Preparing for Fall

Happy Pumpkin Spice Latte day! Most major coffee chains launched their seasonal flavors today, which means it’s officially fall- I don’t make the rules. The first actual day of fall is Sept 22nd, but not in my neck of the woods.

I’ve been looking forward to this since March. Something about the holidays gives me a happy-hormone punch to the face and I live for it. And there are SO many things to prepare for this year (cough cough like my son), so I’m starting early!

Fall with Baby on the Brain

Everything I do this season has to be done with one thing in mind: I will be heavily pregnant and have a newborn before winter. So while you’re reading this, keep in mind my fall plans will look different than most. For example, all of my seasonal decor needs to be very easy to put up and take down, and all of my activities have to be easy to travel to and pregnancy-friendly. Which means no hay rides or haunted houses for me this year... booooo tomato, tomato tomato!

Décor

I’m so inspired by the vintage holiday aesthetic and have recently had a field day with Pinterest (view my board here!). Now that I have my own home, I want to start fresh with seasonal decor. However, since I am preparing for a newborn, I do not have the budget to go all out. The beauty of vintage fall is that they really just used whatever they had around the house to decorate, which is music to both my ears and my wallet.

The intention is to pull all of the cozy, warm-toned items I already have and to only buy minor things. Some items I already have lying around include candles, blankets, books, pillows, amber colored glass, mugs, cute baking dishes, dried flower bouquets, etc. I would like to buy a couple pumpkins for the front porch and a few mini ones for interior display, as well as velvet ribbon to tie bows around random things (like our candelabras). And that really is it! I also might try to do a dried orange garland, which is both inexpensive and looks cute. And a small basket of apples never hurt anyone, edible and aesthetic. Which reminds me, baked goods can also sub as decor if done right!

I am almost entirely omitting Halloween specific decor this year to save decorating time and money. We will definitely carve jack-o-lanterns for our front porch, and I might use one of J’s old white t-shirts to make some small sheet ghosts for our living room but otherwise that’s it. We can use this year to gauge how many trick or treaters we get so we can do the most for them next year!

Bites

You can’t see me right now, but I’m literally rubbing my hands together in anticipation. The fall/winter season has my favorite foods! J and I have already started to eat apples in caramel dip, and I made my first goulash of the season yesterday. Part of the autumnal experience is going to a local café for pastries and a seasonal latte, but this year I’m most excited about the cooking and baking I get to do. Lots of casseroles, sheet pan and slow cooker recipes. Below I’ve listed some of the things I’m going to make this season to set the vibe:

  • Pumpkin empanadas from scratch (a family recipe)

  • Apple crumble

  • Pecan pie (my first attempt at making this!)

  • Pork pozole

  • Pot roast

  • Roast chicken with veggies and potatoes

  • Spicy turkey chili

  • Various soups: butternut squash, pumpkin, tomato, you name it

  • The obligatory Pillsbury cookies

Activities

I want to be super intentional about the fall activities I do this year since I won’t be able to do everything we normally would. Aside from the basics like watching Halloween movies, baking, and carving pumpkins, this is what I’d like to do this fall season:

  • Toast marshmallows

  • Go to a football game

  • Pick pumpkins from a pumpkin patch

  • Go antique shopping

  • Have a picnic

  • Watch a drive in movie

  • Take morning walks

  • Go to Pumpkin Nights

Media

While I’m here, I might as well tell you I’ve been putting together a “Fall Vibes” playlist that I plan to share on the blog! Once it’s up, I’ll come back and link it here. Also working on a “Cozy TBR” blog for later. But I thought it might be fun to list a few of my favorite movies that always put me in the fall spirit. Some of them are not specifically fall related but it just has that vibe, you know what I mean?

  • Sleepy Hollow

  • The first 3 Harry Potter movies, specifically

  • Pixar’s Coco

  • Coraline

  • Beetlejuice

  • The Devil Wears Prada

  • Donnie Darko

  • The Hobbit

  • The Haunted Mansion (new and old version)

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events

  • Corpse Bride

  • Monster House

  • Phantom of the Opera

  • The Mummy

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