Spending Your October: A To-Do List for Adventuring Through the Month.

Happy October! It's one of the best months of the year, and it's definitely one of my favorite months to spend. We get thirty-one days of October magic, so make sure you spend them well! Here are some ideas to get you started. 

1. Go to a pumpkin patch! The best location for cute pictures, ever.

2. Carve pumpkins. Quick story: One time, we were carving pumpkins outside (in the dark), and Chris was throwing pumpkin slime at me. Some of it hit my face, but I was really focused on what I was doing, so I left it there for a second while I finished what I was carving. But then it started sliding down my neck. Except it wasn't sliding, it was crawling. And making noise. Because it wasn't pumpkin slime, it was a frog. 

A frog landed on my face and I just left it there because I thought it was pumpkin. 

Moving on. 

3. Make hot apple cider. Put this on the stove (or in the crockpot!) in the morning, and your house will smell amazing all day.

4. Look up fairs around you! It's the time of the year where fairs and festivals pop up all over!

5. Read a thriller. Last October I read Gone Girl...stay tuned for this year's choice. 

6. Bake something with pumpkin. 

7. Watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

8. Have a make-your-own-candy party!

9. Make caramel apples! Pro tip: After you make them and cover them in whatever your heart desires, use an apple cutter to cut them into slices that you can actually eat, as opposed to getting 90% caramel on your face and 10% actually in your mouth.

10. Go thrifting for oversized sweaters and baggy sweatshirts.

11. Each time you feel thankful for something, say so out loud. Work on voicing your gratitude instead of your complaints.

12. Check out Bath & Body Works' fall line. Smell like a pumpkin, or an apple. Up to you!

13. Watch the Friday Night Lights Pilot. I was shocked by how many of you told me you'd never seen this show!

14. Go on a fall date. With your boyfriend or your husband or your best friend or your sibling...just have a night of your favorite fall things!

15. Go to Target, grab a pumpkin spice latte, and browse the halloween costume section. Once you've had your laughs at the adult costumes (the best), then move on to the pet section. 

16. Get the Sephora Play! Box. It blows Birchbox out of the water, let me tell you!

17. Make an effort to love out loud. I think that so often, I just assume that the people I love know I love them. This month, make an effort to say so more, both with words and actions.

18. Pop some popcorn and celebrate the return of fall television! Scandal! Blacklist! Welcome back!

19. Make a list of some fall traditions you want to start! You know I will have some suggestions for this.

20. Bake something with apples.

21. Decorate your house for fall. 

22. If you have a dog, buy them a pumpkin. Gatsby got his own tiny pumpkin last year and I really don't know who it brought more joy to: Me or him. 

23. Drive somewhere the leaves are turning colors. Just enjoy how pretty everything is in October!

24. Have a picnic. October is prime picnic season.

25. Spend a morning outside, reading a good book.

26. Have a bon-fire. Bonus points for s'mores!

27. Go stargazing. Grab a blanket and go lay in the grass or on a roof and just watch the stars. 

28. Go for a walk. Pour yourself a hot drink and just go for a walk without the intention of really getting anywhere, but just to enjoy it.

29. Surprise your co-workers or roommates with Halloween candy.

30. Dress your pet up for Halloween. You know you want to.

31. Celebrate Halloween however you want to!

Spending your October: A To-Do List.

October is my favorite. Really, today is one of my favorite days of the entire year, because it kicks off my three favorite months. Nothing makes me happier than October, November, and December. 

There are thirty-one days in October. Thirty-one glorious, pumpkin-filled days that are going to zoom right by you if you don't decide how you want to spend them. So how should you spend them?

I have some suggestions. 

1. Listen to the Autumn in New York Pandora station.

2. Make hot apple cider and drink it under a blanket outside.

3. Read a thriller. (I suggest Gone Girl--I just read this and it shocked me so much that I dropped my phone in my coffee cup.)

4. Bake something that's been on your Pinterest forever.

5. Take a picture every single day of something that makes you happy, so you'll always be able to remember October 2014.

6. Make a list of ten things you're thankful for. 

7. Make caramel apples.

8. Buy someone sunflowers.

9. Look up fall fairs or festivals in your town and make plans to go!

10. Take a day off completely off. No to-do lists or work. Just a real day off.

11. Start writing down Christmas gift ideas.

12. Watch a movie set in the fall--like Remember the Titans.

13. Throw a "make your own Halloween candy" party.

14. Write down all the reasons you love October.

15. Go for a walk with a pumpkin coffee. 

16. Buy a hat, or some headbands. Fall is the season of not having to do your hair.

17. Go look at all of the terrible and hilarious Halloween costumes at Target. Bonus points: The dog costume section.

18. Go to Bath & Body Works and pick out something pumpkin or apple scented.

19. Eat dinner outside.

20. Go on at least one spontaneous adventure.

21. Say yes to something when your first instinct is to say no.

22. Write someone a thank you note.

23. Push yourself outside of your comfort zone at least once. 

24. Read a book you normally wouldn't pick up. I can help recommend a few!

25. Surprise someone with cookies.

26. Stay up too late talking about your dreams with someone you love.

27. Rock some red lipstick.

28. Set a goal for yourself. It's a brand new month, you have thirty-one fresh, new days to achieve it.

29. Listen to this song and turn it up as loud as it will go. "I hope that you spend your days, but they all add up. And when the sun goes down, I hope you raise your cup." 

30. Carve pumpkins.

31. Celebrate Halloween however you want to. Dress up and go out or stay at home and handout candy or have a movie marathon or go to dinner. Just celebrate.

How are you planning on spending your October?