Organized Charm

Year after year, October turns out to be one of my favorite months! The weather, the fall festivals, the outdoor activities, and of course, HALLOWEEN! This October was especially perfect because... well, because everything. I LOVE our new home. I LOVE my new job. I LOVE this absolutely and completely perfect weather that we are having right now! And I love fall clothes. Okay, those are probably all of the things. No, wait... I also love the changing colors of the trees! And dark nail polish! And boots.

This could take a while... let's move on.

Here is what October looked like...

...on Organized Charm:

Study Series: If you read OC in October, then you know that I worked on a study skills series. If you're an avid reader of OC, you also know that I didn't finish said series. Writing is so much fun and such a great thing to do every few days. But let me tell you that if you read a blog that posts every day (or more than once a day like College Prepster), then you better appreciate that because it's pretty tough! I got through the most requested topics (mainly planners, notes, and overall organization).

And the rest will be dispersed over the next few weeks!

...In my "real life":

Our Neighborhood: At the beginning of this month, our neighborhood became the home to a new outdoor "mosaic artwalk" that consisted of 8 new art installations: 2 sculptures, 5 murals, and a beautifully decorated piano on the sidewalk for anyone to play! I poured some merlot, put on a jacket, and we walked around to check it out opening night!

And then there were all those October sunsets...

Wedding: Derek and I are huge fans of weddings. Like, super huge. Like, we're probably one stage away from just starting to crash random weddings that look interesting. A few weeks ago, we attended one for one of his friends from work. There were so many unique things about it: First of all, the reception was held in an actual barn (which had literally been filled with junk until a couple of weeks before).

Not only that, but the wedding party camped out right next to the barn for the weekend, so there were tents and a bonfire, which was pretty awesome!

Oh, how could I forget this... one of the brides actually got up and sang "their song" at the wedding. SO. UNBELIEVABLY. PRECIOUS.

Reunion: You know how people talk about how awkward/boring their reunions were, or how they have no interest in seeing the people they went to high school with? That's exactly what I was expecting, but let me tell you that we had a ridiculous amount of fun! I hosted a little "pregame" celebration at our loft before, and then we headed down the street for the real thing. There was dancing and drinking and every song that we ever listened to in high school and a photo booth.

You know as well as I do, that it can't be a party without a photo booth.

Obviously, this was cause to decorate my front door!

Everything gets a blue ribbon!

Best Friends for 15 years!

Holding up the line at the photo booth while we... do whatever we were doing here.

Halloween: The kids at my school are the cutest. Do you hear me? The absolute cutest! Every student is my favorite one! Even the ones that aren't in my class. There is no amount of money in the world that could make me happier than working with kids and I am so, SO thankful it's what I do! I'll probably do a whole post about their precious little statements soon, but here was my fave from this month:

"Miss Kirsten, are you going on the field trip? Because if you're there, I won't miss my mom so much."

Which is totally heart-melting, right? But then they also say things like:

"You need to put your hair up... it doesn't look good."

So, you know, they keep me humble.

For Halloween, I made them this little "Monster Trick-or-Treat" game using stuff I already had. Those tiny little mustaches are from Creative Teaching Press, which has been my go-to lately for anything creative/festive! I made 8 monsters... the whole thing took about 20 minutes... and they LOVED it!

Eric Church: For our "grownup" Halloween night, we went to see Eric Church. Typically, we don't go to "big" or "mainstream" concerts... but my husband and I have both been fans of Eric Church since 2006. He used to play smaller venues around Memphis every year and this was his first time playing in the FedEx Forum... he gave several "shout outs" to the smaller venues who used to book him for shows, which was super cool. This was my 6th time seeing him.

And his live shows are still as much fun and interactive as they used to be when we were all packed in a tiny little venue!

...other places online:

Below Deck: Did y'all watch Below Deck? I am just a complete sucker for those silly Bravo shows like Million Dollar Decorators and Southern Charm. This season, it was Below Deck. Even though I have more of an Amy personality, the first time I saw Kate get out that giant checklist as her co-workers stood around and looked freaked out by it, I knew that I had found my organizational soulmate. But the best part?

Oh, that would be that she also has a blog. And it also contains the word "charm" in the title. And that she travels all over the world and dresses super-fabulously while she's doing it. The photos are beautiful and she's a great writer, so you should definitely check it out!

Happify: I promise Happify doesn't pay me to promote them every month... I just really LOVE doing the exercises on their website! If you're feeling sad or stressed or anxious or anything else negative, definitely download it! Even just one activity a day can make a huge difference!

And now, we're on to my absolute favorite {birthday} month...

NOVEMBER! :)

What did you do in October? Did you have homecoming or attend football games or an exciting party or dress up for Halloween? How is the weather where you live? What did you do to celebrate this oh-so-glorious season of Fall?!

Whew! Y'all... remember that month called "October"? Where the heck did it go? Seriously. I don't know if you noticed, but someone totally stole some days out of it because it could not have been that short! Thank you so much to all of you who read the series that I worked on in October! There are still more upcoming posts for it but I think I hit on all of the most frequently requested ones! Another thing crossed off of my to-do list! YAY!

What you didn't see (because I was focused on studying posts) was that we did a TON of decorating, organizing, and projects around our home in October, too!

Now it's no secret that I'm a little obsessed with Scotch Expressions tape (AKA "washi" tape). I use it in my planner, on my calendar, and for project, after project, after project around our loft!

But over the month of October, I had a chance to try out a different kind of tape from Scotch, the ScotchBlue TM Painter’s Tape Delicate Surface with Advanced Edge-Lock TM Paint Line Protector (AKA "painter's" tape).

Yes, that's right... I worked on some painting projects over the past month and I forgot how much fun that is! Every time I see amazing-looking living spaces on Pinterest, I'm so tempted to go out and buy a bunch of new home decor. And the only problem with that is that... well, you know... it costs money. So, during my Fall Break lull in schoolwork, I used my time to revamp the things that I already around the house!

In order to make this vase ombre, I taped the middle, then spray painted the top white and the bottom turquoise.

Once the paint dried, I removed the tape and blended the two in the middle until it looked ombre-ish enough for me!

Here's the final result!

This little step-stool used to be a burgundy color... but obviously, pink is better!

This one still needs a second coat of paint, but you get the picture :)

When I finished my projects, I gave the rest to my mom, who is in the process of decorating the "guest cottage" (AKA the fancy name she gave the mother-in-law suite) at my parents' house. I kind of feel like my husband and I have become expert painters over the past year... while staging our house, we ended up painting almost every single room. Okay, because he reads this blog, let me rephrase that... HE repainted almost every single room while I stood by the ladder ready to call 911 if he fell.

(My efforts to save his life from a hypothetical-potentially-life-threatening accident were not as appreciated as one would expect them to be.)