I’m probably not going to shut up anytime soon about my Soft Season, sorry.
It’s just that I am very excited about it and also I’m one of those girls who like… loves fall. And the Venn diagram between my Soft Season vibes and my fall vibes is basically just a circle. And look, I’ll be honest—I did try to deny my love of fall. I mean truly, I don’t actually like pumpkin flavored anything. I can be kind of seasonally-ambiguous. At the start of any season I will totally be like THIS IS MY SHIT!!!!
BUT, fall actuallllly is my shit.
I like to be cozy. I like to be snuggly. I like warm foods. I like comfort. I like blankets and fuzzy socks. I like crisp air. I do. Now that being said, I’ve only lived in places where the average temperature is hell’s kitchen wrapped in a wet blanket, so I might be romanticizing that which I cannot truly have. Or have not truly had, rather.
Nevertheless she persists… in her pursuit of coziness.
So anyway, this Soft Season coincidentally coincides with fall and the start of winter—the holiday season—and that’s no accident. I mean, it was an overpowering intuitive knowing that I needed to fucking rest, but it’s also no coincidence that it’s landing in a moment when all I want to do is drink some spiced cider mulled wine sitchhhh while watching Hallmark movies, you know?
As my Soft Season kicked off, I felt an urge to make myself a little bucket list of activities to embrace the intention of this moment for me. The intention is to slow down, to savor the season, and to deeply connect with myself and my body. With that in mind, this isn’t a like ’75 hard’ style bucket list. I won’t like fail or be a fuck-up if this list doesn’t happen. There’s absolutely no pressure around any of it. But it’s nice to write down some ideas of things I’d like to experience over the next 100 or so days, and I’m gonna share them with you now:
Watch The Good Witch
Okay, this is my guilty pleasure and I watch it every fall hehe. It’s SO CHEESY but it’s so cozy. It’s on Netflix for easy binging and last year I even went so far as to find the movies that were made I think mostly before the TV series. For someone who typically needs like high-drama, spicy scenes, galore this show might seem out of character but it’s so freaking nice to my nervous system.
Try Turrón
This is a delicacy here in Alicante and while you can eat it anytime of year, I get the impression it’s a holiday-related sweet treat. So I will be finding and enjoying it (I’ll report back on how it tastes!)
Read, like, 15 Books
This might seem like a lot, but I read very fast and also part of my Soft Season involves me parking it on my lounge chair on my terraza for hours and what am I gonna do if not read a bunch of books. Originally my thought was to finish up re-reading some series that I needed to revisit to be able to remember to finish them out (looking at you Plated Prisoner series), but tbh this week when I sat down to read my first book I was like wow, this isn’t giving me the cozy vibes I want. So after some googling, I found myself starting The Ex Hex and it’s pretty cute so far!
Bake Cookies
Again, most adults are like "wow, florals for spring? Groundbreaking.” But we’ve been in airbnb limbo for 8 weeks and are just now settling into our longer-term home here in Spain and we have LITERALLY two plates, two forks, two spoons because we’re waiting for our shipment to arrive from the US with a lot of our most loved things (including plates and silverware). So all of that to say, baking cookies here is gonna be a big fucking deal. Plus I have to learn how to use an oven in celsius, lol.
Digital Sabbatical Day(s)
I didn’t put a number on this because that started to feel too girlbossy-goal-setting, but I am looking forward to some amount of time just not online. Like not even ‘online, but not posting to stories’ (I do that regularly already). I mean truly offline. Like maybe I can use my e-reader for aforementioned 15 books, but no scrolling or consuming or doom spiraling, you know?
Make Eat Sourdough
I’ll be honest, I haven’t found sourdough here in Alicante yet. Granted, I haven’t tried very hard—but it doesn’t seem to be an option at the bakeries I’ve wandered into so far. But I really want some freaking sourdough, so Will said we’ll start our starter soon. That being said, we did fail at this back in 2020 when it was trendy. Like we couldn’t get our starter to start, so this might not work. Potentially adjusting this one to EAT SOURDOUGH one way or another.
Go To Museum(s)
I mean, this is obvious, right? A must do, if you will. And I will.
Make Spiced Wine/Cider/Warm Bevies
This is something we do every year anyway, but I am so excited to do it here with so many incredible wines are my fingertips for like essentially free in girl-math. Plus imagine me bundled up on my terraza with a warm drink!! So chic!! Poetic!!
Send Postcards
This is something Will and I talked about a lot before we got here. It’s important to us to maintain our relationships with pals back home and this feels like a really intentional and cute way to do so, so we will definitely be making that a priority in this holiday season.
Watch Practical Magic
No explanation necessary, right? For the witchy girls who get it.
Start Wheel of The Year
Speaking of witchy girls!! This is the thing I’m probably most excited about. I will be journeying through The Wheel starting on October 31st with Samhain and am just beyond excited to bring so many new rituals, so much new knowledge into my life. I’ve been truly counting down the days for this journey to begin.
Christmas Markets
So European!!!! Apparently there are some fantastic ones in Barcelona, and seeing as my bestie now lives there too—I will be in BCN. I will be at a Christmas Market or five. And it will be cute as fuck and I’m PUMPED about it.
Take a Train Ride
In fact, this will probably be how I get to BCN. Because again, Europe! When we were here last year we took a train from Valencia to Madrid and just enjoyed it so much, so I am looking forward to a lot more trains in my future. I hope that this Soft Season there’s at least one like… bougie train experience. I don’t know what I mean by that, but I am picturing like… a private compartment? Idk. I’ve done no research, but we’ll see what happens.
Build My Altar and Meditation Space
One benefit of having a fucking huge terraza (I knowwww shut up, but it’s really THAT BIG and exciting) is the space for activities. So the corner that I’m not currently occupying is going to become a little area for plants and crystals and yoga and meditation and whatever else tickles my fancy. Maybe a wind chime! Maybe things that reflect sunlight in a cool way! I don’t know exactly what, but it will be coming into existence this Soft Season. And used. A lot.
Make an Abundance of Soups
As I mentioned like 111 times, I like cozy. My body is literally screaming for soups. I have asked my personal chef (my husband, Will) every day when we can start making soups even though it’s still like 85 degrees here. Fahrenheit. I need to learn celsius. Anyway, the soups! I want a like butternut squash gnocchi situation, I want a zuppa toscana moment. I’m also, weirdly enough, just really craving the flavor of sage, which idk how hard that will be to find here—but we will try.
Okay that’s my bucket list!!! What do you think? Any you want to adopt? Anything you’re like ‘woah, you definitely need to add this’ about?! Let me know!
I am craving so many of the same things! Trying to have more dedicated time away from my phone especially. Let me know if you have any good tips for this!
This just made me feel so cosy!!! Xmas markets are the best best best. And autumn in the uk is so nice, so I do recommend a London trip if you want a cosy experience. And Spanish trains are also wonderful (and so cheap 😂)
Can’t wait to join you on the wheel of the year!!!