September roundup and October preview

Stephanie Jane 

September has been a pretty exciting month all told! We had our tri-city holiday to Prague, Vienna and Budapest which I loved. I think Prague was probably my favourite of the three although all had memorable moments. The boat trip in Prague! The Spanish Riding School in Vienna! The dancing fountain in Budapest! You can read my Stephanie Jane blog posts about each city by clicking the links below:

Prague ~ Vienna ~ Budapest

My #TreatYourself post was the most popular of the month and I hope you took advantage of the five Special Offer codes I featured? We'll all be needing Cocktail Lip Balms when winter kicks in! I also featured a bakery business discount and was delighted to then be contacted by BakerLou with the offer of a baking kit to try out and review. I will be blogging my Gingerbread Men baking afternoon very soon! In the meantime how about baking this Vegan Slow Cooker Carrot Cake instead? (Hint: you'll need a tin of chickpeas!)

Literary Flits

I blogged my Month In Books reading wrapup yesterday, but didn't know what Literary Flits' most popular posts for the month would be at the time of writing. In September, my Top Three Book Posts were:

Strungballs by Mike Russell
When Darkness Falls by Kathleen Harryman
The Smallest Thing by Lisa Manterfield

If you haven't discovered these books for yourself yet, click through to take a look. All three have Giveaways, but only the When Darkness Falls one is still open (until October 4th).

I realised yesterday that the Goodreads / BookCrossing Decade Challenge doesn't seem to be happening this year. I've particularly enjoyed this challenge over the past two years so am just going to carry it on independently! If you'd like to join me, the idea is to read a book that was first published in each of the decades from 1900 to 2017 - 12 in all. The challenge started on the 1st of September and finished at the end of August so I will keep to those dates. I've already got two books read: Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie for the 2010s and Havana Black by Leonardo Padura for the 1990s.

Artisan Rainbow 

Finally, my new handmade crafts blog, Artisan Rainbow, has done even better than I hoped in its first full month and I love searching out a different item to present each day. I managed to make some affiliate sales too which is especially encouraging. From Red on Mondays to Purple on Saturdays and with a Sunday Rainbow, I have already showcased items from birdboxes to umbrellas! In September my Top Three most popular posts were:

Owl Hot Water Bottle Cover by Moonglow Art
Polygon Window Demijohn Lamp by Humblesticks
Jaya Edge Wooden House by Little Tree Furniture

Artisan Rainbow participated in #JustACardDay too with a punnily clever Gincident card by Doodles Dot Dorset - perfect for all those Gin drinking friends!

I'm now looking forward to my 50th artisan post on Monday and to getting a tad Halloween-inspired throughout October!


In a change to our rest-of-the-year plans, it now looks as though we will heading overseas mid-October rather than waiting until the New Year as we had originally intended. I will be able to blog more about our travels which will be fun - and we'll get to discover how our Bailey caravan coped with being left in Spain all summer!

Roll on October!