Friday Favorites 5.15

Hi friends! I am so excited to write this post because I am outside enjoying the warm sunny weather drinking my coffee in our backyard. Earlier in the day I took a shower and washed my hair so I’m letting it air dry in the sun. I forgot how nice this feels! Jake is taking some time off next week so I ‘m excited to have time to work in the backyard. We are so lucky to have a big backyard but now we need to do some work to make it functional! I hope you are enjoying the nice weather we have been having. I’ve been safely with a mask and staying distant taking walks every day. I used to hate walking to do errands but this nice weather makes me want to carry groceries home 10 blocks! This weeks post was a lot of fun to write and has a ton of my favorite things that I hope you enjoy!

I just started to watch The Great on Hulu and I am in love with this show! It’s a great modern take on 18th century Russia royalty. Expect modern day humor and a playful look at gender roles in 18th century. Highly recommend this show!

I’m also almost done binge watching the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills series. Wondering which franchise I will binge next. Please send me your recommendations! It’s a great go to show to get lost in during these weird times because it’s petty drama and a nice break from the pandemic going on.

If you are looking for a show to watch with your significant other, I suggest watching The Last Ship on Hulu. It was a TNT drama that is about a pandemic that takes over the world. Okay, so it’s a bit relevant to our current times but the story line is amazing! Jake also likes it because he comes from a Navy family and the show is very accurate when it comes to procedures and story lines.

My family and I are doing a book club over Zoom which has been a lot of fun. My cousin picked the first book, The Charm Bracelet, and it was cutesy quick read to get us started. Now this time we are reading Alice in Wonderland because it’s a classic that is worth rereading. On my own free time I am reading Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner. After unpacking our guest room a few months ago I realized how many books I have that I haven’t had the chance to read it. Now with this warm sunny weather I’m excited to spend as much time as I can outdoors and read!

This staying home thing has encouraged me to only wash my hair once a week because I want to make my hair really healthy since we can’t get it cut anytime soon. I’ve been loving to use a a leave in conditioner every time I wash it because it leaves my hair frizz free and smooth so I’ll use less heat to straighten it.

If anyone has to Zoom for work and doesn’t want to make that much of an effort but doesn’t want to look like a mess on camera, I highly suggest this under eye concealer! All of us have under eye circles that are very obvious right now and this concealer does a great job at covering them. My aunt recently joked about trying to get better lighting in our Sunday Zoom call to hide them so I suggested this product for her. I got my mom one a few years ago and she’s been a fan for years now. It’s also a great blendable concealer for other imperfections you may want to hide!

I did some shopping recently and I’m excited to share my finds! I ordered this Taylor Swift Lover tee that keeps selling out so be sure to sign up for restock alerts! I got inspired by Pop of Pippi on Instagram and ordered the vase and flowers she shared. Still waiting on the vase and can’t wait to share the final look!

I also ordered a few things from Loft because the sales are so good right now. Most of the time I only shop for work clothes but I’m excited to treat myself to some new fun casual tops. I have my haul and some other favorites in my Loft finds blog post.

Earlier this week, I shared our new Keurig and finally after many years I finally learned how to make a pot of coffee. I guess I did learn how to do something new during this whole stay at home thing!

During one of my walks this week I went to Target to get some snacks since the little market near our house is out of most snacks. It was a bit of a hike but worth to get my steps in and I was able to get really cute cups that were in the dollar bin. I don’t encourage anyone to leave their home right now but it was nice to find them because it felt like a normal day again shopping at Target finding cute things.

I mentioned last week that Mother’s Day this year was going to look a little different because we were having a Bring Your Own Tea and Crumpets Tea Party with my mom, aunt and cousins. We were dressed in our best and had tea while we chatted and honestly it was so much fun!

One of the perks of being at home so much is that we no longer commute to and from work. This means that I’ve been having a lot of fun spending time in the kitchen making dinner almost every night. We still order in once or twice a week to support local businesses but on the other nights I’m making dinner. Since moving to Philly I have relied on Trader Joe’s frozen meals and right now it’s a very long walk to get there and back so we haven’t gone in a few months. I’ve been shopping at the local market or tiny Giant near my house every week to get ingredients to make dinner. It’s not that I couldn’t cook but I just never had it in me to cook a big dinner after a long day of work. Most nights I’ll start cooking at 5 and dinner will be ready to eat when Jake gets off of work or we can take advantage of him working from home and he’ll be in the kitchen with me while monitoring emails coming in. I swear we never ran our dishwasher this many times pre-quarantine!

I hope you all are staying busy, whatever that may look like, during this weird time for all of us and most importantly taking care of yourselves. I’ve loved to work on this weekly Friday Favorites post because it makes me reflect on the past week and find things I am grateful for. I’ll go through my recent pictures of the week and talk about the ones that brought me joy. You do not need to be busy constantly and use this time to accomplish a million things. Some people are using it to become better versions of themselves by picking up working out or finding new hobbies. Take one day at a time and do what brings you happy – not what works for others because everyone is different. Right now my goal is to walk more even if that is walking to the fridge more often to get snacks or down to the basement to catch up on laundry.

Baby steps, friends, baby steps.

Loving Loft

My Loft order came the other day so I wanted to share some great Loft finds because their sales have been really great the last few weeks. I tried on some great tops that I ordered because the prices were so good and I didn’t want to miss a good deal! Here are my recent purchases and a few other pieces I am loving that may make their way into my cart!

Eyelet Split Neck Top

V Neck Super Soft Long Sleeve Top

Size UP for a better fit.

Blossom Peplum Blouse

And a few things I have my eyes on….

Lace Hem Top

Eyelet Dotted Split Neck Blouse

Eyelet Hem Long Sleeve Top

Shimmer Striped Sweater

Lace Trim Swing Dress

We Got A New Coffee Maker!

Our coffee maker broke last week and our Starbucks down the street is closed preventing me from getting my daily cup of coffee! It makes me wonder how many times is it acceptable to order Starbucks or Dunkin from Uber Eats??? Luckily I didn’t have to go without my coffee for that long because the day our Keurig died, Jake went on his phone and ordered a new one with next day delivery as a surprise for me. Of course we didn’t realize we were also out of K cups so we did a big order on Amazon of coffee supplies! We are officially one of those couples who share a pot of coffee together now and it’s great! Our K-Duo has the ability to make single cup coffee and a whole pot of coffee with one machine. Super easy to use and it’s going a lot cheaper than a daily coffee from Starbucks!

Keurig K-Duo Single Serve and Carafe Coffee Maker
Coffee Bean Grinder

Friday Favorites 5.8

I am proud to say that I have been productive every day this week. Even if it’s a little laundry on one day or completely reorganizing a cabinet, something got done. I’ve been avoiding saying that I am bored because of the extra time on my hands. Instead, I tell myself that I have some free time and find ways to enjoy it. From watching the Real Housewives series to organizing and cleaning floors, I want to be able to list some achievements when this pandemic is over. It’s also been a great way to cope with my anxiety because it keeps me busy. I talked a little but about this productivity goal on the blog earlier this week.

This Mother’s Day will be a little different but I am excited that my mom, aunt and cousins will be doing a Zoom tea party so we can all be together. It’s definitely different but it gives us a reason to dress up and spend time with each other.

I’m going to link a previous blog post that covers some show recommendations to watch right now. I’m watching the shows that I never got to watch so I’m watching them from the beginning to catch up.

As a special treat, I have been doing a face mask every night before bed. My goal right now is to use all of the products collecting dust in my cabinet. It’s going to take a while but it’s a fun goal!

Some exciting news is that we got a new Keurig! My Keurig was my parents first Keurig that is very very old and it finally brewed its last cup of coffee! I planned on buying another one for myself as a Christmas present because I just didn’t want to spend that much money right now. The next day the doorbell rang and a new Keurig showed up on our doorstep! I am so lucky that Jake ordered me a new one as a present. We like this model because we can make a pot of coffee which is great for us since we are home all day now.

I caved and ordered Entertaining with Disney because it was so cute! It has definitely encouraged me to start planning a party once this quarantine is over! It is so cute and has a ton of great ideas.

In the mornings I have been making smoothies with my cup of coffee. I found an easy way to make them with these frozen fruit and veggie blend kits and yogurt. So easy and super quick! And they taste delicious!

Gardening Supplies Roundup

I’m turning the word “bored” into “free time” because right now boredom is just experiencing more free time than we ever had before. When I get bored, I make myself excited that I have time to start a project. I mentioned earlier on the blog about making a list of things to do to keep myself busy to prevent boredom and keep my spirits up. Gardening was one of thing things on my list and now that we have nice weather, I’m excited to get into the backyard and get my hands dirty. Gardening is easy to do and keep up with during the summer months. It doesn’t matter if you live in a house or an apartment, you can easily add some greenery to your home!

This weekend I hope the weather stays nice so I can walk down to my local hardware store because they are selling flowers and supplies. Lowes and Home Depot also have some great deals going on right now if you are able to get there. I’m going to order a few things online so they are ready for us this weekend and I have them listed below. For those living in apartments, start small with an indoor plant and herb garden. I had succulents all around my old apartment because they were easy to keep alive and did a great job of adding some greenery into my small space!

Luckily we already have a table and chairs set that I’ve been sitting at to have my morning coffee in the morning. It’s been marvelous! I grew up spoiled with a couch on a wraparound porch where my family and I would have breakfast and coffee every morning. I’m trying to make our little row home have the same feeling so we can create new memories. Our budget is small and we don’t have that much space but I am determined to create a space that I love to use. I hope you have nice weather this weekend so you can get outside and enjoy some sun while you work on your garden!

Gardening Tools
Watering Can
Gardening Gloves
Potting Soil
With everything going on, Amazon is the best place to order soil right now
Garden Friends
Herb Markers
Patio Set
Ours looks just like this one and it looks a lot more expensive than it is because of the design

An Organized Fridge

Who knew that I would be so excited about an organized fridge? The acrylic organizers are a big game changer when it comes to keeping your fridge looking clean and Pinterest worthy. I found this set on Amazon that has everything you need to keep a fridge clean. I can’t tell you how many times I would forget I had something or food spoiled because it got lost in the back of my fridge. Now when I use the clear containers, it makes it easy to see everything and even easier to clean! I like to have a container filled with my yogurt so I can just open the fridge in the morning and easily grab and go without the hassle of having to dig to the back of the fridge to find one. They make grocery shopping easier because I can see what I am running low on and what I’m out of at a quick glance. I keep my leftovers in one of the containers so I don’t forget about food in my fridge. I even love coming home from the grocery store because it is easy to put everything away and the containers keep everything looking tidy. It took me less than 10 minutes to wipe down my fridge and put condiments and snacks in their box making it an easy and quick way to get organized!