Wishing you a week filled with good books and joyful moments.
xoxo, Arielle
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One of the biggest highlights of this past week was our annual visit to a local pumpkin patch. I thought the animals were going to be the biggest hit with our kiddo but the true highlight was all of the tractors on the farm - we lost count of how many she got to play on. While there we ate some fresh donuts, enjoyed a cup of hot apple cider, and picked some pumpkins to bring home. It’s one of my favorite seasonal traditions and we all had a great time.
This past week my local Barre3 studio started holding their seasonal candlelit Mindful Flow classes now that the evenings get dark early, and I have it say it’s one of the best things about the Fall season in the PNW.
One more highlight for me was taking a bath for the first time in quite a while — it’s been weeks, maybe even months. There’s nothing quite like sinking into a warm bubble bath with a good book on a cold night. My cats both hung out and napped while I soaked in the tub and it was kind of sweet.
In case you missed it:
Fall Reading Guide on Instagram
Book giveaways on Goodreads
October is here! In case you missed it, the October Holiday List was posted. 👻🎃🍁 Here’s the second half of October.
Mom Life
🗒️ Passing Notes on the joy of middle of the night snuggles — We had one night with a 5am wake up with our kiddo joining us in bed (and thankfully falling back asleep) and it made my heart so happy. I’m glad it hasn’t turned into a daily occurrence and I cherish those extra snuggles.
Favorite Purchase of the Week
🎨 I’ve been wanting to organize my kiddo’s artwork supplies and miscellaneous bits, so I bought this colorful storage drawer set (one of the few things I bought during the Prime Day sales) that now lives in the corner of the kitchen. It’s exactly what I was looking for and it makes the space feel decluttered but fun. I purchased a second one in shades of green for my office to organize my candles, stickers, annotation tabs, bookmarks, and miscellaneous bookish goodies.
Gifts & Things
Favorite Shop Features - because the holidays will be here before you know it and I firmly believe in shopping small whenever possible. I also have rep codes you can use at a few of these below!
🔖 The annotation tabs from The Tabery continue to be my favorite. I buy the single colors and make my own sets to match my current read.
Use my rep code TJBB15 for a discount
👻 Delta Rise Co listed Halloween and Fall earrings and they’re all SO darn cute. I ordered an embarrassing amount of earrings, so I’ll likely post about these separately when they arrive.
Use my rep code JOYFUL15 for a discount
☕️ Epilogue Book Co launched a 5 star reading review item and it’s perfection!
No code, but lots of sales with a free item
💖 Emily Cromwell Designs launched her Halloween and Fall designs and everything is so cute!!
Bookish Updates
October Reading Report:
Finished Reading:
📖 Cursed City (Harker Academy #2) by Kate Golden | 5/5 loved it
📖 Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison | 5/5 loved it
Currently Reading:
📖 Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore 🐺🔥
What we’re reading this week
📚 Picked up a copy of The Little Kitten from our local indie and our kiddo is still loving it!
🐺 I paused reading Big Bad Wolf by Laurie Gilmore so that I could have Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison finished before book club this week; finished it Sunday night, so I’m about to drive back into Big Bad Wolf. I’ve been loving the paranormal witchy fall vibes lately, tis the season!
Book influencer programs
💕Submitted book requests through:
✨ Flatiron
✨ LYX’s Swoon Squad
✨ Page Street Publishing - Nonfiction
✨ Page Street - YA
🤞🏼 Applied for the Putnam influencer program. They’ve got some amazing new titles coming up!
This Week’s New Releases on my TBR
Tuesday, October 13th - Goodreads links below
An American Girl | Atria
Entities to Lovers | Berkley
Love You to Death | Berkley
I Never Knew You At All | Atria
Nightcurse | Wednesday Books
Sitcom | Harper Collins
Written in Starlight | Atria
Entertainment & Joyful Finds
Watching
📺 Finished season 1 of Coven Academy. Fingers crossed they sign on for season 2!
📺 Continuing to love Ted Lasso
🎞️ Watched the book to screen adaptation of a Berkley romance - A Knight to Remember
🗞️ In the news - more book to screen adaptions are coming! I’m most excited about Katherine Center’s The Bodyguard. 😍
Joyful Finds
📲 The reaction to this post on threads is one of the reasons why I haven’t deleted the app. I love seeing the positive impact that social media can have - an example here of someone’s bookish dreams and people of the internet showing up!
What’s Up in the Next Week or So
Things I accomplished last week:
Make pulled pork
Deep clean the microwave
Finish organizing my shelves
Recipes I want to try soon:
Tons of recipes in the new Quickies cookbook from PlantYou!
I’m planning to make the chocolate raspberry cake from The Kitchen Quadrant for my hubby’s birthday!
Personal / House List:
Deep clean the shower
Clear off the dining table
Schedule a veterans donation pickup
Try a new recipe
Bookish / Blogging List:
September Wrap-Up
Q3 Reading Wrap-Up
Witchy Wednesday Book List
Unhaul more books - donate to friends of the library bookstores and LFLs
What’s something that brought you joy this past week?
