October Wrap-Up/Haul

    October is one of my favorite times of the year. I'm a spooky kind of person, I love horror and the general atmosphere. The last few years, in the throws of my depression, I found it difficult to get into the season. So this year, I made a conscious effort to be more excited. I picked out a Halloween sewing project for myself, and I decided to partake in Spook-a-thon (with the plan that if I didn't finish, I would finish my TBR for it anyway, attention span permitting). Me and one of my friends went to the Haunted Graveyard at Lake Compounce, which was a first for me. I started using my Instagram again. I did a lot of baking. This was a generally good month for me!

    I didn't finish my TBR even a little, but I did dent it, and I will be trying to finish the books I had listed for November. Either way, let's get into it.

Reading Wrap-Up

    First thing I read was the slaughterhouse arc from James Robert's More Than Meets the Eye. Technically, the arc itself starts in issue 32 and ends in 33, but I started with issue 29 (World Shut Your Mouth, Part One: Towards Peace, which is a mouthful of a title). A new status quo is established for the ship, with new characters joining the roster after the Dark Cybertron event, and new shenanigans to be had among the crew of the Lost Light. This arc touches on all kinds of things, including mourning after the loss of a loved one and the horrors of war, but the crux of it is the cast finding a ship whereon everyone had been gruesomely slaughtered. The pacing is wonderful, with the build up to the many reveals in the story landing with a lot of impact. There is still a level of the surreal to it, as out of context a group of robots finding a room full of dead cars and planes isn't exactly scary. But the story told is still so spooky and I really just love this cast. And the ending, before the lead in to Elegant Chaos, is still one of the sweetest moments in the book.

    Second, I started reading Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle. I enjoyed it, though I only got halfway through before my attention span started kicking my ass. A town where things start going missing, people finding things that don't belong to them, and a group of girls finding a spellbook that can bring back what was lost (for a price). Things seem a little more sinister, with hints towards Rowan and Hazel's past that is shrouded in mystery. The narrative jumps between POVs, and I did feel like everyone had a unique voice and I enjoyed the amount of bi rep that was present. The story was intriguing to boot, but I did find the pacing to be off and far too fast for my liking. I will be trying to finish the book in November and I'll have more complete thoughts then.

    The last thing I read in October was issue 10 of Lost Light by James Roberts, Plotter's Club Part 1: Full Circle, and really, what a perfect October read. It was the long awaited return to the Lost Light after a mutiny back in issue 50 of More Than Meets The Eye, told from the point of view of a group (primarily, First Aid) that had departed the ship months prior to it. The mutineers lie casually regarding why they have a new captain, with things growing more unsettling as the story goes on. From the Thunderclash reveal to the end, I was positively screaming. Especially when that moment happened and the ending fell into place. Getaway is definitely one of my favorite villains, he's so vile and smug and ugh, what an excellent villain. Also that hint that Perceptor might return Brainstorm's feelings? Excellent.

Crafting Wrap-Up

    I did a lot of baking this Halloween. Most of it really ugly, because I'm still learning stuff, but I made some really good cookies! A lofthouse style cookie, dyed to look like little pumpkins, that are absolutely delicious.

    I also found this recipe for cookie sandwiches with a ganache filling that my mom and I made together, and we gave them eyes made of marshmallows and reeses pieces/M&M's. They're really tasty, too.

    The most important things I created this month, however, was the costume I made for Halloween and a little ghost plush I did in about two hours. The costume was a bit of a hassle, due to me vastly overestimating how big I was, so I had to wildly alter the size of it so it would fit on my ridiculous 5'1 frame. But I ended up looking super cute in it (and the ragged edges at the bottom pull off a nice look, in my opinion!). The mask I bought at Michael's.

    And the ghost I made, well, it's a cute little guy with hand stitched embroidery that I basically had to freehand due to lack of a fabric pen that'd let me draw guidelines. The end result is no less adorable!

    I also got back into planning in a big way and went a little...overboard making my planner pretty, but here it is! In all it's glory! The stickers I used were all brand new, bought that month, because hooboy was I in a really spooky mood. They're Martha Stewart Brand washi tape, which I'm not a huge fan of (I don't like that I have to peel them from a wax strip because it makes a mess).

    So who knows what's next for me in the month of November. I'm going to try my hand at NaNoWriMo (again), and let's see how far I go before I crash and burn. Oh well, as long as I have something done! I'll have a TBR/November Plans post up soon, so look out for that! In the mean time, here's a selfie of me from Lake Compounce, in addition to a spider thing that was there (that I promptly joked was Tarantulas, from Transformers, to my friend, who isn't into Transformers). I should note that the Haunted Graveyard was an absolute blast and I screamed so much, because I'm a jumpy baby, before I ruined everyone's fun time by telling people that the Guillotine was not a torture device and putting it with the likes of the rack was ahistoric. I'm a historian, I can't help it. (also wasn't a fan of the obligatory Scary Mental Asylum, so I spent that section as a complete grump)