I’m reporting live from one of my favorite corners of the country – tucked into the trees of Northwest Arkansas. We’ve spent the week camping here, hiking with the dogs every morning, cooking outside, and watching the moon rise through the trees as the lightning bugs flicker on. It’s been still, quiet, and deeply grounding. It’s been the kind of week that reminds me how much I love fall’s early calm before life starts to spin again.
If you get the chance, I hope you’ll step outside for a while this week. Breathe it in. This is such a lovely time of year to just be.
Next week, it’s back to planning the garage bakery (I can already hear the paint cans calling my name), but before that, a few fine links for your Sunday.
• This week I did an interview on Platonic Love talking about creative cycles, burnout, and starting over again and again. (Substack)
• I was barely an adult in the ’90s (more of a squirrely teenager) but I caught enough of it to know that life before cell phones, computers, and social media was something special (mostly MapQuest print outs). There was an ease to it, a pace that let you really be where you were. I’ve been thinking about that era lately, maybe because fall feels like the perfect time to slow down and remember what that kind of living felt like.
Julianna Salguero’s How To Have an Analog Fall is a love letter to that slower life. She’s not calling for a full digital detox (we still love our little rectangles), just a gentle reset: swapping doomscrolling for paperback pages, lunch dates, and movie nights that require our full attention.
To that end, I’ve been reading about people breaking their phone addiction using The Brick, and I’m seriously considering it. Have you heard of this or am I just chronically online? (Substack, Slate, GetBrick)
• I love this compilation of what makes a long haul relationships actually last. Is it really about compromise? More than anything is seems to be about kindness and laughter, amen. I’m also reminded of Karlee’s piece about the Best and Worst Marriage Advice she’s ever received, and yes most times an argument can be solved by simply going to bed and talking about it again with coffee in the morning. (Substack, Joy the Baker)
• On the other end of the love spectrum, I also love this compilation of The Ones Who Got Away. There’s romance in the longing, too. (New York Times)
• This is the Gap shirt I bought in every color and will be wearing all winter. It’s almost like wearing a regular t-shirt backwards but in a more comfortable way. (Gap)
• My sister Launa sent me this story as encouragement this week: What I Learned From a 102 Year Old Yoga Master. Charlotte Chopin is an instructor in France who took her first class at 50 and just… never stopped. Ok, so if we’re keeping track, I have a few years before I start a yoga practice for the rest of my life, but the lesson is – why wait? (New York Times Gift Link)
• If you’re in need of a little therapy bake or a few surprising pumpkin dinner ideas, here are the recipes you should make and bake this month. Additionally, I’ve been craving rice krispie treats this week and in October, the only treat to make are these Candy Corn and Salted Peanut Krispie Treats. (Joy the Baker) These Gap shirts are going to get me through winter.
• A fantastic list and the labeling is art in itself: What You Should Really Bring Someone Who Just Had a Baby (Substack)
• Our friend Molly Yeh‘s new Canvas Barn Coat is very cute! (Tractor Supply)
• Samantha O’Brochta writes about the heartbreak (and strange relief) of saying goodbye to her childhood home in My Parents Sold My “Magical” Childhood Home and I Learned a Lesson on Closure I Didn’t Expect . When her parents decided to leave Whidbey Island for better medical care, she realized the closure she’d been chasing wasn’t in the house at all, but in the people who made it home. I loved this reminder that sometimes we don’t get the goodbye we imagine… and that’s okay. (Apartment Therapy)
• My dear friend Timothy is coming to visit me in Bellville this coming weekend and I’m making a big batch of his Zuppa Toscana for us to enjoy. (Instagram, Mississippi Vegan)
• A very worthy Sunday endeavor is to make The Best Blueberry Scones according to me. (Saveur)
Enjoy your day, friends!
xo Joy
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