Wishing you a week filled with good books, delicious bites, and joyful moments.
xoxo, Arielle
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Writing these weekly update posts have proven to be somewhat cathartic for me. I don’t have a large reader base but that’s honestly not what this is about for me. I enjoy taking some time to reflect on what I’ve been up to and what my family has been enjoying.
In an ideal world I’d be able to share more photos of my family to make this a true memory keeping of sorts (and because my kiddo is the CUTEST) but with generate AI and people with less than stellar intentions, I’ll continue to safeguard my family’s privacy.
A few of my closest family members read my blog and follow along, and it’s really cool to be able to share a closer look at what my family is up to without sending a long letter to everyone. I do try my best to send the occasional photo dump of our favorite pictures to them though!
One of the biggest highlights of this past week was getting good news that my dad’s spinal surgery went well and that he’s recovering as expected. I don’t talk about super personal things that often and this was something that had been weighing on me, so needless to say it was a major sigh of relief to get positive updates from my mom.
Another family highlight was a trip to the zoo, it’s been a while and it we had great weather. Slightly cool Fall days are perfect for outdoor adventures.
Other highlights: collecting our Halloween decorations to put back in storage, ordering a few new holiday coffee mugs, matching pjs and blankets from Target, adding a new cookbook to our favorite cookbook shelf in the kitchen. Attending to convince my husband to put up our Christmas tree early.
In case you missed it:
Witchy Wednesday - a collection of books I’ve personally read and enjoyed
Fall Reading Guide on Instagram
November Holiday List on Substack
Mom Life
😴 No middle of the night kiddo snuggles this week, which is always good for our sleep.
🐯 Sunday I painted a full tiger face on our kiddo when we got home from the zoo. She was THRILLED. No photo being shared for privacy but oh my goodness, it was the cutest thing.
🥰 I had some of the most heartwarming mama moments throughout the week that never fail to remind me how lovely it is to be a parent to this amazing little girl.
🔤 I’m not the best at keeping track of our kiddo’s development but she recently has been saying the entire alphabet and is extremely proud of herself. It’s incredibly cool to watch her grow and learn.
🎨 Continuing to love our new copy of the Easy Peasy Paper Projects book. THANK YOU to Page Street Publishing for the lovely gifted copy and for sparking so much inspiration and creativity in our house!
🧩🦇📚 We’re almost done putting a 1000 piece Halloween bookish puzzle together. It’s a fun screen-free evening activity with my kiddo and I’ve worked on it a few evenings with an audiobook in my ear after she goes to bed.
Gifts & Finds
😴 We ordered a new set of matching family pajamas from target. Our kiddo gets so excited when we all match, and this reindeer fair isle print at Target was too cute to pass on! They even have a matching fleece blanket.
🎄 Target’s Wondershop is filled with new holiday home décor and tons of cute mugs to choose from. The mugs are only $5 and (PSA!) this week they have $10 off $40 from the Wondershop collection: think super cute fleece blankets, ornaments, kitchen rugs, doorstep rugs.
My top favorites: a bookstack tree ornament, this coffee mug, this fleece blanket, this kitchen rug, this kid’s plate, and not part of the wonder shop collection but by far one of my new favorites, the cutest gingerbread house book basket.
Bookish Updates
November Finished Reading
📖 Succubus by Kate Fox | 💝 St. Martin’s Press | ✨ Enjoyed it
Currently Reading
🎧 Born a Crime by Trevor Noah | ✨ Loving it
📖 Trust Fall by Lynn Painter | ✨ Loving it
Top of the TBR:
The Lost Guardian by Natalie Hernandez
Paused or DNF’ed:
DNFed: Soon by You by Dahlia Adler
Growing my TBR
Book influencer programs
💕Submitted book requests through:
✨ Simon Element
✨ Sourcebooks - Hear Your Story box
✨ Dell Romance
✨ Atria Books & Atria Romance
✨ Page Street Publishing Nonfiction
This Week’s New Releases on my TBR
Tuesday, November 10th
Hate and Other Acts of Fiction by Megan Oliver
How to Be Hopeful by Caitlin Moran
The Last Dragon Queen by Sylvia Mercedes
Prudence Marsh is Not a Nobody Anymore by Emily Krempholtz
Wood You Be Mine by Daphne Elliot
Watching
📺 Love is Blind, Season 11 - Boston: watched the reunion
🎞️ We started watching Hallmark Christmas movies 🎄
📺 Weekly episode release shows:
Eternally Yours
Shark tank
Best Medicine
Private Eyes West Coast
On my upcoming watch list:
🎞️ Tv movie adaptation of The Bodyguard
🎞️ Tv movie on Prime: Clashing Through the Snow
Joyful Finds, Project Ideas, & Recipes to Try
👩🏽🍳 Make a recipe binder - an everyday heirloom; inspired by Kelsey Nixon’s The Recipe Club
📝 Journaling prompt idea from Antah Therapy: journal prompt on happiness
🧙🏼♀️ Lovely witchy art from Marigona Suli
👩🏽🍳 Adorable fall cookie inspiration from Chelsweets: the pumpkin pie shaped cookies are GORGEOUS but would be way too hard for me to recreate. I may have to try making these pumpkin cookies though, they look more doable!
What’s something that brought you joy this past week?
Random tidbits 🐾 from the Zoo!
I love reading your updates.