All The Things Edition #4

Let’s make this Monday more fun with the return of all the things!

I truly cannot believe that we are in November, sweet friends. How did we get here already? I must say, as much as I don’t want to wish my life away, I am a little more excited than normal about the beginning of the holidays!

While I typically don’t think about Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving, short of enjoying my Christmas coffee of course, I would likely already have my tree up if it weren’t for the necessary cleaning I need to do beforehand, haha! Things have felt a little heavy lately with some family issues. I think it just has me craving all the bright, fun, festive things!

I’m so happy to be back to this monthly feature and share what I’ve been up to, and I can’t wait to hear all the things you’ve been up to, as well!

What I’ve Been Watching

I enjoy curling up in my chair in the evenings trying to find something good to watch before bed. I like a little bit of everything, whether it’s romance, comedy, action, documentaries, animated movies, news, etc.

Lawyer You Know

While GiGi from Pretty Lies and Alibies will always have my heart when it comes to chatting about true crime, I’ve been listening a lot to Peter from Lawyer You Know on YouTube. He discusses many cases and it’s neat because he’s a lawyer (you may have guessed that from his channel’s name!).

I love getting his perspective and seeing other people watching in real time comment and ask questions, and he’s so good about trying to get to everyone. Some of the cases he’s been following are the Delphi murders, Sarah Boone, and Alex Murdaugh. Speaking of Murdaugh, for anyone keeping up with that, what do you think about the clerk potentially telling jurors not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony? If what the defense says is true, he just might get a new trial!

Bachelor in Paradise

If you think The Bachelor/Bachelorette is a little crazy, BIP has it beat by a long shot! There is always a ton of drama in paradise, but I like watching it when it has people I liked in the regular seasons. I’ve always liked Kylee and Jess and I’m sure they’ll be some new faces popping on soon too! Olivia is not my favorite, but her commentary sure is the most entertaining for this season!

Loki

Kyle and I watch this together each week on Disney Plus! This is honestly my favorite Marvel show ever, and I truly feel it’s even better than any of the movies. It’s just so good every single week! I won’t write anything specific about it in case you haven’t watched and may want to in the future. I’m almost positive that even people who don’t typically like Marvel stuff would fall in love with this show, so give it a try if you can!

What I’m Reading

For the most part, I read YA novels, rom/com, personal development books, or thrillers!

Automate Your Busywork by Aytekin Tank

It’s no secret that I love personal development types of books! This one isn’t the typical ‘how to be your best self’ book though, it is purely based on how to automate anything and everything possible so you can spend more time on things that mean the most to you. Also, things that only you can do versus computer software or an algorithm.

I’m really enjoying this one so far and there’s even some blog-specific things listed that can be automated!

In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren

My first Christmas book of the season! It’s a little early, but couldn’t resist this book when I was actually at the library to pick up a totally different book by this author, haha. I haven’t started on this one just yet since I dove straight into the book above, but very excited to read it soon!

Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo

Okay friends, more to come in my next post with my Fall Reads (next week, yay!), BUT I really didn’t like this one. This is my second time trying to read it. I got halfway-through the first time and then this time around, I made it through the entire book. Ugh, I think it was just the language and how the author speaks for me. I couldn’t really identify with her.

I do love the main idea of looking at situations as figureoutable and it’s up to us to make things happen. That is an idea I can get behind to a degree, but I just didn’t like the delivery of it.

• Summer Reads 2023
• Spring Reads 2023
• Winter Reads 2023

What I’m Working On

I like to pick goals for the house, here on the blog, and just things in general that I can break down over time so they don’t feel as heavy or overwhelming.

Instagram Highlights

I feel like this is one of those things I should have done when I first set up my blog and socials, but as you can see, I never got it together, haha! I really want to get create some pretty highlight covers and make room for some of the collabs I’ve worked on, fun travel photos (maybe like my summer vacay), recipes, and some sort of section to share my blog posts!

I’ll take any sort of suggestions friends, I really want it to look nice and I think it will help my profile look more put together. I would really love to see it grow more!

Holiday Gift Guides

I’m still in a bit of disbelief that we are in November and it’s time to chat about holiday gift guides! I have some fun ones lined up for you already, but would LOVE to hear what you kind of gift guides you would like to see me put together!

What I’m Excited About

With the holidays coming up, there are so many magical things to get excited about! 

Starbucks Holiday Drinks

I’m not sure if anyone else feels this way, but it’s almost as if Starbucks decides when our fall begins as well as our holidays, haha! It felt like it was fall back in August when we got our pumpkin spice lattes, and now it feels like Christmas during November! I have to admit, I get so excited for these drinks and I love the Christmas drinks the most. My dear friend Carrie from Curly Crafty Mom was so incredibly kind to send me over a gift card and I ran out in the 20ish degree weather on launch day to grab my drink.

I was so excited that I actually forgot my coat, oops! I got an iced gingerbread latte and it was heavenly! That was my absolute favorite Starbucks holiday drink and they discontinued it awhile back, but so happy it is on this year’s menu.

Simple Goodness Sisters

You may remember I shared a few slides on my IG Stories about the Simple Goodness Sisters last month! They are two in-real-life sisters who have their very own farm in Washington. They use their crops to create amazing syrups that you can use to make cocktails/mocktails, delicious sodas, and more! I absolutely loved their story and was so honored to receive a box of some of their syrups along with a recipe book!

I will be sharing a post on its own for this amazing brand as well as adding them to an upcoming gift guide, but just wanted to pop them in here to share just how excited I am about them! I will also be using a syrup or two for some recipes I came up with, so that will be a fun post to come as well!

That’s a wrap on all the things lately, friends! I hope you’re having a great start to this brand new month and I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to lately! Also, are you excited about the holidays?