Fall Itinerary

 Hello and good evening, my Bibbles! 

Tonight I thought it would be fun to share my fall itinerary for this month. I even went as far as creating a fall-themed October calendar of everything I plan to do. 

Last night I thought about ways that this month can truly make life feel like fall since Portugal has been in the 20s, and to me that's not very fall weather-coded. I need 16 to 18 at least, with a good gust of wind to go with that. But sadly that's not the case.

So instead, we won’t rely on this sad excuse of weather; we ourselves will bring the fall weather with our fits, our drinks, and our vibes alone 😌. 

Without further ado, let's get into it.

This fall I want to treat it like I would Christmas, which I realize I have never done. When I think of fall, I only think of the season change and the seasonal drinks that I have when I’m at a cafe, and that doesn’t happen often.

But when Christmas comes around, every other night I’m having hot chocolate, the Christmas watch list is out, Christmas decor is up, and everything. And I feel like that’s because Christmas is a holiday and fall is a season. 

There is Thanksgiving, of course, but ever since I’ve moved to Portugal, I haven’t celebrated. That’s because my mom is not American; she is from Aruba, and most families don’t celebrate for obvious reasons. Although, due to social media and modern day tv a lot of Arubians have started celebrating, that is not the case for my mom and me, though. 

And most definitely because we have no family here and my mom and I are not up for planning, cooking, and inviting people over to our apartment for a mess we have to clean afterward. 

This year, though, I will commit to seeing the whole fall season as a holiday of its own. I want fall movies to watch, strictly Thanksgiving-themed fall movies. Basically any 2000s movie with a fall setting, and movies I have never seen!!! 

While brainstorming things I can do in the next two months to stay in the fall spirit, I thought of decorating my room. But funds are low, and the only cheap store that has fall-themed stuff that I know of is Primark, and I don’t have one close to me, sadly. 

Diy Fall Decor:

That brings us to the first fall thing I’ll be doing: making my own fall decor! I love this better too because I can make the decor match my room. 

My bedroom colors are pink, green, some blues, and white. So I don’t think bright orange pumpkins and dark brown leaves will match my room. Stores here don’t tend to have fall decor in different colored themes as they do back in America. 

My ideas for fall decor are making felt garlands to hang in my room and sock pumpkin cushions. For the felt garlands, I was thinking maybe mixed up, or separate garlands of pumpkins, leaves, mushrooms, and acorns. And for the sock pumpkin cushion, I have winter socks in the colors of my room!!!! I plan to make a pumpkin pillow this week to see how it goes ( Make sure to look out for that blog 😏 ). 

Fall films:

     

Next are the moviiiiieeeeesssss!!! During the Christmas season, I always try to watch as many movies as I can, and honestly, I need to start doing that this time around too. 

So I went on my trusted app, Pin Your Interests, and went to my board of movies to watch. I always save movies and never, and I mean never, watch them, lol. Because of this, I decided that October will be surrounded by 2000s movies that take place in the fall to early winter seasons, and next month I will look for movies that are Thanksgiving-centered. 

Now for the movies I have chosen:  Dead Poets Society, Cheetah Girls, Drumline, Autumn in New York, Paddington, Bambi, Charlie Brown: It's the Great Pumpkin, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. What do ya’ll think? I tried to find a few that looked fashionable, inspiring, going back into childhood, and taking place during the fall season. 

I have already seen Dead Poets Society, but it was at a sleepover, and I feel like I will pay more attention and really take in the movie if I watch it again alone. It's been years since I've seen Bambi or Paddington, and that needs to change.

And in these next two months, I want to watch a movie every Sunday. My goal is to figure out the perfect fall night in: the best snacks, drinks, environment setting, lighting, PJs, everything. 

Reading and Book club: 

Personally, it feels very fall to read; that sounds crazy out loud, and like I need to read more, not gonna lie. What I mean is that when school rolls around, I tend to read more, whether it's for English or History class or because of school book clubs I joined. 

Reading feels like a big fall activity, and I want to do well in it. I have recently started a two-person book club with a friend of mine. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is our book of choice; we already had our first meeting last Sunday, and it went great. It felt very fall-esque, and we had great conversations about the first few chapters. 

And while typing this, an idea came to mind. I can, as a fall night in, read the book and journal about it; about the characters and what crazy parts of the book make my head spin. But why only read one book, right? I should read multiple at a time and journal the process every time; I feel that way I will remember the book better too. 

Fall Fits:

Now, last but not least: fits of the season. These past few days, I have been taking pics of my outfits with my dg cam, and when I tell you that I have never felt cuter, I mean it! I want to start a new page as the months go by this fall: all my fall fits, what I consider a fall outfit for myself, and a deep dive into my style personally this fall. This might be what I’m most excited about this fall, not gonna lie 😝! 

But that is all for now, my Bibbles. I hope you all enjoyed this post and can take any inspo for your own autumn adventures. 

                       Until next time!

                         Love, Lady Zay.

Romanticizing The Fall Season

Hiiii Bibbles!!!!!!!! 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful morning! I'm a bit tired; I went to bed pretty early but woke up around 3h30 and didn't go back to sleep for a few hours. But you know what that means? 🎶COFFEEEEEEEEEE TIMEEEEEEEEEE🎶 (in the Mariah Carry Christmas "it's timeee" voice). 

So the last post was about this new school season and how to make school fun and adventurous this year. Even though the plan was to talk about romanticizing this fall season 🫠. 

Well, this is that post. I hope you all enjoy reading; let's dig in!!!!

Ok, so what does it truly mean to romanticize life? The textbook definition of romanticizing your life is ~ treating your everyday, ordinary routines with intention, appreciation, and a sense of wonder, acting as the main character in your own story. It's not pretending that your problems are gone or looking at them through rose-tinted glasses. It means adding softness and intention to your days. 

Romanticizing your life makes you notice the small things and appreciate them. Leaves falling, strong winds, wearing long sleeves and jackets again. These are the little things that get me excited for the fall season. 

Now, the way you romanticize your life will be different from mine, but I'm going to share how I do it, in case my Bibbles might want ideas 😘. 

1 ~  Every day I get ready for the day. 

I put on a cute outfit that makes me feel happy and want to get things done. I even put on an outfit when I have nowhere to go. Also dressing the same way I would to hang out with friends in the city and to go to the grocery store. 

You will never catch me in sweatpants and flip-flops at the store. (There is also nothing wrong if someone prefers it that way 💖)

2 ~ Making pajama sets out of the clothes I already have. 

In my closet, I've accumulated many shorts since 8th grade, and I have a lot of oversized off-the-shoulder tops. I have two that are graphic tees, one with pink and the other with blue, so I pair them with my blue and pink shorts. I also have baby tees and tanks that match with my pajama pants and shorts. 

But if you feel like spending a bit of money, I go to the thrift store to find cute pajama pants or silk nightgowns, all under 5 euros. 

These are the little ways that make my night feel a bit more elevated. 

3 ~ Warm lighting. 

My mom and I never, and I mean NEVER, put on the big lights in our house. We have the bright white fluorescent lights that practically blind you and give you headaches. So we have lamps all throughout the house and in all of our bedrooms. 

This gives our home the best warm, cozy feeling, and it has also made the electricity bill go down🤭. 

4 ~ Different playlists for different things I'm doing, or for different seasons. 

For me, this looks like pop rap and musicals when I'm washing the dishes, but slow classics and jazz on my record player while getting ready for the day and tidying up the house. 

And for the past few weeks, I have been trying to create my own fall playlist that feels slow, calm, and toasty. 

5 ~ Changing the themes on my devices. 

I don't do this often, but I used to constantly change the theme on my phone and computer. Normally, every season. 

But I might start doing this again because it really did help life feel like fun stages rather than one big block of time whenever I opened my phone and I saw a new theme that correlates with the season outside my window. 

6 ~ Make a morning drink.

This can be different for everyone. This can be a smoothie, tea, coffee, etc. 

Extra points if you make a fall coffee. 

My mornings always feel slower when I have a nice warm coffee in my hands and just sit there and drink it. Sometimes I watch a 2000s show; Lizzy McGuire is my favorite, or I read a book instead.

7 ~ Create my wardrobe for the current season. 

A few days ago, I completely reorganized my Fashion Board and created different sections.  

The sections I made were: Daily fits, Preppy fits, Fall fits, Summer fits, Party fits, Cool fits, Accessories. 

Having these sections always helps me pick out what vibe I'm going for that day. A trick I use: instead of saving outfits I want, I save outfits with clothes that I have, or that are similar; trust me, all of a sudden you will have a lot of outfits. I would suggest you have a separate section for outfits/clothes you want.  

8 ~ Decorating plain things. 

A few months ago I got new pink Sony wired headphones, and I wanted to make them look different from everyone else's. So I put little ladybugs on them from the China store for 99cents. 

When I was in middle school, we didn't use notebooks for all our classes; for most, we used a binder. And if you had a mom like mine, she was not paying for the expensive cute ones. So I created and printed out cute photos to put them in a clear sleeve. 

And even now I'm looking at ideas to elevate my school supplies, because for me, when my supplies are cute, I'll want to study more. 

These are all the things I could think of, but almost everything I listed doesn't require money, and if it does, it's no more than 5 euros. Following these little rituals in my life always makes life a bit brighter and cozier, which I think everyone needs in their lives. Sooo, let's look at new ways to romanticize this new fall season. 

This fall, I want to get back into the hobbies I fell out of and things that will get me back into crafting. One of those things is reading. I gifted one of my friends the book Pride and Prejudice for her birthday, and part of the gift was me and her starting a book club. The plan is to read 7 chapters every week, so I want to wake up early every day, make my fall drink, sit down, and read one chapter. 

Along with that, here's a list of everything I want to try and do this fall. 

1 ~ Having slow, screen-free mornings with a coffee and a book in my hands. 

Now that I'm thinking about this, I might change my morning routine every season. For example, in the summer I have a cup of tea with a fun breakfast while watching early morning cartoons. But that will be next summer; now we are talking about everything fall. 

2 ~ Making the perfect fall coffee.

As of recently, I have started to enjoy the taste of coffee, and not just the 1 cup of sugar, whole carton of milk, bottle of vanilla extract, 500 pumps of some syrup, and a tsp of coffee. 

So this fall season, I am going to venture out into making healthy fall coffee recipes. 

3 ~ Create a mini fall recipe book 

I have started to get into cooking, and I love warm meals that leave me feeling a bit tired afterward. And I think it will be very fun to have a little notebook of my fav fall meals saved. This would be a great way to start meal prepping/planning for the week so I can choose a day to cook my fall meal. 

4 ~ Decorating my room for fall. 

This is where the crafting starts. I have little to no money, so I love an easy DIY. And a few days ago I saw a video on how to make a pumpkin pillow out of a sock and a string, two things I have. Some other things I'm thinking of doing are finding fall posters and recreating them on Canva and having them printed for cheap at the library or a Papelaria. 

In my opinion, you don't need a lot in your room to be able to tell the seasonal change; it can be as easy as switching out some posters, pillows, and blankets, and it will make a very big difference. 

But if you do have the money to buy new decor for fall, go for it 😝😘!!! 

5 ~ Making a mood board of everything I want to do this fall. 

I might make a Pinterest board instead, because I have nowhere to put a mood board, sadly. But I think it's always better to have a visual aid for the things you want to do. At this point, I use my Pinterest as my notes app.  

When I have a Pinterest board made for a hangout or activity I want to do, I love having visuals for the plan, and it also works as inspo for myself and others. 

That's all I can think of for right now, but here's to romanticizing this fall season and making life brighter and more adventurous 🥂! 

Good luck to all of you this season, love you lots, and I'll keep you posted on how my fall romanticizing goes. 

Autumn's In Session

Hello, my Bibbles!!!!!!!!

It's officially fall season, and that means it's time to get ready for this new season. Here in Portugal, it finally feels like fall weather; it's windy, chilly, and the leaves are falling 😝. For me, every new season is a reason to romanticize life. I was at dinner at a friend's house and got to talking with her mom about how fast time seems to pass; she laughed and said I'm a kid, which I agree with, and what do I know about life feeling fast. I knew she was going to say that too; I mean, every adult says that. 

I told her that that's the scary part, honestly: although I am young, life really seems like it's passing so fast. It felt like yesterday was the start of summer break, and now we're all nearly a month or two deep into school. And if days are starting to feel short and days bleed into weeks and weeks into months, imagine how fast it must be when I'm an adult. So to make life feel a bit slower, I started paying attention to what makes a day feel long or short. For me, it's when I am doing the same thing every day, or going to the same place around the same time as well. And you might be thinking, Zay, you're literally describing school. And yes, in a way I am. When I was still in in-person school, by the time spring came around, school honestly felt like a death sentence.

But it also was something that felt like it lasted for centuries at a time, and I believe that was because in school you are constantly learning and doing something different. And as I got older and was in the 10th and 11th grade, classes even started to feel like they were going fast; classes were 90 min long. The thing that made a school day fun and feel longer was what I did in between classes and lunchtime. For example, my first year at my new school, I didn't really have a concrete friend group. I hadn't really made any friends in my homeroom class, and the friends I did hang out with were in Arts, and I was in LH, so sometimes I would only see them in our shared classes. I would walk around the school, head to the bar, sit somewhere, read a book, study, or hang out in the library. 

This way, I always bumped into friends from other classes and would spend my time with them. Nearly every day, I would spend my time with a new person. It was very fun, and I created a lot of new friendships that way and made amazing memories. I know I just made all of that seem like the easiest thing ever; it isn't, sadly. I made a lot of friendships partially because I am a foreigner who speaks English and is from America. When meeting someone new, it was almost always through another friend. 

For example, standing with your normal friend group, a friend of theirs comes up to us and starts talking to them; they introduce me and tell them that I speak English and that I'm from the United States. Normally, that is always a conversation starter. After that, I see them in the hall, the library, the bar, and we start to slowly talk to each other. And then, the rest is history. For these situations to also work for you, you have to come out of your comfort zone and, not in a rude way, put yourself into the conversation, compliment the other person, and try to use that as a conversation starter to the best of your ability. It isn't always easy; it definitely helps if the other person meets you at least halfway, but it still can work for everyone.

Believe it or not, I had a specific direction for this, and I completely went off script from romanticizing the fall season to how to make friends as the new kid and new foreigner at your school 😭😂 lol. But the point is, these side quests in school truly made every day feel longer and not as repetitive. Sadly, this next point won't work if your school doesn't allow you; I think you need to leave the school for lunch. And if a teacher doesn't come to school and now you and your friends have 3 hours of free time, DON'T GO HOME!!!!! Stay at school and explore the city and hang out with your friends. Don't even try to look for a place to go to; just walk and explore different shops you never knew were there before. 

And you don't even need to spend money; go to the Chinese store, take pictures of the most random and absurd things you're doing there, and laugh at the pictures. It's possible to make life feel like an adventure if you truly try. So get out there and make life your own little adventure that you can look back on in the future. I'll go and make that other post about romanticizing the fall season like this one was supposed to be 🫠.