🎃 Soft Obsessions: Fall 2025

A Cozy-Kitschy Edit of Everything I Can’t Stop Thinking About

Welcome to the first (and hopefully not the last) edition of Soft Obsessions, a messy seasonal edit of the things I’ve been hyperfixating on, quietly savoring, impulse-buying, or accidentally manifesting.

This is the kind of newsletter you read under a throw blanket with soup breath and one sock halfway off. It’s not curated for trends, algorithms, or monetization. Just vibes. I was going to try to do this monthly, but if you know me, you’ll know I can’t be held to that. So…seasonal. It’s seasonal now. Let’s try that.

This season’s vibe is somewhere between witchy woman and cozy monster. Fuzzy socks, love for horror, and a surprising number of cow sightings. Let’s get into it.

📺 Watching

I’m in my seasonal¹ crime/comfort/horror rotation. This fall, my brain demanded:

• 🎈Mysery & The IT series

I’m a Stephen King girly, always have been. Rewatching the movies every October whenever I get the chance is super nostalgic, slightly traumatic, and scratches my horror itch in all the right ways. After watching episode one of Welcome to Derry on HBO, my husband surprisingly suggested we binge the movies too. A suggestion I welcomed with open arms.

Foggy small town dread, cozy nostalgia, childhood fears unlocked again

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Monster: The Ed Gein Story
My husband tapped out by episode two, so I committed to watching this nightmare fuel solo. The production feels like vintage Unsolved Mysteries but more cinematic, and from the minute Jax opened his mouth sounding like Tiny Tim, I knew I was in for something deeply unsettling.

Disturbing in that “I should stop watching but won’t” kind of way

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Tulsa King
I’m a prime-time Taylor Sheridan junkie and I won’t apologize for it.This is very much a “men making bad choices in leather jackets” type of show, which isn’t typically my fave, but I do love a good mobster story.

Feels like watching your uncle start a gang, but at least he brought Garrett Hedlund and Frank Grillo

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Nobody Wants This

I love a TV couple that no one thinks should be together and I love Kristen Bell even more when she’s playing mildly unlikeable (relatable). It’s giving awkward conversations, mess, and solid “saaaame, girl” energy.Also, did anyone else catch Stephanie Faracy bringing back the Madonna outfit from Hocus Pocus?

Judgy girl comfort TV with a soft gooey center

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The Morning Show

Speaking of couples who shouldn't be together, I FINALLY got the Corey and Bradley moment I’ve been waiting for (and then SPOILER ALERT: they immediately blew it up, because of course they did). Meanwhile I’m still delusionally rooting for Alex and Paul Marks. I know it’s wrong, but it feels so right.

Everyone’s making bad choices and I’m emotionally invested in all of them

🔊 Listening

My brain is craving just a few genres while settling into nesting season. Vintage Halloween, creepy sleep stories, dark ambient soundscapes and moody autumn playlists. That’s it. That’s the list.

🍁 Fall Playlist on Spotify
Feels like a foggy rainy day in the PNW– moody, cozy and a little haunting

👻 Vintage 1920s–40s Halloween
Haunted speakeasy vibes

🛸 Glitch in the Matrix Podcast
A collection of bizarre experiences from people around the world. Dopplegangers, timeline slips, alternate realities and living in a simulation. My favorite stories to fall asleep to.

📚 Reading

Still working through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Don’t ask how long. I may have fallen off for a bit after reading/media depravation week.

Also reading:

• Advice for Making Life More Whimsical & Joyful by Jenna O’Brien
  I love reading anything that gives tips on making the mundane things in life more cozy and fun. Jenna’s article has so many fun ideas.

Advice for Making Life More Whimsical & Joyful

• Halloween by Candy Downs

  I love Halloween and am learning not to hate fall, but I always love reading Candy’s stories. If you love quick wit and real life reflections told in the most engaging and entertaining of ways, you’ve gotta deep dive Candy’s Joint Custody.

  Halloween

• Spooky Stories for Halloween by Pamala Vallarta
  True scary stories have a chokehold on me. Even better when told by someone I know.

Spooky Stories for Halloween!

🥒 Hyperfixation Foods

I often fall into an “I only eat these three things now” phase. This summer it was dry rub chicken wings, Trader Joe’s pot stickers, and bleu cheese stuffed olives.

Right now it’s:

• Pumpkin cream cold brew from Starbies
  I technically traded coffee in for tea a few months ago, but Im gonna go ahead and say if it has more sugar than caffeine, it doesn't count as coffee. It’s anxiety in a cup, but festive and tastes SO FUCKING GOOD.

• Cucumber shakers with noodles
  I started out with good intentions, but of course I found a way to make this viral meal unhealthy. I can’t for the life of my remember the recipe I used, but its basically this with spaghetti noodles added:
  

thedishonhealthy

A post shared by @thedishonhealthy

• Chicken soup in all its forms (but it better have noodles or dumplings).
  I’m known as a “soup for breakfast” girl, but once fall hits, I’m a “soup for all the meals” girl.

🔮 Things I Manifested

• Black and white cows
  Real ones, fake ones, Kirkland Signature ones. I was telling my friend the other day that my husband and I were talking about how we hadn’t seen a black and white cow in ages. Suddenly Holsteins are showing up everywhere. There was even an employee dressed like one at Costco a few weeks ago. Why?

• A full design client roster
  Work has been absolutely dead this whole year. A quiet meltdown & existential crisis followed by a few little Guardian Angel tarot sessions and I swear on my Substack, I started getting work again. You can believe in cyclical seasons of busy, I’ll be over here setting up crystal grids and believing in the woowoo stuff. In my spiritual development era and loving it,

  I officially put my real-estate license in inactive status yesterday,then successfully negotiated a contract to rebrand a big local public entity. When one door closes…

💄 Impulse Buys

There were many. None were necessary. All were pretty. My top 3 faves:

1. KISS imPRESS Press-On Nails

   I’ve never been able to do my own nails and the salon has become wildly expensive (plus I can’t stand sitting there for 2 hours. So I decided to give press-ons a try again. I’m in LOVE!
   
   I’m on my second set and they have so many fun colors. I gave some purpley “cat eye” ones a try along with some Halloween themed ones called “First Bite” (shown above) and “Cheeky”
   

2. This layered 90s fringe wig from Amazon (shown above)
   I liked it so much I had my friend cut me bangs the following week. I cannot style them for the life of me.
   

3. The Candle Daddy Leather scented melts

   I know these are supposed to be like really bad for us…but the smell of these gives “clean girl” and I can’t get enough of them.

✨ Beauty Faves

I’ve developed a small obsession with Korean Beauty products, and also have been influenced by a late night TikTok scroll vortex.

Here are the products I blew through the quickest:

1. Naturium The Glow-Getter Multi-Oil Body Wash

   It smells like buttered popcorn (sounds weird but it works) and leaves my skin feeling soft and hydrated. Perfect for cold weather!
   

2. Medicube PDRN Pink Peptide Serum
   This K-Beauty brand is hot right now so I decided to test it out. I’m not sure about the PDRN benefits here, but this serum is light and hydrating and keeps me from having to wear lotion. And it’s pink.
   

3. Skin 1004 Madagascar Centella Hyalu-Cica Water-Fit Sun Serum
   I never knew sunscreen could smell good and not be greasy/clog my pours at the same time. I get bad breakouts even from expensive “clear skin” American sunscreens.
   
   A DIY beauty group turned me onto Korean sunscreen and I will never go back. This goes on like a light water-based lotion and does NOT feel like sunscreen. Make sure you buy the Korean-versions, not the US ones, as they are formulated differently.

👾 Cool Things I Found on the Interwebs

• r/DistilledWaterHair

  You’re welcome, hard water folks. I’ll keep you posted on my progress².

• Dalmatian Nation
  As a designer I have a love-hate relationship with AI…but this AI art prompted by Angela Thompson gave me a dopamine rush.

  

• This perfectly spooky stop motion by @alltghatisshe on Instagram, and I would 100% watch a full-length version:

  allthatisshe

  

  A post shared by @allthatisshe

🪦🥀 Things That Made Me LOL

Ok, I have to admit, I was very disappointed when I went back to pull these links and noticed the “Sora” tag on a couple of them. I thought they were real, and now I’m bummed they’re not. So if you hate anything AI-generated, skip 2 and 4.

• This IG reel about one of our biggest distractions as women:

lisapedace

A post shared by @lisapedace

• This trick-or-treating moose:

tahircomedian

A post shared by @tahircomedian

• Josh Eckert’s G1mpy profile
  A man finding immense joy in the simple things
  

• This Facebook Reel my mom sent me about stinky fart cats

👁️ Moodboard

This month’s visual obsessions, on theme for your viewing pleasure.
All images curated from Pinterest and ⚡️same.energy

🖤 Until Next Time…

That’s it for Fall. If you’re still here, thank you for caring about the weird little things I get obsessed with. If you liked this, share it with a friend or give it a restack. If you didn’t, pretend it was a Black Friday email from an MLM company and delete it without guilt.

See you next season. Or whenever I remember. Happy Fall! 🍁

1. Okay, it’s actually all of the time. I’m immersed in horror, crime and supernatural stories ALL OF THE TIME.

2. I’ll forget to keep you posted on my progress. But feel free to ask if you’re interested.