Lifestyle
August 2024 Wrap Up
Disclosure: The FTC Disclosure Provision is a law that requires influencers to disclose when they are being paid to promote a product or service. So please know that if I'm not making money through affiliate links/sponsored content on the post you're currently reading, it's an oversight on my part and will be corrected soon. Read the full disclosure about all the legal stuff here.
Welcome to my August 2024 wrap up!
Here's a break down of what I got up to this month:
Wrapping Up August: What Happened This Month
Hair
Prepare yourselves, it was a wild ride this month...
I started the month by cutting my hair. Yep, 1st August I finally made up my mind and decided to cut off somewhere between 5-10cm of hair. Nothing fancy. Just straight across blunt cut off the ends. My plan is to grow out the layers I have so that I just have a few face framing layers at the front.
I'm loving having shoulder length hair again. It's just the right length. Not too short (I can still put it up) and not too long (much easier to maintain). Looking and feeling much healthier after the cut too.
Then I tried a new hair dye that I got for just €2,98 from Action...which was a complete flop. Had it worked out it would have been an amazing bargain but alas...this time you get what you pay for. You can find my full review here.
Not happy with my hair colour and still in need of covering my roots I decided to try L'Oreal Excellence Pure Blonde 01. Whilst it did take me a few shades lighter I still wasn't happy with the result.
Never one to give up, I decided the only way forward was to de-colourise my hair. I tried 360 Ultra-light Powder Lightener for the first time and... all I can say is ORANGE! Luckily I got extra packets because you never know, and did another session (bleach bath this time as really didn't want to fry my hair too much) and it did the trick and got me to a yellow blonde (the goal was to get to level 8 or 9). Relief!
Health
August is my mammogram month and whilst not at all fun, it needs to be done. All clear for now but they've moved me up to high risk now and so will need the 3D version done from now on and at least once a year.
The extreme heat here in Rome is still making everything a bit difficult. We've had multiple fires in the parks near our flat this month too which means air quality hasn't been great. That said the various meds I'm on seem to be doing their jobs and I'm not fainting all the time now which is definitely a step in the right direction.
You might also like: Monthly Goal Ideas for Better Health
Blogging
August was amazing! I set yet another new record for traffic! Previous personal best was last month with 85,148 views. I am so grateful for all of you that visit my little corner of the internet 💖
This is a huge milestone for me. Getting over 100K views in a month was on my goal list for this year and so I couldn't be happier right now!
Time to set a new goal.
Traffic for August: 104,150 page-views
Number of blog posts published in August: 20
Current DA score: 27
As a few people have been asking what I've been doing to grow my traffic I'll be doing a blog post to go into all the details about what I do each month and to analyse what's been working for me.
I do want to say that I haven't been glued to my computer 24/7 to achieve these results. I took a lot of time away from my computer in August.
As you can see I didn't increase my number of monthly posts either. So far this year my number of monthly posts goes from a low of 15 to a high of 22, so 20 is still my average posting frequency.
I did schedule posts in advance as I knew I would be taking time away and wanted to maintain consistent posting.
I also scheduled a few tweets and pins to publish throughout the month to promote my blog posts. I make a point of promoting older posts as well as the newer ones each month.
I did update some of my older posts this month too. This helps keep the content fresh in the eyes of the Google algorithm and means I can improve the SEO of the posts, update links, update graphics etc... Nothing major. Just small tweaks.
Like I said, I'll go into it more in a separate post later this month so I can break it all down in more detail but I hope this helps for now.
Reading challenges
The Clock Reading Challenge
I completed the Clock Reading Challenge 2023 in November.
Books read:
10- Ten Tangled Tales: Short Stories by Suduhita Mitra Sankhe - My Review (coming soon) - Amazon - Goodreads
The Net Galley TBR Reading Challenge
I had to remove two books from my Net Galley TBR this month as for some reason I couldn't find the files for them and it was no longer possible to re-download them from the site. It's a shame as I will always review all the books I get approved for, even if some take me a while.
I did get sent two new books though so the number on my TBR is the same as it was. I know the whole idea of the Net Galley TBR Reading Challenge is to clear books from my TBR and get my ratio to 100% but they sounded like good reads and I couldn't resist. The struggle is real!
I promise to try and behave myself and not add any more new titles to my Net Galley TBR list until I've completed the challenge.
Other books read:
Simplify: A QuickStart Guide to Minimalist Living for Families by Ann Dawson - My Review - Amazon - Goodreads
Currently reading:
Shadow in the Ward by Ari Gray - currently on page 72/345 - Amazon - Goodreads
Travel
We finally made it to the beach! We had a great couple of days at Tarquinia visiting a friend and enjoying the beach. I don't think I've ever seen Lillo quite so happy. He loved it! He swam in the sea, played with a stick he found (it was bigger than him), played with some other dogs, dug holes in the sand, chilled under the umbrellas, and even went with the boys to explore the rocks and made friends with the crabs and fish. It's great when there are free beaches where we can take him too.
We managed a few more trips to the swimming pool too which was nice, especially in this heat.
My youngest turned 13 😱 It's crazy how time flies. He decided to celebrate with a friend at Zero Gravity and they had a great time bouncing and climbing.
We had a few evenings out with friends for dinner and drinks which was nice too.
It's still too hot to be out and about much which limits us on where to go. Hopefully this heatwave will break soon.
Fitness
Again, too hot to do much. I have been doing some arm exercises with my 0.5kg weights in the evenings though and trying to do a few calve rises, squats, and crunches when I can. Looking forward to the heat easing up so I can go back to proper workout sessions again.
How did you do with your August Challenges? What challenges are you doing this year? Join the conversation in the comments section.
Enjoy this post? Share it on your social media by clicking the share buttons below
.jpg "Wrapping Up August What Happened This Month")
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
2 comments
I’m glad you’re happy with your hair! What a process! Congrats on an amazing blogging month and thanks for sharing what works for you! Re heat…it’s predicted to be 103*F and 105*F here on Thursday and Friday! 🥵🥵🥵 I’ll be inside reading! 📚 ~Carol @ ReadingLadies
ReplyDeleteLuckily I have strong hair. Going to be trying a few conditioning treatments in September though.
DeleteSounds like your temperature is pretty much what we've had since the start of June. I have been promised rain this week but we'll see as they've said that a few times and it just gets worse. Humidity is a nightmare here.
Try to stay cool and happy reading.