Category: life

Friday Favorites 4.30

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It’s been a busy week getting ready for my parents to visit us for a few days before we head to New Jersey together for a short visit to see friends and family we haven’t seen in a few years. Jake and I also did a ton of adulting this week like making arrangements to buy a car, making dentist appointments and had to do all of the steps to get a passport. The one perk of Covid is that you have to make an appointment at the post office to file the paperwork and because they can’t have more than one group at one time in the office, we were in and out under 10 minutes. Jake was shocked because he had to wait on line for 3 hours to get his even with an appointment when he got his passport a few years ago. Sometimes procrastinating works out!! We are exhausted but happy to see our lives getting back to “normal”. I’ve been spending as much time as I can outside because the weather is finally getting warmer so I’ll start my day taking Ed on a walk around the backyard while I drink my coffee and then bring a big towel to lay out on to read a book in the afternoon. A few weekends ago, we did a big heavy duty clean up of the backyard and it is looking really charming right now as the tree starts to grow green leaves and the flowers blossom. I’m excited to get a car this week so we can go to Lowes and get some mulch and more flowers for the backyard. We are so lucky to live in a city and have a backyard to enjoy. Next project is getting a kiddie pool 😉

I’m watching very little tv these days but I am making time to watch the new HBO Max show, Mare of Easttown because it was filmed in the Philadelphia suburbs. Great mystery and the story draws you in on the first episode. A show I didn’t expect to love so much is The Nevers also on HBO Max. It’s unlike anything on tv right now and is a great show to watch when you have seen it all after a year of watching too much tv. In honor of Helen McCrory, I’ve been rewatching the Peaky Blinders while I cook or clean and want background noise.

I was gifted a bottle of Lancome Clarifique and I have been using it everyday for more than two weeks and I noticed results in my skin right away. It’s a bit pricey but it is a cleanser, hydrates and keeps your skin hydrated for hours. Click here for a more detailed review on the new Lancome Clarifique Dual Essence.

Not that exciting but I did spend $50 at Trader Joe’s this week to make a cheese board for when my parents come to town. A bit extreme but after not being able to entertain in our house because we were both so busy at work and then a pandemic, I am so excited to host! Trader Joe’s is where we get our cheese even if it is a long hike because it’s so inexpensive we are more likely to try a new kind each time we visit.

Reading the last few pages of The Jane Austen Book Club right now. It’s been my go-to book this read while I lay out in the backyard and read. Ed and I are both enjoying any excuse we can to spend more time outdoors!

Trying to eat healthy so most days I have been making a smoothie for breakfast/lunch to keep me full and prevent me from snacking! Frozen mixed fruit, a banana, handful of spinach, one scoop of Vital Protein Collagen Powder and a few spoonfuls of vanilla yogurt.

This week I made breaded chicken breasts for a healthy-ish dinner. The next day I used the leftovers to make wraps using Garden Spinach & Herb Wrap Tortillas, Trader Joe’s Greek Style Feta Dressing, tomatoes and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Quick, easy and delicious!

I finally used my spiralizer and made zucchini noodles for dinner this week. It was a lot easier to make and fun to experiment with flavors. Added a little oil to a pan on low-medium heat and dumped the spiralized zucchini in the pan. Used tongs to flip as they cooked and added half a lemon juice, lemon and pepper seasoning, with a dash of garlic salt. Once in the bowl I added some parmesan cheese for flavor. Interesting texture and a lot quicker than waiting for water to boil for pasta. Jake ate every last noodle so it’s proof that it was tasty!

A friend send me Courtney Cox’s Reel on how to make 4 ingredient lemon pasta and it looked easy and tasty so I decided to try it! We were big fans and it might be our new go-to summer pasta recipe!

  • Warm days and hot days. I have been loving this 90 degree weather!
  • Getting my 10,000 a day step goal in
  • Staying committed to my goal of working out every day using these work outs
  • Early bedtime and waking up early. Trying to become a morning person!
  • Discovered a podcast called Dreamy that has bedtime stories on Spotify so I’ve been listening to one a night while I fall asleep.
  • Swapping over my closets to make room for my summer clothes
  • Treated Jake to frozen yogurt the other night after dinner and it made me excited for summer

Spring Cleaning in the Kitchen

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FIRST THING FIRST, click HERE to get a free gift set and receive $10 after your first Grove Collaborative purchase.

Over the weekend, we ran out of dish soap and when I went to the cabinet where we keep back stock items, I noticed we only have fall scented cleaning supplies. I don’t know about you, but this is not acceptable in my house! Meanwhile, Jake has been loving our peppermint scented dish soap when he does the dishes at night. That day, I put in a big order at Grove Collaborative and added one of each Spring and Summer scented dish soap, cleaning spray, and hand soap. My family thought I was crazy for stocking up with one big order every season, but when everyone ran out of hand soap, I was the one with a cabinet full of it! I tried ordering hand soap when we were on our last one last month and noticed that very few online retailers are even shipping it because there is still a shortage because of the pandemic. This is why I LOVE LOVE LOVE my subscription to Grove Collaborative. The website is easy to shop and add items to your cart so you can get everything you need to keep your home clean, and be green while you do it, delivered to your front door. They also throw in a free item when you spend a certain amount and leave you a fun, friendly message on the box.

I put in an order and two days later I got a box of cleaning supplies on our doorstep! I rolled up my sleeves and got to work cleaning the kitchen and organizing our back stock.

  1. Keep A List of Essentials
    I keep a note on my phone of items that we always have so I can quickly glance and make note of if we are out of it so I can add it to my cart on grove.co.
  2. Stock Up
    Grove Collaborative makes it so easy to buy multiples and not have to push a heavy cart around and then carry them from the car to the house.
  3. Clean Appliances
    This stainless steel cleaner is life changing! Once a week I like to wipe down the refrigerator, stove and dishwasher because fingerprints drive me crazy but nothing ever worked until I used this cleaner! A little bit goes a long way and it protects appliances from fingerprints for like a week.
  4. Create a Routine
    At night I like to put all of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, press start and wipe down the counters with the multi-surface cleaner. Waking up to a clean kitchen is so nice and it only takes two minutes at night to make my mornings better.
  5. Shop Green
    My favorite thing about Grove Collaborative (besides the convenience and friendly team!) is their commitment to the environment. I’m happy to pay a little more for products that are made with the environment in mind. Grove offers product refills so it’s less plastic and you just have to order one to last you a while. I get a hand soap refill each order so I can keep my cute bathroom soap dispenser filled with soap without ever running out.

For more cleaning tips, check out my spring cleaning post that I wrote during quarantine last year, more reasons why I love Grove Collaborative, and how I keep all of my things organized. Let me know your favorite cleaning scents!

Slowly Easing Back In

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As we are all slowly starting to reenter society, there comes some excitement to get back out there and running and a need to take things slow at the same time. We have been home for a year + now and have been looking forward to this vaccine that will “fix everything” since the word quarantine became a verb and a way of life, but is one shot really able to fix everything? Beyond the superficial adjustments like finding pants that fit and getting blisters from shoes we haven’t worn in a really really long time, can we just wake up, walk out our door like business as usual? In the wake of this pandemic, many of us are home because of a lack of employment, or those who are called lucky, are in a job that would not have been their first choice but every corner of the world was impacted making the workforce shrink like never before. After a year of clicking adding to our cart on our phones and laptops, once we walk back into the world stores that were once there are gone. This time at home made me reevaluate what I bring into my home and I got rid of a lot of clutter. My work clothes are packed away and I’ve been wearing comfy cute clothes for months. For me, I’ll have to remember how to socialize with people again and rebuild old friendships that got put on the sidelines and create new ones in a world where all of us are desperate for some social interaction. I took for granted how much enjoyment I got to grab a coffee with a friend or catch up over dinner when I could but made excuses because of work or focusing on my career. While I am like most people excited to go outside and breathe in that fresh summer air without a mask without fear, I know it will take some time for me to get used to our new normal. The truth is things will never go back to normal after one crazy year that took a lot from us – some more than others. It took some work, but I changed my mindset to enjoy being home all day and not dread it. The world outside my door will take some getting used to, but I want to continue making my home a safe place to be. My heart goes out to everyone who are getting ready to adjust to this new world. Right now I am taking advantage of the warm days to walk to the Starbucks a few blocks from our house to treat myself after making my own coffee for the last year!

I have some cool things planned in the next few weeks and months now that we are vaccinated. (YAY!) My parents are planning a trip up North to spend some time with us and a few days seeing friends in New Jersey. Since we had so much fun with my cousins at my parents house last summer, we just finalized plans to spend a few weeks at their house with everybody in June. I’m trying to create some fun things to look forward to to help me get over the “re-entering society anxiety” I have been having recently. I do know for a fact, that I will never be able to get anywhere on time ever again because I’ve lost all concept of how much time it takes to get ready before leaving the house ha!

Friday Favorites 4.23

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Happy Friday! It’s been a while since I have shared what I am loving on the blog so let’s get started!

I’m working on a longer list of all of the shows and movies I have watched so far in 2021 but I wanted to share what we watched this week first! We got the new streaming service HBOMax when it first came out and at first I didn’t really scroll to see what it offered but lately, it’s all that we have been using! We caught up on all of the King Kong and Godzilla movies on our date nights to get ready for the new King Kong vs Godzilla movie that was released in theaters and HBOMax on the same day. The service also has a ton of old shows that are hard to find, like our recent binge What I Like About You, that early 2000s show with Amanda Bynes that is laugh out loud funny!

I recently spent an entire afternoon organizing my cabinets of products to donate to my mom, put some in my shower so I’ll use them, and then used a giant travel pouch to keep all of the skincare products I’m currently using so they are all in one place. I then cleaned out my vanity and put extra beauty products that I haven’t opened up yet that are just taking up room in this loaf bag that looks cute and hides the extra clutter.

On the blog this week, I talked about the Olay Retinol cream I have been using every other night and shared the new to me Hollywood Flawless Filter that is great for barely there makeup days. One of my goals this year was to really commit to a skincare system that worked for my skin and more importantly, would take like 5 minutes at night to apply. I’ve noticed that my skin tone looks more even and I have more glowy skin now that I’ve been consistent with this skincare routine. By having all of my skincare products in one bag, I do a better job of applying toner, serum, and a moisturizer at night. Find a system that works for you and I promise your skin will love you back!

I don’t need more clothes but I couldn’t not take advantage of the Nordstrom Rack Clearance Event going on right now. When I saw the Madewell cardigan with a cult following only for $14, I had to get one along with a Rachel Parcell dress and a few tops.

Keep an eye on my Amazon Finds page because I’m working on a big round up of our recent orders.

The Target Dollar Spot is overflowing with cute summer accessories and activities! This week I walked the long mile + way there to get a few things and my parents got some cute pool floats that we are all excited to use this summer!

I was in a reading slump for a few months because I was reading a very boring book but I’ve never quit reading a book and had to finish it! Since then, I’ve moved on from So 5 Minutes Ago and quickly read The Last Wife of Henry VIII. On my nightstand, I have Little Women and The Jane Austen Book Club. Follow along with my reading list here on Goodreads.

Meals we have been loving recently are:

  • Teriyaki chicken with roasted sweet potatoes
  • Gigi Hadid’s penne vodka
  • Salad with chicken ( I heat up chicken fingers and then cut them in little pieces. Easy and delicious!)
  • Pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes and basil and sweet sausage mixed with olive oil and parmesan cheese
  • Quesadillas with cheese, leftover chicken, tomatoes and peppers
  • We did a big grocery run recently and it’s nice to have a full fridge!
  • A neighbor posted about giving away two outdoor chairs in our neighborhood Facebook page for free and now they look so nice in our backyard. SCORE!
  • I ordered a new hose nozzle and the jet stream was strong enough to power wash our front sidewalk and our backyard. Took a few days but every leaf and clump of dirt is gone!
  • Ed has been loving the warmer weather because we let him spend an hour in the backyard (while supervised) every morning. I’ll water the flowers and enjoy my morning coffee in our new chairs while he roams!
  • At least every other week we have been ordering Panera for lunch and the seasonal salads are SO GOOD!
  • This Funboy x Barbie collaboration is amazing.
  • Thank goodness for Jake’s craving of a burrito the other night because we tried Jackass Burrito and it’s now our new go-to burrito place!
  • We had a few days of really warm weather and sunshine so I took a long walk to Rittenhouse Square.
  • We got our first vaccination last week and get our second dose in May. We are dancing with joy and can’t wait to have a fun summer now that we can safely leave the house and see people.

Getting A Deeper Clean with the Bissell Powerlifter Swivel Lift-OFF Pet Vacuum

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Bissell Powerlifter Swivel Lift-OFF Pet Vacum

Since we have been spending more of our time at home, I have been vacuuming more throughout the week. Not surprising as we both work, live and eat all of our meals at home so it’s going to get dirty at times! My most needy roommate is Ed the cat, he has adjusted to us being home 24/7 so he moves throughout the house to find a comfy place to nap and often leaves a trail of hair behind. We are all adjusting to our new normal right now and one of my new routines is a new cleaning routine with some new tools!

Last year, I purchased a vacuum and when I saw the pet model and the standard model, I didn’t know if there would be much of a difference. In the end I just bought the standard version because it was cheaper and thought it would work just as well. So far it’s been great and I have had zero complaints to clean up after my cookie crumbs and dirt that accumulates in our older house. It wasn’t until Bissell reached out to ask if I wanted to try a pet model vacuum. With Ed we thought it was a good thing to have and see if there was that much of a difference between our regular vacuum and a pet model.

Not knowing when the Bissell Powerlifter Swivel Lift-OFF Pet vacuum would arrive, I did my usual vacuum routine earlier in the week. When the new vacuum arrived, I took it out of the box and wanted to see if it was easy to use not thinking it would pick up anything since I just vacuumed earlier in the week. Our guest room slash my new office is rarely used and is carpeted so I wanted to see how it worked in that room. It was lightweight, easy to push and the swivel feature let me easily get to the corners in the room without using the attachment. It’s a small room so my jaw dropped when I saw how much dirt and hair was in the vacuum.

I pushed it down the hallway to our bedroom which has a rug over our hardwood floors and when I finished vacuuming the room that I just cleaned, the canister was completely full! The Bissell Powerlifter Swivel Lift-OFF Pet vacuum is an easy way to do a deep clean around the house. I can honestly say that I am so impressed with this vacuum and it has made cleaning up very easy.

Friday Favorites 12.11

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This week is when the countdown to Christmas begins as we wrap presents to put under the tree and get to sit on the couch enjoying our home all decorated in lights. If you are still shopping for presents, check out my gift guide here. Last weekend my family and I got together on Zoom and made cookies to send to each other. We had so much fun reminiscing, being able to ask about substitutes for ingredients and making a mess in our kitchens virtually together. I recently shared a blog post here about making new holiday traditions here where I shared how my family and I are celebrating Christmas together even though we are all in different states. Over the weekend I did a lot of prep work for scheduled content on the blog and other boring stuff around the house that had to get done so I could have a relaxing week. I hope you are all taking time to enjoy your homes decorated for Christmas and all of the lights. Stay tuned to the blog because I am so excited abut the content and collaborations coming to the blog soon!

Enjoying all of the Housewives on right now.

Caught up on The Spanish Princess on Starz this week when I wasn’t watching a Christmas movie.

At night I’ve been putting on BBC documentaries on Netflix while I’m in bed because they are so relaxing to listen to.

OPI red nail polish for Christmas.

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water at night to help take off my makeup. Even after I shower I use this on a cotton square and I’m amazed how much junk is still on my face.

My new Kevyn Aucoin mascara is a game changer and I’ve been wearing it every day the last two weeks.

I had some Old Navy cash to use so I picked up a few amazing pieces from Old Navy this week. I did a try on session on Instagram stories and shared pictures and links on the blog here.

This book is the perfect gift for the Hallmark movie lover.

Just ordered a bunch of photo collage magnets on Shutterfly to give to our family and they were very inexpensive because of the sale going on now.

Hot coffee in the morning in a Christmas coffee mug. Over the weekend I rearranged our cabinet so they are all in the front making them easy to grab! Still loving our new Keurig.

Our new sherpa comforter is probably the best thing I bought all year. It keeps us warm all night and makes it impossible to get out of bed in the morning.

This super easy and delicious sugar sprinkle cookie recipe. We added a ton of sprinkles in the dry ingredients to make them sprinkle cookies. With our second batch we used chocolate sprinkles and it gave them a nice hint of chocolate!

The themed place and bake cookies are still the best though 😉

Bedtime stories on the Calm App every night because it’s the only way I can fall asleep these days.

Evermore ❤