What's On Your Fall Bucket List?

Plus sharing a few favorites from September. This is Recs #106.

Paid subscribers get full access to these Friday roundups of links and recs, reader giveaways, plus access to 200+ past newsletters chock full of advice, inspo, and book recs.

Dear readers,

It’s October, the temps are dropping to the 50s in the coming days (!), and all my fall jackets (barn, trench, suede) are on standby and at the ready. Tonight, though, I’ll be in an air-conditioned theater watching whatever Taylor Swift: The Life of a Showgirl movie has in store for me. (And I will enjoy absolutely every minute of it.)

In the spirit of the season, I wanted to share my humble fall bucket list, which covers four categories: food, art, connection (including family and friends), and entertainment…

• Enjoy at least one really good apple cider donut. I wait all year for these.

• Burn my fall candles. I like this one a lot, plus a random $5 apple cider candle from World Market that brings me joy any time it’s lit. Its fragrance signals fall to me.

• Make apple crisp. I’ve bookmarked this recipe. *NYT Cooking gift link

  

  Skillet apple crisp. (Christopher Testani for The New York Times)

• Head back to one of our local farms during their fall festival—hay rides, fresh apple cider, and all the farm animals for our daughter to look at.

• Buy an unhinged number of pumpkins and mums for the porch. A must.

  

• Make my favorite comfort fall recipe: this garlic butternut squash pasta with pancetta.

• Read at least two books that “feel like fall.” At the top of my list are Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. I like to lean into my fantasy and historical fiction once the weather turns cool. (Btw, I recently learned that the author of the latter is on Substack!)

• Watch a few episodes of Gilmore Girls. Cliché, but we’re not looking for novelty here, but comfort! I’m also very interested in Felicity, which I’ve never seen but looks so cozy…

• Take family photos. I was late to the game last year and didn’t get these done in time for holiday cards. NOT THIS YEAR.

• Get off my phone and create something physical. This is actually at the tippy top of my fall bucket list; screen time feels more draining than ever to me right now. On my DIY bucket list are: bag charms (I found this tutorial), a faux hibiscus flower (to accompany my daughter’s Lilo & Stitch costume), and last but not least, some mini watercolor paintings. More on the paintings below, in one my recs!

What are you up to this weekend? And what’s on your fall bucket list?

Alisha

P.S. I’m hosting a live The Life of a Showgirl chat thread in our reader chat. Lovers and haters, come one, come all to discuss. Click the button below to join.

Downtime is a Swiftie-safe zone.

• Share your autumnal favorites: 🍂 Our reader chat thread here is bringing me so much joy. If you’re in need of some seasonal inspo or want to share yours, check it out! I’ll round up my favorites in a post.

• Hang out, meet new people, chat about books: There are Downtime readers in cities like NYC, Orlando, D.C., San Diego, and more seeking IRL book club meetups. Join the Downtime Geneva chat to connect. It’s free for all to join.

• The holidays are coming! I want to help you find a perfect gift: Send in your toughest holiday gifting conundrums here in this chat thread. This year, I’m choosing my 3 favorite submissions to receive a care package of some of my favorite gifts as a prize. Bonus points if your entry makes me laugh.

• Reader comment of the week: “Spoiler alert, we have little traffic playgrounds right here in the US too 🙃. I happen to live across the street from one in Naperville IL! The charity organization I’m part of started years ago to help children learn the rules of the road.” — reader Maddie in response to last week’s link to Copenhagen’s traffic playground [Love this!]

1. A book to read: The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy is now on my to-read list after it was longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction. The book follows five Black women over the course of their twenty-year friendship, as they move through the dizzying and sometimes precarious period between young adulthood and midlife.

   
   There’s more under the paywall: The rest of the recs, how to try the watercolor ritual that’s keeping me grounded, an inexpensive way to care for your sweaters, some thoughts on wholesome parenting, and lots and lots of inspiring links and finds.