September may mean cooler weather which translates to autumn for many of you. But for those of us living in the Southern states, it’s still wonderfully warm and sunny.
Quote of the day: “Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
In all reality, every day and every minute is a new opportunity to start over. Yet a new month, season, or even year is a benchmark for it too. Fashion does it with the new fall trends. Which has nothing to do with our life updates, haha. It’s just me philosophizing about September.
Many of my email subscribers already know some of this information because I love to share the extras in those emails. My emails aren’t for everyone. They can be chatty and full of links to other people’s articles that I found inspiring. But if you’re interested, feel free to put your email address in the box below and at least get the free eBook.
Besides the free eBook, my email family gets personal tidbits of what’s going on in my life along with other happenings, sales, information, giveaways, extra photos, and interesting articles.
As I spoke about last month, I try to focus on the highlights of the month and not dwell on any negativity.
But I will say that I’ve been going through my Instagram followers and deleting the “bots” (which are robots and not real people). I used to ignore them, but I really don’t like the idea, so I’ve been trying to remove a handful of them every day. It’s almost depressing how many there are.
The other depressing item is my numbers on social media. I try very hard not to concentrate on how many “like” or “impressions” I get because I enjoy connecting with other women. But my numbers have dipped so low that it’s almost embarrassing.
If you are on Instagram or TikTok, I hope you will follow me there and give me a thumbs up from time to time. I recently posted an easy fix to a floppy hat I’ve had for years.
People
The best part of this journey (and I know I say this all the time, but it’s truly how I feel) is the connections.
Nancy (one of the original models of my site when we lived out in Denver) was here visiting with a friend, and we were able to see her.
Middle photo: We also met up with Marsha who has been blogging for over 9 years and includes many blog challenges and writers’ queries on her site.
Right photo: Lesley’s friend, Francisca was here for a short time and joined us in showcasing fruit prints. Francisca lives in St. Louis and is an amazing woman. Did you see how she decorated her purse? She did that herself!!
Our Field Trips
As usual, many of our blogging photos were planned so that we could also explore our area and have some fun.
Insider tip: If you’re ever visiting AZ or if you live here, then you should check out the 20 hidden gems we have found so far in our explorations.
1-We took a tour of the Smurthwaite house in downtown Phoenix. I wouldn’t recommend it though. It was a cool house, but the tour was lame.
2-Then we toured the Chase baseball stadium. Now that was FUN and definitely worth the time and money. Did you know you can rent out the pool and hot tub “suite”?? How fun would that be?
Another interesting factoid is that it only takes 4 minutes to close the stadium roof. And in the summer, it’s pretty much always closed.
3-We also went to the SW Art Museum in Peoria which is very close to our house. It was a small but very nice collection of art and glassware. Luckily it was close by and free!
Another thing that Rob and I did, was the “Blind Shopping Date Challenge” and we went to Goodwill to find our clothes. You can see the video here (make sure to click the heart to tell me you liked it).
Home Improvements
We first put these shelves up for my yarn when we moved into the house 3 years ago. I’ve shared my yarn storage in the past and I love how it adds so much color to the room. However, I have to admit that it wasn’t easy to access the yarn when I was pulling the yarn out for my knitting projects.
Therefore I decided to try out the “X” inserts from Ikea. Of course, I love them but I could only get 5 of them because they are out of stock. Do any handymen out there want to help a girl out??
Painting is usually something I do right away to make a place feel more “me”. But it’s taken us 3 years to finally paint an area of this house. Rob decided on the wall to paint and we narrowed it down to a dark charcoal grey.
The final result is the top photo of this post.
And now that it has cooled down slightly, we were able to clean off the patio. I wash the curtains twice a year and we shop vac the cushions. I even used a new strip of tulle as the ties for the curtains because the original tulle had gotten too beat up.
New To Me
Rob and I have been using Collagen for Her in both our coffee and iced tea for over a month now. I discussed it in this article and we both have been very impressed with it. We constantly try new brands just to compare, so stay tuned for more options.
Fall fashion means new shoes if you’re anything like me, and I have both casual and fancy to showcase soon. But if you want to check them out before I post about them, Jambu has some great sneakers that have a foam insole. This pair is called and use code STYLE20 for 20% off.
Then for any of your dressy events, check out the amazing selection of Walking Cradles. Even if you don’t wear heels, they have you covered. This pair is called “Porshe” and JODIE15 gives you 15% off your first purchase. (Walking Cradles is also starting to introduce their fall boots, so make sure to sign up for their emails)
Insider detail: I do receive a commission for Walking Cradles and not for Jambu.
The last thing I bought recently is this eyebrow stencil. It comes with a bunch of different shaped stencils, the sponge brush, and the pomade (I purchased taupe). Usually, I either use a brow mascara or fill it with pencil, but this has made it super easy.
Thank you
Thank you for stopping by my site and being part of this online journey. I always love to hear what’s happening in your neck of the woods too, so feel free to share.
Welcome to Jodie’s Touch of Style. I’m here to prove that it’s never too late to look great. Clothing and style are meant to showcase your inner personality. So let’s have fun and try new things.
It’s not just about me on this blog, but also my mother and friend. We get to showcase not only different decades of life but also different body shapes and unique personal styles.
Find out more about all of us here. And make sure to join the email list where I include so much more.
