Goals for the Fall.
Plus the tiny romance novel I gobbled up, chocolate brown everrrrything, what I read last month, fall's best bags, and more.
Hi there - how was your week?
This week, there were a few mornings where the air felt downright crisp! I work primarily from my dining room table and there is no better feeling than being able to have the doors to my screen porch swung wide open. (One day, I even needed a sweater.)
Of course this is a tease; we’ll be back to blazing temps in no time. Fall in the South is weird for this native New Englander. Still, I have that “back to school, new me” feeling that always seems to accompany the season.
With only four months left in the year, I sat down and wrote out a few goals that I thought I’d share in today’s letter.
Life:
Get to 100 books for the year. I don’t typically set quantitative reading goals but I did a quick tally the other day and am currently at 75! That means reading 25 books in the next four months. This should be pretty manageable.
Watch more classic films. I want to be cozy on the couch with as many old films as possible (Drop your faves in the comments?)
Successfully pair socks with a short dress or skirt. Carly’s “socks school” post will be up here early next week.
Reclaim my calendar. The Charleston events scene (in particular, the influencer space) is just. too. much. In the fall and spring I often feel like my schedule is not my own. I said to two of my close girlfriends, “My goal this year is to not say yes to anything I know I’ll regret going to, even if I feel bad declining.” I’m sticking to it. The fact is: most of these events do not bring me joy or financial gain, so why am I going to so many? (People pleasing is the answer to that question!). This fall, my calendar will be all mine!
Play more Mahjong. I was doing so well but haven’t played in a while.
More super quick trips (like, just a night!) to New York. It is such an easy flight. I just booked a one night trip for an event for a girlfriend’s clothing launch and I’m excited!
Finish my needlepoint project. This pillow is taking me forever! But it’s going to be sooo good when it’s done.
Learn to bake focaccia bread. I love the idea of being the friend who drops off homemade bread for her friends. Why is this so intimidating? I’d love any recipe suggestions or tips if you have them. I’m thinking dutch oven as I don’t want another appliance.
Get back into some sort of a groove with working out. Right now, I haven’t been doing much!
Personal Growth:
The ongoing one is becoming a better writer. I have ordered what is probably an exorbitant amount of books on writing and I’ve enlisted the help of an editor to work with me with some of my longer form writing.
Refine my personal style and make an effort to get dressed every day, even if I’m just sitting at home! I love getting dressed, I love making an effort… but sometimes I am lazy. As I write this I’m in a striped tee and sweat shorts, dressed like a little boy.
Business:
Redesign my Substack (this is already in the works, I can’t wait!).
Treat Instagram more like a 9-5. I have been doing this, I am working at it, I have such a fraught relationship with the app in that it’s a little bit like an abusive relationship. Sometimes it makes me feel so good, sometimes, not so much. I find that taking breaks (and not looking at it in the evenings) is really good for me.
I’m always nervous to give myself numerical goals but I would really like to grow my Substack audience to 50,000 readers. I am on the cusp of hitting 48,000 this week and think I can do it! I’d love to get to 200,000 instagram followers but growth there has been slowwww.
I think that’s it! I will leave you with something I saw on Instagram yesterday that stopped me dead in my tracks. The most true.
Good stuff.
On The Stripe (my blog!) this week.
We started the week with everything I read last month. Eight books, but this is big: I read my #1 and #2 books of the year (so far!).
The best handbags of fall 2024. Carly and I each share our picks. And I answer the reader question… “if you could only have one bag, what would it be?”
A big round-up of chocolate brown hues. It’s definitely shaping up to be the color of the season and we couldn’t be happier about that.
This Week in Reading:
It was a lighter week of reading as my boyfriend was here for the long weekend and then this week was all about the good TV (more on that tomorrow!)
I finished Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff (out 9/10!) and loved it. This is a romance novel for people who don’t usually read romance novels. It has one of my favorite tropes (famous person / non famous person). It was described to me as if The Idea of You and Scandal had a baby which is accurate. I really love that it’s short (under 200 pages) but still substantial. The definition of “little treat!” As a sidebar, this book is the first from 831 stories, the new imprint by my friends at .
I started reading Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott - it’s still early but I am finding it both entertaining and insightful.
On the audiobook front I resumed listening to Stolen Focus. I had taken a break to listen to Demon of Unrest but I’m back to it now. It’s excellent. Really makes you think about what our phones, the Internet, and social media are doing to our ability to concentrate. The author is stating a lot of things I’ve been feeling about myself for a long time… my hope is that the book will be helpful.
Bird by Bird is so great! I’m not sure it taught me all that much about writing but she is hilarious. I also love On Writing by Stephen King.
Can we bring back books under 200 pages!? I just read Heartburn by Nora Ephron for the first time and it was so great and only 180ish pages. Everything is so long these days.
Love classic films - the obvious include Casablanca and Singin' in the Rain but some other favorites include Charade, My Man Godfrey, The Awful Truth, The Philadelphia Story, Notorious, His Girl Friday, Top Hat, Shall We Dance, and It Happened One Night (I like Cary Grant and screwball comedies lol).