November wrap-up

November – the days get longer, the nights colder, and fall slowly slips into winter. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I know that I have much to be thankful for this past month:

1. Spending the majority of nights at home, in my own bed – no travel at all for me this month, and honestly I am so happy about that!
2. Baking up a storm for friends and sharing delicious food with family
3. Balancing work + health + relationships + everything else

November has been a very restful month, and I can’t believe that only 1 month left in this year (and this decade!)

1. Travels – None! Just a beautiful month in sunny San Francisco
   
   November was the first month this year with no travel. So the format of my monthly wrap-up will have to be a little different because I didn’t step foot on a single plane. That has actually been a personal goal of mine, so I am thankful that I got to spend more time at home this month and less time in hotel rooms 🙂
2. Baking and cooking – Nuts & berries coffee cake muffins, 5 wonderful dishes to bring to your Thanksgiving potluck, Honey balsamic roasted vegetables ,Classic banana bread muffins, “Nutritionally complete” chocolate muffins
   Woo! I think I was incredibly prolific on the baking and cooking front, largely because of just being home enough to actually use my kitchen. I would say my most fun bake was “Nutritionally complete” chocolate muffins, where I did a blind taste test of regular vs. “nutritionally complete” chocolate muffins. My most aesthetically pleasing bake was Nuts & berries coffee cake muffins, which popped out 12 super fluffy muffins all studded with brown sugar and nuts.
3. Reading – 2 just-for-fun books
   My best friend sent me Dear Girls by Ali Wong, who would 100% be my spirit animal if my spirit animal were a comedian. If you enjoyed her Netflix specials, this book will make you laugh-cry. My second book I finished is The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman, which was such a nostalgic read since I grew up reading the “His Dark Materials” Trilogy.

Blogging Goals

I hit 2 out of my 3 blogging goals from my October wrap-up – I’ve better integrated my Instagram (@halicopteraway) and WordPress, and I’ve posted at least once a week. I still need to post about that Hawaii trip… but I managed to get in a whole bunch of pumpkin-inspired bakes so I hit a leftover September goal!

Looking forward to December, I really have some ambitious things I want to do for this blog.

1. That Hawaii trip blog post – it must be done.
2. Migrate the blog to a self-hosted platform – I’ve been wanting to experiment with self-hosting for a while, and I think the holiday break will be the perfect time to make the leap!
3. A year end travel summation post
4. At least two holiday-inspired baking / cooking posts

We’re heading into my absolute favorite time of the year, when I get to make all the delicious holiday food! Here’s to a great last month 🙂