Sarah Says

Happy Hallothanksmas everyone! It’s the October wrap up podcast and there’s a little bit of everything this month! To start, we round out Hallmark’s 2021 Fall Harvest lineup - Love Strikes Twice was the easy winner. Book wise, we’ve got everything from: finishing the Samantha Young On Dublin Street Series with Fall From India Place, Echoes of Scotland Street, and Moonlight on Nightingale Way, all the way to spooky reads and Christmas warmups! The SBS book club pick, Witch Please by Ann Aguirre was okay, but the last minute find The Ex Hex gave off all the spooky vibes. Add The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox to the Christmas TBR list, and Mary Kay Andrews The Santa Suit for a quick read. Catch reviews and links to everything on www.sockbunstudios.com!

Happy fa la la la holidays everyone!! For the next nine weeks, I’ll be watching ALL the Christmas TV movies and reviewing them, helping you binge the good ones and cringe at the bad ones. This week to kick off the holiday season there’s 4 Hallmark movies to talk about. Earning a solid 4/5 stars to kick it off was You, Me, and the Christmas Trees with two of Hallmark’s big names, Danica McKellar and Benjamin Ayres. Cringe and skip Boyfriends of Christmas Past, but DEFINITELY binge Tamara Mowry-Housley and Paul Campbells’s The Santa Stakeout! Lastly over on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, do not miss out on Christmas In My Heart featuring Heather Hemmens and Luke McFarlane. One movie and I was already crying. If you don’t have cable, you can find all the Hallmark movies on the FrndlyTV app (seriously, this isn’t sponsored but that app is amazing and please FrndlyTV sponsor me). Catch you next week with four more Hallmark movie reviews!

I know it’s still October but let’s be honest, it’s time to start making the Christmas lists! Here’s a fun list of Christmas books to read this holiday season, plus…spicy Christmas books? Yeah…I…I’ll never unsee what I saw recording this. Detailed books: The Santa Suit, The Holiday Swap, Window Shopping, A Convenient Christmas, In a Holidaze, Christmas Shopaholic, Wallflower Christmas, Skipping Christmas, Pride Prejudice and Mistletoe, Finding Father Christmas series, and the Frost Bothers series.

Halloween is around the corner, so that means only one thing, Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas is about to begin! I’m taking a look at everything we know so far about this year’s lineup and giving my initial thoughts and opinions before the most wonderful time of the year kicks off! Be on the look out for a printable list of all the TV holiday movies coming because ya girl is watching all of them this year. It’s…gonna be a lot. Let’s go!

I know, I know, do people *actually* ask others for their skincare routine? I promise I’m not being shady - people really have! Growing up, I was told I over produced so much oil I could give it to all my family and still have oil to go around. It took nearly a decade to get my skincare routine down to a science and I shout it from the rooftops the second someone asks me a question about what I use, because we should all feel comfortable in our own skin. So, get those Ulta and Sephora shopping carts ready for this haul - I’ll give you my tried and true go-tos that I’ve used over the last 15+ years (and also make sure you stay well clear of the dreaded St. Ives apricot scrub). For quick easy links, head to www.sockbunstudios.com for this week’s blog post!

I’d say it’s been a hard year for women, but they’ve all been hard. Somehow we find ourselves in 2021 still the subject of brutal murders, bizarre deaths, unjust controlling, and outright ignored over sexual abuse simply because we’re women. This podcast was hard to record but necessary to keep it all at the forefront because if not now, when? Trigger warning on this podcast as I discuss the details from the court findings on Sarah Everard’s case from London as well as the horrific miscarriage of justice happening still at the hands of the FBI and more surrounding USA gymnastics. Then it’s just pure fury over the treatment of Britney Spears as more documentaries and more court documents are brought to light after a judge finally suspended her father, Jamie Spears as the head of her conservatorship last week. And what about Gabby Petito? As the hunt continues to find Brian Laundrie, would things have been different if the police had actually helped her at that pullover? We’ll never know. I have a few books that have helped me deal with my increasing dismay and a hope that in my lifetime men will put in the work we women are begging them to do. So, if you can handle listening, I hope this podcast infuriates you and inspires you to help make a change. Because it’s 2021. How the hell are we still here??

September? More like Booktember! We have a lot of Hallmark Fall Harvest movies to discuss and then eight books. I regret nothing. Back with another Christina Lauren SBS book club pick with Roomies this month, spoiler alert I loved it. Read two Samantha Young books (obviously) Down London Road and Before Jamaica Lane (along with not mentioned two novellas of hers). Kate Bromley is a new author alert with her hit Talk Bookish To Me and Tessa Bailey isn’t new, but she’s new to me. I get why I couldn’t get It Happened One Summer until the end of summer now. Rounding out the reading was Farah Heron’s Accidentally Engaged, Mhairi McFarlane’s emotional hit Just Last Night, and last but certainly not least, the third book in Evie Dunmore’s League of Extraordinary Women series, Portrait of a Scotsman. Grab your TBR list and write them down, or just head over to www.sockbunstudios.com and the September Wrap Up blog post to grab all the books to wrap up in now that fall is here!

Ever feel like the months and seasons pass by and you didn’t do half of what you wanted to do to enjoy it? That was me until I started making monthly bucket lists last year. This episode I’m talking about why I loved my bucket lists for the fall months and how it really connected me to each month and holiday during the end of 2020. So sit down and get the pen and paper out to jot down ideas of things you want to do this fall to enjoy it the most!

We’ve all seen it - the TikToks and Target fashions that definitely DIDN’T need a comeback. From butterfly clips to wide leg and low rise jeans - we elder millennials know what was good and what was bad about the best decades. Here’s my running list of things that I never need to see again, along with a few things I really miss and want brought back - TGIF ABC lineup nights anyone?? There’s gotta be others that miss Polly Pockets like I do! So, buckle up and hit the time machine back to the 90s and reminisce with me while we rebuke and also think back on easier times.

We all remember the craze of hideous “buttery soft” leggings and the unicorn print search. Only a few years ago Lularoe was a household name. Now some of the top sellers have come out to speak on the horrors behind the company that is facing dozens of lawsuits. I watched the four part documentary on Amazon this week and have lots of thoughts to share! Mostly that it must be an awkward time in the Mario Lopez, Katy Perry, and Kelly Clarkson households. Let’s get into it!