Do you have five minutes?

Then pretty please, take my reader survey! :) It's super short (only 11 questions, and most are multiple choice or yes/no; all questions optional) and will help me improve Semi-Charmed Kind of Life even more in 2015! I've embedded the survey here to make it easy peasy for you to participate. All feedback is appreciated! :)

Powered by Typeform

The survey will be open until the end of the month, so if you don't have five minutes today, please come back again in the next 31 days and share your thoughts!

If you are a blogger, have you ever done a reader survey? What was most (and least) helpful about the results?

P.S. — It has come to my attention that several people were unable to take the survey because the formatting was wonky. I sincerely apologize! This appears to be a browser issue (i.e. it looks fine in Firefox, but is tiny and impossible to take in Safari). If the survey box above is not working for you, please feel free to visit the survey at this link. I really appreciate all your feedback!

5 Podcasts for Any Personality

Earlier this year, I mentioned I had started listening to podcasts at the gym while I was training for my triathlon. Then, in the past week, six different people recommended a new podcast to me; I started listening to it this week and am already hooked. So for today's "5 Things" list, I thought I would round up five of my favorite podcasts! They are each pretty different, so you should be able to find at least one that interests you. :)

Best of October: A Month in Review

I was going to wait until next month and wrap October and November up together, but with me getting married and all in October, I thought it deserved its own post. ;)

Most Popular on Instagram & Notable Events

1 / 2 / 3 / 4

I have a new foolproof way to get more than 100 likes on an Instagram picture! It used to be simply "include Jonathan in the photo," but now I think "include wedding dress" would work as well. ;) I've calmed down on posting wedding photos a bit recently, but that's just because I'm waiting for our professional photos to come back. Be sure to follow me on Instagram at @mcstroup if you want to see those babies when they're available! (I'm also known to post photos of books, coffee cups, and vacation destinations near and far.)

5 Best (Complete) Television Series on Netflix

I used to watch a lot of Netflix. (And let's face it—the only reason I don't watch as much now is because I actually have cable and can DVR current shows.) Today, I bring you the top five complete television series available on Netflix for your viewing pleasure!

(Note: This does not include shows that are still on air, such as Law & Order: SVU, Criminal Minds, Parenthood, or several other fabulous shows you can find on Netflix. Heck, I guess I'll have to do a separate post about those next week!)

Best of Summer: Four Months in Review

Wow, has it really been five months since I posted a monthly review? Although, to be fair, I've posted less than 15 times total since then, so I guess there hasn't been much to review on the blog. ;) As far as life goes, though, oh boy! Lots has been happening around my real life lately, as you may already know. Currently, that includes lots of homework, writing wedding thank you notes, and taking care of some last-minute preparations for our honeymoon next week (eek!). I know I have a lot of wedding sharing to do here, and after I get back from our honeymoon, I know I'm going to want to post a million pictures, so I thought I should catch up on the summer (June through September) quickly before moving on to the very exciting months of October and November. Without further ado ... this summer in review!

Most Popular on Instagram & Notable Events

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

Considering my obsession with Instagram, there was no way I could boil four months of photos down into just four picks! :) So today, you get to see the nine most popular photos from my summer feed! (To be fair, this photo was tied for 9th place, but the triathlon bib got more comments.) As you can see, my summer mostly consisted of wedding planning (including my bachelorette party in Vegas—woohoo!) and drinking coffee, but I managed to throw a triathlon in there, as well, and a trip to Seattle for my grad school orientation. By the way, I noticed that once again any photos with my fiance husband in them automatically get more likes. ;)