Wedding planning is fun, but what really gets me excited is what is going to happen for my bachelorette party. A part of the planning that I don't have to plan. I know my girls will do me right by this, but just in case today I decided to come up with a list of fun ideas.

There are so many ideas out there that don't have to do with going to a bar and getting drunk. Some people may appreciate this, but me personally have not been a big drinker, and would prefer to do something fun with my girls that will be remembered. Here is a list that I think can cover everyone. There are ideas of all kinds and tastes.

Paint and Sip

Who doesn't like to drink wine and paint pretty pictures?  Paint nights are popping up all over the place and area fun way to get together with your favorite ladies and have a good night of laughs and art!

Karaoke

Ladies, I know we all are secret divas who want to belt out a good tune from time to time. Why not rent a private room at a karaoke bar and have some fun? Most places provide props that will enhance your rock star moments!

Glamping

I am not a huge fan of camping but glamping is something I can get on board with. Spend a weekend with your favorite gals and brave the great outdoors in your luxury tent. Who said camping isn't luxurious?

Casino

Love is a gamble right? Head out to a casino and take a risk! A casino offers a lot of options. From fine dining, to shopping, to nightclubs, and of course slot machines! 

Spa weekend

Who doesn't love a good pampering session? Head out to a local spa or take it one step ahead and head to a resort where you will be pampered all weekend. Massages, facials, and mani/pedis sure sound like a good idea to me!

Wine tour

Living in the Finger Lakes, and getting married at a winery, I can vouch for this one. It is SO much fun to hop from winery to winery, sampling delicious wines. Depending on what time of year you are planning this, you can participate in a themed tour, which is always a good time!

Tea Party

Last spring I attended a real fancy tea party in my community. It was SO much fun! I enjoyed all of the little finger sandwiches and snacks. I think this would make a lovely bachelorette party or even better, a fun bridal shower!

Comedy club

Looking for a night of laughs? Why not go to a comedy club? It doesn't matter if you travel to a large city or something local. They tend to be a good time not matter the size or place. 

Road trip

What better way to fully get to know everything about your friends than to share a car with them on a road trip? You can make this a long trip or just a quick weekend trip. Visit someplace near by you have been meaning to visit, or plan out a route and play it by ear!

Bucket list night

Do you have something you want to do before saying "I Do"? Get those bucket list items crossed off in a wild fun weekend with your girls as your backup!

Pin up photos

Every girl wants to feel glamorous and sexy from time to time right? Hire a photographer or head to a studio that offers these photo shoots and have a good time with your ladies! It has been a bucket list of mine for many year!

So there you have a it ladies. Some fun ideas for your bachelorette party. Get to party planning!

It feels a little foreign to be writing here today. Getting back into the groove of things this week for sure. Let me take you back 2 weeks so I can bring you all up to speed on what's been going on in my life.

The week of November 2nd was my last week at my old job. Not only was it a long week of training, it was also a very emotional week. This place has been my family since I moved to Central New York 4 years ago. Although I knew it was time to move on, it didn't make it any easier. My week was full of lunches and meetings. I had to rack my brain on all of my daily tasks to pass along to my boss. My job was a new position when I took it last year so I am really the only one who knew what I did.

I rounded up my week with send off drinks at a local bar. It was great to be showered with love and support. Something I wasn't expecting.

I took Friday off to get some things squared away. It was nice to have the house to myself. I got so many things done that I've put aside for other things. Saturday the 7th I started a new yoga class series. A nice beginners class to get myself back into the groove. My body was in desperate need of some quiet time to stretch and listen. I look forward to sharing all that I learn with you all here on the blog.

Sunday I went with a friend to a concert. We went to see Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox. It was AMAZING! I would recommend the show to anyone looking for a fun night of song and dance.

Now I will take you into last week. My first week at the new job. I was super nervous as anyone would be. You never know if you made the right decision until you jump right in right? I arrived at 9am and was greeted with flowers and baked goods. It felt good to be wanted.

I had an exhausting week of learning new things on top of adjusting on some new medicine for my stomach. I came home every day ready for bed. Blogging went on the back burner and sleep became my number one priority. Friday came and I was thrilled to see 5 o'clock. I needed some rest.

I settled into bed early when news starting coming in about the deadly attached in Paris. Just when I thought my stomach would finally settle down, it was full of knots again. This world is such a scary place anymore. We shouldn't have to be frightened to go out into the world. We shouldn't have to look over our shoulders or be suspicious of people around us. I wish we could all get to a place where peace was the number one priority.

Wouldn't that be nice?

With that I am going to leave you. This was quite mismash of a post, but I wanted to give a nutshell version of what I've been up to. I have a few posts written and scheduled for the week. I will see you all back here on Wednesday!

Make it a good one.

I don't know about all of you, but I'm tired! The past 2 weeks have been full of changes and they are sure taking a toll on my energy. I am hoping to get myself back to a regular schedule next week, but again I am not making any solid promises.

As most of you know I started my new job this week. Transitioning from one job to another is always stressful, especially when you try to teach as many people as you can how to do your old job before you depart. No fun.

I've spent this week learning my new job. So far I love it. So much information to learn. I feel like my new job has a purpose and it makes me feel good about going in everyday. I know its only been 4 full days, but I already feel at home there.

It's been a good change. I'm very happy with my decision. I am planning to write up a whole post about this next week. Stay tuned and have a wonderful Friday! Do a happy dance!

I kind of feel like I've been leaving you all hanging. I really am sorry about that. I never realized how much work goes into wrapping up a job before moving on to the next one. Today is the day. The day I start a new chapter of my life.

I hope you guys stick with me as it may be a bumpy road. Getting acclimated to my new job may take me away from my normal posting schedule. I don't want to make any more promises I can't keep. I'm not taking a break but I want to forewarn that I may miss a day or 2 once in awhile.

I'm finally to the point where I can tell myself that it's okay to take time for me. If that means skipping a blog day, I will be okay with that. I hope you are too.

As we get closer to the new year I want to do more with the blog. I want to help it shine. I know my strengths on how I need to do that and right now I know those strengths are not there. As I work on me a bit, this space will also grow.

I suppose I should wrap this up and get myself ready for work. I hope you all have a lovely Monday. I'll see you all real soon!

Some days I am tired. Today is one of those days. Lots of tossing and turning and no sleep tend to happen more and more these days. Stop back tomorrow for a real post.

Happy Wedneday :)

When I got out of bed this morning I looked at my white board and it said " September: Write Everyday." It was at that moment that I realized that today is November 2nd. Part of me panicked for a moment. Where did October go? Did I even accomplish anything last month? The other part thought, "Today is my fathers birthday! I didn't even get him a card!" This has been my life lately. Breezing by with a lot of scatter thrown in.

Good news is, I DID accomplish some things last month and my dad isn't a card guy. I will call him later and he will be okay with that. Now on to what I did do in October:

Finish my writing class

Send out 2 pitches to brands

Post more photos of myself

Personal Goals

Blogging Goals

Happy Sunday. Did we all survive Daylight Savings Time? I know I was grateful for the extra hour of sleep I received this morning. Also welcome to National Novel Writing Month AKA NaNoWriMo. We also have a National Blog Posting Month AKA NaBloPoMo for us bloggers. Are you participating in either of those? I can't commit but I will try.. Now let's see what I accomplished this week.

ICYMI: Blog Posts of the Week

Monday I wrote about a simple Halloween craft that involved wine and glow sticks. Pretty cool right?

On Wednesday I was feeling a little dramatic so I posted about my friend "Zoey the Zombie". She totally plans to crash my wedding!

Friday got real. I completed my first week of my "two weeks notice" and felt extremely drained. What better way to describe it then with gifs?

Coming Up Next Week

On Saturday the city of Ithaca hosted a Wizarding Weekend that literally came together in 2 weeks. 1 week if you count the part where they realized they were expecting thousands of people. I was fortunate enough to attend and got there early to get some photos.  Stay tuned for my account of how that went down.

Also expect to see my November goals and maybe a fun post about thrifting!

See ya tomorrow!

Guys, let me start off with a big sigh of relief that this week is coming to an end. I don't know if you all heard, but I put in my two weeks notice a week ago and this week has been really hard for me. I am preparing for a transition period. Lots of deep breathing!


Now I need to get through another week that doesn't feel so awkward. I think I was asked about 10 times this week what it is I actually do as my job. That tends to get awkward fast.


Also I am not sure what it was, but I did not sleep well this week. R was away on business but I don't really think that was the whole issue. I went to bed exhausted and woke up even more tired than I was the previous night. Must of been all of the soul searching and decisions I made. The coffee was my BFF.


I finally got out all of my makeup and did a Halloween look for the blog. I had so much fun creating Zoey, the glam zombie. I hope you check it out. It's really an easy process to make brains and lacerations on your face. And you get to play with makeup! Win/Win.


All in all I am looking forward to R coming home tonight and hanging out on my couch. But I won't actually hang out on my couch because its Halloween weekend and I am going to make the most of it. Did you hear Ithaca is turning an alley into Diagon Alley from Harry Potter? It got some major press this week! It has been respectively renamed to Wizardly Weekend but is still expecting thousands of people!

I will be attending because, why not?! After that I am hoping to attend a Monster Bash hosted by some of my friends from the radio station. Stay tuned next week for my report on this wizard and monster weekend! Stay safe out there boys and ghouls!

Meet Zoey.


Zoey's that girl you had to include as a bridesmaid in your wedding because she's your fiance's sister's cousin half removed who kind of pushed her way in. You know the type. The one you always regret letting your guard down for because she always ruins the day.

Well, Zoey showed up to the wedding ready to party as expected. She was all glammed up and ready to steal the show. She had her hair done and some pretty dramatic makeup. Something seemed different about her, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

I hadn't seen her since the night before, when she went missing during the bachelorette party. She got a little out of hand and disappeared with a guy she was chatting up. What she failed to mention when she showed up to the wedding, was that she had been attacked by a zombie!

No zombie bite was going to stop Zoey from showing me up at my wedding! Even with zombie tendencies, Zoey still managed to steal the show! I knew I should of told her no!

Want to get glammed out like Zoey this Halloween? This is a super easy look that can be as severe or as simple as you'd like. The best part is, all you need for this fun look is toilet paper, glue, and some red eye shadows.

 Glam Zombie Makeup 

 

Start off this look with a clean face. Make sure all of your makeup is off. This will help the "brain" and "lacerations" stick to your face.

Grab a roll of toilet paper and some non-toxic glue. This will be on your face so you may want to spot check it on your skin before starting in case of sensitivities.

Rip off 3 sheets of toilet paper and wad it up. Apply glue to the toilet paper. This will turn the toilet paper into a sticky moldable consistency. This will be your "brain". Repeat for laceration.

Mold the toilet paper into the shapes you want and gently apply to your face. You don't want the pieces to become flat, so make sure they both still have some depth to them.


Once you get the molded toilet paper where you want it on your face, allow it to set for 2 minutes. Because this look was going to be a glammed out look, I went ahead and applied some primer and foundation to my face while it dried to save time. You can skip this if you are only looking for a brain and laceration look.

Once the molds were set, I took 2 different red eyes shadows that I had laying around and brushed the color onto the molds. There was no real science to this except I kept applying until I liked the shade. Don't be afraid to get this on your face as well. The more blood the better right?



If you are only looking to add a brain and a laceration, than you can stop here! So simple and easy for a quick Halloween costume. You can also add more now that you can see how easy it is to make lacerations out of toilet paper.


I went ahead and added some dramatic eye makeup and some more red marks on my face. I wanted to look like I earned those cuts!

It's the week before Halloween and maybe you decided to throw a last minute party. No? Okay maybe you have a great setup with your Halloween decor but are missing that something you can't seem to put your finger on. Don't worry, I got you..

All you need for this project is a bottle of wine (or 5 if you want to get your girlfriends involved) and some glow sticks. Do I have your attention?



Now let me explain. Last year I decided at the last minute that I wanted to throw a Halloween get together. I wanted to decorate and make cute little snacks. Only one problem. I was a little broke. I did what I always do when I need to get something done with no money: I used what I already had.

I had a few empty wine bottles sitting around on my kitchen counter (Don't judge me, I live in wine country) and the idea popped into my head. Wouldn't they look super cool if I added some glow sticks into them? They would look super eerie in a dark room.

The best part about this is all of the empties I was hoarding hanging onto had some pretty creepy looking labels on them. One was from a local winery and the wine was called "Apparition" so there was a ghost like image on it. Another was from my visit to Gettysburg and had cannons and smoke on it, and the last had a creepy looking face on it. I may have to rethink the wine I'm drinking guys. Wine should be happy right?
 
Anyway,  for a quick and cheap decoration, run on down to the dollar store and pick up some glow sticks and then over to the liquor store if you are out of wine. Pick wines that have labels that will fit your theme. You could also take off the labels and make your own. The options are endless.


I used my wine bottles in a window with some black netting and flameless candles. When I turned off the lights the window looked pretty creepy. I unfortunately did not get a really great photo of that, but I did get a photos of the bottles I used and how I set them up. See the photo above this paragraph. Other ideas for these would be:

Table center pieces
Walkway lights
Mood lighting
Focal point in a scene

So there you have it. A super easy Halloween decoration adults can get behind! So what are you waiting for? Call over a few girlfriends and get to work! I want to leave you with a pretty crappy photo of what these look like when they are glowing. Stop back tomorrow for more quick and easy Halloween tips!

Yes, I know this should say Sunday.. I am still undecided when I want this to happen..

Good evening! I wanted to do a quick snapshot of my week as mentioned last Friday. I haven't quite decided if I want to do this on Fridays or take them into the weekend. I think I want to leave my Friday's open for fun topics, but one never knows where this will go. I am trying to be as consistent as possible here and I know lately that doesn't show. Bare with me. I am getting there I promise.. Now onto last week..

I started the week with a peek into my weekend. It turned more into a wedding-y weekend than I had anticipated. With engagement photos and other unexpected, but good things happening, it turned into a great weekend. If you haven't read it yet, check it out!

Wednesday is my normal "Wedding Wednesday" post and because I did a lot of posting about my wedding planning on Monday, I decided to share pictures of the location of my engagement shoot. It was a beautiful day for photos and a fun day to catch up with an old friend. Win/Win.

Friday was a little MIA and that I apologize for. I spend most of my week working on a decision to change careers. I did a lot of soul searching as well as pros and cons to come to my conclusion. I decided yesterday to share that decision with all of you. 

Now it is Sunday and I am looking forward to next week. I just returned from a short day visit with my parents and I am feeling pretty inspired. R is on a business trip this week so I need to get lots done here on this space. As we inch into Monday and the start of Halloween week, I have decided to do all kinds of Halloween themed posts this week.

Because it is one of my favorite times of the year I want to offer up some quick last minute tips and tricks for decorations and last minute costume ideas. I have a few other thoughts up my sleeve but I need to keep some of them a surprise! I hope to see you right back here tomorrow for a quick and easy craft project!

Have a great Sunday evening!

Happy weekending! I hope you all had a fabulous week! I have some great news to share with all of you. After a very hard week of soul searching and contemplating change I am happy to announce I have decided to make a career change!

I had a very quick and exciting job offer that after lots of thought I couldn't pass up. I am currently working in operations at a materials testing lab but my heart has always been in marketing and social media. I have a bachelor degree in Marketing but have never fully utilized it.

In 2 weeks I will be starting a new chapter of my life in marketing and development for a non-profit organization. I will be working for a cause that I can see and that means so much to me. There will be a lot of change in the upcoming months but I am so ready for it.

I can't wait to share this journey with you all! See ya back here on Monday!

As I have mentioned on Monday, I had engagement photos done over the weekend with R. I do not have the photos back yet but I did take a few photos of my own. I wanted to share a quick sneak peak of the location as it was so beautiful and was taken in my hometown!

Enjoy!

The train came through!

Playing around with the mini pumpkin and my ring.

Sooo... My weekend was so full of wedding related stuff and I didn't even plan it! I had mentioned that I had engagement photos planned for Saturday. Me and R headed back to my hometown in Pennsylvania to meet with a dear friend. It all was perfect, except for the fact that it was 47 degrees outside! Of course it picked this weekend to decide to be fall on the borderline of winter. Good news is the scenery was beautiful and the sky was blue. We sucked it up and got some pretty great shots!

Between shots.. It was SO cold! And the wind was fierce!

Saturday morning I woke up to a text from R who was downstairs. The text contained a photo of what it looked like outside. Let's just say I am not one of those people who appreciated this..

Okay enough about that white stuff that makes me cold. One of my best friends and bridesmaids came up for the day on Sunday. We headed out to the wedding venue for lunch. I was so excited to be able to share it with someone else. We enjoyed some lunch and participated in some wine tasting both at the venue and another on the wine trail. We had so much fun and tasted some pretty amazing wines! I want to leave you all with a little teaser of the ceremony site as well as the reception site..

Not bad for a ceremony backdrop right?!

Wine barrels and lights!

Happy Monday!

Whew! We made it! I am going to try something new today, and hopefully every Friday moving forward. I am going to post a snapshot of my week here. This would include links I loved, links I posted, and weekly updates that I feel shaped me and this blog. So what do you say? Give this a shot with me? Also the winner is announced for my first giveaway! She has been emailed but I will announce it at the bottom of this post!

In case you missed it

Currently: Struggle Bus Edition
Wedding Wedneday: Inspiration
Blogging: How I'm Making Small Changes for Big Results

Updates this week

I made a few updates on the blog appearance. In case you haven't noticed, my sidebar photo is new and I also updated my 'About Me' page. Run on over and check that out!

I have really upped my game when it comes to photos. I really enjoy photography but have really slacked when it came to taking quality photos. Between using my DSLR and stock photos, I have cleaned up my images. This makes me smile. 

I am toying around with posting 4-5 days a week. I am ending this week with 4 posts. I am feeling confident that I can do this now and put out quality content. Please forgive me if I miss a day.

Coming up next week

This weekend R and I will be having our engagement photos. I expect I will have some commentary on that come my Wedding Wednesday post.

I am working on a few new ideas to work into my blogging rotation. One being this particular series. I want to be able to share favorites links from other bloggers along with products and such I am into. I may even start a 'Favorites' post incorporating all the things that make up this blog: Fitness, Thrity, and all round life things.

I vowed to work on posting more photos of myself. I have taken a few photos for a post that I am planning to share this week on simple wedding makeup, even when your face is breaking out.  I am excited for this. I hope you all enjoy it.

My first newsletter goes live! Have you subscribed yet?

WINNER

The winner of my first giveaway is:

Katherine C from Katherine's Corner! Congrats!

Thank you to everyone who participated! Thank you all for the support! This place means so much to me and having you all here makes it that much better! Happy weekend!

I've officially been blogging for 20 months. Yes I'm going the month route. Kinda like a baby. In reality this space is like my baby. It demands attention. It needs to be fed, changed, and encouraged. It's not going to walk on its own. It a not going to talk on its own.

The reality of it is each and every blog needs a village (or community) to grow. Bloggers need to take the steps to interact with other bloggers and their readers. Research them. Find out what they want to see. Sounds a little daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's smooth sailing.

To bad there isn't a 'What to Expect when you're Growing a Blog' book out there. Because there is no official book that tells you exactly what to do, I am going to share the little changes I have been making lately to see big results.

Follow other bloggers

You may be thinking 'I already do that'. That's great but, what I've been focusing on is 3 specific bloggers. I've picked 3 bloggers who have different blogging styles and are still attracting readers who comment. This is great research. You can see what they are doing to keep readers coming back.

Update your photos

Over the weekend I crashed my friends wedding... sorta. I made the 6 hour trip with a mutual friend to help celebrate her wedding day. Even though I went to celebrate her and her husband I couldn't help but take notice to all of the little details. Details I am looking at now to plan my own wedding.


She got married in a church. A beautiful Greek Orthodox church. I have never been in such a beautiful place. The detail in the murals and the sparkle in the chandelier was like nothing I have experienced before. I started to compare it to my ceremony. I am getting married at a winery. I will be surrounded by beautiful scenery brought to me by nature. The detail I will see will come from the flowers and the trees. The sparkle will come from the sun shining down on me.

The ceremony was beautiful. I learned so much, as I have never attended a Greek ceremony before. I really loved the traditions and how it all flowed in a way that I never felt bored, or ready for it to be over. 45 minutes sounded like a long time, but it flew by so quickly. I now think about the ceremony I will have. I haven't even thought about who would officiate my special day. Me and R are both baptized Catholic but neither of us are apart of a church. Things to think about as we move forward.

After the bride and groom excused us from the church, we headed to the reception space. A party in a banquet room of a casino. An idea I would have never come up with as my own. It made perfect sense to me. The casino had a hotel, restaurant, and spa. Everything you could need was found in this space. My reception will be hosted at a winery. Dinner will be served in the in house restaurant and the party will take place surrounded by beautifully decorated wine barrels. I can offer my guests a night of dancing, socializing, and good local wine.

During dinner guests were encouraged to get up and make toasts to the bride and groom. I really loved this idea. It takes the pressure off of the maid of honor and best man. Anyone could make a speech and that to me makes more sense. Everyone has well wishes for you and your new life. Why not let them spoil you with them in front of your guests?

The whole day was perfect. I was really excited to be apart of their special day, and left with all sorts of new ideas for my own wedding. It reminds me how all weddings are beautiful not matter how they go down. We all have our own traditions and visions, to make our day, us. We want to show our friends and family a good time, but we also want it to symbolize us as a couple. I can't wait to continue to share this journey with all of you.

Where do/did you get inspiration for your wedding?

As you can see it is now the afternoon on the east coast and I am just not around to getting this blog posted. I am on the struggle bus today hardcore. Let's see how this currently list is gonna work.

Currently:

We have made it to Friday and I couldn't be more thrilled! This is kind of a Friday five post to a point. I am going to tell you about 5 things I am excited about currently. Make sense?

1. I FINALLY broke down and ordered a camera tripod. I have had my DSLR since Christmas and haven't fully utilized it. I am hoping by having the tripod will motivate me to pick it up more often. I am all for taking photos with my smartphone but sometimes I need the fancy pants camera to get the perfect shot. I just ordered it yesterday so it make take a few weeks before I get to use and it showcase my work here.

2. I haven't had a chance to talk about my mini vacation! Me and R went away for the weekend and visited a town in Pennsylvania called Easton. Doesn't sound that exciting right? Wrong. We went with little expectation other than to relax and get away. (I had a free hotel room at an Easton hotel that I won last year somehow..) Anywho... We had a BLAST. They had so much going on down in the area, which is right outside of Allentown and Bethlehem. We visited 2 festivals. An Octoberfest sponsored by Yunegling Brewery (One of my fave beers!) on Saturday where it rained a lot but I got to meet up with an old coworker and eat steudel. Score!

On Sunday we headed to the Garlic Fest in center square Easton. It was AH-MAZ-ING! The weather cleared up and it was a beautiful fall day. Right off of the square is the Crayola Experience. We didn't go in but we had a blast photographing the outside! Giant crayons and markers everywhere! We also sampled a ton of great garlic dishes. We attended a dessert competition where everything had to incorporate garlic. We had cheesecake, rice crispy treats, ice cream, and brownies. The cheesecake was TO DIE FOR!

Such an amazing day! I would recommend Easton, PA for a quick getaway. So much to do. I hear there is a bacon fest in November...
3. We got the venue for the wedding booked this week. I had my first dress fitting, which was super exciting. Things are moving along nicely in that department. I feel like 2 large items have been checked off my list, which takes the stress down a few notches.

4. I am attending a Cider festival this weekend. Can't wait to see what that brings. I love the fall for this reason alone. So many great festivals! Lots of eating and drinking. What's not to love?

5. I am officially launching a new series next week! I talked about this months ago and it never got off the ground. The series is called "Short Stories" and it is all related to all us short girls out there. I am going to encourage you to send in stories of your own if you are 5'3 and under. I am so exited for this.

6. Last but not least.. my first ever giveaway on the blog ended yesterday. Thank you to everyone who entered and supported it. Look for the winner next week! Could it be you?

Have a great weekend folks!

Two months. It's been two months since R popped the question. Two months of being engaged. I have to admit. I have accomplished a lot more than I had anticipated. We officially booked our venue this week AND I bought my dress. That last detail there still doesn't seem real. I. Bought. My. Dress. I keep saying it but it's not sticking yet. 

Six days after getting engaged me and R attended a bridal expo. There were two bridal dress shops set up. One was David's Bridal and one was a local off the rack boutique called Dressellas. I scheduled a consultation with David's Bridal and chatted with the ladies at Dressellas. They both seemed like perfectly good places to start when it came to looking at dresses. A few weeks later I stopped in at Dressellas and also scheduled an appointment with them the same day as David's Bridal. I was pumped.


The date finally arrived and my parents came up for the day. We left my dad and R to their own devices and made the hour trip to David's Bridal. The appointment was at 1 so we decided to stop for lunch. The restaurant was literally right next door to David's Bridal, but the food never came and we had to take it to go. Not off to the best start.

We walked into David's Bridal and I was taken care of immediately. This was great however I was not feeling any of the dresses. Each dress felt like it was the same dress over and over again. I am really short so all the dresses were super long and there was nothing for me to stand on to see the full effect. After the third dress I pretty much lost interest in trying on anymore dresses. They must have put me in 10 dresses and I started feeling sad. None of these dresses were for me.

We came to the end of the dresses they had for me to try. Everyone looked pretty frustrated. Me, at all the dresses that didn't work out. Them, at all the time they just spend with me just for me to tell them I wasn't interested in any of them. I felt really awful when I left. None of the dresses felt special to me and the mood in the place had me wanting to run away and never look back. I am not sure exactly what the problem was, but I didn't feel like it was the place for me.

After all of the disappointment, we hid in my car and ate our lunch before proceeding the hour back home. We were now headed to Dressellas. We arrived about 10 minutes early and I was really considering cancelling. I was in no mood to try on any more dresses. We were greeted immediately and were told we could go and pick out any dresses I was interested in trying. This was shocking to me as I didn't get the option at David's Bridal.

I selected 5 dresses to start. The first 2 were not worthy of even leaving the dressing room but the third was getting me interested. I came out of the dressing room and was told I could go stand on the pedestal in front of the 3 way mirror. This was AWESOME. I was able to see the dress in its entirety. It flowed down to the floor and for the first time I was able to picture myself as a bride.

I put aside a dress and decided I should pick out something big and crazy as I said when picking through the racks. I emerged with a dress I would have NEVER thought would be something I'd like. I put the dress on, stepped on the pedestal and that was it. I had found "the one". It flowed down so beautifully and I felt comfortable and confident in it. This was the dress for me.

I had a wonderful experience. I was smiling. I felt beautiful. My mom shed some tears. The boutique was really the best option for me. I was not happy at David's Bridal. They didn't do anything wrong, but I just didn't feel connected at all. I can't even explain it. I tried to explain what I wanted but it didn't seem to work. I mean no disrespect to the chain, but it wasn't for me.

Where did you get your dress? What do you think? Chain or boutique?

And then it was October.. Also known as my favorite month of the year! There are many reasons why this is true, but mostly it's a time of transition. Metaphorically speaking of course. September was a time for me where I wanted to re-introduce creativity into my daily life. I have always enjoyed art and photography and creative writing to a point. I feel like as I've gotten older I have pushed those things out and replaced them with past times that weren't quite as important to me.

In September I decided to clean the slate and find my creative self. This is a lot harder than it sounds. Let's see how I did:

Start a Journal

I vowed to write in my journal every day in September. Well sadly I didn't write in my journal everyday, but I did write 20 of the 30 days, which is a pretty good if you ask me. On days I didn't write in the journal I was writing drafts for upcoming blog posts or assignments for my writing class. I still feel like I accomplished this goal for the month. I did more writing than I have in a long time. I am going to keep this goal open and see where it goes.

Collaborate

I had plans to collaborate with a few ideas for October but I didn't get them all established. I am however hosting my first giveaway on the blog! (You should enter! It's open until Thursday!). So I would say even though I didn't get all of my ideas out, I did accomplish one. I will keep this goal open for the rest of the year and see where I'm out in 2016.

Up My Stats

I was aiming to reach 10,000 views for the month and I sold myself short by taking a blogging break. I am do not regret taking the break but it did affect my stats. There is always next month right?

Blog Planning

I took a blogging break to help myself re-focus. I feel like this break helped me do better with planning out my posts. I have been able to find more time to set aside for blog related activities. I am spending more time on my writing. photographs, and interacting with the blogging community. I would say I did a great job on this and will continue to practice this into the future.

I feel like I accomplished a lot in September. There were definitely some set backs but I came out of everything with a better attitude and less stress. Now to move into October. I want to focus on confidence. That will be my Happy Project word. Now what I want to accomplish.

• Finish my writing class. Start researching more classes to better enhance my writing and business skills. This blog is my second job and it's about time I start treating it like it is. 

•  Send out 2 pitches to brands I am interesting in working with. I am ready to start monetizing my blog and this is something I need to do. I need to get over the nervous hump and just do it. The worst that can happen is the word no right?

• Post more photos of myself. I know this sounds vain but it is a confidence issue I have. This blog is about me and my life so it is about time I start showing you who I am. This is the goal I am most afraid of. Wish me luck.

 What are your plans and goals for October? Have any fun things planned? Keep up with me as I start showing you who I am and where I want to go with this. Happy Tuesday!