October Highlights

Here we are at the end of October, the spookiest time of the year and the only nod to my inner witch I can claim this year is my two black cats. I haven't really been getting into the Halloween spirit this year. It feels instead like September was just extended so I could finally fit a little relaxation into the busy month, with a few random days of full on winter thrown in (thanks crazy Nebraska October snow storms). And you know what? I'm totally okay with that. In fact, every single one of my highlights from this month centers around coziness and unplanned fun.

I started this month off with a delivery all the way from Morocco! I finally settled on a rug for my living room and it's 8x10 feet of fuzzy perfection. I bought it off Etsy from a shop called MoroccanLooms which is supposedly a woman's weaving cooperative. It still kind of amazes me that something a woman made halfway around the world and posted online could end up in my living room only a few days later, but I'm glad to be living in a time where that's possible! I love how unique this rug is, how soft it is underfoot and how it's not a perfectly symmetrical and synthetic rug like so many of the options we have in stores here. Check them out if you're looking for a new rug -- they have tons of options!

And then, the best event of the year finally happened: the annual library book sale! Every year I go and every year I come home with far too many books, even if they are only $1.50 each. Considering I still haven't made it through all the books I got last year, I did tame it down a bit this year and only got 16 books and a cookbook. Still a pretty good haul if you ask me! Even if you don't end up with a whole ton of books, there's still something a bit magical about a room full of tables upon tables of books and a whole crowd of book lovers pouring over them.

As if Nebraska knew that a new living room rug and a stack of books needed a cozy day in, we got a Sunday snowstorm that blanketed the area in a couple inches of big, wet snowflakes. We lit the first fire I've had in my fireplace, made some potato and leek soup and cookies and spent the afternoon reading and watching Bake Off. Perfection.

Fantastic weekends were kind of a theme this month. This last weekend was also one for the books. John and I had an impromptu date night on Friday. We grabbed ramen at a place he'd been wanting to try (delicious) and followed it up with a couple drinks at a bar where we sat and chatted. We met our friend later for another drink or two and John's very first, and incidentally Halloween-themed, drag show (I don't know how he's gone this long). The next morning we slept in and then wandered down to our local coffee shop for some caffeine, a pain au chocolate and some reading. We had delicious ramen leftovers for lunch and then walked under all the gorgeous fall leaves on our way to the Nebraska football game where we got to witness the first win of the season (yeah, let's not talk about that fact too much -- just focus on the positivity)! After so much walking and excitement we naturally needed to devour a veggie pizza while watching more Bake Off and Gogglebox before heading to bed. Sunday was the usual puttering around the house, going on the grocery run, meal prepping, etc, but this time we actually squeezed in a nice nap on the couch and even more reading (seeing a theme?). I'm not sure I could have come up with a better weekend plan if I had tried.

Have a happy Halloween everyone and enjoy the rest of your October!