Hey, guess what? It’s spring! The season of renewal and rebirth. Flowers, sunshine, baby animals. Gardening, fresh vegetables, happy houseplants. You know. If it’s not obvious, I’m feeling a little optimistic and probably way too excited for the new season.
I find the changing of the seasons is a wonderful time to reflect, slow down, plan ahead and get pumped for everything the change in weather (so dramatic here in the PNW) brings with it. To do this, I like to make a list of things I plan to do for the season so that I always have something to look forward to. To start, I’ll set an intention, decide on a theme, or figure out something I want to manifest for the season. That way, I can align the things I want to do, with the things I want to feel.
This spring, I want to embrace change, simplify, and continue to challenge myself creatively. These are things I’ll be exploring both personally and in the blog for the next few months too.
Now for the doing. I’ve created a list of things I look forward to tasting, reading, making and doing for the season. Feel free to steal any of these ideas for yourself or use it to inspire ideas of your own.
Happy spring!
Eat
For spring, I’m looking forward to eating foods that are simple, fresh and that make use of the wonderful fruits and veggies of the season. Foods that are a little lighter (I love all my soups and stews… but I’ll see them again in the fall), a little citrusy and anything with arugula. Here are some recipes I plan on trying out that certainly fit the ticket:
This prosciutto, arugula and burrata pizza would make the best dinner on the porch or balcony on one of those lovely sunny evenings. And I plan on having this grilled pear, prosciutto, and arugula salad (I told you – I’m a little obsessed with this particular lettuce variety) later this week…and probably again in the coming weeks if I’m not noshing down this spaghetti al limone with asparagus to satisfy those lemon-y cravings.
For sweets it’s a toss up between this rhubarb quick bread which I made last year and loved or this delicious looking rhubarb custard cake which seems equally devour-able… I think I’ll just make both.
Read
One of my main goals this year is to reduce the number of books I buy (HA!) and to read the books I’ve already bought but have passed over in favor of… buying more books. A majority of the books I will read this year will be to cull them from my list, but luckily I have some to read that go along perfectly with my intentions this season. Regardless, here are some of the books I foresee reading this spring:
You Are An Artist by Sarah Urist Green
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Design by Nature by Erica Tanov
Black Women Writers at Work edited by Claudia Tate (unfortunately out of print, so not including a link to this one)
Make
My novel is my “project of the year,” and I don’t see myself finishing it by the end of the season. But I will continue working on it and am hopeful that by the end of spring I will be about half-way through the first half of the second act. It’s a slow-going process which can certainly be frustrating, but I’m trying to be okay with that.
I am an incredibly seasonal knitter, and October through December is when most of my knits are ground out. Well, now I’m working to remedy that because I finally have a reason to explore a new area of knitting… baby knits! My close friends are expecting their first child in June, so naturally I am planning on knitting all of the cutest, teeniest, tiniest things for the teeny tiny human they’ll be welcoming into the world. Nothing like a deadline to get my fingers moving.
A couple other personal projects I would like to undertake are: working on making a “series” in water colors and trying my hand at sewing some of my own pillow cases. I am completely new to working with water colors, and haven’t used a sewing machine since 8th grade, but this I like ease of the lessons provided in this post and think this class will also prove useful. As for the pillow cases, I’m pretty obsessed with the fabric from this shop so really I have no excuse not to try this out, right?.
Do
I try to punctuate each season with at least some time to get away with my husband and this spring will be no different. Starting with a couple day trips to nearby towns and ending with a trip to a cabin on the coast just before summer, we will continue to make the best of traveling around home as the world (hopefully) starts getting back to normal again.
Hiking is another thing I hope to do more of this year and throughout the season in general. While I’m not an avid or advanced or brave hiker, as the weather gets better, I’m looking forward to trying some easy(?) baby hikes like this one and this one to help continue to get me out of my house and out of my comfort zone.
And because this year it looks like having a balcony is going to once again help with the cabin fever when I’m not away, I am planning to attempt a more in depth refresh of our balcony again. Along with vegetables and herbs, I’m going to try my hand at flowers this year. I am by no means a gardener, but my hopes are that my attempts at maintaining the fuchsia, poppies, sweet alyssum (and possibly more?) I planted on the balcony this year will be successful. Updates for that, and how I style the space will follow :).
How about you? Do you have intentions for spring, or themes in your life that you would like to continue to explore? Or, all that aside, what plans do you have for spring?! Tell me anything and everything.
