Fall is My Love Language: A Running List of Obsessions
It is somehow September, and I am excited. I don’t really know what it is about the time of the year when the summer air starts to shift, but it seems like there is always a day in September when I wake up and step outside and it just feels crisssspppyy. It makes me feel like a new person. A better person. Someone who is going to make soup, burn candles in her very clean (let’s manifest) and cozy house, catch up on her Goodreads goal, and finally get her life together.
So yeah, this post is about that… it’s a messy catch all for what I am currently obsessed with, planning for, and exicted about. In a nutshell, this is how I will spend my Autumn.
The Soups. Obviously.
I am so excited for SOUP!
Crockpot, stove top, whatever… also have you seen those stovetop cauldrons? I need one.
I have been waiting for this. One of our all time favorites is zuppa toscana. I make it many times over fall and winter, and it’s a toss up between ZT or potato soup for the ‘first soup of the season’. Some other favorites that I will make are chicken gnocchi, any variation of sausage with kale or cabbage, beef vegetable, New England clam chowder, minestrone…. just hand me something in a bowl with a crusty piece of bread and I am set.
I also like to make mini muffins… pumpkin, sweet potato, applesauce, cinnamon brown sugar, chocolate chip… any kind, really. I will do a homemade apple or cheese danish if I'm feeling ambitious (I'm feeling ambitious in September, we'll see how October goes).
Also sometimes, when your life is chaotic like mine, the vibe is carryout.. a nice Italian restaurant, bread, salad, pasta, the whole situation. I love a lasagna or stuffed shells. Ricotta cheese could bring me out of a coma. Steve really likes chicken francese, but he has also ordered lasagna from the place we go. I do love tortellini too, which reminds me I should add tortellini soup to my list!
What's In My Cup
Currently obsessed with Twinings Darjeeling. I add milk, and raw sugar. It’s just good and it feels fancy.
Speaking of fancy, I am so excited to currently have TWO tea parties to attend so far this Fall. Both with my mama. The first is at a local venue, and its a charcuterie in a tea cup event. A family friend who I have known at least my entire life from farmer’s market is involved, so mom and I are going to check it out! The second tea is a Royal Tea with my mom that is Harry Potter themed in October. I could do tea every week, though, honestly. It’s just one of my favorite things. I so wish there were more tea houses around where you could just stop in!
Circling back to my at home brews: a few other faves are Lord Bergamot blend from Smith Tea (very on brand) and the Peach Honey tea from Good & Gather with extra honey. Lady Grey decaf is the move on days I have had too much caffeine.
The ‘too much caffeine’ I just referred to is usually an Alani Nu Witch's Brew for fall. I've been trying to find the Ruby Apple flavor and I cannot locate it anywhere.
Candles
I do enjoy when small shops have candles that are named after popular book boyfriends, where the scent is how their ‘musk’ is described in the book. I am the target market for that product.
When I want a more traditional scent for fall, I usually gravitate towards apple, pumpkin, vanilla, amber, or honey. I try to buy beeswax or soy wax candles, because I do worry about what I'm burning in my house and breathing in. Fun fact about me: I have a shark never change air purifier in every room of my home. I do not use air fresheners, or plug ins. I write about this while sipping a crispy McDonald's Coke. Yes, I contain multitudes.
Books
Last year my cousins and I decided to form a book club. We meet I think like 4 times a year-ish. We are set to meet in October for a breakfast date so we can get pumpkin pancakes. I am very excited for this. We had been having some bad luck with our book club thriller picks this year, so we decided to go with another genre this time. Jennette McCurdy's Half His Age. I think it's going to make for a good conversation.
Other fall releases I am excited for:
Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros
A Court of Splintered Harmony by Sarah J. Maas
Broken Rival by Tessa Bailey
#AUTHOR LIFE by Joe Zagets (Zoje Stage)
As for audiobooks, I've been listening to Hayden Panettiere's memoir. I just started, so no notes yet, but review will be coming soon.
I also really want to get back into crocheting while I listen to audiobooks, I started that last Spring but fell off, and I miss it.
TV Picks
I rewatch Gilmore Girls, every single year. It’s such a comfort. My husband doesn’t even fight it anymore, he watches too when I have it streaming.
I also consider it to be LOTR and Hobbit season. Extended edition weekend marathons, with cozy hobbity foods.
Speaking of Tolkien, my 8th wedding anniversary is 9/22, which is also Bilbo + Frodo Baggins's birthday, aka Hobbit Day. It is also the first day of Fall. Many reasons to celebrate!
My husband and I have also been getting back into football. I have always been a Notre Dame fan. As for NFL, I was a Washington fan most of my life, because my first boyfriend was, and that’s when I started to care about football. Now, since I live closer to Baltimore, I'm a Ravens fan… though I want to be honest that my actual investment level is moderate at best. What I am very invested in is the chips and queso, and other delicious foods that come with watching football.
We also enjoy watching 1000 Pound Sisters, but we like to wait until an entire season is available to stream and then we binge them, so I think we will be doing that in another month or so.
My own personal guilty pleasure is Keeping Up With the Kardashians - so yes, I will continue to rewatch these as well.
What are you obsessing over right now? I want to hear your soup recipes, your favorite clean candle recs, your fall TBR.
Drop it in the comments + let's be cozy together.
