🌧️ April: Rain soaking, blind hoping

Do you really want to know where I was April 29th?

Apr 02, 2024

Dear Reader,

Happy April, and TTPD Release Month! I’ve been insanely excited for The Tortured Poets Department since Taylor announced it at the Grammy’s in February. But watching her recorded acceptance speech at the iHeart Music Awards last night, and especially her mention of how proud she is of this new album - it just hit me that we get to hear it so so soon 😱 I cannot wait!

April is a month known for its rainy showers and the start of blooming flowers. I hope this newsletter can give you inspiration for the month ahead - dates to note; a playlist to listen to while we’re waiting for TTPD; some mashups to check out; and a fun baking recipe perfect for the post-Easter spring season.

In this newsletter you’ll find:

Swiftie April Dates - important dates to keep track of, plus reminders of when my own Dear Reader Newsletters will hit your inbox this month.
My April Swiftie Playlist - a playlist to take you through the month of April.
My Mashup of the month - featuring more of my Eras Tour mashups.
My Featured Recipe of the month - Sourdough Discard Carrot Cake
Coming Up - some fun things to look forward to!

Swiftie April Dates

This Swiftie April Dates may appear to have a little bit less going on than recent previous months. BUT the fact that we’re getting TS11 on the 19th blows April to a whole new level of activity! I appreciate Taylor giving us time and space to give her new album our full attention - to listen, process, and re-listen, on repeat 🔁

As always, I included Taylor’s singles that released in past April’s: “The Story Of Us”, “You Belong With Me”, and “ME!” And do you remember the Spotify Singles?! I used to listen to Taylor’s cover of September on loop.

Of course I couldn’t leave off “High Infidelity” day - do you really want to know where I was April 29th? And for the first time I decided to add my own Dear Reader Newsletter dates to this calendar - just to give you a heads up of when to look out for them in your inbox!

Finally, this month we’re celebrating the anniversary of Taylor’s first re-recorded album: Fearless (Taylor’s Version). It’s the album that kicked off the whole re-recording process, and it’s such a good one. A lot of songs from that album feature on this month’s playlist.

April Swiftie Playlist

April is known for its rain. So I made rain a central theme of my April Swiftie Playlist. The playlist explores different aspects of rainy days - from the passion and romance of meeting in the pouring rain, to the storms of life, to washing things Clean to end with that glorious sunrise, I hope this playlist can take you through the month - or at least until TTPD’s release!

In my March newsletter I told you about a new series I was starting on my YouTube channel, breaking down my music playlists. I finally got up the first video of that series - a breakdown of my March Swiftie Playlist - a couple of days before the end of the month (I was traveling around California for most of March, and got a bit behind 🙈). If you haven’t checked that video out yet, you can watch it here on YouTube!

I’m working on another video breaking down this April playlist, so keep your eyes open for it. If there’s anything you’d like to see covered in that video, let me know! I’ve also got my Spring Swiftie playlist coming this month - what's your favorite Taylor Swift spring song? 🌸☔️

You can listen to my April Swiftie Playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube. If you prefer a clean version of the playlist, here it is on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.

Click here for links to all of my playlists!

Featured Mashup: More Eras Tour Mashups

During the previous leg of The Eras Tour I had so much fun trying to recreate Taylor Swift’s mashups (she performed so many of them). I made it my mission to share at least one mashup for every Eras Tour show mashup she performed. I haven’t quite met that goal - but these are the mashups I shared last month, in case you missed them. Let me know if you have future mashups requests, and stay tuned for more mashups coming to my Instagram this month!

Featured Recipe: Sourdough Discard Carrot Cake

With Easter just behind us, it feels like the perfect time of year to share my Vegan Sourdough Discard Carrot Cake. I made this for the first time last year for Easter, and I filmed the process to upload as the very first video on my YouTube channel! Since then I’ve been shifting my YouTube channel to incorporate a lot more Taylor Swift content, but recipes are definitely still in play. Plus, baking is, and has been, such a big part of Taylor’s life. She’s often baking up reportedly amazing creations, and sharing it with those around her.

My recipe for this Sourdough Discard Carrot Cake is in the description of the YouTube video. It uses sourdough discard (I explain what that is in the video), which helps make the cake so light and fluffy. If you’d also like to check out a couple of carrot cake recipes from baking blogs Taylor Swift has specifically recommended in the past, here’s this recipe from Joy The Baker, and this one from Smitten Kitchen.

I always try to relate my featured recipes to a specific Taylor Swift song. For this carrot cake recipe I have a couple of Taylor Swift songs in mind that could fit. I used one as the audio on this Instagram post. But I wanted to ask you - what Taylor Swift song would YOU listen to while baking and/or eating this up?! 😋

Coming Up

Here’s some fun content to look out for this month - I’ve got ideas on what to cover in my upcoming Dear Reader Newsletter, but would love to hear what you would most be interested in seeing! Let me know in the comments of this post.

💌 April 13th - free for all Dear Reader subscribers!
- Would you like to see an email gearing up for TTPD’s release, such as breaking down the TTPD tracklist or something else TTPD related?
💌 April 22nd - a bonus newsletter for paid subscribers!
- In March I shared a roundup of “Recent Recs”, and last month I shared a breakdown of TTPD and all its variants. For this bonus email, I could share anther TTPD related newsletter, as there’ll be so much to discuss once the album is out! Would you be interested in first impressions, initial thoughts, or anything along those lines?
🎶🎥 Over on Instagram and YouTube, I’ve got more music breakdown videos and my Spring Swiftie Playlist coming your way!
✈️ Finally, I’ve got some fun travel content coming from my California trip:
- For over two and a half weeks I traveled around LA (the angel’s city), Palm Springs, and San Diego. It was mainly a working/visiting family trip, but I packed a lot of fun things in too! I did a day in Disneyland, hit museums and gardens and the beach, and of course a number of Taylor Swift-related spots too - in fact, you may be surprised how many I came across! Let me know if there’s any travel content you’re particularly interested in.

I love connecting with you! 🫶 Let me know your thoughts and requests in the comments. And until next time…

You know there's many different ways that you can kill the one you love
The slowest way is never loving them enough,

Bekah

🎶 Can I Ask You a Question? 🎶

🎶🌸☔️ What's your favorite Taylor Swift spring song?
🥕🎂 Which Taylor Swift song would you listen to while baking/eating carrot cake?
✈️ What travel content would you like to see?
💌 Would you be interested in more TTPD newsletter content for this month’s upcoming newsletters (i.e. breaking down the tracklist, first impressions, and/or anything else TTPD related)?

Dear Reader