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Ideas for Your Fall Bucket List

Fall is a great time to learn a new skill, try a new craft, and discover great seasonal recipes. Looking for some inspiration to kickstart your Fall Bucket List? Here you'll find ideas and resources that will inspire you this season.

In our home, fall is definitely a favourite season. With the transition into school and new activities, and with cooler temperatures just around the corner, there comes a sense of renewal and new beginnings that no other season captures in quite the same way.

A natural outcome of this for me is a desire to try new things, seek out new experiences, and maybe even go outside my comfort zone – sometimes, if I’m really brave 😉

So if you’re like me then, you will appreciate the idea of creating a ‘fall bucket list’ of things to do, try and learn this fall.  Here are a few fun and creative ideas to get you started in creating your own bucket list this season.

1.  Make a fall wreath

If you are considering doing any craft this season, a fall wreath is a must! A wreath is such a great way to greet guests when they come to your home. There’s nothing so warm and inviting as a beautiful wreath adorning your front door. Here are a couple of places you can start:

Yarn and Felt Wreath – A Pretty Fix

diy yarn/felt wreath - aprettyfix.com

Sunburst wreath – A Pretty Fix

DIY sunburst wreath

Candy Corn Wreath: House of Smiths

candy corn wreath

There are numerous other tutorials on the internet; here are some more to get you inspired at The 36th Avenue blog:

25 Gorgeous Handmade Fall Wreaths

2.  Try a new pumpkin recipe.

Pumpkins are my favourite seasonal food, but not simply for their use in baking. There are plenty of pumpkin-inspired food and beverage recipes out there that are worth exploring. Here are just a few that I’ve been itching to try:

Chilled Pumpkin Pie Pudding

pumpkinpuddingfeatured

Source: I Breathe. I’m Hungry.

Paleo Pumpkin Biscuits

PALEOBISCUITS4-min

Source: Lexi’s Clean Kitchen

Pumpkin Chili

pumpkin chili

Source: Julia’s Album

3.  Get organized.

With the start of the new season comes a rash of new activities for the family. And with it a bit of to and fro that can throw your routine out of whack for a time. Here are some tips for getting your home organized and staying on track this season:

6 Weeks to a More Organized Home - aprettyfix.com

Source: A Pretty Fix

For those looking for simple, yet effective tips for kick-starting your homekeeping routine, this post outlines a few key ways to encourage you to get back on track. Progress, not perfection is the goal!

Source: A Pretty Fix

4.  Transition your home from summer to fall.

There are so many wonderful fall home decorating tips and DIY’s out there from how to style your front porch to decorating your entry, living room, dining room and just about every nook and cranny in the home! Why not explore them and maybe discover a new way of styling your home with new colours (neutrals, for example) or new ways to display pumpkins (in a cloche or on a cake stand) or why not make your own gold-dipped feather garlands or acorns painted in bright colours? There are so many varied ways of injecting warmth and newness into your fall home décor.

For inspiration, check out my ‘fall decorating and DIY’s’ pinterest board:

Follow Jelica @ A Pretty Fix’s board fall decorating & DIY’s on Pinterest.

If time is an issue, maybe just choose one room in your house like your living room or main sitting room. Check out these posts for some inspirations and ideas to inject warmth and style into your living room this fall:

10 Tips for Creating a Cozy Living Room

Coffee Table Decorating, 5 Ways

5.  Learn how to pair wine with seasonal foods.

As some of you know, I am a sucker for a good wine. I also love wine tastings and touring vineyards (see my recent trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake here). What I’ve discovered over the years is that while any wine will do when preparing for a meal, there is definitely an art to pairing just the right wines with just the right meals which can take your dinners from good to great. There is nothing like the perfect pairing for a meal that you’ve worked so hard to create for friends and family. It truly enhances the flavour and enjoyment of your meal!

Here is a great reference chart to get you started:

wine pairing info

Source: Fine Dining Lovers

For seasonal-specific wine pairing ideas, take a peak at these posts:

Pairing Wine with Soups and Stews

Best Wines to Pair with Chili

6.  Try yoga

While I am no athlete and by no means consistent in keeping fit, I find fall the best time to get back into an exercise routine. One of my absolute favourite forms of exercise is yoga. After taking my first community class about eight years ago, I became hooked! It is such a great way to relieve tension and stress as well as increasing tone and flexibility.

If you’re not sure about spending the money on a class, the best way to find out if you’d like it is to find a good instructor online. With so many sites dedicated to yoga instruction, however, it can be a bit challenging to find just the right fit for beginners and intermediate level students. My favourites are those that are informative, educational, and provide tips for people at all skill levels.

Here are ones that I’ve been really enjoying these days:

Yoga With Adriene

This YouTube channel provides a variety of videos and playlists. Adriene is a great instructor and makes it easy for people of all skill levels to get something out of her routines. One of my favourite series by far has been the 30 Days of Yoga. You can check it out here:


This is a great beginner-level series to start but with enough challenging poses for those who have been practicing for at least a few years to enjoy as well. Absolutely loved this series.

Sarah Beth Yoga

Like Adrien’s channel, Sarah Beth has a variety of videos and playlists. She also has her own 7-day yoga challenge and other features to get you started.

Bad Yogi

This YouTuber makes some great videos for those of us who can admit that we don’t always have great form, but are simply willing to give it a go in order to stay active and healthy. It’s a fun and inspiring channel to check out.

But if yoga’s not your thing then take a peak at the blog “Life in Spandex,” which focuses on fitness and food. Emily, the founder of the blog, is a certified personal trainer and provides plenty of practical tips for getting and staying fit for every season. You can find the blog here: Life in Spandex

7.  Eat more fruits and veggies!

As cooler temperatures approach, comfort foods will soon be what we crave. But don’t forget to get your daily servings of fruits and vegetables! There are so many great food bloggers out there, that it was hard to decide what to include in this list.

While I am not a vegetarian, I do appreciate the benefits of increasing fruits and veggies in our diets. For this reason, I am very inspired by blogs and websites that provide educational and informative articles and videos on the benefits of a whole foods diet. Here are just a few of my faves:

Dr. McDougall’s Health & Medical Centre – Dr. McDougall is a well-respected doctor and international speaker on the subject of plant-based foods. His website provides plenty of educational articles and videos to get you started.

Megan Elizabeth is the founder of Easy To Be Raw. Megan is a young entrepreneur with an approachable way of introducing raw and vegan foods with easy recipe ideas and e-‘cook’books. I have two of these and love them!

Simple Medicine – Dr. Pragati, a Naturopathic doctor, is the founder of this blog about health, wellness and food with great recipe ideas. Simple Medicine is an fun and informative blog with valuable information about the foods we eat.

If you’re not exactly sure where to begin when it comes to increasing your fruit or veggie intake, why not start with breakfast? Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

Fruit Smoothies

featured image 3 smoothies

Source: A Pretty Fix

Banana Pancakes

2-Ingredient Pancakes

Source: A Pretty Fix

8.  Get out your crock pot.

Nothing says fall like a crock pot meal. Everyone loves the warmth and hardiness of a chili or a stew dinner during the fall season. Crock pot meals are incredibly versatile and easy to make. But for those of us who are gluten-free or at least looking to find healthier options, this can be a bit challenging. Here are plenty of recipe ideas to get you started this season:

crock pot-min

Source: My Natural Family

9.  Learn a new craft.

Everyone is familiar with traditional yarn crafts like knitting or crochet. But why not try something out-of-the-box like weaving? Wall weavings are having a major ‘moment’ in home décor these days. They are hip and homespun and add a lot of personality to any style of décor, whether it be modern, traditional or something in-between.

For a step-by-step tutorial, see part 1 of my introduction to weaving here and part 2 here.

Learn the art of wall weaving in this basic introduction to materials, terms used, and how to create your own one-of-a-kind wall weaving for your home. A beautiful alternative to traditional wall art.

Love yarn but wall weaving’s not your thing? There are plenty of alternative ways to incorporate yarn into your home décor, including embroidery and even yarn crafts that do not require a needle, loom or hook.

Check out these posts for some inspiration:

DIY Geometric Embroidery Art

15 No-Knit Yarn Crafts

10.  Get outdoors!

One of my favourite times to go for a walk or a hike is during the fall season. The beauty of the leaves as they change colour from green to burnt yellows, rusts, and brilliant reds make the outdoors a full-sensory experience! I absolutely adore this time of year. It’s a true visual feast and generates a strong sense of wonder and awe for Creation!

get outdoors - fall bucket list ideas

Photograph by Heejing KIM

Hope this list has inspired you to create your own fall bucket list this season!

 

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Every weekend, the gals at Coffee with Us 3 host a link-up party with some of the best recipe, DIY and ‘all-things-home ‘posts from around the web. Just click on the link below to check out this week’s posts:

 

Pretty Pintastic Party

 

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Featured image photo credit: Logan Adermatt

 

2 Comments

  • Reply
    Angela @ setting my intention
    October 11, 2015 at 9:15 am

    this is such a great list! Your wreaths are beautiful! I’ll have to come back and read some more of the organization posts! Thanks for linking to it!

    • Reply
      Jelica
      October 11, 2015 at 9:18 pm

      Thanks Angela! Your blog continues to inspire me to strive to be more organized – an uphill battle, to be sure, but one that I continue to climb 🙂

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