101 in 1001 XII

Eep, October has been a terrible month for working towards my 101 in 1001 goals! To be fair, I had Bloggers' Halloween to organise so I didn't have a lot of spare time. 

Now, I'm posting this on Halloween, so the party hasn't happened yet. This means all of the goals tied to that will have to wait until November. I'm a rebel, I know. 

#13 Meet a blogger in real life

I met Alyssia in Reading and we're essentially friends forever now! 

#53 Pick up knitting again

I've attempted knitted twice in my life: My grandma taught me when I was about 8, and I taught myself again when I was 21 or so. I never actually made anything, just created rows of stitches. However, when I saw the Innocence Big Knit adverts, I was inspired to start making little hats. And I did it! I'm very proud of myself! 

#96 Read 75 books

This takes my total up to 39. I'm getting there! 

NaNoWriMo

I tried Grammarly's grammar checker free of charge because correct grammar is next to Godliness. 

You guys know how much I love grammar. It's not like you can avoid it. Grammar is a big deal for me, so I was delighted when Grammarly got in touch with me to try out their site. It's pretty easy to use. You just paste your text into the Grammarly site and it checks a whole load of issues: Verb modifiers, excess wordiness, subject/verb agreement and so on. It highlights your mistakes and explains them clearly. 

Of course, it's worth remembering that this is a computer programme, so it's not perfect. It doesn't pick up on colloquialisms and slang, but it does allow you to choose different genres. This means you can match the grammar to the purpose.

Right, I'm getting a little carried away now and forgetting what I'm supposed to be writing about! Basically, Grammarly is awesome and you should all check it out! 

The reason I started this monologue is because tomorrow is the start of NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month and I thought Grammarly would be useful for this. The aim is to write an entire 50,000+ word novel in one month. I've tried before, but I only got about 150 words in before I gave up! This month I'm determined to stick to it. It might be a bit tricky what with working full time and blogging, but I'll do my best.

I don't really have a plot in mind. As you probably know, I've been reading a lot of Murakami lately, so I think I'm going to end up going along that surreal, parallel world kind of theme. I know it's going to central around sleep and insomnia. I'm also going to draw on My Chemical Romance's lyrics to Sleep. I don't know, I couldn't sleep when the idea popped into my head. We'll see where it goes: I'm excited to find out!

Are you taking part? I'd love to read some of your novels. Wish me luck! 

This post was part sponsored by Grammarly. I think it's worth pointing out that I only took a nominal fee as grammar is something I'm so passionate about. Remember, if you'd like to see your business or blog on Becky Bedbug, you can find all the details on my sponsorship page. 

October in review

Favourite outfit

I dressed up as a unicorn! 

Favourite shoes

My Cookie Monster slippers are amazing! 

Favourite book

The Fault in Our Stars made me cry my eyes out! 

Favourite day out

My first Halloween party of the year! 

Other favourites

I became famous! 

I spent far too much time on calculations to work out how to get the best value on Lush gift sets.

My new feature, Becky Reads Company, was very well received! 

Word of the Month

Source

My word(s) of the month for October was Trick or Treat. Let's take a look at my goals:

• Post a costume a day in the week before Halloween.

Well, I've done one, two, three and four, with another coming tomorrow, so I'd say that's achieved! 

• Post two Halloween DIYs

I haven't actually posted them, but I've learned to knit (post coming next week) and I created prosthetic Halloween make up! 

• Have a wonderful time at Bloggers' Halloween

Check back tomorrow to find out! 

SuperBlogger!

Today, I am SuperBlogger, sent from Planet Blog to rescue Company Magazine! My superpowers are:

• Grammar Power!
  The ability to correct spelling, punctuation and grammar errors in a flash!
• Word Separation
  The unparalleled skill of separating words that have been rendered useless due to a merge.
• Cake Inhalation
  The power to scoff any cake in a single inhalation.

What would your SuperBlogger power be? 

I am a unicorn!

 Corset: What Katie Did

Skirt: Boohoo

The best thing about Halloween being in half term is that I have a lot of time on my hands to dress up and play around. I thought it would be fun to have a little unicorn theme today and, after scouring the house for long-forgotten items of clothing that might work, I eventually pieced this together. 

I'm not much of a make up expert. The biggest I come to experimentation is changing up my lipstick, so it was a lot of fun to play around with different colours to create a unicornesque look. 

For my eyes, I used various shades of Barry M Dazzle Dust, Rimmel gel liner and Stargazer white eyeliner. My blusher is a mixture of Too Faced Sweethearts Perfect Flush Blush and Topshop Prime Time. 

My lipstick is MAC Candy Yum Yum, with Barry M silver glitter Dazzle Dust patted on top.

 To get my unicorn mane, I pulled my hair back into three ponytails. 

It was so much fun that I kept my make up on for the whole day! Luckily, I didn't have to go anywhere. 

Day in the Life of Becky: Halloween Special

11am I promise I don't always wake up at 11! It just seems to be that way every time I do a Day in the Life post.

12pm A quick bath before Marie comes round. 

1pm Ice cream after lunch. Om nom nom.

2pm My camera battery ran out so I had to use my phone for the next couple of hours. Buying some last minute costume bits in Primark and being sidetracked by cheap lip balms.

3pm We pinched the crayons and masks so we could have an arty Nando's session!

4pm I visited a fancy dress shop that I didn't know about. It was amazing and I picked up the essential fake blood and liquid latex.

5pm Back home and time to get DIY-ing!

6pm Watching the ultimate Halloween film.

7pm Playing with prosthetic make up.

8pm Blood-splattered bed after taking photos.

9pm Time to leave for the party! I didn't exactly want to take my camera to a crowded club filled with alcohol-infused revellers so, again, I used my poor little phone camera.

10pm The club had an Exorcist theme and had this amazing set up on stage. The bed was shaking, the head was spinning around, and a light flashing behind the curtains revealed a silhouette of the Devil. 

11pm Halloween stickers on the toilets. Cute touch, but I think I'd have preferred enough toilet roll! 

12am Dancey time! 

1am Early morning cheesecake! I hadn't eaten since Nando's so I was a bit peckish.

1am (again) The clocks went back so it's gone back to 1am! Drinking a whole load of water to fix my kidneys before bed.

 I really love Halloween! The best part? I've still got more spooky celebrations to come! 

First Halloween Party

I have my Bloggers' Halloween Party coming up on Thursday but yesterday I went to my first party of the year as I mentioned earlier today. I always find that Halloween preparation is just as fun as the party: Making costumes, applying make up, watching creepy films. Fun, fun, fun!

 First things first, putting on my make up base. 

Applying the liquid latex!

Marie had to snip a bit off. Everyone knows how I feel about scissors. That is a real look of terror on my face! 

First layer of make up is on. I used two different shades of Apocalips and black gel liner to create the bloody look! My lipstick is MAC Viva Glam.

Time to apply the actual blood. Well, not actual blood. You know what I mean.

Rich is desperate for me to use the caption "It will take more than a cotton bud to clean this up" here. Bless him! 

 Prepare for some terrible phone photos. There was no way I was taking my DSLR with me!

We met up with some of our friends there. Robin ended up getting tangled up in spider webs. 

We danced right up at the front like the old days. Although now I have no sound in my left ear due to standing right next to the speakers all night!

By the time we got in the car to go home, we looked pretty sweaty and nasty!

 My make up didn't quite last the night! 

 This looks so disgusting! Ew, ew, ew! I promise you my cheeks are ok!

See, my face is fine! Make up all off and ready to go to bed! 

Halloween Costumes

It's that time of the year again- Halloween week! Halloween nearly always falls over half term, which means I get a week to play dress up! Last year, I had a whale of a time and I plan to outdo myself this year. 

Yesterday, Marie and I attended the Halloween party at our local rock club. We've been going every year since 2006 (bar one year) and it's a big deal in the local alternative community. Every single year, it sells out in advance and the dancefloor is crammed. It's a lot of fun! We usually go in co-ordinating costumes, but this year Marie had a costume in mind so we went as individuals. 

Top: Primark
Skirt: Topshop

I thought the party was next weekend so I didn't have a costume sorted. At the last minute, I decided to go as the Black Dahlia. We raced into town yesterday to pick up the necessary bits and bobs, and I think we did a good job considering the time restraints!

My make up was a joint effort. We're both very, very proud of it! 

Marie dressed up as Anya Stroud (I have no idea who this is!). Her papier mache costume took weeks and it's awesome... although it kept falling apart!

Her chainsaw-gun-thing, which does have a proper name that I can't remember, is definitely the best part of the costume.

She well and truly outshone me this year!