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail, Stepmom).

• Walks on a day where the leaves are falling + collect different colored leaves for a craft project (idea later in this post). Bring your film camera (or a disposable one like this that I love) with you and take photos of joyful park scenes, like kids running in the leaves or someone’s dog playing fetch.

One idea I thought of this morning was I want to walk to Waffle House (yes, it’s only a 10-minute stroll), with my husband, my son, and me, and eat breakfast while the leaves are actively falling. (These are the kinds of ideas you have to write down the second they slide across your mental desk).

Style

I have some steps I strictly follow when I’m wanting new pieces for my wardrobe for the season. I really don’t allow myself to buy new items until I do the following:

1. I first go through my current season’s wardrobe that we are moving out of (summer) and list brand-name items on Depop. I use any money I make to buy a higher-ticket wishlist item for the upcoming season. My rule: If I didn’t wear it this year, I won’t wear it next. Side note: I’ve started to turn all my clothing hooks backwards. If, by the end of the season, there are items that haven’t been turned back, I know I didn’t wear them and out they go!

2. I use the app INDYX to catalog my closet. Getting rid of more means less stuff I need to upload and log to the app.

   

3. I go to my Pinterest board and add inspiration images to a new board called the “Fall Edit”. I try to keep this around 10 photos max for each season. Then I look for a through line: cuffed denim, colorful sneakers, neutral roll-neck sweaters etc.

4. I compare these through lines to my closet on INDYX under the clothes I tagged “fall” (yes, you can do that) and see what’s missing.

5. I make a list in my phone of pieces I need so that if I am out thrifting, I know what I’m scavenging for that Tuesday afternoon. This also helps me stay on track so that when I’m online shopping, I don’t buy unnecessary items.

6. I try not to put pressure on myself to purchase every item (especially new). I’m aiming to only buy high-quality pieces now, which often means a higher price tag! I’m just tired of buying the same blouse every two years because the seams keep stretching.

Learning

Have you also been seeing “personal curriculums” taking the internet by storm? I made a Tiktok video with some unit ideas for first-time moms for fall, and it has been popping off.

This new obsession with wanting to educate ourselves and dive into neuroscience one afternoon, then learn how to machine quilt the next is making me oh so happy.

Now, while I don’t have time to take on multiple “units” or “courses” at once, I think what would keep me most motivated is having one aligned with the season.

Here are some autumnal units that I’ve been circling:

• Classic Fall Films set in NYC: what makes these so endearing?

• Piano: Learning the basics and hosting a small at-home recital of a song you learned

• Baking: Mastering the art of spices in deserts

If you need direction on how to start thinking of units for your personal curriculum, my best advice is to start with a primary resource. Do you have a nonfiction book on your TBR you have been dying to read? Maybe it’s The Anxious Generation. You read it this month and do a deep dive with secondary sources on social media’s impact on your brain. For your final project? Order a BRICK device and write a research paper on your findings of how you used your time.

You could also start with a primary resource like a Substack article you find interesting, or maybe it’s just a question you thought of in the shower.

The key is simple: follow your curiosities and see where they takes you.

Hobbies

I have a Notion page called “Hobbytown,” so you can see why this needs to be its own pillar. I’ve got everything from making my own king-size bed quilt to a polymer clay clock with interchangeable seasonal magnets, ok?

I have so many aspirational hobbies that breaking them down by urgency, usefulness, and season is a must.

Here are the ones I’m diving into this fall specifically:

• Sewing gingham pants for my son, Arthur

• Pressing leaves we find on our trip to Maine or walks near our house, to later frame and hang as artwork. (If you go back to my suggestion earlier, take your film photo and have it printed. Then frame it alongside a leaf you found. Kind of like this, but maybe you put the leaf in the mouth of a dog running

• Machine quilting a quilt for our bedroom!

(Btw I’m considering fall September 22-November 30th).

Now you could go so many more ways with planning for the seasons:

• Movie & show watch Lists

• Ambient music playlists

• Recipe roundups

• Date night ideas

• Hosting / party ideas

The end goal is that you walk into a new season already knowing what you dream for it to look like.

I don’t personally manifest, but I do believe that when we collect our thoughts and dreams and put them to pen and paper (or Pinterest collage), we give them a chance at life, one they just might live through us.

Image sourced via Pinterest

Talk soon,

April Rose