I thought it would be nice to wave goodbye to September with a little round-up of my month, including all that I got up to and my favourite bits of all the media I consumed...

What I've Been Up To:

- Writing: A whole lot of writing. I finally feel as though I'm making strides on the book I've been banging on about for months. It feels good to actually be writing it, rather than just talking about writing it, which I found was happening earlier in the year. I've also been writing and sending pitches into magazines, and you may have noticed I've bumped up my blog posts to twice a week (Monday mornings and Friday lunchtimes FYI). This has been a month of getting my head down and trying to get ahead with my to-do lists, so I don't spend the rest of the year chasing my own tail trying to keep up with my writing tasks.

 - Hjs Birthday: My friend Hannah celebrated turning 27 at the start of the month, so we enjoyed a birthday tea with some close friends and her family. We ate too much cake and had lots of lovely chats.

- Influencer Collective Event: Myself and my friend Madi attended the first-ever Influencer Collective event, which was held in a beautiful bar in Bristol. Although I've blogged for years, I've not been to very many blogger events, so I was excited to go to this one. I was a little nervous at first, I'm naturally very shy, so I find events with people I don't know to be a tad overwhelming, but everyone made me feel very welcome. It was lovely to meet some other Bristol-based bloggers and influencers. I left with a huge goody bag, and smile on my face, feeling very grateful for the blogging community.

- Wills and Emmas Wedding: This month, my big brother finally got married! They decided Vegas wedding was more suited to them, so sadly I couldn't be there, but I am so happy they finally tied the knot. We all had a drink at home as we watched the video to celebrate. It felt very surreal. I can't wait to celebrate altogether when they return from their holiday.

- Ryleighs First Birthday: My best friends Jaynie's little baby Ryleigh turned 1 which is completely insane. But nonetheless, it's cause for celebration. We enjoyed an afternoon of giant Jenga, twister and baby cuddles to celebrate.

 - Decoration Plans: Not so long ago, my sister moved out of the family home, so besides the house is a whole lot quieter, it means one thing, I finally get a decent-sized bedroom. At the ages of 26, I can wave goodbye to my single bed, but before doing so, the room needs a little spruce up. So this month I have begun looking at paint samples, peeling wallpaper and planning my future bedroom, please send any interior inspo my way!



Watching:

Netflix

- Gossip Girl: Now, I'm going to be completely honest, in typical a Chloe fashion, I've watched the entire Gossip Girl series twice in a row. That right. I finished the series and headed straight back to Season 1 Episode 1. As soon as I found out who gossip girl was, I felt a niggling desire to rewatch it to analyse if that made sense, obsessive I know. The first episode I found quite problematic, especially for Chuck's character, but other than that, I love the series. I'm a little obsessed with Blairs and Chucks relationship, which again, is overly problematic, but there's something about the chemistry between the two. On watching the series the second time around, I also realised, I really don't like Serena's character as much as I originally thought I did. Dorota is obviously my favourite character. Anyway, if you're late to the party like I was, it's worth attending. It's sort of like a hybrid between Pretty Little Liars and One Tree Hill - so worth a watch.

- To All The Boys I've Loved Before: I've already given something thoughts on this in this blog post. I liked this chick flick, young adult rom-com - despite being aimed at girls 10 years younger than me, this is exactly the genre of film I love, something carefree, with romance. However, I do think because of the hype surrounding it, I found the film slightly disappointing, but I did still enjoy it.

 - Sierra Burgess is a Loser: Like many of the reviews I read, I did find this film problematic. Throughout the film Sierra catfishes a guy, pretending to be the pretty girl who's bullied her. Her bully then becomes her friend and helps her catfish the guy. I get what they were trying to do, but it is really not okay to catfish someone, although it might be possible to become friends with someone who has previously bullied you, there would need to be some sort of a conversation, a confrontation about your past with that person, and why on earth did Sierra's friends not convince her, that actually she is good enough for the guy as herself. I don't think films always get it right when they try to explore social media (as they did on All the Boys I Loved Before). I did enjoy watching this film, but I don't think it put across a great message. However, I bloody love Noah Centineo as an actor, and I'm pleased he's appearing in more things (next I'd like him to take on the role of the groom at my wedding tbh).
YouTube

- Sam Ozkural: As I'm enjoying learning more about the Law of Attraction, I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos on it. Sam Ozkural is someone I've enjoyed coming back to, I find after watching her videos I feel positive and motivated. I don't love the 'diet' type videos she puts up, but I just choose not to watch those ones.

- Shane Dawson: The Mind of Jake Paul: Obviously. Some think this is problematic, personally, I think it's interesting. Sure, Jake doesn't deserve the attention, but he gets it elsewhere anyway, so it may as well be in the form of a documentary trying to understand why he is how he is, right? Shane definitely got carried away with the horror style editing in the second episode of the series, but other than that, I think it's great.


TV

- X-Factor - I rarely turn on the TV. I'm just not really a TV person, if I'm watching something it tends to be either YouTube or Netflix until this time of year comes around and I sit down with my Mum and stepdad to watch The X-Factor. Now if I'm honest, I think aspects of it are outdated, and personally I kind of think it's had its time - I can't see it lasting many more series, but I've got to say, Louis Tomlinson has given it a breath of fresh air, and as much as I don't love it like I used to, I do enjoy spending time with my family watching it.

- Strictly - I'm not usually a fan of Strictly, as I just mentioned we're an X-Factor household and it tends to be one or the other. However, although I'm slightly outside of his usual demographic, I bloody love Joe Sugg, so like many, I'm curious to see him dance, dressed in sequins. I think I could get quite into it. So far, I find the episodes tend to drag a little, and sometimes they're a bit too cringe, but the dancing is impressive nonetheless, so I'm hoping I'll get more hooked as the series goes on.


Reading Material:

Books:


To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han: I wrote a full review on this here.

PS I Still Love You by Jenny Han: I've finished the second is the series of To All The Boys I've Loved Before. I won't say much as I don't want to give anything anyway, but I didn't like it as much as the first one. It was good in the sense that I wanted to keep reading, but I found a lot of the relationships in the story felt very immature. I liked the introduction of Stormy's character. There was also less of Margot's character in this book which I somewhat appreciated. There was also less of Josh's character which felt a shame, and quite a lot of John's character considering how much of a small role he played in the first book. I'm on to the third one, so once I finish that I'll let you know my thoughts on the serious a whole.

You Are A Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero: This book is great for getting in a positive mindset with money. I love the style of writing, Jen has a friendly but firm tone which I like. I find this book very motivating and inspiring. It is something you have to go into reading with an open mind, it discusses the Law of Attraction a lot throughout, you have to be open to that concept to get all you might want from the book.


Blogs
Madeleiine Grace: What I Learnt from All the Boys I've Loved

In The Frow: Why We Shouldn't Be Afraid to Praise Ourselves

Liv Purvis: Introducing The Insecure Girls' Club

Wonderful--You: My Career Journey

Hannah Gale: 29


Magazines:
Zadie Smith on Aging in Elle (Oct 18)

Dolly Alderton on Why She's Done with Dating in The Sunday Times Style

Selena Forrest on Viewpoint on Sexuality and Owning It in Vogue (Oct 18)

The Beckhams in Vogue (Oct 18)

Dolly Alderton on The Piers and Paula Theory in Red (Oct 18)

Emma Freud Interview with Ferne Cotton in Red (Oct 18)


Listening

Podcasts:

- On The Line: Break-ups with Jules Von Hep

- Feminist Don't Wear Pink with Jameela Jamil

- The Fringe of It with Gina Martin

- Millennial Love: Breaking the Stigma of being Single

- At Home with: Callie Thorpe


Excited for:

Feminist Don't Wear Pink and Other Lies by Scarlett Curtis

The remainder of Shane Dawsons In The Mind of Jake Paul

My friend Jess visiting.

Crunchy Autumn Leaves.

Autumn Jumpers.



I hope you had a great month too, let me know your favourite bits from it! 
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