This was the first October I didn’t spend travelling in the past four years. It’s just such a good month to beat the crowds, and I love experiencing new places in that crisp autumn air, seeing the change in leaves (and variety of colors) in places other than Colorado. While I missed travelling a bit this October, I was also really excited to spend my favorite time of year at home. I thought it would make it feel longer, but alas, the season came and went just as quick as ever!

What’s New?

I hate my hair. Not the length—I don’t regret chopping it for a second. But I’ve always had really greasy hair (and a variety of scalp conditions), and I have yet to find a dry shampoo that actually does anything for it. Lately I’ve been feeling more frustrated by my hair than ever. I feel that I’ve reached an age where I’m too old to do a lot of the hairstyles that used to be my go-tos. Especially now with short hair, and my baby face, all my old hairstyles make me look like a toddler. What’s a girl to do?!

I am inching ever closer to becoming someone who uses heat on her hair after every wash, which I am reluctant to do because a) I am lazy and b) my hair is already thinning. I’m hesitant to start applying heat regularly and possibly reducing my thread count even more… though there is no doubt I feel so much more confident when my hair is curled or crimped. Send help! What are your go-to greasy hair hairstyles? Do you have a dry shampoo that actually works? I had a hairstylist once that used a powder dry shampoo on my hair that was miraculous, but I don’t know what it was called. It’s on my to-do list to start buying and testing a bunch of products, but having a place to start would be helpful.

Today’s Outfit

I wasn’t sure about these jeans when I first bought them. They’re so long that I feared I looked like an Oompa-Loompa. While I do have to wear them with some sort of a heeled shoe, and they look best with proper heels, I’ve been wearing them nonstop the past couple of weeks. I have been accused in the past of wearing impractical outfits to the pumpkin patch, so I had to prove the haters wrong this time. Yes, I can still be cute yet functional. There were so many girls at the patch that were wearing short skirts and very tall heeled boots that looked freezing in the blustery fall morning. Alas, I was not one of them. (Okay, I was still a little cold, but I spoke not of it.)

The best part of this outfit is the earrings that my friend brought back for me from Finland. They’re definitely a specific style—not everyone’s taste—but I think they are so cool. Are they teeth? Tiny antlers? I’m not sure, but I love ‘em either way.

Top Performing Blog Posts This Month

• A Floral Summer Tablescape
• September 2026 Month in Review
• Falling Out of Love with my Closet

Top Performing Social Media Posts

• Rating my Past Halloween Costumes—24,252 views
• A Decline in my Percent Worn?!—3,783 views
• Closet Clean-Out Reflections—3,765 views

Favorite Outfits from October

I’m a proud outfit repeater—this brown ribbed tank has become one of my go-to items to pair with these super fun flared pants from Cavender’s. I love completing the outfit with my beaded gold hoops, that add to the western flare. I wore this for my boyfriend’s and my annual picnic in mid-October, when it was still 80 degrees.

My other fave look from the month is a new combo for me, featuring the same jeans from today’s post and this cobalt blue jacket from Clara Sunwoo. I wasn’t sure about the outfit at first, but now looking back I think it was really cool. Tracking my percent worn has made me hyper-focused on wearing everything in my closet, but as a result I’ve forgotten to prioritize wearing the more expensive pieces. Now that I’ve worn most things in my closet at least once this year, I’m trying to return my focus to break out some of my higher cost per wear items, like this jacket.

Percent Worn Update

As of November 1, I was at 94% of my closet worn so far in 2026, with 27 items left to wear. Now, at the time of writing this post, I moved up one percentage point to 95% of my closet worn. That leaves me with 23 items left to wear in 52 days (about one item every other day). There are only three things that I’m not sure how I will fit in between now and the end of the year: this floral dress, which is very summery; this mint sparkly dress, which was one of the six items I didn’t wear last year; and my mauve prom dress.

I’m considering recreating this Blair Waldorf-inspired outfit with the floral dress because it makes the dress more fall-appropriate, though I’m not sure where I could wear that look. The tulle prom dress is without a doubt the most difficult of the three to work in. As for the mint dress, I’m considering getting rid of it. I actually haven’t worn it since 2023, and I’m starting to realize maybe minty greens aren’t my color… I’d love to hear any thoughts you have for where or how I might wear these pieces! And before you say, “Dress up for a nice dinner!” keep in mind that I still have seven other nice dresses I need to wear… and I can only afford so many nice dinners.

What I Watched

• You Can See Everything—My boyfriend wanted to see this documentary in theaters, but having never heard of Nathan Fielder or Theranos before, I had to do some homework. Honestly, this movie is so niche and hard to explain that I’m not going to bother… I found Season 2 Episode 5 (“Dumb Starbucks”) of the show Nathan for You helpful for giving me a sense of Fielder’s “documentary” style and awkward humor. And this 60 Seconds clip was helpful for giving me a quick rundown on the Theranos case. Without this homework I would have had no idea what was happening in the movie—but I did ultimately enjoy it and even more so enjoyed the long conversations and dissections that came after.
• Over the Garden Wall—I guess my boyfriend’s friends have been pestering him to watch this animated miniseries for years, so we finally gave it a try this spooky season. It wasn’t at all what I expected—and very strange—but I did think the characters were really cute. It’s not something I would sit down to watch with my undivided attention, but it was a fun background show for carving pumpkins and puzzling.
• Carrie—Mike Flanagan, the director of The Haunting of Hill House and other popular horror shows, created this modern retelling of Stephen King’s first novel. I liked the show fine; it’s not my favorite of Flanagan’s works, and it’s one of those shows that is kind of hard to watch because the characters are bad people. I think the most important thing to know going into it, if you’ve read the book, is to treat this show as a completely separate work of fiction. While there is inspiration drawn from the novel, Carrie the series is very different than Carrie the book, and I think I would have enjoyed the show more if I hadn’t just read the book (see below). The soundtrack was incredible though, and I think Flanagan did a really good job of updating the story for 2026.

What I Read

• Carrie by Stephen King—I really wanted to read the book before watching the new show, and while it was short, it took me a lot longer to read than I expected. It was such a unique way to tell a story and unlike anything I’ve read before—I see why it’s had such a lasting impact on pop culture. It’s also not “scary” in a traditional sense, which is good for the chickadees like me. I was particularly fascinated by how relevant and timely the book felt even though it was written in the 1970s. I still need to watch the two Carrie movies to compare!
• My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier—This was my book club pick for the month of October. I wanted something that felt fall-ish but not too spooky, and I knew it would be well-written because Rebecca, by the same author, is one of my all-time favorite books. But sadly I was disappointed with this one! While the character development was interesting, it was a long book for a short drink of water… i.e. I found it somewhat boring.
• When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn—As I said in my last monthly recap, all the Bridgerton books feel very “same-y” to me, but I do think this one was the spiciest so far, if you’re into that sort of thing… The plot of this one especially could have been a lot deeper and more interesting, but the tone of the books is so fluffy that nothing too serious ever really happens.

October Spotify Playlist

October’s playlist consists mainly of songs from Carrie. There was an existing Spotify playlist for the show, so I just copied all of those songs onto my playlist and will weed out any I don’t like as I listen. There are also quite a few Kacey Musgraves songs thrown in there since I saw her in concert in October.

What I’m Looking Forward to in November

My birthday! Well actually, at the time I’m finally publishing this, my birthday has already come and gone (and it was amazing). Otherwise I’m excited for Thanksgiving, which my boyfriend and I will be spending in Boise. I haven’t been back since March so I’m really looking forward to it. And this Saturday we are going to a Traitors-themed party! Traitors as in, the TV show hosted by Alan Cumming. I hadn’t watched it before, but my boyfriend and I have been doing our homework (aka binging it) so we’re prepared to play the games and murder. The dress code for the party is “eccentric”—you best believe I’m going to put together an outlandish outfit!

This Month on Grace per Wear

• Favorite Outfits from September
• A Very Practical Use for my Cost per Wear Spreadsheet
• Rating my Past Halloween Costumes (Instagram)
• A Decline in my Percent Worn?!
• Closet Clean-Out Reflections
• Final Cost per Wear of Items I Recently Donated
• Buy It, It’s Easier
• GRWM for the Kacey Musgraves Concert
• Falling Out of Love with my Closet
• 1920s-Inspired Dress Try-On
• New Jeans Try-On
• Rating my Past Halloween Costumes (Blog)
• Guess my Costume from the Prop
• Halloween Thrift Trip
• Zombie Flapper Girl Transition
• Fight Club Costume Reveal
• Tyler Durdens Do ABBA

As always, thanks for stopping by the blog today. I love hearing from you, even though I have been very slow to respond to comments lately!

 

Miles of smiles,
Grace

 

Sweater: Nordstrom Rack, $18 ($0.27 per wear), last worn here | Jeans: Express, $52 ($13.00 per wear) | Boots: VIVAIA, gifted for collaboration, $155 ($14.09 per wear) | Sunglasses: Sungait, gifted for collaboration, $15 ($0.28 per wear), last worn here | Purse: Gift, last worn here