Notes 08.

A midnight release book party + meeting Reese Witherspoon!

Welcome to Notes, my biweekly round-up of the books on my nightstand, the outfits I’m styling, musings from my journal, and snippets of my adventures around the city.

I went to my first midnight release party with my book bestie Tay and it was so much fun! OATHBOUND by Tracy Deonn came out last week and I was so hyped for this book. The LEGENDBORN series are some of my all-time favorite books!

My friend Kayla, along with Amanda, organized a midnight release party at Liz’s Book Bar (side note: if you haven’t been to this bookstore yet, you must go. I love this spot!). Now keep in mind, I am normally in bed by 10 or 11pm and I don’t leave my house after 7pm. So I was nervous for my first midnight release party. Would I actually make it to midnight?!

Well I’m happy to report that I did and the party was so much fun. There were beverages and activities, and it was so amazing to be surrounded by other people who love this series just as much as I do. And then I nearly lost my mind when Tracy Deonn herself joined us virtually to count down to midnight and Oathbound Day!!

It was such a wholesome night and I’m so glad that I went. I was both excited and scared to start OATHBOUND (what’s going to happen to poor Bree next?!), but I’m reading it right now and can’t wait to see where the story goes.

Not to bury the lede, but I got to meet Reese Witherspoon last week?! I’m still pinching myself that this happened- the little girl in me was screaming!! When I got the invite to attend an event hosted by Reese’s Book Club and Apple Books, I was of course thinking, “What do I wear to meet Reese Witherspoon??”

And then the answer came to me. I had to wear my sweater from the Reese’s Book Club x Lingua Franca collaboration! I was gifted a sweater when I did a shoot with Reese’s Book Club last year (another pinch-me moment!) and when I wore it to the event, Reese recognized it! Excuse me while I go ride this high for the next 5-7 business days…

The event was held to celebrate the March pick, BROKEN COUNTRY by Clare Leslie Hall. We got to hear a couple excerpts from the audiobook and it sounds really good. Hearing authors speak about their books always makes me more excited to read them. Reese did an amazing job interviewing Clare (obviously) and seeing her passion for the book made me want to read it. So far I’ve only heard rave reviews about this book, so I’m looking forward to picking it up soon!

I fell behind on my journal at the end of February, so I dedicated a few hours the other night to catching up. Journaling really is such a therapeutic activity for me and it felt great to just focus on journaling for a few hours.

I was also really happy with the way these spreads turned out! I looked back at some of my February spreads and some of them felt pretty wonky to me 😅 But looking at these ones, I feel like I’m back in my journaling groove.

I also went to a junk journal club hosted by Leah and it was so much fun! It was very chill and relaxed and I got to meet some other people who enjoy journaling. I’m slowly but surely building out my community of fellow journalers, which makes me really happy.

Speaking of community, ICYMI the next NYC Craft Club event is happening this Saturday March 15th and there’s still a couple tickets left if you want to join us!

At the beginning of the month, I celebrated a little milestone- I finally hit 10k on TikTok! I know this is small potatoes to some, but it was really exciting for me because this is a goal that I’ve been working towards for years.

I’ve been creating content on the internet for over a decade now. I work really hard at it and so hitting a milestone like this feels like a little reward for my hard work.

To top it off, the video that put me over the edge was this vlog of our 24 hour readathon. It actually took me hours to edit that video, so it was really nice that it resonated with people. It’s actually become my second most viewed video ever on TikTok!

All in all, a very fun and exciting start to this month! Now that Daylight Savings has happened, I’m so glad that the days are finally getting longer and that spring is right around the corner ☀️

See you all back here soon for my February reading recap!