October Recap

Happy November! Like I say every month, I can’t believe October flew by as fast as it did. It was full of emotional ups and downs, travels across the USA, and good times with friends and family. I let the blog slip a bit last month, but I have so much amazing content planned for November. Plus, the holiday season is almost in full swing!

Life Update

October, what a month. It started out just like any other month – classes going alright, busy with RM stuff, and hanging out with friends. But then, the world decided to take October in a whole different direction. In the first full week of October, Hurricane Matthew decided to strike and we were out of school for three days. Luckily Columbia was not hit hard at all and we were able to resume life as normal. Strangely enough, the hurricane hit almost a full year after the devastating flood in 2015. The following week was fall break which was much needed, but so much unnecessary drama occurred that it almost didn’t seem like a break. I was able to go home, hang out with family, and go shopping for my exciting week in Houston.

Alright so third week of October. I only had a two day week thanks to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing held in Houston, Texas. You can read all about that experience and see some awesome pictures in my recap post! Now onto the final week. It was my first full week back at school in over three weeks, and it was rough. Add trying to go to the gym five days in a row, and I was dead. Plus, it was the week leading up to Halloweekend aka the most dreaded weekend in residence life because, well, freshman like to go a little crazy for Halloween. Okay but forget about Halloween for a minute because South Carolina played Tennessee in football on the 29th and we WON! I went in totally expecting UT to kill USC, but boy was I wrong. That was the most memorable, crazy night of my life, and it’ll be a game I never forget. See, I told you October was a crazy month. Oh, I can’t forget that Cathleen invited me over and we made these heavenly cookies that I consumed so fast I didn’t have time to take a picture… #noshame

Flannels

Flannels are a staple in my wardrobe this year. Think I’m joking? Ask any one of my friends and they’ll tell you that if I’m not wearing a flannel, something must be wrong. I also blame my flannel addiction on my Knoxville roots. Knoxville is super outdoorsy and hipstery and everyone is wearing flannels and Chacos. Thank you Knoxville.

My two favorite flannels of this year are both from Old Navy. The green and navy one is by far my most worn because the colors just remind me of fall and winter and Knoxville. Also shoutout to my friend Rebecca for taking my pictures on the Horseshoe a few weeks ago, and shoutout to Cathleen from Classy Cathleen for having me over to bake cookies and take my pictures!

Bold Lip Colors

Lip colors have never been my thing. Maybe because I’m way too self-conscious about wearing something bold, and maybe because I’m awful at applying lip color. Rebecca, my new blog photographer, convinced me to try a bold lip color for my fall photoshoot and since then, I’ve been hooked.

Right now, ELF is my go-to brand for lip colors because they’re inexpensive and super pigmented. I’m counting down the days until their Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales so I can stock up on all the colors.

Starbucks Lattes

Y’all the coffee addiction has been so bad this past month. It also doesn’t help that I have $400 left on my meal plan to use before school gets out in December… I’ve been getting coffee almost every morning before class because cool fall mornings call for it and I need a little caffeine pick-me-up before my morning gym sessions.

I usually get my coffee black, but then I found lattes at Starbucks. I’m not talking about #PSL or something packed with sugar. I’m talking about coffee with steamed milk. I don’t feel as bad drinking it because of the protein in the milk (essential for growing those muscles) and there’s no added sugar.

Monthly Stats

Remember in last month’s post when I said that October was going to be the month of the blog? Well that goal fell super short, and October was definitely not the month of the blog. I only managed to release four posts this past month (including my September recap). To say I’m disappointed in myself is a slight understatement, but looking back, I totally understand why I wasn’t producing posts. From the hurricane, fall break, and the trip to Houston, I just didn’t have the time to produce quality content.

What went wrong:

Inconsistent social media promotion
Lack of posts
Middle of the “off-season” for school posts

What went right:

Kept up with Instagram (or at least tried)
Developed a system for promoting links on Twitter
Found a new plugin to tweet links to my old posts!

For the future:

Get ahead! Start planning and writing posts for finals week, Thanksgiving, etc
Complete the #authenticbloggers November photo challenge
Stay active on Pinterest (this is one place where I know things suffered this past month)

What were your October highlights? Did you do anything fun for Halloween?

~abigail gray