Y'all, I don't know where October went or what even happened. From a yoga retreat to Hurricane Central, husband out of town for two weeks, furniture market, and heaven knows what else, I. am. exhausted. I'm looking forward to going to France next month because the idea of 7-8 uninterrupted hours on a plane where all I have to do is read or sleep sounds divine. But despite all the crazy, I did manage to get some stuff read this month. Check out the books below - some good ones, some duds. Ah, well.

xoxo, and happy Halloween!
E

Y'all, October has been crazy. I didn't mean to go MIA on you, but...that's life. We haven't done a lot of cooking - well, not a lot of new-recipe cooking - so I haven't had much to share. But when I came across this butternut squash and bacon soup on Pinterest, I knew it was a must-make.

A couple of weekends ago I went on my first yoga retreat. I've been practicing yoga for nine, going on 10, years now, so it seemed like time to take my practice to the next level. It was a phenomenal experience. I loved the many classes and meditation sessions, and "sistering" with my fellow retreaters did something incredible for my soul and took me back to my days of Phi Beta Chi retreats. It was truly transformative. Here's a picture of our studio. Isn't it peaceful?

But another aspect to the retreat that I hadn't planned on was how good my body felt after a weekend of vegan and gluten-free food. 

You guys. Whew. Work lately has been busy. I like it that way - the days go by faster, and it's rewarding to accomplish goals and get articles written - but it's tiring. Like, really tiring.
 
And one of the biggest headaches lately was my main October story: the automotive feature (read it here), which also happened to be the cover story.