August Recap

I swear, August has been the longest month of my life. From moving back to college, two weeks of residence life training, and school starting, I honestly feel like it should be mid-October by this point. This a big statement, but August has been the best month of 2016 thus far. I love being back at school, going to class, and hanging out with all of my new RM friends.

This month was literally INSANE when it comes to stats and all of that. We’re talking triple the number of views from last month, and my social medias are still growing at a consistent rate. I’ve really been able to focus on blogging a lot more this month, and I cannot wait for September and fall and all the holiday posts that will be coming your way in the next few months.

LIFE UPDATE

Where do I even begin? I started out the month in good ‘ole Knoxville, Tennessee, living at home. Three short days later, I packed my bags and headed back to Columbia, South Carolina, for school. I began my year as a resident mentor with two long weeks of training learning about how to deal with certain situations and what to expect for the remainder of the year. It took me almost the full two weeks to become even close to being unpacked. Classes started on the 18th, and it doesn’t even feel like I left. I’ve finally got my room the way I would like. Hurray! I’m also strangely not stressed right now so let’s hope September goes well.

Buttercream Frosting

Dorm rooms can get super smelly super fast. For some reason, my room decided to not smell so great this year. I don’t know why either because there’s no dirty clothes everywhere, I keep my dishes clean, and I take the trash out regularly.

My friend and I were at Target (imagine that) the other day and both ended up buying these oil diffusers. Let me tell you just how amazing this smells. Granted for $3 I wasn’t expecting much, and although it doesn’t fill my entire room with an overwhelming smell of buttercream frosting, it still smells great.

hummus

Guys, can we talk about how delicious hummus is?? I could eat a tub of hummus every day for the rest of my life… that’s how much I love hummus. Hummus was on sale at Target the other day for 2 for $5 and I was in heaven.

My favorite flavors are the roasted pine nut, the olive tapenade (pictured above), and the everything flavor from Food Lion. I love pairing it with Wheat Thins or cucumber slices if I’m feeling a bit more healthy 🙂

Pecan Pie Coffee

Guys. I have no idea why I am so obsessed with fall this year, but for some reason, I cannot wait for sweaters, fires, boots, and flannels. Although it won’t be fall here until probably December, I can’t wait.

Because I couldn’t wait, I headed over to Target and picked up some fall flavored coffee. They have like five flavors this year, but I went for the pecan pie. It’s like heaven in a bag. I seriously want to pick up all of the fall flavors because they’re delicious!

Sparkling water

This is one of my favorites when it comes to still maintaining my healthy lifestyle but really craving something bubbly and sweet. The Dasani sparkling waters are delicious by themselves and I would have one every single day if I could. My favorite is the raspberry lemonade (pictured below).

Sometimes if I’m craving a soda, I’ll add some water flavoring to the sparkling water! It’s a great, zero-calorie option to a sugar-filled soda. They’re especially delicious after a hot walk back from class or late at night with a bag of popcorn.

STATS

I have no idea what even happened this month, but I’m amazed. This is an all-time record for me on everything – stats, pageviews, visitors, social media. And I truly want to thank you all because you made this happen! Well you all and the fact that it was back-to-school and everyone was searching for college related posts.

What went right:

• Buy This, Not That: College Dorm Edition went viral on Pinterest. We’re talking 30,000 views just from that post!
• Signed up for Amazon affiliates and made almost $200 this month
• Took a week off to focus on my life which left me more inspired than ever
• Blogger Roundtable launched and it went so well! Check out the recap video.

What went wrong:

• Took a week off to focus on my life, but the blog fell during that time
• Not paying more attention to social media. I really need to step up my Instagram game because as of right now, I’ve not posted in over a week…
• Missed EVERY SINGLE TWITTER CHAT this month because #life

Make sure to grab my free stats tracker if you want an easy way to keep track of your monthly stats! It’s what I use every month, and since it can be kept in Google Drive, you’ll have access to it anywhere.

Like I said, this month was insane and you all were a huge part of it! I’ve yet to have time to let those stats sink in, nor have I had time to throw a celebration for that, but that’ll come eventually. Thank you so much for reading!

What were some of your favorites for the month?

~abigail gray