A Whimsical Spring

ways I'm bringing more whimsy this season

Last week my partner asked me if I thought I was whimsical. “Of course I’m whimsical,” I told him. “I wear purple and green together and I have plushy keychains hanging off my purses.” It’s unclear if he was convinced.

I wondered why I felt the need to defend my whimsy. It’s all the rage on social media, with TikToks telling viewers to be “less serious” and “play more pranks.” Simultaneously, parent content is encouraging moms to create a “whimsical” boyhood for their sons, mostly by building them butterfly wings and dressing them in pants with fruit on them (I want those pants).

As someone who values structure and consistency, being too spontaneous can feel daunting, teetering on the precipice of chaos. But, maybe it can simply mean adding some levity and childlike wonder to your everyday life.

Below are some ways I’m going to (or have done already—see, whimsical!) do that this spring.

two separate! whimsical park hangs

Experiment with new color combinations

I wrote about wearing purple and green together; I’ve yet to make more attempts with this color combination, but I am gravitating towards those colors individually, separately. I’m also aiming to add more orange to my outfits (think orange cream soda or Sunkist orange), which will also go with the above colors.

If de-saturating counts as a new color combination, cool-toned makeup has been on my rotation. I’ve had this Neen cream blush in the shade Go (“nude brown mauve”) for some time and it works dabbed on eyelids, cheeks, and lips. I’m also a recent convert to this paint pot from Mac in the shade “Tailor Grey.” I find that adding more cool tones helps balance out the warm brown shades I often wear.

MAC, Kaleidos makeup; a cool-toned look

Make a spontaneous outfit video

I keep telling myself I’m going to make an outfit video when I have an outfit I really like. The reality is I spend more time putting together an outfit just for the video itself. I would love to document more (in video form) casual everyday outfits that perhaps aren’t my “best,” but are realistic. Accumulated, they will help me get more comfortable in this format. Take more videos.

Get a cold drink instead of a hot one

I tend to run cold. I prefer to consume coffee hot; it kind of loses its taste with ice. But recently, with the rise in popularity of matcha and my conversion to decaf coffee, I’m riding the einspänner carriage train until the cream top merges with cold liquid and I get my Instagram-worthy photo of a silky matcha swirl. That is to say, some of these taste really good and I’ll indulge if they don’t have decaf espresso.

Caffeine Depop popup at @kindredstudiosf

Browsing without buying

My hands, my fingers—they crave textures. Just like my toddler son must poke his fingers in my earrings, my zippers, belly button, random spots on the ground, I need to touch things, to feel something. Usually I opt for browsing a vintage clothing store where I can finger through a smattering of prints and fabrics, but recently I browsed a bookstore with a friend and we had quite a charming time flipping through art books and taking photos of certain pages that intrigued us.

Being whimsical can cost nothing!

Read “The Book Of Delights” by Ross Gay

I can tell you a few things—first, the pen, the hand behind the pen, is a digressive beast. It craves, in my experience anyway, the wending thought, and crafts/imagines/conjures a syntax to contain it.

“Writing By Hand” from The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

I don’t know how I just found out about this book, but it’s exactly as it sounds—a collection of essayettes, each detailing a particular delight. They range from abstract concepts (“Inefficiency”) to oddly specific (“Kombucha in a Mid-century Glass”) to basic truths (“Babies. Seriously.”). I’m looking forward to jumping around and selecting a particularly intriguing one, any time I need a little sprinkle of whimsy and delight.

Carry around fun objects, like a tiny pen

Along the lines of of writing by hand, I recently bought a tiny orange pen that looks like it could attach perfectly on a keychain to my purse. As soon as I find the perfect small notebook I plan to tote both around, jotting down notes by hand.

I’ve also been tossing some of my old digicams or tiny cameras in my purse whenever I go out. A recent camera acquisition is this Kodak Charmera keychain camera; it comes in a blind box! The camera itself is much cuter than the photo it takes, but carrying around silly, non-practical objects feels in line with the spirit of whimsy. The variety and spontaneous decision-making is what makes it fun.

My Charmera and Penco pen; a blown-out photo on the Charmera

I’m ready to commit to this list for spring—or not—but isn’t that also the point? Perhaps creating a list is kind of antithetical to being whimsical, but creativity thrives within constraints and all. If you share my resolution to be more whimsical this spring, please drop your suggestions in the comments.