Happy Friday! Please enjoy this photo of our cat being very bad, as usual. 🙂
We got a new couch! Well, actually two new couches. As you know, I’ve been wanting to replace our big old dark grey sectional for over a year now, but we’ve been putting it off for many reasons: Kids, pets, wait times for new furniture, etc. We also kind of felt like whatever we ordered should be something that’s easy to order and ship for anyone since we got so many questions about our old sectional and we wanted to be able to give people a good answer if they wanted to buy the same one. Well, one day we got kind of annoyed with ourselves with all of our back-and-forth-ing and annoyed at the couch with its ugliness and worn-out-ness and we just said “Whatever, let’s just go to a furniture store like a regular person and see what they have. Let’s at least start the waiting process and get something ordered.” So we went down to our local furniture store and looked at some options. It turns out that Chris has hated our sectional all along and wondered what I thought about doing a sofa and love seat in two pieces. I was fine with that and actually liked that we could add an extra little side table. So we started asking about wait times for various sofa/loveat combinations and then I saw one I really liked. It was exactly the fabric I wanted. It had my ideal back cushion type. It was simple and basic and boring and the kind of thing that’s so untrendy that there’s just no way you could suddenly feel like it’s outdated in a year. So basically the perfect sofa in my mind. And it turned out that they had both a sofa and love seat in the warehouse, and we could have it delivered the following week! Unheard of in 2022! So basically, we won the lottery when it comes to sofa shopping. Here are the sofa and love seat in place in the room a few minutes after they were delivered yesterday! More details to follow about a few other changes and adjustments we’ll be making in the next few weeks to freshen things up a bit. 🙂
Coffee Table | Washable Rug | Art Print | White Velvet Curtains
I’ve been taking the kids on little “mom dates” on Saturdays just as an excuse to get us all out of the house. I absolutely love this new little ritual of ours. I feel like we’re all just naturally homebodies and this winter we’ve really just not had much of a reason at all to go anywhere other than just the basics of school, work, etc. We usually just do Starbucks or lunch out and then run a few errands, but it makes me feel so much better as a mom to just start getting the kids back out into the world so they can have actual lives again. It makes me extra excited for summer! At first I tried taking them out together because we’ve done some lunches in the past together that went well, but Kennedy just ended up getting annoyed by Jack so now I take them separately on alternating Saturdays and it’s so nice to have that dedicated, intentional one on one time for an hour or two.
I did a big, super decluttering/organization of my bathroom drawers and it’s just the most refreshing thing. I was absolutely ruthless and cleared out everything that wasn’t a staple that I use every single day. It’s like the bathroom version of the project 333 thing I did on my closet. 🙂 I ended up with room to dedicate a drawer to all my little samples so I can see them and actually use them up instead of having them sit in a bag in the back of the cupboard making me feel guilty. I got rid of a lot, but I did keep one small cosmetic bag of things I don’t use often, but that I think I might like to use on occasion in one of my bottom drawers. Anyway, such a good feeling to open those drawers up every morning and see all that breathing room!
Pictured above: Highlighter (in Fort de France) | Mini bronzer (in Laguna)| Foundation (in Copenhagen) | Mascara | Drawer pulls | Faucet
I’ve been doing a bit of light garden clean-up here and there and now I’m just rethinking all of my garden plans. It’s funny how your perception of your outdoor space and how you use it can change so much from year to year, kind of like inside your home. It can take years to find out how you really want to use a space. Right now I’m thinking that I’d really like to focus on adding more of my favorite plantings to the areas directly around our house and maybe moving some of the plants that I like, but don’t love to other spots around the property where I can really appreciate them, but maybe not have to cringe when something bright pink comes into bloom in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ve also really come to notice how wasted our little back patio off the back stairwell is. Currently, it houses our garbages cans, but the sun hits that side of the house so perfectly in late morning when the front porch is still cold and shady and it’s really sad that we aren’t really able to sit out there right now. Also, I’ve almost completely neglected the back gardens, so that section needs some love. Lots of fun little potential projects back there for when it finally warms up!
We had the most low-key Easter weekend and it was just what we needed. Sometimes you just need to take a minute to get your feet back under you. We just did this and that on Friday, on Saturday I took Kennedy out for pho for lunch and then for a little shopping, then on Sunday we did our egg hunt, Easter breakfast, and a very small Easter dinner with some of Chris’ family. Then on Monday we did nothing but watch the snow that started to fall and play a few board games as a family. I felt truly ready for a productive week by the time Tuesday arrived, instead of feeling like I was already a bit behind like I have been for the past few weeks. I love a big family gathering and I loved seeing all the well-planned family Easter photos that everyone was sharing, but sometimes a quiet holiday is just right.
Pictured above: Thymes Goldleaf candle aka the ultimate spring/Easter scent.
Chris and I on one of our many mini road trips for work lately, which led to the need for the low-key Easter weekend. 🙂
NEWS AND FINDS
-Doesn’t the right mug just make all the difference? I traded in our mismatched mugs for a set of glass double-walled mugs and they just make my tea-drinking experience so much more beautiful. I love that they aren’t too hot too hold and they keep my tea warm for longer too. These are almost identical to the ones I got. Also really excited about this Breakfast in Paris tea to go with them. It seems like kind of a season-less version of the Christmas in Paris tea I love so much, so I ordered the big case of 100. 🙂
-I love these Japanese-style aprons and I recently found this one in a bit of a shorter length so it’s perfect for petites so you can keep the front of your shirt clean while you’re baking without swimming in extra fabric.
-I am so thrilled to be partnering with the French brand Lothantique later this month to share some of my favorite products of theirs. I’ve been a fan of their hand soaps both for in our home and just for styling kitchens and bathrooms for photo shoots for the last couple of years and I just think everything about their branding and the quality of their products is just impeccable. Lots of super gift-able items (Mother’s Day!), but also lots of little practical delights for yourself and for your home that just add a little moment of brightness to your day.
-My grandma sent us a bunny-shaped pancake pan for Easter and it was just so fun. I’m not usually a fan of excess kitchen gadgets, but I gave this thing a try just for fun. I didn’t think it would work at all, but it was so great and worked perfectly! The pancakes also seemed to cook much more quickly than normal, which was amazing. Â I know I should resist, but I’m kind of curious about what other fun shaped pancake pans there are out there now. These pancake molds look like they could be promising as well! Or this pancake pan? Oh, Nordicware, you’ve done it again.
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- Celebrating Spring With Thymes Fragrances
- Plant-Based Rice Krispie Treats
- Project 333: Petite Minimalist Spring Wardrobe
- How to Deep Clean Silpats
- Five Things on a Friday 4/1/22
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