Friday Favorites 5.29

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Wow. What a week it’s been in quarantine. Some weeks go by quickly and others, like this one, are slow so Friday was very welcomed. I think we all have a heavy heart with the recent events and the aftermath of them.

Even with a long holiday weekend to start the week, I will admit that this week was a tough one. It was hard to see so many people with their families or out doing stuff. I’ve been calling my mom a lot lately to just talk and have a good cry when needed. The Philadelphia Magazine had a great article that was about how different people in Philadelphia are dealing with quarantine. It’s pretty much our new normal now and we have all adapted to it. One of the women who shared her experience was working from home prior to the quarantine so now she is home with her husband and their son. She said that she never had anyone watch her work before and now she feels like someone is watching her. When I hear states are starting to open up again I feel like there is going to be a comparison game of who accomplished more, who worked from home and remodeled their home best? It’s one thing having to compete with others outside of the home, but no one is talking about comparing experiences with the people we live with. I keep reminding myself to give myself grace during this time but I see some weight I’ve put on with quarantine (I’m no longer getting my 10,000 steps in a day), my roots that desperately need some blonde and house projects I may not get to. When you go to work every day, you have an excuse to be too tired not to get household chores done or have a clean home. However, right now there is the mindset for some that there are no excuses. I’m tired of living like groundhog day. Jake and I joke that we used to run the dishwasher maybe twice a week because we were never home to use our kitchen. Now with homemade breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we’ve run it twice a day to keep up with the dishes. I’d love to know your experiences with quarantine now that we are going into summer and it’s going to look a lot different than it has in the past. I didn’t mean to write such a long introduction to today’s post but I thought I would share.

With the rainy weather on Memorial Day Weekend, I put on comfy clothes and got on the couch for a weekend full of rom-com movies on Hulu. It felt so good to eat cookies and binge movies watching the rain come down because I didn’t feel bad about missing a typical MDW with my family. During the week I watched the limited series WACO and Unorthodox which were both very good. For date night this week, we ordered Taco Bell and watched Secret Life of Pets 2 because we haven’t seen it yet. So cute!! I’m looking for some new shows to watch so leave your suggestions in the comments, please!

As I mentioned above, I read this month’s Philadelphia Magazine while laying out in my backyard and they did a great job covering how the coronavirus is impacting different people within Philadelphia. Earlier this week I finished reading Goodnight Nobody and have moved onto Good in Bed. I’ve been getting more reading done with the nicer weather because I can sit on a bench or layout on a towel to enjoy the sun.

I recently ran out of my usual Neutrogena face wash but instead of buying a new one, I am going to use up all of the face products I have in my bathroom instead. A goal of mine is to use what I have before I buy anything else for quarantine. A nice blogger perk is that I get a good amount of free products in the mail so I want to use them all up because I have a lot! This cleanser that I’ve had for a while has been my new morning face wash. I usually just used it with a cleanser brush but now with the warmer weather, I like using a cleanser that gently exfoliates.

I’ve been getting asked “what did you order?” a lot lately but honestly I haven’t personally ordered much! I’ve been investing more time and energy on the blog and getting more “blogger mail” than usual. I’m so excited to bring some great content to the blog to share some new products with you. I bribed my live-in photographer with brownies this week to do some photoshoots for le blog. HA!

I finally got my new vase that I ordered a few weeks ago because the first one was sent back because it was crushed in delivery. It encouraged me to clean up our dining room table to do a room refresh for the summer. I love how it looks now and the only thing we did was add an affordable centerpiece.

Spending time in the kitchen is something I’ve been loving a lot! I shared on the blog this past week where I’ve been finding recipes and how we plan meals for the week.

Reading outside. Honestly, I needed a break from tv this week so I’ve been running out to read whenever I get the chance.

We got a harness and a leash so we can let Ed hang out in the backyard. He’s such a scaredy-cat so he doesn’t go far so we can let go of the leash most of the time. I’ll let him out in the morning while I sit on our back steps drinking coffee. I love to watch him explore and then get scared of the wind.

I made vodka sauce from scratch again this week. It was a last minute thing because we had the ingredients and it’s so good and easy to throw together.

Snail mail. I got a lot of cards from my family this week and I love having them on display in the living room.

How I Plan Our Weekly Meals

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In the past I would spend hours on Pinterest looking up cute work outfit inspo and now I’m looking at new recipes instead. From ways to style a pink skirt to ways to cook shrimp. Truthfully, it’s been a fun new hobby to start right now especially since I get to enjoy all of my hard work with a tasty meal! When I first started cooking dinner, I realized I needed a lot of things I didn’t have. Pre-quarantine during the week, the last thing I wanted to do was cook after a long work day. Now I look forward to it all day!

My routine right now is looking up recipes and seeing what we already have on hand while I meal plan on Sundays. I’ll search ingredients on Pinterest so we can find new ways to cook what we have. I’m also getting so much inspiration from people sharing their cooking on Instagram! From there I make a grocery list of things to get on my grocery run on Mondays. Since we don’t have a car, it’s hard to do a big grocery run at one time because we have to carry everything home. With the 30 minute walk it can be annoying to go to the store every week but I do enjoy getting fresh produce and groceries to use. When we were house hunting I wanted to make sure that we were close to a grocery store and while Trader Joe’s is a hike, it’s doable. Luckily we have two grocery stores near us. When the big food stores were out of everything luckily our stores were well stocked.

One afternoon I did some pinning on Pinterest and made a list of pantry necessities. For too long I’ve relied on Trader Joe’s frozen foods for all of my meals! We needed a lot of cooking basics and now that our kitchen is well stocked, cooking is a lot easier to do than I thought.

Now when I meal plan on Sundays, I like to look up recipes to make my grocery list and see what I already have on hand. A new thing I have been doing is taking screenshots of recipes that I see on Pinterest or Instagram and saving them to an album on my phone. I love how I can keep everything in one place and can easily pull up a recipe on my phone. It makes meal planning so easy and fun to keep track of new recipes to try!

Dining Room Refresh

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The last few weeks our dining room has turned into my office so it’s often cluttered with my laptop, papers, notebook and planner. Now that it looks like we will be staying home for the summer I thought a little dining room refresh was needed! I wanted something simple and budget friendly so I focused on a new table centerpiece. Growing up my family had giant white hydrangea bushes in the front yard so we would have vases all over the house filled with hydrangeas. I was starting to get a little homesick and then Pop of Pippi inspired me to get a new vase and fill it with faux white hydrangeas. I love how this easy arrangement brightens up the space for summer! It’s also super easy to push to the side to work and then setup again when I’m done working. It’s quickly turned into my new favorite room in the house!

SHOP THE ROOM

vase | flowers | place mats | dining room table | artwork | bar cart

Memorial Day Sales Guide 2020

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This Memorial Day Weekend plans are going to be a little different for everyone but at least we can rely on some goods sales to keep us busy!

AERIE || 10 for $35 undies, BOGO bathing suit bottoms and tops, 20-60% off items
AMERICAN EAGLE || 25-60% off everything
ANN TAYLOR || 60% off everything
ANTHROPOLOGIE || extra 50% off sale items
EXPRESS || 40-50% off everything
J. CREW || 60% off your purchase, 50% off sale items
J.CREW FACTORY || 50-60% off everything
LOFT || 50% off everything, 60% off for reward members
OLD NAVY || 50% off tees, tanks, swim and shorts

Friday Favorites 5.22

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I think this is the first week of quarantine that has really affected me in a deep way. Leading up to Memorial Day Weekend is tough because for my whole life it meant that the beaches were opening and it was summer time, my favorite time of the year. This MDW is going to be different but I am trying to enjoy it as much as I can. Earlier this week we spent a lot of time in the backyard weeding, planting and cleaning up the backyard. Our hard work has paid off because the flowers have started to bloom and the backyard is our little oasis in the city. On Thursday night we made pulled chicken barbecue sandwiches in the crockpot to have our own version of a barbecue dinner. I made homemade french fries and heated up some canned corn – it was delicious!

Philly is allowing carry out cocktails this weekend so maybe we will treat ourselves to a few. Luckily we live a few blocks away from a food store that has a big alcohol section so we have plenty of White Claw in our fridge. The weather forecast says plenty of rain but I’m not letting that ruin my long weekend.

This week I tried to balance watching tv and getting stuff done so I treated myself to an episode of The Great on Hulu at night after a productive day. I’m not sure if I should be embarrassed or proud but I watched the entire first season of Sweet Magnolias on Netflix. It was so good and as Jake called it, “It’s a Hallmark movie that never ends!’ Honestly, it the type of fun, light television we all need to watch right now. Jake and I were watching The Last Ship together the last few weeks and finished the show this week. The show had plenty of suspense and we liked how they ended the show perfectly. If you are looking for a show to watch with your significant other this is a good one.

In the backyard there is a little patio set where I like to have my morning coffee and get some reading done. This week I read the current issue of Vogue Magazine and I was very impressed by the creative direction they took. It explored how the fashion, art, retail and industries will be changed forever because of COVID. In a way, this pause in time will move these industries to the digital age and will make them change and adapt or be left behind pre-COVID. I highly suggest grabbing a copy of this issue because it does a good job looking at how everyone has been impacted by this.

One of my goals for quarantine is to use up all of the products I have in my cabinet because let’s be honest, it’s a lot! One thing I have plenty of is lotions so I’m really committed to applying lotion to my entire body after the shower and at night before sleep.

A lot of my recent purchases this week were at the grocery store honestly. With the extra time while staying safe at home, I’ve been having fun looking up new recipes to try. I’ll plan my meals out on Sunday for the week and I’ll do a grocery run to get the ingredients. Pre-quarantine I had all of the basics but now that we cook all of our meals from scratch, I’ve been needing some more spices and basics.

The Loft sale is still going so check out this previous post where I shared some of my recent haul.

We ran out of toilet paper and could not find it in stock anywhere! Luckily GoPuff was selling it so we stocked up on TP and snacks. I swear, this experience is going to make me hoard toilet paper for life! It makes my toilet paper holder come in handy because it keeps it neat and tidy!

I recently created a Facebook page for Ed since my phone is filled with pictures of him. His personality is adorable and he’s become more friendly since I’m home all day. If you need a good laugh please follow along!

Long Distance Friendships

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We are currently in quarantine for weeks longer than we thought we would be when we first heard about COVID. In theory, we always loved the idea of a week at home in our pajamas, some peace and quiet and not having to leave the house. I’ve been wearing the same clothes every week not because they are designer or the most fashionable but because they are the most comfortable. This time in quarantine has taught me that I fill up my closet with clothes each season because I think I need to have them but when I am given the option to wear whatever I want, those are the clothes that go unworn. The last few weeks have been a learning curve for all of us and we are adjusting to our new normal. There are a lot of negatives like grocery stores not having everything and more serious economic concerns but I try to think of the positives that have come out of this quarantine.

I go to bed and tell myself each night that everyone is where they need to be. This past Mother’s Day was difficult because I couldn’t see my mom but I know she is healthy and safe at home in North Carolina. A few weeks ago, a few family members and I started a book club that we do over Zoom on Sunday evenings. We laugh at each other because usually only one of us got all of the reading done but it’s a nice excuse to shower and dress in real clothes to catch up with everyone. I see more of my cousins who live just 20 minutes away on the Zoom call than I have all year because life was always so busy. For Mother’s Day, we have a Zoom tea party and got dressed up in our finest clothes and baked our own treats. That two hour long Zoom call was honestly more fun than if we had just gone out to breakfast. We are creating new memories and spending time with one another in ways that we normally wouldn’t.

I’ve been calling my parents more often to tell them about random things throughout the day. I’ll call if I see a squirrel in the backyard or if we have nice weather to get the conversation going and before long we spend a good amount of time on the phone going deeper. Before the conversations were about how work was and what mundane thing we did that day. We complained to each other when I would call my mom after work because they were easy things to share with one another because it was all surface level. Now I am sharing more with my parents and having deeper, more meaningful conversations. Long distance friendships can be some of your strongest friendships because there is like an unspoken rule that no matter how much time goes on, you can always pick up right where you left off. My friends who don’t live near my are often my biggest cheerleaders. It doesn’t matter how much you spend time with a friend but how strong the foundation of that friendship is. I’ve been thinking about friendships a lot recently because living in a city makes it difficult to find friends even though you are surrounded by people. But I do know that I can rely on friends I have had the longest because it’s never a competition of who cares more or spends the most time with you. It’s the people who value any time spent together or talking on the phone who who often have the strongest friendships because it’s not a competition.

A few weeks ago, my college roommates and I did a surprise Zoom call for one of the girls because it was her birthday. We said surprise and then stayed on the call for a long time just chatting and catching up. Our group text is being used to talk about funny memes and sharing Netflix recommendations. Since we have more free time, we are talking more than we have in the past which makes me so happy. It’s also nice to talk about our daily struggles and look for encouragement when needed.

Every week I will pick a friend I haven’t talked to in ages and just say hi. It’s a nice way to check in and start up a conversation with an old friend. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation but we usually make a promise to stay in touch more and make plans to do lunch once the quarantine is over. Just because we can’t leave the house doesn’t mean that we can’t talk with friends. I’m using this extra free time to talk with friends who may not live near me anymore and keep in touch with friends.

Another weird thing I have been doing is engaging with the people I follow on social media who I have never met. There are a few people on Instagram who are real people that I follow for inspiration and I’ve been making more of an effort to write positive comments and reply to their stories. It’s weird making friends in this age of social media and since we are all stuck at home why not start a conversation with someone on Instagram? I grew up with the rule to never talk to strangers especially on the internet, but I think this is the new way to make friends with people who have similar interests as you!