Hey everyone!

It used to be that summer was unequivocally my favorite season. When I lived in New Jersey, it was the best time of year. The huge trees in our backyard were green and lovely, the cicadas were chirping, our pool was open, and school was out. My hometown really brought its A game every year on July 4th, with a massive parade, pool parties, and incredible fireworks. When I moved to Hawaii, I found out what life was like without any real differentiation between the seasons. On Oahu, July 4th is not much different than Christmas. Once I moved away from New Jersey, summer was never the same.

Don’t get me wrong- I still LOVE summer. I love the heat in Austin (I’m serious- I am here for the 100 degree days of fabulous dry heat), and I celebrate the entire month of July as my birthday month.

But fall…

I only really started liking fall as an adult, when I moved into a little house in the Allandale neighborhood of Austin. I could finally decorate, and it turns out that there is no better month to decorate than OCTOBER.

Here are the reasons I’m already excited for Autumn 2017:

🎃 Pumpkin EVERYTHING.

I LOVE pumpkin flavor stuff. Gimme the Coffee grounds & coffee lattes.

Iced chai tea lattes with pumpkin syrup. Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin breads and butters and teas…

🎃 Fall harvest decorations! I love decorating my home in the fall most of all, like my mantle and balcony (maybe even more than Christmas!). I have a special wreath and doormat… And I can’t wait to get more and go all out this year!

🎃 Fall fashionl! I love tights and boots and hats and velvet dresses SO MUCH.

🎃 Halloween! Believe it or not, last year was one of the first times I ever took dressing up for Halloween seriously. And I loved it!

🎃 Cider! (That OG fall cider from Woodchuck was the best cider of all time.)

🎃 Caramel apples–  I like the chocolate dipped, super-crazy $10 caramel apples Whole Foods comes out with in the fall!

🎃 Hiking! Hiking in the fall is the best.

🎃 Playing Animal Crossing! My favorite game, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, is so cute in autumn.

🎃 Warmer fall-inspired meals! I love squash, so fall really works for me. Best fall meal ever is autumnal ratatouille with crusty bread and cashel blue cheese. It’s also the right time for chili, pies, anything warm and hearty…

🎃 Fall baking! I love making pumpkin crumb muffins, and it’s better to turn the oven on when it’s not 99 degrees…

🎃 Fall to me is also BMX season. It’s finally cool enough to ride for hours, Austin used to host Texas Toast & Nora Cup (bmx events), and I can sit out at the trails for hours reading and relaxing while my bf rides bikes in the woods.

🎃 Food Network Magazine‘s October issue. It’s the best one of the year, for sure.

🎃 This year I’ll get to try Sprinkles Cupcake’s Caramel Apple & Pumpkin & Chai cupcakes!!!

🎃 Fall candles! Bath and Body Works has a great selection come fall, and it’s finally the right time to burn them…

🎃 Fall cocktails! I love apple cider, cinnamon sugar vodka, butterbeer, and other yummy autumnal drinks I’ll definitely be posting about this year.

🎃 The lovely, crisp weather!

🎃 Wearing cute lightweight jackets.

🎃 Maple stuff! It’s another big fall flavor, and it’s almost as good as pumpkin.

🎃 When stores decorate for fall!

🎃 Kids trick or treating and being cute!

🎃  Leaves changing! One of my life goals is to get out to Vermont to see the leaves change. I’ve been to upstate New York in the fall, and it was magical.

Tomorrow I’m going to do a (much more seasonally appropriate) post about SUMMER 2017, since tomorrow is the first day of summer!!!! It’s time to really get excited for July… But this post just could not wait.

Besides, isn’t most of life just anticipating good times and getting excited? Isn’t that what life is about? Staying present & getting pumped? I want to make 2017 the best year of my life.

Do you love fall, too? Tweet at me if you do- I want to talk pumpkin season no matter what month it is!

-Taylor