An Old Fashioned Girl - Blog

The Autumn Cozy Cafe

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 21:34:56 GMT

It’s been a while, friends, a while since I welcomed you into my little fantasy world. My cozy cafe where people find new friends, have a delicious treat, and get lost in a book. Laufey is playing, and the air is turning crisp, and I am welcoming you into The Oldfashioned Girl Cafe.

Today I’m sharing fall drink recipes and cozy books to accompany them.

Chai Latte
I used to be a chai hater, but the past couple of autumns, I have grown to love it. This is my personal favorite method for making it.

Ingredients:
2 of your favorite chai teabags (I like Bigelow’s vanilla chai)
⅓ cup hot water
Brown sugar 1 teaspoon or to taste
Ground cinnamon to taste
Ice
½ cup milk of choice

1. Microwave the water until it’s hot, add in the tea bags, let steep and cool for 10-30 minutes, while still warm, mix in the brown sugar.
2. Fill a glass with ice, and sprinkle ground cinnamon over the ice.
3. Pour in the steeped chai (make sure to squeeze out the tea bags)
5. Add milk and mix well.

(the one pictured has a cold foam on top, but I no longer make cold foams for my chai so I didn't include the recipe.)

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
This is a young adult historical fantasy about two rival magicians battling within the confines of a circus. It’s compelling, mysterious, and romantic. It’s not specifically set in one season, but I think a lot of the elements work well for autumn.
There are a few content warnings (child abuse and allusions to spice) that gear the book to a slightly older audience, but I would say it is good for 16 and up.

Pumpkin Spice Earl Grey

This is a recipe actually, originally from my best friend, so all credit to her for getting me obsessed with this tea combination.

Ingredients:
1 bag pumpkin spice tea ( rooibos or black are my recommendation)
1 bag Earl Grey tea (can be regular or decaf)
Hot water
Sugar or sweetener of choice (optional)
Milk

1. In a mug, place your bag of pumpkin spice tea and the bag of Earl Grey.
2. Add sugar to taste if using.
3. Pour boiling water into the mug and let steep for 1-5 minutes (I usually leave the tea bags in because if using a decaf tea, it won’t be very tannic or astringent).
4. Add a splash of milk to taste.

Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc

This is a very cozy upper-middle-grade book. It’s marketed as romance, but honestly, that’s the tiniest subplot ever. Set in a small town in Vermont, the main character is spending her fall working at her mom’s coffee shop. Disaster strikes when a large chain coffee shop opens up right across the street, and the owner's son is definitely not cute or anything. This book has all of the quintessential autumn things. All vibes, not much substance.

Content warning for one character’s lesbian parents (they are only mentioned a couple of times).

Apple Cinnamon Tea Latte

1 bag cinnamon tea (black, herbal, rooibos, etc.)
Hot water (about 1 ½ cups)
1 tablespoon apple butter (the one I use has cinnamon added)
1 teaspoon (can be adjusted to taste) brown sugar
½ cup milk (I used oat)

1. Place a tea bag in a mug and add hot water; let it steep.
2. In a heatproof bowl or cup, mix together brown sugar, apple butter, and milk. Microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute, mix well, making sure there are no lumps.
3. Pour into the cup of tea.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

This was my first Agatha Christie read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s about 10 people who are sent a mysterious invitation to a house on an isolated island. But something is off; the hosts are nowhere to be found, and people begin dropping dead. This book is both cozy and eerie, despite the murder, it’s not really a dark or spooky book and would be suitable for most people.

Thank you so much for visiting my little cafe today, I hope you will use these reccomendations to brighten your day.

Belle Thomas

Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea.

Autumn When You're Struggling

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 19:32:43 GMT

I love autumn. I feel like that's a pretty common sentiment this time of year. But let’s be honest, it can be really hard to enjoy the delights of the season when you’re struggling.

This was me last autumn, I was dealing with so many personal issues as well as starting college and stepping out of the comfort zone I had lived in for so long. I was sad, anxious, confused, grieving, and so many other things. Because of this, I found myself not enjoying something I loved.

I know this autumn so far has been hard for a lot of us. From starting a new school year and all the changes that inevitably come with that, the older you get, from turmoil in the world at large, and the seasonal depression so many of us face, among other things. In this blog post, I want to share some very simple and cost-effective ways to romanticize this season even if you’re struggling. And even if you’re not, hopefully you can glean some fun ideas from this post.

Decorations -

I find that one of the best ways to romanticise a season is to decorate my space. Here are a few simple things that you can do to make your room feel autumnal.

Put colored leaves in a vase. If you live somewhere where the leaves change color, picking a couple of branches and putting them in vases around your house can bring a little bit of fall inside. If you don’t live somewhere where the leaves turn, consider bringing in pinecones, acorns, or even brownish leaves.

Use clothing as decor. I have some sweaters, jackets, and other clothing pieces that I love but don’t get much wear out of. I love draping blazers and jackets off of chairs, and using sweaters, scarves, and shawls as something to put under the decorations I already have.

Buy a candle. I don’t think there is any reason to go crazy over seasonal candles, but buying yourself (or finding or making) a fall candle can go such a long way to bringing autumn into your life. You can find really cheap and wonderfully scented candles all over the place. Some of my favorite places to get them for under ten dollars are T.J. Maxx/Marshalls, Hobby Lobby, and Walmart.

Make a vision or mood board on your wall. Printing out some pictures from Pinterest and collaging them on a corkboard or your wall is another really fun and easy way to decorate. It doesn’t take long, and the result is so pretty. If you don’t have a color printer at home, many schools and libraries provide them for cheap use or for free.

Music -

Every autumn, I fall back into Jazz. Putting on YouTube Jazz Study videos, and shuffling random jazz playlists I find on music streaming platforms. More specifically, I have been loving Nora Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, and Laufey this autumn.Some of my favorite Jazz and Jazz adjacent songs have been -

Autumn in New York by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald
Black Coffee by Peggy Lee
Let You Break My Heart Again by Laufey and Philharmonia Orchestra
Seven Years by Nora Jones
Mr. Eclectic by Laufey
Autumn Leaves by Nat King Cole

If you are looking for some pop music, here are some autumnal songs I have been loving -

Paul Revere by Noah Kahan
Marjorie by Taylor Swift
Second Hand News by Birdy
Reckless Driving (feat Ben Kessler) by Lizzie McAlpine

I have also been on the hunt for Worship Music for fall, and I have stumbled across the album Interlude by Matt Crocker. The songs are pretty simple, but the sound is perfect for a cozy night in, and the songs aren’t as cookie-cutter as a lot of worship songs can be.

YouTube Channels-

One of my favorite forms of escapism after a long day is cozy YouTube vlogs. Here are a few of my favorites.

Darling Desi - I’ve definitely mentioned Desi before. Her videos are artistic masterpieces all about romanticising life. Her autumn videos are my favorite (she has a whole playlist of them on her channel.) If you’re going to check out one thing from this list, let her channel be it.

Morgan Long - Morgan is another cozy content creator. Her videos take a chattier and more personal approach that feels unadulterated by modern internet culture. She documents her life in Portland as an illustrator while prioritizing taking care of her home, herself, and spending time with those she loves. Whenever Morgan posts, I love to soak it in. Her sunshiny spirit makes her videos so enjoyable to watch.

Hannah Adkins - Hannah is a creator who lives in the Cotswolds. Every Sunday, she uploads videos of her idyllic life in England. Her videos are slow and comforting, highlighting the landscape and time with her family and dog. If you love rich British woman fashion, Hannah is always showing off her clothes, which I love.

Carter Sullivan - Carter is a work-from-home corporate wife documenting her life in Canada. Her videos are very cozy and homey. She shows a lot of the ways she and her husband are making their fixer-upper a home, she shares her reads, the food she loves, she yaps a lot about books, crafts, and F1. Her videos are almost always long and always a delight.

Books -

I obviously have to talk about autumnal books! But… I am going to save my autumn book recommendations for next week’s post, so stay tuned!

Baked Goods-

One of my favorite things ever is a baked good or a treat. Autumn is the perfect season for baking with the seasonal fruits and vegetables, cozy spices, and rainy days that are conducive to spending the day in the kitchen.

(sorry for the unaesthetic picture haha)

Pumpkin Pancakes - I have been loving making pumpkin pancakes this autumn. I love how easy they are to make, and I love having a fun breakfast around the house. Here is a recipe I’ve been using. It makes about six pancakes, so it’s perfect for just a couple of servings.

Cinnamon Rolls - At the beginning of September, I made homemade cinnamon rolls for the first time. It was a long process, but it was so much fun, and the final product was worth it. This is the recipe I used, but you could also just use store-bought cinnamon rolls (I know Pillsbury has a pumpkin spice roll this year that I want to try.)

Gingerdoodles - I know gingerbread is often associated with Christmas, but I think the flavor profile is very well-suited to autumn as well. I also find that around the holidays, I bake cookies that my family always makes, so there isn’t much time for experimentation. I love these cookies so much, they’re soft and spicy. Whenever I make this recipe I add a ¼ teaspoon of black pepper in with the spices.

Apple Turnovers - This is an autumn baking staple for me! I love how simple they are to make and how they can serve as a dessert with ice cream or whipped cream, or can be a delicious breakfast with some yogurt or breakfast sausages on the side. This recipe is close to the one I use, except my recipe doesn't have apple cider in it and I don't use a glaze.

Faith -

If you’re struggling this season, lean into Jesus. Remember how faithful he is, find comfort, peace, and solace in him above all things.

Do a Little Faith Blog Bible plan. This blog has the cutest printable Bible plans. Each day has a Bible reading, as well as an activity, or a song to help you grow closer to Jesus. The Bible plans are created monthly and follow a monthly calendar, but you can really start at any time. This September’s theme is Falling Back on track with Jesus.
Read and study Psalms of Thanksgiving. Throughout the book of Psalms (which are primarily songs and poems), the psalmists give thanks to God. This can be a great way to lean into Jesus this fall and to remember all the good things he has done despite hardships.

Autumn Activities -

To round out this post, here is a long list of affordable, simple, and fun activities you can do to romanticize autumn.

Take an autumn walk. Especially prioritize doing something like this during peak foliage season. Listen to an autumn playlist or walk with someone you love, collect fall leaves, and either bring fall drinks with you or get/make them after the walk.

Candlelight reading. This is one of my very favourite cozy season activities. I turn off the lights, put my phone away, light some candles, and read for as long as I want. Bonus points if the book is a cozy fall book.

Go Apple Picking - this is a tradition for many of us, but finding a local orchard and picking apples is one of the best ways to romanticize autumn. If you have the time, explore the orchard shop, take the apples home, bake something, and take cute pictures while you’re in the orchard.

Decorating pumpkins - pumpkin patches can be expensive to visit, but most grocery stores sell pumpkins for reasonable prices this time of year. Put on “It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” or another film of your choice and carve or paint the pumpkins.

Have a cozy fall movie night. Taking one night to really make the most out of watching a movie can cure a multitude of hurts. Pick a favorite or a movie that’s new to you, pop a huge bowl of popcorn, collect your favorite Halloween candy, make hot apple cider or pumpkin spice tea, and cozy up.

Go on a foliage drive, drive down wooded roads, or to cute small towns blasting Nora Jones and Noah Kahan. Find a bakery to get apple cider donuts, get pumpkin spice lattes, or make your own to take. This could be a short excursion or take up a whole day.

Get yourself a fall fun drink. No planning is required to do this. On a hard day, take a moment to treat yourself to a little drink. Pumpkin spice lattes, chai, apple cider, apple crisp ollipops, cinnamon tea, salted caramel lattes, and apple sparkling water.

Make an effort to wear your favorite fall outfits. I personally believe that what you wear can shape your day, so don’t be afraid to wear your sweaters, flannels, courderoys, and boots.

And finally, my go-to piece of advice to help you romanticize everything is to document it. You don’t have to document the tears you shed or the long nights, but you can write about your adventures in a journal, you can take a photo every day, or a video clip every week. This is your life, and you will find that when you record it, you naturally will make more of an effort to enjoy what you have.

Thank you so much for being here, friend. If you are struggling or even if you are not, I hope this post was able to give you some ideas on how to make the most of this autumn.

Belle Thomas

Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea.

Discussing Wuthering Heights

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 17:26:31 GMT

The Bronte Sisters. The three Victorian women writers who I have been slowly reading my way through for the past three years. This past month I tackled Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and thought I would share my thoughts on the novel.

Wuthering Heights is described as one of the most toxic books in the English language, it’s a book that confuses, disgusts, and challenges readers. And I was very excited (and nervous) to give it a go. To fully illustrate how polarizing this book is (and to make us laugh), here are some reviews of the book from modern and historical audiences.

One reviewer on Google Books said - “The poisonous passion this book contains is just extraordinary. A very strange book indeed!”

I honestly can’t tell if this is a positive or a negative review.

A Goodreads reviewer dramatized his reading experience - “What follows is a retelling of the exact moment I gave up on reading Wuthering Heights.

"I CAN'T DO IT ANYMORE!" Screamed the weary reader.”

Another Goodreads Review - my favorite part was when heathcliff banged his head against a tree out of despair because that’s how i felt reading this.

In 1847, James Lorimer wrote that - “Here all the faults of Jane Eyre are magnified a thousand fold, and the only consolation which we have in reflecting upon it is that it will never be generally read.”
How wrong he was on that final point.

An Anonymous 1848 reviewer said - “The volumes are powerfully written records of wickedness and they have a moral – they show what Satan could do with the law of Entail.”

An Anoymous reviewer in Grahams Lady’s Magazine said - “How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors….”

So now, let’s get to my thoughts. Wuthering Heights is the epitome of a gothic novel. Dramatic and windswept moors, a moody, mysterious, and angry male protagonist. Potential hauntings and generational horrors.

The first thing you really need to know when going into Wuthering Heights is that it is not a romance. Yes, it is based on love (albeit starcrossed and deranged love) between several characters, but the point of the story isn’t that two people fall in love and live happily ever after. It is quite the opposite. In Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte tries to answer the question “what if you don’t end up with the person you love.” This is exactly the issue Heathcliffe wrestles with throughout the course of the novel.

Something I find very interesting about the works of the Bronte sisters that I have read so far, is how each book seems to echo a similar theme from each other. It makes me think that perhaps Charlotte, Emily, and Anne were discussing deep topics together and each had a different solution to moral problems. Their books immortalize this.

But before we get into the more literary analysis section of this review, let’s get a little backstory on Emily Bronte and the plot of the novel itself.

Emily was the daughter of Curate (a term that is equivalent in many ways to pastor or reverend) Patrick Bronte. She was the second youngest of six children including of course Charlotte and Anne. Her childhood was slightly troubled with her mother dying when she was quite young, being sent to a boarding school where she and her three older sisters were often mistreated, and experiencing the death of her older sisters Maria and Elizabeth.

Despite these trials the sisters were well educated and specifically loved the romantic poets (think Lord Byron and Percy Shelley). Echos of the romantics can be seen in all of the Bronte sisters' work, but I think it appears especially in Emily’s. Emily along with her sisters were teachers by occupation, but Emily was noted to not like children very much. Her first work was published alongside that of her sisters under their male pseudonyms. It was a book of poetry entitled “Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell” at the time of it’s publication it only sold two copies (a thing I like to remind myself of when I feel like my writing is worthless.”

This brings us to Wuthering Heights.

The novel was published in late 1847 in a three volume set alongside Anne’s Agnes Grey. The publisher published the books in the wake of the success of Charlotte’s Jane Eyre.

I think the pairing of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey is very interesting, as the two works are in many ways polar opposites. Wuthering Heights emphasises the rugged, desperate, and dirty sides of human nature, while Agnes Grey puts emphasis on purity, resilience, and greater good.

The plot of Wuthering Heights is in many ways a record of an isolated family living in Yorkshire.

We follow a servant named Nelly Dean as she tells a tenant on the family property (Mr. Lockwood) about his landlord Mr. Heathcliffe.

I’ll keep most of the details a secret so that you can enjoy the novel yourself, but it’s primarily about Heathcliffe’s vengeful actions after being essentially rejected by his childhood love. He is fueled by passion and unhealed grief and will do anything at anyone's expense to get back at the man who he believes has wronged him.

Wuthering Heights isn’t very realistic I don’t think, but it shows what perhaps might happen if human passions and desires were left untamed.

There are no “good” characters in the novel (unlike Anne’s Agnes Grey where the two man characters are perfect paragons of good behavior), in fact all of the characters are highly flawed and sinful human beings, but Emily does a masterful job of making the reader care about the characters, at least, enough for them to sit on the edge of their seats as they flip the pages of the novel.

One thing that must have annoyed Victorian readers was the fact that there is no real reform for any of the characters in the book and there is no moral presented by the author. The book is rife with people doing horrible things and never repenting from it. In it’s very
essence Wuthering Heights is a chronicle of passion untamed, and this is where my Bronte sisters literary analysis comes in.

After reading the first three Bronte novels, I have traced a theme through all three, passion. Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey both have other themes, the most significant to me being the way Charlotte analyzes temptation in Jane Eyre.

But this theme of passion is the invisible string between these three seemingly unalike novels.

Wuthering Heights is passion untamed.

Jane Eyre is passion tamed.

Agnes Grey is passion diluted.

Let me explain. In Wuthering Heights each character is driven by their own desires for love, admiration, money, and pride. Each of them sees the world through the lens of their all consuming passion and everything they do flows out of that worldview. Cathy marries Edgar because of his worship of her, Heathcliffe makes life miserable for his wife and son because of love for a woman he can’t have. Edgar Linton withholds his daughter from the world because of his fear of her falling away from him like her mother did. Linton is driven by a desire to please his unpleasable father, Cathy the second is driven by her desire for love. The cycle continues again and again throughout the book and is something we also can observe in many of the side characters as well.

In Jane Eyre we have Mr. Rochester, a man full of fiery and overwhelming passion. Passion that he learns to set aside in the search of becoming a better man. And we also see Jane, a woman who will not let herself give in to the passion and desires that she has. She instead gives her cares to God and removes herself from situations that may cause her to sin.

Their passions are tamed in the search of self betterment and their tempers are softened by love and affection.

In Agnes Grey we see a woman who stands firm no matter what is going on around her. She is mistreated and looked down on, but she doesn't let anger or passion take over. She is steadfast and true. And the man she ends up marrying also reflects this. (I have to say that because of this Agnes Grey is quite a boring book).

There is no question in my mind that the sisters talked about these things, each choosing to sketch out a different human reaction to similar feelings.

Now back to Wuthering Heights. It’s not just a dramatic, passionate, windswept gothic novel. It is also clever and witty, deep and haunting. It is a piece of literature that should not be looked over, but instead questioned and explored and understood. Unfortunately this is all the world ever received from Emily Bronte, she left us very young and with so many questions. But I would encourage you to read the book for yourself, dig deep and explore the rugged moors of Yorkshire.

Belle Thomas

Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea.

Summer This Year

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 04:00:00 GMT

I don’t like summer, she’s my worst enemy. Someone more beautiful than I. I fear the heat and the endlessly empty days. Yet I crave summer, want it like I want them to actually adapt Ella Enchanted accurately.

This summer I want to run away to the sea and let my hair go wild with saltwater. And I want to walk to coffee shops and finally meet the girl I met online in 10th grade in the flesh. This summer is a summer of strawberries and daisies and sunsets. I want hot days with no responsibilities where we can get acai bowls and matcha and sit by the pool and paint our toenails hot pink.

I want to read gothic novels during thunderstorms and enter my Bronte era while everyone else is into The Summer I Turned Pretty. I want to roll down the windows and blast pop music and drive into the sunset.

I want to take spontaneous picnics and have uber planned picnics. And I want to go to New York City and Boston and explore and live like I’ve never lived before. I want to see sunrises from open fields and find tea cups at yard sales.

I want to stop fearing summer and start living her. Stop worrying about it being perfect and just enjoy swimming and barbecues and hiding out from the heat in airconditioned crypts. Maybe I need to stop worrying about wasting my summer, because that’s how I waste it. Thinking about how it could be if I was spending it in Europe or lived in a smaller town or if my friends lived closer. Actually, I think that's how everything gets wasted. We worry we’re going to grow apart from our friends so we don’t enjoy the time we have with them. We worry about college so we waste high school. We worry about finding love so we forget to love.

We’re wasting our lives with perfection. We’re wasting our lives by waiting for better days.

My summer may not look like my pinterest boards but I am going to take pictures anyways.

Maybe I can’t go to the concerts I want to go to, but I can go to local bands playing on the green and have fun anyways. I may not be able to spend a week in a beach town but I can swim at a lake and get coffee and wear seashell jewelry. You may not find what you’re looking for, but that doesn't mean the searching was wasted.

I used to ruin everything for myself. I worried about what I was wearing, I would get antsy cause it was too hot or too cold or not the way I imagined it. Now I'm basking in the things that feel wrong. Maybe it’s okay that we ate pbj on the beach instead of getting tropical smoothies from a cute beachside stand. Maybe my jean shorts and decade old t-shirt is aesthetic enough and none of this actually matters. Maybe it’s beautiful because it didn’t go the way I expected it to go.

Stop wasting it.

This summer lets live in the time we have. Let’s not pass on experiences and beauty because it wasn’t what we hoped for or expected.

Belle Thomas

Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea.

Little Gifts To Brighten Someone's Day

Thu, 22 May 2025 16:47:31 GMT

I love gift giving. There is something about tangible, holdable expressions of love, that speaks to my eclectic, sentimental, old soul. I love planning gifts for people in my life, and something I am always striving to get better at is giving gifts for no real reason. In this blog post I am sharing so many ideas for gifts, they can be just because gifts, birthday gifts, graduation gifts, gifts for when your friend is sad, gifts for when you just want someone to feel loved, and at the end some small gestures that can also be gifts.

All of these have some element of diy or assembly, if you’re looking for single item gift ideas, check out my gift guide.

(all photos are from Pinterest, I do not own any of them)

Bouquets
Flowers are great gifts (especially for last minute purposes), but I have fallen down a rabbit hole of bouquets that take a little more effort but are amazing gifts.

Makeup bouquets - these are flower bouquets and you can add your friend’s favorite beauty products on skewers and incorporate them into the bouquet. I think it’s really cute if you use a specific color scheme.

Book bouquets - I think this is maybe the cutest gift on the list. It's a unique way to gift books by mixing them in with flowers.

Coffee bouquets - These are my most favorite of the bouquet type gifts. Small flower arrangements, another little gift the person may love (a lot of people are doing sweet treats or beauty products), and their favorite drink (it doesn't have to be Starbucks or coffee, I’ve seen these made with canned drinks as well). This gift to me seems so intentional yet perfect for any old occasion when you just want to brighten someone’s day.

A couple of other fun bouquet ideas I have seen are, art supplies bouquets, and bouquets made in water bottles, mugs, and other travel drinkware.

Simple DIYed gifts

Claw clips - bedazzling or painting claw clips is a really cute and personalized gift. You don’t have to be very crafty for this, just attach adhesive gemstones or paint with simple designs.

Decorated Photo Frames - this is another super easy but very sweet gift. Decorate the outer part of a picture frame with gemstones, seashells, paper mache, stickers, or handpaint a design. Then put a picture that will mean something to your friend.

Annotate a book - This is probably the most high effort gift on the list, but it can be so thoughtful. Your annotations can be as simple as underlining and highlighting, or can be full of deep observations, artwork etc.

Altoid tin wallets - these are nothing new in the DIY world, they’re adorable and kind of timeless. Empty mint tins decorated with scrapbook paper, beads, photos and other mementos. As a gift you can customize them to fit the recipient’s aesthetic. I also love the idea of curating little items to go inside the wallet, such as lip balm, cash, breath mints, and cute little trinkets.

Gift Baskets

My favorite kind of gifts to give or to receive are gift baskets. I love curating all the small gifts into one thoughtful and put together gift. They can also be really inexpensive, you don’t need a big expensive item by just using small things like snacks, candles, books, stationary, stuffed animals, and literally any small cute thing you can create a really thoughtful gift. I love how much room for creativity there is, and how it can truly fit any budget. Here are a few really fun variations and ideas to get you started.

Pack a purse - Instead of just giving someone a purse, I've always thought it would be fun to fill the purse with purse essentials. A little bag inside with feminine products, painkillers, and cough drops. Gum, tissues, granola bars, lip gloss, and a tide pen stuck into the pockets. A little polaroid of their dog, best friend, boyfriend, or mom. A gift card in a pocket if you feel like putting a little more money into it. Anything you think that person would love to have in their purse. If you want to go the extra mile you could also get them a bag charm that fits their personality.

Pack a backpack - here’s another little variation that would make a really great graduation gift, or first day of school gift. Filling a backpack with school supplies and essentials. It can honestly include a lot of similar things to the purse, but with an emphasis on school supplies (this of course will vary depending on what they’re graduating from or to).

This same concept can translate across so many types of bags and interests here are a few ideas to get you started - a book bag filled with annotation supplies and a travel coffee cup, a backpack for travel with travel essentials such as a neck pillow and their favorite snacks, a hiking backpack with general survival essentials, a beach bag with sunscreen, beach reads, and Poppi sodas.

Favorite things basket - This is perhaps the simplest idea on my list (and also one of the most inexpensive gifts depending on how you go about it), but it also says to the recipient "I see you.” Fill a basket with their favorite things, I mean snacks, candy, tea, chapstick, breakfast cereal, perfume, seeds from their favorite flowers, travel guides from their dream destination, books by their favorite authors, candles in their favorite scents, something that’s their favorite color, any little thing that reminds you of them. I think a gift like this is so thoughtful and caring and it fits any situation where you want to show someone how loved they are.

A Jellycat themed gift basket - I, like every other basic girl out there, am obsessed with Jellycats. These adorable stuffed animals can be the basis for an adorable gift basket. So many of them are food themed or a single color. I love the idea of basing a basket on the Jellycat you are gifting. You can put in the food the jellycat is, you can add in beauty products they love that match the color theme, items in a similar color scheme. Jellycats aren’t only for girls, there are a lot of really fun animal and sports themed ones that you could use as a base for a gift for a guy as well.
Here are a few ideas based on my favorite Jellycats to get you started:
The croissant Jellycat paired with fresh croissants, jam, french inspired tea, a beret perhaps, maybe a book set in Paris.
Vicky Teapot Jellycat with tea cups and tea and fresh flowers.
Fleurette Tarte aux Fraises Jellycat in a strawberry themed gift basket with everything strawberry printed, flavored, and scented.
Any of the Jellycat bunnies in a monochrome themed basket.
And last but certainly not least, the Oats Bowl Jellycat with different oatmeal packets, pajama pants or socks in blue stripes, and fresh fruit.

Monochrome gift baskets - I say monochrome as in one color, but I also want to challenge you to think outside the box. One color, or perhaps one idea. You could make a gift basket that’s all pink, or you can stick to a theme like roses or the beach. It’s all about creating a cohesive gift basket that touches on something that person really loves. It could be any color of the rainbow, or it could be bows, cars, bunnies, hearts, Minnie Mouse, whatever you want.

A book themed basket - This is a concept that I have used before, and it’s one of my favorites. All you need is one book that you know the person will love and a few little things to help curate a reading experience. I once bought my friend a devotional book I knew she would love and added in Bible annotating supplies, tea, and candy that I know she loves. You can give the recipient things to create a general cozy reading experience (things like fuzzy socks, highlighters, mugs, hot chocolate, their favorite snacks), or you can make the items uber specific to the book choice.
As an example if I were gifting someone Anne of Green Gables I might include raspberry flavored soda, a cute blouse with puffy sleeves, a pressed flower bookmark, and chocolate caramels, maybe along with some tea and a highlighter set. Again you can really curate this to your budget.

Now, finally here are a few gift ideas for those moments where you just need to brighten up someone's day.
Basically anything paired with a little handwritten note -

Their favorite coffee with a note written on the top of the cup.
Candy, snacks, literally any surprise treat they might like paired of course with a handwritten note.
Their favorite soda or energy drink with a note tied around the can with a piece of ribbon.
Just a good old handwritten note (can you tell I really like handwritten notes)

Other ideas:

Food doordashed to their house so they don’t have to cook after a long day.
Homemade cookies, or muffins, or bread (or buy it from a bakery). Bonus points if you put it in a cute basket or something like that.
A digital gift card to a place they love
Diyed bookmarks (I am putting them in this category because they can be very simple to make.)

And if you can’t do any of those things, remember that kind words go far, memes, random funny videos, etc can always bring a smile to someone’s face, and often a phone call to let someone know they’re not alone is what they really need.
Don’t underestimate the power of praying with someone whether what they’re going through is good or bad. Communication with the creator of the universe is a gift in and of itself.

Which of these gifts would you like to either give or receive? Do you have any ideas to add to the mix?

Belle Thomas

Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea.

Reflections of An English Major

Thu, 15 May 2025 17:04:15 GMT

As I write this dear reader, I am supposed to be writing an essay about the historical context of John Donne’s "A Valediction: of Weeping" and how the modern reader might misinterpret it. It’s my final project for my British Literature 1 course and it’s dense.

I only have two days left of my first year at college, and I thought I would share some thoughts and insight on my year as an English major.

This school year has taught me many things, how to work with other people, how to get work done, how to be responsible for myself. I’ve learned about friendships and grief, isolation, creativity, love, humor, roadwork, vending machines, flat tires, and literature. But most importantly this year has taught me how to surrender every part of my life to Jesus and to trust him with an uncertain future.

I’m an English major. That’s a sentence that a lot of people are confused by, or instantly make assumptions about. They roll their eyes or ask “what in the world are you going to do with that?” One thing I’ve been learning through my experience so far in this field is that people don’t understand a lot about the industry and the richness of the English language and literature. It’s a misunderstood career with a lot of people believing that there isn't a viable path. This has cemented in my mind the importance of holding onto your dreams. So many times I have felt judgement for wanting to be a writer, as if the career I’ve been pursuing for years is insignificant and unimportant. But this year I have met other students with similar dreams, and I’ve met professors who believe in me and my abilities.

I guess what I am saying is that you will be rewarded if you hold onto your seemingly silly dreams. Maybe your dream isn’t writing books like mine is, but I want to champion you and encourage you to keep going. Who cares what they say anyways. Study novels, write stories, drink lots of tea while you annotate poetry. You know what you’re doing and where you’re going even if no one else does.

That leads me into the next thing I learned this year. Romanticizing your life, if you make time for it, actually works. I get a thrill when I light a candle and make a cup of tea and pull out my cute highlighters to annotate Chaucer. Sure I despised The Canterbury Tales, but it was so much more enjoyable with my medieval pilgrim ambiance video in the background. Do your math to a jazz playlist, write your essays at a coffee shop. Take time to unproductively study with your friends in the library. These are the moments that make your life interesting and beautiful, and I believe, help you to be a better student in the long run.

I’ve grown a lot socially and emotionally this school year. I’ve dealt with so many challenges and experienced so many joys. I learned how to center myself on Jesus in the middle of the chaos that happened in my life. I learned how to connect with others in my classes, my church, my job, and everywhere I go. I think emotional growth and social growth go hand in hand. College stretches you socially, and I think that this in-between your teenage years and adult years grows you emotionally. It’s been beautiful, it’s been heartbreaking. There were days where my life seemed like a Shakespeareian tragedy, and other days when my life was the ending of an L.M. Montgomery novel. And that’s just part of it. Not just college but life in general.

I know a lot of you aren’t in college right now, maybe you’re a few years away from it, or it’s something in your past, or perhaps you never went. I hope that even you can glean something from this post that is about college.

I’m not going to lie, I have a deep love for higher education. I love the freedom of it, I love learning from different people, I love the aesthetic of it. I love study playlists and in between, class coffee runs. I love writing essays and taking practice quizzes. I love knowing my campus and seeing people I know all around it.
I love getting good grades and attending classes.

This school year I learned about Beowulf’s influence on literature, Fanny Burney’s influence on Jane Austen, how Taylor Swift’s Blank Space falls under the category of a neoclassical work, and how Roald Dahl wrote a story about a murder by leg of lamb. I learned the difference between a meteor, a meteorite, and a meteoroid. I learned about Pavlov and his dogs, the American civil war for the millionth time, and lines, shape, and color (I swear I’m not in second grade.)

I’ve grown a lot. If all I get out of my college experience is a deeper understanding of myself, then I think it’ll be worth it. I’ve learned that I function well with routine as opposed to chaos. I’m the kind of person who has to make sure she takes care of her body and mind because everything else ends up stemming from that.

I’ve been learning how to surrender. In Christian circles surrender is a word we throw around a lot. We talk about giving our lives to Jesus as an act of surrender, raising our hands in worship is an act of surrender, we surrender decisions and relationships to Christ. But how do you actually surrender? See surrender isn’t giving in, or letting go, it’s sacrificing. Surrender is removing perfectionism and control from your life and the situations that surround you. Surrendering to Jesus means falling into him and letting him have control. Surrender isn’t easy, surrender isn’t always a relief. You have to learn to trust God, knowing how deeply he loves you and cares about you. So much so that he can handle your situations better than you can. For me surrendering means reminding myself of the goodness of God and how he has worked things out for me in the past and will continue to do so. Surrender is praying before doing homework or writing a blog post. It’s not running away from scary things because you know God is in control.

What have I learned about writing? Well. I’ve learned that sometimes the things we love have to take a backseat. Life ebbs and flows, sometimes we have to focus on academics and work before our dream careers. Sometimes we will get more enjoyment out of spending time with friends or listening to the same three songs on repeat then we will from reading books or writing poetry. And that’s okay.

I haven’t written much this semester. It’s not that I don’t want to or feel like I can’t, it’s just that my priorities shift. If I’m not writing 1000 words in my novel each day like I used to be able to, it doesn't mean writing isn’t for me. Your life may not always look the same way it did last year. That’s a beautiful thing.

Our creativity and the artwork itself changes as we grow, as we go out into the world and do new things. Isn’t that what it means to be a writer in the first place? To tell stories that are rooted in universal human experience? It’s my experience that we cannot write about human experience without experiencing life. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to spend hours on my novel over the summer, but I think it means I’m healing from the lie that to be a writer you have to hit word counts. It’s not about that anymore for me. It’s now about you. The reader. The person who can read my life experiences and be touched and realize that they are not alone in the wilderness of life.

So there were my ramblings from a year as an English student. If you have any questions I would love you to comment them and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Do you like this style of post with all over the place thoughts?

Belle Thomas

Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea.

Redefining Beauty

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 23:27:09 GMT

I don’t know who taught me that the difference between beautiful and ugly is. Not only do I not remember the teacher, I don’t remember when the lesson was taught.

If we were in my literature class right now someone might say that the knowledge of what beauty is is ingrained into each of us as much as our own individualism is. But I think that’s far too gentle to be true.

I don’t remember when I learned the difference between beautiful and ugly, but I do remember being about four years old, looking into a toy compact mirror and saying aloud that I was ugly. I don’t know where I heard the word. My mom heard me say it and rushed to tell me that I shouldn’t say that about myself because I was beautiful.

I’m sure you had an experience like that too. One that didn’t reassure you, but turned you into Alice in a funhouse mirror, and then straight down the toxic rabbit hole. Comparing yourself to barbie dolls, your sister, and cartoon characters.

And it probably carried into school didn’t it? Comparing yourself to that girl, that celebrity, wondering why your clothes didn’t fit you the right way and if they ever would.

You probably told yourself that your acne was the reason those girls didn’t want to be friends with you. You thought that your lack of blonde hair or blue eyes or whatever it was that you told yourself beauty was, would prevent boys from ever falling in love with you. Maybe you tried to hide your ugliness with glittery lip gloss and purple nail polish, but you still felt like you would never be quite as pretty as you wanted to be. Because it was you that wanted it even though you convinced yourself it was someone else’s fault.

I know you did that.

I know you probably also looked in the mirror and cried wondering when you would get pretty. Your mom probably read you Bible verses about being fearfully and wonderfully made, she probably bought you your first makeup set and told you that we only wear it to enhance our natural beauty. But you didn’t. You wore it because you were insecure.

Maybe someone told you that you were ugly. Too pale, too dark, too fat, too skinny, too scarred, too freckled. Maybe someone told you that boys only like blondes, that brown eyes look like dirt, that there was nothing special about you and you looked like every other girl in the world. Maybe you spent hours trying to make your curls straight or your straight hair curly.

You probably felt that before didn’t you?

Same girl, same. I say all of this because I’ve been there.

Have you gotten over this obsession with beauty yet, or are you still tied to it? I’m not sure where I lie. But one thing I do know is that accepting myself as beautiful has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. It’s funny because it’s not something that happened all at once, we as little girls were told that beauty looked a certain way. Even if no one directly told us, we still knew the standards. You don’t need me to tell you that beauty standards are false and unfair. They are, we all know it, but yet we still conform to them in some way or another. You may always secretly wish to be blonde and as much as the media has tried to portray beautiful women with all shades and styles of hair, you’ll always cling to that ideal. Because if you’re like me, you’ve set beauty standards for yourself. Even if you know deep down that you are beautiful, you may still believe the lie that someone else is better than you.

We have to let go of our self-imposed standards of beauty.

But what if we reframed beauty in our minds? What if we remove beauty from being solely in association with our physical appearance?

Maybe if we reframe beauty to be about flowers, trees, and birdsong. Maybe beauty is music, crayon drawings, and concrete buildings. Beauty can be pastry, a mug, a dinosaur toy. Beauty is laughing and smiling and crying. Beauty is strawberries and lightning and a tube of lipstick that's simply just a tube of lipstick, not something to mask your smile. Maybe beauty is thinking a satellite is a shooting star, maybe it’s singing at the top of your lungs in your car. Find beauty in raindrops, in cold coffee, in swamps, in kittens, in poetry, in really badly taken polaroids. Beauty can be garden hose water, campfire smoke, and your beat up combat boots.

Start seeing beauty differently, start looking around you for the beauty.

Maybe beauty is uncertainty, heartbreak, hope, and fulfillment.

Maybe beauty is in time with Jesus in the morning, in screaming his name at the top of your lungs when you are at a loss about what to do. Maybe the beauty is in the forgiveness God grants you. Maybe beauty is worshiping the Lord, or simple sitting in his presence.

And then after you take the time to see this beauty all around you, maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and it’ll suddenly occur to you that you are beautiful.

After all this time, maybe you'll finally see it.

Maybe your mom was right all along. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. And no one had to tell you it, you just knew it because the character of God is a character of beauty, and all he created is beautiful, with no exceptions.

Belle Thomas

Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea.