Hello sweet Friday! Today is the first day of fall and New York has been acting accordingly. I hope it stays that way! 

It was a fine week; I had a great therapy session, worked from home all week, and even made a trip to the county clerk's office for jury duty. I didn't get called to a trial but I did get to finish reading a book so I'll call it a win! 

This weekend is going to be rainy in New York but I'll be getting together with one of my best friends, and then will spend the rest of the week cleaning and checking items off my to do list. I can't believe next week is the last week of September; the month went by slow and fast at the same time, which I'm thankful for.

I don't have much else to say so let's get into the roundup.

 I feel completely whole when there is a new Dove Pond book in my Kindle, ready to be devoured. This is hands down, the most underrated book series around and I need more people to be talking about it so Karen Hawkins continues to write about the Dove sisters and we could maybe eventually get a TV or movie adaptation of this magical town. 

"The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove" is the third book in the series by Karen Hawkins; it comes behind The Book Charmer and A Cup of Silver Linings which are centered around other Dove sisters. The 3rd book is, if you couldn't guess, about Ella Dove who we had not previously met aside from a small mention at the end of A Cup of Silver Linings.

I've talked about this in my other book reviews but the Dove Pond series is a mix of Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls; the small town of Dove Pond, with their rich history and quirky town folk, definitely give off Stars Hollow vibes while the magic of the Dove sisters feels like Practical Magic. Though, the sisters are not witches (at least it is not called out that they are), every sister has their own special power which is hinted at through the titles of their respective books.

The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove was released on August 15th and I read it in a few days. I think I can say that this was my favorite Dove Pond book, but I think I say that about all of them.

It's been two months and I'm finally pretty settled into my apartment. As I mentioned, I moved into my own apartment in July and it's been an adjustment, but a really positive one. I feel so good in my space; I feel like an adult (sort of) and I feel like I made a really important step in my big girl life.

For the past 9 years, I've felt really displaced and have had a really hard time. My mental health has been in the toilet, I've gone through so many different phases, a lot of tumultuous life changes, and what feels like hundreds of panic attacks.

As I entered my 30th year on earth, I knew that I was going to have to make some sort of next step. I wasn't in a relationship, nor was I in a place to enter a relationship, and I already have my dream job, so the logical next step was to live on my own.

The perfect apartment opened up (literally in the same building my mom and sister are in) and it felt incredibly meant to be. The first two weeks were really rough, the first weekend being the hardest, but now that I have all my furniture and decor in its place, I feel like I'm home.

I walk in every night and feel completely overjoyed to have my own space. It's honestly everything I've dreamed of.

This is the first post of a few where I'll showcase my apartment and give you a play by play of where I bought my furniture and decor, and why I chose it.

First up is the living room because it's my favorite room and has my favorite pieces!

There are a few things that signal the beginning of fall: when pumpkin spice lattes return to Starbucks, the first crisp fall weather day in August or September, and the arrival of fall nail polish collections.

For the past few years, Olive & June has been hitting it out of the park with their fall collections. I think my favorite collection of theirs remains the 2020 collection where I bought the PSL Ombre Manicure kit. I still have most of those polishes in my collection today and always break them out when the cool weather hits.

This year's fall collection is no different; Olive & June have done it again! All of the shades scream cool, crisp weather with leaves falling around you and some apple picking adventures. The moment I saw the launch email in my inbox I purchased the entire collection (aside from one polish, It's Chilly! because I have too many cream shades and they're not my favorite)

It felt only right that the first polish I used from the collection is 'First PSL' which is described as a chrome pumpkin shade, and honestly nothing sounds better than that. The shade is currently sold out but hopefully it'll come back in stock soon or it might be available in-store at Target, Walmart, or Walgreens -- all which sell Olive & June.

Friday, hello! We're finally out of our NYC heatwave and entering our fall era... or so I hope. It was an odd week, filled with non routine days that stressed me out so I'm happy for the weekend. Lots of fun pop culture things happened this week: the VMAs, NSYNC's reunion, Southern Charm premiere on Bravo, the Barbie movie hitting digital... it was a good week for us pop culture lovers.

I am fully settled into my apartment and the last piece I need is arriving today... my kitchen chairs. I picked up these gorgeous green velvet chairs from Wayfair and I'm so excited. Once I get them, I'll do a full room by room breakdown of my apartment and the furniture I bought. I really love my apartment and have settled in so much, it feels so good. 

This weekend will be filled with more fall decorating and hopefully lots of reading, writing, and organizing. I'm ready to get back to a good routine and plan some fun fall activities. 

Let's get into the roundup!

Over the years mascara has become one of the most important beauty products in my routine. I think it has overtaken concealer as the product I never leave the house without. I don't really feel like myself if I don't have mascara on which never used to be the case.

Mascara is also something that I don't experiment too much with anymore. I've tried what feels like hundreds of mascaras and I usually can find something I like in all of them, but lately, I've been more picky with what's going on my lashes. 

Too Faced's iconic Better Than Sex mascara has always been in rotation for me. I don't know if I've ever loved a mascara the way I love Better Than Sex. 

Whenever a book blows up on social media it always makes me want to read it even more. That was the case with Under the Influence by Noelle Crooks. Everyone was raving about it right as it was being published and the green cover was eye catching on my Instagram feed.

It was then I realized I had an ARC of it from NetGalley (I really need to come up with a better system of tracking my ARCs) so I immediately started reading it. I was immediately enthralled with the plot of the novel and where it could go so I could see why everyone was freaking out over it. 

Under the Influence is extremely well written, developed, interesting, capturing and wonderful. It'll definitely be one of my favorite books of the year.