Laina Turner's Blog, page 19

My WHY behind Writing Warriors Collective Part 2

 PART 2

Welcome back to part 2 of what I learned along my self-publishing journey is what’s inspired me to start the Writing Warriors Collective

“a writers community focused on providing education, motivation, inspiration, and support to writers on their publishing journey.”

If you missed part one you can catch up here.

2009 – 2013 as the ebook market exploded and self-publishing was a thing anyone could do, I was lucky. Even though I didn’t know what I was doing, I was still making good money. 

It wasn’t millions, but I was averaging $3000 a month. Since I was still working a full-time job and only working on my author business part-time, I was elated.

Then in 2014 things changed. There were more authors than ever breaking into self-publishing, and it became so much more competitive. 

My sales tanked, my shortcomings in knowing how to write and produce a good book were glaringly apparent. I didn’t know what to do. 

I had 2 choices. I could quit and enjoy the memories of being a mediocre author or regroup and continue my journey.

I decided to keep going. I realized I needed to focus more on quality. 

Specifically editing. 

I took a year off from writing new books and went through my entire backlist re-writing, re-editing (sending off to 2 different editors), and republishing. 

It didn’t increase my sales but I wasn’t marketing either. The goal wasn’t sales it was to increase my knowledge of how to put a great quality book out in the marketplace. 

I created processes and timelines around everything. Treated my writing as a business and held myself accountable as such.

It was hard for me not to write new books (you authors know we all have a million ideas in our head at any given time) but I knew I needed to focus on the process. 

I wanted to be confident when I did write and publish a new book I was doing it the correct way. So I could be proud my books would go back to earning me an income. 

I went back to school during this time as well to get my MFA in Creative Writing. Not necessary to be an author but I’m a lifelong learner. I love school and what it gives you. I’m the first to say, as a college professor and someone who has 3 advanced degrees, that formal education is not the be all and end all. It’s simply a tool to put in your toolbox of skills.

(like the tools in Writing Warriors Collective)

And I firmly believe you can never have too many tools.

2014 was an abysmal year in book sales followed by 2015 and 2016 which weren’t much better. 

Sales were consistent. Consistently trending down. I refused to let it bother to be as I was rebuilding my foundation. 

You know the build it, and they will come thing.

I focused on learning and then how to execute. I knew this would in the long-term increase my chances of making a living as an author.

2017 started as the year of rebirth (so dramatic) of my author career. 

This year while I’ve seen other authors throw in the towel (which I hate to see, there are enough readers for all of us) I have seen my sales steadily increase. I released one book in January with the intent of 2 more this year, but then in the spring, I realized I felt a calling to help other authors. 

I’ve always consulted and worked with people one on one but I wanted to do more. I wanted to take my skills as a college professor and instruction designer and create something that could help more people reach their writing dreams and not get frustrated and quit.

So I put off my fiction writing and created the Writing Warriors Collective.

“a writers community focused on providing education, motivation, inspiration, and support to writers on their publishing journey.”

Most aspiring authors who I meet at conferences or randomly on social media have the same fears in common.

1. I’m not a good enough writer to make it.

2. I don’t have the time.

3. I don’t have the money.

4. I have no idea what to do or where to start.

Those are the fears I want to help authors put to rest in the Writing Warriors Collective because I’ve been there. More than once.

I believe anyone who is committed to the process can reach their dreams of being an author.

You may have to accomplish it in years versus months if you’re juggling many other things like family, work, school. 

But you can do it.

Money can be figured out. There are lost cost ways to do anything. When you plan and follow the process, you give yourself time to find the money to finance your dream.

Getting started is often the hardest part. But once you get started I promise you, you’ll be unstoppable.

If you’re an author and have ever had any of those fears I listed above let me help you. 

There are several plans to choose from starting at FREE (who doesn’t love free) to $37 a month for personalized feedback.

This promo pricing won’t last forever so don’t wait!

Join the Writing Warriors Collective Facebook Community!

 

The post My WHY behind Writing Warriors Collective Part 2 appeared first on Laina Turner.

Why Travel is Stressful

 I was in Belize last weekend (post coming soon I’m still editing photos) and I fell in love. However, we weren’t in some high-end resort with all the comforts of the US.

Now I’m not one of “those people” who expects the world to all be the same. I mean if that’s what you want why travel? Traveling is a great way to experience things we aren’t used to.

But as we were “roughing it” my travel bitch Kathy (her words not mine) and I came up with a list of things that caused us to stress out. Things, not even a glimmer of a thought 10-15 years ago.

Dying batteries – when you have an iPhone, and iPad, and a Macbook you would think you’d have enough juice between the 3 to make it. Not so much. To watch your battery start to dwindle from 100% to 80%, to 60%, and then you get to that dreaded 39% because it is all downhill from there. Is stressful. Where is your next charge going to come from? What happens if you don’t have time to charge your devices before leaving again? What order do the devices need to be charged in if there aren’t enough outlets?

Not enough outlets AS IF!

Plug abundance – In the states, if you’re at an airport, even a small one, there are outlets abound. If it’s busy you might have to fight someone for one. But if you wait long enough they’ll have to go the bathroom, and you can snatch it.

Hotels in the States have desks with extra outlets, lamps with built-in outlets, and wall plugs usually have 4 or 6 outlets. Hell, I have a power strip in my car for the kids in the back.

When you’re in Belize outlets clearly weren’t the priority when planning buildings. It’s like they think we’re going to be outside enjoying the sandy beaches or something.

No wifi – it’s fun to talk a good game. About how excited you’ll be who you unplug from the world. When you’re not “being bothered” by texts, social media, or emails. But when you’re faced with the reality of stepping off that plane, turning on your phone and getting nothing. The anxiety sets in.

You’re asking yourself what if there is an emergency? How will I keep up without Facebook? Your entire life is consumed with where you’ll get your next fix of social media.

Who cares you’re in the tropics. You don’t know what everyone else is doing. Or rather what everyone pretends they are doing because let’s face it, we often post the awesomeness we WANT people to think our life is. Not what it actually is.

Then to make matters worse once you get to wifi after being without it for hours you turn your phone on waiting for it to ping like crazy with the millions of messages. Only to find out no one desperately needed anything from you. I’m pretty sure my phone was broken most the time I was there and just bounced back messages, or I’m sure there would have been more.

Slow wifi – the only think worse than no wifi is slow wifi. I say it’s worse because when you don’t have it, you don’t have it. No texts, Instagrams, emails, Facebook posts going in or out. But when it’s slow and sending that perfect picture is RIGHT AT THE TIP OF YOUR FINGERS…..OMG, the pain. It’s excruciating.

No Starbucks or lattes of any kind – I am fine drinking black coffee much of the time. In fact, I only get a latte maybe 15% of the time I go to a coffee shop. But to not have the option makes me crave one. How do people live without lattes?

Who CARES that it’s never cooler than 86 degrees. Lattes people. We need lattes!

We did finally find a coffee shop in town where this awesome barista named Josh made the best latte I’ve ever had.

Transportation – where is uber when you need it? I do admit I loved that when you talk about taxis in Belize, you have to make the distinction between water taxi and land taxi. But that’s where it stopped.

Both taxis ran on a schedule. A SCHEDULE! There was no app where I could punch in my route and get someone to my door in 5 minutes or less day or night.

I actually had to show up at one certain spot down from the hotel 15 minutes early to check in for the taxi. And wait if they were late (Belizean time you know). 

I know as you read this post you were wondering how I made it. How I survived such deplorable conditions. I know, it was rough. But the amazing weather, the wonderful people who couldn’t have been nicer, and the gorgeous ocean made it tolerable.

What comforts can’t you live without?

Please note this post was written in jest. I’m not this much of an entitled traveler and my real Belize post coming soon. But don’t wait. Book your trip now. You won’t regret it.

 

The post Why Travel is Stressful appeared first on Laina Turner.

3 FREE Cozy Mysteries

As an author, you sometimes fall in and out of love with your characters. When I started the first Trixie Pristine mystery, it wasn’t supposed to be a mystery at all. It just turned out that way.

Even though it’s not at all what I had planned it to be, I still wrote 3 in the series because I felt compelled. The stories just came out. Then as I was planning the 4th, I realized I felt a little stagnant and didn’t feel moved to write another. So I stopped.

However, recently I re-read the series trying to decide if I wanted to let it die or keep it going and I realized I was enjoying what I read, and several ideas for the 4th book I’d stopped writing and a few more just exploded out of me.

That’s the frustrating thing about being an author. You can’t control when the creative muses come out.

To celebrate my creative juices flowing again, I’d love to share the first 3 in the Trixie Pristine series for free with you all!

Get Your 3 Free Books

I hope you enjoy! Make sure to drop me a line and tell me how you liked them.

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A Day in the Life of Trixie Pristine

In this cozy mystery, Trixie and her friends Berklie and Sophie, considered themselves typical thirty-something females until someone turned up murdered in their newly opened bookstore/wine bar. They thought they would be living out their dream in their new shop not trying to catch a killer. Who killed Sylvia and why? Or was one of them the intended target?

Books Aren’t Just For Reading

Trixie and her friends can’t wait until the opening of Read/Wine, their new business venture. All is going well until they happen to find a dead body in the shop and that wasn’t exactly part of the business plan. All signs pointed to Berklie since it was her ex-husband’s lover who was murdered. But Trixie knew Berklie hadn’t murdered Sylvia so who did? Was there a murderer loose in their quiet little town?

Cupcakes Aren’t Just For Eating

Trixie, Berklie, and Sophie are enjoying the success of their new business and planning for Sophie’s upcoming wedding. Until murder strikes their small town. Right in their store when one of their customers dies after eating a baked good.

If that wasn’t bad enough for they start receiving hang up calls. At first, they chalk it up to a wrong number or kids playing pranks, but soon the caller reveals himself. It’s Stephen, and he’s back, making good on his threat. He wants his money back or else. The fact that the police confiscated it doesn’t matter to him. He wants it back and has given them a deadline. A deadline they need to meet before anyone else ends up dead.

Grab your free copies now and snuggle up with a good cozy mystery!

The post 3 FREE Cozy Mysteries appeared first on Laina Turner.

My WHY behind Writing Warriors Collective Part 1

I am beyond excited to tell you why I launched the Writing Warriors Collective. 

“a writers community focused on providing education, motivation, inspiration, and support to writers on their publishing journey.”

If you don’t really care about why and just want access to all the goodies, then click here and skip the rest of the post.

I’d wanted to be a writer since I was 7. Even at that young age, I was an avid reader. As an only child reading stories and making up my own was my favorite pastime. However, back then becoming an author for a living seemed as attainable as finding a unicorn to ride. So I shelved that dream for many years. Even though it was always in the back of my mind.

Then in my late 30’s I went through a divorce which if you’ve been through one (and if you have I’m sorry, wouldn’t wish it on anyone) you know it’s life-changing.

As I was trying to put the pieces back together, I began to realize how short life was not to chase your dreams. 

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. Theodore Roosevelt

I’d always been practical but felt it was time to make an attempt the impractical. Or what many thought was impractical. This was in 2007, and coincidentally that’s when the Kindle first came out, but honestly, that wasn’t even on my radar. I’d attempted to write a novel before but always stopped thinking it was crap (and it was). But this time I promised myself I’d follow my goal all the way through and finish. And if nothing else have a finished piece of crap instead of a half-finished one.

That’s progress, right?

18 months later and I typed The End. I was over the moon happy. I finished a book. I finished a freakin’ book. How awesome was I??

Now what?

I decided to go the self-publishing route because I wasn’t confident it was any good and querying agents, editors, and such terrified me. The next 6 months were spent trying to figure out how to accomplish getting my book in final print format. I will spare you the details but I spent a ton of money and time for a crappy end product. 

But you live and learn.

One day as I was lamenting to a friend how much time and money I wasted to barely sell any books, and only to those who HAD to buy them (friends/family), she asked how many ebooks I’d sold.

I said none. It’s not available in ebooks format. It’s just a “real” book. See I was still stuck in the old-fashioned, “my book has to feel and smell like a book.”

She rolled her eyes and called me stupid (don’t you love great friends like that). So I figured what the hell it couldn’t hurt to do an ebook version. I figured out how to put it up on Amazon and then promptly forgot about it.

The next time we had coffee, she asked how many ebooks I had sold. I told her I had no idea I hadn’t checked since I put it up. I went and checked confident it would be zero and then I could be all like “told you so,” ebooks suck.”

Luckily I hadn’t made that comment before I looked it up or I would have had to eat my words.

I HAD SOLD A BOOK WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!

I decided then and there that I needed to get on the ebook train. I begrudgingly bought a few ebooks to read on my new Kindle, and while I wanted not to like it, I did. It was so much easier to carry around many ebooks to read when I had a few moments instead of stuffing them in my bag and carrying them around.

I was sold and totally convinced that ebooks would explode and be here to stay.

My first month in the ebook business (in 2009) I made $5.64. I was rich! Maybe not in money but in excitement at the possibilities. I wrote more books, starting making a ton of mistakes, and in spite of all the mistakes making some money.

I was making money as an author. I couldn’t believe it.

However, life as a published author isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. Come back tomorrow for part 2 of my story. 

Make sure to check out Writing Warriors Collective before you leave!

 

The post My WHY behind Writing Warriors Collective Part 1 appeared first on Laina Turner.

November Goals

 I hate to sound like a broken record because I’ve said this a million times on the blog this year but…

WHAT’S HAPPENED TO THE YEAR?????

It’s November already. We only have 8 1/2 weeks left in the year, and I swear it feels like we just celebrated the new year 2017.

However, with that said we may be close to the end, but we’re not yet done with 2017. We’ve got those 8 1/2 weeks to kick butt, to reach our goals, surpass them if you’ve already reached them, and to end the year just as committed as when we started it.

While I’m not ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am super excited for it to be November 1st as I’m officially launching the project I’ve been working on (in some form or another) since the beginning of the year. 

THE WRITING WARRIORS COLLECTIVE

“a writers community focused on providing education, motivation, inspiration, and support to writers on their publishing journey.”

You can find out more – and get special launch pricing – here.

It’s just so exciting to FINALLY see my hard work pay off for a product that I truly feel will help others reach their writing dreams!

But the name of this post is goals, so let’s talk about what I want to accomplish in November.

1. Get 30 paid signups to The Writing Warriors Collective. I have to admit I’m scared to put this out here but when you’re going after a big, scary, goal, I do believe you have to shout it out to the universe. 

My plan is to work every day on promoting it and adding more content, so I feel it’s reasonable to get one new member per day.

2. Yoga 3 days a week. I’ve really fallen off the wagon with this one, and I don’t understand why it’s so had tog et motivated since my body literally hurts after a few days of no yoga. I still have boot camp until the 17th when the current challenge ends, and then I think I’m taking a break (it doesn’t fuel my soul like yoga). But I’ve got the time to do both for a few weeks. It’s strictly a laziness issue.

3. Protect my time. I am most creative in the morning, yet I find myself routinely scheduling things or talking with friends in the hours before 12 pm. Then after lunch, I want a nap and the rest of the day is not my best. 

I need to be more selfish and protect the time that is going to get me to my goals. I am committing to you all right here, right now that I am working Monday – Friday from 7:30-12:30 offline getting writing done. Then I’ll get back online, have lunch, catch up with all the emails/texts that came in, and proceed with my day doing the tasks that don’t take that extreme mental effort.

This is going to be hard for me, but I feel if I don’t put myself and my work first this way I will not be able to make The Writing Warriors Collective successful. And that’s not an option.

That’s it. 3 things I’m focusing on. That’s another thing that is going to be hard about November. I’m usually all over the place, tons of goals, I want to do a million things but as I was reflecting last weekend on my trip to Belize that behavior is NOT helping me get to where I want to go.

This has probably been the most nervous I’ve been about my goals this year. I have a lot riding on the Writing Warriors Collective, and it’s scary.

What are your crazy/scary goals this month?

 

The post November Goals appeared first on Laina Turner.

Sweet 16 Weekend Fun

This past weekend was awesome. You know one of those times where you just have an old-fashioned good time.

Get this. It was so fun I wasn’t even able to take many pictures. Almost impossible to fathom, right?

I’d been planning the weekend for a while. My husbands birthday was Friday the 13th and my son’s birthday is Wednesday the 18th. So I combined all the party activities into one weekend.

For my husband’s birthday, I invited down his 2 best friends who live about 5 hours away. It was a surprise, and he was definitely surprised. They came down Friday, and we all got to enjoy some adult time with adult beverages.

They helped me make some desserts for Saturday’s party which we didn’t even eat. I threw them in the freezer for Friendsgiving.

Saturday my husband’s friend Jesse got bored and whipped up an amazing spread of food. Best food anyone’s ever had at my house. They will be so disappointed when they come to Friendsgiving. The bar has been set way too high.

Saturday evening was my son’s Sweet Sixteen party. I know you’re not supposed to call them that for boys but what’s the fun in that? I asked him if he wanted a tiara or anything and much to my disappointment he said no. I guess I’ll need to wait for Sydney to turn 16.

I made the mistake of not controlling the guest list very closely, and it made me a little nervous when kids kept streaming into my house. 

Animal House anyone.

But it ended up being fine. I think 22 kids came (they were dancing around so much I had a hard time counting) and every time an adult went down to yell HAND CHECK they looked to be having fun.

The hardest part of this whole thing is realizing my son is 16. Seriously, that’s way too old, and I never gave him permission for that.

While the kids were partying like it was 1999 downstairs the adults were doing the same upstairs. I had the usual suspects over, since their kids are friends with my kid, and then a couple of new faces. It can sometimes be a toss up when you introduce a new face to the mix. Especially, with my friends because we are very “real”. We don’t have polite tea parties. We’re not big drinking party animals if that’s what your thinking but we are loud, opinionated, and use 4 letter words. But it’s all in good fun.

So I was thrilled when the mom of Caden’s longest running friend, from back in the toddler days, came and stayed to hang with us. She fit right in, and that’s no easy feat.

My ex-husband and his girlfriend even came. The plan had always been for them to stop by and pop into Caden’s party but they stayed for a while, and we all had a great time. It was the first time meeting the girlfriend though. Ss awesome as my friends and I are I sure hope we didn’t scare her away. We can be a lot to take the first time. I really liked her. She’s cute and sweet and seemed to fit right in. And if she hated us all I want to give her credit for being a kick-ass actress because none of us picked up on it. 

The next morning I woke up thinking what an amazing life I have. I have the best circle of friends, I’m blessed with wonderful kids, and I’m able to have these get-togethers where we can have fun and make memories. 

What was your weekend like? 

 

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Life, Writing, and In Pursuit of Fabulous Podcast 2

The post Life, Writing, and In Pursuit of Fabulous Podcast 2 appeared first on Laina Turner.

Why I Hate Parenting

I’ve been a parent for 16 years now and at first, it was a pretty fun gig. I mean who can resist a cute little baby. All chubby and smiley. The cute clothes, the fun toys, showing my son (and daughter) off because everyone loves babies.

But what they don’t tell you when you have these cute little bundles of joy is that they grow up. 

Parenting now, not so much fun. Almost daily I try and give my parenting resignation to my ex-husband and that jerk refuses to accept it. He says if he’s stuck I’m stuck. See why I divorced him? He’s mean (I’m joking we’re best friends). I just think 16 years at one job is good, right. I mean it’s ok for me to move on and see what else is out there. Transfer my skills to a less stressful position that provides a more positive work environment.

There are several reasons I hate being a parent and wanted to share them with the world. Or at least the 3 people who read this blog.

1. Parenting is hard. I wanted a cute baby. Someone to pay my retirement home bill. Maybe hang out with on holidays. Not hard. I did not sign up for hard. I signed up for cute.

2. It’s hard to constantly be told you’re stupid. I mean I’m no genius but surely I’m not the stupidest person on the planet worthy of the utter disdain my teen conveys with his eyes when I speak.

Mom: You want ice cream?

Kid: Silent stare of contempt

Mom: You want to go shopping?

Kid: Silent stare of disgust

Mom: The sky is blue

Kid: How did you get a Ph.D. You’re so stupid.

3. They’re expensive. I could have an entire closet full of Louboutins for what I spend on sports, braces, ESPN, TENNIS SHOES. OMG have you seen the cost of tennis shoes these days?

The cash flows one direction. From my wallet to their hands. It grows on trees you know. 

“Let’s save our money.” Ha! A phrase too hard to understand. 

Kid: What? We’re out of bottled water and I have to drink tap water?

next day

Mom: I bought bottled water today.

Kid: What the heck mom. Are we poor? You bought Wal-Mart brand? You know I like Aquafina.

4. I spend all my free time, and time that isn’t free, driving kids around. I’m an unpaid uber driver who has thankless passengers and I can’t even rate them. 

5. So many dirty dishes. And we all know that putting dirty dishes IN the dishwasher is way too difficult for a teen. In fact, my friend Sheri and I decided you must have an advanced degree to load and unload the dishwasher. Clearly, it’s too hard for a mere teen. Though it took me a while to realize that (but then I’m stupid you know). We need to start small and work up to dishwasher tasks. Like putting the toilet seat down. A losing battle for 15 years.

6. They are nice to other adults. Like your friends. So when you’ve complained about how difficult they are your friends think you’re nuts. Unless they, of course, have kids themselves and then they see it for what it is. The old bait and switch.

Mom: I don’t know what I’m going to do with him. He’s mean and hateful and driving me nuts.

Friend: I so loved taking him to football yesterday. He was a delight. That kid is so funny and charming. You are so lucky.

Mom: Who the f*** did you drive? It wasn’t MY kid.

Teenagers are evil. Sometimes they’re awesome. Mostly, they’re evil.

You wonder how you will ever survive one more day as a parent.

And then THIS happens.

Kid: Mom?

Mom: Yes honey.

Kid: I love you.

You melt. You forget everything that happened in the last 16 years that drove you nuts. In that moment you realize you have the most perfect child on this planet. And how lucky you are to be his mom.

Yes. I sometimes hate being a parent and yet I wouldn’t trade it for a single thing. There is no more rewarding job on earth and I thank God I have my 2 amazing children.

Disclaimer – This post is sarcastic. Yes, these are actual conversations but I don’t really hate parenting. So please no mean comments.

 

The post Why I Hate Parenting appeared first on Laina Turner.

Writers Resource Collection & Courses

You know when you get excited because you’ve been working on something really hard and are finally seeing it come to fruition?

Yeah, that’s me today (insert happy dance).

Earlier this year I launched a very modest free writers resource page to help writers who were looking to make a career as an author.

I received a great response and had people asking for more tips, tricks, tutorials, and free courses. It was exciting to see so many people wanting, needing, and using the resources that of course, I wanted to provide more.

I’ve spent the last few months putting together just that.

A Writers Resource Collection & Courses

(I’m still trying to think of a snazzy name is you have any ideas).

This collection contains multiple levels of resources to fit the need of authors regardless of what stage they’re at. And I’m really proud of what I came up with.

Level 1 is ready and Level 2 almost is. Right now I’m offering a free 45 day trial to level 2 as I continue to build it so I can test the system. I would love to have you join and get your feedback. I need your feedback! It’s easy to cancel so after the 45-day trial you can downgrade to free level 1.

Why is this writers resource collection different from others out there?

Well….

I don’t talk much about what I do outside of blogging and writing fiction but I have been a college professor since 2004. I’ve held the position of Assistant Dean of Curriculum at an online university and an Associate Dean of the College of Business at a state school where I live (among others). So I have a good understanding of education and how to best deliver it.

I still currently teach online and am an Instructional Designer for the Jack Welch Management Institute. And if you’re not familiar with what an Instructional Designer does they create content for students.

When I look at what is different between courses us bloggers sell and college courses there isn’t a lot. Of course, there are some crappy courses out there but there are also crappy universities. But I’ve taken online courses from other bloggers that were amazing. Tons of materials, great videos, and tutorials, well presented etc. But the one thing that is usually missing that most college courses have is the discussion/feedback/ engagement piece.

Now I know a lot of that comes from scalability. If you’re a blogger you don’t have a team of college professors to engage with students so you have to be practical.

So I sat down with some of my university peers and they helped me create an outline of a course that would allow for the one on one or small group feedback.

Level 1 is ready and level 2 will be ready soon. The content’s completed I’m just proofreading and formatting it. It should all be uploaded within the next 2 weeks. Then I plan on adding to it regularly.

Levels 3,4 aren’t finished yet but they will have all the content of 1, 2 plus challenges, feedback, small group work etc. I will be launching those levels Nov. 1st. There is limited space each launch due to the feedback piece and how I want to keep it feasible. But current members will get first dibs on those levels when they’re ready.

I can’t wait to work with all of you.

Join the 45 day trial period to Level 2 today!

Happy writing!

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My Fall Wish List

The thing that’s awesome about being a lifestyle blogger is we love to write about seasons and holidays. I know that might sound a little sarcastic but I mean it. I enjoy reading posts about what others love about fall or Christmas or summer. I think it’s the voyeuristic trend our society has taken in the last 20 years. I love knowing what others are doing and how they are doing it.

Every year I look forward to October – December because I love fall, I love the holidays, and I love to write about what I love.

That’s a lot of love right there folks!

I’m not a fan of what comes after fall but how can you not love this time of year. Especially if you live in an area of the country where seasons change. Who can resist the beauty of leaves turning? The smell of cinnamon and pumpkin spice lattes? Sweater weather, hot apple cider, and bonfires?

Not this gal that’s for sure.

This year I decided to mix it up a bit and write about what I WANT for fall rather than what I love about fall (of course I already mentioned what I love. I had to get that in somehow.)

There are a few key things that have been on my wishlist for fall that I wanted to share.

I need a new scarf. I used to have a million scarves. Ok, I had about 25 and when I did a minimalist stroll through my closet earlier this year I tossed all but 2. Because I didn’t wear them. When I went to Australis earlier this year with my friend Gina I’ve been coveting her scarf. It was neutral in color and light so good for year ‘round use. 

Now that it’s fall I’ve been thinking more and more about that scarf and decided it’s time to get one of my own. Since I wanted it to be all season I steered away from knitted and fur though this is a pretty kick ass looking scarf. I just don’t think it would go well with my yoga pants.

 

Since I primarily wear black, or some shade of black like grey, I wanted to go with a black scarf but not all black. Even though that was hard for me to stay away from.

I finally came across this one and ordered it. 

Next on my list was a new cardigan. I have 3 black cardigans so I was looking for a grey or a cream. Again something that would go with all my black and maybe spice it up a little. I decided on this one.

I love the texture. It’s a little pricier than what I wanted to spend but I will wear it almost every day so it will pay for itself.

Last year I threw away my everyday boots that I’d worn for the last couple years. They were scuffed to the point they didn’t look good and I needed new ones. I knew if I threw them out I’d have no choice but to buy new instead of wearing threw or out ones another season.

For as long as I can remember I’ve spent most the winter in tall boots. This year I decided to go out of my comfort zone and get these ankle boots. Yeah, I live on the edge. I like the way they look and they seem super comfy.

I’ve wanted a pair of Hunter rainbows for years but I still can’t get past the price. But aren’t they so pretty?

The last thing on my fall list has been on the general list of things I want for the last 2 years. When we moved into our current house we bought this gorgeous table and chairs set. However, after getting shipped 3 tables that were all sent back due to defects we canceled our order.  We’ve been searching for the right table ever since.

We’re having Friendsgiving on November 4th so I have a renewed sense of urgency for a new table. I’ve bought a lot form Hayneedle this year, as I was working on our outdoor space, and I found this table which I love. But I’m still looking.

I recently ordered these items and they haven’t come in yet. So you get to see the pretty stock model instead of me. I know, you’re totally disappointed. 

Well, don’t be!

Happy fall!

 Shop the post.

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