Lately, I have been completely and utterly stuck. 

Life has been so full of school and things of the like that I most definitely do not want to be doing. So then, when I finally reach the end of my "to-do list of death", as I like to oh so fondly refer to it, I just want to do something I enjoy. The problem has been, I haven't been able to find any creativity to do the things that I enjoy. 

Unless you've somehow managed to not be on the Internet for the past month and this is the first post that you've read, you should know that NaNoWriMo is quickly coming up. I'm participating for the first time, and, despite being a bit freaked out, I'm also really excited. I feel like I'm finally at a really good point to write, and so I can't wait to start getting those words on the page. But I don't want to start until November 1, so that I can get all the words in during November. So now that I actually have been wanting to write, I can't. Yay. 

So since I can't work on my novel, my next instinct is to want to blog. Y'all, I have been going insane. I cannot seem to gain blogging inspiration for the life of me. I literally can't think of a point when my blogging block has been as bad as it's been this past month. I cannot come up with any post ideas, and it's about to drive me to drink. It's not even that I'm just too busy or too tired to blog- if I tried, I could totally make time. I just can't come up with anything to blog about. 

Last night, as I was dramatically lamenting about the horrors of bloggers block and desperately attempting to figure out something to post, I thought back to a post that the fabulous Abbie wrote a few weeks ago- How To Survive The Apocalypse Of Running Out Of Content For Your Blog. Since I'm obviously suffering from this apocalypse, I decided to write a bit of a follow-up post. So, if you happen to be in this dreaded apocalypse right along with me, here is a list (with copious amounts of gifs) of.....

8 Completely Mature Ways To React To The Blogging Apocalypse. 

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1. CRY

Clearly this is the natural response. BECAUSE WE COULD ALL POSSIBLY DIE HERE WHY IS EVERYONE ELSE SO CALM?!

2. STRESS-EAT CHOCOLATE

Chocolate solves a world of problems. Maybe it can solve the apocalypse???

3. PONDER LIFE

I don't know. I don't know anything anymore.

4. GO INTO DENIAL

Because why face your problems like a functioning human when you can pretend they don't exist to begin with? 

5. BEG YOUR FOLLOWERS FOR HELP

If they are kind, they shall send you therapy waffles.

Abbie is always quite lovely about sending therapy waffles.

6. FREAK OUT EVEN MORE BECAUSE YOU NEED CONTENT

Like I don't think you understand WE HAVE A BLOG TO RUN GOSH DARNIT WE NEED CONTENT!!

7. ....WAIT- IS THAT AN IDEA??

No....it can't be...is that..?

8. IT IS IT IS IT IS WE'RE GONNA SURVIVE!!!

*dances for the next ten years while eating waffles* We have officially survived this blogging apocalypse. Congratulations!

.....until next time. 

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If you aren't a blogger, or you're just a blogger who has their life much more together than I do, you might think that this list is slightly overdramatic. BUT THE BLOGGING APOCALYPSE IS QUITE TERRIFYING AND NOT A FUN PLACE TO BE. Hopefully this dry patch of evil goes away soon, and I still manage to keep up posting throughout the scary NaNo process.

And, in helping to get past this blogger's block, I have a request- what kind of posts would you like to see?? I'm in the pits of blogging despair, and I could really use some help- what's your favorite kind of post? HELP A GIRL OUT!!

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So, tell me- what have YOU been up to?? I feel like I haven't talked to anyone lately!! Are YOU experiencing the blogger's block?? WHAT KIND OF POSTS DO YOU WANT TO SEE?? LET'S CHAT!!!

Weekly Wrap-Up

My gosh, I literally haven't done one of these since JUNE. That's terrible. Blogging in general has been kind of terrible lately; we're just going to ignore that, okay? ♥

Life has been so incredibly full. School on top of school on top of school, planning for Halloween, rehearsing, setting up classes for next semester, trying to organize my room and life, and really just working on staying afloat. It's been crazy, a bit of a chaotic mess, but it's not bad. Just busy.

This weekend's agenda involves a bonfire tonight that I have to go help set up for this afternoon, and then tons of school and a fundraiser to work on on Sunday. I'm certainly not going to be bored!

I don't think next week is going to be slowing down at all either- an essay due, classes, NaNo plotting, two Halloween parties (that I have no idea what I'm going as), and rehearsals. If anyone has any ideas on how to muster up some more energy, that would be great hahaha.

Usually this is the point in the post where I try to include some bizarre, probably somewhat embarrassing story about some random occurrence that's taken place in the past week. But for once, I actually can't think of anything horribly awkward that took place! For my sake I'm quite relieved about that, but I apologize that y'all don't get a chance to laugh at me this time. XD

Also in a piece of news, I'm finally on Bloglovin'! You can follow me here. ♥

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Made Me Smile:

We've officially started up rehearsals for Music Man! We had our first two choreography rehearsals this week, and they were so much fun. One of the big dance numbers, Shipoopi, has been completely choreographed! I can't wait to perfect it. 

I finally found a cute striped top after searching for ages. So that was definitely a win.

Sitting outside in the fall air, writing.

Getting an A on a massive psychology test. 

Ugh:

The PSAT. Literally the epitome of gross. I don't think that I completely bombed it though, so that's good. I also have to say, every time that I take a standardized test, it makes me thankful I'm not in public school. They scare me, honestly. XD 

WHY ARE PEOPLE PUTTING CHRISTMAS STUFF UP ALREADY?? I don't understand it. We haven't even made it to Halloween yet. Y'all need to chill.

I really miss the days where I was constantly caught up on blogs. It seems like no matter how hard I try, I'm always at least two days behind!

Loving:

Planning for NaNo! I'm really excited, although I'm going to probably hate myself for committing to this later.

CHEESECAKE

Hilarious student government meeting where we do more laughing than planning, but don't really care. 

Aaliyah's most recent post. So crazy real. 

The fact that we're still experiencing 70 degree weather. God bless the South.

Pinning:

Let's be real though I'm really a worrier. 

This dress is everything that I want in life. 

Why are my autumn photos never this aesthetic?

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How was YOUR week?

Another Annoying NaNo Post For Your Blogger Feed

I know, I know. You saw "NaNo" in the title of this post, and a tiny bit of your soul died as you sighed and reluctantly clicked on the thirtieth NaNo post you've seen today. I understand. But I keep getting asked if I'm participating in NaNo, and I'm kind of low on creativity right now, so you're getting yet another post about this crazy writing event in your blogger feed. I apologize.

If you've somehow managed to get halfway through October and still have no idea what on earth this crazy NaNoRiMuWhatever thing everyone keeps ranting about is, you can find full information here. For those of you who don't feel like clicking the link and reading, in the simplest of terms, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and takes place each November. Writers all across the world spend November attempting to write 50,000 words, to "win" NaNo.

Make sense?

I've gone back and forth many, many times over whether or not to participate in NaNo. Y'all know that I love writing, and heaven knows I need all the motivation that I can get. But 50k words? THAT'S A LOT!! I've never written that much in a month before. And considering the fact that I don't have a ton of time, it's quite a daunting task. Honestly, I would probably have more mental breakdowns than I can count trying to write 50k. So, the short answer is, no, I'm not doing NaNo. 

But yet, I am. 

Like I said, I really WANT to be able to participate. But I know my limits, and I know that I honestly cannot write that much in a month, especially not this November. I simply have too much going on, and for the sake of my sanity and the poor people around me, I am not going to attempt to write fifty thousand words this November. I AM, however, doing a NaNo, of sorts. 

I've decided that instead of pushing myself to lose my mind and reach a word count that is almost impossible for me personally, I am setting a smaller, more attainable goal. After all, the true reason for doing NaNo is to get your novel written, right? So I've decided that I'm going to continue working on my current WIP, and I am going to try to write 25,000 words instead. I feel like that's a really good goal- I'll be pushing myself, but it isn't unattainable. And honestly, even if I don't reach that goal, I'll be okay with it. I just want to get closer to finishing my first draft of this novel. I would love to have the first draft complete by the end of the year, and I think that this will help me get there. 

And I mean, if you really map it out, 25k shouldn't be too difficult to achieve. If you map it out, it's only 833 words per day. That's attainable, right?

There's so much fearrrrrrrrr

Nope, no stress here. We are going to be completely positive as we obsessively make to-do list after to-do list as a coping mechanism when we really should be writing. It's fine, it's fine. 

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So, between now and November 1st, I'm going to be attempting to plan out the rest of my novel. I have a basic outline, but I really am a plotter to the core, and I know that I'll be able to write more if I have a solid plan in place. The writing OCD is real, guys. And as all OCD writers do, I've made a list of things to do in preparation for NaNo. 

• Learn to love coffee because caffeine is a necessity. 
• Buy my weight in sticky notes.
• Channel my inner Katie Grace because if she can write 20k in a day then I can write 25k in a month goshdarnit. 
• Print out my entire Pinterest board. I'm probably going to have to ban myself from Pinterest in November. It may be the only way. 
• Follow lots of other NaNo people on Twitter so that we can all commiserate together when we should be writing. 
• Pre-write blog posts because I don't trust myself to keep up.
• Adopt twenty kittens to comfort me. 
• Pray.

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All halfway sarcastic  kidding aside, I'm really excited. Terrified...but excited. For those of y'all who are doing NaNo as well, I'd love to do a word war or something sometime! I can't wait to see how this goes-it should be fun.

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So... are you doing NaNo? Any tips for a NaNo newbie like myself? (because heaven knows I need some!) WILL YOU BE SURVIVING ON A DIET OF SOLELY CHOCOLATE AND COFFEE? That's my plan. It should work, right?

My Annual Autumn Baking Fail

HELLO MY LOVELIES!

How have you been? I've been wanting to post for days now, but I haven't had a chance. My college teachers decided that they were going to assign everything at once, so I've been somewhat dying. I've also ended up in this major blogging rut- I can't come up with anything to post for some reason. I feel like all I ever do on here is ramble, and I know that has to get boring. So if you know of any particular posts you'd like to see, let me know!

Nothing too interesting has been going on around here. Just lots and lots of school, meetings, flu shots, and novel work. I'm slowly but surely getting past it all, though, which is making me happy! As long as I survive the PSAT next week, life will be good.

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So now that that's done, let's get down to business. Circle up, everybody. It's storytime.

Now, we've been over this many times before.

Baking and I do not get along. At all.

A couple of years ago, I shared my first fail on the blog. It wasn't absolutely horrible, but let's just say it was definitely a mess. I don't know what it is about autumn, but I always get an urge to bake. I blame Pinterest- there are so many cute desserts, that I'm naive enough to say, "Why not? Let's try to bake!"

I need to learn that this is not a wise decision to make.

This past weekend, life actually calmed down a bit. I had most of my schoolwork under control, and honestly I was just so tired that I didn't feel like blogging. Creativity was at a definite low. But my sisters and I had been talking about making some Halloween-themed desserts, so we decided to give it a try. After some in-depth Pinterest scrolling, we landed on a recipe that looked easy enough. Famous last words.

Simple, right? Make some brownie mix, make some cake mix, pour them in a cupcake liner, pipe on some frosting and bam, you have an awesome cupcake.

Or so we thought.

It started off pretty well. I worked on the brownie mix while my sisters worked on the cake mix. They added some orange food dye to make it nice and festive, and everything was great. I poured the brownie mix into the bottom of a cupcake liner, and then we poured the cake mix on top. It's not a hard recipe, so there shouldn't have been any problems.

(We had some extra cake batter so we decided to make some little heart cakes)

We put the cupcakes into the oven and baked them at the temperature that the recipe called for. When we pulled them out, they looked great. They had puffed up and looked really pretty- I loved the orange color! It was so autumnal and festive. We let the cupcakes cool, and once they were ready, we piped on the frosting. Decorating cupcakes is always so much fun- my sisters and I always tend to go crazy with the sprinkles!!

(Don't judge the icing, some of them are kind of messy haha. Although I'm quite proud of the one next to the bag of chocolate chips tbh.)

So everything seemed to be great. The cupcakes were beautiful. They smelled fantastic. We were all super excited to try them!

My mom cuts one open, because obviously we have to look to see how pretty the layers are. Upon cutting it, she noticed something odd.

"Guys...I don't think the brownie cooked."

We were all super confused. We baked them at the right temperature for the right time. What could have gone wrong? But sure enough, every. single. brownie. was too gooey and raw.

Like, what the heck?????

We still can't figure out what happened. Personally, I blame it on my baking curse. I'm pretty sure that I can mess up every single recipe, no matter how easy it is. Who knows? Whatever the reason, I have to say, I was pretty disappointed that the delicious brownie turned out not to be edible. -_- That should be illegal.

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Thus ends the sad story of my Saturday night. I'm still kind of bitter, really. I mean, a brownie/cupcake hybrid- what could be better??? I'll have to try and make them again sometime. Maybe bake them longer? I don't know. It's worth an experiment!

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So tell me- don't you agree that this is TRAGIC?? Can YOU bake?

fire in the sky

sunday night
sitting at the kitchen table
writing
an essay on the
T R I N I T Y
{surprisingly difficult}

perched on my chair
pancakes
{such a traitor}
cooking on the
stove

mom points out the window
to the sky
that is turning
p i n k

the trees block
all
but a bit
of the fire
in the sky

we go outside
trying to get
a clear photo

still the trees
are in the way
blocking all but a bit
of the fire
in the sky

we decide to try
for a better view
maybe the next
street
over

better hurry

the fire's fading

i    r u n
{yes run, a rarity}
up the hill
down the street

flip flops smacking the pavement
they were the first shoes i could find
the october air is beautifully brisk
i breathe it in
the chill filling my lungs
my mint gum only makes it colder

i keep running
trying to reach it
God's painting
that will quickly turn to black
i wonder how many people
have done what i'm doing now
running down the road
to see the fire
in the sky

i turn to a busy road
{don't get  h i t}
and there it is
the fire in the sky

i try to take a picture
but it's hard
simultaneously trying to
take a photo
and cross the road

my photo turned out
to be nothing
compared to the painting
standing before me
as i look up
from the curb

but maybe
that's what's
m a g i c a l
about
it

how it's so beautiful
for such a short time
and then
it's
g o n e

a car comes up
and i jump in
my mother behind the wheel

we drive down the road
but it's no use
the elusive painting has disappeared
like it was never there

but i know it was there
and i smile to myself
as we drive home
because i know
that the sky will be painted again
and i will chase it
once more

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just a bit of a ramble inspired by a sunday night adventure. i can't quite decide if i love or i hate this, but the blog is in desperate need of new content so we're going to go with it. ♥

Happy October!

I honestly do not understand how it's October. Like, that completely blows my mind. My mind is still stuck in summer, even though I'm surrounded by orange leaves and pumpkin spice lattes. I've still never tried a pumpkin spice latte.

But really, October? October is honestly the epitome of fall, and I can't believe that we're already here. September was weird enough, and now it's over. I can't quite comprehend it. 

I think that October feels weird because September was such a whirlwind of a month. It was SO BUSY. My list of goals basically went out the window because it was all I could do to keep my head above the water. The beginning of the month was full of school and packing and preparations, and then we were in Florida for ten days. Florida was absolutely wonderful, but it made life pretty stressful when I got home. 

The very first day back, I had auditions for our show, Music Man. I got my first-ever callback, and a week later, the cast list *finally* came out. A lot of y'all have been asking so.. drumroll......I got the role of Zaneeta!! I'm SO excited, and I seriously cannot wait for this show.

Aside from theatre, life became full of catching up. Catching up on piles of schoolwork, catching up beta reading, and catching up on ALL the blogs. I went contra dancing, which I've learned is not for me. I went to see a musical with a friend, which was great. I had a cold for a few days- NOT fun. I've been working like crazy promoting a fundraiser coming up that I'm excited for. Had to write my first college essay and didn't die, which is a success in my book. And I've FINALLY rejoined the blog world, which is making me very happy. ♥

Speaking of the blog world, some pretty awesome things happened around here, despite the fact that I never was around, haha. The wonderful Kate guest posted on the blog, which was amazing, and I guest posted on hers as well! That was probably my favorite post of the month. Also around here, I reviewed Anna's debut novel, Continuing Forever, and got nominated for about a million okay it was three  tags. 

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Honestly, I don't even want to go over last month's resolutions, because they were an epic flop, to say the least. Like I said, I was so busy trying to stay afloat that I didn't get to be half as productive as I would have liked to be. 

I'll put it this way- my novel is still in the pits of despair, breakfast has basically been nonexistent, my room is a wreck, I did read, but I didn't finish five books, I am back on top of my schoolwork but most of the month I wasn't, Christmas and journaling just make me laugh, and I'm just going to pretend that my resolution not to stress out didn't exist. 

BUT, I'm just going to forget about it, because with everything else going on, I'm okay with skipping a couple of resolutions! 

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// Make a recipe from Pinterest.

// Read 4 new books.

// Decide what I'm going to do about NaNo. 

// Have an autumn outfit shoot.

// Stretch more often.

// Survive the PSAT. I'm dreading it. 

// Take part in Jessica's challenge.

// Have an epic Halloween! (Any costume ideas?)

// Make an autumn DIY.

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Despite my sadness that it's actually autumn, it should be a fun month. ♥ Are you excited? 

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Can you believe it's actually October?? I can't get over it! What do YOU have planned??